What are You Worth?

Last week we were reflecting on the fundamental question who am I? I encouraged each of us to stick up a card on the bathroom mirror with the words: who are you? The theme for this week and the big question that we are asking is: what am I worth? How do I evaluate myself? How do I attribute value to that which I perceive to be separate from me (e.g. money, material things) and how does the value I place on that reflect the value I place on myself? Quite a profound question. If I don't 'value' money and the 'things' that money facilitates very highly in my life - if I deny its importance or demonise it in some way, then am I cutting myself off from the source of life itself.

If money is energy (or at the very least a fundamental expression of energy), as we are unequivocally saying it is, then in denying it, demonising it or ignoring it, are we not actually denying, ignoring or demonsing the energy that we need to live, and remain in sustainable relationship with the world around us. Sure in a perfect world, we might not need money, our currency could be simpler - expressed through barter or good will - but the simple fact is that we happen to engage with money, but money itself, in essence, is actually nothing more than that very same good will energy. Problem is, we humans are suckered into the misguided belief that there is a limited supply of it, that there is only so much to round. This is a lie and this lie has killed the good will energy that lies at the heart of money. It's like saying there's only so much love to go round. The truth is, we spend our lives trying to control the flow of it. Surely, when we say "there's not enough money", what we actually saying is, "there's not enough energy", "there's not enough good will", "there's not enough love". When you talk about money this week, try replacing the word money with the word love or energy or goodwill. See what happens!

So, last week, we looked at who we are, at who we're being, and at our core identities. Last week’s enquiry might be likened to you being a newborn, fresh, innocent and vulnerable to the new experiences ahead. In that place of pure being, where our visions are alive and full of the potential for manifestation, there may seem to be no distinction between ourselves and the world. The experience of that however, brings up resistance as our visions and dreams meet the apparent reality of apparently external forces, and circumstances. The newborn is confronted with the uncomfortable belief that his/her visions and dreams may not instantly manifest. And so our newborn become caught under the thrall of separateness, a realisation that mind may be separate from body, inner from outer, subject from object. The realisation that there is a world out there, existentially distinct from the world in here, twists the urge to just be and turns into an urge or desire to have; to have that which is not him, that which is outside of her, that which (s)he has lost to the apparently external world. This week we are confronting the desire to have and what it means to us to possess something that is apparently separate from us. We are exploring how the disenchanted child’s belief that she can own, have and possess something that she is believes is separate from may her hold her spellbound under the thrall of separateness and block the natural creative flow of energy that interconnects all beings, and all things.

We are all interconnected. And money is a fundamental energy that interconnects us all. When we deny it, demonise it, or send it underground, we deny our own interconnectedness. We deny the power of relationship, we re-inforce our separateness. I've only just thought of this and realised the impact it has had on my life, but I'm going to ponder on it for a while....

Love John x