Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

On this Christmas day, 2015, I wanted to share with you a few wise gifts of my own, in keeping with the spirit of the day.

Gold

For the soul.

Time is a non-renewable. You might not have all the stuff you want, but if you’re reading this you have everything you need. I’ve made myself an index card that I look at every morning titled “Abundance”, and below it I list all of the things I have enough of: Money, food, people who love me, and so on.

What I will never have enough of is time. I know I’ve got today, but I don’t know about tomorrow. I’ve tried to re-orient my life around this principle.

Time is gold.

Frankincense

For the stomach.

In the words of Michael Pollen, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

I eat about a third of what I used to eat even as recently as five years ago. It’s been a game-changer. I feel better than I ever have, I weigh about what I did when I was a senior in high school, and I have more energy.

I still eat almost anything I want. I just eat a lot less of the less healthy stuff and a lot more of the good stuff.

Myrrh

For the heart.

Two years or so ago, I started swimming over my lunch hour. Swimming is great because in a half hour you can get a serious workout, eat a quick, healthy lunch, have a quick shower and get back to work. I used to suffer through the afternoons, never having any brain power left for the end of the day. Now I’ve got a ton of energy well into the evening, and I sleep better.

Exercising at lunch gives me a break just when I need it and gets my blood flowing again for the afternoon, and as a result I rarely eat lunch out which saves me both money and calories.

There you have it! My own gifts of the Magi, as it were.

Merry Christmas!