exercise | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Do Not Worry About What To Eat: Jesus

Anita Mathias — Wed, 03 May 2023 14:44:22 +0000

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ […]

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Change your Life by Changing Your Thoughts

Anita Mathias — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 22:25:38 +0000

Today’s meditation is on changing our lives by changing our thinking. So, just before Jesus bursts on the scene in the Gospel of Matthew The no-nonsense, utterly serious John the Baptist Comes with an utterly serious message, Repent In the Greek, metanoeite, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. The Kingdom of […]

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The Spiritual Practice of Bible-Walking

Anita Mathias — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 18:09:46 +0000

A neglected corner of my garden I have loved the Bible for most of my life. When I skip time at play in the fields of the Lord, skip time with the Bible—that fresh, startling way of viewing reality—for even a week, I miss it. My life feels a bit flat and wearisome. I knew […]

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Burn-Out Vanishes When We Rediscover Purpose

Anita Mathias — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 22:25:52 +0000

When I blogged regularly, which I did for six years, I felt more alive, more alert, more attentive to my life, and what God was doing in it. In Frederick Buechner’s phrase, I listened to my life. I have taken a six month blogging break, and the peril of blogging breaks (or writing breaks: […]

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Biggest Losers, Grace, and Silver Linings

Anita Mathias — Fri, 27 May 2016 21:19:56 +0000

I read the New York Times’ distressing account of The Biggest Loser show. Because of their rapid weight loss, the participants’ metabolisms dramatically slowed down, as happens with any diet. Researchers discovered that, six years on, the metabolism of the contestants continued slowing down, and they continued gaining weight disproportionate to their calorie intake, their […]

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On Cancer, Declining Chemotherapy, Healing, and Future Plans

Anita Mathias — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 09:58:55 +0000

So hi there, I am back…back to regular blogging, back to health– physically, emotionally, spiritually and creatively. So, news of my world: I had surgery for colon cancer on November 25th, 2014, which now feels very long ago—like a bad, surreal dream. I was offered chemotherapy, which would increase my odds of being alive in […]

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Ora et Labora: How Physical Activity helps my Creative and Spiritual Life.

Anita Mathias — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 11:59:51 +0000

I recently went off routine into a funk. This had been my schedule: Wake, pray, and then read scripture, and blog about it, or whatever the Holy Spirit is bugging me about. This took about two and a quarter hours. After which I did some housework and decluttering for an hour. Then gardened, another hour. […]

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The Best Way to Develop Shiny New Habits

Anita Mathias — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:34:21 +0000

Blogging almost daily for three and a half years has led to self-awareness. I have grown bored of boasting of my weaknesses. There is a time for self-analysis, and a time for acting on that analysis, and that time came! And so I am in the process of developing shiny new habits. These […]

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In Which I Invest in Mental Wealth

Anita Mathias — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:27:51 +0000

So we had guests for lunch. It normally takes me just a few minutes to get myself presentable, but I was slowed down by my bedroom which was unusually messy: unmade bed, clothes books, manuscripts and make up strewn around. Looking at it made me stressed, and I realised that, when I entered it after […]

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How Circling Prayer can Convert a Vicious Circle to a Virtuous Circle

Anita Mathias — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 11:57:10 +0000

Have you ever experienced a vicious circle? You know: Feel sad. Eat chocolate or sugary treats. Feel hyper or aggressive. It wears off. Feel sad. And grumpy and defeated about the weight gain. Eat chocolate to help you feel better. And then… Or: Get stressed and tired. Let things lie where they fall. House gets […]

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