
All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
Take A deep dive into skincare and wellness with Natasha Dias, Licensed Holistic Esthetician & Wellness professional. Learn key tips to care for your skin from the inside out while making overall health improvements and deepening your faith walk.
All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
Balancing Summer Fun With Wellness & Faith
When summer temperatures rise and social calendars fill up, our spiritual disciplines often take an unexpected vacation. Between beach days, family trips, and neighborhood barbecues, finding time for devotion and wellness can feel like swimming against the current.
Summer brings unique challenges to our faith & wellness journey. As Natasha Dias explains, "It's like the summer heats up and our calendar does too." But this season of sunshine doesn't mean our relationship with God or health maintenance should cool down. Drawing from Matthew 6:33 and 1 Corinthians 6:19, this episode explores practical approaches to maintaining spiritual consistency during leisure months. Even Jesus prioritized quiet time with God, rising "very early in the morning" to pray in solitude (Mark 1:35) - a powerful reminder that devotional practices & commitment to healthy living matter in every season.
Hey, there, you're tuned into another episode of All Things Skin Wellness and Faith, a podcast where you'll learn simple ways to implement skin care and wellness techniques from a holistic approach. On this podcast, we'll explore practical ways to address skin health and overall holistic spiritual well-being, while deepening your faith. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, a licensed holistic esthetician, day spa owner and a faithful believer and follower of Christ, and it's time to get ready to get encouraged and empowered as we dive into all things skin wellness and faith.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to another episode of All Things Skin, wellness and Faith. Natasha here with another full wellness episode for you for the month of July. I know that we are pretty much more than halfway through the month of July and just about I want to say maybe halfway through the summer. So today I just want to balance out the summer between our spiritual and our devotional time and I just want to take a look at the balance of, you know, just kind of staying fit in the body but also staying fit in our soul and spirit. While we enjoy the summer and it's like, really it's like the summer heats up and our calendar does too there's so many things that are going on in the summer that can be distractions to our spiritual walk. I mean, we have cookouts, we have vacations, beach days, all types of different gatherings that are going on. But in the midst of all these sun-soaked memories, the question today is how do we maintain our commitment to healthy living and, most importantly, our devotion to Jesus? So in today's episode, what we're going to do is we'll explore how to stay spiritually grounded, physically well and emotionally balanced all summer long. I just want to touch on a few biblical foundations, a few scriptures that will help us focus on this today, and I want to start off with Matthew 6.33, which is a scripture that we are all familiar with, I'm sure, which just tells us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things will be given to you as well, and it's like summer plans are great, but it's not at the cost of our intimacy with God. He always comes first. So what we want to look at today is how to balance all that out. I mean, even in 1 Corinthians 6.19, it tells us do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit? Therefore, honor God with your bodies. And in that I want to look at you know that wellness is worship and our health matters to God. And then in Mark 1, 35, we have very early in the morning, while it was still dark, that Jesus got up, he left the house and he went off to a solitary place and he prayed. So we can see with that scripture that even Jesus prioritized quiet time in every single season.
Speaker 2:So we just want to look at these key points today and we want to kind of, you know, look at how we can have the balance of summer fun and the summer schedule and the laxity of summer, while not, you know, putting our spiritual lives and our devotional time on the back burner. I mean, hebrews 10 and 25 tells us let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but to encourage one of other. So I mean, in that sense, I want to take a look at our church attendance, I mean because church doesn't go on a summer break. I mean, I know there are vacations and things like that and definitely, like I always say, we never want to come under condemnation, we always want to come in balance, but we also don't want to make sure that we are putting things, like you know, our time and our devotion with Lord, with Jesus, on the back burner, because this is an easy way for the enemy to sneak in. So what are some practical tips for summer balance? I mean, what are some things that we can do to kind of work this all out so that we can, you know, enjoy our summer but also not, you know, put our time with God on a back burner? One thing we can do is we can start off, and what I want to do is I just want to touch on a few quick key steps to balance these two perspectives. And one thing that I want to say we can do is start off by anchoring our day with God. How do we do that? Well, we can start with creating a summer quiet time ritual.
Speaker 2:I mean, for me I'm usually up early in the morning. My regular I guess you could say winter routine is to be up in the early mornings, as it says in Mark 135. I'm usually up sometime around three, maybe four, and I like to get that time in. But in the summertime it's a little bit, I don't know, it's a little bit harder because you know you like to sleep late and you like to absorb that time, to not be in a busy rush of a schedule. So what we can do with that is like we can kind of adapt our times and I've learned to do this myself. I mean, I let the Holy Spirit guide and direct me.
Speaker 2:Of course there are some days that I still feel like you know there are things going on and as the Lord sees fit, you know he wakes me up and sometimes there is a call to come and pray, you know, in that early morning hour. But then there is times during the summer that you know I have not gotten up at that time, and so what I've done is I've enjoyed, you know, the summer weather, you know, just by going out on my back porch, so encompassing both, you know, summer, and also, you know, relaxing and incorporating that with my private time with the Lord. And so while I may not be up at that, you know wee hour, you know 3 or 4 am. When I do get up, at 6 or 7 or even sometimes occasionally eight, which is like really late for me, I kind of, you know, get my tea, get my coffee, whatever I'm having that morning, and just go and enjoy. You know his creation. Go sit, you know, on my back porch, go enjoy. You know the birds chirping, go and enjoy. You know the beauty of the sun and the clouds and, you know, just allow him to minister to me and to speak to me. So what we can do with that, what I was going to say is, you know, create a summer quiet time ritual and for you maybe that looks like a morning walk, a morning prayer, a scripture. You know you can.
Speaker 2:If you're traveling, you can use the audio Bible. The awesome thing about the secret place is it's a secret place with the Lord and you can go into that secret place anywhere. You can be in an airport traveling. You can, you know, just pop your headphones in and you can put on you know a nice, you know worship instrumental and say, for example, if you are in between flights, you can bring a secret place right into the airport. You can bring a secret place to the hotel room. We can commune with God anytime, any place, anywhere. So really there's no excuse.
Speaker 2:Two, what we can do is we can plan ahead for spiritual consistency. I mean, some things we may want to do is look up local churches online if we're traveling, look up services, look up times. Take this as an opportunity to fellowship, you know, with different churches in different areas. While you're traveling. You know you can keep a small devotional or journal. You guys all know that I'm really huge on journaling. I think that is such an important part of our spiritual walk. So keep a journal, you know, in your beach bag or your suitcase. You know if you're having a beach day, you know let the Lord minister to you through his creation. If you're going to the Bahamas or if you're going to Florida, wherever you're going, our God is a God of all, of heaven and earth. He is everywhere. So, just, you know, be consistent or persistent about, you know, just seeking him wherever we are. You know seeking him in a new way during our summer schedule.
Speaker 2:Another thing we can do on the health side of it is make health easy and enjoyable. On the health side of it, we want to hydrate. What does hydration look like? So, obviously, if we're traveling, if we're going to the beach, summer temperatures are heating up. You know something like making your water, you know, more tasty by, you know, adding fruit into it, carrying the water with you, you know let the Holy Spirit even minister to you through the fruits that you're picking to, you know, and fruit infuse in your water, you know.
Speaker 2:Another thing we can do on the health side is, you know prep light, fresh, easy meals. You know, grilled fish, salads, smoothies, things like that, so that you can make sure that you're feeling your best while you're traveling. Of course, you know, once in a while, you know you may go to a restaurant, you may indulge, you know, on some desserts Tiramisu is one of my favorite, I love cheesecakes, carrot cakes, things like that but you know if you have a smoothie or if you have a juice or you have like you guys all know I'm huge on juicing you can kind of balance that out, and so, as you're taking in that cake or indulging in that you know dessert, you have your juice, which is also going to cleanse your body of all impuriances. You have your smoothie. That is also going to help, you know, fill you up with good nutrients and different ingredients that are good for you, so that when you go and you enjoy those foods, you're not necessarily filling up on bad foods from a place of hunger, but you're more so, just you know, having a little taste and you're not necessarily filling up on bad foods from a place of hunger, but you're more so, just you know having a little taste and you know, and you're enjoying them.
Speaker 2:Another thing you can do is you can turn summer fun into fitness. I mean, look at swimming. Swimming is excellent, an excellent form of, you know, exercise. Biking is, hiking is. I love nature. I mean, for me myself, I'm looking up some botanical gardens and butterfly gardens, things like that, a lot of these things. Zoos while I'm not really big on zoos because I actually find them to be quite inhumane, but I mean there's so many different things that we can do to.
Speaker 2:You know, balance out health and wellness and enjoy the summer and, at the same time, you know, incorporate the two, while not going all in on a wild tangent of just, you know, being lackadaisical per se and not getting any exercise and indulging on. You know, things that are bad, we can incorporate the two. We can balance it out. It's just like things that are bad, we can incorporate the two, we can balance it out. It's just like, you know, we need to set boundaries. And speaking of setting boundaries, what we want to do is, you know, don't say yes to every barbecue or every trip. You know, leave time for rest. That's another thing.
Speaker 2:One thing I was finding is that one weekend I had, I think I want to say like three parties. It was like a party on Friday, saturday and Sunday and I found myself, you know, getting the kids together and you know, just making sure the bathing suits are ready and just, you know all these different things. You know you can run into a little bit of burnout. So, set boundaries. One thing I did after that weekend is like there was another weekend that came up and it was like two parties on the same day and one of them was like a church party and the other one was like a party for like a neighbor across the street.
Speaker 2:Basically, instead of, you know, bouncing from party to party and, you know, just exhausting myself and of course, on this day it happened to be a day where it was like close to 100 degrees I sat down with my family and I said, okay, we have to decide which one of these parties that we're going to go to. And as we sat down and made the decision as a family, we actually decided to go to the party that was one of the members of our church, as we found that that would be a more appropriate environment for our family. You know, no alcohol, things like that. We don't indulge in things like that and I don't think it's a good idea for my kids to see that behavior. So we chose the church party over the party of the neighbors. So that was an easy decision.
Speaker 2:But basically, what you want to do is you want to leave time for rest. You don't have to go and accept every single invitation to every party that you're invited to. You also want to schedule in time for church and rest before and after busy weekends. One thing that I'm saying we are not traveling, actually, no, my husband is traveling. There is some traveling. There's actually a retreat that's taking place in the summer, but other than that, I would have to say, there was really no reason for my family per se to miss church. I know that a lot of people do travel on weekends but, like I said, I'm going to reflect back to the last recommendation that I gave you is to find a new church. Find a church as you're traveling.
Speaker 2:You know this is a great chance to worship with others that you don't normally worship with. You know, kind of take a look at different churches. You know, maybe different denominations, as long as it's like you know not compromising, or you know false doctrine, orations, as long as it's like you know not compromising or you know false doctrine or anything like that. But it's a great time for education, you know, just to see, you know how other people worship and what else is going on in the body of Christ, and you know to make it enjoyable.
Speaker 2:Another thing that we can do is just, like you know, stay connected to our community. This is a good time to, you know, join, like a summer Bible study, or you can create a summer Bible study. I know a lot of the Bible studies that go on during the winter months are on Zoom. This is a great time to create a Bible study or just, like you know, a small prayer group and, you know, go out into nature. Go out, you know, and have a little picnic, enjoy the summer and enjoy the Lord at the same time, you know, or just do like a summer devotional challenge. You know we have to really get creative with what we're doing so that it doesn't become mundane, but we also have to make sure that we're incorporating Christ into every area and every season of our life.
Speaker 2:On the health side of that, you know you can host healthy gatherings. You know you can have, you know, like different gatherings that are based on different types of healthy foods. I know the summer fruits are, you know, definitely something that is you know what's the word I want to use More popular during the summer times. The fruits are more in season Watermelons, things like that, dragon fruits all those things are more fresh and flavorful at this time. You can host a party that is basically based on taste testing, trying different types of fruits, different types of vegetables, putting together different platters. You know things like that, and this is a chance to you know, you can incorporate some biblical things, but you can also get some non-believers into the mix and you can use it as a way to minister and evangelize without you know coming down on people hardcore and saying you know, this is a Bible study. You can just use different fruits and vegetables and, you know, use those to minister to people and to show the creation of the Lord and just kind of, you know, bring it together in that way. So there are so many different options.
Speaker 2:The whole point of this is is that we definitely want to make sure that, just because we are in our summer months, that we're not getting lazy in our walk, we're not slipping or backsliding per se, that we're making sure that Christ is the center of our lives in every season. It's so, so important. I mean, really let this summer be pretty much. I want to say let the summer be sacred rhythms where you know joy, health, spiritual intimacy all meet together. Don't just pursue, you know, summer pleasures, pursue the one who gives them, because in every season it's like season, I'm sorry. In every season Jesus is always the main event. So I just want to close out with that thought today and just really, hopefully, you guys, you know, got a little bit out of this. Hopefully, you know, you got some ways and some ideas to make sure that you know Jesus is still at the forefront of everything that you do. And I just want to close this out in a little prayer, because on the last couple episodes I'm realizing that I hadn't done that, so let's just close out in prayer today.
Speaker 2:So, father God, in the name of Jesus, lord God, I pray, lord, that, as we come before you, lord God, that you help us, lord God, to honor you and glorify you, lord God, in every season and every moment. I pray, lord God, that this podcast episode goes out as a blessing to those. I pray, lord God, that ideas were mentioned, lord God, to help us to thrive in you in every season and in the summer months, to not put you on the back burner. I pray, lord God, that, as this podcast goes out, that it lands on good soil, lord God, and that your sons and daughters that are listening to this, lord God, absorb it and most certainly absorb more of you in this summer season rather than less of you. Father God, we just thank you, we praise you and, as always, we glorify you In Jesus name. I pray Amen.
Speaker 2:So okay, guys, I'm going to wrap it up there for now. I pray that you are enjoying your summer season. Next week we will be back with our breadcrumb. I will no longer say this is a short tidbit, because the breadcrumbs have been running 10, 15, 20 minutes, so it's basically just going to be, you know, as a Holy Spirit sees fit. Everything we do on this podcast is spirit led, so whatever the Lord decides to unleash to me is what I will unleash to you. I pray that you guys are all blessed and always be blessed and be in blessing. All right, that's it, guys. I will see you next time. Bye.