Aligned for Purpose: Soul-Care Tips for 2025

This episode lays out essential soul care tips for the new year, emphasizing the importance of reflection, self-prioritization, prayer, fasting, scripture reading, and rest. Listeners are encouraged to outline their vision for 2025 and commit to implementing these practices to foster spiritual growth and purpose throughout the year.

• Importance of reflection for personal growth 
• Prioritizing oneself despite obligations to others 
• Power of prayer in grounding daily experiences 
• Benefits of fasting for spiritual clarity and focus 
• Necessity of reading scripture for guidance and strength 
• Vital role of rest in maintaining overall well-being 
• Encouragement to write and commit to a vision for the year

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Soul Care Tips
• 9:10 Soul Care
• 13:19 Vision Casting and Trusting God

Transcript

Colette: 0:00

Hey, family, I am back. Welcome to season two of Positioned I started a thing last June 2024, and the last episode, episode number 25, finished in December. Purpose Conversations with Colette Marie podcast. Listen, God is good. Can you imagine that? I want to give God thanks for you. Thank you for having been with us on this journey. Thank you so much for your support, for sharing, for commenting, for sending me those fan mails. It really makes a difference. I appreciate you, and a happy new year to you. Happy, happy new year to you. I wish you all the very best for 2025.

Colette: 0:53

I'm declaring open doors for your divine opportunities and the provision, and may this be the year where God's grace and will for your life be demonstrated in such a way that you see God at every turn and your own plan and desire is to pursue him, no matter what. As you know, it's the start of a new year. We are eight days in already. Yes, we are, and there are some things that we have, some plans that we have for this year that we want to see God accomplish in our lives. And so you would have had your vision board written, your plans that write the vision and make it plain, and you're waiting on God to come through for you as you execute. So here are some tips I want to give you, which I call soul care tips, as you look forward to 2025 and all that God has in store for you.

Colette: 1:54

One practice reflection. Practice reflection. Some persons do it at the end of the day, some do it at the end of a month and some do it at the end of the day, some do it at the end of a month and some do it at the end of the year. Whatever time you choose to do it, it's important that you do. What does reflection accomplish? Reflection causes us to see some things that we missed, some areas that we could do better, and we also saw some things. We'll see some things that we realize that only God alone could have taken us through those situations or those challenges that we had. You'll also see some miracles as well, because sometimes, when we are in challenging situations, we forget what God has done, we forget what he has taken us through, and so, when we reflect, it opens our minds and brings us all the way back and we're able to see some things that we missed, some things that we overlooked and some things that we need to work on. So, as you reflect, get your journal, write these things down, say all right, have your mountaintop experiences. These are the miracles that you saw God do, the things that was low, as we call them the valley moments. What space were you in at that time and what happened? How did you get over? And then you look also on things lessons learned, what did I learn from these situations and how as I look forward to 2025, how will I make changes that will help me to be the best version of myself that God has created? How will that help me to pursue the goals and the plans that I have? How will that help me to show up in excellence? How will that help me to inspire and to instruct someone else? So, practice reflection. That's number one. Two prioritize you, prioritize you, listen.

Colette: 3:59

As women, we put everyone else above ourselves. If we're in a relationship, we put our spouse above ourselves. We put our children. If we have children, we put our job. We put everything else above us, above our own needs.

Colette: 4:15

You might be one of those persons that, if you are sick, you rather go to work instead of go to the doctor, because all you're thinking about is the work has to be done. The work has to be done. Yes, the work has to be done, but if you end up in the hospital, the work is still going to be done by someone else, right? So when you prioritize you, you put first place on you. Not first place in such a way that you neglect everyone else, but when first place needs to be, when it comes to your health, when it comes to your relationships, that's something that is a non-negotiable, it's a prioritize you. So you need to go back to school, you need to do short course, you have plans to go back to college or to university, but you're thinking of everyone else and everything else that needs to be done, and you put yourself on the back burner. You send your children through school, you may even send your spouse to school. You provide support for others as they're going through and that is a desire that you have and you put yourself under the back burner and then you decide that it's too late for you. You're not going to do that anymore. Prioritize you, choose you first. Do things for yourself that no one else would even think of doing for you. Choose you, prioritize you. The next thing as you walk in your plans is prayer, prayer should be like the air that you breathe. That is something that you should have on the forefront of your your plans as you get up each day.

Colette: 5:57

Commit your day to Almighty God. Can I tell you, can you imagine what it is like when you don't commit your day to Him? The challenges, the hardships, the difficulties that are in that day? You will find that your emotions are out of whack, and that's because the first things did not take place. The prayer did not take place, the committing to the day to things did not take place. The prayer did not take place. The committing to the day to God did not take place. I'm not saying that if you prayed, things are not going to happen. No, what I am saying is that when you pray, it makes it easier for you to go through the day, easier to handle the challenges that come, easier, even in your response.

Colette: 6:58

But when we don't pray right, and these challenges come, sometimes we act out of our emotions, we say things that we don't want to say, and once those words are spoken, we cannot recall or retrieve them. So when we put prayer as a first priority in our day, we're welcoming God, we're welcoming the Holy Spirit into our day to say Lord, I don't know what the day holds, but I know you hold it. I know you know what is ahead of me. So I'm asking for your wisdom, I'm asking for your grace, I'm asking for your love, your joy, your peace, your mercy to go throughout this day. You know who I will be encountering on the giving it to you, committing to you and asking that you day and what lies ahead of me. So I'm welcoming you into my day, be with me. It's a simple prayer like that, and I love the Holy Spirit to come in. So if something happens during your day, right, and you feel like going off the top, you breathe, you pause, you breathe, you remember the word that you pray in the morning and you say Holy Spirit, help me right here. So you do one of two things is either you will be walking away or you reframe that response in your mind way, or you reframe that response in your mind and you speak out of love, out of patience, out and out of kindness. Right, that's what putting prayer as a first priority does for you.

Colette: 8:16

The next thing is that we're in a new year. This is the time that persons go on a period of fasting, cleansing our bodies, our soul, our spirit, our everything, and starting afresh. So if you've never done fasting, go and read up about it. Right, it's setting aside. You can fast from different things and you can fast for different reasons as well. What are some of the reasons that you would want to fast? You need direction for the year. You need direction for the plans that you have. This is a time when you set aside some time to God and say Lord, help me. These are the plans that I have, but I want to know if they're in your will for my life. Direct me, father. I pray in Jesus's name and then decide that you're going to fast. Either you're fasting from food you can do a Daniel fast or you can do a partial fast. You can post on social media.

Colette: 9:10

The fast is really about the things setting aside time to step away from the things that so dominate you, the things that you can't do without. It's making a sacrifice to Almighty God and it is a sacrifice that will pay off. You can decide that you're going to fast two days, three days, seven days, 21 days. You determine how long you are going to fast and as you do that you allow the Holy Spirit to come in and to minister to you. So we reflect, we prioritize, we pray, we fast.

Colette: 9:47

Then you read your word. Reading the Bible is very key, right? It is what gives you the instructions that you need as you go through the day. Reading your Bible. Cause the word of God to be imprinted on your heart. That means it gives you, when you want to be short with someone else, a word of scripture will come back to you to say no, I can't speak like that. Or don't let the sun go down on your wrath. If you're upset with someone, you try to make it right. It is the word of God that will be the light unto your feet and the light unto your pathways.

Colette: 10:26

That's something that you want to prioritize, and so, as we think of praying and fasting, this cannot go without reading the word of God. It is the word of God that is going to help you every single day. Build your spiritual muscles right. Fill you up with the peace and the word of God that is going to help you every single day. Build your spiritual muscles right. Fill you up with the peace and the presence of Almighty God. It's his word that will keep you when this year becomes hard, when the days become hard, the weeks, the months become hard and you're wondering where God is. He will send you back to his word. So you prioritize that as well.

Colette: 11:00

And the last thing prioritize rest. He will send you back to his word. So you prioritize that as well. And the last thing prioritize rest. Even God rested. Yes, he created the heavens and the earth and he rested on the seventh day. It means that you were created for rest. We were created for rest. So you would have worked hard five days or six days, depending on your job. You work hard. So when that next day comes for rest, take that rest time. That rest time may be just going to the beach, it may be just relaxing on your porch. It may mean that just lying in bed for an extra couple hours or hour or however long.

Colette: 11:39

Rest is important. It could be just a short walk. Whatever it is, prioritize rest. It is key. Hear what rest does? It resets your mind. It resets your mind. It causes you to pause. It causes you to reflect. It causes you To just look at what has happened and just give you an opportunity to restart. It causes your body to reset as well. You will find, as you rest, that you become more relaxed, you become more patient, you become more open to things that are happening around you. That's what rest does. So prioritize your rest this year. So those are the soul care tips. Let me go over them again Reflect, prioritize, pray fast, read your Bible and rest.

Colette: 12:36

Take time out to enjoy yourself as well. It could be just watching a movie they say Netflix and chill. It could be as simple as that. Either you're going to relax and do that at home, or you decide that you're going to go to the theater to watch a nice flick, or you can decide that, okay, I'm going to go to the spa, I'm going to get my nails done, I'm going to get a massage, I'm going to do something that takes care of me. Remember we talk about prioritizing. That's part of your self-care routine. Prioritize you, whatever you need to do to take care of you. Do that.

Colette: 13:19

So, as you are at the eighth day of the new year, if you have not yet written your vision for your life, go ahead and write it. The word of God says write the vision and make it plain. So go ahead and write that vision. The next thing you're going to do is that you're going to give it to your heavenly father. You're going to lay it out before him and ask him to make that you want him to make his will be known.

Colette: 13:46

As you write this vision, you don't want to go ahead of him. And as you write your vision, I pray that you'll trust God. You'll just pray and leave it to him and ask him for direction. Again, I declare blessings over you. May the peace of Almighty God undergird you this morning. May the presence of Almighty God be all around you, and may you be reminded that this year is a year of divine opportunities, that God will open doors for you that no man can close, and that he is your God. He is your everything, he's your source, and he will make ways for you where there seems to be no way. Happy New Year again and enjoy this year. Whatever comes ahead. Know that God is with you. Blessings.