A free health psychology handout for adults rebuilding meaning after illness, pain, disability, or a major health change. Helps readers separate worth from productivity, understand goals vs. values, identify what matters, and choose one small values-based action.
Values When Life Looks Different is a free health psychology handout for adults adjusting to illness, pain, disability, recovery, or a body that no longer works the way it used to. It helps readers name what still matters, understand the difference between goals and values, and choose one small action that honors a value without pretending their capacity has not changed.
Want deeper support? Pair this free handout with When the Body Changes the Rules, When Pain Stays, or Big Goodbyes: Adult Edition for more support around identity, grief, health changes, and meaning.
FREE HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY VALUES HANDOUT
This handout helps adults separate who they are from what they can do, then reconnect with values in a way that fits their current capacity.
Your worth is not determined by your output
Separating Worth from Output
Helps readers challenge the belief that their value depends on productivity, independence, or how much they can contribute.
Goals vs. Values
Explains how goals can be canceled or changed by illness, while values remain directions a person can still move toward.
Common Values List
A simple values menu including connection, creativity, independence, learning, service, humor, family, growth, kindness, spirituality, peace, justice, and more.
Tiny Values-Based Actions
Shows how values can be expressed in smaller ways, like one honest text, a short visit, a voice memo, or one kind word.
The Willingness Question
Uses an ACT-informed prompt to ask whether moving toward what matters is worth the discomfort that may come with it.
Values-to-Action Plan
A worksheet for choosing one value, naming why it matters, identifying three small actions, and selecting one step to try this week.
This handout is a psychoeducational health psychology resource and is not a substitute for medical care, psychotherapy, crisis care, disability support, occupational therapy, or individualized clinical guidance. If you are experiencing crisis-level distress, thoughts of self-harm, or medical symptoms that are severe, worsening, or unsafe, contact crisis support or your medical team immediately.