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
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