Happy Friday!
And welcome to today’s edition of ‘Conscious living with Purnima.’ In today’s post I invite you to revisit your core values. I will share an exercise you can do to discover your top 3 core values. Some of you might have done this exercise before. If you have, then you can skip section 1 & jump straight away to section 2 where I will share how you can use this knowledge to better care for yourself.
Let’s get to it.
One of my personal realizations is this:
“Self-care isn’t about applying cream on your face or buying yourself flowers (though it can include those things). It is more about prioritising actions that align with your core values. When you do that, you glow differently. You glow from the inside out.”
But when we are outwardly focused it can be hard to remember let alone align actions to our values. So, let’s take some time today to deep dive inward.
Here is a master list of values. This is from Author Vanessa Loder’s website. You can choose to add your own words to this list if you like:
Abundance; Acceptance; Accomplishment; Accountability; Accuracy; Achievement; Acknowledgement; Activeness; Adventure; Aesthetics; Altruism; Amusement; Appreciation; Approval; Artistry; Attraction; Authenticity; Autonomy; Awareness; Balance; Beauty; Being the best; Bliss; Boldness; Certainty; Choice; Clarity; Collaboration; Commitment; Community; Compassion; Competition; Completion; Comradeship; Connectedness; Contribution; Control; Courage; Creativity; Daring; Decisiveness; Dependability; Determination; Dignity; Diligence; Directness; Discipline; Discovery; Ease; Elegance; Emotions; Empathy; Empowerment; Encouragement; Energy; Enjoyment; Enthusiasm; Excellence; Excitement; Experience; Experimenting; Expression; Fame; Family; Feeling good; Flexibility; Flow; Focus; Freedom; Friendship; Fun; Generosity; Gentleness; Growth; Happiness; Harmony; Health; Honesty; Humility; Humor; Imagination; Impact; Improvement; Independence; Information; Inner life; Inspiration; Integrity; Intellect; Intimacy; Inventiveness; Joy; Justice; Kindness; Knowledge; Leadership; Learning; Legacy; Liveliness; Love; Loyalty; Mastery; Meaning; Mindfulness; Nature; Nurturing; Open-mindedness; Openness; Optimism; Orderliness; Originality; Outdoors; Participation; Passion; Patience; Peace; Perfection; Persistence; Philanthropy; Play; Playfulness; Popularity; Power; Preparedness; Privacy; Productivity; Realism; Reason; Recognition; Relaxation; Reputation; Resourcefulness; Respect; Responsibility; Risk Taking; Romance; Sacrifice; Satisfaction; Security; Self-expression; Self-reliance; Sensitivity; Sensuality; Significance; Solitude; Spirituality; Spontaneity; Stewardship; Style; Success; Support; Teaching; Traditions; Tranquility; Trust; Understanding; Vitality; Vulnerability; Wealth; Willfulness; Winning; Wisdom; Wonder; Worthiness; Zest;
The Exercise:
Pick a sheet of paper & in the first-round pick 10 from the list that feel most important to you. In round 2, further shortlist from 10 to 5 and in round 3, pick 3. These are your top 3 core values. Make sure to keep them in the back of your mind as you go about your day.
My top 5 values (in that order of importance) are: freedom, ease, authentic self-expression, respect & nurturing.
If you feel comfortable, then do share what yours are in the comments or reply to this post. I would love to know what's important to you :)
Using your core values for daily self-care:
Now that you know what your core values are let’s see how you can use them in daily life:
A. Start paying attention:
When our actions are aligned with our values, we feel good. And when we encounter situations where our core values are breached, we feel triggered.
So, in your daily life get into the habit of frequently checking in with yourself on ‘how you are feeling’. If not feeling good, probe into what’s not aligned.
Many of us don’t do this & thereby miss valuable information that our actions & environment are continually giving us.
B. Consciously prioritize actions that align with your values:
This is how you become a conscious creator of your life. Use the information you gather from paying attention to assess your personal & professional life. Next, begin to make small changes such as doing more of what aligns with your values, and minimizing the energy you give to anything or anyone out of sync with your values.
Start doing this on a consistent basis and notice how soul centered you feel.
2 Quotes
You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.
- James Baldwin
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson