As we roll through the holidays, I think it is time to discuss the five ancient blessings. What are they? And more importantly, if you feel you are lacking in one or several, what can you do to manifest more of them in your life?
Viking Tradition
Where do the 5 blessings come from? Well, I pretty much made them up from living life and after years of studying various spiritual practices. Let’s make them Money Viking tradition.
Blessings 1, The Blessing of “Now”
BLESSINGS: The first blessing I would like to explore may be the most critical. It is the blessing of the present moment. Right now as you read this you can take a deep cleansing breath, breathe out slowly and practice gratitude. You can also decide to get up and take a walk around the block. You can pick up a pen and paper and start writing down your visions and goals. You can log into your investment account and start automating $50/month to your favorite index fund or ETF. You can decide to not pick up the cigarette. You can just tell someone thank you or express your gratitude for them.
The point is to take action now no matter how small that action seems. This is the only way to live life effectively. All we have under our influence is this very moment. The past is gone and the future is yet to unfold. I challenge you to think about how you can make the future unfold in a more amazing way.
How to have more: Cultivating a focus on the present moment takes mental training. Our primitive brains can be lost in the past or the future too easily. The ubiquitous nature of current technology also negatively effects our attention span. I try some short meditations, breathing and try to redirect focus to the now.
Blessings 2, The Blessing of Connection
BLESSINGS: Remember to invest in your relationships. Having a ton of money really does not matter if you are alone. Just imagine for a moment you have all the money in the world and you live in a 1,000 room palace and all the other humans are gone. Why would we want this? This would be a dark and dystopian future.
We evolved to have connection and cooperation. We seem to crave feelings of love and friendship. Unfortunately we live in a time where many people feel disconnected from community. This is ironic given the rise of “social” media, which I would not call truly social. in fact, it seems to separate people as much as bring them together virtually. It can be good for information gathering and entertainment, but it does not fill the need for social connection.
How to have more: Actively engage and seek out spending time with people that you love. Find hobbies that involve other people you enjoy being around.
Blessings 3, Blessing of Place
BLESSINGS: Think for some time about where you are physically in the world. From a big picture your on a floating rock in the middle of empty space. But this rock is keeping us alive in this current form. Where we are on this rock shapes our life in almost all ways.
How to cultivate: We do not always choose where we live. But if you can, think carefully about where you can be in this world. Some places are at increased risk of climate problems and others are just too damn expensive. Find what is right for you.
Blessings 4, Blessing of Choice
BLESSINGS: If you live in a free society, you have some choice about how you create your life. As you build wealth through the Money Viking methods you will find yourself with more and more options about where and how you live.
Blessings 5, Blessing of Health
BLESSINGS: If you are currently in moderately good health then you are already extremely blessed. It would be wise to do everything we can to preserve and enhance our health. Check out our many ways to stay as healthy as possible through Money Viking health: