Infinite Worth

Spring 2025

You don’t always need to choose the most difficult path.

At an earlier point in my life, I unknowingly glamorized the idea of struggle. This “no pain no gain” view assumed that all hardship and difficulty were equally valuable. I believed that personal and spiritual growth should not be easy and encouraged myself to “just push through.” I thought that deep insights and important changes could only be realized through discipline, arduous practice, and painful self-inquiry. While pain is an inevitable part of life, my ego attached to the idea that enduring hardship was the only way to grow. The most dangerous aspect of this thinking is that it perpetuates unhappiness. Baked into this approach is the assumption of “never enoughness.” No amount of externally mediated experience will ever meet the gaping abyss of “never enough.” This assumption that you are broken and with enough hard work you could feel good about yourself is a permanent downward spiral. No amount of spiritual practice, retreats, courses, degrees, books, therapy, or insights will ever feel enough. Self-compassion is the primary way this spiral of unhappiness is disrupted. With self-compassion, you understand that your enoughness is not a function of any accomplishment, performance, or strategy. You are enough because you have been created and loved by the divine. You are enough because you are a divine being. When it comes to your worth, there is nothing to earn or deserve—no hard work to do. The gift is freely given; it’s the gift of realizing your infinite worth has already been bestowed upon you.