The Importance of Spiritual Hydration

So, I landed a new job that I have come to absolutely love. But it's a desk job and with a desk job comes long sedentary hours that, if I'm not careful, will lead to even more unwanted weight gain.

Gratefully, I work near and with some really inspiring people.

My friend, Michelle, is a total health nut and actually works right upstairs from me. We go out to lunch together every week and we hit all of these cool and trendy healthy places.

Turns out they actually have really yummy food. Who knew?

Spicy Chicken and Ancient Grains

Core Life

And then there's Kevin. He sits directly in front of me and he's also a total health nut. That kid doesn't eat anything unhealthy. Blows my mind. Crazy enough, he's a world renowned unicyclist.

At first, their examples brought on some shame as I compared my unhealthy eating habits to theirs. But I quickly kaboshed that and decided to allow their example to inspire me, instead.

For starters, I bought a big water jug and have challenged myself to drink two full containers per day.

I'm literally peeing every 30 minutes

Then, to increase my knowledge, I started to research all of the benefits of drinking water. As I jumped from site to site I was surprised to connect the link between physical hydration with water and spiritual hydration with recovery.

There are so many!

• Weightloss: 
• Physical hydration - Drinking water before meals means less room for calorie intake and also boosts metabolism.
• Spiritual hydration - Drinking the Spirit leaves less room for negativity and boosts our resilience.
• Powers hot weather exercise:
• Physical hydration - The hotter the workout, the sweatier we get, so it's extra important that we replace those fluids so we don't overheat.
• Spiritual hydration - The refiners fire can get pretty dang hot, but drinking the Spirit keeps us from overheating.
• Increases Metabolism:
• Physical hydration - Water helps prevent constipation by dissolving fat and fiber;  ridding our body of harmful toxins.
• Spiritual hydration - By keeping ourselves spiritually hydrated, we are better able to process everything that life throws at us. The serenity prayer moves from an affirmation to a mantra and we release that which is toxic in our life.
• Protects our joints and cartilage:
• Physical hydration - Water keeps our spinal cord, joints, and tissues supple; guarding against broken bones, torn ligaments and other injuries.
• Spiritual hydration - Such strength can also be found in staying spiritually hydrated, as it guards against slips and relapses, and keeps us humble and teachable.
• Improves mood and energizes our body:
• Physical hydration - The 'refreshing' feeling that comes from drinking water can improve our mood and eliminate physical fatigue.
• Spiritual hydration - We all know the feeling. When the Spirit moves us, moves through us, burns within us... it's powerful. It's energizing. It moves us. 
• Soaking in hot baths calms feelings of loneliness:
• Physically - Hot baths release oxytocin, the neurochemical responsible for making us feel relaxed and emotionally connected with others.
• Spiritually - Soaking in the Spirit brings much of the same feelings as soaking in a bath; warmth, connection and relaxation.
• Water cleans-everything:
• Physically - Whether its our bodies, clothes, dishes, laundry, porches or cars; water is used to clean pretty much anything. There is no other cleaning agent as universal as water.
• Spiritually - As with water, there is no greater emotional or spiritual cleansing agent than the Savior of us all. He is the water that sustains our life, cleans our wounds and purifies our heart. 

Let us all strive to increase our physical and spiritual hydration, for both are essential not only to our life, but to the quality of our life.