When Christmas Feels Heavy
Christmas is a season of joy and celebration. We celebrate Christ’s miraculous birth to a world that desperately needed a Savior.In this season of gladness and festivity, it can be easy to feel depressed and lonely. You see the Christmas decorations and lights and just can’t gather up enough energy to put yours up. You want to be excited and cheerful, but it just feels so hard. Your heart just isn’t in it.
Grief may still be very fresh for you, and the happiness around you may feel impossible to muster. It can be easy for the weight of grief to make your spirit feel heavy, instead of hopeful.
Read more...5. Prioritize Sleep
We all know sleep is important, but many of us don’t get enough. Sleep deprivation is linked to heart disease, depression, anxiety, hormone imbalance, brain fog, and so many more health issues. Women should be getting 8-10 hours per night. But how do we get enough sleep?
Here are a few tips that have helped me:
1. Keep a consistent bedtime every night. It’s tempting to stay up late on the weekends, but try not to. You will feel so much better when you’re going to bed at the same time each night, and with consistency, your body will have an easier time getting into a rhythm.
2. No screens at least 1 hour before bed. Two hours before bed is optimal. I like to read before I go to bed (in a REAL book, not on a screen). It’s relaxing, keeps me away from screens, and helps me unwind.
3. Use blackout curtains or a sleep mask. Having it completely dark has helped me sleep so much better! I use a sleep mask to block out any ambient light from the moon, cars or neighborhood lights.
Read more...2. Avoid drinking anything during a meal
Say what? You’re telling me to drink a lot of water, but I can’t drink while I’m eating? Not exactly.
You don’t have to completely abstain, but while you're eating you should limit how much you drink to no more than 2-4 ounces. When we drink anything while we’re eating, it dilutes our digestive juices, and makes it much more difficult for our body to digest the food we’re eating, causing acid reflux and indigestion. Many people with acid reflux could solve most or all of their issues by doing this one FREE thing! I suggested this to a friend who was suffering terribly with GERD, and it changed her life!!! She’s not having to constantly take antacids, and she can sleep at night without any reflux.
Solution: Drink a big glass 20 minutes before your meal and a big glass 20 minutes after a meal, but limit yourself while you’re eating.
When it comes to working on our health and wellness, we sometimes feel like it’s going to be overwhelming, take a lot of time in our day, and cost a lot of money. We see the fitness gurus on instagram that promise results, but it often comes at a steep price tag, both physically and monetarily.
As a widow, my wellness has always been important, but I didn’t realize that what I was doing was actually stressing my body, not helping it. I burned the candle at both ends and pushed too hard in my workouts. I thought I needed to exercise longer, to run faster and to get up earlier to be healthy. But I have learned that wellness doesn’t mean working harder. Nor does it mean spending a lot of time or money. There are simple things you can include in your everyday life that will boost your health, are gentle to your body and mind, and are completely free.
Read more...“It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things you lack” (Germany Kent).
It’s easy to be thankful when things are going good or when a prayer is answered in the way you desired. Gratitude comes naturally when the sun is shining, the kids are obedient, and things seem to be going well.
But what about when you’ve begged God for healing, or a job, or wisdom in a situation, and the prayer goes unanswered. Or God chooses to answer differently than you expect - your spouse dies, you continue to be unemployed, or you’re at a loss to handle a difficult situation. What then? How can we be thankful for something that causes us pain or disappointment?
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