'Intuition to Action' Series - Valuing the Intangible
Originally published on LinkedIn · December 04, 2024
Valuing the intangible...
It's a paradox.
Historically and traditionally, humans are wired to measure or bring valuation only to the tangible ones, materialistic elements and such. And there are some known and accepted standards to measure, compare, compete in the sphere of tangible elements. That's the status quo at large.
Today, I'm sharing a perspective on valuing the intangible.
The Intangible is tied to feeling, experiencing, knowing and understanding, believing and it differs from person to person in varying degrees based on our personality and mentality. The experience of the intangible itself is not new, it's subliminally happening for ages.
But, what's new is finding a framework to assess its value or consciously seek to prioritize the intangibles in your life and bring them into the main life equation. Just because, it's not measurable in standard metrics or doesn't fetch direct monetary value, one must not neglect it.
Why do we need to value the intangible?
The Intangible directly corresponds to quality of life, overall health, quality of experiences, quality of lifestyle, an element of seeing the unseen, to bring the necessary new dimension for added wellness, mindfulness and fulfilling life.
Examples:
- A hobby (doesn't get you paid directly but there's a feel-good factor)
- Writing on topics, ideas, perspectives, experiences etc.,
- A benevolent activity / a charity / a volunteering activity for a cause
- Believing in yourself when there's no direct way to validate the impact.
How's the value established?
The value of the intangibles in our life impacts many subtle areas of our System (or Being or overall existence).
System, in this context, can be loosely defined as an integrated body, mind, spirit.
Body:
- biological, physiological
Mind and Spirit can be further decomposed to
- psychological
- emotional
- logical / mental
- spiritual
Our overall well-being is a function of health scorecard at all the levels of our System, not just physical or some random feel-good activities thrown for the sake of it.
The value of the intangible is measured in the soundness of our mental health.
The more we bring our self-awareness to our self-care, beliefs and its expansiveness for growth, ability to feel the self sensitively to various shifts within oneself etc., the better the mental health will be.
(Note: It's not possible to make any of this list exhaustive. These are only a few examples to anchor the mind for the right intended messaging.)
Why now? Is it more important now than ever?
Yes, it's more important than ever before. In the ever-evolving world of embracing tech, it's unnatural power on the human existence, dynamic shifts in the societal constructs among other macro / micro changes, geo-political considerations, the first casualty has been human's mental health.
How do we redraw the attention to it, both individually and collectively?
Focus on the self-care (define it, act on it)
Focus on your intangibles (top 3 that give you joy, fulfillment, meaning, purpose, a sense of self interwoven healthily into the world around you)
Any intangible element that's tied to a humanitarian service, benevolence, don't discount it as a joy factor if it's important to your spiritual growth or fulfills you.
(You don't need a comparison with any others and you don't need to have a consensus in what you believe is good for you)
Some ideas to keep intangible <=> mental health, based on your persona:
- Contribute your expertise, craft, time or money in the causes that uplifts your spirit.
- Write articles, blogs, creative artwork, music compilation - anything that makes you more creative, more critical thinking presented in the subjects of your interest + expertise.
- Challenge yourself in the areas or limiting beliefs that ceiled your growth in well-defined areas.
- An introspective method to self-reflect on who you truly are, what you believed until now versus what's challenged in the world around you, what's truly you that you should keep and what's rubbed on you via programmatic mental wiring or brainwashing that can be shedded for bringing in new thought structures, patterns, richer perspectives that you can venture in safer ways for yourself. This is game changing for self growth and key for meeting your highest potential.
- Expand the scope and ability to bring more kindness, empathy, compassion, accommodation / understanding, lower the biases and judgement of others.
In the world we are in today, there are many people going through many struggles for different reasons, that we may or may not know, we need or need not know. But, I offer a friendly suggestion to do one of the two things.
(1) If you can offer a kind word or supportive gesture in genuine ways as you resonate, do it. And this is a big factor and boost to your mental health as it brings joy, positivity, upliftment to your spirits.
(2) If you cannot do it for whatever reason, please refrain from passing unwanted remarks, spreading negativity, piling on with your judgmental acts.
Why?
This is not to help others per se, but the biggest negative aspect is to your own self. It exponentially amplifies the negative energy in your mindset preventing you from thinking clearly, better for yourself or your own loved ones as it shakes up your emotional, mental build. Easily avoidable hassle with a disproportionate amount of good with inaction.
This is far too detrimental to your health. So, whether you like the elements of empathy, compassion or kindness or not, it's in your own selfish need that you use care, caution not to create or add to the negativity around. Use self-restraint for your own good.
DIY exercise:
- How well are you valuing your prominent intangibles currently?
- Did you know how to tie it directly to your mental wellness? If not, is there anything you can think or do differently to contribute to your own mental wellness?
- Is there anything you can do to help others keep their mental health? Any kind act or a good genuine care or a good kind thought you can extend to others who are in challenging times?
Hope you found my frameworks and perspectives insightful enough.
Thoughts? Questions? Drop them in the comments, we'll explore.
About the Author:
I’m Veda Konduru, a former AI tech founder, data scientist, technology product architect with an academic excellence in science and technology with an overall 20+ years of subject domain career experience..
Inspired by some events in my life, I set myself off on a quest for exploring the role of natural intelligence, the human mind’s underpinnings, in the age of AI, and made significant strides in the past few years and I’m here to help others on a similar journey.
In short, An artificial intelligence architect NOW turned into The Mind Explorer.
