Joy. Enthusiasm. What is it that lights a fire of passion inside of you? If you could do anything right now, what would it be? Our last topic for what many view as the “love month,” sees us entertaining the concept of self-love and how we uniquely experience it. Revisiting our blog from last month, recall with me if you would, how we redefined being selfish. Our goal was to fill our cup so that we were better suited to serve those around us. Do you remember that? But, how exactly do YOU fill YOUR cup? What is it that brings you joy? As you read this, do you consider yourself in active pursuit of that/those thing(s) or is it cast aside? We have a rule in our house that “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Aka: GO BIG OR GO HOME!! Now granted, this means that we are pretty selective about what we undertake as time is of the essence. But, let me pose this question to you: Would you rather be a jack-of-all-trades/master of none OR would you prefer to find a few things that you really love and become the best that you can be in those things? Personally, I’d choose the latter every time (probably why I’m not very good at fixing our oft-broken furnace haha). Now, as good as Dr. Gina is at adjustments and Brittany is at handling everything admin, they both have a couple of hobbies that if they had 2 hours all to themselves, you’d undoubtedly stumble across them doing. For Dr. Gina, it’s interior design, believe it or not! If you’re wondering why Health 1st always looks so ‘swaggy,’ now you know! And if the same allotted ‘self-love’ time was handed to Brittany, you’d probably find her mixing and kneading and shaking and spraying because she is an aspiring baking connoisseur! Personally, if we’ve interacted on any level, you know my love for the sport of CrossFit. But if I needed something more low-key, I LOVE cooking for my wife. Granted, pregnancy food aversions have put a little damper on current dishes, but, once “Tank” enters the world come mid-April…bon appetit.J With this topic in mind, what’s the one caveat that we often counter with? “If only I had more…”. Everyone knows the next word: Time. But how is it that each of us has the same allotted amount of time each day with some far more successful than others? I’m shocked to learn how quickly my little glances at my phone all add up to my daily total at the end of each 24 hour period. How did that happen?? Thus, this week’s challenge is to drastically decrease those and have some time leftover at day’s end for our hobby-like activities. For some of you, it’s also decreasing cell phone usage, for others maybe it’s minimizing/eliminating Netflix, or any other of a host of distracting culprits. I know that this doesn’t apply to everyone and mental and/or postural breaks are important. Rest is a critically overlooked part of the rat race! We’re not trying to turn into emotionless machines, after all ha. Yet, if you find yourself in a rut, with no time left for your self-love activities, this could be the nudge to ask ourselves if our innocent deviations from the grind are actually filling us up? Only you can answer that. Yes, this current blog is a little more light-hearted than what we often cover, but perhaps this is exactly what you needed this week? Consider this your little prod or poke to fill your cup and engage in that extracurricular that you’ve been putting off. Now go, blow up our comment section with pictures and thoughts of your self-love routines aka hobbies!! Are they similar or different from us? Until next time, -Brock Baumgarn CA, Nutrition Consultant, Health 1st Chiropractic