Living Aligned To Your Values
A life aligned with my values is what I’ve been intentionally creating the past few years.
Up until I was 27/28 and volunteered at a community in Costa Rica for 5 months I used to always be setting goals, valued how hard I worked and took pride in being ambitious.
What I desire for my life has shifted a lot over the past couple years as I dove into my own healing process.
I rewired old thought patterns and let go of this pressure to always be working and achieving. (I share more about my deeply engrained pattern of needing to achieve in the blog post Redefining What Success Means To You.)
I shifted from feeling the pressure to always be doing -> to giving myself permission to simply be.
Presently you will NOT here me say I value:
Discipline
Consistency
Hard work
Profit
Hustle
Money
Status
Influence
Over-consumption
Glamour
Productivity
Because I don’t care about how much I do, accomplish or own anymore. I’m not competing with anyone. I’m not proving my worth through action.
Instead I deeply value:
Love
Peace
Ease
Gentleness
Living in flow
Being of service
Rest
Creativity
Connection
Beauty
Nature
Spirituality
Joy
I care about living a nourishing life. I care about savouring it, treating every day as sacred. I decided I’m enough and worthy as I am and I can just simply BE.
Humans are not robots, we are not productivity machines, we don’t always need to be working towards a goal or optimizing our lives to get the most done as fast as possible.
It’s okay to go through periods of rest and not set any big goals you are working towards.
I used to judge myself for wanting a slower paced life and thought people will think I’m lazy. But now I’m totally okay if they think that.
Since allowing myself to slow down and taking the pressure off to work hard my life is richer, I feel more peace, my self worth is no longer rooted in outer achievements, I’m more present and overall happier.
I approach life a bit differently from most people I meet and it is because we have different values.
Instead of being disciplined and consistently sticking to a 5 day/week workout schedule, I listen to my body and see if it needs rest. Or if in the moment I feel more called to prioritize connection with a friend or a creative project then I follow that intuitive impulse.
Instead of pursuing a career because it would give me a high salary, status or influence I chose a career path where I get to be of service, help people and my compassionate, gentle energy is appreciated.
Instead of creating content proudly flaunting over-consumption tendencies or a glamorous lifestyle I like to create content that shares real moments in my life and inspires people to follow their joy, deepen their spiritual connection and relish in the beauty of nature.
Anything with the “boss babe” or work-eat-sleep-repeat mindset is not for me. And I used to be all about the “hustle until you make your dreams a reality” mentality.
Now I’m all about slowing down, savouring each day, appreciating everything in the present moment and feeling whole and enough as I am.
Remember: Creating the life you dream of, in alignment to your values, is a deep and potent act of self-love. ❤️
If you desire to live a different way than you are currently and from those around you, my advice is: Trust yourself, embrace your sacred rebel and forge your own path. Your values will most likely shift over time and it’s a wonderful and brave step to change your life to be in alignment with them.
Photo by @amandinelouis.photography