How does your garden grow?

I'm piecing together snippets of a powerful passage in Aggressively Happy simply so I don't type up the whole dang chapter but this really spoke to me today! 

"I've noticed that we often talk about ourselves like we are machines. We 'adjust.' We 'process' life events. We 'recharge our batteries' when we are worn out."

"You are not a machine. You are more like a garden. You need different things on different days, a little more sun today, a little less water tomorrow. You have fallow and fruitful seasons. This is not a design flaw; it is wiser than perpetual sameness. If you expect a garden to 'produce' things with the same regularity and consistency as a machine, you will destroy it. The same is true of your body and emotional life." 

"You should take care of yourself because it will make you a more stable person, more able to function usefully in the world, more capable of helping and encouraging other people. But you should also care for yourself because you are not God; you are His creature and He delights in showing His love for you. Your physical needs are a daily, hourly reminder that God didn't create you to be alone, desperate, and hungry, but to be tended to." 

Mind + body + spirit, right? 

I'm good at mind. I love to learn, think, work out, puzzle over, solve, read. I am real good at over-analyzing. 

I'm good at spirit. I love connecting to God and the people he's given me, growing and reflecting. 

But body? 😬 

I forget to eat until I'm so hungry I make bad decisions. I stay up too late and then wake up too early. I like to listen to or watch something when I work out because I don't enjoy the feeling in my body until after its done and I've showered the sweat off. 

This is a season for truly tending to my body. My body has been crying out for attention and it's time for me to listen! 

Here's a reminder just in case you need it, too- Drink water. Add an extra serving of produce to your next meal. Go for a walk. Take a few deep breaths outside in fresh air. Go to bed at a decent hour tonight. 

God loves you and created you to be tended to 💙