Chris Sweet

leadership training guru, life-is-awesome consultant, and oh-so-cool parent

Ride the Storm Month

Happy Friday Monday Femme Fuelers!

I am excited to be a guest contributor to Femme Fuel this month.  This month, I will be talking about how to ride the storms of life with God.

I know that today is not Friday and “Fun” should not be part of this conversation on a Monday.  But, what if we did live Monday like it’s Friday.  Like it’s the day before THE Weekend!!  Let’s turn our Friday party jam during Monday.  That’s right.  Let’s play with our minds to see what they will do, if we actually went through Monday with a Friday confidence.

Here’s the deal.  I too have gone through my share of anxious workdays like you.  And, it has caused my body, spirit and mind to be impacted.  That high amount of stress is just not good for you. That’s why it is so important to take care of your entire self: mind, body and spirit.

So what can you do?

1. Figure out what is causing your dread on Monday.  If you love what you do at work, you are less likely to feel the Monday Blues.  But if you aren’t passionate about what you do, then it’s easy to feel the dread.  Sometimes, it may be just the season to bear through the angst of work for the time being or this might really be the moment to leave your job.

I believe that we have to live our days intentionally grateful and with positivity.  Sometimes that may seem difficult when it seems that at almost every minute your world seems to be crashing on multiple and different levels (work, health, family).  I understand.  I have been there.  I have asked myself that question like you, “Ok am I carrying an internal magnet which is attracting all of this negativity?”

2. Acknowledge that the moment you are going through is difficult. But know that God, your Creator and Father, pays attention to every single detail of your life including the ones that you are going through that seem too difficult.  And, He loves you and He is holding you.  Sometimes that seems doubtful, when your part of the planet seems to be under perpetual darkness.  Get these verses through your spirit to stand on your identity (God’s view of you):

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

 Psalm 139:13-16 ESV

 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

3. Realize that there is a purpose behind the traumatic event. It is easy to get upset with God that many of our traumatic events are happening successively or simultaneously.  Sometimes, I have the tendency to think that there is something wrong with me to attract the dark cloud over my head.  There are times, I want to hide from the cloud when it storms.  Sometimes, I have had to just allow the rain to pour on me.  Standing in the rain is a cold, spiritually stripping experience for me.  It makes me uncomfortable to allow myself to voluntarily expose myself to the elements for a long period of time.  But that rain, like the circumstance we are going through is necessary for getting rid of all that we hold onto that is not good for us.  And, after the rain (because there is always a respite period of after), the sun shines bright on our back healing our wounds.  But, we have to stand in the rain and we have to choose to accept the sun’s gift of healing. And, the hard thing to do, is to thank your Creator for the stormy cold rain as well as the bright life restoring sun.

4. Change your mindset from the victim to warrior. This will require time with God and getting your armor of God on.  You can’t achieve peace and contentedness without having that spirit and soul-lifting pursuit as you go through your journey of pain.  That would be like a tree trying to sprout without the life giving seed.

Let your warrior mind influence your words and actions through your trial.  Sometimes, you have to be professional and calm through the worst of attacks.  Staying calm through the assault is important for you to not only to survive but to succeed.

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.” ― Carlos Castaneda.  I so love this statement because taking everything as a challenge is a mindset I too am trying to have no matter the situation.

We will talk about this during the next few weeks on how to accomplish this warrior mindset.

5. Express gratitude to God for 1) this time in your life even if it is really bad 2) be transparent with God on your feelings of loss and lack of clarity about why the events are happening and 3) then express, “But, God, I trust you. I lean into You.”  When I go through these tough periods, I have prayed to God, “I am so painfully human Lord God and please forgive me when my heart feels despair for the weight of the tragedies that I am going through.  And, I praise you through these circumstances with my mouth even though my heart is not yet there.  Please forgive me.”

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things”  Matthew 12:34-35.

At some point, your heart will catch up with your mouth.  So, thank God for everything in your life.

6. Have fun!

Your season will pass. And when it does how will you serve? Encourage your friends, family and associates on what has happened to you in your life.  Also, have fun and live fully in the moment.  Laugh with someone.  Tell that joke.  Dance with your kids or dare I say it- by yourself!  Put your arms around your family and hug.  Love.  Love.  Love.

There is no question that this life is hard.  But for some reason, God has appointed us to live here on this earth for whatever season.   And, I have gone through experiences in life that revealed to me the dark side of humanity.  But, here is what I have learned. We are all created intentionally and uniquely not to live our part of life solo, but to work with others to engage our world and leave a successful blue print for the next generation of what we’ve done so that they learn from our mistakes and do better.  We also have an opportunity to help hurting people around us when their hurts are similar to ours.

So, let’s together live our life each day like its Friday.  Here are things I have been reading that help me ride storms.

Tim Storey, The Comeback and Beyond

Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Project

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/02/25/11-ways-to-beat-the-monday-blues/.

Read about the Warrior’s Mind Training, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27072979/ns/health-mental_health/t/warrior-mind-training-helps-troops-stay-calm/#.VkYQtfmrTjY

Art image:  http://cliparts.co/cliparts/5iR/Ko5/5iRKo586T.jpg