Growing in the Name of the Lord:
Wellness from Spirit to Practice
September is self-improvement and self-care awareness month, offering a yearly reason to reevaluate one’s life. While life is filled with many highs and lows, it’s important to continuously look for ways to improve one’s life, be that mentally, physically, or spiritually. You and your loved ones can find great peace, inspiration, and growth through a desire to improve and take care of yourself.
Growth and change can oftentimes be scary, difficult, or even overwhelming:
Take small steps, overtime, and at your own pace!
This blog offers three simple changes for daily inspiration and easy improvement, read on for more!
Improve & Care for Yourself by Caring for Others as Christ Would
Having healthy habits can calm the spirit. If your life is in balance, you will find it easier to smile, shrug off a bad experience, and treat others with patience, kindness, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Being balanced in one’s approach to mental, physical, and spiritual wellness allows one to reflect the Lord in all that one does, for which we, as Christians, have been called to do. Being a Believer and sharing in the Word of God is more than just showing up on Sunday or Wednesday for church.
#1 Daily Peace is Good for the Soul
Reflect the Spirit of Christ
The easiest way to practice self-improvement and self-care awareness month is to make small steps to improve your overall mood. While you may think that this only serves you, those around you can recognize your inner peace (or lack thereof); our loved ones can often hurt when we are hurting, too.
Here are five tips we hope will help to boost your mood:
1. Spend Time in the Sun –
Even 15-minutes can have a mood-boosting benefit.
2. Drink Tea or Coffee –
A warm beverage, low on sugar, can improve mental aptitude.
3. Choose a Healthy Snack –
Pick a pickle, fruit, or nut snack instead of a bag of chips when you’re hungry.
4. Write Down Your Appreciation for Others –
Put into words your appreciation for others.
5. Do Something Good or Nice –
Pay for someone’s coffee, hold the door, or be extra kind to those in your community.
Taking time to serve others will boost your mood and improve your-self, soul, and sense of servitude.
#2 Improve Yourself Through the Word of God
The Bible Offers us Daily Wisdom and Inspiration
Sometimes we feel uplifted, connected, and at peace when we leave church on Sunday. Sometimes we feel like there is great work to be done to improve on our lives, relationships, or direction. Both emotions, both connections, and both viewpoints are needed to live a balanced life: it’s important to not only uplift and rejoice in the name of the Lord, but also to reflect on the Word of God and how we can lead better lives as Christians.
Here are three ways to incorporate the Bible on the daily:
1. Write down motivational, inspirational, or powerful prayers or bible verses on sticky notes…
Add a sticky note to your mirror in your bathroom, the dash of your car, the fridge, front door, or any other place where you are readily going to see your uplifting verses. By surrounding yourself with motivational tidbits, you can result in a better mood, a better connection with the spirit, or general peace to make it through your day.
2. Listen to your favorite gospel music…
Add one song to your day that really helps to get you going. That could be a song that reminds you of how blessed you are, what your purpose is, just a tune that is pleasant for you. The Lord asks us to rejoice in His name, to sing joyful music to glorify His name! Come together as a family, as a church, as a community!
3. Write down areas of growth…
It’s easy to think about the ways we could improve on our life. We all wish something. Whether that’s a bit more patience, thoughtfulness, or even to have a better attention span for things in our lives that maybe are less pleasant (looking at you, procrastinators). The great news is that there is likely a bible verse, inspiration, or guidance from the Word of God that can offer guidance, direction, and motivation towards improving. Once you have your list, pull out the good-ol’ Google machine and find what is needed.
No one can change you, other than you!
God can help, but you must walk over the finish line to change your life, this self-improvement and self-care awareness month! Be fearless in Christ, all things are possible through Him!
#3 Add Gratitude to your life!
It’s easy to be thankful and grateful of the wonderful experiences in our lives. When we get married, when a baby is born, that big promotion, the new job, the bold move into entrepreneurship… It’s easy to thank God in seasons of happiness, abundance, love… It’s less easy to thank God for the lessons that we receive in life. One way to stay humble, to stay true to the Spirit of Christ, and to reflect His love in all that you do…?
Here’s a big way you can add gratitude to your life:
Thank God for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Find a reason to be blessed, to be thankful, to be happy in every situation. For there is no-way that we, as flawed beings on this Earth, can see what God has planned for us. If we hold faith, if we hold belief, if we hold true, fast, and stead… God will bless us beyond our imagination, beyond our dreams!
Join us next week for an entire blog filled with ways to add gratitude into your life, all just in-time for the Thanksgiving Holiday!
