Finding Motivation and Purpose, 8,293 Miles from Home

Adjusting to a new time zone, adapting to a new culture, and living without a church family has put a strain on my body, mind, and soul. At first, my adrenaline kept me racing through each day. I was so excited to be in a new place with wonderful people, fascinating labs, and wild monkeys that I failed to take care of myself.

In a matter of days, I was physically sick, mentally exhausted from lab days, and extremely confused about my purpose here in India. As I found out, 8,293 miles from home is a weird place to realize you don’t know who you are.

After a week, I decided that I needed to be more intentional about my physical, mental, and spiritual health. So, I outlined three goals (plus a bonus challenge) to improve the health of my body, mind, and soul during the month of July.

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Body: Stretch and/or exercise every day

After losing so much weight while I was sick, I want to rebuild my body in a healthy way. On campus, we have a fantastic trail (see photo gallery) that I am hoping to run around in addition to my other routine.

Also, I have been intentional about ensuring that I have protein at every meal because about half of the population is vegetarian in India. Before I flew off to India, I purchased the largest jar of peanut butter I could find. After 14 days of adding peanut butter to almost every meal, I have eaten a fourth of the jar.

Mind: Practice Hindi or Spanish for 20 minutes every day

While I have been able to pick up a few Hindi words at work, I want to form a habit of practicing my new words everyday.

A few words I have already learned are:

नमस्ते (namaste)- hello

हाँ (haan)- yes

आपका नाम क्या है (aapaka naam kya hai)- What is your name?

In addition to learning a new language, I do not want to lose my progress in Spanish. So, I will practice my Spanish vocabulary alongside my Hindi vocabulary and, hopefully, I will not get them mixed together.

Soul: Journal every day

Journaling is one of my favorite ways to talk to God. For years, my journal has been a special place for me to see on paper what is going on in my heart. Some people write praise songs; others go on nature walks; I journal.

In the last two weeks, everything in my world has changed. The community that I grew up in for the last 17 years is suddenly on the other side of the globe; my health is unreliable; and I am moving one hour away from the company on Sunday.

Jesus is the only one who has not changed. During my time in India, Jesus has continued to be my Rock – the One I can always go to at any time. When I spend time with Him, I am reminded that my season in India is not purposeless, but is a time that God is using.

Since my plane touched down on the Delhi Airport runway, I have only journaled twice. Every day in July, I want to write out my thoughts to Jesus and process every new, exciting, or confusing thing with Him.

Extra: The “Only Two” Challenge

Have you ever been multitasking with a gazillion and 1 tabs open, switching to a new page each time your other page is loading? I do this all. the. time.

While some people may be able to accomplish their tasks by jumping from one to another, I have learned that I cannot. With too many tasks at once, I end up with a lot of half-done and quickly forgotten projects.

When I realized this about myself, I checked my work computer. Just as I had expected, I had 14 tabs open on my desktop, and three projects-in-progress. On my phone, I had countless apps running and two emails that had been started, but were never completed.

After my desktop tabs and my phone apps, I investigated my phone’s browser. I have a bad habit of leaving tabs open on my phone after I search. To my absolute shock, I had 71 tabs open!

Obviously, I had a problem of doing too many tasks at once.

To curb my multitasking that causes me to forget responsibilities and produce second-rate work, I challenged myself to go one month with only two tabs/apps open at one time.

With this method, I can focus on one task at a time while having the option of utilising another tab to assist. For example, when I created my photo gallery, I needed my Google Photos tab open to move pictures over to my WordPress tab.

Additionally, I hope that this challenge will help my devices operate more quickly. Now that I have cleared 71 tabs off my phone, I bet that it will perform much better!

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What physical, mental, or spiritual health goals do you have for July?

How many tabs do you have open right now?

Tell me about it in the comments below!