Sustainable Reality

When learning to breathe properly, controlling the exhalation is fundamental. In calming your financial anxiety, spending discipline is as, if not more, important than earning. 

Anuloma Viloma is alternate nostril breathing. You inhale-retain-exhale in a 1:4:2 pattern. For example, you inhale for three seconds, retain for twelves seconds (4x3), and exhale for six seconds (2x3). Slowly and with control. Alternating which nostril you are bringing air in with, and from which nostril you are letting it go. It takes concentration. That is half the point. Closing your eyes and focusing on the count. 

Slowing down the breath leads to deeper outcomes. A deep breath is not a race. You can then gradually expand the sustainable pattern for more repetitions and extend the inhalation-retention-exhalation cycle. “Get Rich Quick” is a form of shallow, fast, breathing. There are lots of people who will sell you solutions to your financial problems in just six months. A sustainable reality is slower, starts more simply, and builds towards a pattern you can maintain.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Financial Breath Work

You can, and many do, do a Yoga Teacher Training course not to become a teacher of others, but to improve how you teach yourself. One of the ways I cope with a lot of the waves of life is by seeing it all as a game. A thin slice of distance between what is going on, and who I am. Enough space between what is going on and me, to breathe. Detaching allows you to be your own teacher. 

With time to reflect. I did return to reality after my course, but I also started adjusting the direction I wanted to head in my career. I decided I wanted to focus more on investment analysis and pull back from client work. I like talking to clients. I like explaining things. At that stage, I wanted to be involved in the actual investments, so I started shifting in that direction. 

The Yoga course gave me a point to constantly return to. A focus on the basics. One of those points is proper breathing. Breathing is so key, but it is not something we think about even though it is the base of everything. Yoga describes prana as energy, and pranayama is breathing exercises. You are managing your energy flow. 

You can learn to breathe properly, in the same way as you can train to swim or run more efficiently. Most people when asked to take a deep breath will take a big suck of air in, rather than being able to control their breath and draw oxygen in slowly. Developing the ability to inhale, slowly, and exhale, slowly and with control, changes your levels of energy completely. Learning to breathe with your abdomen, so that your tummy comes out when you breathe in and that creates capacity to take in more oxygen. 

One approach to meditation is simply to regularly come back to focusing on your breathing every time your thoughts w(a/o)nder. When you feel yourself going, you come back. 

That is analogous to stilling the waves of money anxiety. Constantly returning to the ins and the outs. Relieving Financial Anxiety is not a question of more, it is about the ins and outs and the relationship between the two. The speed and control in both directions. The feeling that you have the waves covered. You can do this.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

The Basics

Start with the basics. “The Five Points of Yoga” are a foundation for approaching any concern. Proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, and positive thinking/meditation (i.e. proper mental health). It is easy to get overwhelmed, and even grappling with the craziness of life can be addictive. I enjoy complexity, and I like being part of the conversation, but it can feel too much. A crippling sense of trying to get it right, or do the right thing. I often feel frustrated with the world, and the way things work, because I care. Seeing the conspicuous and huge problems. Hans Rosling identified five key problems (before Covid) which concerned him the most - the risks of global pandemic, financial collapse (abstract debt and interconnectedness), world war (weapons of mass destruction), climate change (unintended consequences of long term behaviours you realise too late), and extreme poverty. These are huge issues. Particularly if we are gradually deconstructing the artificial bubbles we live in (and allow us to pretend some problems are solved). Which also means it is more common for us not to understand the expectations we have of each other. Biases and prejudice are short-cuts from long embodied behaviours and agreements. If everybody already knows the dance, fewer people step on each other’s feet. All this can be draining. Yet I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t care. I don’t think detachment is running off to a cave. We need to participate, but I like the idea that participation starts with the basics. Something as simple as remembering to breathe.

Slow and Sustained

It is not a coincidence that it is easier to make money if you are born in America. Compounding isn’t just something that happens on your investments. As a community becomes better at solving problems, the depth of service providers, and support networks expands. 

The ability to make money in America has compounded. Bryan Caplan calls the case for opening borders “Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk”. The world would make more money if more people moved to America. 

Money is made in containers. You need to build an environment that maintains and builds capacity. It comes from simple things soaking deep. 

Like the gradual shift to long-term savings in Australia brought about by “Supers” (pension funds), where over the last 40 years they have collectively moved to being the 4th largest holders of pension savings (About AUD$3.4 trillion in assets) from saving a little more each year. 

To breathe properly while running, you need to build your capacity for abdominal breathing. As you inhale deeply, your tummy comes up rather than going in (shallow breath). You use your diaphragm to create more space. Distance runners will practice bringing their focus back to slow, gradual, inhalations and exhalations rather than panting. Breathing correctly. Running correctly. 

These seem basic, but the basics are what allow the flash. Building muscle memory for the relationship between income and expenses is like gaining control of your breath. 

Slow, sustained, strength building. Best done as a team.

Mini Me

You can think of capital as your Mini-Me. In a world that defines us by our earning ability, building capital is a path to telling those voices to get knotted. If you spend money, you are firing it. If you put it to work, you are feeding your Mini-Me. Gradually that Mini-Me can grow. If you reinvest (rather than consume) a combination of what you produce, and what your Mini-Me produces, one day your Mini-Me may earn enough to be your bread winner. So you can focus on ideas that are good ideas, but not good business ideas. You can only build capital if you are not servicing past consumption (debts), and you are earning more than you are spending. There cannot be growth while you are bleeding. There cannot be growth without breathing space. But if you can hold space for, and look after your Mini-Me, with time and care it can grow to hold space for you.

Human Voice

“Poverty is not a lack of character. It is a lack of cash,” points out Rutger Bregman. Two fundamental principles in stilling the waves of money anxiety are (1) Never be a Forced Seller, and (2) Never be a Forced Buyer. Avoid being put in a corner. Get yourself in a position where you can say yes, or no. Become a decision maker. Price is not value. It is a way of listening to supply and demand. Adding force or scarcity is a way of price swallowing value whole. The key source of force is basic living needs and unexpected emergencies. Things you cannot say no to, that stop you from building or breathing. To avoid force, you need to snap the hand-to-mouth connection of depending on your earning ability. Overcoming any debt traps, then building an emergency fund of cash. Gradually putting money to work, and building your lung capacity. The breath to say no. Price does not listen to those with no voice.

Spectrogram of the Human Voice

Inhale and Exhale

Stilling the waves of money anxiety starts with understanding where you are. Like meditation, thoughts will continue to come through your head. It is not a fight. You do not do meditation well or badly. There are no rankings or elimination rounds. When a thought comes into your head, it is the point to acknowledge it. Greet it. Politely let it pass. Then go back to your breathing. Financial Security is also about the inhalation (income) and exhalation (spending), and the relationship between the two. You want to breathe in slowly, and with control, and breathe out slowly, and with control. Spending has fixed parts and variable parts. If you keep a record, you can see some patterns. Even the variable parts have regular highs and lows. You can get a sense of the lung capacity needed. There will still be shocks, when spending is way higher than normal. For that, you need a buffer or support. To build that, always starts in the same place, for everyone. Where they are. Where you are. With a breath, and understanding where you are, is. So you can let it pass.

Building Lung Capacity

Bound Slave

Although building Engines is an incredibly empowering financial goal, I prefer to think like Michelangelo. The Italian sculptor would create his pieces from a block of marble, by removing rather than by adding. The final piece was trapped within the block awaiting release. One of the challenges we face given almost everyone lives hand-to-mouth (even those with big hands and big mouths) is that we end up manufacturing discontent. Money is often made by convincing someone that there is a gap between their reality and something better. That there is something wrong with their life, and by implication them, now. That the only way to achieve the success, recognition, and validation they seek is through more. I believe, and not in a fluffy that’s-so-cute way, that we can learn more from people with less. That what is often required to still the financial waves is seeing that stillness is already within your grasp. Internalising behaviours. Taking a breath. Learning to pause. Seeing versus striving. Gently chipping away at the obstacles.

"Bound Slave - known as Atlas"

Michelangelo (1530-1534)

Short Sighted

Prioritising endurance recognises that time is the single most important ingredient in wealth creation. All lives end. This means we become obsessed with a single grain of sand on the beach. Our grain. Our working lives are even shorter than that. Our memories and plans still shorter. The numbers we clutch to for confidence in the winds and waves shorter still. Annual reviews. Quarterly performance. Weekly goals. Neighbours. This makes us Myopic. Short-sighted. We think in contrasts. In opposites. In categories. We layer on human stories to make sense of a picture we are too close to, to see. We pre-judge because we don’t have the time or capacity to even know all the things we don’t know. I don’t have the answer, but I think it starts with breathing. With silence. Limited knowledge. Limited power. Limited presence. Survival. Sometimes wealth creation requires slowing down. Action through inaction.

Building Capacity

A Buffer is cash that helps you breathe. Yoga is “stilling the waves of the mind”. A Buffer is an Emergency Fund of 3-6 months’ worth of spending. You can’t plan all spending in advance. There are unexpected things that mess up even the best laid plans. A Buffer isn’t there to spend, it is there for when a particular month is a little greedy. If you orbit zero in your bank account, then the waves can knock you off course. Practicing Financial Yoga by gradually building up a Buffer requires internalised discipline. The default becomes having a little space. Protecting that little space. Building that space up again after it gets used. A Buffer creates lung capacity. Breathing in and out with calm, steady, control rather than gasps.

Surface Waves

Financial Yoga

Yoga is a practice of increasing levels of relaxation. It stills the waves of the mind. Financial Yoga is the practice of increasing levels of security and empowerment. It stills the waves of money worries. Yoga starts with releasing niggles of the body. With the physical. Financial Yoga starts with finding an income. The skills and knowledge to earn enough to live. Yoga then focuses on the waves of thoughts (negative & positive) that come and go. On the mental. Financial Yoga finds space between hand and mouth to build a buffer to deal with waves of money emergencies and opportunities. Yoga then raises the level of consciousness to focus on something more than your self. To identify deeper and wider. Financial Yoga aims to release you from being a Productive Asset. You are not your job. Salary is not your worth. Financial Yoga releases you from income dependence. Relaxation and stillness allow a point of focus. Consciously chosen by you, through practice. Develop your daily practice of increasing levels of relaxation.

Finding Space

How do we wean ourselves off structural income dependence? Even most of the wealthy live hand-to-mouth in a fragile way. We don’t look at wealth by stress testing. We look at the surface. We live on the edge. Few people suddenly become all Zen when they reach a level of income or capital where they feel they have “Enough”. The incentives of bigger, better, more, provide more immediate gratification than the incentive of deep soaked security. We stretch. We push. We reach. Income Detachment starts with space between spending and income. It is hard to motivate for Buffer and Capital building. There is no shiny new thing on offer. A Buffer just removes the noise. An Emergency Fund of 3-6 months spending. A productive Engine should generate income over time, but spending more than 2-5% of it is likely to put it under pressure. You can go Cold Turkey and extract yourself from spending-based environments, but we are in this together. Wealth creation is a team sport. It is a long-term venture. Across generations. Embedded in culture and relationships. We have to value the ability to breathe, and gradually build our lung capacity.

Strength Matches Gravity

“Always On” is fragile. The most important factors in meaning and wealth creation, are time and compounding. Building incrementally on what was created before, over the very long term. That requires seasonality, redundancy, and excess capacity. Running hot focuses on creativity at the expense of endurance and resilience. Creativity gets the credit, but endurance and resilience have to be the priority. Sustainable Growth beats headline makers because of the reduced risk of ruin. Sustainable Growth means building the capacity to pause. To reflect. To unlearn. To relearn. You see it in those beautiful moments with dancers. Where their strength matches gravity, and they pause. Seeming to defy the laws of physics. That is true control. Real autonomy. Where complete acceptance of the way things are allows you to see deep enough for time and space to slow down. To go still. Then to emerge from the stillness renewed.

Poncianinho - Mojuba Capoeira London

Drawing Breath

You don’t learn much about whether a process works, when it is working. The most powerful creative forces are time and consistency. But for the long term to be long term, the process needs to be able to adapt, adjust, and accommodate. Strength, flexibility, and control in the face of randomness, complexity, and ambiguity. Like gaps in music, real mastery lies in the ability to draw breath and gain perspective. To step back and gain a broader view of how everything is connected. To use disruption as a learning opportunity. 5Rhythms is a movement meditation developed by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s. It takes you through Waves to release obstructions and inspire creativity. You move through flow, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. The key is movement, and being still is part of that. This too will pass.

5Rhythms

Slowing Down

“I’m slowing down the tune. I never liked it fast. You want to get there soon. I want to get there last” sang Leonard Cohen. Sometimes we need to pause, and take a breath. The destination isn’t the point, because we never arrive. “Bear insult, bear injury, highest Yoga. Bear insult, bear injury, highest Sadhana” sang Swami Sivananda. Yoga is union/joining. It is the stilling of the waves of the mind and heart. Sadhana is practice. The practice of seeing the union in everything. Of letting go of weighing and measuring the bits of everything, in comparison to each other. The biggest insult is often when people think we are failures. When we fail to meet their expectations. This is regularly because we are seduced by Conspicuous Progress. Outward signs of being very impressive. Successful. Most of the mental health work we need to do is internal. The waves only we get disturbed by, even when outwardly calm. The irony is that the insults of disrespect, dismissiveness, and derisiveness are probably a sign of the internal struggles of the person sending them out.

CREDIT: Kezban Özcan

Draw Breath

Ken Robinson points out that if you ask a classroom of five year olds who can draw, they will all put their hands up. It is only 10 years later that just one or two will, because the rest have been taught that they can’t. Rather than something to suck the juice out of, we turn life into a filter. A competition, both in our head and in the world, to sort things into good and bad. Sort is French for Fate. Our shared fate is specialisation that loses the special in favour of the competent. Enter meditation and breath work. This can be seen as a competition too. In reality it is like drawing. We all can do it. We just have to come back to it. Whatever you are doing, whenever, can be meditation if you simply pause and come back to the question “How am I breathing?”. Doesn’t even have to have an action attached. It can simply be developing an awareness of how you breathe. Breath is the source of our energy. It is the source of our calm. Taking a deep breath stills the madness and brings focus. Draw Breath.

Still the Waves

Spending decisions always require trade-offs. Economics is the study of scarcity. It is a Social Science. Value is determined at an individual and community level and can’t be reduced to numbers. That doesn’t stop people trying, but all the quantifying and modeling are, are attempts to simplify incredibly fuzzy comparisons, moods, desires, beliefs and relationships. One of the biggest obstacles to building Capital is that there are always things that shout and scream for attention. Often unplanned expenses that insist they are more important NOW than building a theoretical Engine. We are natural-born consumers, and the idea of becoming custodians fights with clear and present dangers. That is why Capital building starts with a Buffer. Something to still the financial waves. An Emergency Fund that can be repaired when the unexpected bites at it, so that the Engine can be built unmolested. Start with a Buffer. Start with space to breathe.

Dip Out

I am not sure if I am a Town Donkey or a Country Donkey. Categories are more useful questions than answers. I like being able to dip in and out of intensity, and calm. Skye is an island up at the top of Scotland. A place of calm. To dip out. But now it is known as a place to escape, and Skye (ha)s a limit. Venice is a place of intensity famous for its hustle and bustle, but now also struggling with so many people coming to see Venice that it isn't really Ve(ry)nice. Sometimes we destroy the things we love. We need to create some buffers to hold the things, places, people, and moments, we love. To let it be without packing in as much as we possibly can. To allow gaps and spaces. To breathe in, and out. Deeply.

Town Mouse v Country Mouse

Aesops's Fables

Leave Space

The way we experience the world is, at best, an overlay on reality. A tool to engage with something we don't have the tools to fully understand. The Yogis call this Maya, and the Enlightenment calls this a World View. If we have learnt anything from the unintended consequences of historic Civilising Missions and Revolutions, it is that "Burning things down" normally results in chaos, wars result in us putting basic emotional intelligence aside, and ideology results in spirals and loops of turmoil. If we are hooked on Drama and Rage, we won't see the links between our worlds. We won't be able to communicate. We need to rediscover tolerance. Have fewer opinions that don't leave space for those who disagree. As the speed of change increases, the quality of our breathing needs to improve.

"Maya - The Mirror of Illusions"

Davies (1910)

Proper Relaxation

Relaxation is a skill you can work on. Proper Relaxation isn't passive. You can relax your body by being aware of where you are carrying the tension. The most advanced Yoga pose is a relaxation pose. In Savasana, you follow a process of 'auto-suggestion'. Moving around the body, you tense and relax. You use your breath to reawaken your body through relaxation. Mental Relaxation requires conscious practice. Our minds need a moment not to do the heavy processing work of running through a gazillion real and imagined scenarios. The most important relaxation is learning not to worry about You so much. To relax the boundaries between what is you, and what isn't. To pause the worry, issues, and lack of quiet that comes from figuring out your place in the world.

Relax Your Body

Relax Your Mind

Relax Your Self