Welcome to Thankful Thursday. My goal for this blog is a place where people can learn something new. I hope that my blog becomes a place where we can learn from each other. My subscribers are from various ages and genders. Leave your ideas in the comments section. Hopefully, we’ll get some dialogue and learning taking place for each other. Living the Encouraged Life…Lynn

This post is relatable for Christians or for anyone who went regularly to church growing up…

The church background from which one comes, whether or not one’s parents were Christians, the place and time of one’s birth and the broader culture in which one is raised, all serve to shape our beliefs and desires and how we approach the Bible far more than we imagine.

I began by practicing exercise in a new way. Exercise offers significant benefits for people with MS, helping to improve mobility, balance and overall strength.  It also helps reduce fatigue, enhance mood, and promote a better overall quality of life. 

A couple years after I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis I started exercising slowly.  I drove my car to the high school track, got my walker out and wheeled it to the track.

  On this Thankful Thursday, I’m very grateful for exercise. I exercised my brain by accomplishing my college degree, then two masters and finally a doctoral degree from Seattle University. My plan, which hatched during the late eighties, was to become “someday” a high school principal. I learned at that time, as a woman, I’d need to complete a doctoral degree if I wanted to be a high school principal.

     So, I set about accomplishing my goals. All the education goals were completed by 2005 when I was forty-one. As I walked in my doctoral graduation, I had no idea that a soon to be discovered disease of Multiple Sclerosis was about to surprise all my goals.

Do you ever talk to yourself?  I’m not referring to the mumbling all of us have in our heads.  I’m referring to audible, out loud talking.

Sometimes, I have regular oral conversations with our dog and cat. I’m imagining what they might be thinking and then I speak it…

I had given up any hope for my right hand to ever work again.  Then, I started following some research on the Neufit device, which was having some positive affects on some M.S. folks.  It’s similar to a tens unit, but unlike a tens unit, which works on Alternating Current, (A.C.) it utilizes Direct Currents (D.C.).

As someone with multiple sclerosis, I became profoundly disabled from the disease.  I was unable to keep doing the work I loved as a teacher and Elementary School Principal.   I was unable to see clearly.  I was unable to walk to the end of my driveway (50 feet) and stand at the kitchen stove for longer than 20 seconds.

Last week I challenged you to begin to do simple exercises in your daily life to improve your brain’s executive functioning.  This week I’m challenging you to continue adding simple exercises into your daily routine..  Choose three from this list below, reminding yourself you’re improving your brain’s executive function.