Atharv’s Chronicle 15-09-2025 : “I PAY EMI EVERY DAY!”

I pay EMI every single day. And if we’re not paying ours, we’re heading towards the biggest bankruptcy of our lives.

Before you think I’m drowning in credit card debt, let me clarify – I’m not talking about our bank EMI. I’m talking about something far more critical. Something that, if missed, won’t just make us financially broke, but will rob us of living life to its fullest potential.

The Real Crisis We’re All Ignoring

When we miss our bank EMI, we get penalty charges, our credit score drops, and eventually face financial ruin. But there’s another EMI most of us are defaulting on every single day, and the consequences are far worse than bankruptcy.

Think about our average human timeline: We’re full of energy until 20, testing our limits until 30, and then peak earning years from 30-45. But here’s the cruel irony – just when we reach our prime around 35-40, when we have money, experience, and wisdom, our health starts giving up.

I see it everywhere around me. Successful people in their late 30s with great careers and financial stability, but they’re popping antacids after every meal, can’t climb two flights of stairs without getting breathless, and their backs ache constantly.

This is our real crisis. We’re so busy building our external world that we’re letting our internal world go bankrupt.

Introducing Our Life EMI

The EMI I’m talking about is our Life EMI – and it has three components:

• E – Exercise
• M – Meditation
• I – Introspection

Just like our bank EMI, this needs to be paid consistently, without fail. Miss it, and we’ll pay a price that no amount of money can recover.

E – Exercise: Our Body’s Non-Negotiable Payment

Here’s an uncomfortable question I ask myself: How many different cuisines did I try last month versus how many different forms of exercise did I do?

We eat variety, but we don’t move with variety. The result? Our bodies become like cars parked for months – everything starts rusting.

I met a 38-year-old software engineer recently, earning six figures, living in a premium apartment. But he couldn’t touch his toes. His neck was so stiff he couldn’t look over his shoulder while driving without turning his entire body. That could be any of us if we’re not careful.

Our body is the only home we’ll live in for our entire life. When we abuse this gift, we’re disrespecting the giver.

I’ve been including exercise in my life for almost 10 years now. Currently, I do strength training twice a week and walk on other days. My game-changer? I walk after every meal and even while brushing my teeth. This simple habit easily covers 3-4 kilometers daily for me.

For accountability, I have a WhatsApp group with a friend where we post our daily pushup counts. Initially, I used social media for accountability, posting my Apple Watch activity rings weekly. Over time, what started as social accountability became a personal hobby for me.

Beginners can get started with Surya Namaskara. Just 12 rounds every morning – a complete body workout in 10-15 minutes. It focuses on flexibility above everything else because a flexible body at 50 feels younger than a rigid body at 30.

M – Meditation: Giving Our Mind The Rest It Deserves

Our sense organs work at incredibly high frequencies all day. Our brain makes Thousands of decisions daily. When do they get conscious rest?

Sleep isn’t rest – that’s our body’s involuntary recovery mode. I’m talking about conscious rest that we give willingly.

Think about our car after a long journey – we turn off the engine and let it cool down. But with our minds? We go from work stress to traffic stress to family stress to social media stress. No pause button.

For beginners : Start simple. Sit without moving for 15 minutes. Use a blindfold if we can’t close our eyes, noise-canceling headphones if it’s too noisy.

The goal I set for myself: Take my mind from 60,000 thoughts a day to one thought, then from one thought to no thought. Many to one, one to none.

I started my meditation journey in 2014, thanks to my mentor Subramanya Kuledhu from Grace Academy. This practice has truly helped me develop strong mental health. My default emotion used to be anger, but through consistent meditation, I’ve learned to respond rather than react.

Currently, my meditation happens while I sing prayers after my bath. In those moments, I connect to the source and feel completely blissful. Once we learn to enjoy this bliss, it becomes the highlight of our day.

I – Introspection: Our Daily Life Audit

We audit our bank statements and investment portfolios. But when did I last audit my life performance? When did we?

Most of us live on autopilot, never reflecting, never course-correcting, never consciously improving. It’s like driving while only looking ahead, never checking our rearview mirror or fuel gauge.

Every night, I try to invest 10 minutes in introspection. I ask myself:

• How did I spend my day?
• Did I work with intensity or just put in hours?
• What opportunities did I miss today?
• How did I treat people around me?
• What can I do better tomorrow?

I live by “What gets measured, gets improved” Principle, I’ll be honest with you – I’ve lost the habit of daily introspection before bed, and creating this content is actually a reminder for myself to restart. But I do maintain monthly financial reflections and weekly goal reviews.

The Compound Effect We Can All Experience

Just like compound interest, our Life EMI benefits multiply over time:

• Day 1: We might not see any difference
• Day 30: We’ll feel slightly more energetic
• Day 90: People will start noticing changes in us
• Day 365: We’ll be completely different people

But miss it for a week and we’ll feel the difference. Miss it for a month and others will notice. Miss it for a year and we’ll find ourselves in life bankruptcy.

The Truth About Our Life EMI

Our bank EMI affects our wallet, but our Life EMI affects our entire existence.

Miss our bank EMI and we might lose our house, but we can always earn money again, rebuild our credit score.

Miss our Life EMI and we lose something far more precious – our health, peace of mind, and ability to enjoy the success we’ve worked so hard to build.

The saddest thing I’ve witnessed? Successful people who can afford the best restaurants but can’t enjoy food because of acidity. People who can afford exotic vacations but can’t walk long distances to explore. People with beautiful homes who can’t find peace within themselves.

Our 30-Minute Daily Investment

Starting tomorrow, let’s commit to our Life EMI:

• Exercise: 15 minutes of movement that challenges flexibility
• Meditation: 10 minutes of conscious rest
• Introspection: 5 minutes of honest self-reflection

That’s 30 minutes a day for me – less than one Netflix episode. But this will determine whether our next 30 years are the best of our life or a slow decline toward regret.

Remember, we can buy everything except time and health. Let’s invest in both while we still can.

The choice is ours – will we pay our Life EMI consistently and live richly, or will we default and face the ultimate bankruptcy?

Our future self is counting on the decision we make today!

Hope this resonated with you! 

See you in the next one!