Increase Wealth with Yoga!

Did you know that your yoga practice is also increasing your wealth?

We measure our material wealth in terms of assets and liabilities.

We want to increase our assets and reduce liabilities.

We do our taxes, and count our assets. We review the bank balance, manage funds and do an inventory of our belongings, even if they are just an old yoga mat that we look after.

We all know that the old yoga mat is a depreciating asset and our savings account is hopefully an appreciating asset.  We all love appreciating assets because they increase in value over time.

Our engagement of time can also be measured from the asset perspective.

When we spend our time, for instance, on personal beauty, it is like polishing the rusting Volkswagen. Whether polished or not, one day the wheel will fall off and the engine will blow. We are working with a depreciating asset.

If on the other hand, we spend our time increasing consciousness, we are creating an appreciating asset. To use the Volkswagen example, we are replacing the engine with a more efficient one. All the essential parts are being replaced so that the car may look like a Volkswagen but it now functions like a leading-edge Tesla!

What I particularly like about this way of looking at assets is that it takes our current understanding and values and turns them on their heads!

As a Yogi and Life coach, many of my clients are looking to build up their assets, but when they speak about assets they are speaking of financial assets. The above information turns this concept totally in its head.

When I researched the amount that people spend on beauty products in their life, it adds up to an average of $500,000 per person! This money is spent on a depreciating asset. Instead, if that money and time were to be invested in an exponentially appreciating asset, it would yield amazing results!

Other depreciating assets that are worthwhile noticing are foods that do not increase health. Not only do they cost money to buy, but they cost more money to fix the problems they are causing!  We get the high sugar diet fairly inexpensively, but we pay for it with all the illnesses, the ramifications of the illnesses, and the costs of recovery or remediation!

The appreciating asset of meditation can be contrasted with the decreasing asset of watching violent TV shows. The statistics on meditation indicate that every minute increases brain function, increases emotional resilience, and literally reduces violence in the area. What a lovely appreciating asset!

On the other hand, we can all see the effects of violent TV shows and violent words on society, and the obviousness of the deprecation of the societal asset of civility, compassion, and non-violence, all of which has a direct effect on the quality of our lives and our relationships.

The Yogic Way to Wealth

Here is an exercise for you:

1. Write a list of the activities you do that create increasing assets for you. (Don’t forget to include yoga!)
2. Write a list of the activities that you do that are in the depreciating-asset category.
3. Review both lists and decide:
   1. Which activity, that increases my assets, if I do more of will give me a big return?
   2. What activity that decreases my assets, would be useful for me to do less of?
4. Having made those decisions, plan on how to put them into practice on a daily basis.

Here is a link to my coaching services I can help you sort and stay focused on the appreciating assets of your life.

Martyn Williams

British born explorer, Martyn S. Williams, is a well-known expedition leader to some of the world’s most remote locations, is a human potential public speaker, and a teacher of enlightened living.