1 out of 4 thoughts on keeping a healthy spiritual heart!

I have blogged a lot about a healthy physical and emotional heart. The next several blogs are on having a healthy spiritual heart. I write from my own  paradigm for it is the only one I have, so I am writing from my faith and beliefs. My mom was in the hospital in April because of a ventricular fibrillation, meaning her heart wasn't pumping out the blood like it was suppose to. They say 95% of people don't survive a V-fib and that most people die within the first 3 to 5 minutes. Thank God we were already in the hospital when it happened and I began to pray, 40 minutes later there was a heartbeat and a few days later she was off life support and 4 months later she's walking 2 miles everyday, no brain damage and living a great healthy inspiring life. This incident is what really inspired me to start blogging on having a healthy core. I believe that we are so interwoven spiritually, physically and emotionally that each realm can affect the other's health. So I decided I wanted to have a core on every level that was healthy and strong. I watched my mom so sick from a weakened physical heart and it broke my emotional heart. So later I thought about that experience and wondered what a sick spiritual heart looked like. There are a lot of things that can get into our spiritual heart that can make it sick and cause decay and rot. Before I found Jesus I had a lot of unforgiveness, bitterness and self-loathing in my heart. When I found the Lord He removed all of those battle scars, hurts and disappointments. That was however thirteen years ago and life happens between now and then. I've had plenty of opportunities to become bitter again, hold unforgiveness and offenses. There's a passage of scripture written by what scholars believe to be the wisest political ruler in history and that's King Solomon of Israel . During his reign Israel had its most success as a nation economically, diplomatically, and spiritually. He wrote a series of proverbs. They are thought to be written around 900 B.C. These parables were written for men preparing to become top national leaders so they may be instructed in wisdom. Of all these proverbs, one of them stands out.  It says "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is a well spring of life" or in another version says, "for out of it springs the issues of life. This is the only time I can find that King Solomon said "above all else". When one of the wisest men to ever walk the planet says "above all else", it's time to listen. So what I get from this is above everything else in life protect and guard your heart. It makes sense that we should guard our hearts physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our heart is the core of our being and all of life's issues are determined by it's health. If our physical heart is sick our life will be in chaos. If our emotional heart is broken our life will be in turmoil. If our spiritual heart is numb then our life will bear an aching unfulfillment. Thankfully there are four thoughts that follow this scripture. Let's discuss the first one. "Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil."  1. Speak life and not death a. Find the positive.  It's so easy to get caught up in the negative. The reality is we live in an imperfect world with imperfect people and we could focus on that, the news stations do. There's a ton of things wrong with people but there is also a ton of things pretty right about people too. Having done some travel in developing nations I have found that I can appreciate some of the simple things in life like running water, electricity, the kindness of strangers, and clean drinking water. If you live in the U.S. or own a car, house or TV you are richer than 99% of the people of the world. There is nothing redeemable or justifiable in complaining about the trivial. It's too easy to focus on what we don't have and to overlook what we do have or what's wrong with people than what's right with people. Speaking about the positive will remind yourself of all the good in the world and will allow for the negative to not be the focus. b. Speak life into your future and others. If you say such things as "I'm no good at writing." or "I'll never do anything that matters.", then you never will be good at writing and you never will do anything that matters.  Start speaking positively to the possibilities of the future. When you begin to speak to your future, you will begin to see things change. I just read a book called "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Duwunn. One of the stories was of a woman named Tererai from Zimbabwe. Tererai grew up in a small village where only the boys were allowed to be educated because of the limited resources and the thought that only boys could be breadwinners. Tererai's parents to allow her to go to school. They did for a while until they arranged for her to marry a man when she turned eleven.  The husband turned out to be abusive and forbade her to educate herself anymore. Her life intersected with an organization called Heifer International, an aid organization that is based out of Arkansas that provides cows, goats, chickens, or other animals to farmers in poor countries. The president of Heifer International, Jo Luck, talked to Tererai and told her "that things didn't have to be the way they were". She encouraged her to write down her goals. Tererai was a married mid twenties woman living in Zimbabwe without a formal education but she took a chance and wrote down what she wanted which was an education. She wrote that one day she would go to the U.S., earn her bachelor's degree, masters and eventually her PhD. That was a big goal. She wrote it down and as the years passed she would cross off the goals she achieved. She began with correspondence classes and eventually got into Oklahoma State University where she earned her degree while working nights to support herself. She would go back home to visit her children and family and cross off her goal. She received her Masters while living in Arkansas working for Heifer International. She returned back home to her family and crossed off her second goal. She is now in Michigan with her children earning her PhD.  No excuses: if Tererai can succeed in her goals then we all can. Write down your future and speak to it and with hard work and determination you too can cross off your goals as you see them come to pass.  c. Remove gossip and slander from your life. There was a wise philosopher who once said "if you can't say something nice about somebody, then don't say anything at all." Well maybe not a philosopher, it was actually Thumper's mother from the Disney movie "Bambi". There is such wisdom in that statement. When we speak negative things over people we are actually stealing: stealing reputations, friendships, and opportunities from people’s lives. The thought to justify such actions is: Well, they are a horrible person and they deserve it. Well, unless the person gossiping is perfect, which means they come from another planet, definitely not Earth, then they are just setting up the same situation to happen in their life because anyone can point out their faults just as easily. What goes around comes around or karma or reaping in sowing or whatever you want to call it, but the fact is you don't want someone stealing from your life through gossip and slander so don't do it to someone else. Go with the second highest commandment or the "Golden Rule" which is "Do unto other's as you would have done unto you" or the Malika Cox version is "Treat others as you would like to be treated, baby, because what you do WILL come back to you magnified, whether it be good or bad. " This is always the best policy. So speaking life and not death is the first step in guarding our heart spiritually.

Number 10 of 10 tips to transition to a healthy lifestyle and weight

10. It's a Marathon, not a Sprint. To transition to a healthier lifestyle and weight, approach getting healthy as you would train for a marathon, by incorporating principles into your life slowly that will ultimately produce long term health and endurance.

Here are some thoughts on the transition:

A. Don't Compare Yourself to Others:

I was at the gym the other day, running on the indoor track because it's way too hot in August to run outside. There were two other women and they were walking at a quick pace. I found myself running past them and I had the opportunity to feel cocky if I wanted to; but I happen to know that no matter where you are in life somebody is always further along than you, so don't compare yourself to someone else, compare your progress instead.

As if to confirm this thought, a young woman came on the track as the other two left. She started to run at full speed. She swept passed me while I was still in what quickly became obvious was a slow run. I could have become insecure about my pace but again I've come to a place where I refuse to compare myself with others. Instead I compared my progress to a year ago. Now my workouts are longer and much more intense than before; and I don't feel like I'm going to die at the end of them (ha ha), so I took pride in my own progress and refused  to compare. I did admittedly push the pace up a little on my run.

Comparisons doom you to failure. They breed jealous insecurity or prideful arrogance. There will always be somebody further along the journey or just beginning. For those who are further along I choose to be excited for them and glean what wisdom I can from them and for those who are just beginning I encourage and offer support.

B. Baby Steps:

The other thing I noticed that day is the young woman who was running on the track was actually doing sprints. So, she would run as fast as she could and then drop to a slow walking pace. She did this repeatedly. Sprinting is actually great for burning fat, increasing your metabolism and gaining muscle. However sprinting does not help you if you are trying to go for long distances. I noticed that even though the woman who was sprinting was zooming past me, ultimately she wasn't taking as much ground as I was at my slower pace.  She also left the track about 20 minutes after she had begun while I was on the track for about an hour. I'm sure she had different fitness goals, that's not the point. The point is when we decide to get healthier in our bodies, emotions and spirit, we need to think more like a marathon then a sprint.

Try thinking this is for life, not just until I get back in my skinny clothes, or you're doomed to repeat the yo-yo diet routine. This pattern consists of a realization that I need to get healthy, so I generally starve myself and go for a 5 mile run and then the next day after I wake up dizzy from hunger and sore head to toe, I give up and go back to my regular lifestyle routine of bad habits. Don't get me wrong, yo-yo dieting is way better than just continuing to gain weight. You always hear about how bad yo-yo dieting is for you, which it is, but if I hadn't yo-yoed in my weight in the past I would be at a dangerously unhealthy weight. There is however a better way. Renew the way you think about health and incorporate principles into your life that produce positive results long term. Over time you will see huge beneficial changes that will last a lifetime. Become a student of health, so that you can fully enjoy your life, relationships and ultimately finish this journey strong.

C. Choose to Commit: 

I've talked to people who tell me they just can't put the time in to work out or prepare healthy food, so then I ask them to add up the hours of TV they watch a week. This is always the moment of truth. How much is your health worth? Are you willing to sacrifice something to become healthier? The reality is there is a cost and at times it's painful but it's worth it. There are things in my life I am just devoted to. I am devoted to my faith, my family and loved ones and my health. It takes sacrifice in areas of my life to be devoted to all of these things. You will not see results in areas you're not devoted too.

Make the decision to do whatever you need to to become healthier right now no matter if you're battling  with sickness or you feel fine. Choose to invest in yourself, which may come off as selfish to some but it's the best gift you can give anybody.

Begin by Incorporating the Other 9 Tips:

1. Upgrade what you drink (take the empty calories, processed sugars and artificial sweeteners out of what you drink)
2. Get Moving (start exercising and make it fun)
3. Get Real (start eating real foods and eliminate processed foods)
4. Supplement yourself (supplement your diet with vitamins, minerals, essential oils, and herbs)
5. Stress way less (learn to relax)
6. Get our of denial (find out your important numbers: BMI, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, etc.)
7. Make meals sacred (eat to live, don't live to eat)
8. Invest in relationships (relationships will determine your level of joy and health in your life)
9. Make new habits (exchange unhealthy habits for healthy ones)

Other thoughts to help in this quest for health: 

• Try a personnel trainer if you can afford it or get a group of friends to meet up and walk after work. 
• Check out Dr. Oz (Mehmet Oz, M.D). He is great. I love, love love him. Renew the way you think on health. He is an active cardiothoracic surgeon and also embraces alternative medicines. http://www.doctoroz.com/ 
• Check out Jordin Rubin, he is amazing. His diet, The Maker's Diet, helped cure him from Crohns disease which is considered incurable. I live pretty much on this diet and totally feel the difference from any other diet I've been on. It is completely livable and produces great health in your life.  http://www.jordanrubin.com/
• Look into support groups such as Weight Watchers, Overeaters Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery and others. Support is so important to success in changing habits. 

Have faith that you can accomplish your goals and endure the process that takes you there because if you don't no one else will. Don't forget you are building a destiny. Build a great one.