Chapter 1 personal notes...

What chapter 1 has so much to teach me! No wonder the intro suggested to read a chapter a week. It will give me time to re-read the chapter and practice the training exercise at the end of each chapter! Some random points that might interest you:

• peace during frustration--personal story offered by a past reader
• Will power what is it really?
• What causes change?

Describe your own experience with trying (and failing) to change. Could the failure be because of a lack of training and not lack of effort? Explain.

A common place example of trying to change is setting the new years resolution to lose weight. I have tried to do that multiple times and failed miserably. I would start out strong, stay away from sweets, work out, but I'd slowly increase the amount on my plate each day. Staying on a work out schedule was never hard for me. I love working out and being active. Watching what I eat is more of a challenge.... I would try my hardest to stay away from the fattiest meals and the yummiest deserts.Failure, looking back, was probably brought about by lack of training. Idk what healthier options were out there or how to make easy yummy smoothies with yogurt, or that I get hungry after a run because I'm craving protein not a 5-course meal. My success on losing weight came after my running buddy shared all this. She helped me train for a 10K and each day shared more and more information on how to be a healthy runner. This I can easily see transferring to changing in the person God wants me to be. I have grown up and taught that if you ask God to change you, He will. So I would ask God to change me and wait patiently. I would, and still do, read my bible and have a quite time with Him but I never actually felt a change....

In short the book is telling us how we change:

1. Changing the stories in our minds (idk how this will help...)
2. Engaging in new practices (oky that's obvious)
3. reflection and dialogue with others who are on the same path as us (encouragement? challenge? maybe even a lil competition?)
4. All under the leading of the Holy Spirit (God, of course!)

Have you practiced spiritual exercises in your life, and if so with what intention and what result?

My daily/morning bible readings! I started reading my bible the summer before my freshman year of college. I had three intentions, to be known going into college as a Christian, to grow in wisdom and learn more about the bible, and finally because isn't that what every good Christian does? My result? I love it! I learned so much and I was able to apply it to my everyday life. Now everyday i do not feel like I am talking with God or that I learned anything at all from a passage but it are those few moments where I make a huge revolution and/or feel rewarded by feeling closer to God that make me continue studying His word. This has taken up time to get ready in the morning, time away from facebook (what a sacrifice!), and time to sleep-in a good 30 mins longer, but I have found it well worth the time and none of those mentioned above were ever missed

Training Exercise for this week... To sleep in at least once a week to the point where you can not sleep any longer. That might actually be easy on Saturdays. Though another tip offered was to go to bed at a consistent time. That might take more work because back at college I want to stay up at night with friends or my boyfriend and hangout. I love to get up early and to be productive... maybe I should chose a time that I go to bed every night. Since I have such a busy schedule this week, I think this discipline will, in the long run, be most effective. I chose to go to bed at 10pm every night. No later. Earlier is better. :) Until school starts up however I will sleep in as long as I can (mostly because my parents like to watch movies with me at night).