Assessing My Personal Growth

"We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is  eternally at peace."   -Elizabeth Gilbert-


This weeks exercise and assessment process was interesting as it is something that I have been working on the past few years, but never knew there was actual theory behind it till now.  It started about ten years ago when I realized there were a couple areas of my life where I was allowing fear to control my life and some of the decisions that I made.  I determined then that I would pray for strength and then look within myself and find ways of overcoming the fear rather than letting the fear overcome me.  The biggest fear I had was of flying.  Early in our marriage I had witnessed two small planes crash and had a piece of bloody cushion fall at my feet.  Though it wasn't something that I ever thought of much, deep down my subconscious had not let it go.  So I developed a plan.  I started by flying down to see my parents in Florida.  When I entered the plane I sent up a prayer asking God to bless the flight and the pilot, then left it in God's hands.  After I sat down I pictured angels underneath the wings of the plane holding it up and protecting me.  During the flight I meditated and gave thanks, read a book, and thought lovingly of the visit I would have with my parents.  By the end of the journey I realized that rather than feeling distressed I was at peace.  This practice is something I do now every time that I fly.  I can honestly say that flying is still not my favorite thing to do, but it no longer has a hold over me.
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For this weeks exercise I sat in my favorite chair, crossed my legs, then prayed and meditated on and assessed what areas I need to focus on improving in my life.  It came to me that my nutrition, interpersonal relationships, spiritual life, and worldly focus are flourishing but the areas that needed to be improved are regular and consistent exercise as well as finding ways to stay focused and follow through on tasks and not let myself get distracted by other things.   When I was done meditating I sat down and made a plan as to how to accomplish those two goals. 

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As for exercising I realized that I am not consistent because I hate to take the hour away from my schoolwork.  Meditating let me see that I will do better with my schoolwork if I honor my health by working out everyday.  My plan is to read my bible and pray when my husband leaves for work at 6:30 and then take an hour to either do a 3-4 mile walk aerobics video with Leslie Sansone, or take my dogs for a 4-5 mile walk.  This will give me plenty of time for schoolwork and anything else scheduled for that day. 
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Following through with projects and not getting distracted with other things is a bit more tricky.  As this relates to house cleaning I decided to have a basket in the room I am cleaning to put items that go into other rooms.  This way I don't go to put something away in another room and find things that need doing in there.  This way when the room that is being cleaned is done I can just take the basket around the house and put any items in it away at that time.  Finding a way not to get distracted in regards to craft projects took some thought.  I have 5 or 6 projects for myself that got put on the shelf when presents for people needed to be made.  My plan is to finish at least two of the projects before I take on any new ones.  After that, for every new project that comes up I will finish an old one.  In the future nothing new will be started till the current project is done.  This will definitely bring me a sense of peace.
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  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."   Philippians 4:13