Day One: Take a Walk & Smile!

     The first challenge was to take a 10-30 minute walk everday, and SMILE.  It has been established in multiple studies that being active benefits us mentally as well as physically. Research reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that walking 30 minutes a day boosted the moods in depressed patients faster than antidepressants. Why? Walking releases natural pain­killing end­or­phins to the body – one of the emotional benefits of exercise. A California State University, Long Beach, study showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were.
                                                         

     And it did! It probably was those beautiful endorphins firing, but it was also the inner teacher's pet, puffing her chest out with pride, saying- "I did something good for myself today. I walked today."  And that healthy behavior led to me making better health decisions in what I ate and how much t.v. I viewed.

    Tomorrow's challenge...sit in silence for 10 minutes a day.  I'm going to have to get up early for this one.
   

25-day Challenge: Tips for a Beautiful Life

  During a quick check of my Facebook this morning, I came across a post entitled, "25 Tips for a Beautiful Life." The facebook friend who shared it said she was going to print it out and put it on her refrigerator. I consider this person to be grounded, so I gave it a look and agreed that the suggestions were pretty good. I thought to myself,  if after 25 days of really trying to practice each of these tips daily, would I see my life differently?   Would I view my world differently?  If as the title suggested have a more beautiful life.  I am at a point in my life that I am sensing the passage of time very keenly.  I am approaching my 37th year.  I suppose if I have an average life span, I am at mid-life. At this mid-life point, I find myself asking am I spending it well?

  I love the quote by tennis great, Arthur Ashe who said, "You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing."

            You can either dip your foot in wondering if the water's just right or you can just jump in!

                                                              Let's go for it, shall we?

Day One:  Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. & while you walk, SMILE. It is the ultimate antidepressant.

I'll report in later on today's experiment.

Enduring Patience

Geeze! It's been a while since I posted.  Sorry about that.  There has been a lot going on in my brain and around the house leading me to write this post on patience.  In fact two-thirds through writing this my computer froze up and I lost everything that I had written pre-freeze.  Ironic?

June was a month of decisions.  I decided to go back to work.  It was a tug-of-war decision in my heart and mind.  In my heart where my emotions lie, it was like a Jerry Springer-style episode entitled, "Working Mothers and the Children they Abandon vs. Stay at Home Mothers and the Children they Adore." Catchy, huh?  Ultimately, it was my rational thinking that won out encouraging me that sometimes the best and most loving act for my family is to leave them for at least a few hours a day to exercise my gifts and talents in service to others.

Off to find a job! Lo and behold I found what was essentially my old job! A job I loved and missed.  I jumped at the opportunity to pick up where I had left off.  I quickly applied for it.  The morning of my interview, I sat down with my coffee to read my daily devotion and what was it entitled, "Opportunity of Suffering".  This was not a good sign.  It should have been about God's goodness or his ever-presence, but not suffering.  Later that day, I interviewed then waited for a response. The response I received was not what I wanted to hear, but what I needed.  I was offered a position, but not the one I interviewed for.  This time I listened to my heart which knew the right thing to do was politefully refuse.  The position offered was not the correct use of my gifts and talents.  It would just be a job.

As I await the position that is the right fit, I'm practicing patience.  The Bible says patience is a fruit of the Spirit among Christians (Galatians 5:22).
Like a long distance runner, it is cultivated through endurance of our struggles. By responding with patience in these struggles, we grow our faith in Christ's power and purpose in our life. Always leaning on God, waiting, allowing him to create the perfect environment and circumstances for our lives. In our waiting, with enduring patience, we say to God, "I trust you to do as you see fit."