Physical and Spiritual Fitness

phys·i·cal

• of or relating to the body as opposed to the mind.
• of or relating to the things perceived through the senses as opposed to the mind; tangible or concrete.

spir·it·u·al

• of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
• of or relating to religion or religious belief.

One day as I was running, I thought of the concept of physical and spiritual fitness – and I like it!  It is such a holistic view of our selves.  I think there are 2 main categories that we fall into in regards to our well-being, our physical health and our mental health.  Often times though, we only focus on one or the other, or neither. 

It is so easy to neglect ourselves.  It’s hard to carve out the time to flex our physical and spiritual muscles. 

How can we become fit?  The first step is just to recognize what our body and our mind needs.  Then we must make a conscious decision to actively pursue what we’ve recognized that we need.  Lastly, forming healthy habits in both realms is what takes this from a thought to a lifestyle.

Here’s a couple of lists to get you started. J

Physical Fitness

• Gym
• Walk
• Run
• Hike
• Workout DVDs
• Play a sport
• Anything to get your heart pumping and your body moving

Spiritual Fitness

• Time for yourself
• Time for the ones you love
• Time to do the activities you love
• Relaxation
• Prayer
• Religion
• Meditation

What do YOU do to stay fit?  Let me know!

XOXO,

Megan 

This Little Light of Mine

(I just ran across this journal entry from October of last year and I thought I'd share.)

This Little Light of Mine

October 29, 2012

Yesterday the boys and I went to church.  This may not sound monumental, but in reality it is quite significant.  It was our second week of attending church, ever.  A young girl named Grace sang a song she’d been working on to share with us.  The song is “This Little Light of Mine” by Addison Road.  Her song touched me, her song is still in my head and my heart and I want to keep it there forever.

 

Throughout the day yesterday Dallas kept singing bits and pieces of it as we went through our everyday motions.  My heart melted each and every time I heard his sweet voice singing about his little light shining.  As a mother, this is my primary focus, my biggest responsibility, my life’s purpose.  How do I keep my children’s light shining, day after day, through the ups and the downs, through the teenage years, through heartbreaks, through disappointments through all of life’s challenges?  To take it one step further, how do I keep their light shining bright enough to shed that glow on the people they touch throughout their lives?

What does this “light” mean to me?  This light is happiness, love, strong, healthy relationships, contentment, appreciation, gratitude, wonder, positive thinking, having an open mind and an open heart, striving to be the best you and having a general understanding of what’s important in life.  It’s imperative that this light guide our words, our actions and our lives.  Like Dallas, we need to be singing this song and living it out loud, so our motions are always accompanied by our guiding light.

XOXO,

Meg

Me and My Boys

Some of the priceless photos taken by the amazing Jackie!  I will treasure them forever.

http://www.jaclynraelewisphotography.com/

 

 

 

 

 

  

If I Should Have a Daughter (Or Two Sons)

If I should have a daughter,

I would show her love,

I would build her self-esteem,

I would teach her confidence and self-respect,

I would teach her the importance of being honest,

Living with integrity,

And always doing her best,

I would tell her that happiness comes from within,

Then grows through her relationships with others

I would make sure she knows that inner beauty is lasting,

Outer beauty is fleeting,

And that she is gorgeous,

I would discourage gossip,

Encourage understanding,

Tell her that everyone has a story,

Ask her to listen,

And to be compassionate,

I will tell her that life is hard,

There are highs and there are lows,

Allow yourself to feel them,

And know that you are always growing,

I would encourage her to travel,

To gather new experiences,

To open her mind,

And to broaden her view of the world,

I would tell her to believe in something,

Stand up for what she believes in,

And to have a mind of her own,

I would give all that I am,

To make her all that she can be,

I don’t have to wait for a daughter,

Because I have two sons.

Check out this Ted Talk - it is worth the watch!

XOXO,

Meg

Compassion

com·pas·sion

• Sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress with a desire to alleviate it

My son, Dallas, is in first grade.  He has an assignment to read 15 minutes every night and each night a new book comes home with him in a little bag.  They are familiar with the book, because they read it in class before they bring it home.  Last night he read a book about a lion and a rabbit.  In a nutshell, the lion had a rabbit that he was going to eat, but then he saw a deer and left the rabbit since the deer was bigger, the deer out ran the lion and when the lion returned to the rabbit it was gone.  As the lion ran after the deer I said “I hope that lion can’t catch that deer.”  Dallas responded, “Are you sure?  You might want the lion to catch the deer”.  I thought, oh no son, I’ve seen animal planet, I most definitely want that deer to win this race.  Well, Dallas turned to the last page which read, “And he had to stay hungry”.  Dallas looked at me with red rimmed eyes and said, “See, that almost makes me cry.”  My six year old son and his six year old emotions were able to feel compassion; the sight of it in those little eyes at that moment was incredible.

Compassion is a trait that promotes understanding, acceptance, harmony and altruism.  These are all characteristics I want to instill in my children.  What an impact it would have on the world if we all cared about others a little more.  If my son felt sympathy towards that lion in his story, think about the life lesson there, imagine in his day to day life the people he will come across that will be affected positively by his ability to feel compassion.

I’ve thought a lot about being a purposeful parent as opposed to just a parent.  Compassion is one of the sections in my “Purposeful Parent Handbook”.  (BTW – This doesn’t exist – but maybe I should create one for myself?!?)

Reading the list below inspired me to focus on compassion.  I hope that you can find a way to be compassionate today, and make note of how it makes the other person feel and in turn how that makes you feel.

From:  "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong"

The Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

1. Learn About Compassion
2. Look at Your Own World
3. Compassion for Yourself 
4. Empathy
5. Mindfulness
6. Action
7. How Little We Know
8. How Should We Speak to One Another?
9. Concern for Everybody
10. Knowledge
11. Recognition
12. Love Your Enemies

XOXO,

Megan

Love Yourself, Forgive Yourself, Be Yourself!

I am a big note taker.  I think this falls somewhere in the same category as my list making.  I used to be hesitant to make marks in books that I read so I took long, time consuming notes.  UVA, my Anthropology major, and the endless amounts of required reading broke me of that, I now LOVE to highlight, asterisk, underline and jot notes in the margin of everything I read.  When it’s crunch time it is so much easier and faster than taking notes and when I reread any of it, it just takes a skim to pull out what to me are the most fascinating parts.

When I went back through my “The Four Agreements”, just in the introduction I marked all of the following…and we haven’t even gotten to the First Agreement yet.

“Human’s punish themselves endlessly for not being what they believe they should be.”

“But nobody abuses us more than we abuse ourselves, and it is the Judge, the Victim and the belief system that make us do it.”

“The way we judge ourselves is the worst judge that ever existed.”

“In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself.  And the limit of your self-abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else.  If someone abuses you a little more than you abuse yourself, you will probably walk away from that person.  But if someone abuses you a little less than you abuse yourself, you will probably stay in the relationship and tolerate it endlessly.”

“If you abuse yourself very badly you can even tolerate someone who beats you up, humiliates you, and treats you like dirt.”

“The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse.”

“There are thousands of agreements you have made with yourself, with other people, with your dream of life, with God, with society, with your parents, with your spouse, with your children.  But the most important agreements are the ones you made with yourself.  In these agreements you tell yourself who you are, what you feel, what you believe, and how to behave.  The result is what you call your personality.  In these agreements you say, “This is what I am.  This is what I believe.  I can do certain things, and some things I cannot do.  This is reality, that is fantasy, this is possible, that is impossible.”

What did I pull out of this to apply to my life? 

1. Love Yourself
2. Forgive Yourself
3. Be Yourself

I think some people spend a lifetime trying to figure this out.  It’s hard, because I think for most of us it is true that we are our own worst critics.  Several months ago I told a friend how beautiful she looked, she got ready to reel off all of the reasons she most certainly did not look beautiful, then she simply stopped herself and humbly said thank you.  This moment has stuck out in my mind, I watched a shift right before my eyes that happened in seconds, someone deciding that they were going to show self-love, self-acceptance by simply graciously accepting a compliment…it was a beautiful thing.  Self-love takes work, but is there anything else more worthy of work?

XOXO,

Megan

The Four Agreements - Sneak Peak

Are you ready for this?!?  Straight from "The Four Agreements - A Toltec Wisdom Book - A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" to a computer/smart phone near you I bring you (drum roll please) the 4 agreements.  How was that for a build-up?

Here they are:

The First Agreement: Be Impeccable with Your Word

The Second Agreement: Don't Take Anything Personally

The Third Agreement: Don't Make Assumptions

The Fourth Agreement: Always Do Your Best

There are absolute gems of wisdom in this book, gems I say.  But for today, I will just leave you with the list of 4 above.  I will expand upon it later.  A real cliffhanger isn't it...kind of like the anticipation for the season finale of "Breaking Bad".

That's all for now!

XOXO,

Megan