Despite all the problems of modern society, spiritual values do not cease to play a significant role in it, occupying a certain niche in the lives of the vast majority of people. The desire for a higher ideal, which has little in common with the material world, does not leave representatives of humanity, thanks to which, perhaps, it still exists on the planet, without destroying each other in wars and in its lower impulses, which, alas, are also widespread.
Time
Most people use only the material value of time, caring about entertainment, gaining social status and accumulating money.
But time also has spiritual value - man, unlike animals and plants, has the ability to self-awareness, and reason and self-awareness lead to self-knowledge and save a person from material suffering.
It is important to accept the fact that time is running out, and it should not be wasted, but rather engaged in spiritual practice. People before death think only one thing: “I was wasting my time wrong,” this happens because we think about material things, are attached to material things, and it hurts us when we are deprived of everything.
But a person engaged in spiritual practice is not attached to material things, learning his spiritual nature (eternity, bliss, knowledge) understands more and more what the spiritual value of time is.
Highest human values
Below is a list of values and their descriptions. We are not always aware of what value guides us through life. Therefore, descriptions of values and their short definition are given. All this will make it easier to understand your values.
In the following articles, you, dear reader, will be able to read about the motives. They provide an even better understanding of how values work and, as it were, bring sharpness to the goal. This article also talks a little about motives. Motives are the driving force that we can be aware of even without knowing anything about values. Also given are some qualities that are directly related to values.
What are the personal values in a person’s life: a list of examples
- Activity.
- Serenity.
- Impartiality.
- Gratitude.
- Inspiration.
- Cheerfulness.
- Flexibility.
- Spirituality.
- Entertainment.
- Daydreaming.
- Wisdom.
- Reliability.
- Independence.
- Security.
- Certainty.
- Organized.
- Mindfulness.
- Frankness.
- Openness.
- Devotion.
- Attractiveness.
- Affiliation.
- Proactivity.
- Determination.
- Modesty.
- Stability.
- Courage.
- Hardness.
- Accuracy.
- Moderation.
- Uniqueness.
- Financial independence.
- Thrift.
- Sensuality.
- Generosity.
- Brightness.
- Altruism.
- Heroism.
- Optimism.
- Pragmatism.
- Practicality.
- Professionalism.
- Realism.
- Balance.
- Wealth.
- Hospitality.
- Benevolence.
- Curiosity.
- Consistency.
- Perfection.
- Creation.
- Perseverance.
- Faith.
- Power.
- Imagination.
- Achievement.
- Knowledge.
- Study.
- Pleasure.
- Education.
- Understanding.
- Adventure.
- Confidence.
- Abundance.
- Wit.
- Opening.
- Justice.
- Acceptance.
- Development.
- Diversity.
- Sympathy.
- Hard work.
- Pleasure.
- Coolness.
- Hygiene.
- Depth.
- Discipline.
- Self-discipline.
- Friendship.
- Health.
- Comfort.
- Beauty.
- Logics.
- Love.
- World.
- Hope.
- Experience.
- Victory.
- Support.
- Peace.
- Benefit.
- Is it true.
- Simplicity.
- Height.
- Self-control.
- Freedom.
- Family.
- Glory.
- Passion.
- Happiness.
- Tradition.
- Energy.
- Synergy.
- Success.
- Purity.
- Humor.
This is not a complete list of value guidelines existing in the world. Based on it, you can create your own hierarchy by adding other concepts.
Abundance
A person with this value perceives the world as a source of well-being, diversity and many opportunities. He himself will be generous. If this value is distorted, then the following options are possible. He can be stingy, greedy or, on the contrary, wasteful. He can cling to every opportunity as if it were the last (for example, constantly buying promotional products, looking for benefits in everything). He will not believe in the generosity of the world and will believe that “there is not enough for everyone,” no matter what - money, food, happiness, opportunities.
The motives that guide them are: well-being, diversity, common good, material wealth, profit, savings, benefit.
Law
This is the value of law as a form of orderly interaction with people. For people who have this value, it is important to adhere to universal human principles: morality, morality, ethics. Negative qualities can manifest such qualities as arrogance, intolerance, dogmatism, mentoring, and excessive moralizing. Positive – decency, ethics, good organizational skills.
This value can manifest itself through the following motives: social activities, mentoring, teaching, religion, morality, morality.
Liberty
This is the value of having no restrictions or boundaries. In harmonious development, freedom is perceived naturally, as a matter of course. If there are distortions (deficiency), a person begins to defend his freedom, painfully endures any encroachment on it (even imaginary), tries to throw off everything that even slightly resembles restrictions. He can protest against lack of freedom both openly and actively, and within himself, resisting and resisting. The motivation of such people is independence, i.e. motivation "from".
Positive qualities include the following qualities: non-standard thinking, openness to new things, absence of stereotypes, idealism. In the negative: eccentricity, anarchism, uncontrollability, denial of authority, spirit of contradiction.
In addition to independence, they can be guided by the following motives: change, reform, democracy, equality, adventure.
True
This is the essence of everything - any knowledge, person, process, universe. People with this value strive to get to the bottom of things and find answers to their questions. In distortion, this means not only getting to the bottom of things, but also presenting to the world all the inconsistencies found and exposing the culprits, “bringing them to clean water.” Also a distortion is the desire to defend “your truth” and the refusal to look at the problem from different sides. In a positive aspect, such people are honest, sincere, fair, and open. These same qualities are valued in others. When distorted, these qualities turn into uncompromisingness, categoricalness, rigidity and intransigence.
Motives: truth, justice, meaning, reason, naturalness, naturalness, correctness, search and resolution of inconsistencies.
Another classification of value guidelines in the table
| Basic prices . | |
| Personal | Knowledge, education, upbringing, self-discipline, health. |
| Socially conditioned | Relationships, family, friendship, communication, mutual assistance, love. |
| Material | |
| Financial well-being | Career, money, professionalism. |
| Social status | Recognition, success, power. |
| Spiritual | |
| Development | Self-knowledge, self-education, self-development. |
| Recreational | |
| Rest | Travel, adventure, impressions, energy, entertainment. |
Pyramid of Values
A. Maslow’s famous scheme, which describes human needs, can also characterize the system according to which life priorities are built. The foundation of human existence as a whole is its biological component. There are motives that physiology dictates to us: in other words, it is difficult to talk about the eternal when you are hungry, cold or in pain.
The next stage in the formation of priorities is the desire for security. This includes the desire to organize a comfortable space for living.
After this, social needs arise, the need for respect and recognition, the thirst for knowledge and creativity, aesthetic and spiritual values.
How to instill life values in the process of education
The first thing you need to understand is that don’t even try to instill in your child certain guidelines if your behavior contradicts your words. The fundamental principle of shaping a child’s personality is personal example. It is the model of adult behavior that a child and then a teenager encounters every day, in practice, that will become entrenched in his subconscious. Therefore, when swearing at children or demanding a certain way of thinking from them, think about whether you yourself are following what you are talking about.
Knowledge
The knowledge we receive helps us discover the true meaning of life, allows the mind to be in harmony with logic, faith and feelings. It is also given to us to know the fundamentals of nature.
A person not only learns about the world, but also tries to understand the meaning of his existence. Knowledge is an important component of consciousness; human development cannot be imagined without it.
A person striving for truth will always try to accumulate as much knowledge as possible. Probably everyone has heard the phrase “Knowledge is power”, this is true, but not everyone thinks about how to gain this power.
Useful knowledge is information that has passed through time. This is a kind of instruction that we apply to our lives.
Development
As you know, nature is changeable, and all living things are always in motion. Everything changes: our views, tastes, interests, the old is new, etc.
Development is evolution, movement. Changes happen naturally, and no matter how hard someone tries to stay in place, no one can do it.
Development is also a spiritual value; many take development for some kind of life changes, material growth, but spiritual development is the evolution of personal qualities, the improvement of one’s inner world.
The main goal of development is to realize one’s nature, to discover oneself. You can never lose the fruits of spiritual work, which cannot be said about the material things you have accumulated.
The meaning of spiritual values
The main meaning of spiritual values is clear from the definition of this concept. They help us make decisions, serve as a guide, control our lives and give it meaning. However, they are not directly related to material wealth. However, due to the fact that they serve as a driving force that helps to develop and achieve set goals, they ultimately contribute to the achievement and strengthening of material well-being.
If we focus on personal growth and self-realization, then spiritual values have an amazing impact on our lives. They give us knowledge, guidelines, goals and motivation for continuous progress. In fact, they can be considered as superpowers that can direct energy in the right direction, to provide us with additional resources for self-realization, to take us to a new level.
Liberty
Freedom is a very multi-valued concept, but it can be characterized. A person can always feel when he is free and when he is not. If he acts based on his principles, desires and is responsible for the result of his actions, he is free.
That is, he is responsible for his actions and decides for himself what to do. This means free will and no coercion from outside.
beauty
Beauty is the most mysterious spiritual value; each person understands it in his own way. If you do a survey among people, the results will be different.
For some, beauty is a bird that pecks seeds from a person’s hand, for others it is a luxurious English garden... Therefore, we can say that beauty is what surrounds us. It exists in relationships between people, in us, in others, in nature.
It is beauty that inspires to create - it encourages musicians and writers to create real masterpieces that do not lose their uniqueness through the centuries... This is a very subtle substance, and only a sensitive person can understand it.
Classification of spiritual values
Depending on what their significance is based on, all spiritual values can be divided into three groups:
- Existential. They say that the happiest people are those who know the purpose of their life and can formulate it in one sentence. Existential spiritual values are associated with understanding the meaning of one’s life, vocation, global tasks and goals.
- Moral. These are values associated with people's behavior and relationships. They reflect the level of maturity of the individual, his moral perfection. Goodness, honor, honesty, patriotism, loyalty - all this refers to moral and spiritual values.
- Aesthetic. These are values associated with the understanding of beauty in its various forms and manifestations. If they are developed, the individual is able to experience the beauty of sublime art both during the creative process and during reproduction or consumption. This gives him a feeling of spiritual comfort and harmony.
Art
Art is the spiritual self-realization of a person through sensory and expressive aspects - drawing, sound, writing, light, etc.
Art helps every person to feel the beautiful, makes him spiritually richer, gives energy and brings meaning to life. If there were no art, then we would live only by those things that surround us (ordinary), and there would be no opportunity to grow and progress.
A person who is associated with art is filled with energy and is capable of creating the surrounding reality. Most often, the creator begins to look for his own meaning, which has not previously been found among people.
Personal Beliefs
In psychology, beliefs are understood as a person’s system of views on the world and his place in it, on relationships with other people and attitude to business. Beliefs are formed throughout an individual's life under the influence of the social environment and personal experience.
The dominant role is played by the social factor; therefore, the foundations of beliefs are laid in our consciousness by society. The authority of the source and the faith factor are of great importance. Children trust their parents and teachers; they are authorities for them, and therefore have a decisive influence on the formation of their worldview. And adults believe in politicians (although they don’t always admit it), the media, authoritative friends and books. It is these sources that have the most noticeable influence on a person’s beliefs.
However, it is also impossible to call a person a passive object of social influence. He passes through himself and processes any information, correlates it with existing experience and significant values. Therefore, we can say that beliefs are a kind of fusion of the social and the individual.
Beliefs play an important role in a person's life. They largely determine his social position and personality orientation. Beliefs are also closely related to life goals and attitudes.
Creation
Creativity is characteristic of every person, but not everyone discovers it in themselves. This is the creation of something new, something that has not been seen before.
It is usually believed that creativity is creating a work of art, writing classical music, but a little girl, for example, who wrote a couple of lines in her notebook about a bear cub walking in a meadow - this is already creativity, she is a creator and has created something new.
Creativity is the ability to create something new; it always elevates the soul and ennobles the personality.
True
People have a sparkle in their eyes when it comes to seeking the truth, the truth. This is a person’s natural desire to understand the world in which he lives, as well as himself. Truth is a spiritual value, it gives a person a lot - with its help we can analyze what is happening, our actions, we consider certain actions that we perform for morality and correctness. For everyone, truth has its own understanding - for one, something that for another has no significance will be sacred. Truth is what has been tested by time and experience.
Basic concepts and essence of the issue
When discussing the topic of basic spiritual values, the first association that comes to mind is compliance with a certain universal ideal , which is the highest manifestation of culture, education and inner virtue. Of course, not every person can 100 percent relate to a conventional society with high moral principles, but this does not at all imply the meaninglessness of striving for such standards, especially since we are not talking about some kind of standard complex with the mandatory fulfillment of certain obligations.
Types of spiritual values
Often, high moral values are understood as a certain path, a weather vane, which should be guided by in making vital decisions, which are also an integral part of every human destiny. Also, one should not assume that commitment to the spiritual is some kind of gift from above, a talent or a given of nature observed in a particular individual, which is very difficult to instill, because upbringing plays an important role in this matter.
Simply put, the desire to maintain high moral principles must be instilled from childhood, first of all, demonstrating the importance of this aspect by example. Naturally, we should not forget that many priorities change only with age due to the acquisition of life experience, and that is why the essence of this valuable knowledge is sometimes so difficult to convey to fragile minds.
However, there are several effective methods that will help achieve the desired result. And first of all, you should move away from tedious moralizing towards sincere conversations with explanations of specific situations and conveying their morality in the simplest words, because it is not for nothing that they say that a child is a blank slate, taking information literally and only then absorbing it like a sponge.
If an adult wants to understand the essence of moral ideals in order to increase the level of his own development, then he should first of all become familiar with what types of these same ideals exist. This approach to the issue will help you understand in which direction you need to move further. Thus, at all times, there have been the following spiritual values that people from different classes have strived and continue to strive for, regardless of their own age, position, social status and achievements:
- Meaningful, reflecting the worldview of a particular society or an entire nation, having a decisive impact on culture and mentality.
- Moral, with the help of which a certain model of behavior is determined, which is considered a generally accepted norm for a particular society. In fact, we are talking about a kind of spiritual etiquette that sets the tone of communication between people, any deviations from which are almost always met with universal condemnation. At the same time, one should not confuse high morality with good manners, because it is a product of conscience, and not the fear of being rejected in a particular society.
- Aesthetic, implying comfortable coexistence with the world and the external environment, even if they are not too friendly. This type of values determines spiritual harmony, which is associated with self-realization and the desire for beauty, which helps to resist even the most aggressive environment, and art plays a key role in this regard.
It must be remembered that a high level of spiritual development is not an end point, but a constant learning process that is not limited to knowledge alone. For example, the emotions experienced by a person are also of key importance in the issue, because the depth of thinking strongly depends on the perception of a particular situation, its living and experience.
Structure and features
In addition, we should not forget about the close connection between the moral and the material, because there are often situations when the first becomes impossible without the second. This factor is explained quite simply, because a person, placed in the strict framework of difficult life circumstances, becomes more limited in spiritual development, being forced to satisfy his own basic needs.
It also happens that some troubles and great moral upheavals make people more cruel and indifferent , and the callousness and cynicism that has developed begin to recede only if they gain long-term positive life experience. The difference between material priorities and spiritual ones is primarily due to the fact that a craving for some physical goods is not given to a person by default, since it is not a character trait, but rather refers to acquired needs, determined by a combination of certain factors (society, imposed principles, upbringing, education, etc.).
The formation of a new personality largely depends on what values will be instilled in it initially. Today, scientists provide the simplest classification of ideological priorities, adherence to which makes a person human. This list includes the following key examples of spiritual values:
- Health. A very important component of the value hierarchy, the limitations of which are closely related to morality.
- Love. The defining manifestation of intersexual interaction, which includes not only emotional attachment, but also sexuality. One of the most powerful spiritual manifestations, capable of both elevating a person and degrading him, revealing the basest qualities of human nature.
- Family. An equally important aspect that reflects the individual’s attitude towards those people with whom he is closely related. Husbands, wives, children, parents, brothers, sisters - love and respect for these people is one of the highest spiritual manifestations that one should always strive for, regardless of any negative life circumstances, personal grievances and misunderstandings.
- Profession. For many people, the definition of consciousness depends precisely on this aspect, as well as the relationships that develop during work with other people.
- Intelligence. Intellectual development is a powerful stimulus for spiritual development, but only if it is not negative in nature, due to the cynical denial of those moral principles that are considered acceptable for a certain established society.
- Death and life. One of the main criteria for spiritual development, which is understood as a person’s conscious attitude to issues of life, death, the universe, religion and the church professing it.
- Social responsibility. It is determined by the degree of consciousness of the individual in relation to the society that has formed around him, society as a whole, the current political power and the state itself. Love for the Motherland and nurturing the spirit of patriotism can also be included here, because we are talking about an integral component of social science and human morality.
- Hobbies. The most important part of the cultural level of development of each individual, which can and should be developed in a variety of directions, which makes it possible to discover unexpected qualities and unique abilities in oneself, which are also closely related to issues of morality and spirituality.
These are the main pillars on which high ideals are based, playing a colossal role in the fate of the individual and society as a whole. Sometimes priorities descend from top to bottom, being imposed on the public by the state, which is not always correct, because freedom of choice and democracy are another integral component of high principles that deny their artificial creation, implantation and formation of a certain ideal.
Teachings of Max Scheler
This famous German scientist, a follower of Eichen, managed to contrast his own works on values with the famous ethics of the philosopher Kant. The teachings of Scheler, who lived and worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, are based on , there was a clear sequence according to which the value of an individual’s existence preceded his perception, while the very reality of these values did not depend on knowledge, but also preceded them.
In addition, the philosopher identified not only values, but also non-values, ordering them in accordance with certain ranks. According to his theory:
- the values of a saint (believer) were opposed to the values of a vicious person;
- reason, which meant beauty, intelligence and fair trial, opposed lies, violation of order and judicial justice;
- life and honor versus vice and dishonor;
- pleasure against unpleasant duties and displeasure resulting from them;
- usefulness versus uselessness;
- disorder of the heart (uncertainty in relationships and feelings for another person, illegibility, chaos) versus the orderliness of feelings.
Naturally, many of the listed aspects have lost their relevance due to the fact that the world does not stand still, but is rapidly developing and forming new values. However, if you try to delve into the essence of the issue, it becomes obvious that the basis of all new provisions is the well-forgotten old one, the theoretical ordering of which was accomplished by such luminaries as Scheler.
Love
Love is the highest spiritual value that you can imagine. Human existence cannot be imagined without it.
Many people mistakenly believe that if they don’t have a loved one, then there is no love. However, love is ourselves, our essence. You can love a bird singing outside the window, a new day, the spring wind, the smile of a loved one...
Love can be different - spiritual, physical, material, friendly, etc. Love helps a person become better, ennobles him.
Good
Goodness is one of the most important spiritual values. It manifests itself in man’s desire to improve life on Earth not only for himself, but also for others.
A good person always strives for truth and justice. A good deed is manifested in sincerity - this is not when a person does something for gain, but when he tries to do something for another selflessly.
Kindness has always been valued, but people sometimes suffer greatly because of their sensitivity and concern for others. Kindness is a spiritual need for everyone; when we do something useful and good, we feel better, more confident, and our souls become light.
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