What I'm doing for my heart...

My freshman yr. in college I was privileged to attend the spring missions retreat. This took place in Gatlinburg, and was a ton of fun.

One of the highlights were the daily devotionals we had as a group w/Andrea Whitman. We had one in the mornings, and then an evening devotional as well. This was an exciting time of renewing and refreshing from God and a time to bond w/my fellow students.

Andrea spoke on several key topics, but one of the ones that I'll probably never forget was on taking care of your heart. Now, she didn't mean physically caring for it as in eating right and exercising, although she mentioned those things in passing.
Basically, she explained that we all have needs, whether they're emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual. Sometimes we allow ourselves to get completely overloaded and we forget to take care of those needs.
(Not that we should always keep ourselves the center focus, but there should be a balance between both.)

Her challenge to us was that we purposefully find a hobby -- reading, fishing, jogging, or something else we enjoyed -- and actually make sure we plan to do it. She explained how this was protecting our hearts from burnout. The other stipulation to the challenge was that we find a person in the group that we could check up on a couple months after the retreat, and then have them do the same for us.

I thought this was an interesting idea, and decided to keep it in mind, but lately I've realized just how hard this can be. I keep myself so incredible busy that I don't have time to stop for much of anything. In fact, even my "leisure time" is usually busy to the max.
I'm getting better slowly, but it's harder than I expected.

For instance, I love to read, but since coming to college that has almost become a none existent hobby. Only in the last two weeks have I really latched on to the idea that I could still enjoy reading if I wanted to, and that I would just have to make time for it...so I have.

And I love it! I had forgotten how much I missed it. It's like being back w/old friends. Right now I'm simply rereading some of my favorites, and that is plenty good enough for me.

So let me ask you...what are you doing to take care of your heart?