Day 66: Theme For 2014

Happy New Year!

So, those who have followed my blog for at least a year know that I have a theme for each year  instead of New Year's Resolutions.  

Last year's was kindness.

And, if I'm being completely honest, I think I did really well.  To the point that HH and my therapist have told me I need to scale back with my kindness.

But, I was also the recipient of more kindness than I can ever measure.

Being honest again--I forgot about coming up for a theme for 2014.  I mean, usually I know what it should be (always a prompting from the Holy Ghost, as I'm pondering) weeks, sometimes months, in advance.

Fortunately, I was reading this article titled "The Healing Balm Of Hope", by Vaughn E. Worthen a couple of days ago and it hit me like a brick that this was clearly meant to be the theme of 2014.  I mean, can you think of anything more appropriate?

In the article are listed these "ingredients" for cultivating hope:

• Faith in God
• Righteous living
• Positive expectations
• Living with Purpose
• Setting and working toward goals
• Initiating and sustaining personal effort
• Bridling thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
• A willingness to tackle challenges
• Competence in creating healthy relationships

As I look over that list, I see that I can improve in everyone of those areas.  Some more than others, but all definitely need work.

However, most of those are a little vague in that they are difficult to measure.  So, I need something more specific to work on.

Fortunately, that was also provided by this article:

• Physical health
• Emotional resilience
• Mental alertness
• Involvement in supportive relationships

Engaging in interesting work and hobbies

• Spiritually nourishing and developing ourselves.

All of these are aspects I'm currently working on improving, but I'm going to give each one two months of special focus.  I'm not sure yet if it will be two consecutive months, or if I'll cycle through the list twice.  I'm thinking the latter, since I have a habit of needing to re-learn lessons.

But, given the circumstances, I'm going to make physical health the focus of this January.  I've already made drastic changes in my diet, but there is still room for improvement.  And I really need to shape up my sleep habits.  And, hopefully, I can get this whole "exercise addiction" balanced out, now that I've had to really scale back in that regard.

And hopefully, I can be done with this Adrenal Fatigue sooner than later.

And hopefully, by 2015 (hopefully, sooner!), my eyes will be bright with hope like this little Darling's are.