{beautiful begins inside}

I love words.  Give me a dictionary or thesaurus and you can call it a day.  There's such a fantastic backbone to language.  There, lying hidden behind a representation of letters strung, is an entire world of good-for-you healing. I keep running records of words that heal me.  I chant them internally when I run sometimes, too.  Words can build better.  Words can shape progress, too.

Let's take one of my favorite words.  Composure. Composure means to feel calm and control of ones self.  Good gravy, I love that.  Perhaps what I love even more is the strength I find in its root word, compose. To compose means to write or create. To order or arrange.  Hallelujah. This evidence of feeling tied to creating.  In as much, we have the human ability to arrange our lives in ways healthy that will enable calm.  That will celebrate our best self, moreover life.

Body image is real.  To ignore its place in our heavily treaded society of appearance is to really nullify the hope we have in becoming what best feels like. Note I said feels, not looks. The word image actually means a representation.  As in, not the actual original piece. It's here where the heavy heart work needs to be done.  Human life cannot allow itself to be held captive to an image.

My best heart work began about 2 years ago.  I came to a place where youth was becoming a bit more discreet and the insides of me were beginning to dispose of themselves on the outside.  Dark circles under my eyes.  Ashen skin.  Absence of elasticity.  Those were all just the outward representation of my internal composure.  I felt weak.  Defeated.  Underestimated and over-tired.  I was not my best self.

It was then that I began to dive into me.  To the whom I was really intended.  I began searching for the original piece; I began the art of allowing Him to compose.  It has been beautiful and hard.  Really spiritual and most definitely powerful.  Things like exercise became important not because of how it made me look, but because of how it made me feel.  Food became art.  I thought of what my body needed and connected those strong feelings to the diet I chose.  Color and natural became something I craved.  Rest, too.  And water.  Scripture became something I looked forward to reading not because I was supposed to, but because of the strength I found there on the pages.  The Bible is full of stories of struggle and absolute pursuit of the heart.

The more heart work I did, the less image and outward was considered.  I wrote here in this place with more authenticity and courage.  I created better for my business.  New ideas became more vivid and doable.  My relationships began to find themselves in a place of growth.  I even seemed to have more room in my heart for others.

I am far from perfection, and that's just where I want to be.  I am at a place of composure. Present tense.  Pulling daily from the reservoir of inside, I believe more in what is possible on the out.  I am reminded that my story is represented in the image of my body.  In how I best keep care of it, and of how I best use it to move hope to others.

A Well Built Breakfast

• 1 cup Greek yogurt {I use Chobani strawberry}
• 1 tablespoons steel cut oats raw
• 2 tablespoons Chia seeds
• 9-12 whole almonds
• 1/3 cup blueberries
• 3 tablespoons almond milk {I use Silk brand Almondmilk Protein + Fiber}

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in bowl and enjoy.

{I usually eat within 30 minutes of waking.}