We are up to 148 likes on the FaceBook Page SMARTplace, and our report card surveys are not where they should be yet. Remember we will be using the report card at www.BetterME.us to track our progress.
As a reminder for last months targets,

1) Mental Fitness: hopefully people are finding the value in the practice of mindfullness and are working this into their daily schedule. To summarize there are two types; body awareness (including thoughts), and object awareness. There have been demonstrated changes in brain structure with practice, and benefits on par (perhaps not better) with other therapies that help with depression, anxiety, and wellness in general. It may be that this helps with focus. If you want to go to the store but stop along the way to chat with every neighbor, you cant get to where you are going. This practice helps to build awareness so that in the moment, you can determine what is appropriate. Given its simplicity, there is a strong recommendation to develop this as a habit; 10 minutes once or twice per day.

2) Family Direction: you should have identified at least one goal to accomplish over the next 6-12 months, and drafted a family mission statement. This can be a draft. To help the group, please consider posting your goal and your mission statement in the family mission target on Facebook. My observations with those who seemed troubled by the many challenges in life is that they seem to have no sense of direction; either who they are or where they are going. The bible states where there there is no vision the people perish. As such is strongly recommended that you achieve an “A” in this subject. With purpose and direction, though challenges are there, you just don’t see them or rather pay attention to them.

Current Targets:

1) Nutritional Fitness: there is one recommendation and that is to watch forks over knives. Please post the people, products, and practices that help you eat better. If you don’t know, you can go to www.BetterME, and download steps 4,5,6 which deal with nutrition. It would also be helpful if you would pay attention to when you get the “itis” vs when you feel alert after eating and describe what you had to eat.

2) Political Fitness: remember that the show begins after the election. Hopefully everyone voted, but if not you can still be engaged. To get an A in this category, you need to be registers and write a letter to one of your legislators.. There is a posting for the website www.openstates.org. This site allows you to be aware of your legislator, and their activity. There is a very nice app for the iphone that allow for tracking. One is called “Open States” and the other is called “Congress” these are free apps by the group “Sunlight Foundation”.

Probably 80% of our health challenges concern what we put in our mouths. We should take a lesson from Daniel (who had a lifestyle that profited him and honored God – good looking, intelligent in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and had the ability to serve in the Kings court [must be good]), who was able to demonstrate a difference in just 10 days. Usually when we refer to this passage we state that with good eating you can be better in 10 days, but really the passage suggests that you health will decline in just 10 days of not eating heathy foods. The homework assignment for those that have Netflix is to watch Forks Over Knives.

We are now up to 104 likes on the SMARTplace page. This number needs to be matched by the number of report cards that are filled out at www.BetterME.us. If you have trouble completing this please email me. Please do this as this is how we are tracking our effort and can tell whether or not we are improving.

To get the most out of the SMARTplace effort, please commit to trying or posting one entry (or more) each week.
Summaries recommendations for targets mental fitness and family direction have been posted. Feel free to add to the mental fitness and family vision TARGETS if you find things of value. Also try out as many of the recommendations as you can and comment on whether you find it helpful. This is how we whether it represents a universal “truth” vs just helping the person who posted it.
Will be changing to nutritional fitness, so look for the people, products, and, practices that help you improve you eating. You can get some directions by downloading steps 4,5, and 6 from the SMARTsteps program at www.BetterME.us under the about tab.

The second target will be political fitness. To get an A, you must be a registered voter, vote in 90% of the elections, and write a letter to a political official. It is good time for political fitness as an election is right around the corner. It is suggested that you write to your officials early and than them for something that they are doing that you like (because what we focus on tends to grow).

Pastor Kelly endorsed the imagery at night before going to sleep posting. She does find this helpful.