If I’d been told six months ago I’d be living in lockdown my response would be ‘no way am I having my freedom wings clipped that’s for dictatorial countries’. And here we are 6 months later having been in confinement ( the French translation) for nearly 6 weeks with the gates not opening for a while to come.
All kinds of thoughts came with the initiation of this imposed restriction, the obvious one health and safety for myself and others, then our travel plans, work, finance and the rest of what we perceive as needed. Daily news is not a good read and certainly helps to put us in the place of anxiety, even what I call the objective papers seems to be squeezing the stress chords at this moment.
It was in this frame of mind I found myself actually being positive in this out of nowhere Challenge, but then ‘challenge’ is one of my top values. Knowing my top five values allows me to understand who I am, and why I feel like and react in any given situation good or bad. Challenge is a value that makes me feel curious and admittedly excited about how to handle everything that stops me from what I would be doing normally. It helps me to squash negativity out of the way, which in turn enables me to be pro-active and positive with family, friends and colleagues as wells looking after myself
I’m privileged to live in sunny Provence in a house with awesome views, a fabulous flowering garden plus I can step out the door and walk into nature which is so magnetically beautiful it takes my breath away. My top value ‘nature’ is fed, it keeps me sane and inspired, I am eternally grateful.
I walk within ( well just about) the 1 kilometre, one hour limit with my dog, noticing the vegetation, stones, birdsong, butterflies, colours as I’ve always done, but somehow it’s different even magnified. Is it the new silence, no car background drone, no planes, only having a certain space? Whatever happens, I won’t forget this experience.
The environment has always been important to me whether previously I was energised by city life, or now energised by the tranquillity of the countryside Energy is a top value and I’m usually rushing around from one experience to another to satisfy it. I have slowed down, except this timely pause has instead given me other ideas. My fabulous Pilates teacher is online three times a week, which has so many advantages, including no twenty-minute car journey, a private coach in my own home a dream come true! Energy levels are happily high.
If you hadn’t heard about Zoom previously, you have by now! Luckily I’ve been using it for a while as a participant and then hosting my own business or social chats. Video conferencing has made a difference that I suspect the creator Mr Yuan could only have dreamt about a few weeks ago. Network Provence is a group I created and organise here in Provence our message is social contact can lead to ‘creative connections’. We’ve quickly adapted to online meetings which aren’t the same but I believe might have made a difference to lockdown, cheering each other on, is positive. ‘Connection’ being a value at first was threatened, yet even in isolation, the communication tools we’re blessed with are a gift from the cyber universe! My birthday fell in April and I invited my relations to a zoom party, it was a blast and as everyone had to bring their own wine, made it cheap too.
My fifth top value is learning, well a daily learning experience this lockdown is, mostly about myself, I do hope for the better. I’ve learnt a lot more about foraging, gathering wild plants for bouquets, quick, practical cooking with what we’ve got in the cupboard, and so much more that I’ve never prioritised.
We are all unique with our values making us often react differently, we may have an idea of what our top ones are, however identifying our top ten then top five is not obvious, once done it clears the way to being decisive and understanding of not only ourselves but the people we surround ourselves with. The next step is living them consciously I’m running Mini Value Soul Searching for those who’ve never worked with values before, or for those who’d like to explore further Discover your Inner Self identifies your own unique top values to create your positive future.
