Often when you ask someone what they would do when they won the lottery they would tell you things like buy a bigger house, travel, help their family and have fun. They would give up their jobs and do whatever they wanted. This vision of perfect freedom from the things that weigh us down every single day. The debt, mortgage, job and things that just don’t make us feel good regularly would all instantly be gone and in its place a life of luxury and happiness.
Flip to the reality of the lottery winner life after a couple years and the majority of them are broke, in foreclosure on that big house and back working a 9 to 5. They have none of the money left. Their marriage is in ruins and life is more miserable than it ever was happy. Winning the lottery was one of the worst things to have ever happened to them. WAIT … WHAT? How is that even possible? Everyone thinks money is going to solve their problems. Just more than they have or a lot more and things will be more awesome than the LEGO movie song.
It is still one of the truest statements you will ever hear. Money doesn’t buy you happiness and it only sometimes buys you temporary freedom. Your problems follow you regardless of what’s in your bank account. You just can’t outrun them or buy them off. So why do we think that we can solve everything if only our bank accounts were fuller? Why do we think our life will be stress free when we don’t have to worry about money? Why do we think money has all this power that it can make us happy? Granted money is powerful but even its magic is powerless when it comes to how we feel and what’s of quality, real quality in our life. Despite knowing this sage wisdom we continue to believe the solution is more money.
Sometimes the easiest answers is often the one most overlooked and bypassed. Nothing is as simple or easy as it seems right? I agree sometimes things are challenging, complex and quite exhausting to figure out but sometimes they can be easy too. It’s nice when they are easy. It’s nice when it just fits together and poof there’s progress, resolution and things are better. While it may not be as glamorous as winning the lottery it gives us the greater satisfaction and longer term happiness which is what we’re really chasing after isn’t it?
The answer to living free is learning to live naturally.
It is so simple an answer that most of you probably just glanced right over that so I’ll say it again. The answer to living free is learning to live naturally.
Here’s why I believe this is more powerful to our life than winning the lottery. First while it’s good to have money you can live well on less. You can live quite well on less. Case in point, have you ever met a family that was poorer than you but they were always getting together, having fun and it felt just great to be around them? You wish your family got along like theirs or your family had fun like their family. You wish your family had a regular get together where dishes were brought and games were played and long standing jokes were shared over and over again. They don’t care about what they don’t have. They just care about being together, enjoying the company of one another and they make incredible use of what they have. Often the people with less are the most generous to others too. They know what its like to do without and are very often willing to give the shirt off their back to help another without question.
I’m not suggesting we all give up our incomes and be poor financially at all. What I’m saying here is money doesn’t influence our happiness. They are entirely two different things that should not be intertwined with one another. Yes money can make things “comfortable.” It can even make things pretty and adventurous and that’s fun too. Yet it can’t give us those relationships, connections, experiences and happiness that we all deeply want and deserve. Happiness though can make us feel fulfilled in ways money will never. Happiness is within us to create, manifest and expand. Money is just what we earn by doing work, creating something someone buys or earning interest and dividends. Money can get us things but it can’t get us the real things like happiness, fulfillment, contentment and peace.
Both are important. Both are even necessary. However, they can’t be dependent on one another. If we let money change who we are then I believe we miss out on knowing the best parts of ourselves and experiencing happiness in its purest form. Life is about happiness. It’s about giving, receiving, connecting, experiencing and loving. It’s about feeling things we have never felt before and building on the the things that make us feel our best, make our world a better place and living in harmony. That’s not just the stuff of songs. It’s truly how it’s supposed to be and it’s up to each of us to create that in our life.
I think having money is awesome. Truly it is. When you are debt free and building wealth it is liberating. It truly changes your life in a positive way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being rich, having money, being able to take care of yourself and even retiring early if you can. Those are beautiful things and should be celebrated. However, it should be supportive things to what we are building in our life that does give us a smile on our face every day and reason to do what we do. It should be the fuel of our real passion for living well in happiness with real connections, real love and real everything. Sometimes there truly is more happiness in a tiny home with a single bathroom than a huge home with more bathrooms than people and everyone is separated. Big houses can be loving too but it’s when money isn’t the driver of the happiness. Those same people would be happy regardless of where they lived.
That is truly the phenomenon isn’t it. Feeling so loved, secure and happy that it truly doesn’t matter where you live, what you do for a living or what’s in your bank account. All important yes but not indicative of our happiness inside each of us. The answer to living free is learning to live naturally.
That means, being you. Finding out what truly makes you happy and having a focus larger than what you earn. Being in loving, healthy relationships that feed our soul and radiate the happiness we feel inside. Giving of ourselves with no expectations and not caring if it ever gets repaid. Realizing we are part of a bigger purpose that has nothing at all to do with money. Being in harmony with ourselves and nature. Living naturally in what makes us feel good in our own skin and mind. Waking in the morning with a smile on our face and in our heart.
Live natural.
To explore beginning your natural living journey, I invite you to take the free Lifestyle & Wellness Questionnaire: https://forms.gle/35DLZwvTETxhywHW9