A healthy vibrant inner life does not happen by accident. The inner life has needs. These needs are ongoing. Just like your body burns the fuel you feed it and you must eat again, likewise your inner life.
Both need nutrients and reflect what they consume.
How so?
Your outer life (the things you do) is a reflection of what is going on inside of you (inner life). In your thoughts, feelings, choices, and beliefs. It can be easy to feel and subsequently think you have no choice in this crazy busy world we live in.
But that’s not true. Those feelings are lying to you.
Your inner life belongs to you. You DO have power.
Your inner life belongs to you. You DO have power. Share on XThere may be things happening around you that you cannot control.
But within you, there is a thing called choice giving you the power to respond. Having the power to respond instead of reacting comes out of a healthy vibrant inner life.
A healthy vibrant inner life does not happen by accident. Share on XHere are nutrients your inner life needs
Joy-Laughter
It operates like a pilot light for your sense of humor. You feed your inner life this joy-laughter through playing and having fun. To better understand read Getting Your Inner Laugh Back. #DontForgetToLaugh
Life giving words
Words are powerful. They can build up and they can tear down. Negative, destructive words deplete the inner life. Truthful positive, encouraging words contain life and make you strong. The world force-feeds much negativity. Feeding on life-giving words requires intention. You can identify what you need by listening to how you talk. I have learned it is “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”. When I started to listen to what came out of my mouth I found it revealing. To better understand read How Do You MIND? Ask Your Mouth and 5 Ways Encouragement Is Powerful.
Time
The world is a noisy place. This creeps in, turning your inner life into a noisy place as well. One evidence of this is sleep problems. You need time alone with your thoughts. Times of quietness to decompress from the busyness of life and/or new experiences. Some people need more time than others. If you are an introvert you will need more than an extrovert will.
Community
This may seem to contradict the above need for time alone. It does not. You need both. They work together. You need people. You need support. You need to know you are loved and feel like you belong. Online communities are good but you need face to face relationships too.
Love
Humans cannot live without love. The need is inherent. The Pursuer created you to receive love and to give love. How do you feed love to your inner life? By practicing self-care. Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself. Remind yourself how much God loves you. Take proper care of yourself by getting sleep, eating well, doing things you enjoy and even celebrating yourself. To better understand read Celebrate Yourself.
Self-awareness
This can be challenging at first to cultivate if it is a foreign thought. This is not self-absorption. This is not self-preoccupation. This complements self-care. It is listening to yourself: what you are thinking, what you are saying, what you believe etc. It is paying attention to what you need to do for yourself. It is noticing how you feel and addressing the need instead of avoiding it. It is knowing when it’s time to return to your comfort zone. I learned this the hard way. To better understand read 3 Things You Need When Leaving Your Comfort Zone.
Trust
This is made up of faith and hope. It takes time to develop strong trust. It is built. Worry, ruminating and betrayal tear down trust. Having a healthy trust muscle empowers you: to find meaning in failure, to have a silver lining mentality, and to believe things will work out when something goes awry. Having strong trust in The Pursuer gives you deep roots.
Purpose
Just as humans need to receive love the inverse is also true. You need to give out, serve, and sometimes personally sacrifice for others. The saying “it’s better to give than to receive” is true. This feeds the sense of purpose you need.
Growth
The inner life cannot stagnate or you start to die inside. It is a living thing and living things grow. You need to keep learning. Your mind needs to be challenged. It needs problems to solve, things to figure out. Your emotions need to be listened to and addressed. They need the exercise of leaving and returning to the comfort zone. They need to practice forgiveness. Your will needs to exercise choices. Your spirit needs to exercise faith.
I call theses 9 things “nutrients” because they nourish you.
Nourish.
Sounds like a good satisfying meal.
Precisely what your inner life needs.
Just as healthy food gives life to the body, feeding on theses 9 nutrients will create an inner vibrancy.
Just as healthy food gives life to the body, feeding on theses 9 nutrients will create an inner vibrancy. Share on XWhere do you want to start? I challenge you to pick at least one from the “menu” and provide a feast for your inner life today.
Go read the menu again and order as many as you like.
Bon Appétit
What now:
- Let me know which one (or ones) you ordered off the menu in the comments.
- If you want to be encouraged get this free eBook now.
Time is what I chose off of the menu. Sometimes I get so exhausted by work, family situations and just the everyday things that need to be done (and remembered!) that I need to just sit at home by myself and regroup or recharge or whatever you want to call it. Otherwise I would get overwhelmed and wouldn’t be able to do anything.
That is good Michael. Enjoy your time. Thanks for sharing.
A serving of Trust and a bowl of love please. The Pursuer and I are working on the deep roots of trust. To recognize His Presence even when He’s quiet. And yes love too – to know in my heart He is working the messy parts into a message of His goodness that are bringing me peace in the process.
Sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing!
This ring very true for me – the older I get the more I realize these are the things that make me really happy and content in life 🙂
Thank you Christine!
Joy-laughter for me today! 🙂
My daughter & I only had more 30 minutes together, after our mother’s day lunch, before she needed to sleep for work later this afternoon. We followed up some laughter suggestions from your blog post “How to laugh more”, which I’d read last night.
She and my son have a similar sense of humour. Compared, mine seems undeveloped except in the use of sarcasm. It’s so dry most people take it at face value – as actual truth – so I’ve hardly used it for 20 years. As God’s child, I want most to encourage others. Thankfully now my daughter’s a young adult, I share and enjoy this natural humour with her, knowing she understands my dry sarcasm to be exactly that – though she does sometimes double check.
Since attempting to meet my children’s interest in humour from when they were little ones, I’ve steadily – though slowly – been seeking a wider repertoire in my humour vocabulary. Now I can actually tell a couple of kids’ jokes (sadly I’m being my literal self here), and enjoy online humour shared with and by my kids and others. For the last year or so, I’ve been more intentionally seeking personal growth in this area.
On your recommendation, we watched English comedian Michael McIntyre’s “People without kids don’t know”- then two or three more of his You tube highlights. Unusually, instead of getting back to my day’s activities after my daughter left to sleep, I watched the last show to the end alone – a show in which he included a few other English comedians. Michael McIntyre is by far my favourite, though I’d like to watch more of Ibram Yusuf.
I went on exploring! 🙂 Going to your “Getting your inner laugh back”, I thoroughly enjoyed re-watching your clip from “Mary Poppins.” It’s my favourite childhood movie. I laughed over the movie’s highlighted laughter scene, though only remembering it as I viewed it today. Surprising even to me, I’ve likened myself to Mary Poppins sometimes when arriving to assist home educate a little fellow over the past few years. Instead of flying in, I roll in with my overladen backpack on wheels and flowing skirts.
Michael McIntyre was enjoyed by both my daughter and I – mostly clean humour, which makes me laugh out loud. A good combination and addition to my growing humour reservoir 😀
Thank you for sharing Colleen!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much. I think he is hilarious.