'Do good... be rich in good works, generous and ready to share.' 1 Timothy 6.18

'Do good... be rich in good works, generous and ready to share.' 1 Timothy 6.18

So, I heard about Love Life Live Lent on twitter. Love Life Live Lent is a program that was created by the Church of England. Its aim, and emphasis is to empower people with creative ideas to make positive change to their lives and others around them throughout Lent, and hopefully outside of Lent. Using the stories of the Bible, it illustrates each day, one positive action to make, the idea being that instead of taking away from life, i.e. giving up chocolate, you add lots of positivity to life. 

The first challenge yesterday before Lent, was of course to have a pancake party on Shrove Tuesday. I don't really like pancakes, so instead of having a 'party' I just made one pancake. The idea of Shrove Tuesday is to have one last day of eating fatty rich foods, but I don't really like fatty rich foods so didn't really see the point. 

Todays challenge was to repent, to say sorry to someone for something you have done wrong, in keeping with Ash Wednesday. I've always found saying sorry a difficult thing to do. Not because I don't think I am sorry, but I'm never able to truly express just how 'sorry' I am just through saying the word 'sorry'. I find it hard to forgive myself for whatever I did wrong, and hard to move on. But you have to forgive yourself, otherwise how do you move on to create more positive changes for yourself and those around you? Freeing yourself of guilt is one of the most challenging aspects of life for me, and something I need to learn to do. 

I couldn't think of anything I had immediately done wrong to those around me to say sorry to, but I can think of plenty of past mistakes I have made which have hurt people, so I think trying to let these mistakes go will be my way of saying sorry...

This quote, is the one that has stuck with me the most from watching the Shaytards. I think I truly realised the meaning of this quote from Shays first marathon vlog. I had watched Shay change from a man who was just at the very beginning of believing that he could make changes, that he had the capability to do them, to someone who had followed them through and made so many changes to his, and his family's life, and signified this by running a marathon. Moving a wife and 4 children to LA, with not much money, creating an incredibly successful business, and losing 110lbs cannot be easy, but he showed that it is possible, by creating small changes day by day, so small that you barely notice them. The small changes build up, until eventually you have reached your goal. 

I recently tried to make a very personal change, in order to reach a goal. Although I was able to make that change, it took a great deal of effort, and left me exhausted, emotionally and physically, and more stressed than I started out with. I guess some goals are harder than others.

We should all make goals, no matter if they are tiny, such as having one less can of pop a day, or big such as quitting smoking or drinking alcohol. Making one small change each month, will lead to twelve changes in a year, which in itself, is a big change. The pursuit of happiness and positivity should never stop, it's what we all want, right?

Here are some of my changes that I have been trying to make:

1. Cutting down on sugar - At Christmas, I noticed just how much all of the extra chocolate and sweets affected me. I wasn't able to relax as much, I felt horrible and bloated inside, and had heartburn. One day I decided to not have any sugar that wasn't naturally occurring (such as in fruit), and I instantly felt a change. I didn't feel as jittery, or bloated, and I didn't have heartburn. So this year I have decided to cut out all sugary foods that aren't naturally occurring. So far it's going okay. I have slipped up a couple of times, but this doesn't mean I am going to give up and say I can't do it, I'm going to keep on trying. 

2. Treat myself more often - For some reason, for a while now, I've sort of told myself that I don't deserve treats. I think it stems from the fact that a couple of years ago I did put on a fair bit of weight but I didn't really notice, until I started noticing when I lost the weight and a lot of ignorant relatives started saying I looked a lot better, and what was my secret for losing the weight. Equating my stupidity of putting on weight, to not deserving things started to occur, but now I've started caring far less what people think, and therefore I am learning to treat myself to stuff now and again. 

3. To start a blog! - I feel like my law degree and other aspects of my life sucked away any life that was left, out of me, and I can't really remember the last time I did something creative. So my resolve is to start doing things that I want to do that are fun, and stop putting so much pressure on myself to do what other people want me to do.

I hope I manage to achieve these goals , and I hope if you haven't made any goals, that this inspires you to make some :)