Why won’t you set boundaries? This is a question that someone may have asked you recently.
The answer is not a one size fit all. One reason may be fear of being alone and rejected. Another reason may be lack of housing.
A spirit of unworthiness can also be the culprit.
When you possess a spirit of unworthiness, you have a belief system of not being worthy enough. Thus, if you believe you are unworthy, you will not value your time, body, and soul.
And as a domino effect, when we don’t value our time, body, and soul, other people won’t either. They will rip through our bodies and souls with trauma like nobody’s business. Why? Either they don’t care or don’t have the ability.
The people who don’t care are walking around hurting other people in order to hurt themselves. We mirror our feelings about ourselves onto others. They are the group of personality disordered and spirit of narcissism and narcissistic tendencies group.
This group have wounds that are drowning in shame and insecurities around their childhoods and everything involved in their upbringing.
The people who don’t have the ability also walk around hurting other people. The difference is that it’s unintentional due to emotional immaturity, limiting beliefs, limited worldview, resources, skills, lies they believe about themselves and others, false concepts about love, etc.
We can’t make either group have a come to Jesus because love involves freedom. The moment that we X out freedom, we have control. And we can barely make ourselves do what we need to do.
This group also needs healing by going back to their family’s love story garden, dismantling the lies and limiting beliefs that led to the limited worldviews/strongholds.
When we stop being curious about God’s character, and then ourselves, we stop being curious about others. This leads to the inability group doing whatever they need to do to unknowingly make sure they never release the stronghold through confirmation bias.
We are responsible for giving ourselves what we need.
Although it doesn’t feel or seem right, it’s nobody else’s responsibility to understand and give us what we need.
God loves us, enabling us to love ourselves, and spread this love over to others. Taking responsibility for our own needs and issues is part of loving others.
Hello ladies! Today I have a guest blogger, Sharae Jenkins, sharing with you on one of the most important things that you need to know when you reclaim your power and identity so that you know you are enough: building resilience and flourishing. Building resilience and flourishing involves a holistic approach of nourishing the whole person emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically . Her article will deal with the physical, or wellness aspect, i.e., being careful of what you are putting into your bodies. I pray that you will find her post encouraging, motivating, and enlightening. Be blessed!
Sharae Jenkin’s Blog Post:
When you’re stressed out, the foods that you’re more likely to turn to are traditional ‘comfort’ foods – think large meals, take-out, fatty foods, sweet foods, and alcohol.
While turning to these foods can make you feel better temporarily, in the long run, they can make you will feel worse. When your body isn’t getting the right nutrition, you can begin to feel less energetic, more lethargic, and in some cases less able to concentrate and focus. All of this can lead to even more stress.
Foods that Fight Stress
If you’ve been feeling more stressed out than usual lately, it’s important to know which foods are best to choose and which to avoid when it comes to combating stress and helping you to deal with feelings of stress and anxiety. The best way to fight stress is to have a healthy, balanced diet which includes a moderate amount of each of the different food groups.
Filling up on foods such as whole grains, leafy vegetables, and lean proteins as the basic staples of the diet is the best way to ensure that your body gets the optimum amounts of nutrients to fight both physical and mental health problems. When it comes to choosing the foods to eat, some have a range of great properties which help the body to combat stress. Choosing these stress-busting foods will help to heal and calm your mind in the long-run rather than providing a temporary fix.
Part 1: Some of the best stress-fighting foods include:
Avocado – Avocados are a creamy and versatile fruit which can be eaten in a range of different ways whether you enjoy it raw, made into sauces, dressings and dips, or in a smoothie. Avocados contain higher levels of vitamin E, folate, and beta-carotene than any other fruit, which boosts their stress-busting properties
Blueberries – Blueberries have some of the highest levels of antioxidants, which means that this berry has been linked to a wide range of health benefits including sharper cognition, better focus, and a clearer mind – all of which can help you to better deal with stress.
Chamomile Tea – Drinking liquids which are high in sugars and caffeine, such as coffee, energy drinks or soda, can actually increase your stress levels if consumed regularly. Chamomile tea has long been used as a natural bedtime soother, and it has also been used in clinical trials, which determined that chamomile tea is effective in reducing the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
Chocolate – Dark chocolate in particular is best for you, as it contains more flavanol’s and polyphenols, two hugely important antioxidants which can help combat stress
Beef – Grass-fed beef has a huge range of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and Vitamin’s C and E, which can help your body to fight stress and anxiety.
Part 2: Some of the best stress-fighting foods include:
Oatmeal – As a complex carbohydrate, eating oatmeal causes your brain to produce higher levels of the feel-good chemical serotonin, helping you to feel calmer and less stressed.
Walnuts – If you’re looking for a healthy snacking option which will help you to stay better in control of your stress levels, walnuts are a great choice. There is no denying the sweet, pleasant flavor of walnuts and they can be a tasty snack for in-between meals or as part of a desert.
Pistachios – Studies have found that simply eating two small, snack-size portions of pistachios per day can lower vascular constriction when you are stressed, putting less pressure on your heart by further dilating your arteries. Along with this, the rhythmic, repetitive act of shelling pistachios can actually be quite therapeutic!
Green Leafy Vegetables – Leafy, green vegetables should be a pivotal part of anyone’s diet. Along with helping to combat stress, leafy greens are full of nutrients and antioxidants which help to fight off disease and leave your body feeling healthier and more energized. Dark leafy greens, for example spinach, are especially good for you since they are rich in folate, which helps your body to produce more mood-regulating neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which is a ‘feel-good’ chemical.
Fermented foods – Last but not least, eating fermented foods such as yogurt can help to keep your gut healthy, which actually in turn will help to improve your mental health and reduce stress levels.
Putting Together Your Diet Plan
Planning your meals wisely is key to not only staying physically fit and healthy, but also to staying mentally strong and being able to best manage your levels of stress. Knowing which foods to avoid and which are the best to reach for to snack on when you’re feeling worried and anxious is important to helping you get control over your emotions and fears.
A good example of a healthy, stress-busting menu would be:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with berries or a fruit smoothie with avocado and berries
Mid-morning snack: Greek yogurt with fruit or a handful of pistachio nuts
Lunch: A whole-grain pasta salad filled with plenty of leafy greens
Afternoon snack: Dark chocolate
Dinner: Grass-fed beef with vegetables
Before bed: Chamomile tea
Of course, you don’t need to stick to this menu – but it gives you a good idea!
Remember to practice portion control when eating foods such as nuts, chocolate, yogurt or avocado! As the saying goes, you are what you eat – so make sure that first and foremost, you’re filling yourself up with foods which are good for your mental health.
P.S. Just in case you missed the exciting news, I just released my Summer Shape Up Recipe Book! 40 delicious, summer-inspired recipes to help you stay Fab + Fit this summer and beyond! Get the yummy details here!
Yours in wellness,
Sharae Jenkins, MBA, FNS
Nutritionist + Health Coach + Blogger
Text FABFIT to (877) 660-2651 for practical wellness tips + exclusive recipes!
Blockage can be caused by a lot of things: injustice, homelessness, oppression, your move on a board game, something bad that you ate. The list could literally go on and on. But the question is… What if God is doing the blocking, and his way of blocking you is homelessness? This is no laughing matter.
When our fight or flight response kicks in, the natural thing to do is to fight when someone or something blocks us. But what if fighting being blocked does more harm than good when God is doing the blocking. What if what appears to be mean, unfair, and unjust is just what we need? What if God’s blockage is God’s protection.
Take a listen to this week’s episode to find out what happened when I was blocked by homelessness.
Be blessed.
Until next time,
Katina
Transcript for the Hearing Impaired
Speaker 0 00:00:23 <inaudible> the valley
Speaker 1 00:01:04 This is the Valley Of grace podcast, helping women create and empowered new chapter of his life and how we’re doing that. We are breaking unhealthy relationship patterns. We’re building resilience and flourishing, and we are reclaiming our power and identity today’s episode is entitled, blocked by homelessness. Now, when you think of those two things together, when you think of them separately, think of homelessness, not having a home, no dwelling, and then thinking of blocked, the word blocked, being prevented from being able to do something.
So we’re being blocked by homelessness, prevented from being able to do something and homeless is how it was being used. That’s really deep when you think about it. So we’re going to go back to the year 2014. Uh, I was in a process of going through a divorce. The procedure was pretty much done and over with. And I had been looking for a place for 60 days.
Speaker 1 00:02:34 I mean, literally 60 days of looking, I had not found anything. I had money to pay the rent per month, but I did not have money, any extra money for the security deposit nor for the first month’s rent. So I kept thinking to myself, Lord, how am I going to be able to make it every month? What am I going to do?
And, my therapist gave me a list of places to go to. I went to those places and, um, well I went to one place, the very first place and that didn’t work out. Um, the place was very judgmental and critical. And so, I still have thoughts in my mind of trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do. And I remember leaving that place, being on the bus, the pace bus headed home, and my ex-mother-in-law called and said, I don’t want you and my grandbabies to be in a shelter.
Speaker 1 00:03:48 I don’t want you to stay in a hotel or to be out on the streets. So I’m going to let you borrow the money that you need. And I remember her telling me that gave me a feeling, this sense of calm and peace about it, but then being on the pace bus on the way home after that, and the holy spirit saying, well, if I want you to be homeless, that’s exactly what’s going to end up happening.
And so sometimes we think that just because someone else gives us what it is that we need to prevent us from being blocked means that we are no longer going to be blocked. However, when we are blocked, that is God’s hands at work, whatever door he opens, whatever door he closes is not in our control and it’s not in anyone else’s control. And the more we fight against it, the more we become unraveled with the situation, the more we’re like, I’m going to do it on my own, God since, you’re not going to let me do it.
Part 2
Speaker 1 00:04:57 You’re not going to open the door. You’re not going to help me find a way another job, another home I’m going to do it on my own. And we end up being burnt out. We end up bitter disillusioned resentful, whether it’s, um, I guess God or whoever, but it’s not a good end result.
And so I had got to a point where I was just exhausted from looking and looking and looking and not finding anything. I had this glimmer of hope when she said that. But then after I heard the holy spirit is saying, if I want you to be homeless, this that’s what’s going to happen. But then a whole another set of thoughts start coming in my mind like, wow, I could actually end up being homeless on the day that I have to move out. I could actually end up being homeless, me and the kids.
Part 3
Speaker 1 00:05:51 And what am I going to do? I decided I would go ahead and create this new empowered chapter of life of myself, move forward in the steps to reclaiming my power and identity, to break all of those unhealthy relationship patterns. I started that and my decision to go to therapy. That was the beginning of it. That was the one step I made to move forward.
And then it’s like, okay. So after all of this, this is what you give me, Lord is what I was thinking at the time. Just feeling very discouraged, discouraged because of that discouraged because of the dishonesty, um, with my ex-husband and court and just not knowing what I was going to do, we only have so much emotional and mental bandwidth and it’s just like, what in the world am I going to do? How am I going to make it?
Speaker 1 00:06:47 We were used to living a certain type of lifestyle, if that was what was going to happen, it was not going to be up to me. I was doing the very best I could and whatever God had planned was what he had planned.
And one thing about it was that, um, we ended up not finding a place before having to move from the marital residence. Okay. The short sale went through really quick and we had to be out of there. But a friend of mine already mentioned to me, if you guys don’t have anywhere to go, as you are pulling out from your place, just text me and let me know you’re on your way that you and the kids are on the way. And that really, really, really gave me hope and more of a sense of purpose.
Part 4
Speaker 1 00:07:51 When you are facing loneliness, homelessness, and other factors involved, you’re just like, what am I going to do? So you start to have like an existential crisis and you just wandering, okay, “Am I still going to be, to carry on my purpose? That’s a lot of unknowns that come about and a lot of things as a result of poverty and homelessness.
And so her telling me that gave me hope. And, um, I didn’t know, but God knew that if I had moved the kids and I right away, we would have suffered even more trauma. I was so emotionally and mentally exhausted from packing at the last minute and getting things already.
So, sense we had to leave out of there on that Friday, I would not have had the capacity to move again and unpack all of that stuff. And then try to just start out living everyday life. Again, we needed a layover, but I did not know that at the time. So a lot of times God will block us from being able to do things that we want, but there is a purpose behind it. There’s always a purpose, you know, and I remember my therapist telling me even years ago, when I first started going, you’re going to be pulling back layers for years.
Part 5
Speaker 1 00:09:29 God blocked me so I could have a place of rest, physical rest and spiritual west, minus any emotional risks. He did this for five weeks.. But after, um, three weeks of being blocked, we found something, but wasn’t going to be able to move for another two weeks.
We needed that break. And so, a lot of times when we were right in the middle, we were right in the thick of things. We don’t see that. We want the instant gratification, you know, and we see God, we think he’s punishing us, but he’s not. It’s all within his will for a specific purpose in mind. And so, when my friend and her husband took us in, um, we felt the peace, the warmth, the fellowship of God there, and we were able to have our own rooms.
Speaker 1 00:10:35 My daughter and I shared a room, and my son was able to have his own space down in the basement, a full-size basement, like an apartment down there. So, it was the blessing that God gave us. Yes, you’re going to be homeless, but you’re going to be comfortable. While you’re in this state of homelessness. God’s grace is there.
Part 6
He was even when I felt that he wasn’t and sometimes people will come up to us when we’re in whatever state we’re in, we’re already broken already, already trying to get some grounding, and then say, “There must be something you’re doing wrong. Otherwise, this wouldn’t happen.
You should just do this, this and this. You didn’t apply to the right places. Um, you know, apply it in the right areas. It’s always something that they’ve got to find, especially when you are a woman of God and they know how you are, you know, there’s gotta be, it’s gotta be something you’re doing because they can’t come up with any reasoning, which is natural when you think about it. Why would God allow his people to suffer more when they have already suffered?
Speaker 1 00:11:48 It was like with Job, when he was sick, his friends, all of a sudden, they had to say, “He’s got to be something wrong. Otherwise, why would this happen to you?” There’s not always something we do that causes it to happen.
Some things is just that God knows best. And even if his best is homelessness, that is his best for us for any particular reason. And like I said, we needed the rest and didn’t know it. None of us are exempt from being blocked by homelessness or any other thing that God decides. Okay. And so we can be honest, and open up and say, God, I’m angry. I don’t like what it is you’re doing.
Part 7
Speaker 1 00:12:43 I’m really upset God, please help me. As I walk through this journey that you would have me walk that is very unpleasant, please help me to continue to do your will because you know, best. This is what I would want in my calling and my job, whatever my profession is, or this is what kind of car I want , what kind of house, what kind of neighborhood, but you’re blocking me from having it for whatever reason, I accept it.
And the more we resist, the harder it will be for us to learn whatever it is God wants us to learn. To be able to develop our character in order for us to grow, thrive, and have that empowered new chapter of life, to be able to reclaim our power and identity. And just because we made those decisions, we made that choice to do that does not mean it’s going to be easy.
Speaker 1 00:13:38 It does not mean that God would not block us for certain periods of time for us to grow and to learn and to protect us for whatever reason. So, I hope that it’s something that was said that would resonate with you.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been blocked by homelessness yourself. Um, if you are enjoying the valley of grace podcast, where we’re helping women create an empowered new chapter of life, do me a favor and leave us a review. If you could tag your friends on social media and let them know to listen to us on iTunes, apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon music, and podcasts.
And if you are feeling like you just cannot go on, and you are tempted to go back, turn around, you need some type of music, some type of encouragement to keep you going, so you won’t revert back to the way it used to be, as the song says, “ Download the valley of grace song. It is on iTunes. And it’s also on Amazon music.
As you have those words resonate in your head, I won’t go back to the way it was again. You do not have to repeat cycles of unhealthy relationships. You do not have to repeat that. And that song is there to remind you. I won’t go back to the way that it was again. I want to thank Timothy Horton for bringing the intro and outro music. Until next time. <inaudible>
There’s nothing worse than being out all day, and being hungry. What’s even worse is when you are craving your favorite food that is waiting for you in the refrigerator when you get home, but when you get home, someone in the house has eaten it. You literally feel like crying.
Now what?
What is going to satisfy the craving that you had for that fried chicken, steak sandwich, quinoa salad, Chinese food, or garbage pizza? The craving is so bad that it leaves you devastated.
Switch scenes.
You just got out of a toxic relationship. Your soul is craving that person because of the soul-tie that was created. What are you going to do?
You have three options: lean into God, go back to the cycle of unhealthy relationship patterns, or go into another toxic relationship instead of giving yourself time to heal.
Which one will you choose?
Listen in to today’s episode to find out what will satisfy our cravings.
Burnout is becoming more and more common in our everyday life. Hearing the word itself makes you think that perhaps it’s just an overused, over-personified thing. But it isn’t. People suffer from burnout, with its effects lasting for years. The sooner that we put boundaries into place to avoid it, the more that our minds, bodies, and souls will thank us.
In my conversation with Chris, he expressed the fact that people resist change after burnout, or any other type of brokenness because they get comfortable in what they are in, feeling that it is easier to stay the same, than to do the work.
But, we all know that healing from past hurts brings resilience and perspective. Perspective is what is needed in order to embrace the act of creating an empowered new chapter of life. I pray that this episode will empower you in creating your new chapter. Click here to check out Chris Archuleta’s site and podcast. Be blessed.
Everybody has their own way of defining resilience. This poem explores my definition of resilience. It comes from years of being knocked down in the wrestling ring, so to speak, and having to get back up again and again.
At Valley of Grace, we believe in thriving. In order to thrive, we have to begin grounding ourselves in our identity. The first step in making this happen, is dealing with the effects of our childhood wounds. Click here for Online Therapy today.
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I’m tired of being stuck in this position! You’re tired. And confused. You keep sitting there comfortably, uncomfortable waiting for your situation to change. You don’t have to sit in a state of confusion any longer. Broken Pieces does the work for you. This course walks you through with personalized videos, getting you to the heart of the matter.This is an amazon affiliate link that assists in paying for our blog expenses.
It’s very tempting to hold in and suppress your emotions. It’s especially tempting when your race/ethnic group has been suppressing their emotions because of generational trauma. What actually happens when we suppress our emotions? What happens when we let it out? I mean let it all out? What would happen if we invite God and our own unique stress response cycle into the mix? Watch today’s episode to find out. Click here for last week’s episode on being stuck in our mess.
Speaker 1 00:01:12 This is the Healing Our Brokenness podcast, where we dissect problems and solutions that exist among broken people, living in a broken world. And where we also go from broken relationships to resilience and flourishing. This is podcast episode 102, and this one is entitled, “Let it all out”. Quite a title, right? In this particular episode, we’re dealing with our emotions.
And what happens is once we start being still long enough, we will be able to listen to our bodies and be in tune with our souls and our spirits and realize that something is off. We will be able to say, Oh, grief is built up. This needs to come out. This needs to be released. After learning how to navigate moments of stillness, I now know when grief is trapped in my eye sockets, stomach, chest, back, or throughout my body. It sounds weird, but it’s true. Our bodies communicate this to us in our stillness.
Speaker 1 00:02:30 And then there are times where the grief is just deep inside my soul. And I know when it comes out that it’s going to be really intense and really heavy and loud. I can hear the loudness and intensity of the grief deep inside my soul. During those times I have to give myself grace because sometimes if I focus on how it should be, rather than how it is, It can lead to me being disappointed. And then disillusioned. And then discouragement follows.
Part 2
Speaker 1 00:03:31 The best thing we can do when grief gets backed up is to get it out. You have heard the old phrase, “Better out than in.” This is also true when it comes to grief. When we hold it in and suppress it, we are allowing it to transfer over to trauma. In Genesis 45, we’re at the scene where Joseph is talking to his brothers, and then you got other officials that are underneath him in rank in the room, his servants, so to speak, and his emotions have built up and he’s realized that. And so it was just like, okay, so what do we do with these emotions? We have to let it out.
I had a pretty emotional day about a month and a half ago,
Speaker 1 00:04:32 Things had not been going well leading up to that particular day. It had been a crazy week. A two hour adventure turned into a five hour adventure. I didn’t get home until almost 10 o’clock. I was cold and hungry, and exhausted. While I was in the process of getting all those things done, I could hear the inner voice crying out in my soul.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 Okay. I finally finished up at least 80% of what I had to get done and I got in the car and I said, I’m just going to have to scream and let it out. And it probably was maybe four rounds of that. And maybe another couple when I got home, but I felt so much better. And when it comes to those types of emotions, we have got to be able to get this stuff out.
Part 3
Sometimes getting it out doesn’t look pretty/ideal/or the way we think they should look. Either we get it out and we are able to control how it comes out or it is going to control us and who knows what’s going to happen, but it’s got to come out. And won’t be pretty. Exploding on others is not ideal nor healthy, and could have been avoided. We ended up getting sick like that. Usually when it comes on that heavy like that, you have a little bit of a space as a warning, as far as trying to go somewhere, to be able to deal with it in private, if need be.
Speaker 1 00:06:28 And I just thank God that I was able to get it out. I listened to a particular podcast episode recently where the podcast host, who’s a therapist talked about how sometimes she has to go outside to be able to scream or yell, or whatever kind of way she needs to, to be able to get those emotions out of her.
Part 4
And with blacks, we have to be careful anyway, because it’s part of our DNA from trauma, we are able to suppress the emotions, more naturally than usual because of that trauma. The other side of that is that our bodies are keeping tract of everything that we are going through. It is screaming out from arthritis and all kinds of chronic autoimmune diseaseas.
Speaker 1 00:07:27 We let it out and give ourselves compassion and grace and speak kind words to ourselves. Instead of going into self-blame, self-judgment and self-criticism mode. And we let it out. And what I want to do right now is talk about Joseph and what happened with him when he was in the room. As I mentioned before, he was surrounded by his servants and his brothers. He wanted to be able to tell his brothers who he was.
Speaker 1 00:08:30 Okay. And it got built up in his system. And I’m going to read what the scripture says. It says Joseph could not control himself in front of his servants any longer. “When Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
Part 5
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.”
Speaker 1 00:09:31 Don’t be worried, angry with yourselves because you sold me here. God sent me here ahead of you to say people’s lives. No food has grown the land for two years and there would be five more years without planning or harvest. So God sent me here ahead of you to make sure you have some descendants left on earth and to keep you alive in an amazing way.
So it was not you who sent me here, but God notice that he told them that twice to reassure them. God has made me the official, the highest officer of the King of Egypt. I am in charge of his house. And I am the master of all of the land of Egypt. So leave quickly and go to my father, tell him your son, Joseph, see us, God has made a master over all. Each have come down to me quickly.
Part 6
Speaker 1 00:10:33 Joseph reminded me of myself, where he realized he couldn’t control himself any longer. He asked them to leave except for his brothers because he felt safe enough to be able to express himself and reveal himself in front of them. And sometimes we can let it out with others, with us. And sometimes we just have to do it by ourselves. The window of time is important, and discernment is important.
Speaker 1 00:11:24 Regulating our emotions is part of being resilient as well as being able to flourish in our relationships. Because if we are walking around in that much misery, we cannot have decent relationships with people. Our focus and our pain are only on ourselves and how miserable we are. We want to let it out, and Get back up again, within reasonable time so we can keep moving. So, I hope it was something that was said here today that will resonate with your hearts as you go from broken relationships to resilience and flourishing. I want to give a shout out to Timothy Horton for bringing the intro and outro music to us every week.
Part 7
Speaker 1 00:13:03 And that song is entitled Valley of Grace. And it can be found wherever music is sold. Healing Our Brokenness podcast is on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and on Amazon music, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, etc. So, if this is blessing your life in any kind of shape, form or fashion, if you could please give a shout out to your friends, your neighbors, your family members, and ask them to follow us.
At Valley of Grace, we believe in thriving. In order to thrive, we have to begin grounding ourselves in our identity. The first step in making this happen, is dealing with the effects of our childhood wounds. Click here to get started in Online Therapy today.****This is an amazon affiliate link where a commission is paid to offsite the cost of providing this information to you.
Are you saying to yourself, “I’m sick and tired of being in this state of languishing!” , but you are confused about how to get out? You need someone to walk you through the process, step by step. That’s what the course Broken Pieces is all about. This course walks you through with personalized videos, getting you to the heart of the matter. ****This is an amazon affiliate link where a commission is paid to offsite the cost of providing this information to you.
Last week, I made some black bean penne pasta. It was quick to make. But even better, it was good. When I cook, I often share find myself sharing the pictures with mother and son. And in turn, they share their meals with me. The message behind it all is that we share a common bond in doing what is both fun and nourishing to our souls.
This is just one way that we keep ourselves resilient and flourishing: eating healthy meals and discussing what is meaningful in our lives. Maybe your thing isn’t cooking. Maybe it’s knitting, playing chess, boardgames, or cards. Whatever it is that lights you up as a person is what can be shared with others. Sometimes we allow distance to get in the way both inside and outside of having a pandemic. We can get creative in keeping our relationships open. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of stretching outside of our comfort zones in order to make that happen. Stretching isn’t fun, but worth every minute.
Before I give you the recipe for black bean penne pasta, I have to tell you a funny story. I made this pasta before. However, I was doing three other things at the time. Instead of setting a timer on the stove, I figured I would remember. By the time I looked in the pot, the pasta was mush. I didn’t want to waste it, so I doctored it up with ingredients, and put it on top of tortilla chips with cheese, diced tomatoes, and avocado, and I promise you, I was on cloud nine. So, fair warning, unless you want a refried beans effect, watch the time!
Boil four cups of water with a 1/3 cup of avocado oil.
Add pasta.
Rinse pasta and place back in wok with pasta sauce, seasonings, and tomatoes.
Add the rest of the avocado oil.
Heat up for 15 more minutes and enjoy!
Bless ya!
Katina
P.S. Would love to hear how you are keeping your relationships flourishing during times of distance!
At Valley of Grace, we believe in thriving. In order to thrive, we have to begin grounding ourselves in our identity. The first step in making this happen, is dealing with the effects of our childhood wounds. Click here to get started in Online Therapy today.****This is an amazon affiliate link where a commission is paid to offsite the cost of providing this information to you.
Are you saying to yourself, “I’m sick and tired of being in this state of languishing!” , but you are confused about how to get out? You need someone to walk you through the process, step by step. That’s what the course Broken Pieces is all about. This course walks you through with personalized videos, getting you to the heart of the matter. ****This is an amazon affiliate link where a commission is paid to offsite the cost of providing this information to you.
Hello all, and happy Thursday! Two weeks ago, I did an interview with Alison Simmons. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with her, Alison is a mother, Woman of God, Blogger, and the podcast host of Grace Over Perfection.
By the time we finished talking, I felt like I’d had a three-in-one session of therapy, support group, and sisterly fellowship. God is like that, giving us what we need when we need it. I hope that you re as blessed as I was when you tune into this interview.
An Interview with Alison Simmons Topics
Podcasting
Roadblocks
Podcasting vs. Writing
Inspiration
Unique Knowlege/Expertise
Life Story
What Brokenness Means
Effects of Healed and UnHealed Brokenness on Podcasting
Community Help
Home
Requirements for Podcasting
Marriage
Divorce
Podcasting Genres
Fun Questions
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threestrand cord is not quickly broken.
At Valley of Grace, we believe in thriving. In order to thrive, we have to begin grounding ourselves in our identity. The first step in making this happen, is dealing with the effects of our childhood wounds. Click here to get started in Online Therapy today.****This is an amazon affiliate link where a commission is paid to offsite the cost of providing this information to you.
It seems that I am always making some version of chocolate chip cookies. A couple of weeks ago, I made almond chocolate chip cookies again. Every time that I make them, I usually tweak a few things. Sometimes this is on purpose. Other times it’s because I am out of something, and desperate for something sweet.
When we are lacking something, we can focus on the lack, or we can come out of our scarcity mindset, let our creative juices start flowing, and see what God gives us as an alternative. God is the God of abundance.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
1/2 bag of Enjoy Life mega chunk chocolate chips
2 capfuls of almond extract
1/3 cup of slivered almonds
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of almond milk
almond oil -1/2 cup
1/4 cup of flaxseed meal
1 1/2 cups of almond flour
1 cup of oatmeal for binding and thickness
Photo by Katina Horton
Directions
Dump all the above ingredients into a huge mixing bowl.
Mix everything with a wooden spoon.
Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Using a cooking scoop or tablespoon, scoop purposely uneven portions of the cookie mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. The more cookies on the sheet, the longer it will take.
