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What do we tend to invest in? The investment advisors, and there are many of them with perhaps as many different opinions as there are investment opportunities, often ask us to first evaluate our ‘risk profile’. The questions are in the form of a short quiz that asks questions like – “what are your long term and short term goals for investing”, or “what would you do if your investment lost 20% of its value in a month”, and more.
Our answers are then analyzed by the advisor, who then recommends how to make allocations in our investment portfolio. Invest this much in stocks, this much in bonds, and so on. But investing is rarely a ‘set it and forget it’ proposition. We are also advised to keep revisiting our ‘risk profile’ as your life goes through changes, and rebalance our investment portfolio regularly.
So, how do we use this model in our spiritual investments – the time, energy and actions that are available for us to invest towards our spiritual progress? Are we ‘rolling our own’ when it comes to our investment strategy towards our spiritual goals? Or do we have a trusted advisor to guide us? Do we take time to evaluate our spiritual investments when the state of our life suddenly changes? How often do we reevaluate and rebalance our spiritual practice?
I asked all of the above questions, and a few more, two years ago, when my Mother passed away suddenly. There is rarely anything that brings a greater sense of urgency, that the “time is now”, than the loss of a loved one. It brought a new perspective to my spiritual practice. It made me evaluate the ‘risk profile’ of my current spiritual practice(s), and led me to rebalance my time investments in my practices of writing, being in nature, building community, and daily meditation.
Two years to the day and virtually the hour of her passing, I found myself reevaluating my spiritual investments yet again. I found myself sitting across the table, listening to Mitch Albom, of “Tuesdays with Morrie” fame. I had volunteered to drive my (cousin) sister to inner city Detroit, to speak with him about a social investment fund that she is planning to get off the ground. Mitch’s intense passion for making change in one of the poorest cities in America poured out in every word that he spoke. His investment of time, energy, leadership and acknowledgement that his organizations face a huge uphill battle, was apparent during the conversation.
At the end of the meeting, on the drive home, I could not help but ask the question. What am I investing in? What impact is it having in my life, and the life of others? Are the investment returns designed for short and long term returns? Or is it time to rebalance my ‘spiritual action’ portfolio?
I only have questions so far, but I do know that the heart will bring me the answers. I also know this for sure – that the “time is now”, to ask again – what is it that I am investing in with ALL my heart?
Kumud @AjmaniK
P.S. I invite you to join us to discuss ‘Spiritual Investments’ – Sunday, February 18th 2018 at 9amET/2pmUTC on twitter. Namaste, and thank you, for your investment in the #SpiritChat community -Kumud
