value yourself
Let’s be real.
It’s 2024.
In today’s world, we are flooded with a myriad of eye-catching, sometimes trance-inducing distractions that inundate our every day lives.
When we consider those distractions, I think it’s safe to say that they can, and do, tend to impair our ability to see what’s actually happening in our own worlds around us. Furthermore, our discernment suffers at the hands of these distractions, weakening us from being able to identify what value we are reaping (or not reaping) from all that we’re exposed to.
It can become so hard to see what’s of value, what we value, and how we value ourselves in the face of everything we are absorbing each day- not only in our creative lives, but our personal and professional ones, too.
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Social media platforms have wiggled their way into the palms of our hands, bribing us into a state of perpetual comparison with both people we know and love, as well as people we don’t (even if we think we do, given their appearances on talk shows and red carpets).
We can so easily lose ourselves into the all-too-well known doom-scroll, highlighting all that we WISH we could have or be; career heights we aspire to reach, beauty standards we hustle to keep up with, and enviable lifestyles we pressure ourselves to achieve in order to feel like we’re living our ‘best lives’.
But what are all of these things really worth?
It can become so difficult to recognize what true value is in all that we compare ourselves to in the sea of content we are consuming.
Furthermore, it can become even more difficult to identify not only what, but where our own personal value belongs in what feels like an already overwhelmingly crowded space.
We are racing ourselves ragged to define, achieve, and keep up with what we think we value.
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We do, however, have the power within ourselves to s l o w d o w n our pace and quit the race that feels like it can’t ever be won to take back what is in our control- and that, my friends, is how we value ourselves. Sounds like a tall order, but luckily, we already have everything we need right within us to do so- at least that’s what the Stoics think!
Let’s get into it!
“A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what they value.”
Being the believers they are on focusing what is in our control versus what is not, it’s no surprise that the Stoics have emphasized just how easily our sense of self-worth can slip away from us if we leave how we value ourselves in the hands of the distractions of the world. Imagine our collective demise if social media was the determining factor as to whether or not we held value! SO not the vibe then, now, or ever. Period.
Living intentionally through focusing on living virtuously (courage, justice, temperance & wisdom, outlined in our last post), focusing on what we can control, and letting go of the external outcome are all major stepping stones to meeting ourselves where we are. It’s when we do this that we can begin to shape our own sense of self-worth and value that is completely our own, undeterred by outside influence or noise. It’s when we meet ourselves in this place, that we take all the power back from what is distracting us, and focus it all on what is in our control- ourselves. And you, my friend, are worth the effort.
If we’re to venture outside the scope of Stoicism and into the realm of Buddhism (which is not terribly far off the map from several teachings in Stoic philosophy), the Buddha encapsulates this concept beautifully by saying, “you can search the whole tenfold universe and not find a single being more worthy of love and compassion than the one seated here—yourself.”
There will always be oceans of distractions coming at you left, right, and centre, regardless of your pursuits in life- but the truth is, in this year’s world, and in all the worlds that come after- your value is not only unique to you (and only you), it is necessary. Believe it or not, we need you (yes, you!) here, unafraid to take up space, to live intentionally in pursuit of what you care most about, and to unapologetically value all that it is you are and bring to the world. And there isn’t now, and won’t ever be, a world that exists where your value can be honestly measured or obtained by what’s portrayed on social media or whatever shiny and new distraction comes next.
So go ahead. Turn down the volume and tune into you.
This is how we mute the distractions and hear ourselves again.
This is how we discover our own sense of what we value and what we don’t.
This is the key to embracing the journey that it is to valuing ourselves wholeheartedly, as we grow and evolve into truer and truer versions of ourselves.
