Living Intentionally: An Intentional Soul

Just this past weekend I was watching a few speakers during an online Symposium put out by The Truth about Cancer. Several common threads were weaved in each one but one that really stuck out to me was the importance of having a healthy soul. Words like; belief, joy, happiness, positive thoughts, peace, spirituality, etc..were woven through each speakers message. The health of our soul affects the health of our bodies. I totally agree with this and we'll look more into it later this week. They also stressed the value of speaking love and life to our bodies. Hmm...seems like we talked about this last week.

Sometimes life is not always a bed of roses. Often it's hard work, there's friction, tension, frustration, exhaustion, heartbreak. We focus on everyone's "highlight" reels that are posted on FB and measure our "real life" to that. Forgetting that we aren't always seeing everything about their life, which is fine, we just have to keep it in perspective. BUT even in the midst of those things that just happen, there can be joy, peace, adventure and a whole and full life...if we're intentional. 

Let's take another look at the definition of our "soul": 

  Soul = The emotional part of human nature, a persons total self, the moral and emotional nature of human beings, man's mind, will and emotions.

Our soul makes up much of who we are and it is vital that we keep it healthy. Our soul, even more so than our body and maybe, just maybe, even our spirit is greatly affected by all that swirls around us on a daily basis. For some people it can be overwhelming, crippling, a roller coaster ride that they just want to get off of. You see it daily through Facebook statuses, through the number of people battling mental illness and depression. Those who struggle with real or perceived loneliness. 

The beauty is, you have POWER. You heard that right. YOU. HAVE. POWER. Power to change, power to think differently, power to shift your mindset, power to take care of you. Your emotions, your mental state, your "total self" is worth you taking charge and realizing the power you were given by a Creator who finds your so beautiful, valuable and loveable. 

We're not always good at this though are we? We easily get bogged down with kids, and lunches, and work, and family and everything else that we neglect the most important person of all. YOU! I'm very guilty of this. It's easy to lose ourselves when we're in the midst of raising families. 

Think of some ways that you know you have neglected your soul. What does "soul" mean to you? Tomorrow we'll talk more about it. I'll leave you with this quote:

With Joy Unquenchable,