florals

 we went to the annual tulip festival. 
and it rocked.

my take on marriage, sex, and how to live my life to be most happy.

bump.

sneak peek for this beautiful lady!

your body.

as a personal trainer/healthy person/female, i have my normal confusion about confirming my love for my body.  

i take that back, i always love my body.

but some days, i wished some parts were slightly smaller or bigger or less this or more that.

to some extent this is normal.

to the other extent, this can be incredibly harmful.

God gave us our bodies.

he created ours specifically for us. unique and individual.

with our specific freckle, the shape of our hips. 

he created us beautifully.

and then we reject them.  here on earth.

we hate them, we put toxic material into them-we deface them-we pay to have them morphed into something the human mind conjured up, instead of loving what the Godly, divine mind created.

i have been thinking randomly, lately about my opinion on breast implants.  and in my career, i think a lot about people's psychology toward their bodies and weight loss.  i gained a couple of pounds this past year, and its been kind of annoying to me.  i would like to change that.  it has been completely in my diet—i have not stopped working out.  but i do love and respect my body.

and i want to honor what God gave me, specifically to me.

i embrace my physical imperfections and flaws.

because they make me me. 

my body is not a lie, trying to be like some model shape.

it is me.

and i do love me.

how to be happy.

today i read this post.  and its exactly how i feel—er what i need to do to feel how i want to feel:

happy.


plus, she has a really cool blog.

somedays
i miss my short hairs.

love
where
you
live

also.

have you read these?
http://www.cjanekendrick.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

a fellow blogger, getting the reality out to the world.
i believe in this.

love you.

masters

oh, dear.


i feel i have neglected this poor blog.
i have some exhausting things going on in my life that require my attention.


i sat in on a lecture today. a guest speaker came into my school where i teach personal trainers.  he really spoke about us accepting who we are, becoming an introspective thinker, and identifying our strengths and weaknesses.
i loved it.
i want a masters in that.
and i want someone to pay me a lot of money to help them/their companies do this.


im not great at all this, but i love it and see the value in it and know that it is important.
as i was listening to his lecture, i had the impression:
i need to get back to the basics.

he spoke about how athletes do the same fundamental movements over and over again, and master them.  they do some other types of training too, but there is a key to doing the basics repeatedly.
i thought about the gospel—we repeat some basic principles sunday after sunday, year after year.
dancing—you repeat the same moves a million times until is just natural.
you get the idea.

so im sitting down here, and i want to write out what those "basics" are for me. surely, they will be different for you.  i feel that focusing on the basics helps keep balance in life.  a routine that may differ within each aspect but always having those aspects...

BASICS:
scripture study
prayer
stretching/foam rolling/relaxation times
eating as natural as possible
reading
controlling my money
cooking for enjoyment and to have a healthy body
writing freely (and writing goals-reading them often)
exercise toward goals
practicing positive thinking
quality and quantity sleep


i need to come back to these basics. i was happy to hear this refresher today.
i once read a quote that says, successful people are those to repeat and do the basics and necessary things that others neglect, not because they enjoy them more, but because their end goal is worth it.

bad things.

i proclaimed this yesterday in sunday school, and i want to remember it:

every single one of us has bad things happen to us.  we feel anger or jealously or insecurities or frustration.   what do you do with those negative feelings?
some of us go home and have a glass of wine, some of us pull out a cigarette, some of us go sleep with a guy, some of us buy a lot of shoes, some of us view pornography, some of us hit things and scream, some of us eat a lot or not at all, some of us even consider suicide.
all of which are unhealthy.
all of which are done to escape, or alleviate the negative feelings.
all of which are temporary.
the one place that we can turn to for real relief and lasting comfort is God.
i believe that we will be happiest through our troubles when we dont seek relief from anything outside of God.

this may not seem natural or easy to do, but it is worth it.