I’ve just returned from a trip to Cambodia.
We were in Siem Reap Province where a large percentage of the population live on an income of around $80 a month.
About £2 a day.
This is not the average.
Some live on less. Some on more.
Median reported salaries are as high as $200 – $250 a month.
But you get the picture.
Relative to our income, it’s very little.
I’ve been to Cambodia before.
What I was moved by then and again on this trip was this.
Most of the people are rich.
They’re happy.
They value family, friendship, kindness, honesty, generosity, helping others and being happy above objective wealth.
This isn’t to romanticise hardship.
Poverty is real and challenging but what struck me is that, for the most part, they live with a deep recognition.
The know peace, happiness, fulfilment and freedom don’t come from money or achievements or from anything ‘out there’.
They know life is only now and that resisting now is what clouds our innate peace and joy.
They’re not out to get, they’re out to give.
Even if all they’ve got to give is a smile and a warm hello, they give freely.
When I visit Cambodia, I’m also reminded of what I hold to be one of the saddest things…
To be objectively wealthy but starving for happiness, peace and more time.
That’s real poverty.
Because the truth is our peace and happiness are never absent or missing.
They’re just being overlooked.
Here’s a simple experiment to test this for yourself.
Firstly……..Time.
Consider that it’s always now. Time is simply how we track movement.
Time is a concept. We can’t find it.
All is now.
Past and future are held in now.
Our entire life experience is movement in now.
Now, notice that worry, doubt and fear all need a timeline in order to exist.
Without our belief in time, they dissolve.
Take a moment in now to really contemplate this. It can be quietly transformational.
Now, fully allow whatever’s here now.
Whether it’s your thoughts, feelings and emotions, a mental narrative, something someone has said or done or circumstances; be an unconditional yes to all of it. Fully allow all of it.
Resist nothing.
Hold onto nothing.
Notice the effects.
Notice what makes itself known when you’re not resisting life in the only ‘time’ life ever is, ever has been and ever will be.
That’s true wealth.
That’s life itself – it’s you.
The silent, timeless, peaceful, quietly joyful background within which all the movement takes place.
The awareness that’s always here now, which is never absent and which money can’t buy.