Routine, Routine, Routine

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.  ~Ovid 

Many years ago when Andrea and I were looking to purchase our first house a realtor gave us the old familiar advice about what makes a house valuable: location, location, location.  In recent years I have learned a similar idea in regards to properly managing depression, sorrow, and the blues: routine, routine, routine.  Consider how wildly out of control many peoples’  lives are these days.  Countless people fail to observe any sort of spiritual reflection or mediation, they don’t eat right, they rarely get enough rest, they hardly ever exercise, and they have no healthy outlet for stress.  Gathering our daily lives into a workable schedule and staying with a daily routine works wonders with managing negative moods and emotions.   

Many people are not functioning anywhere near their full potential.  One day I was out driving my car and I heard a loud noise from the engine.  Suddenly the car would barely run no matter how much I stepped on the gas.  The engine also sounded like it was about to blow.  Fortunately, I was close to home and managed to make it to the house, thus saving an expensive towing bill.  A quick examination of the engine showed I had blown a sparkplug, a problem easily remedied.  This illustrates my point; the car was only going on three cylinders rather than four.  As a result it would barely function. 

Exercise, diet, spiritual reflection, and healthy stress relievers are crucial to our living in our full potential.  Otherwise we are like an engine which simply doesn’t want to work properly.  We often try to do so many tasks at once that we fail to do any of them successfully.  I have found in my own life I am better off when I streamline my schedule to what I do best rather than trying to do too much.  As I stated earlier, this explains why the blog you are reading has been trimmed to every week or so.  This allows me to devote more time to my other blog, Inspirations for the Troubled Soul, which is updated daily (And which I hope you will become a daily reader!).   

We have more information coming at us these days than even before.  A daily routine helps to sort out what is most important and we learn to sift through it all in productive and positive ways.  Rather than becoming overwhelmed we learn where our priorities lie.  Stop right now and take a hard look at your life and answer these questions: 

-Am I getting enough exercise?

-Do I maintain healthy eating habits?

-Do I have a hobby or creative outlet for stress?

-Do I take time to daily pray and meditate? 

If you answered no to most of those questions then it’s time to make changes.  My friend, it can be done.  Take back control of your life.  No one can accomplish this but you.  With God’s help it can be done.