These are the Core Values from which everything I do flows. Below is are my definitions of my Core Values and how they work together to provide a powerful framework that has impact and clarity.
FREEDOM
In early iterations of really getting to grips with my top core values, I was reluctant to name ‘Freedom’. Partly because it is something that, in the Western World we have accepted as a given, for many years with the last major threats to our freedom being in the world wars of the C20th. And partly because I, self consciously, felt it sounded a bit trite – like the adolescent freedom cries of the students during freshers week (we’ve all done it 🙂 ), which is always an irony given the nature of their relative privilege and inherent freedom.
However, as we have forayed into the travails of the early C21st, freedom is now something that has, again, become contentious and, indeed, threatened. This is true whether it is in relation to our physical freedom to leave our homes, for example, right through to bodily autonomy, health freedom, and freedom of speech.
Hence, I have come to regard freedom as both the inherent product of the 5 core values I have chosen, and the glue that binds everything in human life together. That is, without freedom, what is the point of human existence? Or, what is the point of human existence if we cannot express ourselves freely and experience life to its fullest, free from constraint and, as the dictionary definitions state, ‘slavery’.
Clearly, there is a lot more I could say about Freedom, and it is a core feature of my work and my writing and videos.
Sovereignty
….. is about personal power. It is about ‘you’ knowing what ‘you’ need and want for yourself and making decisions that reflect that internal wisdom appropriately.
During times of struggle you might need some support, though you must always retain self-leadership and ensure that your choices come from your internal knowing, rather than from something or someone outside of yourself.
Part of the support we might need, is to ensure that our ‘internal knowing’ is clear and free from trauma, else we risk responding to life from a place of fear, mistaking it for inner guidance or ‘intuition’.
It is also about dignity and tenacity, and having the audacity to be yourself, in a world that favours conformity. We can do this with poise and presence, learning to educate others and helping them to be successful in a way that respects their sovereignty as well.
Retaining sovereignty over our own bodies ensures that what we put into it supports health and vitality. The mind and body (MindBody) cannot be separated, so we must observe what is going into our MindBody at all levels – food, drugs, drink, media consumption, information, opinions, etc… Therefore, we must also choose our closest confidantes with care, ensuring that they support our core values, and that we are considerate of each others’ personal sovereignty as well.
Sovereignty sits on the outer ring of the circle of values, and links seamlessly into its important counterpart, harmony, which will be discussed below.
Truth
….. is about our ability to gain a real understanding about life, yourself, and the ways things, systems, people, relationships, and the world, work.
When we have commended our sovereignty over to someone or something else without question (eg ‘I am going to do whatever this person or organisations tells me to do’ or ‘I am going to believe whatever the television tells me to believe’), we move further and further away from truth.
When we seek truth on any level, we are prepared to be curious and to suspend the needs of our own ego to be right and to ask questions of everything we see or hear, from all perspectives, rather than search for the things that only support our fixed and limited perspective, and that was likely imposed from elsewhere (family, friends, school, media, culture, religion…..).
It is by seeking truth, that we are able to seek justice and fairness for ourselves and for others, behave with honour and integrity, and broach a place of freedom, by speaking with a wisdom that is aligned with whom we really are and why we are here. It is guided by intuition, and supported by knowledge.
There is a current antithetical movement away from truth, with many claiming, ‘there is no truth’. We will explore this notion in the work, going forwards.
My aim is to follow the truths that set people free and acts with the long term interests of humanity in mind. This means that seeking truth is not always an easy path the follow.
Optimism
….. is translated from the Latin as ‘best thing’. This means that, whatever happens, we will always expect that the future outcome will be for the best.
When we are aligned with personal sovereignty and truth, moving with the natural flow of these concepts, then our future can be an inspired one.
Optimism in itself is inspirational as it uplifts others as well as ourselves, and ensures that our future is pre-determined by our current levels of hopefulness, contentedness, and joy in the wonders of the ‘best things’ around us.
Whilst we may not always feel joyful or blissful, or even contented, optimism ensures that we can view what we currently have, who we currently are, and the people currently in our lives, with gratitude .
This can be a starting point for living in a state of optimism and knowing that solutions to our challenges are ever present, should we allow them to enter our experience.
Vision
….. is simply translated from the Latin as ‘to see’.
For me, vision flows out of truth and optimism, to produce the drive and momentum for where we are going in our lives.
Without vision, things might fall flat easily. It optimises our most potent resource, the imagination, and enables us to set a clearly seen course for our future.
Vision ensures that we view the world with awe and wonder at the boundless possibilities in front of us and appreciate the beauty of what is here, now, as well as what awaits us ion the future.
A vision, requires us to be creative and to utilise the resources we currently have, to provide a bridge to where we want to go in our lives.
Vision asks us to expand our horizons and to bring those horizons closer and closer towards us, in our imagination, until we have reached the shores of our vision in tangible form.
Yet we must stand firm in our sovereignty to ensure we do not stray far from our presence and thus lose ourselves in the process, meaning we are no longer aligned with the vision we set out to meet.
Harmony
….. completes the outer circle along with sovereignty since, whilst our personal power and responsibility is important, it is vital that we connect with others and form healthy and supportive relationships.
Harmony expands on the concept of unity, which is more about us all being one. Regardless of various beliefs about the ‘oneness’ of humanity and all things, we are all expressed differently as unique individuals.
In music, harmony is when different notes or sounds all play together at the same time to produce a beautiful sound.
Here, harmony is about us all coming together with our differences and still producing a beautiful world in which to live.
We can do this by showing kindness, acceptance, and care towards our fellows; willingness to be open-minded and straightforward about our differences; and taking part in gentle activism where appropriate in order to reveal the truths that lay beneath the structures that encourage division (subtly and ideologically), and cause harm to ourselves, our fellows, or our planet.
Ultimately, harmony brings about peace and conviviality.
