What Are Your Prized Possessions in Life?

What is your most prized possession in life? You might not have even realized it, but all of we have prized possessions in our lives. The dictionary meaning of possession is – something you own. Out of these possessions you may value a particular one more than another. The one which you value more would be something that you will never like to lose, or things that make you feel pleased, fortunate, unique, and superior, right?  So before we move forward let’s first try to define prized possessions.

Prized possessions meaning / definition

Possessions which are biggest thing in your life, the one thing you couldn’t imagine your life without.  Things, you could not bear to (and hopefully won’t ever!) lose. Something you care for deeply above all else. Such valued possessions are something important; which are valued over everything else. It could be anything you cherish, which is close to your own heart; and can be worth millions or worth nothing. It may even sound irrelevant to someone else because it has no value for them.

Why do we treasure prized possessions?

But why are such possessions so important to us? Naturally, prized possessions differ from person to person and so do our reasons for these things being so important to us.  Such prized possessions have emotions attached with them; and these can’t be bought by money. Some people treasure things passed on to them by their parents (rings, wrist watch, jewelry, cars, jackets, house, smart phone, laptops etc.). While some other value relationships more than material objects. Like, a mother may consider her daughter or son as the most prized possession or a wife may consider husband and kids as precious possessions. The relations which you love more than yourself. Couples in love relationships looks towards each other as a prized possession.

These possessions are close to heart. Those have meaning to you. Human beings’ hearts are not accountants like brains. Heart chooses the meaning, not the monetary value.

Most Prized possessions lose its status with time

When I ask myself; what my most prized possession is? I find; it has been changed over the time. In childhood my cricket bat gifted by my father was most precious possession, during adolescent my diary of poetry (self-composed) and in later half of 20s it was my car and smart phone. At present, I have many prized possessions, which includes materialistic things like earlier and few relationships which became precious later. My current most prized possessions also included few other non-tangible treasures which I will be sharing with you later on in this article.

What I want to point out here is valued possessions lose their special status with time passage. My treasured possessions have been kept changing throughout my life as I mentioned earlier. Well what I feel age, gender, financial condition, surrounding people and education makes an impact on valuation of things or relations; and contribute in deciding whether those are most treasured or not.

Brighter side of prized possessions

These meaningful possessions often become a source of pride, self-respect, self esteem and bring confidence to possessor. It generates lots of positive feelings which make you feel good and enhance your mood, and even inspire or motivate you. It also give you sense of control; as you have ownership over precious possessions and this sense of control make you feel secure.

Darker side of prized possessions

Stop here and think for couple of minutes, Can you give up your valued possessions? Did you panic? Well it is normal; as I mentioned earlier precious possessions have sentimental connection. We are so attached with them that we perceive them “me” instead of “mine”. When people lose their prized processions they get hurt and sometime deeply, resulting in mental health issues.

Possessions in form of relations are people and it’s hard to get them back once lost (after death). It takes lots of time to recover from such loss, but eventually you get back to your life.

Top prized possessions

According to a survey; women and man have different prized possessions. Women’s top prized possessions are family photos, home, wedding ring, engagement ring, family pet, photographs of deceased relatives and Jewelry. Whereas, men’s top valued possessions includes home, family photos, car, wedding ring, smart phones, photographs of deceased relatives, family pet, laptop and photographs of significant other.

Photos of children are one of the most Prized Possessions from parents around the world. When I had my first baby I bought a news DSLR Camera to capture and treasure his childhood moments. We feel nostalgic looking at his childhood  photos and videos. My wife has a coffee mug printed with Good Morning; this was gifted to her by her grandfather. That mug is very close to her.

Prized possessions from different perspective

Well, we have understood the meaning of prized possessions. Till now, we have only talked about the tangible possessions. I promised you earlier in this article that I will be sharing with you few non-tangible prized possessions of mine. Those are living in present moment (habit) , experience, values, beliefs and posi-positive approach. You might be thinking how these can be valued possessions. Okay…, let me give you food for thought. Can you change your mind-set and traditional understanding about prized possession? Can you see your valued possessions from different perspective? Will you like to treasure following traits, competencies and skills as valued processions? Look at these mentioned below as most valued possession of your life.

• Health (includes physical and mental health)
• Values and principles
• Knowledge
• Ethics
• Beliefs
• Character
• Personality
• Self-awareness
• Self-confidence
• Humbleness
• Honesty
• Education
• Congruence among your thoughts, words and actions
• Acts of Kindness
• Mindfulness (This is most important)
• Compassion
• Positive Attitude
• Positive Thoughts
• Behavior
• Communication Skills
• Perseverance
• Peace of Mind
• Patience
• Habits
• Perception
• Gratefulness
• High Self-Esteem
• Forgiveness
• Happiness

What do you say?

Can you see few of the above qualities in yourself? Are not those your prized possession? If you ponder; does not all these give you feeling of “me”; instead of “mine”? Be the change; see above qualities as your valued possessions and your life will be changed.

“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.” ~ Orson Scott Card 

Having said all this, it isn’t bad to consider your father’s gifted bat or your mother’s jewelry as your prized possessions, but the best prized possessions can be intangible and more meaningful than traditional ones. What do you think?

Though if you look at the famous prized possession Quote of Daphne du Maurier – “Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” He does not consider the happiness as one of the valued possession. But I have contrary views on this and have included in my list. If according to him happiness is a state of mind, then that “state of mind” is a one of the prized possession.

Thank you for reading this. Over to you now, please let us know what is your most prized possession? I would also love to hear your views on prized possessions. Share them in the comment section, they are much appreciated.

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