This past week I've came down with a cold, which is like kicking me when I'm already down (because if you didn't know I just had a knee surgery around 4 ish weeks ago). But when I first felt the symptoms my parents where out of town, and I love spending time with my family, so when they weren't there to take care of me when I was sick, made it all the worse. Eventually they came back into town and my health immediately improved. This got me to thinking about missing people. Why do we miss people? Is it bad for us to miss someone? And this is how I think it works based off some research I did. That as we get to know someone we begin to create memories and whenever we're with that person our brain releases a chemical called Oxytocin, which is released when we have closeness to other people. And when we are away from those people we reminisce or remember those memories we had with them and start to crave that Oxytocin that we had created when being with that person. This craving is what we consider to be missing someone. And don't take this too literally since most of this is based off of theories of others that I've added on to. And whether or not it's bad to miss someone is really just up to opinion. I believe that it's okay to miss someone, but if they are truly gone or deceased then eventually at a certain point in time one needs to continue on with life. I'm not saying to forget about the person, but to know that there's nothing you could possibly do about it now. This is somewhat a relief and yet it's also a burden. And this burden can lead to serious depression or other dangerous things. If someone is dealing with the loss of a loved one, one needs a support system whether that's a family, friends, or a counselor. I personally have my family as well as God. Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit". God can heal any wound no matter how deep, He is the only one who can take away ALL of our burdens and make us alive after death. And all we have to do is believe that He is the Lord and give our lives up to Him. I will leave off with Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds". Just know that God will never fail you, and that He is the ultimate option for dealing with anything. I will be praying this week for those dealing with losses and I will also be praying for those people to seek solace in God. And I hope others will pray with me to. Have a great rest of your week, God Bless!
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Our lives are fairly busy. There's school, jobs, dates, family, and tons of other things that occupy our time. And our downtime is filled up with TV shows, video games, social media, and above all the internet. This busyness leads to craving this downtime or laziness. It also takes up the time we have to satisfy our needs, one being food, which is why there's fast food places. Now you probably already know where I going with this, but let's be honest, people are becoming overweight due to these circumstances. Most of you probably already know the statistics, but if you didn't: according to The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases more than two out of three adults are considered overweight or obese, as well as one third of children and adolescence are also considered overweight or obese. But there are sooooo many exercises that don't require hours of your time and are sooooo easy to do since they only require your own body. Let's start out with arm exercises, there's the obvious one, the push up. But little did you know that there's other ways to increase the intensity of a push up. One is what Self Magazine calls the Full Circle. This is where your in a push up position and instead of going down and putting your weight on both of your arms you can instead put all of your weight on one arm as you go down and switch as you go up. Let's move on the core. The core are the muscles of your torso, these include your lower back and abdominal area. One exercise that is one of my favorites is the plank. To amp this exercise up you can lift a leg or an arm, but don't forget to keep your back straight. Another great exercise are leg lifts, these work your core and get your quads firing. I've been doing these frequently since my surgery and here are some tips to get the most out of the exercise. Take it slow, the slower you go the more you have to work. And for extra back support put your hands under your lower back, or if you're doing just one leg at a time then have the non involved leg bent. Now while these exercises can be pretty fast and somewhat convenient, you have to remember that it's not going to effect you dramatically. Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association recommend 75 hours of vigorous aerobic activity (or cardio activity) or 150 of moderate aerobic activity per week. This can be hard to manage, but by doing little exercises like these throughout the day can help get those minutes knocked out.
Do you know any non-equipment exercises? Leave yours in the comments below, I'd love to hear your ideas!!! Well I'm going to first off start with saying that I'm sorry for not posting on Wednesday and then not on Thursday when on my Google + account I said I would. Just know that I will do my very best to post twice a week and on the dates that I scheduled. :)
We've all heard of or even been the little girls who dressed up in sheets and their mom's shoes, who pretend to walk down the aisle and hum the wedding song. It's pretty cute actually. When my sister and I where little she and I would play Barbies, where my girly little sister dressed up Barbie and played nicely. Of course if it was my choice on what we where playing it would be shooting Hot Wheels off a track. But I did play Ken on the occasion. Well on one particular time when my sister and I where playing we had Ken and Barbie getting married. I don't really remember it, but my mom tells us the story that she happened to walk in on the wedding and instead of us humming the traditional wedding song, we where humming the Star Wars imperial march. Aren't kids the best? Any who, I wanted to talk about relationships and really just how kids view them as well as adults. Let's start out with Elementary School kids; one boy said in response to when someone should date someone else, "I'm going to get me a girl when I get out of Kindergarten". This is also very cute, and a tad bit concerning. That even little kids are jumping on the idea of dating. I think this is mainly because of our culture, of wanting to do things as soon as possible. For example, one main thing people don't wait for is their first kiss. It's mainly because in media we see people who have their first kiss as early as the 4th or 5th grade! And really kissing is just the beginning to all the other things people can't wait for. And when people don't wait for certain things it can really hurt them in the end. And one of these things is sex before marriage. All of these things are very fresh in my mind since I just went to a Relationship Retreat this weekend for my church. Which is what inspired me to write this. And the main point I'm trying to make is to wait. Waiting for things makes things so much better. One story I'm going to tell was told to me at this retreat. It was one of a boy who always had to open his Christmas presents before Christmas. He would open all of them, play with them, and sometimes even break them. Which all of this really ruined the excitement of Christmas and when he opened up his presents that he had re-wrapped that morning it wasn't as meaningful as it could of been. This is the same thing for sex, that if we save it for that special person it's going to be so much better. And this is really for a lot of other things to. Like the saying says "Good things come to those who wait". Of course people have made mistakes and have done things they regret. But I'm not quite finished with the story... One particular Christmas the boy's mother had known that he had opened up his main present and broken it. So without him knowing she had bought him a brand spanking new one and gave it to him for Christmas, when he really didn't deserve it. And in our lives this "mother" is actually our "Father", God. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness and we can be pure again, even though we don't deserve it. And he does this because he loves us, in Exodus 34:6 it says, And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness". So with it being the day after 9-11, there's been a lot of thinking going on about our world. More specifically all of the terrible things going on in it, now I don't want to be a downer but it's true that our earth is pretty messed up, maybe even falling apart. And if you don't agree with me, at least realize that there's some pretty terrible things that have happen and are happening. And really these thoughts lead to a whole ton of questions like, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" or more personally "Why do bad things always happen to me?". But for me it wasn't necessarily these things but really "Why hasn't these types of problems been stopped?" or "Why doesn't someone do something?". And all of these types of thoughts lead ultimately to doubt, self doubt, doubt in the world, doubt in people, doubt in God. Now yesterday was probably my main point where all of these things just came together in my mind and I just felt really doubtful in everything, but as the day went on though church service and youth group later on, my mind began to switch over and really I felt different. I'm going to start off my main point of this with a quote, "I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that, then I realized I am somebody" -Lily Tomlin. This quote is so true that we are all so hypocritical, that we think that people should be trying and yet we do nothing ourselves. Now you can take what I'm saying in really any way you want to, that you should try to change the world, do something simple, or just plain realize that we're all hypocrites. But I'm just going to go deeper into the subject of doing something for God. And Christians are so hypocritical, we really are, but it just means we have to strive to not be. That as Christians we need to put away our doubts and realize that we can live a way better life for God without them. And we can make excuses that it's not the right time for us, or that we just don't matter, or really my "favorite" I'm too young. But when is there a best time? When are we good enough? When are we old enough? I have lately been listening to a bunch of Christian music and one song that really just shows what I'm trying to say is Do Something by Matthew West. One of the lines is, "If it's not know then when, will we see an end, to all this pain. It's not enough to do nothing, it's time for us to do something". And really there's no better way to put it. That if there's a time to act it's now. Another song by Matthew West is Day One, and one of the lines in it is, "See my hourglass is upside down, my someday soon is here and now. The clock is tickin' and I'm so sick and tired of missing out". And really if we don't start realizing that we are so not perfect and that God will forgive us, we can put aside our own issues and start doing something. When we start doing something we can really live for God and what he wants us to do. Saying it is way harder than actually doing it though, putting away your doubts can be really scary. Joshua 1:9 says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Now that I've given you all of this information and what I hope is encouragement, I'm going to end with another verse of the Do Something song. "So I shook my fist at Heaven. Said, 'God, why don't You do something?' He said, 'I did, I created you' ". I urge you to live your life as if you had no doubts, whether it's doubts in yourself, your family or friends, or God. Start doing something to change the world you're in. And in the end, you can really start living life to the fullest. Why miss out? Why wait? It's time for all of us to do something.
Most of us have something that we really care about, it may be work, a relationship, or a activity/sport/hobby. And whatever it is for you, I am almost positive that you try at it, that you make sure that it never goes away or it always turns out good. For me I have sports, I run. Sure I do other things I enjoy, but I really love to run. In case you haven't been reading my blog then I should inform you that I've recently been injured, and am currently unable to run. Yesterday I had my first Physical Therapy appointment, which went okay and stuff... but sadly I found out that recovery is going to last even longer than I thought it would. Meaning I would miss out on most of the Nordic skiing season. This information is really hard to cope with, since I was aiming to be able to ski this season. My new goal is to be able to run in the spring, and during my appointment they gave me exercises to do on my own. And to be honest, it's really hard to get up and do these exercises for a half hour when you know that your previous goal got flushed down the drain. Now I know this seems like I'm rambling, but stay with me. But despite not being able to ski, I'm still going to put in everything I have into my exercises. Now I know that there's a lot of other worse things that could happen to a person, but the concept of trying your best to get better is the same. I know there's people who will give up hope and think what they're doing is a lost cause, people who wonder "why am I doing this?", and people who just wish or mope about but never really do anything. All of this comes down to self determination, something that I had no idea how to activate or give advice about. So I was browsing the internet and found Scott H Young - Blog, in one of his posts he talked about trying your best and he said a way to activate your self determination could be to continue to do the task daily. I would think that this could also be hard, but even if you continue to do it everyday and hate it you would eventually learn to appreciate it. While this is a great idea, there's also a really important way for us to get pumped up. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever the activity in which you engage, do it with all of your ability, because there is no work, no planning, no learning, and no wisdom in the next world where you're going." And for me that's the reason why I continue on, because I know that my time here on earth is short, so I better have all of those experiences under my belt when I leave. And don't forget to check out Scott H Young's blog at: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ !
In my last post I discussed boredom and how it effects people, which by the way if you want to check that out just scroll down. In the article I made a point that doing nothing isn't necessarily being bored, since the person could in fact be taking a break, thinking, or relaxing. I have decided to write about all of these things, which is what I call "quiet time". This quiet time is a time to sleep, read, or do any other quiet and pretty much mindless activities. When I was little I thought this was the most worst thing in the world (if you didn't know to a kid to do nothing but be quiet is torture). But as we all grow up we begin to need this time to rejuvenate or to just stop for a bit in our busy lives. I think that this quiet time is essential to a healthy stress free life. And really for me quiet time means quiet time with God. Whether this is reading my bible, praying, or writing in my journal. All of these things help me unwind and really just help me refocus my attention back to God. But my problem lately is since I've made my quiet times habit (which is good) but now they become very repetitive, which leads to me being bored. So the other day when browsing through my social media pages I found this blog called One Step at a Time and when I skimmed through the site one specific post caught my eye. It was a post on quiet time and some ways to get creative with it. Within a minute of reading I found myself ooooing and awwing all over all of her awesome ideas. She talked of gel pens and highlighters to amp up the fun, and these amazing study methods that I had never heard of before. The author is Lianna Grace, who really has a talented mind for writing uplifting and easily understandable things for mainly Christian teen girls. I've began trying all of these new ideas and have found myself mixing things up and by trying out new ideas from her blog and other websites I've regained my focus into my quiet times. To wrap things up I would definitely say that quiet times by yourself or with God can be super helpful in keeping a stress-less day. And when you get bored with what your doing try to mix things up and try out new ideas to make things more interesting. And Don't Forget To Check Out One Step At A Time at: http://onestepatatimeblog.weebly.com/ .
Like I've said before I'm dealing with an injury to my knee. And at this point of my injury pain is not my main issue. I've found that I haven't left the house for a few days, that I've watched the same episodes on Netflix over and over again, and that I end up sleeping in latter so I wont have to get up and do nothing. My problem is boredom. And really this got me to wondering about boredom. Is there a way to avoid it? Can it be bad for your health? What's the difference between doing nothing and being bored? So I did some research and here's some cool things that I found. That on the health perspective boredom could be potentially hazardous. It isn't necessarily going to cause cancer or something along those lines, but it does lead to depression, anxiety, overeating, drug and alcohol abuse, and other symptoms such as these. In one of the articles I read it mentioned something along the lines of how boredom is when you are unable to engage in certain activities. This got me to thinking about one of my sister's go to cures of boredom, video games. And actually I attempted this cure and just plain got hooked on the game I was playing. I realized that boredom could potentially lead to other addictions as well. The one that came to mind for me was gambling, all of those slot machines that could entertain you for the moment and you just get sucked into them. Another thing I found when researching was that your decision making is compromised when you're bored. This explains why addictions happen since the person who is bored isn't even thinking clearly because all they want to do is cure their boredom. Another key thing that I found was that boredom increases the chances of making mistakes because the person isn't focused on the task at hand because they're bored of it. This doesn't seem to bad if what you're doing is coloring in a coloring book, but when it's a task such as flying an airplane, lifting weights without a spotter, or putting up Christmas lights on the roof. Let's go with the weight lifting scenario, your benching and you're not paying attention so you let the bar fly down too fast... BANG! SPLAT! OUCH! So really boredom isn't very good for us mentally or physically. And really I'm going to leave off with a quote I found online, "Boredom- God's way of telling you that you're wasting time". And really just sitting around and being bored is pretty much just wasting time. Time that may seem like it goes on forever, but eventually our time here on earth will end. Or even your time being a kid or having youth will end. And just think of all the things you could be missing out on if you're bored.
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AuthorChloe Miller is an athletic girl who loves running and Nordic skiing. She also enjoys playing Uno and hanging out with her family. Archives
December 2016
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