Myself and I

"The value of life can be measured by how many times your soul has been deeply stirred." -Soichiro Honda

For probably over 5 years now, the 42 Ideals of Ma'at has been hanging on my fridge. I've read them a number of times, I've nodded and taken a few of them into consideration, but I've haven't thought about which I really value. Since I am on a journey, I want to do that today. Going through some of the ideals, I thought about which ones I valued most and I made three groups: What I Have, What I Want, and Most Valuable. I chose 5 ideals, organized them into my categories, and I'm challenging myself to really thing about why I value these ideals so much. This is what I came up with...


Side-note: "Loreon, of Isis Oasis, was one of the 9 Priestesses of the Temple of Isis who traveled to Egypt in 1995 and undertook to rewrite these laws, now changed the ideals, from the ancient text. Dealing with the same subjects they were updated and made positive rather than negative. It is wise to follow these simple but profound affirmations." (This was at the bottom of the sheet.)

What I Have

I am accepting; Passing judgement on others is something humans love, love, love to do. I catch myself judging people plenty of times a day. One of my major pet peeves, though, is hearing people judge others they don't know, so who would I be if I didn't check myself every time I passed a judgement? I will say, in the last 3 years, I have become really accepting of people. I judged people very harshly, even my own friends, but I've developed a very "it's not my business" attitude and it's worked very well for me.

I spread joy; I went through a very rough time mentally last year, so I make it a duty to make sure the people I care about are not feeling anything like I did. It makes me feel good knowing that I gave someone a pick-me-up, even if it was just a funny post or picture from tumblr, when they are feeling down.

What I Want

I do the best I can; Honestly, I don't try hard. I don't give up easily, but I can and will give up on something I find too difficult or too "chore-like". I want to enjoy everything that I do and to do that, I think I need to think more about long term effects or what I'm benefiting from whatever I'm doing. For example, working out. Yes, I may being a disgusting ball of sweat at the time and I won't be able to climb stairs, but afterwards I feel healthy and happy! It's totally worth it! So I want to do the best I can, but first, I've got to actually try.

I am peaceful; Story time: I took my first yoga class. Not really yoga. It's called Bodyflow. It's a mix of yoga, pilates, and tai chi. Right now, my hands are shaking. I couldn't walk down the stairs, it was a pain in my legs to drive, and I my food kept falling off of my fork, but while I was in the class I had a moment. The last 10 minutes is a resting period. We laid on our mats in the dark and just breathed. At first, I tried not to think about anything, but a trained passed by. I looked at the train and started thinking about my day. It wasn't a good day, but I saw the train and I thought, "That's going to be me soon. I'm getting on that thing and I'm going to meet new people, have new adventures, do what I want to do, and be happy!" I started crying right in the middle of the meditation, but luckily I was in the back and it was dark, so no one noticed. For the first time in forever (Frozen reference), I felt peace. I don't remember the last time I felt peace. High school was a pain. I've had many happy moments, but never peace. It felt amazing and I want to feel like that all of the time.

Most Valuable Value

I invoke laughter; One of my favorite things to do is make people laugh. Laughter is one of the most important things in this world and probably one of my favorite things to do (either that or eating). I love when people tell me that I'm funny and not because I want to be funny, but because I made this person so happy and so joyful, that they even told me. I mean, it's one thing to think oh she's funny, oh I like his shoes, she's really nice, but I think vocalizing it makes it even more special.

I hold my values in high regard and I'm proud of myself for being able to see what I lack. I feel good! Brava to me!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about some of my values. What do you value most?

Thanks for reading!

-mad