My One Little Word 2016 ~ Rest

It's the middle of March already and I haven't really shared much about my word for 2016. Selecting a word to focus on has been a valued practice for me for a number of years now. Some years my word has really impacted my life and other years my word has just kind of been in the background not doing much. I made the decision that this year I would throw myself wholeheartedly into having this be a year where my word has a big impact on my life. This means I am taking my time and letting the prompts and exercises steep like a good cup of tea and I'm not being driven by the calendar.

Flip-side of my January divider page

A good quote to start the focus this year.

So, why did I choose REST as my word this year? There's a lot encompassed in this word for me. First, and foremost, it is about resting in God and trusting Him. I want to live wholeheartedly and that can only come as we walk in step with God and what He has for our lives. I'm resting in Him to focus on getting healthy this year - changing how I eat, exercising, looking at emotional and mental health, and keeping away from things and outlooks that cause burnout for me. This year I am intentionally slowing down in order to focus. In fact, I am focusing on four areas: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. I'm setting goals in all of those areas. My focus this year is to try and change or add a new habit each month and then build on them for health. In January I focused on adding more servings of vegetables to our diet - I've gotten really creative with adding spinach to many dishes to increase the vegetable intake!

Definitions, synonyms and a Scripture verse to support my word.

There has been a lot happening surrounding my focus on Rest in the first few months of the year and it feels like a really good start.

February divider

Flip-side of Feb divider

My Intentions & Goals this year

Following along with Ali Edward's prompts and the OLW community help me stay focused and keep creative ~ creativity is one of my emotional ways of staying healthy! I highly recommend her class.

Tracking my February practice - eating more fruit

February begins the practice of Lent

Each year I embark on a journey, but this year the word "pilgrimage" seems to fit my direction better. A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place ~ that holy place for me is called REST. What journey are you on this year?

New in my Etsy shop, {found on brighton}:

Have a good weekend. I am off to our staff retreat this evening and tomorrow.

My Word for 2015

It's no secret on this blog that I continually struggle with issues of burnout. I think it may go hand-in-hand with the ebb and flow of life in full time ministry - or at least in my life in ministry. In the past few years this struggle has become more and more evident and, at times, incapacitating. It is a huge part of why I got connected to art and to art journaling as a way to help create balance and energy. At times my schedule is packed full of activities and events. In the midst of this there are kids and people with needs that need ministering to. My emotional, mental and spiritual energy can get drained and I have tried to find ways over the years to keep this all in balance.

In the past year, with the help of some spiritual companions, I believe I have started to really get a handle on understanding what I need to keep my energy and my outlook in balance and have started to put some practices in place that help. So, I felt the Lord telling me it was time for renewal in 2015. It sure feels like it's time! A negative attitude and outlook has crept in over the past few years and I haven;t felt like myself as a result of that. But slowly in the past year there have been some shifts.

In a sense I have been renewing my mind over the past year and am anticipating renewal in many areas in the year ahead. 

I posted my page with my theme passage of Scripture last week, but am posting it again with some explanation this time.

There are quite a few places in the Bible where renewal is talked about, but the passage in Isaiah 61:1-4 really connected with me. Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah and applies it to himself in Luke 4:16-20. This passage describes a Savior who heals brokenness in whatever form or circumstances it is found in us - poor, captive, in darkness, mourning, grieving, despairing - He heals us. In healing He rebuilds, restores, and renews our lives. I'm looking to be renewed this year. To have my energy (emotional, mental and physical) renewed. To have my passion and vision for ministry renewed. To have my health renewed. To have my spirit renewed. To have my emotional equilibrium renewed. It all starts with having my mind renewed and this I cannot do myself. I can only place myself before God and position myself through spiritual disciplines and practices in Christ, ready and willing for transformation.

I completed a few of the Logos365 prompts we posted on the HKC site:

Definition page

Goals page

In order for habits to change and transformation to take place we need to be intentional and set goals. I decided to select 5 areas where I feel I need renewal to take place. I am going to set small, manageable goals monthly in some of those areas. It is said that it takes 6 weeks to make or break a habit and that slow is best in order to see lasting change. I'm interested in lifestyle changes not simply in behavior modification. I think the key to change is in making small baby steps that lead to lasting change, rather than trying to look at the full year and then giving up not too far into it. That may have been why I was able to complete the 52 weekly art calendar pages for the Documented Life Project when I usually struggle to complete projects. It was easier to just look at each week as it came rather than thinking about a full year of weekly projects and trying to plan it out.

To make things more manageable I am combining my Logos 365 word projects in my Take Me Deeper art journal.

Are you participating in one of the many word-of-the-year projects? If so, share your word with me in the comment section below. :)

Meanderings

Meandering: adjective; the act of following a winding or indirect course. Ramble, roam, zigzag, circuitous.

I often struggle with what to write posts about. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, but rather that I have so many things going on inside my head. And, usually, I either can't land on just one or I haven't developed each thought enough to do a full blog post. So this morning I thought, why not simply group my meandering thoughts together in one blog post and post it occasionally.

So, some of the things on my mind this week are:

I have been reading about my personality. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I am an INFJ (Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging). More specifically, I have been reading about how people with my personality type best deal with stress - known in the MB Type world as "in-the-grip". INFJ's can benefit greatly by engaging in regular exercise. It can be effective for regulating mood, quieting the mind and calming emotions. I've tried over the years to walk to lose weight but I struggle with consistency. There are always so many things vying for my time and honestly other things are more enjoyable. But since my retreat I've simply been trying to get outside for my emotional health. And since Fall is my favorite season it makes it a little easier for me to motivate myself. I came across a quote credited to Augustine:

Solvitur Ambulando

"It is solved by walking."

A walk can do wonders! I'm adding this to my personal mantras list.

I am actually current with my pages for The Documented Life Project!

We launched a new faith art community this past Saturday - His Kingdom Come Community. If you missed the announcement you can read about it in this post. 

Last week I got my Gelli plate out. I haven't played with it much and I want to use it more. I got a few good background pages during my play.

And last, I have a few random art journal pages.

In case you missed the announcement of the new faith art community we are launching visit this post or visit our website His Kingdom Come Community.

A Few Things

Today's post is going to serve as a few things all rolled up into one blog post. How's that for multitasking!

First, I finally decided to participate in the September 30 Days of Lists. I've hesitated because I have a tendency to involve myself in too many things. But I was looking through my previous 30 Days of Lists journals the other day, looking for a particular page, and that stirred up a desire to join in again. And let's face it, I just love making lists! So today they are doing a blog hop to get the challenge going.

We were challenged to go back to the March 2011 list and select a prompt, make a list, share it on our blog and then link up with other bloggers doing the same thing. I chose prompt #1 "A few things about yourself"...although I have a "few" more than a "few" things! (Ironically I labeled this post without even thinking about the title of the prompt!)

I actually just finished this page last night and loved how it fit with the list prompt. It is actually a page I made for a prompt I did with my art group. As I mentioned in my post last week (Read it here), In August a few ladies from my church got together with me and we formed an art group. One of the ideas I had with this group was to use ancient art forms and re-purpose them using paper and mixed media. Our prompt was to make a list of things about yourself starting with "I am" and/or "I am a/an". Then we made mosaics out of paper and put our lists on them. So the above page is the result of that prompt for me. All of my mosaic pieces were cut from magazine pages. Here are some details before and after I added the words:

I love it when I can kill two birds with one stone without even realizing it! If you are interested in participating in the September 2014 30 Days of Lists challenge you can learn more about it here. It's a fun challenge, especially if you love making lists! Even if you don't it helps you be present to things in your everyday life. There is also a Facebook page for today's blog post where you can view other bloggers lists  #30listsbloghop.

If you feel inspired you can make your own magazine mosaic and include a list of things about you. Don't forget to share it with me!

Something to Ponder

For a few weeks in August five ladies from my church got together with me to make art and listen to my ideas about being creative, our faith and identity in Christ, and self-care. It was fun introducing some of these ladies to art journaling. It was also a good exercise for me and testing my teaching voice. I have taught on various topics for different events at church, mainly in regards to Bible Study or mission, and I have used my voice here on this blog. But I have had a nudge in my heart and spirit to explore using my voice in other ways regarding faith and art. What I discovered over these weeks is that I have way too much inside me and it really needs more time to develop into something cohesive. But this time with these ladies also sparked some different creative ideas which I will share here on my blog in the months ahead as well as through some other projects I am going to be a part of in the near future.

In prep for our last get together to talk about self-care, I read a passage that is very familiar to me, and probably to many of you, but this time reading it brought to mind some different questions. Let me share:

The passage: "Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two verses." Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus had just been asked by one of the Pharisees in verse 36 which commandment is the greatest. The verse above give His answer. Not one, but two commandments are given as the greatest: loving God and loving your neighbor. Paul points to this last part, loving your neighbor, as a way of summing up all of the commandments in one (Romans 13:9) and as a way of fulfilling the entire Law (Galatians 5:14).

The part that brought about my questions was "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I think sometimes we view self-care as being selfish or self indulgent, but this verse makes an assumption: that you are already loving yourself in a manner that is healthy and good, and that out of that place you will love your neighbor/others in the same manner.To me loving yourself is about self-care. It's about taking care of yourself in ways that keep you healthy emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually so that you can be your best for others. Jesus modeled this when he withdrew and sought solitude, rest and time for prayer. He even did this at the expense of not serving others needs. He taught it and modeled it to His disciples. He was so in tune with His Father and the Father's will that he was able to discern when it was time for self-care and when it was time for caring for others.

So ponder these questions with me:

• How well are you doing at loving yourself?
• If you are not putting self-care/love practices into place that are healthy, then how well are you really loving others?
• Are you loving others out of something unhealthy? Such as co-dependency? Dysfunction? Facades? Trying to get your own needs met? Selfishness - to get something in return?
• Do you know yourself and your limits well enough to know how to fill your energy tank in the areas I listed above?
• Do you regularly take time to examine your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health?
• Do you regularly practice spiritual disciplines or habits that help shape you spiritually? Habits of rhythm such as rest, Sabbath, retreats that help energize you?
• Or are you spiritually thirsty? Worn out? Running on empty or burned out?

These are just some of the questions this passage brought about for me. 

For me, self-care is a way of loving myself that is healthy, not selfish. In fact, Cloud and Townsend in their book "Boundaries" call self-care stewardship of the gifts God has given us. The end goal of self-care is what determines whether it is selfishness or stewardship: Am I doing this to make me better for God and others or just to make me better. The answer definitely requires soul searching and listening to God in prayer.

I encourage you to make self-care a priority. Pray through the questions above. You may even want to use this as a topic to explore for art journaling! I do quite often!

Earlier this week I got a surprise in the mail. Elissa, who I know through the Documented Life Project sent me an envelope full of "Happy Mail". Thanks Elissa! Here's a small sampling of what was in the envelope.

Last weekend I spent some time painting papers for one of the exercises our group did. I noticed I  reach for The circle templates, stencils and stamps a lot!

And a recent non-Documented Life art journal page. 

My Sabbath Day and art are big parts of self-care for me. What practices are significant to your self-care?