Values play a huge part in the way we feel in our life.

When we're living in alignment with our values, generally everything feels much easier, more in flow.

When we're not fully aware of what’s important to us, and thus living in misalignment, things can feel off. This can be a deep sense of unease or simply that there's something not right but you can't put your finger on it.

If we don't know our values, it can be hard to ensure we're living a congruent life.

Interestingly, many of us find it quite hard to list our core values. We generally find it easier to list attributes we would like to have but that deep knowing of what's important to our soul can be much harder to put your finger on.

The good news is there are several ways we can define our values and the best thing is that it's a fun and enlightening process.

I recommend doing this relatively regularly as although our values they don't tend to change, they may show up differently for us at different times.

I've recently been listening to the Lightmaker’s Manifesto by Karen Walrond, which I can thoroughly recommend, especially if you're feeling like you could do with some direction or help in finding your values.

I set myself the challenge of going through the process she talks about in the book to identify your values, and I'd love to share it with you.

This technique has been used by many people in the past in various ways and I've certainly seen it done this way before, but I like the way she described doing it.

First of all, take three blank sheets of paper or three blank pages in your journal and at the top of each one write somebody who you really respect and admire.

These can be family, friends, famous people, anyone who's inspired you in your life, once you have decided on your three people, under their names write everything you know, like and respect about them.

Don't censor your thoughts just let everything flow, don’t edit as you go, let everything come out even if it feels surprising at the time.

Once you've done this for each person, go through and notice any similarities or words that show up more than once.

You will likely start to notice a few duplicates or common threads and these words are a really good starting point for actually identifying your core values.

Write these words down on a fresh piece of paper and notice whether they can be summarized into fewer words, or if any have a particular resonance with you.

These will be attributes that are important to how you live your life, it’s worth checking in and seeing whether you are currently living in alignment with them all.

We can only see in others what we have within ourselves….

In case you are interested my three people I used for this exercise, who I massively respect and admire, are: Pink, Brené Brown, and a very good friend and former boss Liz Carroll-Wheat, and the words that came up for me were bold and brave, supportive and kind, personal responsibility, laughter and fun and generosity and honesty.

I'd love to know which people you chose and what words came up for you….share your words in the comments below.