Feeling "OFF" Not Necessarily a Bad Thing!

So I'm someone who does well with acronyms and lists when it comes to memorizing things, organizing a project, and more. I always did better in school when I could "name the four things that..." or "When remembering the important characteristics of goals, think SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely)" for example.

My "Retreat in Daily Life" and my recent experience at Charis Ministries' Seekers' Retreat Day for Women have both provided ample opportunity to use lists and acronyms in my relationship with Jesus, my prayer life, and my overall spirituality. How?

Well for one, I remember that if I'm feeling "OFF", that's not necessarily a bad thing. St. Ignatius tells us in the first principle and foundation of his Spiritual Exercises that we were created by God OF love, FROM love, and FOR love. So if you're feeling a bit blue and start to tell someone you're having an "off" day, use this little trick to turn "off" from a downer into a positive expression of self-love and God-love!

Secondly, one thing that stuck with me from the Women's retreat was a sense of reorganizing our priorities. We used a visual example of priorities that included sand as our menial priorities (i.e. checking the weather or driving directions online), pebbles/small rocks for our important but not necessarily life-giving priorities (i.e. chores, bills, etc.), and big rocks for our big priorities (i.e. work, sleep, God, friends, family, etc.) Now, imagine you/your time were represented by an empty vase. You start with the sand, the small priorities, and fill the vase with ALL the priorities listed above. Eventually you'd run out of room, and some of your big priorities would get neglected. Our challenge is to refocus our priorities and reorganize our time, so that we start with the big priorities, then fill in with pebbles/small rocks, and then sand. Magically, all the same number of priorities fits, it just fits better.

Each of us received a big rock on which we could write a priority or something else that stuck out to us from that talk. (At the end of the day our rocks were blessed.) One of the girls in my small group had mentioned something she had heard once, that our top priorities should be (in this order):
1. Sleep
2. Food
3. Exercise
4. Prayer.

If we don't get enough sleep, we don't feel like eating healthy, exercising, praying, seeing friends, doing work, etc. Our ability to get a good night's sleep really does dictate everything. Food and Exercise are important because they keep our bodies healthy and our minds sharp. For those who are spiritual, prayer/God is next because prayer/God shapes the work you do, the things you think, the words you say, and influences your decisions and relationships with others.

In keeping with my love of lists, I rounded out my new set of priorities with one more:
5. Relationships (friends, family, etc.)

For me, community is extremely important. So after sleep, food, exercise, and prayer comes relationships. It was interesting to me that work was not up there at all - and it's not because work isn't a top priority, but to me it's not (at this point) a defining priority. To me, finding and sustaining meaningful work is a result of my focused attention on myself, my prayer life/God, and my relationships with others.

I was once told that I'm a "deeply spiritual" and "deeply sensitive" person. I've considered religious vocation (still open to it) and am currently interested in pursuing high school campus ministry. Hopefully these "pearls of spiritual wisdom" will help me keep a clear perspective, a balanced lifestyle, and a high level of positive thinking and positive self-talk. Maybe being a deeply spiritual and deeply sensitive child that grew up in an AA household isn't all bad. :-)