The Spirit In Which We Face Circumstances.

It's no surprise that I'm a fan of quotes, and often start out posts with a quote that I've found. Sometimes I like to take a break from regular posting and do some posts about my favorite quotes. Guess what? This week is the week! Each day I will be choosing a favorite quote and sharing a few thoughts about it.

"I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort." 

-Elizabeth T. King

This quote has recently been a bit convicting for me. It's tough when we find ourselves in tough situations, or situations where we feel like we cannot survive. It's hard to know what to do, and all we want is to be "ok". I think the phrase "the spirit in which we face them" is interesting, and it is that which convicts me. We don't always get to choose our circumstances at all, but we do get to choose how we face the circumstances in which we find ourselves. When you find yourselves amidst an unpleasant situation, do you stop and think about the spirit in which you choose to face them? Do you stop to think about healthy ways to respond, or do you react poorly? It's tough to recognize that we have the power to choose how we face different circumstances, and it's even more difficult to own the power that we do have.

Wellness Wednesday: {who I am today}

I know I've taken a few weeks off my Wellness Wednesday posts. This has been for 2 reasons: First, I've had an incredibly busy last few weeks preparing for a few extra responsibilities beyond what my normal life entails. Secondly, I've been working through my series on OCD, and decided to put my wellness posts to the side to get through that series.

As you know, while talking about wellness, one of the things I've mentioned many times is that the choices we make now in regards to our health will change how we are and what our health will be in the future. I stumbled on this quote and thought I'd share:

Spend a few minutes going through some of the other Wellness Wednesday posts, and figuring out one choice you can make today that which change your tomorrow. I'm planning to be back to my regular "wellness Wednesday" posts next week, so go back as you have time and refresh your memory about the various types of wellness I've discussed so far!

Now it's your turn:

What do you want your today and tomorrow to look like? What choices do you need to make today to make sure that your tomorrow can happen?

Looking to the Future

Have you started noticing a theme of "what happens today will change your tomorrow"? Often times we need a little perspective challenge to get us to a healthy point. Here are some past posts to help you brush up on this:

Choose Today to Alter Tomorrow

Moving from "have to" to "choose to"

Realistic Beliefs!

How You Think When You Lose

A Bad Chapter Within A Very Good Book

Every day we should each be checking in with our perspective on things which includes owning up to our choices today and looking towards our future goals. What we do today directly influences the future, so the choices we make today are crucial to our health and growth as individuals.

Wellness Wednesday: {who I am today}

I've had an incredibly busy week preparing for a few extra responsibilities beyond what my normal life entails. I wanted to get up posts ahead of time, but I'm not realizing that I can't do that without sacrificing sleep. As much as I want to do this, it's not so healthy, so you will be getting some atypical posts for me.

As you know, while talking about wellness, one of the things I've mentioned many times is that the choices we make now in regards to our health will change how we are and what our health will be in the future. I stumbled on this quote and thought I'd share:

Spend a few minutes going through some of the other Wellness Wednesday posts, and figuring out one choice you can make today that which change your tomorrow. 

Now it's your turn:

What do you want your today and tomorrow to look like? What choices do you need to make to be healthy?

Choose Today to Alter Tomorrow

“The consequences of today are determined by the actions of the past. To change your future, alter your decisions today.” ~ Anonymous

What initially caught my attention from this quote was that it reminds me of a verse from the Bible that says "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal" (Philippians 3:13-14, ESV).  This is definitely one issue that I see with clients frequently. We have a hard time dealing with the past and moving forward. We like to clutch onto the past and drag it through the future with it, not releasing it and moving forward. 

When we are held back by the past, we don't allow the future to become what it has the potential of becoming. We can't go back and change the past. If we choose to not leave the past there and move forward, then it changes our future. TODAY we have the choice not to change or fix the past, but to change the future. We can't re-write the past, but we have the option to write the next chapter  in our lives. 

The point is that we need to make a decision to alter our choices so that our future DOES have the option to be different. A healthy life involves a series of choices. You may have made unhealthy choices in the past, but you can choose to stand up today and make choices that will change the course of your life. 

Thoughts for you:

What do you need to let go of and not drag it through our future? What choices can you make today that  have the potential to change the rest of your life?

Wellness Wednesday: {A Review of Wellness}

Health is a large word.  It embraces not the body only, but the mind and spirit as well;... and not today's pain or pleasure alone, but the whole being and outlook of a man.  ~James H. West

Welcome back to Wellness Wednesday, a day each week to focus on wellness in our lives. For the last few months I've been going through the Wheel of Wellness, discussing the different factors of wellness. I'm about half way done, so I'm doing a bit of a review. Click here to see a list of Wellness Wednesday posts so far, and to catch up on any that you might have missed. 

Wellness isn't something that "just happens" in our life. We don't just stumble upon it one day. At least most of us don't. 

If we can't get past wanting to avoid temporary pain, discomfort, or needing immediate pleasure, then we have little hope of being healthy, or ultimately happy as well. 

The thing with health and wellness is that it usually involves sacrifice, in some way, at some point in time. While you might sacrifice some things, you also gain a world of wonderful benefits, and that's what's important to focus on while fighting towards health and wellness. 

It's hard to give up things in the present moment when we don't have a purpose for what we do. The bigger picture allows us to make the small sacrifices along the way.

Here're a few questions for you to get you started?

1. Why do you want to get healthy? What's your ultimate purpose in health and wellness?

2. What are you willing to give up or sacrifice in order to get to a place of health in life?

3. What's the "bigger picture"?

4. If you aren't willing to sacrifice anything right now, what's holding you from wanting the place of health in life?

5. What other choices in life can you make to take the next steps forward to health and wellness?

Moving From "Have To" to "Choose To" in College & Career

Remember the post I did a few weeks ago on my advice for college students? If not, I'd check it out.
To continue my trend of passing along wisdom about college, I thought I'd share something that I see in many of my clients, as well as the friends I had when I was in college (and even sometimes myself back when I was in school!).
I want to share a perspective that, if taken to heart and added to your life, could change the way you view school and your purpose there. By the way, this perspective isn't JUST for college students, and applies just as much to your work environments as well.

We are each susceptible to different cognitive distortions. One of these is the idea of "must" and "have to". How many times in your own life do you think something along the lines of "UGH, I have to do _____ and I really don't want to." My next thought is always: You don't HAVE to. You are choosing to.

You see, what we do in our lives is something that we control. If we do or don't do a homework or work assignment, if we don't show up for work or class, and if we fail- it's all our choice and responsibility alone. All of college and career is a series of choices.

Here's an example:
"Ugh- I have to write this paper on depression for my psychology class and I'm really annoyed that I even have to do it." I'm probably going to be angry, stressed, and possibly even resentful the entire time I'm working on the paper.
But what if I changed that thought to this:
"I'm choosing to write this paper on depression because I'm choosing to participate in and do well in my psychology class so that I can get grades that are good because I'm choosing to want to be in the field of psychology and counseling." That's a different perspective, isn't it? I still have to write the paper, BUT I am owning the fact that I am choosing to do this paper as part of a class I'm choosing to take because I chose a specific major because I chose a job field that I love and am interested in being a part of.

Here's another example:
"Ugh, I don't want to have to go to work tomorrow and I definitely don't want to have to do that work project." Again, stress, frustration, anger, or possible depression- everything we try to avoid if we're trying to be healthy individuals.
Let's switch it around a little:
"I'm choosing to go to work tomorrow and choosing to complete this project because I'm choosing to be active in a job that provides for me and my family." That changes perspective a bit, doesn't it?


My point in all of this is the following:
Ultimately, the things we do every day are a result of the choices we make. However, it's easy for each of us to view our lives as a series of "have to" activities being thrust upon us by others. This certainly won't lead to health and peace in our lives, will it?

What would happen if you and I (and those around us!) were able to change perspective from "have to" to "choose to"? What would be different?

Now it's your turn?
Do you or someone close to you get caught up in the "have to" in life? What are the results? What might be different if you replaced "have to" with "choose to" in your life? Are you willing to give it a try and see?

Self-Love: Invest in Yourself!

I'm big on self-care and loving yourself. You are at the core of everything that you're doing and engaging in, and if you're unhealthy, that adds a lack of health into the system you are engage in (whether that be work, a marriage, raising a child, or something else).
To get you caught up, here are a few of the other posts I've written on self care and self love:

• Loving Myself, Loving Others 
• I Can't Give What I Don't Have
• 10 Ideas To Refill Yourself {I Can't Give What I Don't Have pt 2}

The way I see it, when we invest in ourselves:

• We help make our interactions with others healthier 
• We invest ourselves in healthy ways into our children
• We invest in our future selves
• These things create a change in our grandchildrens' lives

And so on and so forth. When we choose that we are worth our time to invest in, we can make the whole chain down in the family more healthy. It can start here and now, with the choices that you make. And here's the point: YOU need to decide that YOU are worth investing in during your day! If you don't believe that you are worth your personal investment, those self-care behaviors won't be maintained in life, and health will start to slip away. I realized in my own life that I had to believe that I was worth it. Once I did, that's when the work of self care in my life actually began. 

Here's what I'd like to know:

Do you consider yourself worth investing in?

If yes- Why are you worth investing in, and how do you invest in yourself on a regular basis? 

When Tomorrow Comes...

I'm sorry for my lack of post yesterday. I did have a post up on Wednesday (a delicious pizza recipe!), but blogger hasn't completely restored everything yet, I guess. If that post has vanished forever, I'll repost...it's too good to NOT share it!

I found this quote today, and I thought it was great, and just knew that I had to pass it along?

"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to 

use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today 

is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When 

tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something 

that you have left behind...let it be something good."  

 -  Author Unknown 

I wonder how our choices in the day would be different if we started every day with this thought, with the awareness that we have been given this day, and that we have the choice to use it for good, or let it waste away. Anyways, I know you all aren't probably going to want to read a long post on a Friday night, so I'm leaving it at this. Just a little something to mull over. 

A few questions:

What might be different if you were mindfully aware of this quote?

What topics would you like to see discussed on this blog?

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?