refresh, day five | the soul + what's next

We made it through the week. 
Anyone feeling some refreshment breaking through? I sure am. 
It feels all kind of hopeful + fresh up in my heart. 

Today we thought we'd talk a little about intellectual and creative refreshment. No matter what season of life you're in - sometimes your brain just needs a good old shaking up, right? As a blogger, business owner, mama, housewife, friend, etc - I find that if I'm not living in full color and content, things get wonky. 

So here's how I'm hitting refresh in my soul. 
I talked Monday about my heart getting refreshed with the Lord, but my I'm talking about my soul. My color-needing, music-loving, deep-thinking soul. 

Step 1: I started running again. Against my doctor's orders. I even skipped the whole "ease into it" using the Couch to 5K program. I don't recommend this, obviously - but I DO recommend what's behind it. My husband and I talked it out and realized, I feel most alive when I'm running consistently. It's not about weight loss or exercise for me, it's about feet hitting the pavement, loud music in my ears, and checking something off my list FULLY. Parenting, blogging, ministry - those are never done. But I can get away and have some introvert time and check something off my list when I run. And that is good. 

Step 2: Analog Weekends. You don't need to be connected all the time. You just don't. It will rot your soul. For the past few weeks I've been joining Hayley in analog weekends. I don't use twitter/facebook/instagram from 5pm Friday until about 8pm Sunday. I laugh with my family. I watch movies. I call old friends. Sometimes I even work. But I don't put my life on the internet during those hours. I just live it. 

Step 3: Create new content. I needed refreshment? We started a blog series about refreshment! If you're feeling dull, it's always a good idea to just start from scratch and MAKE something. Write an essay, bake some cookies, dream up a new idea. Even if it feels impossible, ideas beget other ideas. 

Step 4: Grab a friend, sister, mama, and a cup of coffee or tea. Drink. Talk. Repeat. There is not much in this world that a full pot of coffee and a friend cannot help. If you're feeling special, go for this super cute coffee set from Jessica N Designs and NS Pottery. 

Step 5: Go buy, or even make, a cute new notebook. Jot down those ideas, dreams, woes, poems, whatever. I literally just went tonight and got a new one from Target. It was $3.99 and worth so much more than that. 

Step 6: Study something. Head to the library and check out a mass of books on one subject. Fill your brain and expand your thinking. I'm doing that right now with femininity and wrote a little about it over on the Influence blog. Is there something you've been dying to know about or understand? Research it up. 

And that's how I'm refreshing the soul. The creative, intellectual part of me. 
Don't laugh that I just called myself intellectual, y'all. 

Well. There's one thing I need to say to wrap up this week! 
As Hayley and I got to writing, we realized we had a LOT more to say about refreshment. Moreover, we have a lot of other areas of our own lives that need refreshing and we need this experiment to keep going. And we're so blessed by how many of you have been blessed by this week that we're not going to stop here. 

It's true! In the next few weeks, we'll have an eBook coming out - with all these topics and more, expanded - detailing our quest for refreshment and the tips and tricks we're picking up along the way. Marriage, home, friendships and all the other things - we're going to talk about them!

We'll keep you posted but we're really excited to share this with you ladies!
I pray you've been blessed by this week, I know we have been. 
And now, it's time for this girl to head out - it's analog weekend!