What Are Your Values?
Understanding your values helps define your paths.
As I have been writing about Pathwalking for quite a while now, my thoughts on the process and the mindfulness practices that go into it have evolved.
The evolution of my perspective on mindfulness is ever-changing. Hence, the current break-down I continue to share.
- On the surface, it’s all about sensory input, thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
- The next layer down (or really, inwards) is your inner being. That’s your mindset/headspace/psyche self-perception.
- Below that, the base of it all is your subconscious sense of self. That’s where your habits, beliefs, and values take root. While it exists in your subconscious, it’s accessible via your conscious mind.
As I was formulating the updated evolution of Pathwalking, it dawned on me what one of the main missing elements of the deepest layer included. That is values.
Values get muddied by a great deal of outside influence mixed with inner beliefs and habits you may, or may not, be aware of. Though deeply rooted, like everything else about you they’re changeable.
First, let’s explore what values ARE.
The definition of values
In the materialistic society we live within, value tends to get applied to goods and services. Your car, home, time, consideration, and other tangibles and intangibles have “value” placed on them. For most, that’s the definition of value.
This is not about anything without. Values, in this respect, are all about your inner being. And values are one of the primary concepts upon which we base ourselves.
Values in the sense of self are your ethics.
To understand this further, let’s define ethics. According to dictionary.com, this is:
ethics
- (used with a singular or plural verb) a system of moral principles
- (when used with a plural verb) the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.
- (used with a plural verb) moral principles, as of an individual
Values are, in the simplest terms, your moral compass. Thus, they dictate your conduct both regarding how you treat yourself and how you treat others.
Numerous forces in the world try to dictate what your moral compass should include. Almost every religion, political affiliation, nationality, and culture has its own external ethical code.
I believe these came about to help people develop community. Humans are social creatures – and when we have shared values, we have something to rally around.
This, however, becomes problematic when the religion/political party/etcetera tries to enforce values that work in a small circle but not in larger groups of society overall. For example, white supremacy and Christianity are apparent values of the GOP – but by no stretch of the imagination shared together by most Americans.
But some values ARE universal. These include the right to live, to thrive, to achieve, and so on. Overall, values – like morality – tend to be individual.
You’re the only one inside your head
Who you are is known only by you. The impression I have of who you are – like the impression you have of who I am – is limited. Why? Because you’re the only one inside you.
Your mind, heart, soul, and the sense of being that you are made of is known by you and you alone. That’s because nobody else is in there – no matter how much they try to be.
For everything I share with you here, there’s a ton I keep to myself. But more than that, there are elements to my perception of self, life, the Universe, and everything I can’t put into words. This is true for everyone.
Hence, our values differ. For example – and this is a big one – believing in god. Some people ascribe to the Judeo-Christian god. Others, the Norse gods. Still others believe in a more convoluted, complex higher power. And then some people believe in no god nor higher power at all.
Who’s right? Everybody. And nobody. And it matters far less than it gets valued at.
The idea of belief in God, for many, is where they get the external notion of their values and moral compass. On the surface, this isn’t a bad thing. Until it gets weaponized.
When the idea that “the other” is out to get you gets internalized, your values can get corrupted. This is how The Crusades occurred, how cults form, and why seemingly reasonable people accept terrible things and people.
Without mindfulness, people’s values, like their beliefs, might not be entirely of their own choosing. But like beliefs and habits, values can be changed.
Altering your moral compass
I’m going to share a personal story. This was a turning point in my life where I chose to change my values.
I was raised Jewish. My mother brought my sister and me up in a Conservative Jewish synagogue. I grew up in the ‘burbs of Minneapolis in the 1980s. The local Jewish community, though excellent, is not very large.
While I have nothing but respect for my ethical heritage as a Jew, it presented unique challenges growing up. I never felt connected to the Jewish community – for a lot of reasons – I’m not going to get into here.
When I got to college, I found greater comfort in Reform Judaism. Mostly, this altered how much English versus Hebrew was spoken and chanted in services. Still, something about the value of the Jewish religion never settled with me.
As I began to explore Zen, playing with energies, and other new-agey notions, I found new value outside the Jewish notion of god.
During the holiest of the Jewish high-holidays, Yom Kippur, I attended services with my family. Yom Kippur, if you are unfamiliar, is the Day of Atonement. You fast from sunup to sundown and ask god to inscribe you in the book of life for the coming year.
As I sat through the service, the rabbi droned on and on about forgiveness for the sin of this and being forgiven for the sin of that. This goes on for most of the Yom Kippur service.
It hit me like a wave. One simple statement shifted my values and moral compass. I don’t believe in sin.
Oh. What does that mean?
Recognizing your values is an awakening
Sin is defined as a transgression against god. But if God is love – which I believe – then how can you transgress against that? Unless you do something blatant like murder, beating the weak, denying rights to others, treating people with hatred and disrespect, and the like – you can’t and don’t.
Since I believe that transgression against god via very human acts is ludicrous, I don’t believe in sin.
Does that make me amoral? Do I lack values? No. See above how I mention murder, abusing the weak, denying rights, and so on. I recognize “right” and “wrong”. But I also recognize that they are, when all is said and done, artificial constructs.
You may utterly disagree with me on this topic. That’s okay because my values are NOT your values. Let’s face it – there are almost 8 billion people on this planet. Every single one of them has a personal, unique perspective of life, the Universe, and everything.
While we share certain core values – the overall belief in our right to exist, for example – we differ in many ways.
This is the product of environment, experience, culture, upbringing, and everything you take in passively or actively. Your values, like your beliefs and habits, are rooted deep inside your subconscious.
What if they do not serve who you are or who you desire to be? The power to change them is yours.
Recognizing that I placed no value in sin, my perspective on life, the Universe, and everything opened so broadly, I was initially terrified. The awakening was unexpected – but ultimately empowering.
Mindfulness shows you your depths
Like beliefs and habits, values are a major part of your overall being. They can be difficult to find without a lot of mindfulness work. But when you do, they can be worked with, changed, and/or altered to suit you to be the best you that you can be.
By being aware, here-and-now, of your overall sense of being, you empower yourself. That allows you to not just be conscious and aware of what’s without, but more important who, what, why, how, and where YOU are – within.
That inner knowledge and employment of mindfulness let you choose the paths you desire to take in your life. Practicing mindfulness is how you find your habits, beliefs, and values – and work with or open yourself to altering them.
Our moral compasses have shared aspects. I think there is a “true north” that guides the overall growth of humanity and leads the way to the realization of our fullest potential and possibilities. Each of us gets to choose how to follow what paths we desire – or not.
Understanding your values helps define your paths. This aspect of your subconscious being is changeable like all others. What you do with your values is for you to choose.
Do you know what your values are?
This is the four-hundred and eighty-second exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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