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The Next Chapter in My Wellness Journey

As I reflect on the past year, I’m filled with gratitude for the incredible journey life has presented me. A year ago, I sensed that God was leading me down a different path, gently nudging me toward a subtly altered perspective. I carried the anticipation of positive developments on the horizon. While I may not fully comprehend the entire picture yet, I can discern more now than I could a year ago.

Last year, I took the plunge into introspection, seeking balance and well-being in every facet of life. This journey led me to pen down my experiences and insights in the book, Ravenous to FULLfilled, a narrative of personal growth, resilience, and the pursuit of holistic wellness. The goal of helping others experience the freedom from shame and dieting that I have found has been the guiding light that fueled this project.

WholeHearted Wellness Alabama: A Ministry of Holistic Wellness

In line with my commitment to fostering well-being, I am overjoyed to announce the launch of WholeHearted Wellness Alabama, a ministry company dedicated to supporting others on their journey to wholeness. This community is not just about physical health; it’s a space where we delve into spiritual nourishment, mental resilience, and emotional balance. Together, we strive for a holistic approach to wellness that nourishes the mind, body, and spirit.

What’s Coming in 2024?

In the spirit of continuous growth and evolution, I am excited to share a sneak peek into what’s on the horizon for WholeHearted Wellness Alabama in 2024:

1. Online Course: A comprehensive online course designed to guide you through your personal wellness journey, providing tools and insights for spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being.
2. Coaching Program: Personalized coaching sessions to support you in navigating the challenges and triumphs on your path to wholeness.
3. Expanded Resources: Even more resources, articles, and interactive content to empower and inspire you on your wellness journey.

Why WholeHearted Wellness Alabama?

WholeHearted Wellness Alabama is more than a company; it’s a movement. It’s about creating a community where individuals support and uplift each other on the path to wholeness. Together, we’ll explore the facets of well-being, discovering the richness that comes from embracing our whole selves.

As we step into this new chapter, I extend my deepest gratitude for your continued support. The journey to wellness is ongoing, and I am honored to have you as a part of this incredible community.

Wanna Know More?

Check out the WholeHearted Wellness Alabama website.

Find Ravenous to FULLfilled: The Book on Kindle and in paperback through Amazon.

Get on the Waitlist for Ravenous to FULLfilled: The Course.

Join the Ravenous to FULLfilled Community on Facebook.

Follow WholeHearted Wellness on Instagram and Facebook.

I’ve said more about the peace side of Passion and Peace than the passion side. You may even still think of them as opposites. So I’ll say again: Peacefulness does not mean inaction, and Passion does not mean endless action. They balance one another.

I came across an article that discusses Passion Burnout. We’ve all heard, “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Turns out that’s not true!

There’s a difference between Harmonious Passion—work we love and enjoy doing but does not consume all our energy—and Obsessive Passion—which does consume all of you.

But I want you to read the article for yourself. Click the image below to go to the article.

So love what you do but love yourself more. Don’t lose yourself in any pursuit. And if you find yourself anxious over putting down a project or endeavor for a break, you have probably crossed the line from harmonious passion to obsessive passion.

In my last blog post, I shared that 2023 would bring some changes to my website, email list, and social media. I promised to share what they would be soon. So here are the changes.

There are two changes.

Combining Groups

First, I have two Facebook groups associated with my website and the journey I envisioned when I set it up. Pursuing Passionate Peace was created to seek out the balance between pursuing those things about which we are passionate with keeping an internal sense of peace and calm (even if the circumstances are anything but). Poring Over Scripture was created for those who wanted to dive deeper (pore over) Bible passages, and tolerate me geeking out about details that excite very few people other than me.

I need to combine these groups. One reason is because time constraints mean I can only focus on a single group effectively (except for a short term thing). The other is that I no longer have a desire to separate these two emphases.

I will invite one group to the other and the group name will be changing.

Honed Content Focus

Second, in this the upcoming year, I will focus in on balancing passion and peace. I do this from the perspective of my Christian faith. While I realize this isn’t true of everyone, this is who I am and I’m very clear on what I am called to do in this season of my life. Those who don’t appreciate the faith aspect may filter it out, but I will not be.

The Why

Why make these changes?

Because the separation of the groups and content was making a fundamental mistake in truly finding the balance of passion and peace.

We attempt to separate our bodies, our mind/will/emotions (also known as our soul) and our spirits from one another. Not only is this impossible to do but the attempt isn’t healthy.

I will be saying more about this throughout the year. For now, here’s my premise:

Each and every one of us were magnificently created as a triune being by a Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).

You are a spirit that has a soul and lives in a body.

All three parts of you must function cooperatively for you to find and keep a balance of passion and peace. This is what it means to be who you were created to be. So we will be exploring these three aspects of ourselves, how they interact, and how we can fully-integrate them.

Are you in? I hope so!

The year has turned over again.

How was your 2022?

Full of challenges with some moments of joy and love thrown in?? Same.

The last few years have held some challenges for me. I started this website (and the groups that accompany it) during a time of growth and healing for myself. I had stepped aside from church-based ministry into the nonprofit world. My soul still longed for ministry and I knew others needed the lessons I had learned.

Since then, I have transitioned back to church-based ministry and had a health crisis. The new role brought some stress and our staff experienced some tragedies and trauma. Additionally, the world brought challenges we all faced, including a worldwide pandemic.

Through it all, my faith sustained me. Scripture and the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that this (how the world is) is not how it’s supposed to be. I don’t have to accept that this is as good as it gets. I’ve clung to Jesus’ promises to always be with us and to give us peace—a peace that is different from the world.

I finally feel ready to share pieces of that journey is the hope that it encourages you to be whole, healthy, and entirely devoted to God.

This means that the topics here on the website and in the groups will be shifting somewhat.

I hope you’ll stick around and go on the journey with me.

So welcome to 2023! Let this year be the one you discover your purpose, your peace, and your passion for life.

Blessings!

Trip is an interesting word. It can mean travel—as in a trip to the beach. it can also mean a stumble or failure—“I tripped over the towel left on the bathroom floor.” I’m using it to mean both.

Yesterday was my birthday. Having completed fifty-three trips around the sun. Along the course of those fifty-three travel trips through a year, I’ve had many, many more times I’ve tripped up, made mistakes, and experienced failure. Nothing is ever wasted if you learn and grow from it though.

I thought I might have the audacity to share five things I’ve learned and three things I still want to do.

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Five things I’ve learned.

1. Love yourself. Don’t wait for someone else to do so. In fact, they won’t until you do.

2. Know your worth. God created you and redeemed you. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are worthless.

3. Don’t let others set your expectations or goals. Your failure to make them happy will rob your life of your happiness. Don’t let anyone have the keys to your joy!

4. Do something meaningful with your time here. None of us will live forever. Make a difference while you are here. You can’t take it with you but you can leave a legacy of setting a beautiful example and making the world better.

5. Relationships are better than things. Choose people over property. Do it every single time there is a choice. Life will be far richer.

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Three things I still want to do.

1. Help people learn those five things above (hopefully sooner than I did).

2. Take a spiritual pilgrimage to Scotland and Ireland.

3. Be a better nurturer of the relationships in my life.

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What are your trips—travel and mistakes—teaching you?

Those who hear me pray often will recognize the phrase “your mercies are new every morning.” It’s such a hopeful reminder.

These are some of my favorite verses in the Bible. Today, they were the focus in The Upper Room devotional.

No matter how many times we fail to be the people we want to be, we can always try again. God does not have this finite measure of mercy. We don’t use it all up and then find a hard, ruthless God. No, every day we get a fresh, generous measure of mercy!

Let’s define a few words right quick.

• Justice is getting what is deserved. The scales are balanced.
• Mercy is not getting the consequences you deserve. When justice says you deserve punishment and you do not get it, this is mercy. The scales are not balanced. The heavy weight of justice is lightened.
• Grace is getting more than you deserve toward the positive. Blessings represent a form of grace.

God is a god of love. Because God loves, justice is a value. He does not desire any to suffer and be crushed or oppressed. But because God is also love, he is patient hoping we will choose to live as he instructs and consequences may be averted.

When we are trying to live as God taught us—especially as seen and heard in the life of Jesus—God’s loving nature extends to us mercy and grace for all the ways we fail to hit our target.

One of the most helpful things we can do to further our journey is to stop thinking of God as itching to punish us.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease.

Do. Not. Give. Up!

Goodness, friends, some days God really shows up with a comment on where we are. Have you noticed that?

I’m convinced that God always shows up for us—because God never leaves or forsakes us. I’m also convinced that there’s always encouragement and “a word” when we need it—if we are paying attention enough to notice them. (Cultivating this awareness is the key to achieving and maintaining our sense of peace no matter what is going on around us.)

A few days ago, the Verse of the Day on the YouVersion Bible App was one of those times for me. In a conversation with colleagues the evening before, I expressed this sentiment regarding one aspect of our ministry lives.

It’s okay to be tired. Or frustrated. It’s okay to question things, lots of things, everything. But don’t quit!

Try these things instead:

• Take a break.
• Take a nap.
• Get a snack.
• Go for a walk.
• Call a friend.
• Find an encouraging verse and meditate (breath and repeat the verse) for 5 minutes (or 3 or 1–whatever you can is better than nothing).

Here’s a breath prayer for this verse:
(Inhale) Lord, I won’t give up.
(Exhale) I’ll wait for your harvest.

Y’all, this woman is my hero! I don’t know her and I hope she wouldn’t be upset by me sharing her picture.

She and I were in the same breakout session at a conference. Here she sat with her tablet or iPad (whichever it may be), tearing it up taking notes.

So why is she my hero?

She coordinates the care ministry at her church and technology makes that more effective. They use online care notes from those who conduct the visits.

She could have declined to do things that way, in a new way. Notes on paper work. Files in an office work. Sharing the info over the phone works.

She doesn’t just want it to work; she wants it to be great.

For this reason, she changed the way it had always been done, learned some new skills, and transformed a ministry in her church.

More than this, she helps others figure it out. “It’s not that hard. We figure it out together.”

Lifelong Learning

Todays world requires us to be continually learning. There’s no class or program or degree that will teach us all we ever need to know. Instead, we must take in new information regularly.

New is often uncomfortable. We are awkward. It’s not familiar. We don’t want to look foolish. But we would miss some amazing things if we decided we knew all we ever needed to know.

Studies show that learning is a great way to keep our minds sharp and either delay or diminish the cognitive decline that sometimes accompanies aging.

Growing older isn’t optional. We age until we die. But we don’t have to grow out of touch, fall behind the curve, become outdated and irrelevant.

Ask yourself these questions:

Where are you resisting change? Why?

What are you learning?

How are you growing and changing with the world around you?

You have a choice! Choose to be awesome, amazing, and adaptable. . . like this beautiful woman.

Romans 12:24. What a beautiful and simple verse! But what a difficult thing to do! and how interesting that this is Verse of the Day on the YouVersion Bible App.

I start most days in that app. Before I let myself check social media, I open it and see what is the verse of the day.

Yesterday, someone mistook my passion for anger. I was making an impassioned plea for something I believe strongly. The strength of my conviction came through in my words and body language. My goal was truth and truth is good.

“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;”
‭‭John‬ ‭8:31‬ 

So what do we do when we are trying to do good and it is perceived as evil?

I’ve been taught that communication is the responsibility of the one trying to communicate. In other words, we have a duty to share information in a way that it can be heard.

That seems to apply here. Am I choosing words, as well as tone and body language that conveys what I intend? If not, then I should change it.

But does this always mean that if others to not receive our communication we have not chosen appropriate means?

I don’t think it does. Effective communication requires both the communicator and receiver to be acting in good faith. Unfortunately, there are times when someone is predisposed against communication. Mischaracterizing our means allows them to deflect the content or to encourage others to do so.

The one doing so may not even realize that they are doing so. For most of us, our first instinct is to reject information which does not support our position. In other words, we resist receiving new information because change is hard and new information might require us to change.

For those of us who follow Christ, we need to examine this. The Holy Spirit is always providing us new information—insights about Scripture, their application to our life, things in our life that do not honor or glorify God. This is called sanctifying grace by those of us in the Wesleyan/Methodist stream of Christianity.

How do we know if we are overcoming evil?

We do however need to be reflective as well. We must not immediately dismiss those with whom we are not communicating as being bad actors or not acting in good faith.

However, if we examine ourselves honestly, and have done our best to communicate truthfully, the failure of the message to be received exceeds our responsibility.

So here’s my thought for today:

Perhaps evil has a vested interest in mischaracterizing truthful communication in an effort to prevent good from overcoming it.

My prayer for today: Lord, help me communicate better today. Let the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart be acceptable to you. Please teach me not to let an excess of emotion to cloud my communication. Keep me on the right side of passion and righteous indignation and not on the side of anger and bitterness. My desire is to be on the side of your good, O Lord, to participate in your will to overcome evil with good. My heart, mind, and hands are open to your guidance that I might do so. Through Christ, Amen.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭19:14‬ ‭

Every morning, as I drink coffee and wake up, I read Scripture and pray. Many mornings, I read a devotional as well.

This morning, I picked up Forty Days on Being a Three, by Sean Palmer, part of the Enneagram Daily Reflections series. Opening to Day 37, I found a meditation titled, “an Invitation to Rest.”

I almost just put it down again. Yet again, this devotional is meddling in my business and getting on my toes. But the I-will-not-quit in me kept me reading, and I’m glad I did.

Near the end, I encountered the phrase highlighted above: God pronounces creation as “good,” not perfect.

Good. Not Perfect.

I admit that when I think of Creation, I think of it as perfect before human beings messed it up. (Remember the forbidden fruit we couldn’t keeps our hands off that got us evicted?)

Being the Enneagram 3 that I am, I hot-footed it over to an interlinear to check the Hebrew. Sure enough, the word in Genesis 1 is not ‘perfect.’

The Hebrew word is tob. (Strong’s H2896 for those of you who are geeks like me.) This versatile word can be an adjective, a noun, or an adverb, meaning good in the widest sense, beautiful, better, best, pleasant, or fine—and more.

The closest description to perfect in the list is best. Best does not mean perfect. Even the best of something may not be perfect.

So what?

So what difference does any of this make? Too often I think of perfect as the standard. Not just the goal—the standard. Anything less than perfect is not good enough. And the more you work hard to be perfect, to make something perfect, the more it stings when it’s not. And it’s usually NOT, because the world isn’t perfect.

God is, however, perfect. So I have to believe that pronouncing the world ‘good’ and not ‘perfect’ was a choice.

Why would God choose to create something good instead of perfect?

Perhaps God wanted to show us that we can make such a choice. We can choose to create good in our lives and in our world. The quest for perfection often paralyzes us. We create nothing for fear of not creating perfection.

What good have I failed to bring into this world and into my life because perfectionism prevented me?

Today, in a simple sentence, in a devotional that stomps my toes far more than I would like, I am reminded: Perfect wasn’t the goal when God created. Why should it be mine when I create something?