What principles define how you live?
Living intentionally invites me to be clear about my values. Those values as they are shape my life; these values determine my choices and daily interactions. I regularly state my values usually writing them in my journal to see how they “sit” with me; then I examine my life through the lens of my values. Having named the values as they are and listened with my heart for a ringing true, I can note when my deep values are shifting to accommodate new knowledge and new ways of seeing. I can then incorporate them into my life, thoughts and action.
In this moment, I define my values in these ways:
Love
See and cherish interconnection. There is a subtle, creative energy that connects everything and everyone. Everything is part of this flow and has the freedom to respond within it. I choose to recognize intentionally the connection with everything and practice letting the Love flow through me rather than oppose or block this energy. I actively resist my resistance to my connections to this Infinite Mystery. Resist or not, I know Love shapes my daily, moment by moment existence.
Authenticity
Be real. Subject-to-subject connection is made possible by true self-revelation. I am who I am. I have a self-created self that has been a lifetime in the making. I built intentionally and passively a “face” and “lens” through which I want to be seen and through which I see. Practice allows me to catch that self-created self in the shadows, examining my purpose in creating each aspect. I practice keeping awake in every moment to patterns and habits arising. I work to say what I mean and act from my deepest self.
Integrity
Be undivided. Wholeness is what I work to be and exemplify in all aspects of my life. Rather than live from a compartmentalized place, I work to live undivided. I am not different persons at work, at home, and in the grocery store. Bringing together intellectual, emotional, and body center (head, “heart,” and gut) is to bring my fullest self to this moment. I am. I am also a part of All that is.
Transparency
Be clear. What is seen is what is. I work to hide less and less of myself in shadow through active attention. I attend and release hidden agenda. I say what I mean. I work to avoid pretense. I act from clarity of self, unapologetically.
Acceptance
Be receptive. I receive what comes without judgment. I receive the other without judgment. When I catch myself falling into a pattern of judgment, I release the pattern. I work to do the same with myself, receive myself as myself without judgment.
Gratitude
Be thankful. My life is a gift, this moment is a gift, and everything and everyone else is a gift. I am thankful I opened my eyes today, that I have breath and heartbeat. Gratitude creates a wider lens with which to view the world. I work to live from a gracious space, recognizing this life with appreciation. Gratitude continuously offers me the moment as a gift.
These are my values. I am thankful, receptive, clear, undivided, real, and I cherish interconnection. Twenty years ago, only three of these were my values. I am thankful life continues to present me new ways of seeing and knowing and also that time has allowed me to be open to the ever new and changing Universe.
Infinitely Precious 