Navigating the Chaos of Capitalism: How Intentional Spaces Provide a Place to Go Inward.
Capitalism is not so much broken as it is breaking us, and connecting with our inner life is the only way out.
Those who knew me in my twenties would have called me the “Lieutenant of Capitalism.” I was a proud champion of the cause–working 70+ hours a week, constantly networking, and reveling in the glory of the grind. As a young immigrant and minority in America, nothing was more important to me than financial freedom, and I believed that capitalism was my only hope of achieving it. I was wrong.
People often say that capitalism is a broken system, but I disagree. Capitalism is working exactly as intended, maximizing profit and relentlessly pursuing quarter-over-quarter growth. But what happens when the value of the bottom line eclipses any and all potential consequences? We find ourselves swirling in a never-ending cycle of exploitation, with precious resources unsustainably extracted from both the environment and its living inhabitants. The system is not so much broken as it is breaking us.
In order to win, we’re told, you have to play the game, and I played it hard. Ultimately, capitalism chewed me up and spit me out. As it turns out, the game was not designed for people like me. When a system is focused solely on financial outcomes, its participants are forced to disconnect from the self, forsaking their own culture and prioritizing monetary gains. Results-based thinking forces outward focus and drives constant action, often ignorant of the unique human being responsible for those actions. This process is a cultural assimilation of its own, but to a culture of scarcity–of “never enough.” I found myself disillusioned, burned out, and feeling completely inauthentic. This is the toxic result of the glorified modern-day hustle culture.
In 2008, the illusion of capitalism came crashing down, taking with it all of the structures on which I had staked my own identity. In the absence of outward context, I was forced to look inward, and for the first time, I asked myself, “Who am I? What am I doing? And why am I doing it?” As the questions came flooding in, I traveled to India and turned to my ancestral roots for answers.
My travels turned out to be one discovery after another.
I discovered community,
I discovered rituals,
I discovered intentional spaces,
I discovered spirituality,
I discovered what it is to be human.
I connected with myself.
My new path as a seeker led me to Auroville, an intentionally designed city based on unity. This is where I came to understand the undeniable power of intentional living.
While living in America, I never thought about how important self-care practices were to surviving in this world. India opened my eyes to other ways of living, with spaces designed solely for inward practice and being. Eastern philosophies have long understood the importance of daily rituals and intentional spaces designed for self-work, and it was in India that I saw, for the first time, intentional, sacred spaces as a part of everyday life. I saw spaces designed for inner exploration at a magnitude I had never experienced before, from the Lotus temple to Auroville, the Chidambaram temple, and the Golden Temple to name a few. Sacred, intentional spaces, whether religious, agnostic, creative, or spiritual, provide a safe place to support our practices of self-care and self-work. They offer environments evocative of a singular act that focus our mind, body, and spirit on the rituals they house. In this unique setting, it dawned on me that the only way to show up as your authentic outward self is to first discover the authentic inward self. How? Through intentional practice.
When I returned to the States, I was eager to share this new perspective with others. I realized that I could serve as the translation layer desperately needed by Silicon Valley professionals–a sort of conduit to intentional living. I began offering high performance coaching for founders, entrepreneurs, and executives to help them navigate the high pressure ecosystem of capitalism. I focused my energy on sharing this new way of being with people like the old me–people who were chasing enoughness and only finding burnout; minorities who were just as caught up in the capitalism game as I once was. Through my coaching, I offered tools to prevent burnout, but over time, people inevitably stopped using them. I began questioning, “Why are they not sticking with the self-care practices? Why is it working for me but not for them?”
Through deeper analysis, I realized that although I was giving people the exercises they needed for self-care and self-reflection, an essential element was missing. Without the sacred places that had facilitated my own transformation, there was no space to practice and no room to grow. With this discovery, I noticed a trend of glaring inconsistencies in the way these people were engaging with their space in general. They weren’t working in offices, but in their bedrooms. They weren’t sleeping in their bedrooms, but on their couches. They weren’t eating in their dining room, but in front of the TV. There was complete confusion around their living space, and they had no intentionality in how they moved around their homes. Their highly demanding work-life had blurred the lines between work-space and living-space, until no space was being intentionally used for its intended function. There was a total imbalance.
In the era of remote work, cross-functionality has become an overwhelming priority, and the majority of modern homes lack any semblance of intentional space to be completely immersed in oneself–a place dedicated to self-care practices and self-work. Visual cues are a powerful catalyst for behavioral action, and a physical space is no exception to the rule. Intentional space is a physical reminder to take an intended action, igniting behavior and giving rise to healthy habits. Empirical evidence in the wellness space clearly illustrates the value of healthy habits, habit stacking, and creating routines, and creating physical space for such practices can encourage engagement and promote discipline. Furthermore, while habits and routines can provide consistency over time, they often lack awareness. Rituals transcend the routine, requiring both awareness and intention, and transforming the mindless patterns of everyday life into dedicated, intentional self-care practices. With this understanding, I recognized the nature of my new mission–to incorporate intentional spaces into every home, simplifying the integration of ancient wisdom into everyday self-care rituals.
By demystifying the concept of the ritual and harnessing the power of intentional space in our day-to-day existence, we are able to unlock the potential for renewal, consistency, and mindfulness within our own homes. Most people do not have a physical place dedicated solely to this practice:
A place to sit,
Listen,
Go inward,
Just be,
Dream,
Write,
Sing,
Meditate.
The action doesn’t matter so much as the intention.
Intentional space can be any place in your home that is dedicated to practices centered around your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It is a sanctuary of wellness with the power to create lasting behavioral changes in your everyday life. The space can be curated in any way that feels personal or creates personal connection, by adding candles, plants, crystals, or even creating an altar to make the space emotionally relevant. The goal is to create a reflective space that you want to spend time in.
Intentional spaces are an outward reminder to work on your inner process. Only once you’ve crafted an inner life of intention can you begin to consciously and authentically manifest the outward life you seek. Intentional space is merely an incubator for that practice–a safe place for you to connect with the being that you are. Once you connect to that being, things start to change. Your perspective changes. Your life changes. Change your life, and you change the world.
Systems and structures were created by humanity, but they do not define us. They will continue to rise and to crumble, and we will continue to grapple with the fallout. When you take the time to look inward, you realize that these outward forms are merely a facade. You exist beyond all of it. Unveiling a dedicated space for this practice creates the time and place to do this important work — a catalyst for inward discovery, and a threshold for external transformation.
Love & Light,
Alkemist
