DO YOU LIVE IN LUXURY?

Do you take your body for granted? I certainly have. Does that matter? It only starts to matter when you realise that your body's capabilities are limited by time and energy. To put time into perspective, a professional sports career is relatively short, but a lifetime can be a very long time. There's a saying that springs to mind: it's not the number of years in your life that matter, but the life in your years.

What if the ultimate luxury isn't what we own or can accumulate? It is more fundamental than that; it's what our bodies allow us to do. In a world increasingly defined by convenience, outsourcing and digital experiences, our physical capability may be one of the most valuable forms of independence we possess.

The ability to move freely, maintain our energy, have agency over our bodies and be physically independent is both profoundly valuable and easily taken for granted. 

If you've ever been ill, your appreciation of good health is never higher than when you've just recovered. If you've ever been injured and been unable to do what you're accustomed to doing, your appreciation for full bodily capability is never more acute than when you're back to full fitness.

Just being able to explore somewhere new, be spontaneous, take the longer route, swim a little further or say yes to an experience without first wondering whether our bodies will manage - that is freedom. The ability to participate fully in our own lives is a fundamental luxury. Not to perform, nor compete. Simply to be capable is a liberating and empowering feeling. 

As we become more conscious of longevity, wellbeing and the quality of our years, physical capability deserves to sit alongside other such luxuries, that are defined more traditionally by scarcity or expense.

At REAL we celebrate what makes us human: our physicality, mentality and emotions.