Values are those intangible things most dear to us. They are what motivates us to do everything all day long from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep at night. They are how we evaluate what is right and wrong after we do something, so values are what gives us our moral code.
People often hold a common set of values, however everyones values and the priority of those values are different to a large degree, and often our own personal set of values don’t align.
When this happens, we experience conflict, – a feeling of being torn in two, and we may say something like “A part of me want’s this, but another part of me want that”, or “I really want to do this, but a part of me stop me”. or “I’m torn in two”.
How does this happen? To explain this I need to explain what a shock is first. Bear with me. A shock is something that takes you by surprise, and sets up an electro-chemical reaction at three levels: Firstly in the brain, where a specific location of the brain will get a Jolt, almost like it was zapped with a electo-magnetic gun. ( And in fact, it feels like a electric shock ). Secondly a specific organ in the body is affected. This is much slower as it involved electro-chemical stimulus, and finally, the psyche or the internal thinking of the person is affect.
So, back to values. I have the belief that we are born with an intrinsic set of values that are aligned with Flow, these being the predominant experiences of a balanced chakra set, such as security, growth, willpower, compassion, connection, focus and spirituality . When we are in flow, we experience the positive aspect of these values. However, when we have shocks in our lives, we create experiences that create new values.
The memory of those shocks creates an emotional attachment to that shock – probably the emotion of fear, but could be a guilt, or sadness, or jealousy or any other emotion based on the intensity & type of the shock. Depending on the intensity of the shock, they may experience anything from worry, anxiety, irritation, fear, phobia to even paralysis. And each of these shocks create new values that tend to be defensive in their nature – usually involves avoiding stuff. Examples might be avoiding poverty (by trying to get Rich quick), avoiding being fat (by going on yo-yo diets), avoiding capitalism (by not spending money) , but to the very degree that we try to avoid something in our lives, we attract it. It’s the law of attraction – If you are aware of it, it’s you.
The end result is that each individual, having experienced all sort of shocks over their life will operate from a different set of values and many of those values will hold the person back.
Why is this important? Because as I prepare to go back to the city, I need to acknowledge the difference in values between the two worlds. A good friend pointed out to me that there isn’t two worlds, there is only one. And this is true, however my experience of the city compared to Planet Kundalini is that people operate from two very different sets of values. And here is the difference.
Predominantly, Planet Kundalini operates from a set of values around the Exclusive Kundalini Yoga Club. And yes, it is a club. We embrace everyone who embraces us, and we feel we can’t related to people who don’t related to us, because it’s just too out there for many. – Taking a spiritual name, growing your hair/beard, eating vegetarian foods (although this is more acceptable now), and waking up every morning at 4.30am to do 2.5 hours of meditation. It’s all a bit out there for the average Joe Blogs.
However The City Club has a very different set of values based around money. The values I experience around Money in The City is totally different to any other place I have worked in the world. It’s actually very positive in many ways. You see, when then average salary is at least a six figure sum, you hear the phrase “Money talks, bulsh#t walks“. And it’s true. People commit to something in the City, it tends to happen, especially when they whack a pile of money down as a guarantee of their future actions. It’s implicit trust through money. And since money is an abstraction of energy, it commits Energy to the project.
The net effect is that excuses melt away, and people find that their values align real quickly for a common goal. For The City, the only problems occurs, when the insanity of ego takes over, or to be more accurate, the belief that the individual is separate from everyone else. This creates the individualistic competitive nature that gives the city a bad name. To think about it, I see so much ego in Planet Kundalini circles, I’m not really sure that this really is an argument, it’s just that things get done in the city. Quickly.
So, Planet Kundalini, I value our relationship. but I’m not sure I love you any more.
