If you find joy in these 10 free activities, you’re richer than most people with money

by Lachlan Brown | December 21, 2025, 11:55 pm

The other day I saw someone on social media flexing their “perfect” morning routine.

Ice bath, fancy coffee, expensive gym, first-class flight booked for next week.

And I caught myself doing that dumb little comparison thing.

Then I went for a run, looked up at the sky, and felt my mood reset in about five minutes.

It hit me that a lot of the best stuff in life is either free or close to it.

And if you can actually enjoy those simple things, not as a backup plan but as real joy, you’re doing better than you think.

In Buddhism, there’s a recurring theme that craving is what keeps us restless.

Not having enough. Not being enough. Not owning enough.

So this article is a reminder, for you and for me, that wealth isn’t only what’s in your account. It’s also what you can appreciate without needing to buy anything.

1) Going for a walk with no agenda

Do you ever go for a walk without tracking steps, timing it, or turning it into a productivity hack?

A simple walk can feel almost rebellious now, because everything is supposed to “count.”

But walking with no destination has a weird way of unclogging your mind.

Your brain stops sprinting. Your nervous system settles down.

Sometimes you come back with a solution to a problem you weren’t even consciously working on.

I’ve talked about this before but the mind often finds clarity when you stop forcing it.

If you can enjoy a slow walk, especially without headphones, you’ve got a kind of inner wealth that no gadget can buy.

2) Watching a sunrise or sunset

This one sounds cheesy until you do it properly.

Not while scrolling. Not while replying to messages.

Actually stopping and watching the sky change.

It’s free, it’s beautiful, and it reminds you that life is bigger than your current stress.

In Buddhist practice, there’s this constant invitation to notice impermanence.

A sunset is impermanence on display. You can’t hold it, you can’t repeat it, you can only be there for it.

If you can feel genuine awe at something you didn’t pay for, that’s a strong sign you’re already rich in the ways that matter.

3) Having a real conversation without your phone nearby

Most conversations these days are half-conversations.

Someone’s there physically, but their attention is split into five tabs.

A real conversation, where both people are present, feels rarer than it should.

It can be with a partner, a friend, a sibling, even a stranger you end up talking to in a cafe.

When you can enjoy a conversation just for the connection, not for networking or gaining something, you’re tapping into a deep human need.

Psychology backs this up too. Meaningful social connection consistently shows up as one of the strongest predictors of well-being.

Money can buy access, but it can’t buy presence.

4) Sitting in silence and actually liking it

A lot of people fear silence because it forces them to meet their own mind.

So they fill every gap with sound. Podcasts, music, YouTube, background noise, more noise.

But if you can sit in silence and feel okay, that’s a form of freedom.

This is where mindfulness gets real. It’s not about being calm all the time.

It’s about not needing constant distraction to tolerate your own inner world.

When I first started meditating, I realized how addicted I was to stimulation.

If you can enjoy silence, even for a few minutes, you have something many people with money still haven’t found.

5) Reading something that changes how you see the world

You don’t need a fancy course or a high-priced coach to grow.

Sometimes all it takes is one good book, borrowed from a library, or one article that hits at the right time.

Reading is one of the most underrated free upgrades you can give your mind.

A solid book can challenge your beliefs, expand your perspective, and make you feel less alone in what you’re dealing with.

This is especially true with philosophy and psychology, because you start seeing your own patterns more clearly.

If you can sit with a book and genuinely enjoy learning, you’re building a kind of wealth that compounds for life.

6) Moving your body in a simple way

Not everything needs to be optimized.

You don’t need the most expensive gym membership, the latest shoes, or a complicated training plan to feel good in your body.

A run, pushups at home, stretching, a bike ride, a swim, a long session of yoga on your living room floor.

Simple movement clears mental fog and shifts your emotional state fast.

It’s one of the most reliable mood tools we have, and it costs nothing if you keep it basic.

In many Eastern traditions, the body isn’t separate from the mind.

If you can enjoy movement for the feeling of being alive, not just for aesthetics, you’re already ahead of the game.

7) Being in nature and noticing details

Nature is the original nervous system reset.

Even a small park counts. Even a tree-lined street counts.

When you slow down enough to notice the shapes of leaves, the sound of wind, the way light hits the ground, something shifts.

Your mind stops spinning in abstract problems and starts paying attention to what’s real.

There’s research suggesting time in nature supports well-being, but honestly you don’t need studies to feel it.

Your body already knows.

If you can enjoy nature without turning it into a photo shoot or content, that’s a quiet kind of richness.

8) Doing something kind anonymously

This is one of my favorite tests of inner wealth.

Can you do something kind with no credit attached?

Pay for someone’s coffee. Leave a nice note. Help someone carry something heavy.

Not because you want to be seen as a good person, but because you can.

In Buddhism, compassion isn’t a performance. It’s a practice.

And the best kind of compassion is the kind that doesn’t inflate your ego.

If you enjoy giving without needing recognition, you’re richer than you realize.

9) Cooking a simple meal and actually enjoying the process

Cooking gets framed as either a chore or a flex.

But a simple meal, made slowly, can be a mindfulness practice.

Chopping vegetables, smelling spices, tasting as you go, eating without rushing.

You don’t need expensive ingredients for this, you need attention.

And when you eat something you made yourself, it often feels more satisfying than something delivered in a rush.

If you can find joy in simple food and a simple process, you’re less dependent on external stimulation. That’s real freedom.

10) Practicing gratitude in a grounded way

Gratitude can be cringe if it’s forced.

But real gratitude is just noticing what’s already okay.

It’s appreciating the basics without needing a dramatic life overhaul to feel content.

A safe place to sleep. A person who texts back. A body that lets you move. A moment of peace.

Gratitude is basically the opposite of craving.

And craving is what keeps people feeling poor, no matter how much they have.

If you can feel genuine gratitude for small things, you’ve got a kind of wealth that protects you in any season of life.

Final words

Money helps, and pretending otherwise is naive.

But money doesn’t automatically create contentment, meaning, or peace.

If you can enjoy these free activities, you’ve trained your mind to find richness in what’s already available.

That kind of richness travels with you.

So here’s a question to sit with today. Which one of these can you do in the next 24 hours, just for the joy of it?

Lachlan Brown

Lachlan Brown is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Brown Brothers Media, a digital publishing network reaching tens of millions of readers monthly. He holds a Graduate Diploma of Psychological Studies from Deakin University, though his real education came afterward: a warehouse job shifting TVs, a stretch of anxiety in his mid-twenties, and the slow discovery that studying the mind is not the same as learning how to live well. He started experimenting with Buddhist principles during breaks at the warehouse and eventually began writing about what he was learning. That writing became Hack Spirit, a widely read personal development site, and his book Hidden Secrets of Buddhism became a bestseller. His work breaks down complex ideas into frameworks people can apply immediately, whether they are navigating a career change, a difficult relationship, or the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. Lachlan splits his time between Singapore and Saigon. He writes about high-performance routines, decision-making under pressure, digital innovation, and the intersection of Eastern philosophy with modern life. His perspective comes from having built things from scratch, failed at some of them, and learned that clarity comes from practice, not theory.