Self Value

Recently, I wrote of Core Values and their usefulness in being conscious of our drivers. What’s important to us and how that can help us make decisions.

Today, this lead to an interesting discussion on Self value. This has 2 layers to it.

a) the value we place on spirit or Self and thus what we’re willing to do to deepen the connection. This leads to regularity of practice and so forth.

b) The value we place on our personal self. By this I don’t mean egoic value but rather the level of respect and care we give our vehicle of awakening.

Do we treat our body as a temple? Or do we largely ignore it, stuff it, or drug it? Do we get enough rest and eat sensibly? Or do we run on sugar and caffeine?

Do we care for our emotional life, ensuring we have support and time to process what arises? Or do we dwell in our sorrows and regrets, resisting life?

Do we exercise our mind with inspiring knowledge? Or do we focus on our problems and who’s to blame?

Many of us have experienced trying to “fix” such things but struggle to move out of our entrenched habits. This is because the above symptoms are an effect of the value we give our person. If we don’t have a happy relationship with self, we’ll of course see such side effects in our life. If try to fix a problem on it’s own level, we’ll typically experience mixed results.

It’s only when we value ourself above others expectations, our possessions, stories, work, and so forth that we’ll find value in self-care.

Notably, I’ve noticed a number of spiritual seekers that follow their practices to avoid dealing with themselves and their lives. They escape the person by favouring spirit much as another might escape into TV or beer. At some point, they’ll find that this will only work for so long. Then the feedback loop will tighten enough that it will stop working. Some will then face themselves. Others will seek a new teaching, a new escape.

It also points to the importance of how we raise our children, especially in the pre-school years. Are we passing on to them our stories of blame and insufficiency? Or are we demonstrating to them their magnificence? With children especially, who we are speaks far more than what we might say.

This is not for you to add something more to regret. Our children are their own souls with their own history and spiritual development coming into this world. However innocent, it is still their choice what messages they buy and make their own and what of our noise they ignore. We only need compare siblings from the same household to see how this works.

For the most part, most people are doing the best they can at any point in time. And it can take some time for our gained wisdom to be lived in day to day life.

Be easy on yourself and have fun.  😉
Davidya

Last Updated on April 8, 2014 by