Living in Integrity

If you were to think of five things that were important to you, would you say you prioritize those five things in your life? 

* How much time do you spend on those five things each day? 

*How much energy do you spend on those five things each day?

* How much attention do you spend on those five things each day?

* How much money do you spend on those five things each day?

*How much focus do you spend on those five things each day? 

I can say health is one of my top five priorities, but how much time, energy, attention, money and focus do I spend on it? Am I on my phone most of the evening when I could be looking up new recipes that are within my budget? Am I utilizing Netflix when I could be taking a moment for reflection and mindfulness? When I start to make food choices that are not within my daily budget I can usually trace that choice back to not living in integrity with myself. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I have a very limited amount of time, energy, attention, money, and focus. This means I have to take a cold hard look at what goals, or values, I have. I may want to nurture ten goals/values but the truth is I can really only handle five. 

What I’m talking about is often compared to a garden. You have a finite amount of water to use each day. The water represents time, energy, attention, money and focus and the plants are you goals/values. Let’s say you have your five plants (goals/values) you’ve been watering daily for the past couple weeks, then the holidays show up. The plant sprouts aggressively and depends a great deal of your water. Do you give the plant more water at the sacrifice of your other goals/values?? I know I did, and I wasn’t aware I was letting the holiday plant suck so many resources from my values of health, family, peace, etc. If I really think about it, I could beat myself up for giving my resources to the holidays so mindlessly… but I think the holidays gave me an opportunity to see HOW quickly I will give my resources away. Where do I do this in other parts of my life? It can be small plants like distraction via phone, internet, news, etc. It can be big distractions like difficult family members. 

As this year begins, it seems like a great time to reflect on our values…. We say we value certain things, but do we really? Are we living in integrity? Where do we spend most of our time? Do we need to change our values/goals to match where we spend our time and focus OR do we need to pull those plants out of our garden and be honest about what we can handle?

We are in a powerful time of year, a time of reflection, a time of honesty, a time of dreaming and a time of change.

Thanks for reading,
​Lana