12 Ways to Find Peace in a Crazy Busy World.
We live in a hectic crazy world with so much going on at all hours at all times. But I want to offer you a little solace and a little help to find the calm you’ve been clamoring for.
Here are 10 simple things you can do to feel the peace you know is possible, but you haven’t felt in a while.
1) Sense Your Senses: Being present in the moment is harder than it’s ever been. With smartphones and screens everywhere, it’s so so easy to be distracted from the present moment. But when we actually put our feet on the earth, feel the sun on our skin, and hear the laughter of children, we take ourselves out of “there” and put ourselves back in the NOW. Go through the senses: What do I taste? What do I smell? What do I hear? What do I see? What do I feel? And draw your mind back to the here and now. (Go ahead. I can wait until you’re done.)
2) Do One Thing at a Time: Take five minutes. Set a timer. Brain dump. Everything on your mind. Seriously. Then prioritize the list from most important to least important. Now do one thing at a time, crossing off the things as you go. Stop trying to be God and doing five million things at once, dear friend. Do one thing. Finish it. Then do the next, most important thing. If we all did this more often, I’m sure it would be easier to prioritize things that matter. Like exercise. Time with family. And other things on this list.
3) Get Outside in Nature: When God created Adam and Eve, he didn’t put them in a house, warehouse, building, or anywhere inside! He put them in the Garden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2). We need to be so mindful that we were not created to be inside all the time! We need to feel the sun in our skin, get sunlight in our eyes, feel the earth under our feet, and breathe the fresh air. Every day. It is like nutrition for the soul and can literally change your hormone balance for the better. Why? Simply because it’s where God put us in the first place. So when you’re done reading this? Just step out for a minute. I know you’ll be glad you did.
5) Practice Gratitude: Whenever my kids are complaining about something, I got into the habit of saying, “Well, if you’re going to whine, then you have to tell me 3 things you’re grateful for.” And I would wait until they listed three things (usually with my coaxing). It was amazing what this did for their mental state… just simply doing this. This is something I implement with some of my clients who are struggling emotionally… because your emotions take place in your body: so if you’re not feeling well? Check your heart. When was the last time you told God what you were thankful for? Or even a friend? 3 Things. Go ahead. (Read Colossians 3 to learn more).
6) Start Journaling: For a lot of us, thoughts can get stuck in our head. We may not be sure why we’re feeling a certain way until we get the chance to process through it. Gratitude journaling is definitely one of those things we can journal about, but also journaling about your lows too. King David in the Psalms would pour his heart out to God and tell him how distressed he was. But at the end of the Psalm, David almost always end with preaching God’s truth to himself, and giving himself a reason to hope and to rejoice. We can and should do that too. Preach the gospel to yourself. You have so much to be glad for. If nothing else you can be grateful for the saving power of Jesus Christ who brought you out of Darkness into His marvelous light. Rescued you from the domain of Darkness and transferred you to the Kingdom of His Beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins! (Colossians 1)
7) Move Your Body: In this blog, I have a meta-analysis I wrote in my senior year of Pre-Med talking about the benefits of Yoga on depression. (I intended to research exercise and depression but there weren’t enough studies to fulfill the assignemnt at that point.) But the results were clinically significant! There are three things you should do every single week in your movement time.
1) Get your heart rate up.
2) focus on your breathing.
3) strengthen your muscles.
My favorite (if I had to pick) is number 3 because you can accomplish all of these things by doing strength training. But the more science studies exercise, the more we’re coming to realize things like, the fact that your muscles are “hope factories” that create something that scientists called “hope molecules” that give you feelings of hopefulness. Now, why wouldn’t you want that?? Whether or not you want to? Move your body. Because eventually you’ll want to.
(Click here to read that article about Yoga.)
(Click here to start a program that will help you implement these principles slowly, one a day, starting with 10 minutes daily , to help yourself add these things to your life in attainable steps.
8) Be Mindful While You Wait: Have you ever noticed when waiting in line or waiting anywhere that people tend to pick up their phones and scroll? Check emails? Answer messages? Something. Have you ever thought about choosing NOT to do that? I started practicing this several years ago and I have some of my best thoughts and ideas while I’m waiting and watching others. In fact, my idea for this very business I now run came in a moment at a restaurant when I was waiting for my food while my husband was in the bathroom. Choose to be in the present moment instead and you’ll be amazed at how fast the time goes and how much calmer you feel. (Your loved ones will notice too).
9) Learn to Meditate: My favorite is meditating on the Word of God or a specific truth from the Word of God. (Make sure it’s not something you think is in the Word of God, but something that actually is — I mean, in the Bible). When I was younger I’d do this all the time. I’d crack open my Bible. Read a paragraph. And end up reading that paragraph over and over and over again! Amazing how much it opened my mind to new facets of that one scripture every single time I’d open it! And how my heart would FILL and overflow with peace by the time I was done. Absolutely incredible what focusing our minds on the word of God would do for our bodies. (PSST. It’s almost as if that’s how we were designed to live…)
10) Establish Routines: Every evening, in the cool of the day, God would come to the garden and walk with Adam and Eve. Every day God set the sun to rise and set. Every year the fall colors come and the cool air sets in, later to give way to the melting warmth of the spring sun, and the freedom and joy of the summer air. God created us to live in routine. To live in community. To live with rhythms. If you feel like you need more rhythms watch for my blog post coming up soon about “how to establish rhythms in your new healthy lifestyle.”
11) Forgive and be forgiven: So much of the time, in fact, more than anything else, I find the thing that most often steals our peace is the un-forgiveness in our hearts, either for other people or a unbelief that God’s forgiveness is really enough for US. “He who knew no sin, became sin, so we might become the righteousness of God.” His forgiveness and atonement is SO FULL that we do not need to be in fear of anything. He has completely covered us and taken the final victory: victory over death. So if you feel like you need to learn more about that, send me an email julia@julialemmensfitness.com and we can talk more about that together. I love fitness, but I love sharing the Good News of Jesus even more.
12) Eat Clean & Eat Well: There are so many more things you can do to help the hormones and stress levels in your body align with the mind you’re cultivating, and that means feeding your body food that will nourish it and help it grow and heal. God provided all the nourishment Adam and Even needed in the garden, but He also provides for you. You can move into this journey without fear, and one of the ways I can personally help you do that, is this: If you haven’t already, sign up for my 90-day Read. Set. Transform. Program so you can finally start working on healing your and building up your body with all the basics everyone should know.
BESIDES just a course, Nutrition Basics Packet and an extensive series of lessons about nutrition basics and everything you need to know to get started on your nutrition journey, you will also get:
1. Access to my app with basic fitness tracking capabilities so you can keep track of how much exercise you’re getting each week
2. Photo-Based Nutrition Tracking so you can be more mindful about the food you’re enjoying every day
3. An encouraging message every single day to help you learn or implement one thing at a time.
4. 3-4 Course videos to watch each week 5-20 minutes long to help you start learning and implementing these basic things that apply to just about everyone
5. A supportive community to help cheer you on when you need some pick-me-up.
Spots are limited and the current price will only be offered for a limited time, so sign up while you have the chance.
Click here to get started!
90 Day Ready. Set. Transform.
Grace and Peace,
Julia
