Soul Searching January

What an amazing first month of the year!

2018 has gotten off to a great start!

The end of the holidays are closing in on us sadly.  These holidays have been a wonderful time for our family.   We have spent quality time together and this in itself has been what I call, priceless!!  Time together is what we needed.

Family time + Quality time = Closeness, and the opportunity to do some soul searching!

Soul searching gives us an opportunity to assess our lives, make some new decisions, come to terms and make peace with what or who we have lost (specifically people who have left our lives), and move forward.  This isn’t always easy, but completely necessary.   Moving forward benefits our lives for the long term.  We can’t live our lives looking in the revere mirror.

We are all responsible for how we conduct our lives! We are responsible for the words we say, and the actions we take.  Words and Actions have consequences.

Making firm decisions, and sticking to them.   As an obliger (thank you Author Gretchen Rubin for helping me realise my habit tendency).  I really don’t want this coming year to be a year of ‘if only’.   I need to make sure I focus on my goal list in amongst the craziness of family life.  Like the majority of  obligers, I have a tendency to drop the ball when it comes to my goals.   Not 2018!

Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it.   Ain’t this the truth.  The beginning of the month was hard going, but when you can’t change the circumstances you have to make the decision to keep moving forward.

I have a lovely group of friends – we have been friends for over 22 years, some longer.   I have other friends I have known for a much shorter time – yet feels like I have had them in my life for 20 or so years.   Strange how that happens.  They are a wonderful group of strong and wonderful women who are uplifting and encouraging.  I really love that we all accept each other for where we are at, there is no pressure,  and when we do catch up it’s like nothing has changed – we pick up from where we left off.   These people are easy to be with.

I’m so happy to have hubby home on holidays, we are spending quality time with our kids, ticking some of the goals on our list, and making some great decisions for the coming year. We go to a great church, and  I have regained the spring in my step.  I’m thinking that the hashtag for this coming year should be ‘notlookingbackwards’.

There is always something we can learn about ourselves and improve in ourselves.

Soul searching is a bit like doing a bit of a ‘soul detox’, because you are looking at a lot of different areas of your life.   Not just food!  It’s pretty much about everything we are either putting in or on our bodies, but also what and who are we inviting into our lives.

Oh my goodness!!  For two minutes, I honestly thought that I coined together the phrase ‘SOUL DETOX’, and so I decided to google to check!!!  LOL

Let’s just say that within moments of typing the word ‘soul detox’ I realised that not only was I NOT the one who coined the phrase together – I found that it was already a ‘thing’.   A big thing, and there is a book all about it.   Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself!

I can not wait to get my hands on this book!   The official name of the book is called ‘Soul Detox: Clean living in a contaminated world’, by Craig Groeschel.

Here are some quotes from the book by Craig Groeschel that caught my attention….

•  “Most of life’s battles are won or lost in the mind.”
•  “Bitterness never draws us closer to God. Bitterness is a nonproductive, toxic emotion, usually resulting from resentment over unmet needs.”
•  “The problem is that many bitter people don’t know they are bitter. since they are so convinced that they are right, they can’t see their own wrong in the mirror. And the longer the root of bitterness grows, the more difficult it is to remove.”
  * “Our thoughts are either focused on what’s eternal, life-changing, and true, or lost in the details of our temporary, selfish, false beliefs.”
• “Just as we are what we eat physically, we are also what we consume spiritually.”
•  “Belief overflows to behavior. First we need to change what we believe. when we truly change what we believe, we’ll gladly change how we behave.”
• “If you don’t handle the hurt properly, their sin becomes a catalyst for your own.”
• “The longer we view ourselves through a distorted lens, the more likely we are to believe a distorted truth.”
• “Each time you think something good, speak it. Never rob someone of the blessings of an unspoken treasure.”

I can’t tell you which quote stuck out the most for me, because they are all pretty powerful in my opinion.

All I know is that when I know better I do better!   All of our lives are a work in progress.  We all make mistakes, and we all have a choice to roll around in our mistakes, or put them behind us and get up and get on with life.  I choose to learn the lessons and keep moving.

So here is to a brilliant, happy, fun filled 2018!