Hi everyone, happy Friday and welcome back! Last week I took a detour and instead of examining another belief, I gave you my perspective on what acceptance looks like and what it is that we try to accept when we practice it in our own lives. This week I would like to get back to examining another belief and this is something that I have been thinking a lot about lately especially because of how my own life has shaped over the last decade and the things that I was able to achieve or not achieve. So, here is my belief for this week.
Belief: I am neither very intelligent nor very beautiful; I am neither very accomplished, nor very happening; hence I am not as much important and valuable as someone else who is one of these things!
As a human society, we have been chasing after money and power; degrees and accomplishments; beauty and beautiful women; and we have been doing all this because we think in our minds that by earning a lot of money or by becoming very powerful; by looking very beautiful or marrying a beautiful woman, we will somehow become more important than these other humans who don’t have these traits or degrees or accomplishments and therefore will somehow be more valuable than the rest of humanity. And the reason behind this kind of thinking is that we want to feel important and deserving and valuable! Each and every one of us! And I think we feel the way we feel because we feel highly insecure among 7.5 billion other humans! And we feel so insecure and needy because we don’t completely understand who we really are – the children of this Universe, each and every single one of us. And because we don’t understand that we are the children of this powerful Universe, we also don’t understand that we are already very rich irrespective of how much money we have in the bank; we are already very powerful irrespective of what position we hold in a corporation or government; we are already very beautiful irrespective of how our physical appearance is; we are already very important and valuable irrespective of how accomplished we are. And hence our need to ‘do something’ important or valuable or ‘to somehow become’ more important, more valuable.
I know this is a very different concept than the one that we all have been living our lives based on where only a handful of humans could be important and valuable. I also understand it’s a 180 degrees shift in perspective where if everyone becomes important and valuable, then these terms will lose their value. But just look at what we have done by living our lives based on this very conservative and selective thinking. Since we have spent lifetimes living with this feeling of insecurity, we have also spent lifetimes proving to the world that my religion is important than yours, my skin color is important than yours, my values are important than yours, my existence is important than yours! And look what has happened to this world. It’s been engulfed in wars and hatred, it’s been crippled with fear; fear of bombs, fear of guns, fear of humans themselves! And all of this only to prove our importance and value to the rest of the world!
But why does it matter that my religion is important than yours? Don’t all religions teach love for ourselves and love for others regardless of which religion we follow? Why does it matter that my skin color is important than yours? Don’t we want the exact same things from life – to love and to be loved regardless of whether we are black, white or brown? Why does it matter that I am physically more attractive than you are? Don’t we all feel the same emotions of love and fear regardless of whether we are more or less physically attractive? Why does it matter if we are more intelligent than others? Doesn’t life treat us all the same regardless of whether we are highly intelligent or not?
Do you see my point? Do you realize how similar we are as humans rather than being different! Do you realize how connected we are because the decisions we make for e.g. to declare war or peace affect humanity as a whole? So, are you also open to realizing how absolutely important and valuable we already are regardless of which religion we follow or how beautiful we look or how accomplished we are or how intelligent we are or what our skin color is or which culture we come from etc. You know, I have come to believe (and sometimes very strongly) that there is a very important reason why we are the way we are, why we have the personalities we have, why we are born into this family or that family, why we are born into this country or that country, born into poverty or richness, born into dysfunctional family or a phenomenal one! But I also understand that for someone who is born into poverty instead of richness, someone who is born into dysfunctional family instead of phenomenal one, someone who is born into a dictatorship instead of a liberal country, it sure may not seem like they are born into this world for a very important reason. But remember I mentioned in a previous post, we human beings are very quick to tag something as bad or good. So, on the same note, just look around and count all the rich and famous people who have died of drug overdoses or have committed suicides in just the last decade and also look around and count the number of people who have risen from nothing! These numbers would be pretty similar. So my point is, don’t be so quick to judge your life or someone else’s life based on where and what you are born with because you never know why you are born where you are born! Just believe, if you can, that there is a very important reason for you to be here and do the best you can with what life offers you. I know it’s easier said than done but it’s a way better approach than feeling less than and insecure all the time 🙂
And as always, feel free to leave a comment, if you feel like leaving one. And until next Friday, live life 🙂
