Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Photo Credit: Genevieve V Georget @gen_georget

For decades, when it came to honouring my values, I noticed myself continually making great strides by taking two massive leaps forward and then faltering with an even more significant U-turn within succumbing to the beliefs I was guided by from the day I was born. I didn't have the confidence to switch from following conditioned acceptance to fully trusting being led by my soul.

I'm no different from anyone else when it comes to having an inkling that constantly begs me to pay attention to it—it comes in the form of a sequence of physical and emotional reactions. I know I only have seconds to decide whether to trust it or not. Some call it intuition as if saying that word out loud is reason alone to confidently follow its lead. However, there was a time when this powerful guide just wasn't safe or tangible enough to be worthy of confidently depending on it without understanding why I would.

As time progressed and I immersed myself in understanding myself outside of the pull of my family's generational value system, I realized that my inner knowing was more influential than who they believed I was or wanted me to be. And the more self-discovery I gifted myself, the more clarity I had about my personal values and what each meant to me—because everyone's belief system is uniquely defined depending on their authentic and developed personality. There are characteristics in each that deserve to be preserved if we truly resonate with them.

Once I concluded that no one could take away the emotions that come alongside the values I choose to be guided by unless I allow them to, I intuitively trusted them. For example, discovering that I experience connection when leading and living in line with my value of relationships gave me a guidepost prompting me to shift when I didn't feel connected to someone. Of course, I first needed to do the work to discover why I was experiencing this misalignment—that was the hard part. However, if I was willing to be uncomfortable to determine the why, I became much more comfortable with recalibrating towards connection within my response to what I was being triggered by.

The process of utilizing the Arc of Intense Energy to my advantage became my go-to because the pull towards that inner knowing became stronger and stronger each time I was about to jump into the vortex of making decisions based on someone else's belief system. Using both the left side of my brain (logic) and the right side (creative), I shifted what felt like idealistic language, "follow your intuition," to a pragmatic commonsensical message like "trust your values" and never turned back.

Worksheet 2, Living Congruent With Your Values in the The Daring to Share Your Story Program supports you to discover your top 5 core values and the emotional feelings that, uniquely to you, coincide with them. Writing/journaling is a significant part of this step-by-step process, however, it is simply a tool to support the self-discovery component. The goal is not necessarily to write or publish a book but rather to move through the cathartic experience of being able to articulate your values and how you emotionally feel when leading and living guided by them. Only then can you confidently use them as guide-posts within daily decision-making and in all areas of your life.

Whether you use the self-guide workbook on its own like hundreds before you or join The Book Club, you will be pleasantly surprised by how much more self-awareness you can achieve by uncovering your in-depth yet-to-be-described belief system when committing to this inner work.