What's All this Fuss About Worthiness

 

I don't know about you, but lately I've been seeing (and hearing) a lot about worthiness. Even when the topic of something I read (or hear) isn't directly about worthiness it's often been the underlying subject. So, what's all this fuss about worthiness?

Am I worthy - are you? Even when we're not doing at all? When we're simply being? How about when we're empty?

Variations of this question have been running through my mind lately. Actually, the variations aren't so much about if I'm worthy - or if you are - because I believe, in my core, that we ARE! My thought-questions are wrapped around how, whether and when I'm honoring the fact (living it) that we are worthy.

I'm a huge proponent of BE-ing!

I'm a huge proponent of BE-ing - when it comes to YOU.

But often, for myself, I judge (softly, but still...)

I sigh about what I've done (or not done) in regards to business that day, about whether I am caught up with all my correspondence (as if), or whether the house or gardens are magazine-worthy (ok, that's a lie - they're usually a right royal mess - and I worry more about the Board of Health visiting), et cetera...

So I reflect - and sigh - and feel, well - unworthy. Even though, down to my core, I know that I am (and YOU are) worthy - absolutely! No ifs, ands or buts (or butts - just sayin').

So, what is all the fuss about worthiness? Why does it crop up so often? Why is it so #@!-ing hard to remember to live in the truth of our worthiness - of our (individually) worthiness - to grant ourselves the same grace and compassion that we can very easily grant others?

I know a few things about worthiness:

I know that it's hard to remember our worthiness in a culture that spreads lies about our worth (pointing to what's wrong with us) to fuel a consumption economy.

I know that realizing - and living in (both head & heart knowledge are vital) our worthiness is foundational to how we take our place in the world. 

and

I know that reminders (which, for me, usually come through written words) of my worthiness help me put things in perspective - help me re-remember that I am worthy - and help me live into that knowledge. I also know that my struggles with worthiness are mostly around doing vs. BE-ing (that might be obvious here - grin).

What I'd like to know is:

When and how do you struggle with worthiness? How do you know you're worthy - and how do you live it? What feeds your worthiness; what are your reminders?

This post is a riff on one I wrote a couple years ago, called What's All the #@!-ing Fuss about Worthiness.

Comments

[teryll]

Hi Karen - It's no coincidence that I visited your blog today, it's been a while, but this topic is on the MONEY!!!! DING, DING, DING!!!

If we truly knew it in our core then why do we have a hard time living it out? I would argue that if we truly knew it in our core, I don't think we would struggle with it as much as we do.

We are flawed. We are human, but we are loved and we were created, I believe, in the image of God (one can insert what they may or may not believe here).

The transfer of head knowledge to heart knowledge is I think where the magic resides and begins to funnel out of who we are and how we live. I want to and am choosing to believe what God says about me as opposed to what culture says. I think this is an ongoing lifelong process.

[Square-Peg Karen]

Hi Teryll, so nice to "see" you!! I agree with you about "where the magic resides" - and I'm thinking about your argument for "if we truly knew it in our core" that maybe we wouldn't struggle...

Also - "ongoing lifelong process" for SURE! Glad you chose today to visit!!

[Dagny]

Karen,

You summed it up for me. Specially when you said:

'I'm a huge proponent of BE-ing - when it comes to YOU'

I nodded my head so hard that the silly thing has rolled off my neck and I am trying to find it now... in vain.

More when I manage to locate it.

Meanwhile, please keep churning out these reminders for my fatheadedness. I desperately need 'em.

xoxoxo
Dagny

[Charlotte Dixon]

What feeds my worthiness is a message I got at church: I am enough in this present moment, and in this present moment I have everything I need. What feeds my fear is casting myself away from the present moment into the future, which I do all the time, of course. :-) I heard someone say that odds are good that if you've been raised in a western culture, you have worthiness issues. Who, me? Yes, me!

[Square-Peg Karen]

Dagny, dear - I hope you found your beautiful noggen!

And yes, I will continue (or at least I plan to) "churning out" reminders - because I think we all (including me, of course) tend to forget (maybe it keeps us all connected - we need each other for reminders? )

Fatheaded!?! I won't believe it!!

[Square-Peg Karen]

Charlotte, last night I heard a CD where Pema Chodron talked about this very thing - and how it isn't the norm elsewhere. I can't even imagine this not being part of the warp and woof of a culture. Wild!

Oh, what you said! The present moment is IT - and yet, so easy to move into the past or future and forget that we are (and have) enough!

Thanks for sharing what feeds your worthiness and what feeds your fear!!