A post about the people who remind me of what it means to face the day.
Ten Baby Steps Toward Spiritual Health
Ten Ways to Boost Your Mental Health (Baby Steps)
This is the second post in a three-part series on how to slightly improve different areas of health: mental, physical, and spiritual. All three are crucial to overall wellness, but this one is the one I am most nervous about writing on. Mental health and wellness does not come easily to me; I feel things long and deeply (back when Twilight was popular, friends said I was like that idea of a vampire; emotionally, I get rather set in my ways). However, I've come to realize that this journey has given me skills where a lot of people have instinct - or, to put it another way, I have to be conscious of my mental health. I want to share a few tricks and tips I've learned along the way.
Ten Ways to (Slightly) Boost Your Physical Health
One of the hardest parts of jumping on the health bandwagon (ah yes, the "I'd rather live to a ripe and happy old age" bandwagon) is how freaking difficult it is to revolutionize a routine. It's important that your health routine is sustainable - I know I've burned out on intense routines more than once.
This is the first post in a series of three. I'll be looking at actual, effective ways to boost your spiritual, mental, and physical health. The three are absolutely tied together; there is no question about that, and several items on the three lists could be switched from one list to another. However, this list focuses on things with direct health benefits - after all, it's hard to feel happy or in touch with the universe when you feel like crap.
Five Tips for Winning the Sabbath War
DISCLAIMER: If you are not religious, this blog post will still contain advice for taking time off and making sure you are well-rested. I believe everyone is designed to rest as well as work. With that said, taking a Sabbath (a full day off) is not easy. There are whole books devoted to the subject of the Sabbath. If you do a quick google search, dozens of reasons to take a Sabbath, why the Sabbath was commanded, and why it is still relevant will pop up. I'm not going to expound on those reasons, not because they are irrelevant, but because people much wiser and much more in-the-know have already written those books and articles. Frankly, those reasons don't necessarily help with taking a day off. Making time is a deliberate and often difficult process, but in this case, it's absolutely worthwhile. With that being said, here are five tips for making time for a Sabbath.
What Forgiveness Is Not
I hear a lot about forgiveness. As a Christian, it's a pretty big deal. In fact, it's such a big deal that it's commanded. If you don't forgive others, you will not be forgiven. The Lord's Prayer says "Forgive us our debts, AS WE FORGIVE our debtors." Apparently, there's no way around it.
Even so, I think that it's not necessarily understood in the same way that other commands are understood. I know how to not murder people, or so I think. Then, I remember that Jesus ups the stakes and says that hatred is murder. So, really, I don't actually know much about what to do. However, I do know a little bit about what forgiveness isn't. I say a little bit, because I am coming to understand this daily, and much more deeply. It's still a raw and fresh place in me; be gentle with the things I have gotten wrong or phrased incorrectly.