This week on IG @making_space_with_jen I started working out this concept of inherent worthiness.
I understand the deer-in-headlights looks when I talk about this. It’s an intangible concept hard to wrap or minds around, or embody.
Every way we look we’re confronted with the opposition: we aren’t enough. We need to buy, change, be something different to EARN our worth. Not to mention the shame it creates on this endless consuming cycle.
Aren’t we set up for a vicious cycle of failure?
Where is this messaging coming from, and how is the messenger benefiting?
In this week’s podcast episode I explore what it would look like if the skeptics were right: what if our Soul’s came to Earth totally worthless, and the whole goal is to achieve and earn worth?
What would that look like amidst the moving targets?
Well, what are the standards of worth? The metrics?
Money
Oh - you mean that totally made up man-made thing for the purpose of exchanging things? The thing that is actually just energy?
Image
How much has this changed over the decades and eons? How do you achieve a moving target?
Career / Title
Does this win your worth? At what point? Is it sustainable?
My analogy is with the algorithm.
If you’ve been posting on social media or running ads, you’ll understand the concept of a moving target very well. As soon as you figure it out, it changes.
Or, if you’ve ever achieved a long awaited goal (image, money, work) and the shine wore off and didn’t last (shiny object syndrome, anyone?), you’ll get this.
Isn’t it wildly inaccurate to base our worth on external metrics that can never be held sustainably, even if achieved?
Where is this messaging coming from and how is the messenger benefiting?
What about the consequences of each of these 2 opposing beliefs?
If we believe we’re worthless and need to earn our worth, the consequence will likely be looking to buy or achieve worth through external measures. Trying to force something that can’t be earned because the algorithm keeps changing.
We’re set up for failure.
Contrary, if we believe we’re inherently worthy (and we just forgot), the consequence will likely be: increased self-love, self-acceptance, less comparison, jealousy, hyper independence.
We’re set up for community, growth, learning, support, abundance.
“What’s wrong with me?” is maybe replaced with a calm, sturdy, quiet confidence, or even joy.
If we’re accepting who we are and where we are, doesn’t the noise of conditioning soften?
Sometimes it’s easier to witness the worthiness we see in Nature. When bees go to the flower for nectar, they don’t need to dress up, wear make-up, or lose weight. They don’t ask, “am I good enough today?” They go to the flower for sweet nectar and by doing so, they also spread pollen for the whole garden to flourish.
We are made of the same stuff as Nature: cells, water, molecules. We are Nature. And just like Nature, we are inherently worthy and abundant, and more.
Where is THIS message coming from, and how would the messenger benefit? How would we all benefit?
Like the bees getting nectar and consequently pollinating the garden, how do we help the collective by doing what innately brings us sweetness?
My Nature analogies aren’t new ideas - they’ve been discussed organically for centuries, and I invite you to your own journey with the appropriate sources. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and the Munay-Ki are some of my current favorites.
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