FEBRUARY 2023!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

"Mental health is not about feeling good.
It is about having feelings that FIT THE MOMENT YOU ARE IN,
and then managing them well."
~Dr. Lisa Damour

Victories, Big and Small:

• Resting when needed (not forcing the workout routine when I was sick).
• I'm on day 7 of no sweets for Lent, and it's going well thus far!
• Beginning my full year of WW tracking on 2-18-23.  (Down 19 lbs total for 2023.)
• Enjoying listening to the Bible every morning!
• Taking time to think things through and pray and not overreact... writing a letter to Dr. Burkhart... eventually meeting with him and having a good talk and feeling much better about sticking with graduate school!
• Working with my student advisor to map out a schedule where I can stay on the original degree plan and finish next year - YAY!  My current courses are Crisis and Trauma, Empathy Training, and Professional Ethics, in case you were curious. lol

Partial Successes/Areas for Improvement:

• I'm looking forward to getting back into a solid workout routine in March!
• Preparing for role plays and group projects and especially starting Practicum in August still gives me some anxiety... but I'm getting better at deliberately looking ahead to be fully aware of what's coming, then taking things one step at a time.
• I want to improve my skills on something my professor called "incremental truth" -- not saying too much all at once where it may cause the other person to shut down, but being gentle and taking it one piece at a time, giving people time to process things and grow before moving to the next item. (Not sure if that makes sense here, but it was poignant when she talked about it - it's basically slowing down your agenda and walking with the Spirit.)

Memories:

• Celebrating all the birthdays... so many February birthdays, including the BIRTH-day of Henry Moss!!
• Getting pink eye on my birthday - ugh!
• Seeing T-man in the school play
• Jaceman's first surgery, first cast, and first permed hair! lol
• Watching the Super Bowl with the fam
• Anthony's 11th birthday balloon release!
• Going with Mom and Dad to help decorate Babah's room
• Dad's eye looking very rough post-surgery (he's still recovering on that one)
• Being sick (sinus infection, cough, etc.) throughout the last half of February - lamesauce - that's me and Mom and most of the Parrish family!

(February gets two collages because I take too many photos!)

Listened to:

• The four audiobooks mentioned HERE + started Beth's book!
• The usual podcasts =)

Lessons Learned:

• From personal experience - Rest and laughter are good medicine.  (And actual medicine is also pretty helpful. lol)
• From personal experience - Being shorthanded at work is the worst... so much covering for other judges lately... hoping for more downtime/time to work on homework in March!
• From an encouraging talk with Chet Lee - God brings good things out of our hardest seasons... And it's helpful to have friends who believe in me and can remind me how far I've already come!
• From Beth Moore's example - It is often more costly than we expect to follow God's plan for our lives... but always worth it!
• From Dr. Burkhart - There is a way for counselors to uphold Christian values and integrity while following the secular guidelines, but you have to be well-prepared and be smart about it.  This is Kingdom work.
• From the Holy Spirit - The lingering fears, doubts, and sense of obligation holding me back from fully committing to CCU was not coming from God or my family or friends.  So I've let it go, and I'm all in!

Crazy that the final day of February is already here.
Tomorrow, we're March-ing on! ;-)  Still one of my very fav One Republic songs!!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤