AS YOU HEAL, YOU WILL BECOME SUPER-RICH
- Madhukar Dama
- Jun 3
- 10 min read
A Universal Reflection on Real Wealth
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I. INTRODUCTION: RICHNESS HAS BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD
Everywhere you look, someone is chasing wealth.
In the city, it’s about salaries, startups, and square feet.
In towns, it’s land, reputation, and school admissions.
In villages, it’s gold, concrete houses, and sons working abroad.
But none of these truly define richness.
Because we’ve mistaken wealth to mean having more,
When real wealth is about needing less.
When your stomach doesn’t hurt after eating.
When your joints don’t complain when you sit down.
When your mind doesn’t race at bedtime.
When your breath is not shallow.
When your life feels enough, even when simple —
That’s richness.
And it comes only through one door: healing.
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II. WEALTH WITHOUT HEALING IS AN ILLUSION
Let’s face it.
A man with two cars but a bloated stomach is not rich.
A woman with glowing skin but chronic fatigue is not rich.
A child with five gadgets but no restful sleep is not rich.
An elder with three houses but daily anxiety is not rich.
They are functioning. They are performing. They are earning.
But they are not living.
Their bodies are tired.
Their minds are cluttered.
Their nervous systems are overloaded.
And their relationships are threadbare.
This is the poverty behind the polish.
It is everywhere — in metro cities, government colonies, tribal settlements, apartment complexes, even ashrams.
Because the crisis is not just outside.
It’s inside.
And healing is the only honest way out.
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III. WHAT HEALING ACTUALLY MEANS
Healing isn’t about becoming a yogi or drinking herbal teas.
It’s not about buying organic foods or quitting society.
It’s not a trend.
It’s a return.
A return to clarity.
To energy.
To the body's natural intelligence.
To simplicity that once felt obvious.
Healing means…
Eating with hunger — and stopping without guilt.
Sleeping without pills — and waking up without alarms.
Moving your body daily — without needing apps or gym mirrors.
Speaking your truth — without fear or aggression.
Sitting still — without being attacked by your own thoughts.
Healing is the body saying, “Thank you for listening again.”
And the mind saying, “Now I can rest.”
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IV. LAYERS OF RICHNESS THAT HEALING BRINGS
1. Time
When you heal, you stop wasting time managing illness, drama, and guilt.
You suddenly have more hours than before — not by magic, but by recovery.
2. Energy
A healed body gives back what a broken body steals — energy to play, laugh, walk, create, care.
3. Freedom
You no longer live by the calendar of your physician or the cravings of your addictions.
You’re free — to fast, to travel, to say no, to rest.
4. Clarity
Healing removes noise.
Decisions become easier.
You stop overthinking every move.
You know what matters and what doesn’t.
5. Depth
Your conversations become deeper.
Your silences become peaceful.
You begin to connect — not impress.
6. Dignity
You no longer feel helpless or like a victim of your body or past.
You act from strength — quietly, patiently.
This is wealth.
No price tag. No branding. No announcement.
But everyone around you can feel it.
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V. THE FALSE FORMS OF RICHNESS WE SETTLED FOR
Degrees without wisdom
Titles without health
Possessions without peace
Followers without friends
Houses without sleep
We told ourselves we were doing well because we earned more.
But our backs hurt.
Our digestion failed.
Our eyes burned.
Our families drifted.
And our minds forgot what stillness felt like.
Healing is not a punishment.
It is a gentle protest against this madness.
A quiet refusal to keep destroying oneself in the name of “success.”
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VI. UNIVERSAL SUFFERING, UNIVERSAL RETURN
A CEO who hasn’t passed stool properly in three days.
A homemaker quietly suffering from bloating and loneliness.
A college student numbing emotions through endless scrolling.
An old retired man living with fifteen pills a day and no one to talk to.
A child with weak bones from a packet-food childhood.
Different lives.
Same root problem: disconnection from one’s natural rhythm.
And different healing journeys — but the same result:
A return to aliveness.
A return to wholeness.
A return to enough.
Healing makes everyone rich — not by making them identical,
But by making them real again.
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VII. HOW HEALING LOOKS — SUBTLY, POWERFULLY
It doesn’t always look like green smoothies and smiling faces.
Sometimes it’s quiet withdrawal from toxic friends.
Sometimes it’s screaming into a pillow.
Sometimes it’s going to bed at 8 p.m.
Sometimes it’s saying, “I don’t know,” and sitting with the discomfort.
Sometimes it’s cooking for yourself even when tired.
Sometimes it’s choosing a walk instead of a phone call.
Sometimes it’s breaking down — and not rushing to fix it.
Healing makes you rich in the quietest ways.
You smile more.
You complain less.
You expect less.
You sleep deeper.
You laugh at yourself.
You love without proving anything.
Not because you read a book.
But because you repaired the broken link between yourself and life.
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VIII. CONCLUSION: HEALING AS THE TRUE INHERITANCE
When you heal yourself, you don’t just feel better.
You change your family.
Your children inherit a relaxed parent.
Your partner inherits a grounded companion.
Your body becomes a safe home, not a battlefield.
Your life becomes livable again.
And that — not gold, not status, not land —
That is the richest gift you can give or receive.
So yes — the truth stands:
> As you heal, you become rich.
Rich in energy, presence, clarity, calm, and joy.
Rich in the only ways that matter.
Rich in a way that can never be stolen.
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"As You Heal, You Become Rich"
A Healing Dialogue Between Madhukar the Healer and Varun, a 38-year-old Product Manager from Bengaluru
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Scene:
Madhukar's quiet verandah in a small town nestled beside a river.
A clay mat. A neem tree casting slow-moving shadows.
The sound of distant birds and a kettle gently whistling.
Varun sits, tired. Pale skin, hunched back, tapping his knee restlessly.
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Madhukar:
You’ve come far. Bengaluru to here... something must be heavy.
Varun: (soft chuckle)
Yeah. I guess… life. Work’s fine. Pay’s fine. Kid’s school is fine.
But I wake up tired. My gut feels tight. I snap at people I care about.
And yet I have everything I once wanted.
Madhukar:
Varun:
A job with respect. Decent salary. A good house. A car.
Family. Laptop. Health insurance. A little savings.
Madhukar:
And yet you’re here.
Varun:
Because I feel poor.
Not poor in money.
Poor in energy. Poor in patience. Poor in meaning.
I don’t feel alive. I feel... used.
Madhukar: (pours tea into clay cups)
Then let’s begin not with fixing, but with seeing.
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I. THE DISEASE CALLED "NORMAL"
Madhukar:
What if I told you this exhaustion is not failure —
but the result of living a lifestyle that’s called “normal” but is deeply sick?
Varun:
You mean like work-life balance?
Madhukar:
No, I mean life-life imbalance.
You wake with noise.
Eat with distraction.
Work without pause.
Rest without quality.
Digest with struggle.
Speak with hesitation.
Move with stiffness.
Sleep with help.
And then repeat.
You are not broken. You are living in conditions that do not suit the human body.
Varun:
But I didn’t choose this fully. Life demands it.
Madhukar:
True.
But healing begins when you realise:
Some of what you suffer is not your fault — but it is still your responsibility.
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II. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HEAL?
Varun:
So what does healing even mean? It’s such a vague word.
Madhukar:
Healing is not a cleanse. Not a spa.
It is the process of returning to wholeness.
It is when your systems — digestion, breath, thoughts, emotions — begin to flow again.
Unforced.
Like a river that was blocked, but now runs clear.
Healing is when the body stops fighting.
When the breath becomes trusted again.
When food turns into strength, not gas.
When silence doesn’t feel scary.
When you can sit without itching to escape.
It is not glamorous.
It is not photogenic.
It is slow. Humbling. Honest.
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III. THE RICHNESS YOU NEVER COUNTED
Madhukar:
Let me ask you this —
When did you last:
Wake up without tension in the chest?
Eat without watching a screen?
Walk barefoot on earth?
Talk to someone for two hours with no phone, no performance?
Rest without guilt?
Breathe fully without noticing?
Varun: (after a pause)
I don’t remember.
Madhukar:
Exactly.
And yet you’re called “well-off.”
That’s the lie.
You have gadgets, but you don’t feel connected.
You have insurance, but no assurance.
You have ACs, but you sweat from anxiety.
Healing makes you rich in ways that can’t be posted.
In digestion
In sleep
In ease
In patience
In self-trust
In fewer needs
This is unseen wealth.
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IV. THE COST OF UNHEALED LIVING
Varun:
But I’m still functioning. Still holding it together.
Madhukar:
Yes, like a candle burning at both ends.
Bright. Impressive. But short-lived.
Unhealed living looks okay — until the body rebels.
Until the marriage rots quietly.
Until the child says, “You’re never really with me.”
Until the vacation feels like another task.
Until Sunday evening feels like a funeral.
Varun: (softly)
Yes. I feel all of that.
Madhukar:
This is not weakness.
This is overuse without repair.
You are a warrior who forgot to return to camp.
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V. THE BEGINNING OF HEALING
Madhukar: (slowly)
Let’s not plan your healing like a project.
Let’s not make a list.
Let’s first begin with permission.
Permission to pause.
Permission to not be efficient.
Permission to cry.
Permission to eat slowly.
Permission to feel joy even if others are rushing.
Varun:
But won’t that look like I’m slacking?
Madhukar:
Healing will make you look slow at first.
But in time, it will make you stronger, clearer, and richer than ever before.
You will need fewer things.
You will depend on fewer people.
You will carry less weight — inside and out.
And you will smile again, not as performance, but as rest.
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VI. THE SIGNS OF RICHNESS RETURNING
Madhukar:
One day, you’ll realise:
You no longer need a podcast to fall asleep.
You no longer need to reward yourself with sugar.
You no longer fake laughter in meetings.
You no longer hide your belly with oversized clothes.
You no longer avoid mirrors.
You no longer check your phone while talking to your child.
That day, my friend —
you will know you are rich.
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VII. CLOSURE
Varun: (tears welling up)
Why didn’t anyone tell us this before?
Madhukar:
Because they were also tired.
And because markets don’t profit from your healing —
but they thrive on your unhealed cravings.
Varun:
How do I begin?
Madhukar:
Not with discipline.
Not with ambition.
Begin with respect for your body, your breath, your time.
Begin by removing — not adding.
Remove the rush. The noise. The processed. The fake.
One breath at a time.
One bite at a time.
One choice at a time.
And slowly…
as you heal — you will become rich.
Rich in everything that matters.
And free from everything that doesn't.
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THE WEALTH THAT DOESN’T SHOW
they said
get the job
get the house
get the girl
get the fridge
the gas stove
the EMI
get the AC
the mattress
the new ceiling fan
get the washing machine
get the insurance
get the big man’s smile
get it all.
I got it.
and still,
I couldn’t shit properly for three days straight.
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I used to wake up
feeling like I owed someone my life.
I wasn’t sick enough to collapse
but never well enough to feel like standing up.
one morning,
I sat there,
rice plate on my lap,
legs folded, TV on, wife in the kitchen,
child drawing something on a screen —
and I felt this
poverty
invisible,
deep,
restless.
I had everything.
but I wasn’t rich.
---
my father
never earned what I earned.
never wore what I wore.
but he chewed slowly.
he shat without noise.
he smiled from his liver.
he walked without stretching.
he slept without alarms.
he never called that richness.
he just called it “normal.”
now, we call that
a luxury retreat.
---
I asked a man in a dhoti once
what he thought of success.
he looked at a cow,
spitting out cud,
then looked back at me
and said,
“a man who eats, shits, works and sleeps
without machines or pills —
he is successful.”
I laughed.
then later,
I paid ₹800 for a consultation
to fix my indigestion
caused by the paneer pizza I ate
while watching a documentary on slow living.
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I wasn’t always like this.
once, I could sit quietly.
once, I could eat without screens.
once, I could climb a hill.
once, I didn’t need cold water every time I drank.
once, my mother’s hand on my head was enough
to fall asleep.
then
it all broke
slowly.
not loudly, like an accident.
more like termites.
---
the body is not cruel.
it whispers.
first it removes your hunger.
then it removes your energy.
then it tightens your belly.
then it messes with your breath.
then your sleep.
then your thoughts.
you call it “life.”
but it’s slow suicide
served with convenience.
---
I once knew a guy
who had nothing.
no job.
no shoes.
but he laughed with both lungs.
he looked people in the eye.
he smelled like sweat,
but also like peace.
he said,
“when you heal, you start needing less.”
and then
“the less you need, the richer you are.”
I thought he was high.
but I think
he was free.
---
now I sit
under a neem tree
somewhere far from my apartment,
and I eat
with my hand,
in silence.
I stretch before bed.
I shit without reading news.
I drink water without temperature control.
I walk without AirPods.
I cry sometimes, and don’t hide it.
I sleep when I’m tired.
I speak slower.
I’m not impressive.
but I feel whole.
that’s all healing did.
it made me
quietly rich.
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not the kind of rich
that buys cars.
the kind of rich
that stops chasing them.
the kind of rich
that knows
how to sit
still
without
feeling
poor.
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