How are you feeling today? Are you tired, sick, annoyed or angry? Or here's a big one, perhaps you are stressed. What type of energy did you surround yourself with? What type of energy did you put out into the universe? More importantly, if you do have any negative feelings, how much of those feelings did you contribute to having?
We often overlook the things that we do to ourselves. It is so much easier to blame any aches and pains on someone else. But, if we take the time to sit back and reflect, we will begin to realize that we are NOT taking care of ourselves. Our bodies are wearing down and becoming immune to the damage that we are causing to it, and our faith begins to waiver. Ladies, we are not taking care of God's Temple. It is imperative that we acknowledge this and begin to rebuild that Temple. This tool will help us do just that:
Tool: List
Directions:
1. Make a two sided list-One side representing the good things that you do to keep your Temple strong/the other side representing the things that you do that breaks the Temple down. (Cons/Pros)
Examples: Consider the music you listen to/ the movies and/or T.V. shows you watch and how they make you feel; The food and beverages that your body consumes and whether or not they are healthy or harmful to your body; The conversations that you are engaged in. Is it gossip? Are you tearing somebody else's Temple down?
2. Choose at least two of the items on the "cons" side and fast from them for the remainder of the week.
-Make no mistake, by fast I mean to NO LONGER DO IT!
3. Post the two items that you will be fasting from as comments on the blog. This way we will be able to help each other with the challenges/temptations that we may encounter as we fast from the things that will ultimately destroy God's Temple if we allow them to do so.
WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!
4. Use the items from the ''pro" side of your list to help conquer the challenges/temptations that you may have to battle when fasting from those selected items on the "con" side.
Easy enough right? Perhaps not. Please please please, lets be interactive! Share the challenges that you have throughout the week. How else will we be able to help each other, and hold one another accountable? I can't wait to hear back from you all! God Bless you, and have a good day.
Good Morning Sisters,
ReplyDeleteMay you all have a beautiful day.
Here are a couple of pros/cons for me!
Pros:
1. Make sure you give God at least 15-30 mins a dsy of your time. (Devotion Time)
2. Say something positive about someone/something everyday.
Cons:
1, Speaking negative about someone. (Pray before you speak)
2. Eating unhealthy foods. (Concentrate on eating healthier)
I know by following this as well as the support from all of you, all thing are possible with the strength from God.
Good exercise Jade. The cons that I will fast from will be listening, speaking, and entertaining negativity. Regardless to if I or others dress it up by phrases to that's intended to take the negativity from it like (don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about....). Also, instead of going to carls jr or Atlanta bread company for breakfast, I will make it a priority to get up early enough to make my own breakfast.
ReplyDeleteAlright, my two cons:
ReplyDelete1) Negative thinking
2) Music w/ negative content
Hello everyone, my 2 cons are worrying and negative thinking. Will try to remember to just stay positive.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone. My two cons are un healthy eating habits, and stressing.
ReplyDeleteSo, as mentioned above, one of my cons is listening to music with negative content. Well, when I did my workout this morning, I realized that most of the jams I listen to when I work out are those types of Jams. Anybody got any dope Beats that I can workout to?
ReplyDeleteHi Jade!!
DeleteI must admit that "trap music" or whatever is a guilty pleasure of mine as well. I think that I'm drawn to the beats most. I just watched a lecture by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing and she said that they use that type of music to torture prisoners at Guantanamo. Torture! Unreal! Anyway, what about house music or uptempo techno-like music?
Jade,
DeleteIf you have amazon prime, the zumba mixes are pretty good in my opinion.
Hi Ladies,
ReplyDeleteI spent quite a bit of time thinking about this assignment. One of the things that resonated the most about this assignment is fasting with the intent to NO LONGER DO. I'm not sure about you, but it really changed how I felt about the assignment in which it really challenged me to dig deep and think about how I am valuing or devaluing my temple. This requires such a great deal of discipline and dedication, but it proves that in order to get different results, you have to change your innermost thoughts and mindset, and actions. Doing the same thing over an over again and expecting different result is INSANITY. So, with that, I am prepared to fast from the following.
I'd first like to start out by acknowledging the good things on my list. There was once a time when these things were on a bad list and am happy and grateful to be able to say that I overcame them.
The Good:
Stopped consuming meat
Quit smoking
Quit relaxing my hair
Increased water consumption
Now...for the bad...or rather, the next set of things I need to improve on, I will say that what I am prepared to list will be incredibly challenging, but I am willing to make changes to turn these challenges into successes.
-Not Meditating
-Consuming large amounts of sugar
-Listening to music that cripples self worth, value, and image
-Watch television programming that depicts black people negatively
-Pessimism and worry
-Engaging in gossip and negative talk
I found this quote online and thought it was pretty cool.
ReplyDelete"Thoughts are an important part of your inner wisdom - and they are very powerful. A thought held long enough and repeated often becomes a belief. A belief then becomes your biology."
I took "biology" to be our bodies or our temples.
Wow Jenn! You have brought up some real interesting points.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the music tio, I will look into the different types for my workout.
You know after reading yours I had to reevaluate myself, and I truly feel that internally I am very negative. It's mostly self inflicted. I don't mean to be, I don't want to be. It's just who I have become. So, I just don't want to fast from "negative thinking" I want to attempt to fasting from self inflicted negativity all together. This will be very challenging, but worth it, and a step towards betterment.
That's great Jade! There's another quote that I always remember. It's:
Delete"If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm."
I always try to tell myself this. We truly are our own enemy when it comes to thoughts. And negative thoughts can be so crippling to our bodies. I truly believe that they manifest themselves in our bodies in the form of disease and depression. When you break disease down, it is just that...dis-ease. Your body is not rested and you are not at peace. No good can come from that.
Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing. A memory to someone. A home to a life.
ReplyDelete- Nayyirah Waheed
Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing. A memory to someone. A home to a life.
ReplyDelete- Nayyirah Waheed
Jennifer and Jade,I find it interesting how I find the two of you to be the most positive people I know.
ReplyDeleteMy reflections from last week.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest things I've noticed in doing this exercise is that negativity is like a plague. Due to my heightened sense of what I was working on, I found myself having lunch all week by myself. People would join me and immediately start talking about someone. I politely told them I was doing away with gossip and negatively for while and they would soon leave, but that was a reflection of my true self and how much negativity I have allowed myself to host and entertain for people to come to me and immediately start talking about someone. Another thing I noticed is that negativity can be costly. Costly if time and peace and it also allows its kindred in if procrastination and laziness (personal opinion) usually when I get off work I can easily spend an hour on the phone talking about people and didn't have enough energy to do my homework or get my things together fit the next day. Last week, I completed all my homework on time, ironed my clothes, had dinner cooked before 7 (victory for me). Also, since I prepared breakfast myself I noticed my for was more sustainable and I saved a lot of money. This exercise was great.
Please excuse all grammer and spelling errors as this was done from my phone
Delete