003_The Second of "7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath": Track Your Finances

The Second of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”:

Track Your Finances

Hello, everyone! Sometimes it is by means of structure that we give ourselves space. A river is life-giving because of the boundaries of the river's bed. It is the limits that create the space in between.

 I'm Adela, and this is Just Breathe....You Are Enough™. Together we will deepen our connection with our ourselves, strengthen our relations with others, and re-think together how we connect with our world.

Thank you for joining us for the second of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”. We will explore one of the ways that discipline brings joy.

The Sanskrit word for discipline, as I'm using it in this context, is "shila".  The corresponding word in Tibetan is "tsultrim":  it is a very common name for a Buddhist monk or nun.

This idea of a discipline is quite different from reward and punishment, or the guilt and fear of someone who is "being disciplined". The idea of “shila”, or discipline, stems from an ancient Indian understanding known as "rita":  it sees that our life is vital, alive and life-giving as a consequence of the structure of things.  Structure is a visible, organic part of the natural world…a natural world – a wholeness – of which we are a part.

Think about the structure of a snowflake, or the patterns of the waves on the sea, the structured and disciplined way that the moon moves through its cycles from new to full, new to full. We can look inside also:  the regular rhythm of a heartbeat or the rhythm of a breath, the structure of a spinal column.  We have life because there is a flow that's happening inside of a structure of things. 

That structure supports us, and holds us up, in the same way that gravity holds us up.   We don't need to hold on and try to hold ourselves up - try to keep it all together - because there's a structure that comes with being alive which, in a very deep and organic way, takes care of that for us.  It creates space for us to relax into our days.

To the degree that we bring this understanding of structure into our daily lives, to that degree we open to connecting to how discipline can enhance and increase our joyfulness. It is an expression in contemporary Buddhist tradition:  "discipline brings joy". 

There are lots of ways to do this. A regular bed time, a regular getting up time:  this is deeply soothing for the body's metabolic or internal clock. How about regular meal times ?  In the same way that we care for children – helping them to feel safe and secure because there is consistent structure in our daily routine - it is also of benefit to grown-ups.  It helps to regulate the endocrine system; it provides a strong base to help us work with stress of our days.

One way that we can enhance the joy in our life is by paying attention to the structure of our finances.   Can we give structure to the inflow and outflow – like the structure of the breath, and the structure of a heartbeat – so that the structure of our finances is a way to connect to the aliveness of things, and the structure of our finances becomes a basis which will strengthen us and be life-giving? 

This is the invitation of second of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”:  track your finances.

Understand the relation between cause and effect.   The financial resources that come into my world, the financial resources going out from my world:  am I making choices that match my value system?  Am I making choices that honour and respect myself?  Am I making choices that protect me and keep me safe?  If I am taking risks, what am I risking?  Is it truly worth the risk?

Good or bad, right or wrong:  it can be a moving target.  Often, it changes with our situation; it varies with circumstances; our circumstances necessarily change as we change and grow.

Do I buy this treat from the grocery store or not? Is it a good thing, or is it a bad thing?

The question is rather is it a skillful thing, or is it not a skillful thing?  Is it going to take me towards a direction that I'm saying I wish to go, a direction that will support and increase my vitality?  Is it going to take me away from that, and put me in a position of somehow not being able to relax into my life, because the systems I have in place aren't supporting the person that I am, or the person I wish to become?  Grocery store decisions are sometimes small decisions.  Decisions of this kind can build and accumulate over time.  Are my choices skillful?  Are they not skillful?

If your life would be strengthening by increasing the awareness that you bring to financial choices, you may wish to check out a website that I have been just delighting in for years now. I am a fan of YNAB: youneedabudget.com.

If you're a student and you're hearing this, you can know that you get one free year of access for being a student member of youneedabudget.com.

If you're not a full time student, clink on the link in the show notes, and you will receive a special two-month free trial offered to members of the Just Breathe….You Are Enough™ community. See if it's something that works for you. They have wonderful workshops, online support and customer care to help us figure out what we're doing and what we’re going to do about it. 

Do our choices increase our safety, joyfulness, and delight?  Do our choices take away from our safety, joyfulness and delight?  In both cases, what can we tweak that would take it to the next level to increase the respect, honour and care that we are offering to ourselves or to our families?

If you already are a master of a personal accounting, then what can you do to take to the next level?  How can you be more skillful in working with that relationship between cause and effect?  Is it something to work towards debt reduction? Is it more awareness to retirement planning or health insurances?  Would you like to pay for your next car in cash? 

We give ourselves space to relax when we create structures in our lives that help us to feel comfortable and safe, when we create an environment in our lives that is welcoming and able to receive us authentically, as we are. Put in place something that will take to the next level the discipline that we are bringing to our financial worlds, and we'll increasingly discover discipline brings joy.

The quality of the relationship that you have with the outside world directly relates to the quality of relationship you have with yourself.  For a free list of the full menu of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”, come see us at “justbreatheyouareenough.com”.

I'm Adela, and you've been listening to Just Breathe....You Are Enough™.  You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you haven't yet, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Join us next time, and thank you for listening.

1. Part of the mission of JBYAE is philanthropic: a percentage of all revenue generated is donated to charity.  Among others, we provide bursaries to students at the university where I teach, St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada.  May we all leave a legacy.