What is my intention for this blog?

Have discussed intention and what it means, I hope I've made it clear that I think deciding on a clear intention for any project before you start is crucial to that project's success.
In that light, I want to write on my intention for this blog. I believe that the intention/purpose of this blog will change and grow as I do. Let's look today at what I want to accomplish with my life; later we can look at how this blog can help. I'll start with the sub-header for the blog, since it is a summary of what I have in mind going forward.

"On a Journey" - I am on a journey called life. Cliche, perhaps, but true, and oddly enough, a hard concept to remember. Like many people I have long been obsessed with the end goal rather than the process. The process and the journey are the point. What's the end goal of life, anyway? Not the end of life, generally speaking. No, generally our goals for life involve things we do while living! But we also tend to put those things off in some vague future, i.e. "Someday I will travel to Japan," "One of these days I'll get back to exercising regularly," "Once I find a good tutor, I'll learn a new language..." etc. The problem with putting these things in the future is that, well, the future never comes! You don't live in the future! You live in the present. You can plan for the future, but you can't do anything in it. Eventually those future plans have to happen in a Now for them to happen at all. If they stay in the future, they will never happen. So it is important to remember to do what you can NOW to achieve your goals. Planning is important, but without doing, your journey is going to be awfully boring.

"Adventures through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual growth;" - Adventures! It's important to remember that, no matter what, life is an adventure. Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, but it's interesting! And life is all about growth and change. Let's break this clause down a little more:

-Physical: I've suffered from a number of minor chronic ailments over the last several years, including headaches, fatigue, joint pain, depression, lethargy, allergies, eczema, migraines, muscle aches, etc. A couple of years ago I committed to learning and trying new things in an effort to improve my health, and I've learned a number of things. For example, I found I have a number of allergens I'm exposed to almost daily, hence the headaches and eczema, and I am trying to reduce exposure to them. I also found out I have hypothyroidism, and getting on supplemental thyroid hormones has helped tremendously with the fatigue/lethargy & depression. I can't tell you how amazing it is to have the energy to do things other than SLEEP again! But this is definitely an ongoing issue and a journey I'm still on. My physical health is, shall we say, less than radiant.

-Mental: I believe in life-long learning. I like to learn from other people but I LOVE reading books. So I'll probably be talking about some of the books I read in this blog. I like anything that gives me more to think about. I like expanding my mental landscape... but like all growth, boy, this can be hard sometimes. It's not easy to have ideas you believe in challenged. Just remember, those established ideas were new once too. New ideas may be good for you too.

-Emotional: This can be one of the easiest areas to sideline or underestimate, but it is very crucial as it determines how much you are ENJOYING this adventure called life. Additionally, without working on emotional healing and growth, you can't progress in others. When you ignore this area, other areas of your health, including physical, can and will suffer. Above all, the most important thing to do for emotional health is to be honest with yourself about your feelings. From there, you can determine how to handle them. Be honest with others about how you feel. Keep a journal. See a therapist. Mediate and practice detachment. There's a lot of ways to grow, and recently I had the universe give my self-righteous self a big smack. Universe said, "Hey! Stop assuming you know everything about how you work! Here, look at THIS! Bet you didn't see THAT coming." Oh. Gee. Whoa. Yeah, this isn't always fun or easy, either. Ow.

-Spiritual: I believe that humans are inherently spiritual beings. I also believe there is a huge difference between spirituality and religion. I'm not a fan of organized religion. The moment you try to organize spiritual teachings and make a religion out of it, you get people who use that religion for their own purposes or misunderstand it and hurt themselves and others. Religion is a way of organizing and controlling people. Now, it can also be used positively, as a means to help people connect, build community, and remind them of something more important, but the moment the dogma of what's right and what's wrong enters the picture, I want none of it. Yes, there is such a thing as ethics, and I think our spiritual sense is part of how we discern what is right and wrong. I believe we should discern the truth for ourselves rather than accept what another human being (even one who wrote a holy book) says is right or wrong. Anyway, my spiritual life has been on the back burner for a while now, and I think it's about time I started giving it a good, long look and figuring out what it is I really believe and feel is true and what works for me.

"through intentional food choice, reading, gardening, yoga & meditation, my furry little cat-children, fibercrafts, and random strokes of insight;" - I believe everything we do has the possibility to help us grow. I believe the food we choose to eat is more vital to who we are than most would believe and so I believe in showing intention in how we choose our food, rather than habit, cravings, the food pyramid, what's on sale that week, etc. I am (mostly) vegetarian/vegan for this reason as I believe such a diet is much healthier for human beings. Reading, as I mentioned before, is an important way to learn more about the world and yourself. I love gardening - it is an important part of my life and I see it tieing into all aspects of health. Yoga and meditation are proven to be excellent for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and allow one to practice mindfulness and intention actively. I am also a mother of 6 little cat-children (my cats are like children to me) and find that my ever-changing relationship with them always challenges me to think differently. I am also a fiber-crafts enthusiast and find that it improves my dexterity physically, challenges me mentally, connects me to others emotionally, and give me quiet and peace to be spiritual. These are just a few, dominant aspects of my life currently, and as such, I'm open to whatever strokes of insight the universe has to offer... even if they leave me feeling a little raw!

"With the goal of health, joy, and radiance of being." - This isn't really an "end goal." Like I said, it's about the journey, not the end, so I'm hoping to find health, joy, and radiance of being along my journey and keep them as much as I can throughout my life. I know they will come and go, but that is what I want. And who doesn't want health, joy, and radiance of being?

So, you may be asking, how is a blog supposed to help accomplish all of that? Well, that is for a later post.

For now, go about your day and remember to love for no reason. "The heart has reasons that reason does not know."