Life is certainly a journey and years ago I made the decision to live this journey with joy in my heart.
It's not always easy for me to find joy, especially in the midst of grief, sadness, loss, anxiety, stress, pain and all the busyness ........you get the point.
My faith in God has a lot to do with it. But it's also my passion for personal and spiritual growth that is enriching my heart and my mind and helping me to put in to practice things that I am learning.
And this path to deeper self knowledge is not only helping me to get to know myself better its helping me to better identify and deal with the challenges that that come my way without turning to food for comfort and picking up or staying stuck in old unhealthy habits.
Growing up food was family, it was abondanza, love and familia cooking and gathering around the table. It was comfort but it was not the emotional crutch that I turned to for comfort during a difficult time in my mid-twenties and a through an unhealthy, abusive and dangerous time in my life. During that time I used food not only for comfort, but to stuff my emotions and build a wall of protection around my body. It's been over seventeen years since I made the changes that I needed to make for my own physical protection and emotional healing. And aside from a return to my faith and spiritual homecoming sixteen years ago, the gift of my beloved and live of love we share, the most significant all around changes have come in the past three years.
But anyone who has put on weight will tell you, once the weight is on and once you have established a pattern of emotional eating, even when the stressors are long gone, the unhealthy patterns remain until there there is a conscious effort to change. And where weight is concerned it doesn't magically fall off.
The good news is that I have found a lifestyle that works for me. Note that I said lifestyle and not a diet. It's balanced, healthy and fits perfectly into our foodie lifestyle and my passion for cooking. But the lifestyle is not just external, being stronger, more fit and confident in my skin. It's the internal transformation that is even more significant.
I have learned to "feel" my feelings, come to the understanding that feelings are not fact, and I am am living with a positive mindset, accountability and attitude that helps me find the good in the situations that come my way, even when the situation is not so good, and especially when old habits want to creep in and past triggers come to call.
Everything is an opportunity for person growth and more and more I am convinced that there is a lesson in every challenge. That is of course if my heart and mind are open to find it, recognize it and embrace it. When I do, it leads me to acceptance, that leads me to peace and that always leads me to joy. And dare I say often enough, acceptance with joy.
I am perfectly imperfect, I don't always adjust my sails in time, but these days I tend to see where I am headed and rather than sit in the muck or even go there, I adjust my rudder and head in a different direction. I'm a work in progress. It's one day at a time and it's totally progress and not perfection in my case. Just sayin'.
Some days I start out of the gate on fire, open and ready to take on the world and others it takes me a bit to come around. But come around I always do because my mindset and my approach to situations and challenges is definitely different than it used to be. Thanks be to God! In all things!! I know the strength I have and the breath I draw is not on my own.
And it's a relief to know that I don't have to have all the answers, that I am not in charge and that the situations that come my way may see sometimes seem so big and insurmountable. But I've got that covered because my God is way bigger than anything that comes my way.
Faith, trust and surrender have changed the way I deal with things. It's been a change for the better for many years now. And still I wish it was always my first go to, because I find all to often that fear, insecurity, anxiety and all those things I am working to counter can come right back to try and take center stage and steal my peace when a crisis or challenge comes up. Again, the good news, the negative doesn't stay long because I have learned a much better way and it starts with self-awareness and intention and I am beyond grateful for it.
My heart is filled with gratitude for every single blessing. And in everything, good and not so good a blessing is to be found. Living with intention and purpose has brought more clarity, understanding, freedom and passion to my life and the mission that I'm on to be the very best version of me that I was created to be. Mind, body, soul and spirit.
So where I am going with this? Well, since I started sharing my "Joy in the Journey" a few years ago I have always found it easier to share about my journey to good health and living a healthy and balanced lifestyle with others, you know those countless selfies of food, working out, my before and after pictures and all that jazz. It's easy to focus on the changes I have made in my own life and not the difference that I know that I make in the lives of others.
What I don't share enough about is that my journey to good health, getting off medications, losing weight, finding balance and living a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle is more about my journey in personal development and intentional growth as a woman, wife, and difference maker in my own live and in the lives of those my life touches. Even when we don't know it or realize it, we impact the lives around us making subtle and sometimes significant differences.
And for me it is the personal growth and self awareness that gives me the mindset and focus to make healthy lifestyle changes and take the intentional daily actions to live my purpose in being my best self and helping and mentoring others who want the same.
I also don't share enough about the amazing platform, community and women and men that help make it possible for me to work on staying accountable to myself, provide additional income for my family, hope for an early and financially secure retirement from a full-time corporate job and my greater purpose and passion in helping and mentoring other women in making the changes they want to make in their own lives and the lives of their families.
Next Tuesday night at 8:00 PM I have the blessing of teaming up with a group of amazing women with purpose who subscribe to the same philosophy that embodies our culture and our team that "A candle does not diminish its light by lighting another candle" together we are going to pull back the curtain to share a little about ourselves and our purpose.
If I had to pick a theme song for my life these days I think it would be "Thrive", one of my very favorites from the Casting Crowns. The line that sums up my purpose perfectly is "We know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives, It's time for us to more than just survive, We were made to THRIVE" I think it sums up these beautiful ladies too.
I am excited for this event and hope you will join us at Women With Purpose.
Please feel free to share the link with anyone you know who is interested in creating a life of intentional growth, personal freedom and limitless potential. Or anyone who wants to THRIVE!!
Hope to see you there!
With love and abondanza,
Linda
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