Manifesting Self Love Through Core Values
Core Values – Living by your personal values and recognizing the interference of mental health
The best way to live as your most authentic self is to live by your core values. However, this is much easier said than done. To live completely by your core values means that you are prioritizing those values at work, school, home, with family, friends, even pets – literally everywhere! Your values might change as you move through your life because they will be representative of what is important to you now. As your “why” for life changes, so will your how, and thus your values.
Where to start?
In order to start living by your core values, you have to identify what you values are to begin with. It’s usually best to have a list of your top 3 values to turn to. Having only 3-5 will help you to decide what is truly important in your world.
Some common core values include:
| Acceptance | Education/Learning | Loyalty |
| Accomplishment | Empathy | Love |
| Bravery | Family | Optimism |
| Community | Freedom | Passion |
| Compassion | Fun | Respect |
| Confidence | Health | Service |
| Connection | Honesty | Spirituality |
| Creativity | Integrity | Trust |
| Discipline | Leadership | Wisdom |
Where does mental health come into this?
Any sort of addictive behavior, maladaptive behavior, or mental health relapse will traditionally create conflict between you and your values. For example, one of my core values is connection. When I engage in my eating disorder behaviors, I start to become secretive and I don’t foster the relationships I have in my life. Then I will continue to make decisions, like lying and restricting, that make me fall out of alignment with my values of connection, honesty, and fun. My mental health will continue to decline without the purpose and meaning of my values guiding me.
When you start to feel a little out of whack and like you aren’t living in alignment with your purpose, you likely aren’t living with your core values in mind. All you need to do is recognize that it is happening and start to make micro changes that bring your values back to center stage. Making those changes little by little will make your mental health brighter.
Your core values will always guide you back to your truest self. When we are our truest self, we are our most authentic self. When we are authentic, we are acting in self-love.
The micro change are so important yet hard to do when things are caving in. Slow breathing is something I can utilize to help start the re-focus. I think I’ll write my list and carry it with me.