Not to sound repetitive…but I keep coming back to this…
Here’s why it’s a motto of sorts for me; it helps to narrow down + distill the things that are the most important things in life. Values. Priorities. Which help keep me on track for what I want to have filled my life with when I get to the end + look back.
I’ve briefly touched on this subject before, right here, but this month I want to dive into it a little deeper.
So what is important to you? How do you make decisions for what goes on in your days? We’re deciding on our future, our experiences, + even our memories whether we’re intentional about them or not. + in my experience – cuz that’s all I can speak from – when I’m intentional about the who, what, when, why, where, + how of my days, the better they feel. It’s just challenging sometimes to keep things balanced + not get overloaded with #allthethings, happening around me or in trying to #doitall.
I feel like this might come off a little braggy, + it’s filled with all sorts of privilege, but let’s do it. I’ve been pretty successful in putting some things in place that are aligned with my values, + in creating a life that I’m happy to show up in. This includes finding a job I love that I can work part-time hours at, living in a part of the City that is very fortunate, being able to make decisions to live a small footprint, + have most things that come into our home serve our wellbeing. When it comes down to it, the things I value most are my family, my son most especially; the earth; our relationship to each other. The end. I mean, this blog, this website, anything I create here, is predicated on the hope that it will serve the tenets of mind|body|spirit, home+heart people, + earth+community. Three realms. Starting at our core, + radiating out.
So when I do something like a capsule wardrobe, it’s because I want to consume less. When I order groceries from Food Fund, or local vendors, it’s because I want to keep our impact small. We have one car + one cell phone, + don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. These are choices we make to live in alignment with the things we value most.
I’ve begun the last few years by outlining what’s important to me + why. I use a guidebook with exercises I put together, which you can find here. Essentially, it starts by figuring out what is important, the values I want to live by. + then figuring out the details of what that looks like in operation.
+ I don’t intend any of this to suggest that the goal is living a perfectly aligned life, because we’re far from that! But having a guideline of what is important, + knowing why it’s important, makes things infinitely easier. + keeping things simple so you can focus on what really matters in life, is really what this is all about 😉
So…do you know what your top values + priorities are? Do you really know the kind of life you want to live? If not…why not? Grab a journal, some paper, a napkin, whatever, + reflect on that for a minute or five.
What do your priorities look like? What do you value? Keep asking yourself the who, what, why, where, when, how of your thoughts until you get it stripped right back + can’t go any further. Mine are literally time with my family, + living a life that doesn’t just take…from the earth, from the wellbeing of others. Leaving things better when I leave than when I got here. To be a good ancestor. [A term I first heard from Layla F Saad, on instagram.]
Once you know what your key values are, start to reflect on + map out how they’ll influence your choices + decisions. Then you can create rhythms + routines in your day that are based on your key values. + taken a step further, these rhythms + routines become the experiences + traditions that inform an identity for you + your family.
I think we all do this in some way or another…+ I know I tend to get a little extra on things…but I also know that when I make the effort to keep what’s important in mind, when I am intentional about what happens in our life, things feel fuller + simpler. That feels like thriving. So, no, I hope I’m never proselytizing that this is the only right way to go about things. But it’s worked out pretty well for our fam, + I just want to share that in the hopes that it works out pretty well for you too.