At any point, we have a certain amount of life energy available for expenditure. The mind automatically budgets this energy, optimizing for our needs and desires.
Of course, our most important need is self-preservation. So if the mind perceives any threat to our survival, it often spends a big chunk of energy on getting us into a heightened/dissociated state to cope with the threat. In that moment, there’s no budget left to afford things like beauty, rationality, openness, mindfulness, etc. That’s a travesty because these things can be very useful for problem-solving and “threat” mitigation.
Anyway, all our minds have this budgeting problem to varying degrees. It’s because we use an archaic accounting software that relies on past expenses to predict future costs. To be fair, there’s no objective cost sheet the mind can reference to make “optimal” budgeting decisions. Each situation and individual is idiosyncratic.
So what determines the degree of our “budgeting problems”?
In childhood, when we do not have the means to acquire higher-order thinking and larger perspectives, our mind copes with complex threats by allocating all energy resources to primitive services like panic and dissociation (again, to be fair, it works). The more complex the threat (relative to our cognitive development at that point), the bigger the energy outlay.
Later in life, when any situation resembles the childhood threat, the mind’s legacy system references historical costs and makes a similar energy expenditure prioritizing the primal problem-solving strategies — anxiety, emotional shutdown (depression), hostility, etc. The mind doesn’t know that advanced problem-solving strategies have now become affordable. So we remain trapped.
But you can’t just show your mind an arbitrary cost sheet and tell it to update its models accordingly. If your cost estimations are off the mark, you can end up being bankrupt. So the mind will justifiably not allow such financial (existential) risks.
So how do we solve the budgeting problem?
Well, one way is to take whatever little life energy savings we have each day and start investing it in virtuous assets like meditation, exercise, quality nutrition, nourishing conversations etc. These assets then start generating more life energy for us. So it becomes a nice little virtuous cycle that keeps compounding. This new source of energy income can then be reinvested into more virtuous assets. But it can also be simultaneously used to afford states like wonder, joy, optimism, compassion, etc. These states give you the momentum to keep going. Initially, you’ll have to start small but it will all add up big time over time.
Now, trying to fill the bucket is important. But it’s more important to fix the leak in the bucket and clean up the water inside. Otherwise, all our efforts will go in vain. Our unnecessary energy expenditures eat into our savings and put a ceiling on our growth. These expenditures often also, directly and indirectly, lead to more exorbitant costs down the line. So our priority should be to stop this vicious cycle and fix the budgeting problem.
Now the way to do it will be unique to a certain degree for everyone because we all have a unique past and a unique mind. But at the same time, we are more similar than different. Mostly, the process comes down to showing (not telling) the mind that large energy expenses for self-preservation are no longer needed. That’s what healing is mostly about.
So leverage other people’s wisdom and figure it out at any cost. Because once you do it, life will never be the same again. Imagine how much life energy would get freed up if you were not caught up in the game of self-preservation. You’d then be able to use all that energy to create more energy. You’d always have enough to afford joy, ecstasy, love, wonder, and every other beautiful state that you can conceive of.
That’s how you become existentially wealthy, a happiness billionaire.