Thankfulness, Intentionality, & Getting Off My Lazy Butt

When I was working through my grad program it was required of us that we spend time attending to our personal wellness. While I wasn't always consistent about it, I was more consistent than I have been of late. Since I graduated in April (and some before that) I kind of let go of all of the practices and wellness exercises I had been doing. Part of this was probably a reaction to no longer having to do those things (as required by our course work), but some of it was laziness too. 

And you know what? My professors and spiritual director (and colleagues, etc.) were right - not being attentive to your wellness will get to you. So here I am, over half way through the fall semester (since I work at a college I still measure time in semester - forever a student in many ways!) and I begin to feel a bit off, maybe run down, but mostly just kind of lazy and in a funk. Which, if you know anything about the enneagram, isn't abnormal for a 9, but that doesn't mean I should just let things stay that way. 

A few days ago I read a blog post by my friend Katy that inspired me to finally get off my butt and start attending to my personal wellness. I'd been thinking about how I need to do this for a while, and her post(s) was the thing that pushed me to actually make it happen (thanks, girl). 

Thank you to my dear friend, Sher, for gifting me this book!

So, today I started my journey through this book and am already looking forward to what it will prompt me to reflect on and learn. In my next post I'll share a bit more about this book, so stay tuned for that!

My goal is to be intentional about my personal wellness - mind, body, and soul. All of it. I have let that fall to the side and I always tell students to take the time to rest, reflect, and be attentive to their wellness; so, for that and many other reasons it’s high time I take my own advice. My plan is to workout at least 3 days a week, work through this book (which has daily practices), and generally spend more time reflecting, contemplating, and intentionally naming things I am thankful for. A lot of the time reflecting will likely happen while doing dishes, laundry, cooking, driving to/from work...but also during some intentional down time.

As we enter in to this season of Thanksgiving I want to claim this as a time to recognize what I have to be thankful for and to foster those things/relationships/gifts as a way of showing my gratitude for God’s goodness in my life. Will you join me?

I will be writing down some of my reflections to help me document this journey, but to also help hold me accountable. Feel free to check in on me and ask how it’s all going, or if you want some accountability let me know and I’d be happy to check in with you as well! I always do better with some accountability!

Whether or not you check in with me I hope you will find time to reflect on what there is to be thankful for in your own life, as well as what personal (whole) wellness looks like for you. 

May we be attentive to God's work and goodness in our lives and may we be intentional about caring for our whole selves as we recognize and attend to God's gifts and goodness to us so that we may offer goodness to back to God and others.