Each weekend I am going to start posting a quote from SparkPeople that I find to be motivational or inspiring.  I will share with you how I relate to the quote or what meaning I take from it.  I would love it if you all would share your thoughts and interpretations as well!  Or if you have a quote, Bible verse, or comment that you find particularly inspiring, please share it!  I’d love to see a potpourri of motivational snippets.  (Using the word potpourri makes me feel so domestic!)

I would like to kick off the first Weekend Wisdom with a quote that I have found to be so completely true and also one of the keys to living a fulfilled life.

 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Have truer words ever been spoken?  This is something that I have always known in my head.  I’ve heard it a million times in many forms and I’ve always believed it to be true.  But knowing something is much different from living something.  For many years of my life, I wasted time spinning my wheels trying to use external things to “complete me” or to bring me peace and contentment inside.  Things that made me feel like my life was fulfilled and that could give me that feeling of just being satisfied.  I chased that feeling hard and it lead me down paths I never would’ve imagined possible.

Fast forward to the last couple of years and things are much different.  I understand now that my own happiness depends on me, myself, and I!  Outside influences, people, and circumstances do not dictate my happiness.  Finances do not dictate my happiness.  None of the external things that I spent so long chasing do not dictate my happiness.  My happiness is my responsibility.

I believe that people find their internal bliss in their own ways.  My personal way has been through developing a connection with Jesus Christ.  This connection has changed my life in so many ways and has brought me the kind of peace and contentment that I honestly never thought I was meant to have.

Interestingly enough, I spent many, many years being the exact opposite of a Christian.  I despised Christianity, Jesus, and everything about it.  It literally nauseated me and filled me with disgust when I would merely hear the name “Jesus”.  And I spent a lot of time with people who felt the same way.  I don’t regret those days for a minute though, because they truly help me to feel grateful for what I have now.  But they also help me understand and empathize with people who feel the same way I used to.  I really do know where they are coming from.

As you can imagine, a lot has happened between now and then, enough to fill up tons of blog posts but let’s just say that I took a leap of faith and have not looked back.  Developing this relationship and working to go from being a selfish person to a more self-less person, has had the most remarkable effect on my life.  So, it is in these ways that I have found that my own happiness depends on me and must come from internal sources, not the “stuff” that I used to hold so dear.  Okay, that I still hold so dear!  Materialism is a hard thing to overcome! 

But of course it’s not just the “stuff” that I would use to try and make me happy.  I am also a highly emotional eater!! 

Yummy Food =  Happy!

Right?

Wrong!  But food, shopping, and other vices are old standbys for when I am feeling a way that I don’t like. 

Feeling stressed?  Eat a cookie (or ten!). 

Feeling nervous?  Smoke a cigarette (or ten!).

Upset about the general state of your life?  You so need to go shopping!

Really understanding that these things are only temporary fixes that don’t solve the problems but only hide them, has been a long process.  It has taken a long time for the knowledge to make that two foot drop from understanding with my head to understanding with my heart.

I think that the quote above is about a lot of things and can mean a lot of things to different people.  Overall though, I am guessing that realizing and really living this quote will help us not only lose weight and be successful, happy, human beings, but it will also help us in our efforts to maintain our weight loss for the rest of our lives.

So what the heck do you think?!  Drop a comment and let me know!!  Or feel free to discuss this on your own blogs and just send me a link back so I can read it!