No-fuss anxiety tips #13
Value your values
Welcome to blog number 13 of 20 in this quick-read series on anxiety. Each post aims to give you actionable ideas on how you can get a handle on your anxiety.
What these tips won’t do is explore the origins and purpose of anxiety for you – this type of deeper exploration is what therapy offers. That said, having strategies for managing anxiety is a great place to start. Each article is designed to be quick read, no-fuss. So, let’s get dive into another technique: value your values.
Values as your guide to a life well-lived
Values are the principles we try to live by - the things we hold important that influence what we do. They are the WHY of our actions. Different people have different values. Perhaps you value justice, honesty and connection? Or maybe your values include spontaneity, creativity and freedom? You might prize success, recognition and resilience most?
Living in ways that conflict with your values
If you find yourself living in ways that don’t align with your values, you are likely to feel a sense of unease and an anxiousness. Stress and anxiety resulting from feeling a need to act in ways that conflict with personal values was a phenomonen noted within healthworkers in the COVID-19 Pandemic (D'Alessandro et al., 2022). Some healthcare and frontline workers were placed in positions where they needed to violate deeply held moral values due to systemic constraints. The imapct of has a name - “moral injury” - and we know that anxiety can be one of the features of moral injury (Jinkerson, 2016).
Living in alignment with your values
In contrast, if you can be clear about your values and then make choices that allow you to live these out, you can experience greater contentment and a decrease in panic, fear and anxiety. Makign conscious and active choices about how you live in alignment with your values can help create a sense of autonomy and self-ownership of your own life.
Take time to identify your core values
Taking time to identify your core values is a powerful self-development tool. It’s a way to value your values. Even if other people, or even your own critical voice, disagrees with your decision, once you know and respect your own values, you can stand firm in knowing that you have made a decision that is right for you. You can feel confident in your integrity, rather than experiencing anxious rumination as to whether you did the “right thing”?
Below is a long list of common core values. Which words stand out to you as what you value in life? You can use the list to take an audit of your own values.
〰️
Authenticity
〰️
Achievement
〰️
Adventure
〰️
Authority
〰️
Autonomy
〰️
Balance
〰️
Beauty
〰️
Compassion
〰️
Community
〰️
Creativity
〰️
Challenge
〰️
Curiousity
〰️
Determination
〰️
Fairness
〰️
Faith
〰️
Fame
〰️
Friendship
〰️
Family
〰️
Fun
〰️
Growth
〰️
Happiness
〰️
Honesty
〰️
Humour
〰️
Justice
〰️
Kindness
〰️
Leadership
〰️
Learning
〰️
Love
〰️
Loyalty
〰️
Openness
〰️
Popularity
〰️
Optimism
〰️
Peace
〰️
Pleasure
〰️
Recognition
〰️
Respect
〰️
Responsibility
〰️
Security
〰️
Service
〰️
Status
〰️
Trustworthy
〰️
Wealth
〰️
Wisdom
〰️ Authenticity 〰️ Achievement 〰️ Adventure 〰️ Authority 〰️ Autonomy 〰️ Balance 〰️ Beauty 〰️ Compassion 〰️ Community 〰️ Creativity 〰️ Challenge 〰️ Curiousity 〰️ Determination 〰️ Fairness 〰️ Faith 〰️ Fame 〰️ Friendship 〰️ Family 〰️ Fun 〰️ Growth 〰️ Happiness 〰️ Honesty 〰️ Humour 〰️ Justice 〰️ Kindness 〰️ Leadership 〰️ Learning 〰️ Love 〰️ Loyalty 〰️ Openness 〰️ Popularity 〰️ Optimism 〰️ Peace 〰️ Pleasure 〰️ Recognition 〰️ Respect 〰️ Responsibility 〰️ Security 〰️ Service 〰️ Status 〰️ Trustworthy 〰️ Wealth 〰️ Wisdom
Get in Touch
To help develop your repertoire of managing anxiety, look out for more mini blogs within this series. And, if you’d like to talk through how counselling can help you with a deeper exploration of your anxiety, do make contact with me, Claire Law. We can talk through how online counselling or face-to-face counselling at my therapy room in Preston can help manage your anxiety. f you’re considering speaking with a counsellor about anxiety, do get in touch. We can work together through online counselling or through face-to-face counselling at my therapy room in Preston.
References:
D'Alessandro, A. M., Ritchie, K., McCabe, R. E., Lanius, R. A., Heber, A., Smith, P., Malain, A., Schielke, H., O'Connor, C., Hosseiny, F., Rodrigues, S., & McKinnon, M. C. (2022). Healthcare Workers and COVID-19-Related Moral Injury: An Interpersonally-Focused Approach Informed by PTSD. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 784523. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.784523
Jinkerson, J. D. (2016). Defining and assessing moral injury: A syndrome perspective. Traumatology, 22(2), 122–130. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000069