Over the next month I’m going to be peeking into the cornerstone pieces of what has pushed my personal journey towards wholeness. Kind of the why behind them and the basics. Because I’m going to be talking about them a lot over here and want you to get the basics of them before I just dive deep all over the place. I like the idea of this being like a little trip that we’ll both be taking together.
And because you may wonder later, yes there are 5 cornerstones listed. Let’s just say that my building has 5 corners, k? It’s not a square or rectangle, it is a pentagon. No its not a Satanic building. Don’t worry. But also thank you for being concerned about me.
Glad I got that out of the way.
These are my favorite things, also possibly known as my soapboxes if I’m being honest. I get pretty fired up about them. The overarching theme truly to all of these things is EMPOWERMENT though. I realized I could do something about the situations I was in and all I really needed to do was research and start somewhere with that *said* thing.
These are tools that I personally have used and seen others use successfully to get to wholeness. Because, no, the Lord isn’t just going to come down and fix all your problems.
Sometimes he has placed AMAZING tools right in your garage, friend, and you just need to go out there, read the manual and figure out how to use them.
These are not coping mechanisms, they’re not cover ups or band-aids, for the most part. They are tools for healing, restoring, building, and treating the WHOLE person.
One of the reasons that I struggled sooooo much with starting this blog was that despite my glowing, fiery desire to teach and share, I was terrified that I would come off as someone who had everything figured out, and that anyone who didn’t ascribe to my ways of finding wholeness would think that I looked down on them.
I have 10000% found myself playing that role in the past and it was hindsight that showed me how much of a jerk I was. I will definitely blame it on that dang 1 wing (enneagram talk, sorry) that likes to feel morally superior to others (1’s or 1 wingers help me out, we’re always trying to get people on our level right?? sheesh).
I never want to make people feel that way. I am sharing about these things because I know people are looking for answers, and I feel pretty confident that I have some (not all). I’m not going to apologize for that.
Without further ado, 5 of my favorite things and briefly what they’re about!
enneagram work : the enneagram is a personality typing system with 9 different types, and several other subsets of each type. If you google it, you’ll see a circle with 9 points on it, starting with type 9 at the top. The circle and the lines going from number to number are a little geometry looking are actually pretty important for understanding HOW the heck you move from “oh I’m this number, cool beans” to “oh this is how I figure out how to grow”. This is not your typical typing system because it offers so much wisdom on how to grow, not just use your type as an excuse for bad behavior or to flaunt the reason for your awesomeness. It’s been massively influential in my life in understanding myself and all the relationships in my life.
synthetic free/plant based living : eating food and using products that are actually REAL LIVING THINGS – or were – is the big thing here. Sooooo much of what we buy is synthetically processed in labs with chemicals in them that are banned in many other countries. This applies to food, makeup, cleaning products, skincare of all kinds, medications, hair care – unfortunately women come under fire the most for this because of the large amount of products we use on a daily basis in and on our bodies. My BFF for life, Young Living, supplies me and my family with all the best essential oils and safe plant based products we need to do life and live until we’re 107.
community : I am an introvert, and I have been massively affected by the power of community (both online and in person) bringing me into wholeness. True community kinda hurts a LOT. There’s lots of vulnerability, honesty, weird times when things feels boring and stale, but there’s so much life giving GLORY in the encouragement and having a place to use and steward over those gifts and talents you were given. I’ll be talking lots about getting upset when you sit down to dinner and its not what you wanted for dinner, but you didn’t bring anything to the table. That’s a hard truth to swallow for us who like to sit in the back (literally or figuratively) and complain about what’s going wrong (ahem, me).
jesus/worship/the bible : The biggest, most beautiful and glorious cornerstone in my life is Jesus Christ and everything he brings with him. Very excited to talk about the life changing aspects of his nature, his word, and the power of seeing him rightly and exalting him in all the bits and pieces of life (my definition of worship).
financial freedom/wisdom/minimalism : almost left this one off because I didn’t realize how this piece had very quietly and subtly changed a lot in my life. Most of it came from marrying a verrrry frugal, handsome, wise man. I had no concept really of what it looked like to steward your finances well and put your money where your dreams were, instead of your momentary impulses. Also working at an antique shop where someone’s once treasured things get pawned off and just sit in a sad, dusty corner really puts things in perspective whenever I have the impulse to buy the latest trendy thingamabob. Again, no judgement here. This is a super tough one and I’m still learning more about it! I am by no means a minimalist, but the idea really intrigues me!
Wholeness to me means seeing that each piece has an effect on another piece, seeing all the tiny parts that make up this thing we call being human. These are my tools that have helped me in taking care of some parts of me that I either thought were unfixable or didn’t even know existed.
What does wholeness look like for you? Do you feel like you’ve mastered any of these tools? Or are you like me and just figuring them out, one at a time?
Tell me your thoughts on Instagram or Facebook!
