You're Valuable As You Are!

Hi,

This is Brooks,

And it's good to be here with you.

Today I would like to talk about how valuable we are,

How valuable we are as ourselves.

And I like to believe that regardless of what's happening in our life,

We're enough.

Regardless of how much health we have,

Or how much wealth,

Or whatever relationships we have,

Whatever's going on in our lives,

That we're enough.

And I feel that's really important because things are constantly coming and going in our lives.

So if we're only gonna be okay and enough when we have certain things,

Or we become certain things,

Well then those things eventually are gonna go,

Because things come and go.

And so we can never feel valuable if that's the case.

I think it's just a lot simpler,

A real matter of fact to go,

I'm enough right now.

And the simplicity of it is,

It doesn't mean like,

Enough means I have enough of whatever,

I am enough.

Just because I exist,

Because I'm alive,

That makes me valuable.

Because health comes and goes,

Comes and goes,

Comes and goes,

Money comes and goes,

Comes and goes,

People come and go,

Come and go.

But here we are,

As far back as we have memories,

Here we are,

We exist,

And we're alive.

And that's our value.

And that has to be our value,

Otherwise we're never gonna feel valuable.

We may get that,

Like oh,

If I become spiritual enough,

You know,

Or if I make enough money,

If I have this,

Or whatever,

Then I'm gonna be okay,

Then I'm gonna become valuable.

All that says is I'm not valuable right now.

And so when we do get those things,

Then it's a temporary fix,

We get a temporary excitement from new things,

From goals achieved,

But then we come right back to ourselves,

You know.

And if we're feeling inadequate,

Then that just continues.

So I find it a lot easier to say,

I say to myself,

I'm valuable right now.

Even though my back hurts a bit.

And I can think of three or four other things that aren't working out exactly like I wish they were.

But oh well,

You know,

Some days are better than others.

But here I am.

And that to me is so satisfying and so wonderful.

When I was,

I'd shared my story previously,

So maybe you've heard this already,

But about seven and a half years ago,

I got a double lung transplant,

Two brand new lungs.

And for about two and a half years before that transplant,

I was really sick.

And that was an extremely tumultuous time.

You know,

It was really hard to breathe and I was coughing a lot and I was losing a lot,

I lost a lot of weight.

And I was extremely uncomfortable,

You know.

It was exhausting to do anything.

But I got this sense,

Even with all that pain that I was going through,

That I was enough.

You know,

It was this sense of like,

I exist,

I'm still alive.

I matter because I'm still alive.

And I remember at some point,

I was stuck in bed and I was breathing out of this oxygen cup,

Breathing out of this oxygen concentrator machine that pulled extra oxygen out of there.

So,

And I took it into a nasal cannula and that would give me enough oxygen because I wasn't getting enough on my own because my lungs were damaged at that time.

So I remember laying there and I was like 50 pounds less than I am today.

And I was breathing just really heavy,

Like a long distance runner and I had this sense like that of this feeling of being alive,

That I am alive.

And that's my currency,

That's my most valuable thing that I've got.

All these other things,

You know,

That I thought,

Oh yeah,

When I get this or when this happens,

That meant,

None of that meant anything to me.

Being alive was the value.

And I remember having this sense that I thought of a candle and I imagined this candle burning down and burning down and reducing and reducing.

But throughout the whole time of the candle,

There was the flame and the flame stayed the same height.

And so even though the candle was going away,

The flame wasn't.

And I thought,

Well,

I'm the flame.

Because my body was wasting away and everything was falling apart.

But I existed,

I was aware and I was alive.

And I felt like I'm enough because of that.

And it was such a interesting experience.

And I would say life changing.

And you know,

I got that transplant and everything went really well and I've had no rejection of the lungs and they're part of me now.

And every day I have this feeling I'm enough.

You know,

Because I'm alive.

Regardless of what's happening on the day,

Regardless of if it's a productive day or a not productive day or things go my way or they don't.

I feel good physically or I don't.

Or even emotionally,

I'm up and down.

There's still this feeling of being enough.

And I think that's universal for all of us.

I mean,

We forget,

It's so easy to forget because we're constantly being told that we're not enough by advertising,

By marketing,

Even societal pressures.

You know,

You need to be like this.

You have these values or be this kind of particular person.

And we're stuck with that feeling,

Oh,

I'm not enough.

I need something and then I'll be enough.

Or I need to do something or become something.

But again,

If we're feeling we're not enough,

Then anything that we bring in is never gonna make us feel and with a sense of fulfillment that we truly are enough.

It just,

We're temporarily satisfied.

So then I think the only solution is to come back to,

I'm breathing,

My lungs are breathing,

My heart is beating.

My heart is beating.

I'm experiencing things.

That means I'm alive.

I've got life.

There's that song from Hair,

I got life.

I don't know if you've ever heard it,

But I love that song.

Because it's true.

As long as we're alive,

We got life.

And I think once you start to,

Once that starts to sink in and that feeling of,

Yeah,

That is my experience.

That's true.

It's not that we have nothing else in our lives,

Except that we're alive.

We have the things that we like,

That we enjoy,

That we do.

But they're all secondary to our aliveness,

To our existence.

I don't think you have to go through a lung transplant to have that experience.

I had feelings of that before the transplant,

That I was enough.

And then I maybe started thinking,

Oh,

If my clutterbusting book would be in the New York Times bestseller list or Oprah Winfrey book list,

Then I'll be enough.

That'll be it,

That'll be great.

You know,

But that just means that I'll feel a lack until that happens and I don't wanna feel that way.

So my experience is I'm alive.

And that is the evidence of my value.

And that's the evidence of all our values.

I mean,

When I work with a client and decluttering,

It's easy for me to help that person because I don't see anything in that person's life as being more valuable than them.

And I've worked with some really wealthy people and some famous people.

It just,

You know,

It's like,

Okay,

That matters compared to you.

It's everything is insignificant compared to you.

And we don't hear that message out there,

It's pretty rare.

That's why I like to talk about it.

I mean,

It's a nice reminder for me too.

And I hope that there might be a little current of a feeling about it for you that you might,

You might have some affinity for that.

Noticing your aliveness,

Noticing your value because you're alive.

So that's what I wanted to say today.

And I appreciate you listening and I wish you the best.

Take care.