Category: Mental & Spiritual Health

A NOTE ABOUT SPIRITUALITY. WHAT IS IT TO YOU?

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Author / Drea Osborne

Spirituality is a broad concept. Basically, it’s a sense of connection to something greater than ourselves. It can give people values, a source of comfort, or even a meaning to life. 

But if you want specifics, I can’t give that to you. Why? Because it can mean something completely different for each person.

For example, spirituality can be: religion, talking to your ancestors, using crystals, incense meditation, and fasting. But it doesn’t stop there. Whatever one deems as spiritual to them, is practicing spirituality. 

Since I can’t talk about all things spiritual, I’ll talk to you about what it means to me.

What made you believe in spirituality?

I was raised in a Christian household, so for me God was always guiding my life. But honestly, my spiritual life didn’t really start growing until I became an adult and even more so in the past 5 years. This growth happened when I felt abandoned, experienced abuse, and some other not-so-pleasant experiences that challenged my outlook on life. Honestly, the fact that despite these events and not only did I still have my positive outlook, but I’ve also been blessed afterwards encourages my belief that there is something greater out there. Somebody watching over me.

What makes you want to be spiritual?

Being spiritual gives me something to believe in and values to work towards. Also it encourages me to put my petty feelings to the side and treat others well, even when it’s hard. The way I look at it is I’ve been mistreated, so let me treat others good and hopefully it’ll be infectious. 

What are 3 ways in which you practice spirituality?

 

I read the bible.

I do yoga followed by meditation.

I pray.

 

The benefits that are included in practicing spirituality are vast. It can decrease stress, blood pressure, increase gratitude, and positivity which will uplift your mood, and it can even enhance relationships, romantic and platonic.

So now, I want you to take a deep breath, in and out. Take a minute for yourself and visualize a place where you find your peace. What does that look like? How do you practice your spirituality?

 

MEDITATION: GOOD FOR SOUL AND BODY

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Author / Drea Osborne

Meditation is important for our well being. How? For starters, it’s a good stress reliever, allows you to feel more deep-seated feelings (unmasking your true feelings about an event or situation), and most importantly it can be an eye-opener. 

Now, most of us assume that you have to be sitting still to meditate. But what if I told you that you can do it while running?! Of course, you can meditate beforehand to get your mind right, but while running, it will challenge your body with the added bonus of clearing your mind. Meditating while running may seem different and, honestly, a bit more difficult, so here are some tips on how you can try adding this unexpected benefit to your running practice:

Choose A Mantra

Adopt a phrase that can keep you focused like, “Keep running”, “ I am strong,”, or, as simple as, “Right left, right left”.

Breathe

Having a consistent breathing pattern can help keep you moving through your run. 

The breathing pattern that I have found helps me is an alternating pattern which is “Slow breath in through the nose, slow breath out through the mouth, slow breath in through the mouth, slow breath out through the nose” and repeat.

Be Aware

Truly take in your surroundings. The scenery, sounds, feeling of the breeze, etc. Make a mental list of everything you see and feel.

Get A Guide

Meditation can be difficult in general and adding it to a run can seem daunting to most. Try to lookup apps that can help you with this level of focus. Here are some of the best meditation apps to use. 

Now that you have a better idea about how to meditate while you run, you may be thinking that’s all well and good, but why would I want to? What’s the benefit of dealing with extra work when I can just run? Some benefits include:

  • Decreases stress while running
  • Find more enjoyment in your runs
  • More energy throughout
  • Improves your speed and endurance

For those that have never meditated before and want to try meditation on their own, check out this post for meditation for beginners.

So now that you have a better idea of how to meditate while running, we would love to hear your thoughts. Comment below about how it goes for you!

CELEBRATING THE ABSENCE

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Author / Tammara Sutton

Whether you’re running, resting from a recent bout of the flu, practicing self-love through a broken heart, or saying goodbye to the winter blues, how often do you stop to recognize the feeling of absence? It could be the absence of overly tight muscles that could lead to injury, the stress from studying for last week’s certification exam, or a toxic friend that isn’t in your life.

Whatever it is, do you pay attention to the fact that the feeling or person is gone? And if you do, do you choose to celebrate the feeling? Yes, you heard me right–celebrate it. Not ignore and pretend it didn’t happen, sulk, or complain (doing these things are fine too), but I mean, joyously honor the absence of something or someone, because you’ve made it through?

Sure, it may seem easier said than done when you’re in the moment, but practice makes good enough! Take 3 minutes right now, pause and follow these 3 steps to learn how to celebrate the absence:

  1. Acknowledge – It’s important for you to check-in with yourself and bring awareness to the absence. Many times, we ignore and suppress our feelings when people, things, or feelings go, as a means to protect ourselves from hurt or FOMO. Take a moment to check in with yourself and acknowledge how the absence feels? Does it feel good? Draining? Numb? Angering?
  2. Celebrate – Now that you’ve acknowledged it, take 2 minutes to find 3 positive things that have come from the absence of the person, place, or thing. How has the absence allowed you to embrace other people, places, and things that bring you joy? How can you further focus and spend time with them? How can you add positivity to them, in return?
  3. Repeat – Repeat as needed and as you’re processing; remember to keep returning to the positives that exist as a result of the absence.

When you’re able to get to a place of finding the joy in who or what has left, you can re-shift your perspective to the positive and make space for all the people, places, and things that are currently adding to and building you. So, what are you celebrating the absence of?