“Wealth is the progressive realisation of worthy goals, the ability to love and have compassion, meaningful and caring relationships.” – Deepak Chopra
SO YOU WANT to be wealthy? Great goal. But wait a minute. Consider for a moment what Garth Brooks said before you get too excited: “You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy”. Wow, what a thought.
Often when the word wealth is uttered, almost immediately the concept of money comes to mind.
As I mentioned last week, wealth includes the idea of finance, but it conveys a much richer meaning than one accumulating dollars and cents.
For example, an individual can be wealthy in wisdom or even wealthy in honesty and integrity: these are a few of the priceless intangibles that are not available on the supermarket shelf or in the department store, but are necessary for building sound character.
In my previous article I examined the notion of mental wealth and suggested that having a positive mental attitude, conquering fear and leaving laziness behind all have the potential of generating mental wealth. Today emotional wealth comes under scrutiny.
Emotions in simple terms have to do with your feelings. You can experience positive feelings like being happy, excited, peaceful, relaxed, contented or even elated. You may even experience negative feelings such as anger, sadness, anxiety or frustration just to name a few.
The more positive feelings you can accumulate and display on a daily basis the wealthier you will become emotionally. Investing therefore in loving yourself to begin with is a necessary priceless corner stone to develop emotional wealth.
Invest in loving yourself
Each person is endowed with an innate desire to be loved. From birth children crave love and display that craving by seeking to get attention from their caregivers, especially parents, and other close adult family members. They may cry when they feel rejected, ignored, abandoned, hurt but may feel happy or secure when embraced, fed, accepted or given extra attention.
As they continue to grow and develop and those positive emotions from significant others remain consistent, the foundation for emotional wealth would become stronger and stronger. Moving away from childhood into adulthood, it becomes your responsibility to build on that positive foundation and keep on investing in loving yourself.
For individuals who may not have such an encouraging start in life but may have suffered abuse at the hands of loved ones, the temptation to view themselves as mistakes or less than valuable may become great.
With good counsel and a strong desire to love, you too can rise admirably to exhibit strong security, display a heightened esteem level, show forth an exceptional sense of worth and value, and a confidence level that is healthy for being wealthy in your emotional well-being.
The more you invest in loving yourself the stronger you will become in emotional wealth and as someone said: “A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.” Investing in loving others becomes easier when you do it for yourself.
Invest in loving others
“A positive attitude from you tends to produce a positive attitude toward you.” That expression from Deborah Day suggests the importance of seeing others through healthy emotional frames. The spin-offs are often rewarding as Lilly Singh intimated, “Love who you are, embrace who you are. Love yourself. When you love yourself, people can kind of pick up on that: they can see confidence, they can see self-esteem, and naturally, people gravitate towards you”.
In a world where selfishness and greed seem to be the default position of so many people, exhibit your emotional wealth. Allow it to make a difference by investing love for family, friends and even your foes. You may be surprised at the encouraging returns. Devoting quality time and energy in genuinely loving yourself and others cannot be possible without tapping in and continuously drawing from the main source of love.
Invest in loving God
The Bible which is God’s blueprint and Book of instruction for humanity states categorically that the very nature of God “is love”. According to the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 5, God delights in pouring out His unselfish, unconditional love into your emotions, making it possible for you to love like He does.
That verse seems to strongly suggest that God’s quality love which outweighs any other form of love in value and virtue, is top-of-the-line in nature and offers you the life-time guarantee of being emotionally wealthy.
Therefore, investing in and drawing from the primary source should not be viewed as optional but vitally essential. Building an intimate relationship with the God of infinite love through obedience to His word will place you in a unique position to mature in emotional wealth.
Growing up as a teenager and looking back on my personal life, there were times I did not think very highly of myself. My confidence level was low and my feelings of security were far from sturdy. However, as I began to invest in loving God, it amazed me how those negatives over time, began to get weaker and weaker as I drew nourishment from God’s superior fountain of love. As a result, my emotional wealth kept on growing considerably over the years.
Developing emotional wealth is not always an easy task, but can be realised no matter the inner struggles that may loom in your emotions from time to time.
Add some value to your life by resolving to be emotionally wealthy.
• Haynesley Griffith is a marriage and family life consultant. Email: [email protected]
