Words to inspire Alphabet Advent Calendar 1412

Day 14

N is for nourish, nourishment.

Yes, another wellbeing health check… for our bodies and minds but also for the bodies and minds of those we have been given the responsibility of e.g. our children or members of our household.

When I looked up nourish and nourishment these were the definitions:
To provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition.
The action of nourishing someone or something.”the nourishment of our bodies and of our minds”

As I discussed yesterday, there was a time in my life whereby ‘Me’ was neglected. I spoke about the eating issue and putting others first. There were other issues too, I didn’t nourish myself neither did I always receive the things I needed for great growth. That wasn’t always the fault of anyone but the product of my circumstances.

I read someone’s post this week whereby Joyce Meyer stated something along the lines of this… “The best thing you can give your family is a healthy you.”
This made me think. I don’t think she was merely referring to healthy with regards to our physical bodies, but also our minds, spirits and souls. I’m reading a book of hers at the moment and I get that sense from what she writes.

When I think about nourishment I think about feeding my mind as well as my body. This was something I wasn’t always great at doing previously. I didn’t stop feeding my mind but I would feed it with lots of junk. I would absorb the lies and negative things I thought about myself or what I had heard or had been told. Those were the things that germinated within me.

If we plant a seed but we mix other things in the water, it would still probably grow as it would have done but the plant would be affected by what was put into the water. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing either.

I follow lots of people on social media who promote healthy eating and exercise. One thing that always sticks in my mind is that ‘we are what we eat.’ I think that’s true for lots of things that we put into ourselves. When I fed myself with negativity, my lifestyle was negative. I didn’t nourish it with lots of good things. It was a massive problem.

Some of us may have grown up with parents who constantly told us we were stupid, useless, we won’t amount to anything blah, blah blah. If that was pumped in, inevitably that’s what would have come out in our journey and the way we view ourselves and the world. Thankfully there’s a chance to escape all of that once we are made free.

My children have a ‘black and white’ view point of most things in this world. They do not make room for the grey areas. To them we either do good or we do bad. To be able to raise children like that is beautiful sometimes because they can’t lie or they aren’t very good at it. However you also get some honesty that you may not be ready to hear.
Lil lady often tells me I have a fat belly and need to do more exercise. She isn’t wrong but to hear it when I’m already feeling bad about paying the gym membership but not visiting the gym, isn’t always easy to hear.

As a parent I completely understand that it’s important to nourish the minds and bodies of our children. My young man is growing at a mighty speed because he is receiving all the nourishment to help his body to grow. He is flying emotionally too because he is being fed emotionally with the right stuff. Now that I’m free, we as parents are able to do that.

I didn’t have that for all areas of my childhood and as a result I experienced lots of emotional pain as I grew. That is one thing I don’t want my children to experience but if hubby and I don’t provide them with the right nourishment how will healthy young people and adults just appear?

At least once a week, usually on a Tuesday we as a household stop everything we are doing to play a game together and have family fun and discussions. Hubby and I are very busy people as you may know, but we never want our children to feel we never had the time to stop everything to have quality family time. We want to nourish them with the idea that family comes high up on the list and we do what we do because we love them. It transforms us as a family unit.

I didn’t like reading a lot before but now I’ve come to realise, for my mind and spirit to be nourished this is necessary too. I have to feed it with good things and feeding comes through hearing and reading too. In the Bible there’s a story about a man called Job that I nourish myself with often. Gosh this man had a terrible time. He had everything and lost everything, his family, his wealth, his health everything. He was on death’s door but he still kept hope alive. He was then blessed and restored. When I have difficult times this gives me hope too and I grow in faith.

I’m absolutely overwhelmed and touched that so many people are taking the time out to read what I post everyday. I have received some incredible feedback. To hear that I am writing what some people needed to hear for that day is mind blowing. If my errors and new corrections can help others, that’s amazing. But I can only do that now because I am nourishing my all with great things. I no longer live a life of captivity whereby I violate myself neither am I allowing others to violate me.
Our minds are sponges and if we do not have the capacity to understand what things we should root out and what things don’t belong, they will remain and grow. I am very good at digging, pruning and clearing up now.

If we don’t read or listen to inspiration or inspire ourselves how will we grow to believe in the possibilities in life? What are we nourishing ourselves with to help us grow? Are we even giving ourselves nourishment at all or just going through the motions or worse neglecting ourselves?

Nourish You and your household with good things!

Peace and love

MrsJK