- Chapter One -

Changing Your Currency

“Are you feeling poor – change the currency that you use – the currency of love, friendship, camaraderie, gratitude, peacefulness, joy and freedom.”

—Anil Gupta, writer and producer

Can money buy happiness? If you had a choice between $100,000 or a healthy heart which would you choose? Upgrading your future has everything to do with upgrading your present. Becoming aware of yourself and appreciating what you have in the now will allow you to see how rich you really are. Let’s start with being appreciative of your health.

Being the eldest in my household provided me with credentials to be a nanny. Schedule making, clothes organization, food preparation and an immunity to excuses. I cleaned up after two dogs, three siblings, two adults, ten tilapia and a turtle. One afternoon as I worked my way down my to-do list, fold clothes came up next. I emptied the dryer and loaded the laundry basket. While carrying the basket, I turned the corner from the laundry room to the living room and stubbed my toe on a five-gallon-water bottle. Immediately I fell to the floor as undergarments rained around me.

My pinky toe felt as if it broke in half and within seconds it was completely numb. On my way to the hospital I watched it grow and color itself purple. I waited in the emergency room for a short amount of time that felt like hours, x-rays confirmed that my toe was broken. The doctor wrapped my toe in a splint and I suddenly realized something: I need all ten toes to walk.

I wobbled, I tripped and I fell. I often asked myself what the point of ten toes was. It wasn’t until I broke this toe did I realize how grateful I was. While it was broken I noticed that I stubbed that pinky toe a lot because each time I did the pain would radiate up my leg. I thought to myself, what a strong little toe I have. I started to take my injury more seriously and nursed it back to health. I lessened my duties and mentally thanked my body for all of my functions. I showed gratitude in every body part of mine.

A couple months later I went back to the doctors and he w