"You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life."
Heather Schuck
The Working Mom Manifesto
For the last few months, I have not post very many blogs. There is a reason for the lack of writing and posting. To help others understand my reasoning, I want to tell a story. As those of you who know me can testify to, I love to make a point with a story.
When I was a little girl, I would work out by playing in my yard or at the park. In addition, I absolutely loved to ride my bike. It was fun to break a sweat, and I was active and didn't need to worry about my diet too much. Actually, my favorite foods were sweets.
Due to abuse by my father, my mom and I had to move out of our home. Once I moved from the house with the yard and the park across the street, I began to struggle with inactivity and emotional eating. Even when I was not hungry, I would eat, which caused me to gain weight. Through the years, I have gained weight, went on a diet, and lost weight numerous times.
This fluctuation in weight proves that I really never learned a healthy lifestyle and balance. Instead, I merely learned how to diet. Believe me; dieting is not the same as living a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle deals with every area of life. It includes spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical. If any of these areas are out of balance, it can negatively affect the success of other areas. Due to my unresolved emotional problems, I struggled with my weight and my grades in school plummeted and I struggled to trust anyone. The mistrust that I experienced affected my spiritual life, too.
After my mom died, I struggled with my weight, again. Now, I know it is time to tackle my weight problem by also getting my spiritual, emotional, and mental areas balanced along with my physical area.
Why now? In the last few months, I have struggled with my health. Almost every day was a struggle to get out of bed. I struggle to put one foot in front of the other. Finally, I said enough is enough. This year I need to get my life balanced and start my healthy lifestyle. I'm balancing my spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical areas in my life.
First, I will start with the spiritual area. Next, I will deal with my emotional area, and then my mental area. Finally, I will focus on the physical area of my life. What I have figured out as I work on each area is that they will also merge together. This means that there will be times when I must work on two areas at a time. For instance, there are a lot of emotions that are tied into the spiritual area. Dealing with the emotions about faith and trust in God will help me to build a spiritual foundation for my life. There are also a lot of emotions tied to my physical health.
This week's challenge is to make a list of issues that we are going through and decide which area they belong to, so that we can decide which area we need to work on. Diligently working on each area of our lives will help us become balanced. A balanced life brings productivity and success. It is vital to happiness and longevity. During this process, we may feel overwhelmed and frustrated with our problems. During these times, we need to remember that we are not alone. We are all going through this process together.
"Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward."
Maxwell Maltz