This post is part of a series celebrating the release of Building Balance in Your Body & Life, my new 30-lesson audio course on Insight Timer. Find the first post, Foot Foundation here. If the ideas here are interesting to you, consider joining the course! Go to the Insight Timer web site to listen to the first lesson and to register. Thank you for supporting your body your life and my work.
value vælyu
transitive verb – valued; valuing
1: to consider or rate highly : PRIZE, ESTEEM
value vælyu
noun
1: something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
In the late 1990s, I worked in the marketing department of a mail order company (remember catalogs?) that sold car stereos. It was a good job: a reputable business, decent pay, humane hours. But after a couple of years, I had the sensation of being out of alignment. One day, I looked up from my cubicle and realized my job was way out of whack with my values.
I didn’t value cars or stereos but I was spending 40 hours a week pouring my energy into them.
If the foundation of a human body is – in able, upright bodies – the feet, what is the foundation of a human life? If our feet allow us to stand in stability, to move toward some things and away from others, what in our lives allow us that same stability and mobility?
Values are our foundation.
If I value my home, my value might be safety & security, design & architecture or solitude. If I value my family, my value might be connection, love or tradition. If I value my car, my value might be independence, adventure or efficiency. If I value time spent in nature, my value might be protecting the environment, my physicality or the divine.
Only you can look at what you value and know what your value is that roots it.
“To value” is a transitive verb, which means it requires an object. I value __blank___. The noun “value” is what fires the verb “value.” As in the examples above, the verb and its object might be the same, but the noun can be different.
The noun is the foundation.
Like feet, you have values whether you pay attention to them or not. The invitation of a life of embodied awareness is to invest your attention on your values – conscious and unconscious.
There are lots of ways to get clear on your values. (I love Tiffany Han’s approach which you can learn more about here.) One way is to look at what you value, how you spend your time and money, and then work backward to see what is underneath it.
Of course, you can do it the other way, too. Determine your values and then match up your choices and how you spend your time with what your values are.
However you do it, the key is intention. Just as we intentionally build strength and mobility in the feet by paying attention to them and responding, we do the same with our values. The verb of value is built on the foundation of the noun.
In the Building Balance in Your Body & Life course, we spend a lesson in the Finding Foundation section investigating the foundation of various life areas. Are the areas of health, work, relationships founded on what you want them to be founded on? Spend some time this week considering your values and whether or not your days line up with the principles and qualities that you find intrinsically valuable.