Blog

Three Tips on Finding Your Values

There are many, but today I’m sharing three tips on finding your values. This step is crucial to living a fulfilled life. For me, I had vague ideas on what was most important to me.

The Three Tips

  1. Understand the concept of values
  2. Explore your personal values
  3. Hone in on your top three to five values

What Are Values Exactly?

I want to be clear, I’m talking about personal values that serve as the basis for our goals toward achieving fulfillment and ultimately our life purpose. This article on Physiopedia.com is an in-depth explanation of personal values and beliefs.

Furthermore, values are what you feel is important to you.

How Do Values Affect Me?

If your thoughts and actions are in synch with your values, you are happier, that is, you are calm, centered, content.

Conversely, if your thoughts and actions are based on the values of others, you may be anxious, unsettled, jittery. Empaths are often unduly influenced by the values of others. My blog about empaths will help you discover if this is your reality.

How Do I Discover My Values?

Here is a list of values with further hints on using it. Now, let’s get to it!

  • Gather a notepad and pen or pencil
  • Find a quiet place and sit upright
  • Close or soften your gaze
  • Take three slow cleansing breaths
  • Relax your neck and shoulders
  • Sink into your hips and feet
  • Notice how your body feels
  • Slowly open your eyes and start reading each value aloud
  • When a word resonates somewhere in your body, write it down

My Three Values as Example

Here are my values; Honesty, Tranquility, and Purpose

If I follow these values in my thoughts and actions, I’m extremely happy and carefree. It’s fairly easy if I’m alone and in complete control of my environment. Rather, since I don’t live a monastic life alone, I often struggle to live these values.

Let’s see examples where I’m successful:

  • Honesty: I use my love of creative cooking to create a healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free salad for lunch.
  • Tranquility: While caught in Interstate-4 traffic, I tune into the Spa channel on Sirius XM, smile, and calmly allow merging traffic to, well.. merge.
  • Purpose: Quiet morning time is spent meditating and writing my blog.

Now for the opposite:

  • Honesty: Feeling stressed, I open my overhead kitchen cabinet where ‘fun foods’ like wasabi peas and dark chocolate are stored and grab something, stuffing it in my mouth before anyone sees my loss of control.
  • Tranquility: While caught in Interstate-4 traffic, I tune into the 70’s on 7 channel on Sirius XM, pound my palms on my steering column, and switch lanes over and over to ‘get ahead’.
  • Purpose: Quiet morning time is spent checking email, all my social media channels, reading newspaper headlines and getting sucked into someone else’s drama.

Is There a Theme Here?

Absolutely. The theme is self-care. Once I discovered my values, all I needed to do was practice self-care by respecting myself and these values. And yes, I fall off my self-care regimen all the time, forgetting to honor my values. Above all, I start again.

May you explore my three tips on finding your values and use the list of values to discover a calmer way to live with ease.

With honesty, tranquility, and purpose,
Dawn

The Most Important Marketing Tool

Are you wondering what the most important marketing tool is? Also, why do you post on social media? If it’s to connect with your readers or potential clients, this article is for you.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

First of all, I want to mention marketing guru Dan Blank of We Grow Media. When I read his newsletter last week, it struck a nerve. One of Dan’s principles is the importance of connecting with the right audience, that person who needs what you are offering. I wholeheartedly agree with this idea.

How I Expand on Dan’s Idea

My experience includes the importance of purpose. Why do you want to publish your book? What is your motivation?

If you want to help your readers or your clients improve their lives, then we are on the same page.

Non-Fiction vs. Fiction

It is obvious that many non-fiction books are written to help elevate the reader. In contrast, have you ever felt better or learned something about yourself in a fiction book? I know I have. Those are the fiction books I crave; well-written, interesting locations, history is nice, and characters that learn something along the way. Some of my favorite fiction books that fit this description are:

There are many more on my Goodreads profile. Furthermore, I’m in the process of adding books I’ve read in the past to this account, making it a resource for my readers, like you.

What about my favorite non-fiction?  First, I want to note that the first three non-fiction books in my list above are loosely based on the author’s lives. I suspect that is often the case.

Here is my short list:

I imagine you are thinking, these are kind of strange, unrelated subjects. Absolutely! But that is the key to the most important marketing tool.

Here’s the Marketing Tool

After being very clear what you are selling, writing about, or the service you are offering, imagine your perfect client sitting with you. Have a conversation with them. What would you talk about? Ask them about their interests and hone in where you have common ground. Furthermore, what are they looking for that you can give them?

Finally, use this information when you post on social media.

Draw your perfect client or reader in with a photo, question, or quote. Engage with other like-minded people on social media. Don’t just ‘like’ their posts, comment from your heart. Share their posts. Use their profile link in your share to let them know you care about what they are sharing.

Be real.

An Invitation

Let’s have some conversations on social media. You can find me several ways. Click on the social media icons on the page. Or search for @dawnoutside on Twitter and Instagram. I can’t wait to read your share on the most important marketing tool.

Update on my Instagram account: A friend notified me she had received a personal message from someone who stole my profile picture and was contacting my followers. Hmmm. At first I was very angry, then fear crept in.

Finally, a little more about my photo here. It’s a photo of the first dawn at my new house. Did it help to draw you into this page? I’ve found that personal, real photos are much more effective than using professional images. Furthermore, my loving energy will always be in my photos, words, and paintings.

See you soon,
Dawn

Consider Walking Barefoot Today

Would you consider walking barefoot today? You may respond, “Why?” Walking barefoot is a way to connect to the Earth and is called earthing or grounding. If you are an empath, you may have heard these terms. I was surprised to find this article with scientific evidence of the benefits of earthing.

I know it is winter in the Western Hemisphere and I give you some alternative earthing techniques below.

What is Earthing?

Earthing is contact with the earth’s surface electrons by walking barefoot outside. Alternatively, you can sit, work, or sleep indoors connected to conductive systems that transfer the energy from the ground into the body.

The article from the Journal of Environmental and Public Health goes on to say, “Emerging scientific research supports the concept that the Earth’s electrons induce multiple physiological changes of clinical significance, including

  • Reduced pain
  • Better sleep
  • A shift from parasympathetic to sympathetic tone in the autonomic nervous system (a reversal of the fight or flight stress syndrome)
  • A blood-thinning effect

There’s even a book, titled Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!.

Why is Earthing Important to Me?

If you are an empath, earthing is your connection home. It brings you back to center. And it’s a wonderful way to practice being in the moment.

During my walk barefoot on a natural path through a native forest in Florida, I enjoyed the different sensations the multitude of sensory points in the soles of my feet sent to my brain. The tiny grains of sand almost tickled me. Then the hard clay felt rough. Finally, the coolness of the grass made me smile.

I determined my barefoot walking distance based on the availability of benches. After removing my socks and shoes, I gingerly stepped on the well-worn grass and then sank into the soft sand. My footprints obscured the many shoe prints along the way.

Tips on Walking Barefoot

Although I preferred walking around my yard barefoot as a child, now my feet aren’t used to the complexity of the ground after years of wearing shoes. Safety is always the first concern when walking barefoot. Here are some tips.

  1. Inspect the area first with shoes on
  2. Remove obvious debris that can injure your feet
  3. Consider starting with a concrete area that is in contact with soil
  4. Choose a location that is quiet
  5. Keep your eyes open, scanning the ground
  6. Perhaps walk with a partner who understands the sanctity of silence
  7. Start very small, a few minutes at first

Being Practical Too

Perhaps it isn’t possible to consider walking barefoot today where you live. What can you do to adapt in your situation? Even standing on the Earth is a type of grounding. Refer to my ground and release exercise while sitting and use it while standing.

In Conclusion

Consider walking barefoot today, enjoying the healing aspects for your physical body, energy body and delighting your Inner Child.

Wiggling my toes,
Dawn