Monthly Favorites: May 2022
Another month down! For me, 2022 feels like it’s been flying right by, and of course I really wish it would slow down. I’m ready for things to be slow, less full of hustle, more relaxed with time to savor the little things. May brought the end of the school year and the opening of summer — so relaxed days are surely on their way.
Here’s what I liked this month —
Figuring Out My Core Values
So, I had this vague idea as to what my core values were, but it had been years — and several life changes — since I’d gone deeper into exploring what my core values are. This month, I was challenged by my creativity & mindset coach to rediscover my core values to ensure I’m living according to them. I took quizzes, journaled about it, chose words from a list that sounded important to me, etc, but no resource struck me like the Live Your Values deck by Lisa Congdon.
To be fair, I read the ebook version of this, though I understand there’s also a physical deck you can use — both sound like great options, but the ebook version allowed me to do this quickly instead of waiting for a package in the mail, so that’s what I went with.
This deck quickly became one of my favorite ways to understand core values in a tangible way — there was nothing abstract about my working with this resource. Each card (or page, in the ebook version) has an illustration of a core value along with the value’s meaning and a few questions to ask yourself. I love journal prompts as they help me go deeper with how I feel on a topic, and these were no exception. I closed out of this ebook feeling fulfilled and like I understood myself in a brand new way, one I hadn’t experienced since.. well, probably since the last time I’d done a core values exercise.
Deciding on 3 major goals for the next year
Another coach-led activity, this one helped me to gain clarity on not only what I want to accomplish, but why. I paired these goals with my core values and found that the goals had so much more meaning once they were accompanied by the values that are most important to me, and wrote a whole list of what reaching the goals would look like, how they would feel, and which of my core values would be met by accomplishing or working toward each goal. Highly recommend doing this for yourself — the clarity is incredible.
The Shadow’s Heir by EE Hornburg
This was my favorite book of May!
I wrote a whole review here on the blog, and I highly recommend this book if you like romantic fantasy and fairytale retellings.
