I don’t know how many of you are ready for Spring, but I sure have had my fill of Winter! As I was driving through the sludge and slush from the most recent snow storm and recognizing it was slowing me down, I was reflecting on how this can apply to our lives.
We all have had seasons when we experienced sludge and slush in our lives, and the effect is it slows us down. It can exhausts us mentally, emotionally, physically and even spiritually. When you find you are stuck or something in life has slowed you down, what do you do to help move yourself through it.
For me, I can think of three things which help me.
1) Friends - the support of friends can be a big source of encouragement. When I open up and become vulnerable to some safe friends, and I see them nodding in affirmation, speaking words of encouragement, my spirit is uplifted.
2) Reflection – Spending time reflecting on how I got to where I am, what has influenced that, have there been people I have hurt, or who have hurt me. For me, journaling is a great source of gathering my thoughts and feelings. Writing them down seems to help me process through them and usually by the time I finish, I become more hopeful of the future.
3) Volunteering – When I become active, it helps me move from myself to others. When I reach out to help others, it takes the emphasis off of me and I feel better about myself as a result. I still need to work through the sludge and the slush, but in the process of doing that, I found volunteering seems to help.
So no matter how deep the sludge and the slush in your life is, by practicing these three things, it will help you move through it. Also remember each person moves through struggles at a different pace.
We all have had seasons when we experienced sludge and slush in our lives, and the effect is it slows us down. It can exhausts us mentally, emotionally, physically and even spiritually. When you find you are stuck or something in life has slowed you down, what do you do to help move yourself through it.
For me, I can think of three things which help me.
1) Friends - the support of friends can be a big source of encouragement. When I open up and become vulnerable to some safe friends, and I see them nodding in affirmation, speaking words of encouragement, my spirit is uplifted.
2) Reflection – Spending time reflecting on how I got to where I am, what has influenced that, have there been people I have hurt, or who have hurt me. For me, journaling is a great source of gathering my thoughts and feelings. Writing them down seems to help me process through them and usually by the time I finish, I become more hopeful of the future.
3) Volunteering – When I become active, it helps me move from myself to others. When I reach out to help others, it takes the emphasis off of me and I feel better about myself as a result. I still need to work through the sludge and the slush, but in the process of doing that, I found volunteering seems to help.
So no matter how deep the sludge and the slush in your life is, by practicing these three things, it will help you move through it. Also remember each person moves through struggles at a different pace.