Our values do not always line up with our actions.  The things that we believe and hold most dear are kept at bay by our responsibilities, choices, and schedules.  We are always experiencing tension between what we wish to be doing and what we must do.

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To help model this tension, we did an in-class activity that required us to draw a pie chart that represented the total amount of time in a day.  We then split the pie chart up based on all of the different things that we do during the day.  For the next part of the activity, we sorted cards based on how much we valued those things.  AFter the two parts were completed, we compared the things that we value - the cards activity - to our actions - the pie chart activity.

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I found that my actions - sleeping and going to school, which took up most of my time - were not things that lined up with my values of things like family, friendship, wisdom, and self.  However, the inevitability of things like sleep makes it impossible.  We have to learn to reconcile these things with our beliefs.

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I will definitely be applying the things that I learned in this activity by remembering to try and include some time to reflect my deepest beliefs.  It may not be always, but there's always time for reflection on my values and how to input them into my actions.