Happy New Year!
What are your goals this New Year?
Eating clean, exercising more consistently, etc.?
I get it.
Most of my life my New Year's resolution was focused on the outside of myself. I thought if I took care of my outside, my inside would be at peace. Yet I can look back at pictures when I was in the best shape of my life and on the outside I may appear well but on the inside I was still not at peace.
What I have come to learn is that to be well within, I needed to take time to work on the inside.
I am sharing this video to give you some food for thought...
(This video is from summer 2016)
To grow strong enough to do these 50 push-ups I started at 10 and then added 2 a day for 21 days. I dedicated the time, used my energy purposefully and was disciplined daily. And those small deposits I put in over time paid off.
The same is true for my spiritual growth.
When I started having a morning prayer time I would read a quick paragraph which took maybe a minute. Day by day over the past seven years, my prayer time has grown in length.
Why?
Because I have seen how taking the time to be still and nourish myself within has brought more peace into my heart than when I would wake up and workout first thing.
Now I am not saying I don't like to workout or eat well. I was a Health and Physical Education teacher and a yoga teacher before becoming a writer. Being active and eating well is part of who I am yet I do those to increase the quality of my life, not to be a certain size anymore. I have come to learn that being at peace comes from an internal workout, one where I practice letting go and trusting in God.
I now spend twice as much time in the morning cultivating my Spirit, mind and heart - through my readings, prayer, meditation and my gratitude journal - than I do working out.
I share this video to demonstrate what can happen when you choose to use your time and energy consistently; you grow stronger. I can show you this growth physically but it is difficult for me to show the depth of internal growth. I hope this parallel encourages you to know that change IS possible yet it doesn't start on the changing who you are on the outside.
True transformation begins within.
As you enter this New Year, I invite you to try something different for your New Year's resolution.
Rather than focusing on the outside, why not choose to start within?
I invite you to join me and take time to learn how to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
I admit, hopping on the treadmill may be easier, and yes, working out and eating well are things I too will be hoping to practice consistently this year.
Yet I know from my own experience through my journeys with anxiety, depression and cancer that when you begin within, and allow yourself to transform from the inside out, your life will be more beautiful and richer in ways you couldn't even imagine are possible.
To start today, join my FREE facebook group HERE where you will receive encouragement and guidance for your journey.
And to be the first to learn about my upcoming classes (in-person and online), be sure to sign up for my blog BELOW.
Here's to a new day, a new week, a new month, a new year and a NEW YOU!
With love and hope,
Shawn