Measuring wealth and worth

A measure of your wealth is how much you would be worth if you lost all of your money and financial assets.

The source of the word wealth comes from the Middle English Welthe, which has its roots in health and wellness.

To be truly wealthy is a state of health and wholeness. It is only of recent times that we have reduced wealth to how much money and financial assets we have.

When we pin our interior experience, whether that be the experience of freedom, abundance, meaning, worth, happiness or prosperity, on the exterior world we are in fact giving the exterior thing more power over us than we have over ourselves. In other words, our own self-power is missing in deference to the exterior power.

I am worthy because I have money. Or I experience transient happiness because I got the raise, met the girl, made the deal.

True wealth, like truth worth, is a state of being that has minimal connection to the exterior world. When the exterior world throws us daggers, we still maintain our sense of worth, our sense of wealth, our happiness.

Is this easy? No. It means untangling from the cultural norms and becoming sovereign in our own identity.

In the end, it means that no matter what life throws at us, we maintain our centre.

Am I there yet…far from it…but closer than ever. The wonder of life is that often we have to lose everything to realise that everything was not what made us worthy. With this comes ultimate freedom.

Worth, wealth, peace, happiness, grace, love, abundance…these are all inside jobs.

January 16th 2014

Published June 1st 2026. Photo taken June 1st 2026