Sometimes when I spend time with another person, they feel like a Van Gogh painting to me. They are of tremendous worth. I'm enthralled by their amazingness. The way their mind works. How they move. The words they use. Their likes and dislikes. I never know what they are going to do next. It's exciting.
What really floors me is it's often hard for a person to see these qualities in themselves. Instead, what tends to get illuminated for them is their faults. My clients or friends often tell me what's wrong with their lives and themselves. There's also a feeling they are somehow at fault.
I've felt this myself at times. I'll suddenly get a sense that I'm wrong. Not that I'm doing something that is causing me some pain. But that inherently as I am is not good. It's not a productive feeling because it makes me tired. I feel like I've been poisoned. It definitely doesn't serve me.
I think what's going on is it's difficult to see our value. Not that we're wrong for doing this. We don't need another reason to feel lousy. The thing is, our value is innate. It's always with us. It's difficult to
see our value because it's common. We're never without it. Our
value becomes invisible to us.
For me, this thing that's always with us is our life-force energy. It's the life that shines through and powers us. It's what gives us the energy to say and do the things we do. Without this flow of life, we are a corpse.
I don't mean the life-force to sound as some idealized concept of philosophy. It's matter-of-factly noticeable by taking a curious look.
It's first looking for that current in yourself. As I type this post, I can feel energy moving through my arms, hands and fingers. I can sense a current that makes me be aware of what I'm writing, and supports me in thinking of what ideas and words to write next. I'm aware of the spark that makes my heart beat. I can feel a lively circuitry in my body and mind supporting this activity. It's moving and operating within and through me. Like electricity, I can't see it. But I can see and feel its efforts.
What I like about this noticing is it makes me feel valuable. It gets me out of seeking, finding and broadcasting my faults. I feel like profound things are happening in me. My basic functioning is awe-inspiring. And the more I recognize it in me, the more I see it in others.