February 2021

YOUR HEALTH

February is heart health month. How poetic because at the root of all illness is your heart. Your brokenness, hurts, wounds, disappointments, frustrations or low self-image begin in your heart. Your heart then leads you to either live a well-balanced, healthy life full of good nutrition, proper exercise and adequate exercise or it pulls you down into the pit of despair where you try to eat and sleep your way out.

So, I ask you, how is your heart? Perhaps you feel it is in decent condition. Every heart can use some improvement, and I encourage everyone to take an inventory. If your heart is damaged or broken, you are probably already seeing the ramifications in your health with weight gain, headaches, joint point, restlessness, etc. The first step to feeling better is working on your heart condition.

Get a piece of paper and write down what you are feeling. Don’t judge it or edit it. Just write. Who and what has hurt you? What words describe your heart condition right now? When you look at your page, do you see a thriving, vibrant heart or a crushed one? Whatever your heart’s condition, take the time to heal. Seek what your heart needs. It may be reconciliation, forgiveness, love, letting go, courage to change…only you can discover and provide what your heart needs. Just don’t ignore it any longer.

Counselors and coaches (like me) can assist you with processing and creating a plan to work through your issues so that you may move forward to better health. Here’s to a healthy heart!

YOUR LIFE

The word God has given me this year is thrive. As the weeks have passed, He has impressed upon my heart that in order to thrive, there must first be healing: physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually and financially. I’m just beginning to sense the work to be done in these areas but one that is clear is that I must let go of what isn’t right, what isn’t working, and what isn’t meant for me so that God can bring in what is. In some cases, this is going to mean clearing out some relationships that have been requiring me to twist and contort to the point of deformation. It doesn’t mean I stop caring, but it does mean that I love myself enough to know that it isn’t healthy for me.

Letting go isn’t trashing someone and being unkind. It simply means freeing up each other for the right relationships. I have to trust and believe God’s plan, and a relationship that harms me or makes me sick isn’t His plan.

Regardless of your word this year, we can all benefit from some cleansing and healing. Perhaps your marriage needs a makeover or you need to address an underlying health issue. Whatever the case, take the time to heal those hurts and wounds in your life so that you can live your best life!

YOUR CAREER

Just because the calendar flipped over to 2021 doesn’t mean the challenges we faced in 2020 disappeared. In fact, we are still in the thick of it. I always like to look at the good that comes out of every situation, and I believe we have the opportunity to evaluate how we work with customers. There has been a movement to push more and more customer service to apps and online; yet, people are starving for human contact. I know of people who have not left their homes since March of 2020 and haven’t seen another human being nor had any physical contact. That is not how humans were designed to live!

If companies would pay attention to the human need here and respond in kind, they can gain customers by the fist full. Over and over again, I hear the complaints of people having to do everything themselves on an app. From grocery shopping to auto claims, the personal touch has been removed. Sure, people adapt and deal with it but that doesn’t mean they are happy about it.

I see us reaching a tipping point, and people are beginning to take their business to places that actually treat them like a human being and give them personalized service, not software. Take note and do your own VOC (voice of customer) with your targeted demographic and find out how you should change how you interact with your customers.

MONTHLY FEATURE

If you are looking for a way to enrich your marriage, Celebrating Your Marriage was created by my dear friend and former pastor Dr. Dallas E. Shafer with his 40 years’ experience as a pastor and counselor. Go to my website to pay, and I will send you the PDF file. Let’s celebrate our marriages!