The other morning, I was watching a little chickadee from my kitchen window. He was flitting back and forth from the feeder, taking only one seed at a time. He wasn’t stuffing his beak, not fighting with the blue jays, just taking what he needed for that moment. It reminded me of a conversation I stumbled upon online, from a person who found a beautiful way to quiet the noise of wanting more. It resonated so deeply with what the forest and my yoga mat teach me every day.
The Hunger for More
This person on Reddit spoke of coming into some money and finding it slipping through their fingers on ‘useless stuff.’ I think we all know that feeling, even if we don’t have a sudden windfall. Its a kind of spiritual hunger. We feel a void, and the world tells us to fill it with things. A new yoga mat, a prettier set of mala beads, another kitchen gadget. I remember a time after a particularly successful summer of retreats, I felt a pull to ‘upgrade’ everything in my little cabin. But I had to pause and ask myself, ‘Jessica, will this truly make your heart more peaceful?’ The answer, I knew, was already in the quiet hum of the woods around me, not in a shopping cart.
Your Inner Barometer
What I loved about this person’s solution was its simplicity. They started tracking their feelings: calm, presence, readiness. Not how many days they meditated in a row, but how the meditation actually made them *feel*. This is a practice we call Svadhyaya in yogaself-study. Its the art of turning inward. After a long walk by the river, I don’t just think, ‘Okay, exercise done.’ I pause. I ask, ‘How is my breath? Is it deep and steady? Is my mind clear? This is our inner barometer. When you start measuring your days by the quality of your inner peace rather than the quantity of your acquisitions, your perspective on what is ‘needed’ begins to shift profoundly.
What the Birch Tree Knows
A birch tree doesn’t envy the maple for its autumn colours. It simply stands in its own stark, white beauty against the blue sky. It has exactly what it needs. Once you realize that buying things won’t bring you the calm or presence they were tracking. The joy was a flicker, not a slow burn. The real warmth comes from a moment of true presence, of feeling connected to yourself and the world. It’s the feeling of your feet rooted to the earth in Tadasana, the shared warmth of a cup of tea with a friend, the quiet satisfaction of stacking your own firewood for the winter. These are the things that make our inner barometers rise. They are the quiet, lasting wealth.
You don’t need to become a minimalist guru. You only need to learn to listen to yourself. Before you buy, before you add one more thing to your life, take a breath. Ask: ‘What feeling am I truly seeking?’ Let your own heart, your own breath, be your guide. It speaks a quieter, more honest language than any advertisement ever will. Find the richness that is already within you.
With love and light,
Jessica