Biblical teachings as well as conscious practices encourage us to all ‘know our worth’ – not based on extrinsic elements, but intrinsically. We are taught that “we were made in God’s image”, therefore we are valuable and nobody can take that away from us.

But what happens when we are consistently told otherwise? We are constantly bombarded with images of happiness and success being tied to what we acquire, where we are able to go, what we are able to do and who we do those things with.

Adverts tell us that we are more desirable and happier if we get the latest version of a product. Influencers get us to desire things we would otherwise not have known existed. Social media posts express to us that we ought to be jet-setting to forget our 99 problems – and that jet-setting ought to be in the most luxurious of settings. Let’s not even get into how financial institutions side-eye you when you have little to nothing or how shop assistants size you up with an up and down glare – in a split second, determining whether you’re worthy of their time and service.

I’m not here to knock anyone’s hustle. I appreciate a good thing or two.

What makes it incredibly difficult is trying to pursue a sense of self rooted in ones intrinsic values whilst swatting all these other messages that can be detrimental to a sense of self.

Of course we live in a world where financial means and access determine the quality of ones life for the most part. I just wish that we were kinder to one another. Success, in the worldly sense, can be determined by circumstance and is often amplified by luck-of-the-draw – factors that we don’t always have a hand in.

I often wonder – how come I was born into the life and world I was? Yes, with pain and struggle in my own right, but also with privilege. With access to good schools. With access to a roof over my head, the opportunity to see the world, the desire to learn and be more. I – for a fact – know it is not always the case for others born in my country of birth. And yet, the world often looks at those suffering as if they did something to deserve it.

It is not lost on me that tables could very easily have turned. My parents could have chosen to accept the environment and circumstances they were born into as their destiny. They could have tried to do different and yet not have certain opportunities that took them out of their struggle.

I say all this to say that our value really has to be intrinsic because things can change at the drop of a hat. The world is a ruthless place. I wish we could see people with more compassion and understanding. Understanding that they may be where they are because life was not kind. Or it was.