Picture this, you are you, waking up in the morning excited to start your day! You find yourself playing that “Good Morning Sunshine” playlist and there’s an extra spring in your step. But how often do we really wake up like this? In reality we sit on our phones for an hour and stumble out of bed playing our “10 years of heartache” playlist unable to form actual words until we have our coffee. Ouch, I’m talking to myself but I know you can relate. We should be doing things in our daily life that fill our souls to the brim. Things that make us excited to wake up in the morning.

This post is here to show you that self-care is important too. Through finding it in intimacy with God, tips to prove you have what it takes to shift your mindset, and seeing the truth that you are simply enough. 

The way you start your morning makes an impact on the rest of your day

The way your morning goes determines a lot about how the rest of your day is going to be. This is why before checking our phones in the morning and seeing Brittany doing her work out or Bob making some bomb steak, we should invite God into our day. Our God is so relational and I cannot stress that enough. He knows what is going on in your life, but He waits for you to invite him in because He cares and wants to be in partnership with YOU. The creator of the world wants to speak to you daily.

The image I get while talking to God is explained perfectly in the book Fierce Hearted by Holley Gerth, she says, “It feels like God and I are having coffee the way I do with good friends. But it’s messy and ordinary and seems to be missing a lot of the spiritual words I’ve learned I’m supposed to use when I pray . . . I think maybe this is how prayer is too. It’s really just a lifelong conversation with someone we love.” Maybe what she said was right, our conversations with God might be messy, but I can promise you that it’s worth it. God is worth the conversation. A simple, “Good Morning,” or sharing with Him as if you were both sitting down drinking coffee. Intimacy with God is the key to knowing yourself, self care, and being able to pour into others. Now you may ask, how does one fill their soul? 

How do you fill your soul up?

In order to fill your soul you need to do things that make YOU (yes, I’m talking about you) happy. I’m not saying quit everything that is frustrating in your life because then there wouldn’t be any growth. But let’s find a balance of things that fill us and things that drain us. This isn’t a normal blog because I’m going to ask you to take action while reading. I want you to grab a notebook and write out 5 things that make you feel full inside and 5 that make you feel tired. For example, things that fill me are coffee shops and encouraging people. And things that drain me are negativity and knowing I can’t help when someone is hurting, and more. Now I know quarantine is going to be at the top of the list for things that drain you, but I want you to go deeper. The meaning behind this is to be able to identify what makes or breaks your day. It’s putting words into place of what our emotions automatically do.

At the end of the night what are you left with? For me, is it the burdens of others or is it that I could encourage someone and show the love of Jesus within simple words? This is so important to be able to recognize what drains you because when you’re starting to feel drained you have the ability to ease yourself out of it by doing things that fill you. AND you can communicate clearly your needs to others. This is what it looks like to take care of your soul one step at a time. 

You are enough

To conclude, you are enough and you need to believe it. You are your worst critic. You may try to find any and everything to say you are not enough. Or maybe people constantly tell you that you aren’t enough or you’re too much. I am writing this to tell you that you matter. Your self-care is important and your life has value. I pray that joy fills you within this season of being safe at home. I pray that you wouldn’t feel the pressure to constantly be doing things, but you’d be able to be still and know that He is Lord. 

“Fill your heart to the brim with the love of the one who has no end.”

Christian Bosse