"Soul" Food Mondays || Help Your Being

With whom do you surround yourself?

"Soul" Food Mondays ... Er, A Day Late || Gratitude

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." ~ MELODY BEATTIE

Move throughout each day with gratitude.

"Soul" Food Mondays || We Make Our Days

We make our days pleasant or miserable. If we insist on being miserable, irritable and nasty, more than likely the day will give us exactly what we give it. A day is too valuable to waste on misery and unhappiness. ~IYANLA VANZANT

Your perception becomes your reality.  A miserable outlook may translate into a miserable truth.  We make our days.

"Soul" Food Mondays ... Er, A Day Late || Resilience As Your Best Friend

"No matter what or who has hurt you in this life, resilience must be your best friend.  Learn to rise each time you fall.  All will turn out well in the end." ~SOPHIA A. NELSON

Resilience.  An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change (Merriam-Webster).  Make it your best friend for it will be there with you through and after adversity.  It may not prevent the inevitable but it will lessen the blow, keep you sane, and make you all the stronger.  Resilience must be your best friend.

"Soul" Food Mondays || The Quality of Life

"Your health is your wealth.  Don't let life's stresses be so hard on you that it wrecks your temple: your body.  Guard and protect your health.  It's the quality of life that counts in the end, not the longevity of life." ~ Sophia A. Nelson

Learn to "live" before it's too late.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Love Covers and Heals

"Let LOVE be your life's compass.  You can let "like" leave you at times, but never, ever let LOVE leave your heart.  Love covers and it heals.  Keep love buried at the front of your heart and all things are possible." ~ Sophia A. Nelson

Love covers and it heals.  Hate eats at the soul.  Let go of hate, but also greed, jealousy, resentment, self-absorption, and all things void of love.  Let love be your life's compass ...

"Soul" Food Mondays || Listen to That Whisper

"I say the universe speaks to us, always, first in whispers. And a whisper in your life usually feels like 'hmm, that's odd.' Or, 'hmm, that doesn't make any sense.' Or, 'hmm, is that right?' It's that subtle. And if you don't pay attention to the whisper, it gets louder and louder and louder. I say it's like getting thumped upside the head. If you don't pay attention to that, it's like getting a brick upside your head. You don't pay attention to that—the brick wall falls down. That is the pattern that I see in my life and so many other people's lives. And so, I ask people, 'What are the whispers? What's whispering to you now?'" ~ Oprah 

Are you sensitive to hearing the whispers in your life?  If not, mark it as one of your resolutions for 2013.   Better yet, start now.  Learn to let the whispers speak to you.  Take heed when you hear them.  Don't wait until they become so loud that it becomes too late.  What's whispering to you now?

Related quote:
Learn to let your intuition—gut instinct—tell you when the food, the relationship, the job isn’t good for you (and conversely, when what you’re doing is just right).  ~Oprah

"Soul" Food Mondays || It's OK to Change Your Mind

It is okay to change your mind ... especially if it makes you happy.  Life is too short for you to stay where you don't want to be.

An old, but timeless video:

 

"Soul" Food Mondays || Don't Let Negativity Dictate Your Decisions

Do you allow dislikes (e.g., negative opinions from others) to dictate your decisions in life?  Then this video is more than worthwhile for you.  Wise (and funny), indeed!

"Soul" Food Mondays || Why We Fail at Lifestyle Changes

Have you been failing at making a lifestyle change?  Then, perhaps these tips (in the video below) will help:

"Soul" Food Mondays || Let Go of What You Don't Want

“The only way to get what you really want is to let go of what you don’t want.” - Iyanla Vanzant

What are you holding on to that you do not want?  An unhealthy relationship?  An extra fifteen pounds?  A stagnant career?  Damaged hair?  You must let go of these things in order to get what you really want.

Make room for what you do want.

"Soul" Food Mondays || You Are Not Inferior

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

It is in your power to determine whether you will be the ground that another person walks on, whether you will be the doormat, whether you will be the gum under another person's shoe.  No one can keep you underneath others but you yourself.

So, here is the moment of truth: Will you grant another human being the power to make you feel inferior?  or will you tear up the consent form?  It is up to you and only you.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Enduring the Wilderness

What is the "wilderness"?  It is generally a period in life when one is stripped of one or more relationships and forced into isolation to reflect and/or renew before restoration or advancement.  The husband leaves you for another woman.  The friend abandons you.  You unwillingly but, out of necessity, dump your boyfriend.  Or a new career takes you thousands of miles away from your family and friends into the middle of nowhere.  At the end of it all, you find yourself alone - in the wilderness.

What one accomplishes (or does not accomplish) in this period is vital to whether one exits or stays ... or enters another wilderness a short time later.  Does the individual learn during that period?  Does the individual mature?  Did the individual shed his/her bad habits?  Did he or she gain valuable life lessons?  These are just a few of the questions that may be worked out in the wilderness.

Do you want to see fruitful land again?  Then endure the wilderness.  Allow it to shape you and teach you.

You can now find HHB on Facebook. Share with your friends:

http://www.facebook.com/healthyhairandbody.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Self-Esteem Revisited

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“Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.” - Iyanla Vanzant

"We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth."  

What do you think you are worth?  It is your choice.  And that choice determines what you bring into your life.



For previous "Soul" Food Monday posts:
"Soul" Food Mondays || Addressing Low Self-Esteem
"Soul" Food Mondays || Perseverance in Setbacks
"Soul" Food Mondays || Love Is Patient ...
"Soul" Food Mondays || Forgiving Yourself and Others
"Soul" Food Mondays || Accepting You
and More!

You can now find HHB on Facebook. Share with your friends:

http://www.facebook.com/healthyhairandbody.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Put A Period on Your Past

Let go.  Put a period on your past.  Below is a video all about it, by a favorite youtuber.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Addressing Low Self Esteem

Addressing low self esteem. Part I.

"You'll naturally have better self esteem as a by-product of living well."  A major part of "living well" involves fulfilling eight core human needs, according to the articles below:

•The need to look after your body (e.g., eat well, care for you hair and nails)
•The need for meaning, purpose and goals (e.g., set a goal to pay down debt)
•The need for a connection to something greater than ourselves (e.g., God, nature)
•The need for creativity and stimulation (e.g., paint, exercise, learn to knit)
•The need for intimacy and connection to others (e.g., friends, your pet)
•The need for a sense of control (e.g., spring cleaning)
•The need for a sense of status and recognition from others (e.g., recognition that you are a daughter, mother, sister, and/or friend)
•The need for a sense of safety and security

For more insight on addressing low self esteem, I encourage you to read this article.  (Sorry about the format.)

For more on the core human needs, read this article.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Love Is Patient ...

Spread the love this season.  Love is good for the soul!

1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ...  3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.


4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Increasing Patience

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Increasing Patience.

Patience is necessary to attain a healthy soul.  It goes hand in hand with perseverance.  With strength.  With wisdom.  With faith and hope.  Patience keeps stress, anger, and anxiety at bay.  It is always rewarded and brings peace of mind.  Patience is what you'll find in the strongest and healthiest of relationships.  

Increase your patience, and your soul will thank you for it.

"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success." ~Brian Adams

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow." ~Chinese Proverb

"One minute of patience, ten years of peace." ~Greek proverb

"Our patience will achieve more than our force." ~Edmund Burke

"Soul" Food Mondays || Encouragement

For those who believe in Scripture, here are verses to encourage you ...


1. If a friend, family member, or significant other has betrayed, abandoned, or rejected you. Recognize what "real" love is ...

1 Corinthians 13
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.


2. If you question your self worth, self image, self value ...

Genesis 1
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


3. If you've lost a job, are in a financial bind, lost a home, cannot pay your bills ...

Matthew 6
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ... 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ... 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.


4. If you're going through trials, tests, ordeals ...

James 1
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.


5. If you're dwelling on your past transgressions. If you cannot forgive yourself for the past ...

Romans 8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

"Soul" Food Mondays || Fear of Failure

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure." - Eriksson

Fear of not reaching your goal. Fear of making a fool of yourself. Fear of your current relationship failing like the others did. Whatever the fear, realize that it is preventing you from succeeding. If you fail, so what. Dust yourself off and try again. No one said the journey would be easy and without bumps in the road. The worst thing you can do is to let fear of failure sabotage your path to success.