Tuesday, October 29th, the Mindful Monday group got together to discuss values. Everyone has them, but in today’s world it is extremely easy to forget them. In the meeting, students talked about a helpful way we can all remember and keep to our personal values. The exercise we discussed is one that has been proven to reduce defensiveness brought on by negativity by writing about our most important values. Psychological Scientists Crocker,J., Niiya,Y., and Mischkowski,D., asked, “why does writing about important values reduce defensiveness?” They concluded from their study, “Writing an important value reduced smokers’ defensiveness when they encountered evidence that smoking harms health, a form of self threatening information. Smokers felt more loving and connected after they spent ten minutes writing their top value.” The reason it works explained by Brandon Schmeichel is by “Reflecting on what matters most may help us move beyond selfish concerns and feel connected to something larger than the self.” The exercise they tested in the study was having the subjects place their value from least to most important. They rated their values from the categories of business, art/music/theater, social life/relationships, science/pursuit of knowledge, religion/morality, government/politics. Then they are asked to write why their number one value is important to them and how it has played a role in their life. The benefits of doing this exercise are to “help us feel more connected to others and make healthier choices.” Brandon Schmeichel from Texas A&M university said.