Exploring Values

What are Values?

Everyone has a personal set of values that come from their life experiences and are influenced by their family, friends, and society. Values are individual beliefs that motivate our behaviours and actions, to create our standards. They serve as a guide for human behaviour and motivate us as they are attributes of the person that we want to be. 

Our values tend to change over time, as we grow through different life stages, the things we value can change. For example, what you valued as a teenager may not be what you value as an adult. We can learn a lot about our own values by the way we react to other people and interact with ourselves. 

Conflicting Values

Sometimes, the values we hold don’t always align with our actions as some values are difficult to live up to, other priorities get in the way, or we have conflicting values. We also may hold our values when interacting with others but drop our values when interacting with ourselves. For example, we may value kindness and be able to hold this value while interacting with others (i.e., being kind). However, when we talk to ourselves we may drop this value (i.e., not being kind) and have a negative internal voice towards ourselves.  

Self Reflection

• How do you want to be treated?

• How do you want to treat others?

• How do you interact in the world around you?

• What ways do you demonstrate you value yourself?

• Does how you live your life align with your values?

• Do you have values that are conflicting? 

• Do you feel you live congruently with your values? 

Living congruently with your values allows you to connect to your most authentic self. If you are looking to explore your values or for support around being your most authentic self, feel free to reach out to one of our therapists for a free 15-minute consult.