Gym moaners

One type of person I usually roll my eyes at while turning up the volume of my iPod at the gym is the token "gym moaner". Now you might not be familiar with who a "gym moaner" is, so I'll tell you. It's those women (sometimes men) who are lifting a set amount of weight and then they start moaning/groaning/panting or making some other form of weird noise as they lift. My opinion of these people is that they clearly just want some attention!

Hey everyone!!! 

  

Look at me lift this weight and just to be sure you're watching, I'm going to give you an audible show along with it!!! Typical Mrs. Parker type! LOL

But there's this thing where you really don't understand someone until you're faced with that same situation. I was at the gym the other day doing some pull ups. I was doing descending reps with only a 10 second rest in between basically doing a muscle failure exercise and it happened....

I did it....

I became a "gym moaner"!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

How did this happen!!??

I totally didn't intend to let out a loud, I can hear myself over my iPod, MOAN!!!! 

I was definitely not looking for any attention (there was like 1 or 2 other people in the whole gym at the time), but I was definitely struggling to get through that last set and it just...HAPPENED!!!

After that experience, I vowed to never judge another "gym moaner" cause it definitely happened to me again! I became one of those people that usually get on my nerves at the gym. LOL le sigh! 

Do you have any pet peeves at the gym? 

When life doesn't go according to plan

For the past couple of days, I've been a tad restless and not really feeling at peace.  Last night I decided to pray about how I have been feeling and really lay it out there with God. I also read one of my devotionals by Joyce Meyer to try to shake the feeling. I was a tad bit behind in some of my devotionals from the month of July, so I went back in the archives to read one that I had missed.  The topic for the devotional was called "When Life Doesn't Go According to Plan".

There's a saying that goes "if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans".  There are many scriptures that instruct us that God already has our lives planned out and all we must do is trust Him that the way things are going have already been laid out and that everything will work out in the end. 

I can't even begin to count how many times I have felt like I needed to "help God" along with speeding up things that I wanted to happen in my life. I also can't even begin to tell you how many times those things I felt like I needed to get involved in blew up in my face and turned out to be not as pleasant or wonderful as I had hoped they would be. 

Last night while reading the devotional, I decided to share a passage on Instagram and add a caption under the passage (my own two cents).  As I created the post and added my caption, I felt like what I had to say would really help someone, but I must admit, I struggled to accept and really believe wholeheartedly these things for myself and my own situations. Here is the post:

Ok let me clarify a few things. I do believe what I have written here, bu as I was hoping to help someone else, my words were ministering to me.  I believe God wants the best for me and I believe He won't withhold any good thing that He has already declared is meant for me! I do struggle with waiting patiently while I'm trusting His timing. I try very hard to be patient, but I'm oftentimes extremely anxious and want things when I want them. I guess that's human nature for a lot of us. 

I am, however, working on all of this. I try to find an opportunity to exercise my patience in any situation that I can. I was also listening to Joyce Meyer on YouTube one day and she did a sermon on patience and trusting God (right on time for me!).  In that sermon, she said "patience is not the ability to wait. It's how you act while you wait. Patience is a fruit of the spirit and it only grows and develops under trail." Whew!! Ain't that the truth!!! 

When I woke up this morning, I felt an increased sense of peace. I felt so ready to seize the day and I felt amazing! I then went on to do today's mediation with Oprah and Deepak followed by an amazing, yet strenuous workout at the local high school track! 

I think it's normal to get a little antsy with life sometimes, but it's always comforting to just stop, relax, breathe, and spend some time in fellowship with God. I feel like I'm back on track now and ready to just trust in His timing because I know deep down in my soul, I won't be disappointed!

How do you deal when life is not going the way you planned? 

Mantra Monday

I'm going to give it a try to go back to a themed day on my blog. Workout and Worship Wednesday is taking a bit of a break, but I hope to bring it back soon!

Right now, I'm motivated to do Mantra Monday because I just signed up to do the 21 day meditation challenge with Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra!  If you would like to still sign up, it's not too late.  Here's the link.  

This post is actually inspired by two things I came across today.  One is from today's meditation.  Before the meditation begins, Oprah describes what we can all expect from this journey.  In that, she said "be the love you want to experience".  That statement was very powerful to me because I feel like it's so true.  You get what you put out (in some cases).  Which leads me to my next point.  I got an e-mail from a blog I follow called Marc and Angel Hack Life and they had a recent post called 6 Reasons Your Relationship is Suffering.  Here's the link to the post.  

The first point made is to let go of expectations of how someone "should be".  This got me thinking about how we should give and love without expectations.  What I mean by this is when we give, don't expect to get something back.  Give as much as you can and to a certain comfort level where you feel like you've done your part by giving, yet not to the point that you feel like you've been taken advantage of. Give and love freely regardless of what the other person is going to do.  I find that giving and loving like this is good for your own soul.  

Now I don't recommend giving and giving and giving of yourself and you feel depleted because someone or something is always making withdrawls and never making deposits. I say you have to really feel this out, but it is really rewarding to just give (time, money, etc.) freely without always expecting to receive in return. The old adage is true "it's better to give than to receive".  I never really understood or agreed with this as a child (ha...children and their egocentric ways).  But as I have matured and grown, I do enjoy and get pleasure from giving to others regardless of what I may receive in return.  Lending a helping hand, giving money to someone in need or to a worthy cause, spending time with someone who needs a pick-me-up, etc. 

I think the same goes with love. If we give the love we want to experience, yet love without expectations, then I think that could be a really awesome gift back to ourselves.  I'm up for embracing these mantras, how about you? Any thoughts?

...love is friendship set on fire...