I was surprised to see that most major US cities have between 8 and 12% inflation per year! That’s huge! Which then got me thinking about returns in the stock market and the bitcoin market. With inflation so high it only makes sense to make your money work for you as much as possible, otherwise each year you are loosing about 8 to 10%.

I really enjoyed Tynans articles on investing like a billionaire (https://tynan.com/billionaire-part-1, and https://tynan.com/managing-your-money-like-a-billionare-part-2) in which he describes putting his money into mostly safe stocks and bonds, and then taking a margin loan on them (in the 1.5% range) and using that money to put into other high yield safe investments like crypto or real estate in the 8% range netting a ~6.5% return on the borrowed money.

I think this strategy is great, I think of it as a savings account, as you can liquidate the holdings fairly easily and get to your money whenever you like especially with margin, and it keeps you at around what true inflation is.

But this is missing something big, and that is the biggest expense that most people pay for each month, housing.

When you own the house you are living in, depending on where you live, you have a lot of options to make money on your house while you live in it. You can rent out the rooms either long term, or short term. If you have land around your house you can put up an airstream or glamping setup and rent those out short term, all of these things while you are living on your property can pay for your mortgage (or more), especially with mortgage rates so low these days. Of course this does take some initial capital in the form of a downpayment but if you are a first time homebuyer that can be around 3.5% + 3% closing costs.

So lets do an example here, if you pay 3.5% + 3% on a 500k that is a sunk investment of $32.5k house with 4 bed rooms and some room. You figure out that if you rent two of the rooms on airbnb you would cover the cost of your mortgage so you are living for free in a house that hopefully is gaining in appreciation (sure you have to clean the rooms, but you could outsource that), all for an initial cost of $32.5 (which could possibly be realized when you sale the home too, but for now let’s assume it’s gone). Now lets look at renting a 2br house, it might be around 1.5K/month so in about two years living at the house “for free” you can now live for free for as long as you want to keep renting out your space.

I personally love living in community and around others, so this is quite a no brainer for me. The biggest question though, where to do it?

Comparatively I don’t own much (I think), but still I feel like I own too much. There is some point where I just don’t have enough time for all the cool things I have. So the question becomes, when should I give away the things that spark joy, but spark joy less frequently. That is to say most of the things I have in my life right now do spark joy, but only when I use them, and if I don’t use them so much should I still keep them?

Some of the things that really spark joy for me but I don’t use often are my:
– handpan
– slackline gear
– juggling gear
– climbing gear
– collection of knives and gear
– custom keyboard gear
– pens and inks and notebooks.
– crystals

And the things I use nearly everyday are my:
– standing desk and computer gear
– vitamix blender
– instapot
– teaware
– x3 workout bands
– yoga mat

So at what point do I give away or sell the things that I don’t use much but still spark joy? What is essential to me? When I sit and really feel into it I think, that even though I love all those things in the first list, I could really live without them, and my life would still be just as happy, and I would still be just as fulfilled. I currently live in a pretty big house with plenty of storage so I suppose I can hold on to them as long as I have the room, but when I move (which will be soon I believe) I will probably remove a lot of them from my life. If I really want them again, I will buy them again.

I’m currently removing one thing from my life each day for the next 30 days. When the month is up I will post a new post on my progresses of decluttering and see if I have changed at all my thoughts on giving up the things I like but don’t use often. I’m curious what others think. Send me a tweet at @blissofbeing and let me know.

Moving house so much has helped me really be aware of my possessions and keep them minimal. The longer I stay somewhere the more I tend to accumulate stuff. And while stuff isn’t inherently bad it has been my experience that less stuff means more space for life, more space for experiences and less burden of having to take care of things.

Another positive benefit of moving a lot has been being able to experience lots of different nature, culture, and meet amazing new friends all over. From swimming in waterfalls in Hawaii to going cold plunging in alpine streams in Colorado this world is filled with amazing nature and people, it has been such a blessing to have experienced as many places and met as many people as I have. But living in a place is a different experience than just visiting it for a short period. I have really gotten to know the places that I have lived, traveling slowly and understanding with a depth that comes from being in a place for an extended amount of time.

Moving to a new place has been fulfilling in many ways but in some ways now I feel it’s time to start looking for a couple home base style places to live. A place in Hawaii and maybe a place in Arizona sound good to me now and also a place in Europe so I’m starting to put energy into this now, multiple homes.

The level of depth of communication in these areas usually doesn’t come up as frequently and as passionately, as I have found when talking in a polyamorous setting. What is a polyamorous setting? For example, that can be when we are talking about desires we have with other people for example. This requires a deep level of clarity and honesty.

If my partner wants time alone with someone in my room, I appreciate more honestly and clarity around desires. What would are their desires with the other person? Is it just talking, or cuddles or something more? This clarity feels amazing to receive, it really deepens our relationship. It ups our communication game because now we have to be clear on what we desire, and honest about it too.

This creates a win win win situation. A win for the person giving the communication because they get to get clear and get better at expressing their desires. A win for the person receiving because they can feel secure and held with the clarity of their partner, and a win for the other person involved too because now the relationship between those two is stronger and more able to hold another when there is this feeling of honesty and clarity in communication.

There is so many more amazing benefits to breaking open the monogamous hegemonic cage. For someone like me who thrives on personal growth it has been one of my biggest teachers that has given me the most transformation in my life.

There is an all pervasive thought that is inherit to our language, It is the thought of “I am” but really it is the thought: “I am separate”. “My thoughts” are separate thoughts, “My car” is my separate car. The separateness to “I am” is so hegemonic that we are scarcely aware that it is even there, that is to say it is so obvious we don’t bother to append the phrase “separate” to I am. Usually everything with “mine” and “me” is understood to be separate.

The realization that you are not separate is a fast track to spiritual growth. The key insight is that I AM. Simply I am. There are thoughts, there are feelings, there are cars, and houses, and people, and the constant is that I AM. I AM is not possessive, the is the key understanding. I AM simply is, there is no thing that owns the awareness, there is only the thought that think it is separate, this is in fact what the ego is, the thought that experience is “mine” but when you really begin to investigate what this “mine” is you realize it is empty, there is no “mine” but rather a thought of it.

This can be hard to understand, because it is naturally hard to go beyond language with language. BUT there are ways for one to become more aware of this, and one of those ways is to be aware of language its shortcomings and begin to use it in a way that helps one become aware of truth.

One potent way to use language for growth is to keenly be aware of when the words “I”, “mine” and “my” are used. To remember what the subtle thought behind them, the ego thought, the thought of separateness. Remember that when we use the phrase I am we usually mean this I am that is separate.

One even might try to stop using the words I, me and mine and see how it aligns more with truth. So for example instead of “my car” try “the car.” instead of “my thoughts” or “my feelings” try “the thoughts” or “the feelings.”

We don’t have to go crazy with this and speak of everything in the 3rd person and loose the ability to communicate with others, the key is to remember the subtle thought behind our daily usage of “I”, “me” and “mine” we want to keep in mind the truth.

Detachment from identifying with whatever you identify with, the more you do it the more peace there will be, because there is nothing that is you that you can define, you simply ARE. Remember how your words either can keep one the dream of separateness or actually have the opposite effect of being keen reminders to the truth that you simply ARE. I am.

Here are the major eras of my life as I see them today, and their major themes. I have named each era given where I was mostly during that time, but some eras I was traveling quite a lot.

• Santa Cruz
  • college, community, deep community, meditation, red woods, life long friends, firsts, soul connections, introductions, health, wellness, spirituality, nature, coops, simplicity, food, values
• Kauai
  • tropical fruit, community, farming, magic, tropical weather, the ocean, deep joy, raw food, a deep longing
• Santa Monica
  • community, yoga, programming, friends, raw food
• Austin
  • yoga, slacklining, juggling, acroyoga, ecstatic dance, barton springs, community, deep friends, deep community, bikes, learning
• World Travels
  • Australia, SE Asia, Europe, Bali, lessons, deep cultural experiences, community tastes, travel
• New Zealand
  • Deep community, rock climbing, deep friends, deep community, amazing natural beauty, amazing people beyond, beyond, enthogens, culture, acroyoga, highlining, hiking, nature, festivals, road trips, self sufficiency, friendship, giving, heart, appreciation
• Big Island Travels (current)
  • Fruit, soul connections, love, tantra, community, lava, raw beauty, work, home searching,

The lists above are quick and definitely not finished but they help me remember and get the feeling of those times in my life. As it would be expected, the last era is the hardest for me to abstract themes from because I am in it. And for the future, I have a feeling that a new era is upon me, and I’m excited for it.

Each era carries with it so many beautifully unique places and amazing friends. I feel truly blessed and my heart fills with gratitude to think of all the amazing friends I have in my life. Each era could easily have enough deep soul connections for lifetime. Looking back at my life like this fills me with gratitude, so so much gratitude .

The external effects the internal and vice versa. But it seems that we are focused primarily with changing the external, like I will be happy if I get a new car, or I will be satisfied when I am living in this new house. If you where to ask people to tell you their goals, most of the time it would be primarily externally focused.

I believe that only looking to change your external world is setting you up for failure. Failure in reaching your goals and failure in sustainably maintaining them.

To try and change your external world without _also_ changing your internal world is a recipe for failure. I would argue that those who succeed in changing their external world do so because they have also changed their internal world even if they are aware of it or not.

And it is so much easier to change your external world when you are aware of how much the internal world changes it.

When you begin to work on changing the way you habitually think and look at the world, the outer world will change too, and very fast.

This is all to say that if you want to effect massive changes to your external environment most of the work should be done inside. If your external environment starts to change you are on the right track. In fact changing the external environment is easy when the work inside is being done.

Eventually we come to the realization that we are creating everything every moment via how we CHOOSE to define our life around us. On a very real level we are creating all of this. All of this is our creation. The more we start to know this, to really experience this, the more and more magical life becomes.

When you ask for fun, fun comes. Because you are creating it. That is the mechanism. You choose to define the things that are happening as fun now, and more and more things are fun.

We have to remember that the primary way we interact with the world isn’t through language. So asking for “fun” in words, say by saying it or writing it down will get you somewhere, but you have to really and experientially see it in your world you have to create it beyond the language.

We get so caught up in our language. Constantly making affirmations and saying them and writing them, but the true affirmation is the being of it, is the experiencing of it, over and over again that is an affirmation.

So say you want to experience fun. Go do something fun, go do that thing and have that experience, then you are affirming that you wan’t more of that and more of that will come into your life.

And this is how we get stuck in manifesting the same thing over and over again too, even if we are saying what we want, writing it down and really believing that we create our reality. It doesn’t mean much if you don’t experience what you want, words are just words but it through experience that we really talk to god.

So begin where you are. Start experiencing what you want however you can get it NOW. If you want to experience money flowing into your bank account, when it does flow in notice that moment, and be really present in that moment, with however much it is. Feel how it came to you. What reason is it flowing to you now? What account is it going into? What are you going to do with the money? And most importantly be really grateful for this.

Being grateful for however something you want is already showing up in your life is very important.

If you can’t see how something you want is already showing up in your life, you will never be able to sustainably have that thing. Because actually everything you can think of is actually in your “life” in some way right now. You might have to extrapolate to the depths of the universe but it is in your life, because well, you are life.

Common advise is to find some pain point for yourself or others and develop a solution to that. But what I have found to be the most powerful for me is to focus on who I want to create for and then let the what come after.

By focusing on the who you start to get clear on the “what” and the “why” while at the same time creating a win win situation for everyone involved.

Who you decide to work with will have a huge impact on your creation. You will be working with the people you decide to serve so it’s important that you like who you are working with.

If you enjoy who you are working with you will naturally do a great job. You will want to put in the extra effort to serve them well, because you like them you will want to see them succeed.

Here are some “who” questions to get yourself going:

• Who do I choose to serve?
• Who do I choose to create for?
• Who do I choose to interact with?

Here are some examples I came up with:

I choose to serve:

• Conscious people who are working on to help the planet evolve.
• People that are creating conscious gatherings.
• People who choose to use conscious language
• People who are spreading love consciousness.
• Vegans, and especially those helping the earth.
• Heart aligned individuals who want to grow consciously.
• People who are excited to grow and constantly push themselves to new heights.

After getting clear on the “who” we can start to define the “what” based on our skills and passions. A big part of my skills are in web design and programming so I choose to help people amplify their conscious message through the web. Even this blog post is a part of this.

By focusing on who I choose to serve I can tailor my offering specifically for them, creating a cohesive message for my tribe not watered down in generalities. Narrowing down who you focus creates a win win situation for yourself and those that you choose to serve. You can narrow down on their specific pain points (which will probably be yours too) creating a compelling offer just for them. Not only will your offer be great for your tribe, but you will also love working for them.

It’s okay to not know exactly who it is you want to focus on in the beginning. Maybe all you know is that you want to focus on serving people that have enough money to pay for your product, or maybe it is just males 35 or older. Any defining segment is enough to get started with.

Over time you might also change who you decide to serve. You can even choose to serve different people for different projects. Defining who you serve is a helpful guideline, not a hard rule, it will probably change as you gain experience and I find it most helpful especially in the beginning of a project.

So focus on the who first everything else will follow naturally.

This love can be found anywhere, you don’t go to it, it comes to you. Love for what you are doing starts with what you are doing right now. When you create the habit of enjoying what you are doing you create the conditions to enjoy it even more.

It can be as easy as enjoying your cup of tea. Enjoying the way the wind feels on your face. Enjoying the smile of your friend. Enjoying a tasty meal. The more you learn to love what you are doing now the more that you love what you do.

Sometimes we are taught that you have to work hard at something you don’t enjoy to eventually love what you are doing some time in the future. But dissatisfaction now only leads to more dissatisfaction in the future.

The universe comes to you. The more you love everything you do, the more reasons you have to love everything that you do. Things change, not because you need them to but because the universe comes to you.

What you put out you get more of. The more you enjoy what you are doing the more you start to see enjoyment everywhere.

Life is truly wonderful, especially when you realize it is all up to you. So how do you choose to experience this moment?