The Entanglement of Core Values
Reflections on the My Renaissance Challenge
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Every once in a while, I join challenges. This most recent one was the My Renaissance Challenge by Brandy Varnado (@brandywashere_ on IG). It is a quick 10 day challenge held over on Discord. You can sign up here. Brandy’s life purpose is to help women find self empowerment. She designs her work from her experiences and what works for her! This is not my first challenge with Brandy, and I know it won’t be the last. If you’re white, and you’re looking to join this challenge, I would highly suggest paying Brandy for her time and energy. You can Venmo her or buy the accompanying journal for the challenge.
Let me get into what I learned and how it changed my outlook and point of view!
One thing that I have learned about Brandy’s challenges is that a journal is of the utmost importance. The questions/prompts given may seem like they can be answered quickly in your head, but there is something (at least for me) about writing in a journal that helps me process or see connections that I would have otherwise missed.
As I filled out Day 2 of the challenge, I explored my core values. I loved the way that Brandy explained core values. She stated that core values can help you prioritize what is most important when life gets hectic, and goodness does life feel hectic right now!
I was supposed to choose 6 apparently, but my brain got stuck on 5. Y’all will notice that I am not the strongest reader, nor am I a great student. (Sorry, Brandy!) The 5 that stuck out most to me were:
Community
Creativity
Authenticity
Social Justice
Spirituality
As I wrote about them, I realized how interconnected it all was. Some of these lay the foundation for others. Some can’t function outside of another. I was blown away by the interconnectedness of everything. I am not sure that I would have ever realized the interconnectedness, the interdependence of everything if not for diving deep into social justice work and spirituality in the last 3-5 years.
Social Justice is connected for me to the other 4. Justice and the sanctity of quality of life for all are deeply entwined into my spiritual beliefs and work. One must be in community with others, and not in an ego-driven way but in an authentic way in order for a justice movement to work. The Future Is Disabled and Care Work both talk about this a lot. We must be authentic in our beliefs, desires, and hoped-for outcomes in order to not disengage, fizzle out, and become an energy drain rather than an energy source.
Authenticity and community are also important together because you don’t want to fall into codependency due to being inauthentic. We can only truly build community when we are showing our true selves. The people who want to be there will be there for us not the masks we wear.
Creativity can be a foundation for authenticity, justice work, building community, and of course spiritual practices and communing with the divine. All of these can be foundations for creativity as well. I could keep on going about how entangled all of these are, but I’ll stop here.
I loved this challenge because it allowed me to connect the dots, to see things as whole rather than in parts. It will help deepen by spiritual practice knowing that each time I am authentic, I am acting on my spirituality. Each time I am tapped into my spiritual path, I will know that these other core values are supporting my path. There is a sense of safety, a sense of connection, a sense of serenity seeing this truth. Brandy, if you’re reading this newsletter, thank you!
What are some of your core values? How do they help you ground and focus in overwhelming or hectic moments?
Wishing you well this week! May your life offer what you need in this moment.
With love,
Aventurine ✨