The Weekend

I was feeling down last week and on Friday I was in desperate need of a weekend focused on self-care. On Sunday night, I was surprised by how joyful I was feeling and I concluded that I’ve finally found some healthy strategies to help me deal with pain, sadness and disappointment in life. During my early twenties, my default way to deal with negative feelings was through comfort eating. Comfort eating feels good in the moment but tend to only add more negative feelings to life over time. This weekend I decided to fill my life with the things that always make me feel better and that are healthy ways to feel better; books, friendship and God.

When I need some good advice, comfort and motivation to keep moving forward during the heavy seasons of life I love reading books about life’s challenges by authors like Lysa TerKeurst, Holly Wagner, Charlotte Gambill and Levi Lusko. Levi Lusko has written a great book about dealing with the loss of a loved one called “Through the Eyes of a Lion”. Charlotte Gambill has written the book “The Miracle in the Middle” about not giving up on the things you are fighting for in life. Lysa TerKeurst has written the wonderful book “Uninvited” about how to deal with feelings of insecurity and loneliness.

On Saturday, I ordered myself the biggest cup of coffee you could buy at the coffee shop and decided to read a few chapters in “Find Your Brave” by Holly Wagner. I’m so glad that I decided to read this book during this season of my life. When you are dealing with sadness, disappointment and pain it’s easy to want to lay down and feel sorry for yourself but what we really need is to get that “warrior spirit” in us to come out. We need that fighting spirit if we are going to be able to choose bravery and choose to keep fighting the good fight in life. Holly’s book gave me a lot of motivation, excitement, joy and hope on Saturday when I was reading it.

The second thing in life that can always get me to feel better is spending time with the people in my life that have my back. We can’t make it through life’s storms alone so good friendships become super important. On Sunday, I treated myself to a nice dinner at Lee restaurant in Toronto. Enjoying some good food with good company can make any problem in life seem smaller than before.

The third thing that makes all the difference in life during both good days and bad days is spending time in God’s presence. I wish I was equally excited about reading my Bible every day but the truth is that it’s during the more difficult times in my life that I seek His presence more than when everything is going great. On Sunday morning, I was very encouraged by pastor Steven Furtick’s sermon “The Power of Pre” at Elevation Church. I’m so blessed to get to be a part of Elevation Church and the current series “Work Your Window” comes at the perfect time in life for me this year. Today it’s Monday and I’m excited to take on this new week with new energy and a lot of new motivation. Let’s go!