Epiphanies Of Life

At least twice a year, we are encouraged to declutter our homes. As the seasons changes, we get rid of old summer/spring clothes that we don't need anymore, either because they are old or we've outgrown them, pack away the left over clothes and make way for our autumn/winter clothes and vice versa. We do this with the rest of the house as well by bringing out the big blankets and heaters, for those that don't have air-cons and throwing away all the other things that clutter the house, such as old bills. I am a big believer of doing the same for your mind. There are people who do this once a day by taking some quiet time to reflect on the day that has passed and take that opportunity to prepare for the next day. This is at times taken for granted but it can prove to be quite imperative in leading a balanced and focused life. Before my life was cluttered with with work, family, television, social media, etc. I used to meditate every evening firstly, by reading the Word of G

As I was compiling this blog about 2 weeks ago, I received a WhatsApp from a friend who was hosting an event asking me to MC the entire 4-hour seminar. My heart skipped a couple of beats. I had just written the part about Prisciller Shirer and I knew that I had to agree. So, I had an out of body moment when I types, "Okay - I'll do it!" I knew that I couldn't come here and write about overcoming fear or being bold and courageous without doing it myself. So, here's what inspired me to ignore what my mind, my heart and my body were saying, take the leap and MC that event.  I fell in love with mic without even noticing. The Word of God says in 2 Timothy 1:7(NKJV), “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. ” Now, we all know that this does not mean that you will never feel afraid or anxious, it only means that when that fear comes, learn to overcome it and to reject it from entering your heart. Obviously, it won’

One of the most used quotes that I hear quite often is, “Money is the root of all evil.” Wrong! The actually verse says, “For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV). This is to say, do not love money so much that you lose yourself, principles and values while pursuing it. Truth is, money is a very necessary commodity in our everyday life and without it, we are limited in many ways. So, in order to educate myself a little more on money, in a very relatable way, I posed a question to my WhatsApp friends asking about their relationship with money and I received some very interesting answers that have inspired and helped prepare this piece. I do believe that concentrating too much on money can cause, whether the lack of it or the abundance of it, financial anxiety where spending your money becomes a stressful ordeal. But, finding a balance, as with

Caster Semenya comes into mind when I think of passion, commitment and dedication. Taking into account all that she's been through, yet she still keeps a positive attitude towards sports. She said this in a recent interview after winning her final race before the IAAF findings are implemented, "…at the end of the day, it’s all about inspiring the world, you know. Showing the world that it is possible when you believe." When asked about the challenges that she’s been facing lately she says, “When you are a living testimony of God, nothing can stop you from delivering what you’ve been given to deliver.” This shows pure dedication and professionalism. Caster came to my attention when she was asked to take tests to prove that the she’s female. I was shocked as I had never heard of such in the history of my showing very little interest in sports. This really made me pay attention to female athletes enough to know have a clue. This is especially personal to me as my daugh

I was reading an article recently of a father saying that his wife is more important than his children. This dad made very important points as to why it is important for him to preserve and nurture his relationship with his wife, first, especially for the benefit of his kids. He states that their relationship is the cornerstone of the family. It’s where it all started and that in order for the family to continue in a healthy way, they need to keep the spark and connection going in their relationship. For more on this story go to https://www.babble.com/relationships/the-case-for-putting-my-wife-before-my-children/ . When my husband and I went for counselling before our wedding, as protocol in our church, we were repeatedly advised in 3 different sessions by 3 different groups of people that we should remember that before we had kids, we had each other and long after they have moved out of the house, we will still only have each other. That helped me realise importance of the healt

Recently, there have been so many controversies and scandals around churches and seeing that we just celebrated, as Christians, the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, even at the wake of the sad news of the bombing of a church on Easter Sunday, I thought it best to write something about the church. South Africa has witnessed and read about so many events and allegations of what Pastors are doing to and with their congregation that many have chosen to sit at home and not attend church. This is so sad to me because church is supposed to be a safe place of fellowship and edification, a place where you get counselling on pressing matters and issues of life, and where you hear of the Good News of Christ. Instead, we are inundated with Pastors molesting children, feeding their congregation snakes and inedible fluids, allegedly resurrecting and healing people in some basement or promising people that in exchange for a certain amount of money, they will receive a blessing from God. That i

Because of the enormous responses and questions that my previous blog received, I thought it best to give more information, well as much as I can offer, on the topic of mental health and my experience with it. One of the major issues is getting the right kind of help for your situation. After admitting to yourself and recognizing that you do have some form of mental health issue, which is a big step on its own, and you’ve Googled yourself numb trying to find ways of diagnosing yourself or to make yourself feel better, now comes the questions:                            -  Who do I turn to for help?                            -  How will my life change?                                -  What will the world think of my diagnosis?                                -  Does this make me weak? I’ve gone through the same kind of scenario many times. When my husband had enough of my weird behavior, he convinced me to go to the doctor with him. This time, he stepped into the room w

Like most things in life, panic or anxiety attacks have signs and symptoms that warn you of its appearance. You can either listen and treat the symptoms before they become a problem or ignore them until you’re on the ground battling to breath. I’ve battle with anxiety attacks since my matric year. I was diagnosed by a doctor and given medication for it. Recently, I experienced an attack in a grocery store, after a year of not having them. By God’s grace, I was with my husband and he talked me down, calming me down without even knowing the cause. I had been experiencing symptoms for almost 3 weeks but I ignored them and just kept going and then BOOM, my chest was tightening and my throat was closing in. But, I was dealing with the symptoms or so I thought as I was exercising, well more than usual. I was expressing my feelings only 2 days before the attack and making sure not to take on any stressful responsibilities. And it still happened. What are the symptoms? In my case, I exp

What is perfection? What are you willing to do to attain it? Is it a personal standard that you set for yourself or is it determined by social media and what society dictates? At times, we strive for the unattainable in the pursuit of happiness that we forget to enjoy and live in the current moments that we are in. Celebrating the milestones that we achieve and that one item that we get to cross off on our quest to attain what we’ve perceived in our minds as perfection. A moment of contentment and full joy because we’ve attained what is seen as perfection. But perfection doesn’t really exist. There’s no perfect job, no perfect relationship or perfect situation. Everything we go after has its challenges, moments of difficulties and needs persistence and commitment to keep. That does not mean that you cannot find perfection in moments though. For me it’s the smile on my son’s face or the look in my husband eyes. In that specific moment, I’ve attained perfection. Everything else cou

Where you are, is very important for where you’re going. At times, we get frustrated because we feel stuck and stagnant, like there’s no progress, whereas other people are finding success and making big leaps in their lives. That may be due to many reasons from your side and the progressing person’s side, but once you take account of where you are and become honest about how you got there, you will start to see solutions for the future rather than being stuck in the mindset of being surrounded by problems. Solutions provide hope and a way forward. A way to get yourself out of difficult situations that you never thought you’d find yourself in. Remember though, finding yourself is exactly why you are in that situation. Once you uncover your true self and become honest about who you are, that is when the situation will start to shift and change towards your benefit. While you wait for the progress and the change to come, you need to prepare yourself. Prepare yourself for you

As many of you may know, I am a huge fan of giving and helping out where you can. One of my mottos in life is, “Do the best you can with what you have.” You don’t have to be a multi-millionaire or a billionaire to give and to help out. I believe that giving is a pure act of love as you don’t really get anything return but a good feeling that you did something that made someone’s life that much easier, whether it’s for life or for a moment. I personally started taking giving seriously in 2009. My mother, Mrs S.G Sehole, a grade 1 teacher at the time, had come across a young boy in her class who just lost her grandmother and was now being raised by his sister, who was in matric at the time.   The boy wore torn pants, didn’t have underwear and was teased because of it. So, my mom went to Pep Store and bought him underwear. It probably cost less than R20 for a pack of 3 boy’s underwear. Growing Angels' First Project in 2009 . Collaboration with Black Motion I, on the oth

My journey with fitness has been a roller-coaster. I’ve exercised for either emotional reasons or to reach a specific body goal. In tertiary, I wore a size 34 for the very first time in my life and that made me go from feeling confident to loathing my body. I knew that there were things I could do to change the way I looked, but that didn’t change my opinion of myself. I trained for 5 days a week and after a year, I reached my goal of going back to a size 30. However, my mental health was still not where it was supposed to be. I started working the following year and completely abandoned my healthy lifestyle, including what I was eating. A few years later, I was back to a size 34, bordering on size 36. I was completely uncomfortable in my own skin. Again, I created a very strenuous workout plan and lost all the excess weight in 6 weeks. But still, my mind was not okay and therefore, I gained all the weight back. September 2016 - November 2016 This year, 2019, I’m back again to

In recent months, I’ve felt a deep sadness and empathy for parents as news unfolded about their children being involved in different situations and events that either injured them or took their lives. I’ve seen pictures and videos posted on social media of children in different situations that are quite insensitive and cruel, especially for a parent to witness. For example, pictures of young children (my guess, between the ages of 6 and 8 years old) lying on the street after the transport that was taking them to school was involved in an accident, with a caption saying that if your child uses transportation to go to school in this area please check on them. Or a video of young man being brutally murdered by a group of teenagers, in that situation I thought of both the perpetrators’ and the victim’s parents. How do you watch your son/daughter kill or get killed? I also felt for the parents of the young South African celebrity that was being abused on camera. Then there are cases that a