Living What We Value
Free conversations and practices for creating more justice, love and joy in an imperfect world (without having to be perfect ourselves)
Most of us want to live in ways that reflect what we care about. It gets harder when what we care about brings us face to face with painful history, difficult conversations, uncomfortable truths, or our own limits.
Living What We Value is a free three-part webinar series designed to support deeply caring people to feel the big feelings and find creative ways forward..
Together with guest teachers and practitioners, Thriving for Equity founder
Dr. Deb Shine Valentine will explore how we can stay curious, connected and capable when living our values gets complicated.
Each 75-minute session will combine conversation and teaching with a guided embodied practice, time for reflection and integration, and Q&A. Recordings will be available to registered participants for 1 week following the conclusion of the series.
Come to one conversation or join us for all three.
This series is for you if...
You care about justice and creating communities founded more on love, than judgment. You have a genuine commitment to making sure your values actually impact how you live, work and relate to other people.
But you sometimes find yourself overwhelmed by how much there is to care about, afraid of getting something wrong, yelling at someone who doesn’t share your views, or defensive when something challenges your understanding of yourself as “one of the good ones”.
Maybe you’re frozen, or perhaps you're doing so much that you're wondering how long you can keep it up. Either way, it’s the emotional side of staying present with the challenge of caring that makes it so hard.
These conversations aren't about becoming perfect at any of it.
Perfectionism is part of the whole messed up system that leads to freeze, or burnout, or reactive actions that discharge some emotions, but don’t actually make much of a change.
They're opportunities to practice staying present, curious and connected to what matters, so that we have more choices about what we do next.
This series is for you if...
Deb Shine Valentine, MA, PhD, Founder of Thriving for Equity
Deb Shine Valentine, MA, PhD, is a coach, writer, speaker, and founder of Thriving for Equity, where she helps people create more joyful lives while building their capacity to contribute to a more just and loving world. She is the primary author and editor of Feel Better. Do Better: A Guide for People Who Want to Change the World, But Sometimes Have Trouble Making It to Lunch. Drawing on more than a decade of coaching, leadership, and racial equity work, Deb brings together intellectual rigor, embodied practice, and a deep belief that shame and self-sacrifice aren’t the only paths to meaningful change. Her work invites people to wrestle honestly with what is theirs to do, make room for delight, and practice living the world they want to help create.
“A more joyful life. A more just world. You don't have to choose.”
Explore the Sessions
SESSION ONE - Thursday, Oct. 22 at 5:30pm ET
Healing Without Looking Away
Herbs, history, and the power of knowing where our care comes from
With Brittany Williams of Eudemonia Herbs
What if the herbs we use for everyday care could connect us more deeply to the people and histories that shaped those practices?
A cup of tea for an upset stomach. A remedy we reach for when we feel unwell. These ordinary acts of care can carry knowledge passed from one generation to the next. Yet many of us have never been asked to consider who developed that knowledge, how it survived, or whose contributions were left out of the story of medicine in the United States.
In this conversation, Brittany Williams will explore the histories behind familiar herbal practices, including the knowledge held and passed on by Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and women healers. We’ll consider how oppression shaped whose practices were recognized as medicine, and whose knowledge could be used while the people who carried it were denied recognition.
Together, Brittany and Deb Shine Valentine will ask: What happens when an ordinary act of care brings us face to face with a history we hadn’t thought to question? How can we stay present with what we learn and let it deepen the way we care for ourselves and others?
Learning this history doesn’t mean we have to stop finding comfort or support in the herbs we use. It can give those practices greater meaning and help us carry them forward with more awareness and respect.
You’ll explore:
How familiar herbal practices connect to people and histories we may not have learned about
What can happen when we name both the knowledge that was preserved and the oppression that shaped its story
Ways to bring greater awareness, respect, and connection to the herbs we use for care
About Brittany Williams
Brittany Williams is the founder and herbal educator behind Eudemonia Herbs, where she makes herbal knowledge practical, approachable and relevant to everyday life. Through workshops and hands-on learning, she weaves together traditional herbal knowledge, evidence-informed research and contemporary wellness practices, while inviting deeper conversations about the history, culture and communities that have shaped herbalism..
SESSION TWO - Monday October 26 at 7pm ET
What Is Mine to Do?
Finding ways to contribute to collective liberation that fit who you are and leave room for joy
With Dr. Deb Shine Valentine, founder of Thriving for Equity, Inc.
What if you don’t have to feel miserable in order to do your part to make the world a better place?
You care deeply about the world. Maybe so deeply that sometimes you can barely stand to look at it.
Perhaps you stopped watching the news a long time ago, because you know you can’t handle it. You go to therapy, hoping it will help feel less knocked around my daily life.
Maybe you watch other people speak up, organize, lead and take action and wonder why doing the same feels so difficult for you. You feel bad about not doing more, but stuck in overwhelm.
Or perhaps you've gone the other direction: your commitment to making things better for people who have way worse circumstances than you is draining you so much that you can’t do much beyond binge-watching Netflix and eating cereal for dinner. You know your work matters, and you want to be part of the solution, but it’s getting harder and harder to get out the door in the morning.
Even the question, “What is actually mine to do?” can add to the pressure.
In this experiential webinar you’ll learn practices that will help you tap into clues you can follow to find meaningful ways of contributing without requiring yourself to become someone you're not.
We'll work with the difference between honoring a real limit and avoiding something because it's uncomfortable, scary or overwhelming. And we'll explore how greater self-trust and discernment can help you make choices about where your energy, gifts and responsibility belong, so you can do what’s yours and let go of what isn’t, without guilt or shame.
Because the world doesn't have to be fixed before you're allowed to enjoy being alive. And caring for your own life doesn't have to mean ignoring the needs of others.
You’ll explore:
Why deeply caring, sensitive, empathetic people can end up overwhelmed, overextended or stuck in angry judgements that don’t move the needle on justice, and what other options are available.
Simple practices you can use to help you uncover your way to show up with courage and compassion
How the right kinds of challenge can help you find forms of contribution that are meaningful and sustainable for you
SESSION THREE - Thursday Nov. 5 at 7pm ET
How Whiteness Hurts White Men - and Why It Matters That We Understand
Finding more compassion in service of collective liberation
With Rowan Rivers
What if offering compassion and understanding isn’t the opposite of speaking truth and holding people accountable?
You care deeply about creating a world where racism is no longer present.
You suspect that if those of us who care can’t get through to those who are so adamantly against racial justice, equity and integration, then we’re unlikely to see the changes we want to see in the world.
You also believe in demonstrating genuine respect to all human beings, even when you disagree.
But then you're sitting across from a white man who is defensive, dismissive or resistant, and suddenly all that clarity disappears.
Maybe you want to argue, blame or shame him into understanding. Maybe you go quiet. Maybe you decide the conversation isn't worth having at all. No matter which way you go, he leaves unchanged, and maybe even more rigid in his views.
What if we could create a little more human connection in those moments?
In this conversation, Rowan Rivers and Deb Shine Valentine will explore some of the ways whiteness harms white men because we believe that if we can be honest about what is happening with them, and validate their struggle, they will be less resistant than if we just say they are “trash” like so many do.
Through teaching, conversation and embodied practice, we'll explore how starting with understanding, and looking for shared values can expand the choices available to us when conversations about racism get difficult.
You’ll explore:
Why understanding the impact of whiteness on white men doesn't require minimizing racism or excusing harm
How to notice what happens inside you when a conversation activates the urge to attack, convince, withdraw or avoid
Ways to bring more discernment compassion to difficult conversations about race and racism while staying connected to your values
About Rowan Rivers
Rowan Rivers is a mental health counselor, spiritual director and coach. Areas of focus include decolonizing perspectives, the psychology of white identity and ancestral reconnection. They live at the intersection of neurocomplexity, queerness, whiteness and navigating chronic illness. They hope to support their white community to wade through our lineage to process intergenerational trauma and reclaim lost relationships in support of collective liberation.
ABOUT THE SERIES
These four conversations explore different versions of the same question:
How can we fully live what we value in a really messed up world?
It’s an invitation to coaches, healers, transformational leaders, teachers, and other heart-centered humans who already care deeply.
It’s for artists and animal-lovers and others who experience regular moments of awe at the beauty, and horror, of life on Earth.
You don’t need to care more.
But you may need greater capacity to stay present when the pain is overwhelming, to wrestle honestly with what you're discovering, and make choices that honor who you are, and what’s happening in the world.
A more joyful life. A more just world. You don't have to choose.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Living What We Value webinar series is free.
Register for the full series or choose the individual conversations you'd most like to attend.
Each session is approximately 75 minutes, including time for Q&A.
replays will be available within 48 hours and remain available for one week following the live event