On Values and Happiness with Andrea Owen
/Life coach. Author. Hellraiser. Andrea Owen is passionate about empowering women to value themselves and fiercely love who they are. She helps high-achieving women let go of perfectionism, control, and isolation and choose courage and confidence instead.
Catch Andrea’s first interview on In Her Voice here.
Here are some of the big topics we talked about…
You might struggle with happiness, but you can improve, have compassion for yourself!
Key points of our journey “value work” - some of the top values: love, freedom, courage, adventure, giving back, authenticity, stability, safety, integrity, honesty
Spiritual transitions and one’s changing relationship with one’s religion and devotion
Creativity can look like so many different things. Define what a value means to you!
Authenticity examples: being yourself AND knowing when you’re in perfectionism, people pleasing; taking responsibility for your mistakes and making apologizes; cleaning up messes/ apologizing; having hard conversations and setting boundaries
Don’t set values and run away — know what they look like on a daily basis
Be proud of how you showed up no matter the outcome
Identify red flags of when you’re out of alignment
Become aware of incongruity so you can make a choice about who you want to be
In Andrea’s Voice
“Happiness is where you are proactive in your life in focusing on the things that make you feel good. There are things that we can do that will help us along the path of happiness.”
“What’s important about the way you live your life? What attributes and virtues matter to you?”
“Your values might change depending on the season that you’re in. I invite people to try not to be attached to what a value ‘means.’”
“Print a list of values from the web. Circle any that jump out at you. My guess is that first round you’re going to circle the ones that look good on paper, that you want to be your values. Don’t be afraid to circle ones you might not yet honor in your life. I call those aspire values.”
“Ask yourself what values you need to honor to get you to the next level in your personal life.”
“Professing and naming your values is like naming your children and calling that parenting. It’s not how it works! It’s the same with values. You can tell people what your values are. The next step, what does that look for you on a ground level, day in and day out?”
“I’d have cheated myself, not honored courage, if I didn’t have an uncomfortable conversation.”
“There’s a feeling of congruency, you feel at home and comfortable of who you are. The more aligned you are with your values, the more brave you are in your life, the more you can trust yourself on the other side.”
“When I have moments of being out of alignment with who I want to be, I notice it within a handful of minutes. The solution for me: self compassion, then making a decision about what needs to be done. I have been practicing this for about 12 years!”