 |
Emery Parsons of Soul, Style Beauty
IG: @soulstylebeauty
Twitter: @soulstylebeauty
Facebook SoulStyleBeauty |
Emari Parsons of SoulStyleBeauty is a fashion, beauty and lifestyle blogger based in NY. At 23 years old Emari has always loved creating. She recently graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City with an Associates Degree in Fashion Design/Bachelors Degree in Advertising Marketing and Communications. Fashion is her first love as she currently works full time in the industry. Emari created Soul Style Beauty to share her passion for Life,Style and Beauty.
 |
"Where we talk about life, beauty and style starting from the inside out."
|
This past Sunday, like every I do every week, I was on my way to the grocery store to prepare my weekly meal prep. I had just finished a dance class celebrating a friend’s birthday, so of course I was feeling of fatigued as I walked there. I arrived at the grocery store shopping took longer than expected this time around. I was mentally & physically tired prior to walking in and quite frankly, I didn't feel like walking up and down every aisle to find the things I needed! About 40 minutes later, with all the groceries in my cart, I stood in the self-checkout line and proceeded to a station. I scanned and bagged everything, item by item, and I was good to go.
On my way home, as usual I felt like the bag lady- the weight of stress due to many woes combined with the weight of the groceries were wearing on my sleeve. After making it home I started preparing food for my meal prep. Multi-tasking with three pots on the stove, the stress levels increased and the thoughts started to arise. “Will I always be alone to take care of the things in my life? Just me, myself and I handling every single thing? The thoughts continued to rush in and I finally reached my breaking point for that day. I said out loud to God "I am sick of doing this alone." From carrying all the groceries home myself, to preparing my weekly meals, combined with all other responsibilities of my life was getting to me.
I thought to myself, it’s happening again. Once again, I had found myself re-visiting the very thoughts that caused me to enter into situations that should have never began. Thoughts that cause me to question both my future and the present moment. Truth is, we all have those moments where the pressures of life cause us to defocus from God’s promises, making room for false truths to fill our mind causing us to think we are lacking something. This can happen at any moment!
What we actually need to do is re-focus.
In Deuteronomy 31:8, God states “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you”. Therefore, God is already in our future. His word also states that he directs the steps of the godly and delights in every detail of their lives. These are true life promises of our creator, the living God! However, I know that is not easy to remember during stressful times.
Focusing is a skill that continuously needs to be sharpened.
Thoughts are created and depending on how you handle it, your thoughts can become actions. We have a choice to either take action right away while under pressure, or actually analyze the root of the issue before deciding to act out. Your thought pattern plays a crucial part! Experiencing this countless times, I have develop a few techniques myself to help quiet my thoughts, re-focus and patiently wait on what’s to come.
Be At Peace Before Anything
The worst thing you can do is make a permanent decisions based off of temporary emotions. Get yourself at peace before anything! I like to remind myself of God’s promises so I tend to read the Bible, pray and listen to worship music to remind myself that God is still in control regardless of the circumstance (Hebrews 11:3). Another option can be calling a friend to pray with you and talk about the situation. Good friends can cause you to discover things in yourself that you may not see at the current moment.
It’s A Process
“Don’t think of the end result too much. Know the goal but bask in the process. God is there.”
No one gets handed a well-developed future in a box! God prepares us for our future to come. You don’t want to miss that because every detail is crucial. Regardless if you are in a season of woes or great moments, there are always things to learn. Take in every lesson and evaluate how you are developing in the present moment.
Practice Gratitude
We must always approach God with thanksgiving even if life isn’t at its best. It’s cliché, but there is always something to be thankful for. The small things such as life, having a roof over your head and being able to be in the right state of mind often goes unnoticed. Practice gratitude for what you do have daily.
Pray, Wait and Trust
Communication with God is needed daily. Prayer is when we can do just that. It gives a chance to get into the presence of God to speak to him and listen to what he has to say to us as well. Talk to him about your desires, your dreams, your down falls. He hears you! Then we must wait on him. The hardest part is not knowing when those things will happen, but that’s where trust is needed. Be patient because the last thing you want to do is rush into something that God never had planned for you.
Don’t rush the process of your life. There will be thoughts that fill your mind daily that can cause you to take action towards something that you’re not even prepared for yet. Instead of doing that, practice the above techniques and trust God. He has your future in his hands. Always re-focus and continue to wait on the Lord. When those thoughts fill your mind, analyze them, reject the ones that are not needed and re-focus.
Love you and god bless you!
E
In other words, although you may be experiencing a blackout, use that flashlight you are carrying. Just because you don’t have the tools you are used to, doesn’t mean your backup tools don’t work. This blackout experience is a season of focus. God knows exactly what will distract you from your next level. He is causing you to experience a season of “blackout” because He wants you to use your steady beam of light to get to where He needs you to go.
