(Video from summer 2016)
Happy New Year!
What are your goals this New Year?
Eating clean, exercising more consistently, etc.?
What if you tried something new this year and instead of focusing on the outside, you chose to begin within, where true transformation happens?
I get the pull to start working out and eating well at the start of the year. Most of my life my New Year's resolutions were focused on bettering the outside of myself. I thought if I took care of my outside, my inside would be at peace. Yet I can look back at pictures when I was in the best shape of my life and on the outside I may appear well but on the inside I was still not at peace.
What I have come to learn is that to be well within, I need to begin within.
I am sharing this video to give you some food for thought...
To grow strong enough to do these 50 push-ups I started at 10 and then added 2 a day for 21 days. I dedicated the time, used my energy purposefully and was disciplined daily. And those small deposits I put in over time paid off.
The same has been true in my spiritual growth.
When I started having a morning prayer time I would read a quick paragraph which took maybe a minute. Day by day over the past seven years, my prayer time has grown in length.
Why?
Because I have seen how taking the time to Pause. Breathe. and Pray. has brought more peace into my heart than when I would wake up and workout first thing.
Now I am not saying I don't like to workout or eat well. I was a Health and Physical Education teacher and a yoga teacher before becoming a writer. Being active and eating well is part of who I am yet I do those to increase the quality of my life, not to be a certain size anymore. I have come to learn that being at peace comes from an internal workout, one where I practice letting go and trusting in God.
I now spend twice as much time in the morning cultivating my Spirit, mind and heart - through my readings, prayer, meditation and my gratitude journal - than I do working out.
I share this video to demonstrate what can happen when you choose to use your time and energy consistently; you grow stronger. I can show you this growth physically but it is difficult for me to show the depth of internal growth I have experienced. I hope this parallel encourages you to know that change IS possible yet it doesn't start on the changing who we are on the outside.
True transformation begins within.
As you enter this New Year, I invite you to begin your transformation from the inside out. Learn to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
And choose to live out love, towards yourself, and others.
I admit, hopping on the treadmill may be easier, but will it really bring you the peace you are seeking within?
Begin within today by taking these simple steps:
1. Join my FREE facebook group where you will receive encouragement and guidance for your journey:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/166558437430907/?source_id=695664393827811
2. Sign up for my blog BELOW to receive weekly inspiration and encouragement and be the first to learn about my upcoming 6-week series classes (in-person and online).
3. For those who are local, my first 6-week series class, Pause. Breathe. Pray. starts on Monday, 1/8. To sign up visit HERE
Here's to a new day, a new week, a new month, a new year and a NEW YOU!
With love and hope,
Shawn
"For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are unwell...First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too." - Matthew 23:25-26