Creativity Check-In: 🌟 "The Values List"
How's Everyone Doing? Share Your Creative Project and Special Moment
Welcome
Hello! I’m Emily Lupita. I’m a travel writer & artist from rural Iowa currently living between Iowa City and Ankara, the capital of Turkiye. I’m also a book series founder & editor.
Creativity Check-Ins are where we come together to share how our creative projects are going, what we’re working on, and stories from our daily lives as creative people. I’ll also share an activity for some self-care & to get our creative energy flowing.
This is a new feature on - Emily Lupita Explores - a creativity journal where I share explorations from my writing desk & art projects, plus illustrated stories of travel adventures with my two Autistic sons.
🌟 Check in by sharing your answers in the comments:
How’s it going?
What are you working on?
Share a special moment with us.
🦋 I’ll go first…
How’s It Going?
Goodness…I’ve been on a roll with my writing goals this week. I started handwriting in a journal again - something I gave up after the devastating loss of my lifetime of journals a few years ago. I just couldn’t open a journal without feeling such terrible grief that all the journals I’d kept since high school were lost to the universe. So, it felt especially great to be journal writing again this week.
What Are You Working On?
I’m working on Chapter 6 (wowzers!) of The Poet’s Daughter and the next Lupita self-portrait.
Share A Special Moment With Us
I’ve been enjoying decorating for Christmas. It’s a special time that brings back happy memories for me of small town Iowa and the countryside covered in snow. We used to go to my Grandma Plum’s home in Lovilia (population of about 300 people) to celebrate Christmas Eve and watch Santa arrive in Iowa on her TV.
My sons are really excited about the Christmas tree ( known as a New Year’s Tree here in Turkiye), and they went all out with decorating the tree. Charlie loves the lights - we have four different types of flashing lights. And Archie seemed to like the soft felt poinsettia ornaments best. We’re making new, happy memories together.
🌟 Activity for Self-Care
The Values List
Today’s creative self-care activity is making our own “Top 5 Values List” sketch. This activity helps us identify our core values - what means the most to us in life.
Having an understanding of what we value in life gives us the power to choose what’s important enough for us to care about. Regardless of our values, when we lose track of them, we lose track of the things that matter most.
This exercise will help you become aware of what you value most so that you can choose to focus more on activities/thoughts that reflect those specific values.
Start by looking at the list of values above from author & researcher, Brene Brown. Circle the five that are most important. Cross out some if you like. It’s natural to want to circle a bunch of values, but by limiting it to only five, we narrow our focus to the values that matter most.
As you look over the list, consider the following:
Deep in your heart, what type of energy do you want in your life?
What are the unchangeable realities of your life that influence your current top values?
What truly matters to you in your everyday life?
Write down your Top 5 Values list on the blank scroll above and draw yourself holding the list. Think about these values as you draw and color in your sketch.
🎨 Here’s my drawing as an example.
🌟 How was the activity? Share your thoughts in the comments. 🌟
👩🏻💻 Links & 💌 Sharing
I’m on LinkedIn here.
Check out my books on Amazon by searching my author name - here.
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❤️🔥
I'm so glad you are enjoying writing in your journal again, Emily. I say that many times I don't know what I think until it comes out of my pen. And thank you for the list of values. It really makes one do some soul searching to decide on five. In my world, I'm working on a Substack article about preparing for the holidays and how Christmas just needs to get out of the way of Thanksgiving. Also, in a different creative manner, I'm working on a scrapbook about a lion that was born years ago at our Blank Park Zoo and I got the privilege of choosing the name for. He's gorgeous and now resides in a zoo in Chicago with some wives and has had four cubs. Jabari is his name and I love him. Sending wishes for a happy holiday season to you and your boys....
How’s It Going?
Goodness…I’ve been on a roll with my writing goals this week. I started handwriting in a journal again - something I gave up after the devastating loss of my lifetime of journals a few years ago. I just couldn’t open a journal without feeling such terrible grief that all the journals I’d kept since high school were lost to the universe. So, it felt especially great to be journal writing again this week.
What Are You Working On?
I’m working on Chapter 6 (wowzers!) of The Poet’s Daughter and the next Lupita self-portrait.
Share A Special Moment With Us
I’ve been enjoying decorating for Christmas. It’s a special time that brings back happy memories for me of small town Iowa and the countryside covered in snow. We used to go to my Grandma Plum’s home in Lovilia (population of about 300 people) to celebrate Christmas Eve and watch Santa arrive in Iowa on her TV.
My sons are really excited about the Christmas tree ( known as a New Year’s Tree here in Turkiye), and they went all out with decorating the tree. Charlie loves the lights - we have four different types of flashing lights. And Archie seemed to like the soft felt poinsettia ornaments best. We’re making new, happy memories together.