Brahmacharya and Being Thrifty
I was thrifty twice today and it caused me to think about two random and unrelated things because that is how my mind operates. I thought about my past and how being thrifty shouldn't always be about money. I thought, too, about the "Yoga Sutras" which I studied last year during Yoga Teacher Training, specifically, Brahmacharya. One of the 5 Yamas, or moral constraints, of the "Yoga Sutras", Brahmacharya, often associated with sexual abstinence, seemed to me to be more about spiritual thrift. It is the prudent use of personal mental, physical and emotional energy. Brahmacharya is about being thrifty with your own self.
My ex-husband once told me, after the birth of our youngest son, that I wasn't thrifty. The exact phrase he used was I needed to learn to "pinch pennies". Over the years at random times, like today, the phrase haunts me. Sadly, he never really knew me but I can't blame him because I didn't really know myself then. I barely know now but that is another story. I didn't honor myself and tell him to get lost. Instead, I felt shame. I was lacking somehow because I was not, apparently, up to his level of thrift. He should have seen me in action today. Today, I got out the dress I wore to my youngest son's wedding almost 4 years ago. The dress has been in a protective garment bag since I wore it in March, 2015. I was thinking it was time to sell it, a truly thrifty thought, or donate it to a cause where beautiful dresses find new owners. I got out the dress to look at it and, you know what, I still loved it. I had spent a lot of time looking for the dress and seeing how pretty it is and thinking about how I had loved wearing it gave me a lot of pleasure. Knowing what gives me pleasure is, I have learned, a very important component of spiritual thrift for me. I feel more content when I have been thrifty enough to honor my soul with what gives it pleasure even if that is simply a pretty, green dress. Sometimes, it could be going to a yoga class or reading or taking my little dog for a walk or, nirvana as far as I am concerned, going up to a coffee shop for a deliciously frivolous Latte. It means focusing on me and it means spending a lot of time alone. Continuing to look at the dress, I had an epiphany and a thrifty thought simultaneously. Sometimes, I amaze myself. My beautiful niece, Elizabeth, is getting married in September up in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. I will need a nice dress for it. Bingo! I have the dress for my niece's wedding right in front of me. It was a the Mother of the Groom dress and now it will be reincarnated as an Aunt of the Bride dress which, according to Pinterest, is really a thing. I am almost certainly on the path to some type of thrifty synchronicity.
My next thrifty occurrence today involved blueberries. My oldest son lives with me and, while we both like blueberries, we have a habit of buying too many and they go bad before we can eat them all. On January 31st, I went through two containers of blueberries and separated out the bad ones. I froze the rest but not before consulting the internet about how to properly freeze blueberries. I even dated the containers. That's how I know the date. Today, I had a craving for oatmeal with blueberries. The blueberries only needed seconds to thaw in the hot oatmeal and they were perfection to taste.
Today, I pinched pennies my way over things that were important to me. It made me sad because I am haunted by years of thinking I am not enough. However, it is easier to be thrifty with money and what you buy with it and other allocations of your financial resources if you have also engaged in spiritual thrift by conserving personal, spiritual energy. It is protecting and conserving your resources when you know what really matters to you and it is about thrifty use of time because that is finite and spiritual-vetting, of sorts, of people you choose to let into your life. Brahmmacharya is spiritual thrift. It is okay to like pretty, green dresses and buy them and only use them once or use them again and, sometimes, buy too many blueberries.
My ex-husband once told me, after the birth of our youngest son, that I wasn't thrifty. The exact phrase he used was I needed to learn to "pinch pennies". Over the years at random times, like today, the phrase haunts me. Sadly, he never really knew me but I can't blame him because I didn't really know myself then. I barely know now but that is another story. I didn't honor myself and tell him to get lost. Instead, I felt shame. I was lacking somehow because I was not, apparently, up to his level of thrift. He should have seen me in action today. Today, I got out the dress I wore to my youngest son's wedding almost 4 years ago. The dress has been in a protective garment bag since I wore it in March, 2015. I was thinking it was time to sell it, a truly thrifty thought, or donate it to a cause where beautiful dresses find new owners. I got out the dress to look at it and, you know what, I still loved it. I had spent a lot of time looking for the dress and seeing how pretty it is and thinking about how I had loved wearing it gave me a lot of pleasure. Knowing what gives me pleasure is, I have learned, a very important component of spiritual thrift for me. I feel more content when I have been thrifty enough to honor my soul with what gives it pleasure even if that is simply a pretty, green dress. Sometimes, it could be going to a yoga class or reading or taking my little dog for a walk or, nirvana as far as I am concerned, going up to a coffee shop for a deliciously frivolous Latte. It means focusing on me and it means spending a lot of time alone. Continuing to look at the dress, I had an epiphany and a thrifty thought simultaneously. Sometimes, I amaze myself. My beautiful niece, Elizabeth, is getting married in September up in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. I will need a nice dress for it. Bingo! I have the dress for my niece's wedding right in front of me. It was a the Mother of the Groom dress and now it will be reincarnated as an Aunt of the Bride dress which, according to Pinterest, is really a thing. I am almost certainly on the path to some type of thrifty synchronicity.
My next thrifty occurrence today involved blueberries. My oldest son lives with me and, while we both like blueberries, we have a habit of buying too many and they go bad before we can eat them all. On January 31st, I went through two containers of blueberries and separated out the bad ones. I froze the rest but not before consulting the internet about how to properly freeze blueberries. I even dated the containers. That's how I know the date. Today, I had a craving for oatmeal with blueberries. The blueberries only needed seconds to thaw in the hot oatmeal and they were perfection to taste.
Today, I pinched pennies my way over things that were important to me. It made me sad because I am haunted by years of thinking I am not enough. However, it is easier to be thrifty with money and what you buy with it and other allocations of your financial resources if you have also engaged in spiritual thrift by conserving personal, spiritual energy. It is protecting and conserving your resources when you know what really matters to you and it is about thrifty use of time because that is finite and spiritual-vetting, of sorts, of people you choose to let into your life. Brahmmacharya is spiritual thrift. It is okay to like pretty, green dresses and buy them and only use them once or use them again and, sometimes, buy too many blueberries.
