By Teresa Salhi at Empower The Dream
Dalai Lama – Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Our personal value or self-worth is what we stand for in the world in which we live. It often comes to us naturally, yet many of our values can be nourished and developed throughout life. Our personal values are what must find within rather than allowing others to give to us. What I mean is, the love we give to ourselves also means to own and believe in who we really – rather than only accepting only what others tell us who we are.
The truth is we are all extremely valuable, in fact, we are priceless!
Values can be made up of everything that has happened to you in your life and include influences from: your parents and family, your religious affiliation, your friends and peers, your education, your reading, and more. Effective people recognize these environmental influences and identify and develop a clear, concise, and meaningful set of values and priorities. Once defined, values impact every aspect of your life.
We can look at others and admire what they do, say and be. Take the Dalai Lama for example, he embodies personal values of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. He also exudes high self-worth.
To get in touch with your values, and I also like to call these your personal strengths, ask yourself:
1. What DO I stand for?
2. What’s REALLY important to me?
If you are unsure of these answers, it is ok to think about the positive attributes friends, co-workers or family have pointed out in you or you can recall something that you accomplished in the past that gave you great joy. What value or strength did you pull from that resulted in the joy?
There are many characteristics considered of high value or admirable strengths, some of these include:
- Confident
- Faithful
- Trusting
- Grateful
- Patient
- Respectful
- Integrity
- Honest
- Giving
- Loving
When your actions and words align with your values, life is generally good and you feel content, confident and satisfied. Your self-worth expands. But when your behaviors don’t match-up with your values, you soon begin to sense an uneasiness that begins to swell and grow inside.
Making a conscious decision to identity which values are the most important supports keeping anxiety low and your happiness, sense of personal worth + self-awareness high.
Perhaps there are other values or strengths that you would like to embody and develop. Awesome! You really do have unlimited power and potential. Again, it is deliberate and conscious awareness of who you are right now that can be the love behind developing and expanding who you want to become and what you want to stand for.
Giving attention to your personal values and strengths is one of the most important things you can do for yourself, for your family, work and overall life well-being. It has a great impact on your self-worth, confidence and how you show up in the world living on purpose and with your success in hand.
How else can you go forward with purpose, balance and lead a blissful life? It really does show up in everything you do whether you are aware of it yet or not. You owe it yourself to live out your potential, to embrace your value and to allow it to speak for itself.
Your self-worth and value are not determined by a number but you are Priceless!
P.S. Here is a popular home study course that will catapult your life results and boost your confidence to new levels.
Teresa Salhi,
Catalyst for Women’s Empowerment, Business and Personal Life Success
This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission from purchases made through links. I will only recommend products I have used.
Self worth and values have been an intergral part of my upbringing. I still struggle with self confidence, I am happy that I know who I am , where I am from and where I want to be in the future.
You sound like you are definitely in a great place Apolline – confidence comes from doing it, consistency, facing fears and knowing our worth…you are on top of all of it.
Values are often mentioned, but I think few people have actually have taken the time to deeply explore what values they have. Honesty and integrity seem to be the most common attributes, but trusting and grateful seem to be more uncomfortable to acknowledge. I think we needs to give them more than lip-service and determine what the values mean that we hold.
Yes, i agree with you for sure, Joyce.
I love talking about values. Our values determine our happiness and our expectations. Sometimes changing our values can change the future. Thanks. Great Topic.
I love this, Teresa. I believe self worth/self love is something many, many women struggle with. Once we heal a layer or two, we unpeel more that needs to be healed. Imperfectly imperfect! I really appreciate how you talk about being in alignment with our values. That’s so important! My core values include: integrity, family, alignment, community, service, faith, gratitude and more. This post is a great reminder for everyone.
Thank you for these great comments Tandy.
I believe that self worth is something we all struggle with..especially those with a less than perfect childhood. I like the idea of asking ourselves ‘what really is important to me?’ It will help in the alignment
Asking empowering questions, gives us empowering answers.
Beautiful post, Teresa! It is so wonderful to identify and stand with and for our core values and life purpose. We are on the same page this week, for sure!
We all really do have more in common than we might think….
Self-worth touches so many areas of our life and business. If people are not good at making offers, then they have a self-worth challenge. If they feel insecure when asking someone to invest in what they are selling, then owning their self worth is definitely an issue. The great thing is, with a little training and planning mixed with some personal development, one can turn this all around relatively fast.
Yes that is for sure!!
Self-esteem, self-worth and self-expression are third chakra issues. The third chakra is centered at the solar plexus. Whenever we go against our own core self we get a sense in our gut, a “gut feeling” that something is wrong. This is intuition. I love the way you clearly communicated the characteristics of values so we could begin the process of learning where we stand! Your workshop looks fantastic!
Yes, I appreciate this about chakras…..when a woman can tap into our center, her womb space – she can change her life to what she really wants. This is her power source, her feminine power – it is the core of how I love to serve.
This is something I have been living and writing about for some time now. As a stand for rights…human, animal and environmental, I find I am doing more to raise awareness and share information and ideas with as many people who will listen, Teresa! Yes, if we stand for something and then behave in a way that isn’t aligned with those values, we will live with discomfort and sometimes even dis-ease. Thanks for sharing how key values are as the guiding principles for how we live our lives.
You are so welcome, Beverley. We thrive when we are truly alive in truth.
So true that when your actions are out of alignment with your values, you are filled with unease. That makes it even more important to really understand your values and core beliefs and then act in such a way that delights them. Your posts are always full of love and positivity Teresa. Thank you for that.
Ah, I love this journey and I appreciate you being here with me, Tami.
Knowing who you are and where you stand is so valuable. It also makes for a happier person. I find that when I talk to people who admit to not having figured those things out, their paths in general are less clear and well-defined. It’s such a gift to have such clarity.
Clarity is a secret sauce.