|
| Janese Johnson |
If I asked you to take a minute and think about the most important thing in your life, what would that be? Would it be a loved one, children, a goal, a value, your intellect, or maybe even your spirituality? We all have something or someone in our life that is the most important treasure for us. It is the most important because it has touched our hearts and minds in ways that no other treasure has. When you think of your most treasured, do you feel happy and grateful that it is in your life? Is it so important for you that if it were not in your life, you would definitely feel the loss of it in a great way?
The next question that I would like to ask you is; are you treating
your most important thing/person as if it is the most important
treasure in your life? Most often the answer to this question is no.
There seem to be a lot of reasons why we do not treat our treasured
value this way, but most of the excuses do not seem to matter at the
end of someoneís life or if they were to lose the treasured value.
I often hear others say that they will spend more time with their most
valued person after they make more money or when they have more time in
their life.
Recently I gave a counseling session to a couple that has been married
25 years. They are talking about divorce because they clearly do not
value each other. They have been staying together because they value
their children as their greatest treasure, and they are so miserable in
their life that they are doing all that they can do in order to avoid
being around each other, which means they are not around the kids much
either. Their kids are not feeling as though they are the most valued
in either of their parentsí lives.
When we put time in to nurture those people or values that we treasure,
then the rewards of the experience with them outweigh anything else
that would need to take up our time. Yes, it is true that we need to
work to pay the bills, but not to the point of misery. Working too long
and too hard is one of the complaints I hear from clients of reasons
not to be happy. Another common complaint is at the other end of the
money spectrum, and that is not having enough money to do the things
that are important.
There is no excuse for ignoring those treasures that are important to
us. If we had a very delicate plant that needed regular water and sun
in order to grow into a beautiful fragranced flower, we would most
likely give that to the plant ó that is, unless we cared so little for
it that we let it die. But more often than not, we would take the time
to take care of it. And that is how we treat a thing that isnít even
our most treasured.
One person I talked with told me that being fit and in good health was
an important value for him. When we talked about how he was taking care
of himself, it was clear that he was not treating his fitness and
health as if it was an important value. He was not doing anything in
his daily life, besides thinking about it, to really have that as a
real situation. †††
Another unfortunate situation that I have seen in my work over the
years is when a person values their spouse as the most important person
in their life, but doesnít treat them in any way as if they are.
Finally after years of feeling lonely in their marriage, the spouse
decides to leave the marriage, and the one who valued them so greatly,
is completely flabbergasted and caught completely unaware. The one that
leaves most likely has been telling their spouse for years, but has not
been heard because the one who valued them thought that valuing them
was enough. Not realizing that the relationship needed a little
sunshine and water to grow, or maybe it needed a lot of sunshine and
water, but it didnít get that.
So when you come up with realizing and know what is the most valuable
treasure in your life, treat it that way. If your life is feeling empty
and meaningless, then perhaps reflecting on what is really important
can help you get back to the reason for your life. When we take our
life for granted, and not work on the preciousness that is in it, then
it can easily slip into a space of purposeless. Purpose comes from
living life around what we value.
Most people who are living a purposeful and passionate life are doing
so because they are nurturing their treasure, the things or people that
they truly treasure. In nurturing those treasures, those treasures
usually become more of an energy boost in our life, then something that
takes our energy away. I have seen and experienced the differenced when
we put our focus back on to what is important in our life. It is as if
we have been plugged in to some unseen energy circuit, and it feels
good! So have fun loving up what is important to you, and watch it
blossom in your life.
|
