So I was trying to find a personal picture where someone looked stressed so I could only find this.  My dog looks tired, weary and stressed. 🙂

Two Sundays ago- it was a rough morning.  I was supposed to teach in the preschool class at church but the tears kept coming.  I was feeling overwhelmed with being displaced and without a home and the waiting for our CA and NC house to close.

Our kids church team came together and stepped in so I could sit in the service instead of serving in kids.  I came to church that morning hoping to find people that I could encourage and pray with.  But instead others prayed for me and encouraged me.  I love our church and thankful that I can be real.

A friend had hugged me and gave me wise advice.  She said to just feel my emotions.  If it sucks right now, let myself feel those emotions.  That may seem obvious to most but not to me.  I have the strength of positivity (based on the strength finders book)  so I am always looking to the positive side of things.  It is something I am thankful for but I can tend to try to push past negative emotions like sadness, anger, grief etc.  I am working on allowing myself to be present and own my feelings and just let myself feel them instead of trying to bury them.  It was good to be given permission to cry and have a hard day.  It has been a hard season.  I can tend to compare and minimize my feelings by saying “well it is not as bad as ……. or it could be worse. ”  That is true but that does not mean it is easy now.

My stomach has not been normal and I believe it has been from stress.  Not all stressors are negative but it is change none the less.

“The body is a finely timed instrument that does not like surprises. Any sudden change
stimuli which affects the body, or the reordering of important routines that the body
become used to, can cause needless stress, throwing your whole physical being into
turmoil. “- from the Dartmouth Life Change Scale (stress test) Take it here:  Stress Test.   I had a score of 243, no wonder I have felt anxious lately or my stomach has bothered sometime.

So there I some things I cannot change or have no control over like when our NC closes and therefore when we can move in.  Or I cannot control the behaviors of others.  Sometimes there are just seasons of more chaos than I would like.  I would love if our church building was fully renovated now but we have weeks before it is done and money to raise to complete it.

I can’t do anything about things out of my control but I can only focus on what I can do.  I can choose to do things that are good for my soul, things that are life-giving.  Some of those things are:

• taking a day off every week (Be Refreshed, You NEED This!!!! , or check out Sabbath posts)
• daily taking 15 minutes of silence and solitude outside to breathe deeply, rest and focus on all the good God has given me (Solitude is sweet to my soul, How Peaceful is Your Life? search silence and solitude posts)
• getting at least 30 minutes of exercise a day (where I actually sweat :)- i can be lazy)
• journal (I love to write on my blog, prayer journal or in my Soap journal)
• wake early (I am a recent morning person because I realize all the benefits of it) and read my Bible and journal and pray