Starting to feel the stress of the approaching holidays? Looking for some encouragement to keep the extra holiday pounds off your body? We have some good news for you!
For six weeks from November 22, 2020 through January 2, 2021, we challenge you to MOVE for 100 minutes per week. That's about 17 minutes per day for 6 days -- with one day of intentional sabbath each week.
We understand not everyone likes to walk, run, swim, or ride a bicycle. Sometimes it snows so much that it takes 30 minutes to clear your walks and driveway. The goal is to have intentional movement in whatever way best suits you. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states, “Physical activity helps you feel better, function better, and sleep better. It also reduces anxiety."
The Holiday Hustle is open to laity and clergy. For accountability you're encouraged to register and log in your minutes each week. As a bonus, participants in the Conference UPMC Health Plan can receive 10 Take a Healthy Step points for each week they meet the 100 minute challenge! That's a total of 60 points over the six-week period!
Mindfulness is also a discipline that is important to well-being and should be intentional. As Churchplants author Charles Stone puts it: “Mindfulness is a spiritual discipline akin to biblical meditation. It’s setting aside daily time to be still before God, to be in His presence in the present moment. It’s not emptying our minds, but filling our minds with thoughts of Him and His Word."
According to the Churchplants article, “Last year hundreds of studies were published that showed the benefits of mindfulness. Here are a few of them: