Spring! A Time of Promise and Renewal!

Spring has always been my most favorite time of year… It’s a time of fresh beginnings; a new start. A time when we can re-evaluate our priorities, our lives and do our own "emotional Spring cleaning." Are you unhappy? Do you feel like your life has become stale and stagnant? Perhaps it’s time to make changes. Re-prioritize your life. Out with the old in with the new! Formulate a new perspective! Sit down and create a bucket list of things you want to do or places you want to travel. What would lift your spirits? How about recreating yourself? Formulate a new workout plan? Maybe go out and get a makeover to make you feel fresh and new? Take a class on something you've always wanted to learn! What can you do to feel good about yourself? Think about it, formulate a plan and go with it! You may be surprised at how good the changes you decide to make change the way you feel.

There are things in life that we can change or continue to wallow in. I never liked that word, "wallow." (I'm scrunching up my nose in distaste as I write it). Are you feeling stuck in the mud of a situation? Come on! Gather up the strength to pull yourself out! You are stronger than you think you are! If you determine that you are worth the change, you will gather up the energy and strength to do just that! If you can't - call a friend, someone who can encourage you and give you their strength! There is no shame in asking for help. Most importantly of all, you've got a Heavenly Father who is just a conversation away. There have been times when I have simply cried out, "God!!!! I neeeeeeeed You!!!! Help me!!!" And you can bet, even if you can't see it or feel it - there is help going on behind the scenes. All you have to do is change your mind and sometimes that is the hardest step of all. Everyone has met someone with an "Eeyore" mentality. You know who Eeyore is? He is the sad, depressed donkey in the Winnie the Pooh stories written by A.A. Milne

“Why me? Oh well… I guess that’s just the way life is… Ho hum…”

What Eeyore has needed is a good quick kick in the pants to get him motivated!  If you think about it, everything really comes down to perspective.  The Bible even says:

“For as a man thinks within himself; so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Change is not always easy, but if you think about it – nothing worth anything ever is.  Isn’t it ironic that sometimes it seems easier to give someone else advice than to take it yourself? If you were sitting next to yourself – what would you say? What advice would you give?  Sometimes we are harder on ourselves than we are on anyone else. Maybe it’s time you gave yourself a break? Think about working towards an attainable goal – break it down into bits and pieces; maybe even give yourself different dates and reward yourself at each point for what you have accomplished.  For example, two years ago I decided I wanted to learn to run.  Me, Ms. Theater person, Ms. Never-Have-Been-Involved-In-Sports EVER.  Just the mere thought of running exhausted me.  I knew that if I was going to obtain that goal, I would have to find a plan that would go slowly and work me up to running.  I decided to purchase the “Couch to 5K” program for my iphone.  It started out by slow walking sped it up to speed walking to intermittent jogs to running.  By the time I was running I was surprised at how quickly I had switched over a course of weeks to actually becoming a runner!  It was not an overnight thing, it happened slowly over a period of time.  I finished the program and switched over to “5K to 10K” which has been a lot harder, but I’ve been up for the challenge and when the going gets tough (and it does) I work through it.  Now I should mention that my running is on a treadmill, inside.  I ran into quite a few problems this winter with being able to get out to the gym due to the tremendous amounts of snow we got this winter in Massachusetts.  I was not able to get to the gym as often as I had in the Fall, which set me back a bit.  Instead of beating myself up over this, I have decided to be kind and patient with myself (as I would be for someone else) and allow myself time to get up to the speed I was at previously, even though it is more effort because my expectations for myself are higher.  There were times when I could have thrown my hands up in the air and said, “Forget this!”  But instead, I keep pushing myself and strive to move forward.  My future plan? Once I feel ready, I want to transition myself from running on the treadmill to running outside, which is a whole different feeling.  My own experience has been that it is harder to run outside than in.  But eventually I will graduate from the treadmill, run outside and maybe eventually participate in a 5K race, not to race someone else but to challenge myself with the goal that I can do it.

It’s Spring, a time of renewal.  A fresh start, a new beginning – just like those promising buds that are on the trees, how are you going to welcome the Spring season? It’s time for a change, you are well worth it and you'll be glad you did.