I forgot to mention last week about another book I read during my break from my Sylvia Plath obsession. It’s called “The No Bullshit Guide To Depression” by Steven Skozen. Really great book if you suffer or if you know someone who suffers from depression. It’s very practical with exercises that are easy to do when you are in that state, and exercises to do before you are depressed, that will help you out later on.

One of the bits of advice was to learn how to live a life that strives toward values, rather than happiness. And then there was an exercise to figure out what your  core values actually are. They change, so it is suggested to do the exercise once a year. My core values as of a couple of weeks ago are:

• compassion
• creativity
• inner peace
• mindfulness
• spirituality

I found this exercise really surprising! There were lots of things that ended up being really important to me but these 5 things are the things that are at the top of my list. At least right now. So I’m thinking about how I can incorporate these values more into my life on a daily basis. I kind of do a lot of these things daily but I do notice it when I don’t.