Consistency Challenge Reboot #Dr Sims #ConsistencyChallenge

Long time no blog!!! So, I will keep this short, because it's rather late and I didn't plan to blog at 1 a.m. on a Saturday, but hey when God encourages you to do something you should do it! "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but an habit." Monday I started a consistency challenge, because I needed to sleep people. I was CONSISTENTLY starving myself of rest and my body was suffering. When your body suffers your mind suffers, your behavior suffers, your commitment suffers, your productivity, your creativity. I just needed a reboot!

So, with the encouragement of my Life Coach Dr. Walter Sims I chose to be in bed by 10 p.m. every night, read a small devotion, followed by sleep by 10:30. I did that until today, which was a bit intentional. I can actually work late on Friday nights because I don't have to wake up at 4 a.m. to get to work by 6 a.m.. With all that being said, consistency has truly resonated with me these past 5 days. What I found was in an effort to be consistent I was really restrictive of my schedule and my time and what got my focus. I also allowed myself to not do it all. It was a true moment of self love and I felt it. I really felt the difference. 

Take the challenge, pick ONE THING, that you will do consistently for 7 days. I know, I know, the rule of thumb is it takes 21 days to create a habit, but just start with 7. And can I just say, sleep was my focus, but it turned into devotion, time with God, creating beautiful image quotes for Lovelee Motivation again, all from sleep! So, don't get caught up with "I only picked one thing, I need to do 3." I can promise you that one thing, will catapult into more and you will take a step back and see that it wasn't just ONE THING! It's Saturday, do this ONE THING for yourself. Lol. Love yourself and be consistent. 

Enjoy your weekend! Hopefully with consistency I will be back with more eventful blogs in the coming days. 

Are You Failing at Your Future?

Happy Thursday!!! I hope your week had an amazing start and that you are walking in it consciously and aware of your purpose. Going through the motions can suck, but when you have a plan and a strategy, it creates such clarity. Last week I dealt with a topic that had been a struggle for me and that was self-forgiveness. My ability to not forgive myself stemmed from events in my life that I held on to as my identity instead of something that happened. As humans we can do that, we can allow a mistake to define who we are instead of moving forward. We allow our experiences to dictate our future which can lead to poor decisions in relationships, careers, life, and our future in general.

It's so imperative that we heal from this way of thinking. God doesn't hold on to our sins, he forgives us immediately. We have to believe in our future, let go of our past and stay mindful of the present. Depression and anxiety is a result of living in the past. Yet, the past is the past. If we are present and operating in what is happening right now, today, not that relationship from 3 months ago, but today, not that poor career decision we made a few years ago, we are no longer bound to our past. We are able to look and believe we have a great future.

Letting go of the past does require acknowledgement and acceptance of your responsibility in what happened, but once you have achieved this, the sky is the limit! You are now able to freely focus on your future without confusion. Because when we are bound by our past its difficult to create a plan or a strategy, as we are basing our future on our past experiences. When you have an opportunity, take some time and really identify some of the things from your past that are holding you hostage. I have things I deal with till this day such as perfectionism, rejection, and abandonment. By making myself aware of those things, accepting that I have been holding on to them and intentionally working to release them, that has allowed my future to become so much brighter. It's left little room for depression because I haven't focused on what was, but what is to come!

Hold on to hope for your future, not the darkness and emptiness of your past. In 
Jeremiah 29:11, we are told that God is aware of his plans for us, plans of hope. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Therefore, don't exclude God from your plans. He promises to prosper us!! That's so exciting to know that God wants us to have a prosperous life!! And as stated in Psalms 25:3, by placing hope in Him, we will never be put to shame.

Finish the week off strong with a sense of hope! Don't quit, don't give up, and don't write off your future with an F+! Deal with your past, let go of it, appreciate your present, and have hope in your future!

Until next time, stay motivated, stay positive, and trust God!
Please visit the Lovelee Motivation Facebook Page or Lovelee Motivation IG page to receive daily motivations and inspiration.

P.S. If you are not in immediate danger because of thoughts of suicide, but need someone to talk with about your suicidal feelings, please do not hesitate to call one of the following national suicide prevention lines: 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) or 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

The Freaking F Word!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed their Valentine’s Day! Although I didn’t have a Valentine I did have a date with myself and Monica Van Daneede who hosted a Valentine’s webinar on “Contentment and Singleness.” It was pretty awesome and you should check her out . She is an amazing woman of God, with a blog and Periscope that always offers great God filled content. But back my blog and as promised, I told you we would get into that F-word!

What is Forgiveness?

So, just laying some ground work in the action of forgiveness. It is defined as the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.  One of the immediate things I began to work on after my last break up was forgiveness. The last thing I wanted was to have hatred towards a person that would leave a negative blemish in my heart. I would like to say I can be "pretty good with the F-Word, maybe 7 out of 10...depends on the person. Random thought, do you find it harder to forgive family then people that aren't blood? Ok, let me continue, we can circle back to that.

Forgiving doesn’t mean you have to...

When we forgive, it doesn’t mean forgetting, condoning or excusing offenses.  Forgiving my ex didn’t mean I was excusing the verbal and emotional abuse that I had accepted in that relationship. Also forgiving someone doesn’t mean you are condoning their behavior or even that you must reconcile the relationship. I am completely content with never having a friendship with my ex again. There are times where we have to recognize actions and behavior of an individual that are completely unhealthy for us and them. Therefore, some things are just better not rehashed or relived.  We should never expose ourselves to people, places, things that don’t ultimately bring us to a positive result.  That means purging and moving forward!

Why is it important we forgive?

Forgive for a sound mind!! Have you ever noticed how forgiving someone just brought peace of mind? When you forgive, you are able to release those feelings of depression, anger, resentment and replace them with gratefulness, love and happiness. And forgiving those that have wronged me allowed me to appreciate the good characteristics about that person. Let’s face it, none of us are perfect and we all have good qualities within us. 

Walking in unforgiveness we tend to focus on all the negative, but once you forgive you can revisit the situation from a totally different perspective. Looking back in my previous relationship I can now appreciate all the great experiences I was exposed to during that commitment. We had amazing weekend family activities with our kids, a lovely trip to Miami, a great weekend in the mountains and just lots of fun! Everything wasn’t bad and I could only take that in when I implemented forgiveness.

And did you know that unforgiveness can manifest as poison within your body? Various studies have shown holding grudges effects our immune system.  It's been linked to cancer! This is serious. We have to let go of things and release them so that our body can function in a healthy space and we can fend off negativity such as depression. 

But what happens when you don’t forgive yourself? That has been my biggest issue the last couple of months. I didn’t realize it at first.  I was so focused on forgiving the wrongs that had been done to me and ensuring I held no resentment towards that person. I was interceding for them in prayer every night, wishing them nothing but continued blessings in their life. But I was still struggling with my depression, till one night I found myself crying out to God as I prayed, asking him once again to heal me of my depression. To give me beauty for my ashes and that’s when God said,” Well not until you forgive yourself Sharonda.” I just sat there with my tears and my pain and I realized, I didn’t like myself. 

And that clearly sets me up for my next blog on working towards "Forgiving Ourselves."  I want to further tell my story regarding the resentment I had built up towards myself due to my own actions and delve into why we don’t forgive ourselves and later get into some steps I have had to take to move into the direction of self-forgiveness. 

What are some things that you have had to let go of to move into a positive space lately? 

Please visit the Lovelee Motivation Facebook Page or Lovelee Motivation IG page to receive daily motivations and inspiration.

P.S. If you are not in immediate danger because of thoughts of suicide, but need someone to talk with about your suicidal feelings, please do not hesitate to call one of the following national suicide prevention lines: 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) or 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

Go.Set.Ready.

 Hello, it's been a while since I have blogged. I have been in such a deep place of prayer and reconnecting with God, that I just put blogging to the side. I wrote blogs, but I didn't feel moved to post them. 

So, to catch you up, I started a prayer challenge in December, then picked it up again with a friend in January, aiming for more accountability. It has been a great experience, I have grown closer to God. But it also gave me a sense of stall. I didn't want to do anything till I had it figured out. What does God want me to do, with my blog, with my photography, with my life? It was like I was doing all this research and prayer, but not moving. I couldn't figure out if that was me being lazy or Him causing the stall? 

Well last week I read a chapter in my prayer challenge about being "ready." We are never really ready, yet the saying is "Ready, Set, Go" when in actuality is should be "Go, Set, Ready." So, after more prayer, God placed it on my heart to start blogging again and I just didn't really know what to say. I didn't know where to start, but God advised me he would give me the words. And that's where I've been.

I don't feel quite ready, because I'm still in the struggle of mental stability. Yet, that was the whole purpose of this blog, to take you through my journey with depression and life. I have had some major self discovery in the last couple of months, as I struggled with self-forgiveness and discontentment.  It's been a process. Sometimes we try to make ourselves a victim of our circumstances and although I have tried to not do that, I internalized it in a way of criticizing my decisions and really not forgiving myself for not listening to God. So, I did make myself into a victim and created bouts of depression. 

But, here I am "Go. Ready. Set." I feel stronger today then I felt 2 weeks ago, a month ago, 2 months ago, 3 months ago. But it's still a journey and you can join me as I work through deliverance from discontentment and forgiveness. It's already been an incredibly healing process in just the last couple of weeks. Depression doesn't just come. No illness just arrives. We are exposed to something, whether it's a germs to get a cold or bad food for a stomach ache, there is always a cause and being aware and conquering the true "why"" will moves us closer to deliverance. God, never wanted us to live a life of instability! He wants us to have a sound mind. 

In my next blog I will share with you ways to move towards forgiving yourself and claiming your self worth. Sometimes we don't feel worthy, and there are many reasons for that and we will dig in and find ways to conquer those demons. 

Happy Valentines Day!! 
Even if you aren't currently coupled, remember God loves you and I'm also sending lots of virtual love your way!