It seems that last week’s post Do You Value Yourself? (here if you missed it https://theinspiredzone.com/do-you-value-yourself/ ) resonated with a lot of you.

Good.

I am glad it did because we should all value ourselves….and each other.

This week I want to ponder upon the values we live our lives by. The more I have been thinking about values lately the more I believe that they underpin our entire wellbeing and fulfilment in life.

I know if ever I get swept into a tailspin of fear that I am not fully present and it can easily lead me into reactivity. That fear based reaction to life (and for me also usually overly emotional whenever triggered by fear) can sweep me unconsciously out of my values and my response is anything but in alignment with them in those moments. After years of meditation and breath work I am far less reactive to fear but I still get triggered on occasions.

I know the key is to stay present, to take a deep breath, and to always check in with whether my current thoughts, words, choices and actions are in alignment with my values.

All well and good. Assuming of course any of us are clear on what our values are.

So having established from last week’s post that you value yourself (or are at least working on it ;-))….

We could look at the definition of values in the context of living our lives by them as;

‘principles or standards of behaviour that we live our life by, and our view of what is important in life.’ 

The Latin root of ‘Val’ has the meaning of “worth; health; strength.” And that translation in and of itself suggests the role that values play in our health and resilience.


You might already know what your values are but if you don’t then try this:

Have a look through this extensive list of examples and pick 10 that resonate with you.

Then halve that to your top 5.

For those 5 I highly recommend that you expand on why they are important to you and what living by them would look like in day to day examples.

For example, one of mine is authenticity. To me that means being myself even if that’s not what fits for someone else, or even if it goes against the crowd. Another of my values is courage, and it often takes courage to stay in alignment with being authentic. When I make decisions in life I try to apply these values and as such it helps me when I have difficult decisions to make because it gives me a filter to run things by.

So, my suggestion to you is to try to do an experiment for a week. Having identified your top 5 values and why they are important to you, try to stay present this next week with every thought, word, choice and action.

Ask yourself “is this in alignment with my values?”

You are no doubt in for a revealing and empowering week!

Ambition

Approachable

Assertiveness

Attentive

Awareness

Balance

Belonging

Caring

Compassion

Connection

Contentment

Courage

Curiosity

Dependability

Discipline

Empathy

Enjoyment

Faith

Family

Focus

Freedom

Friendly

Fun

Generosity

Gratitude

Happiness

Health

Helpful

Honesty

Humility

Humor

Independence

Innovative

Integrity

Joy

Kindness

Love

Loyalty

Mindful

Open-Minded

Openness

Optimism

Passion

Patience

Peace

People

Performance

Perseverance

Positive

Professionalism

Punctuality

Realistic

Relationships

Reliability

Resilience

Resourceful

Respect

Self Awareness

Self Motivation

Selfless

Sensitivity

Sincerity

Spirituality

Spontaneous

Strength

Support

Teamwork

Trustworthy

Wealth