Origionally posted on my website 23 Feb 08
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 such 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 treasure value this way, but most of the
excuses do not seem to matter at the end of someone’s 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
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 the most treasured, 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
parents’ lives.
When we put time in to nurture those people or values that
we treasure, then the rewards of the experience with them
out weigh 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 with 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 do that for the
plant. That is unless we cared so little for it and let it die. But
most often than not, we would take the time to take care of
it. And that is how we treat something that isn’t 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 doesn’t 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 didn’t 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 difference
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.