My Essence

Posted: July 16, 2016 in Motivation

I am distinctly beautiful.

Each layer of me unfolds the mystery that is me.

Not that I have many layers but I am woman and as a woman

I change metaphysically.

You can’t place me in a box or in a set of circumstances that I can’t

Get out of.

My Essence won’t allow that.

See my power derives from the divine and I will shine for as long

As He allows me to and in that…I don’t mind.

My Essence in essence is a substance with new ingredients being added

With every stripe I receive.

My growing confidence is a direct result of the woman I am to be.

My blueprint is encoded in several different languages.

No I am not trying to be difficult but I am a woman who will reach nations

So my design had to be more complex if I am to do this without hesitation.

My Essence spills over into your cup as you take a sip of my genetic make-up.

Can you taste my characteristics, can you smell my attributes, do you know

What My true Essence is?

If not get to know me and you will see My Essence revealed.

Foods That Can Cause A Stroke

Posted: November 30, 2014 in Motivation

Instant relationships seem to be very common these days. The longing to be with someone or to say that you have someone pressures people into these kinds of relationships. Being a single woman in her 30’s can be quite challenging. We are at an age where if we don’t have children, we start to think of having children because of the proverbial “clock” is ticking. However, we also don’t want to settle down
with someone just because he may seem at first glance a great catch. Lately, I have encountered men
who want instant relationships. They seem to want relationships after the first or second date…seriously, they do. I would like to know what happened to the days where you met someone, you went out on a few dates and during the process you actually got to know a person. You had a chance to study their habits as well as actually fall in love with them. Actually, the most recent date I went on felt more like a job interview than anything but I am happy that it went the way it went. I was able to find out things about him that his “resume” didn’t tell me about like his possessiveness. Let’s just say that I can see why he’s been single for 8 years. I would like to get to know someone naturally and fall in love with them. I don’t want to be rushed through the process. I am not saying that it should take someone a month or 2 to say that you are exclusive with someone, but what I am saying is that a person shouldn’t expect for you to become exclusive after the first date! Learn the difference between being alone and lonely. It is truly a difference and being alone isn’t all bad. Especially if you are settling with someone who doesn’t know you and you don’t really know them. I am not saying that these relationships don’t work, some actually do. However, I know quite a few that are nightmares, they are rosy looking on the outside but dark and dreary on the inside. I enjoy the initial excitement of meeting someone new and in order for me to progress forward with a person I must see something beyond the initial meeting. I will not however commit to someone without getting to know them. Have fun getting to know me. Learn what quirks, figure out some things about me that may annoy you, learn my favorite things, find something in my life that you can gradually include yourself in. Trust, I will do the same for you. But life isn’t a movie or song, The movie or songs are inspire by life’s events but those life event’s usually took some months and years in the making, not 2 dates…lol! Enjoy the process of dating. Finding your life partner can be difficult but what is more difficult is having to end something with someone that you probably shouldn’t have been with in the first place. Slow down and enjoy the process! Your King or Queen are on their way. Get yourself right first in order to attract that person.

© Brandi Anderson

I will be the first to admit that the word “submission” is hard for some people to grasp, especially when it is pertaining to women and their role in a marriage. Submission does not mean being disrespected, being a doormat, a push-over or any other degrading characteristic. Being a submissive wife means that the women is willing to give herself completely, freely, and lovingly to her husband without feeling forced to. She is willing to have this man lead her, teach her and cover her the way a husband should. She trusts that he has given his life to Christ and by Christ being the head of his life, this man, her husband can be the head of her family under God in their household. When a man loves a woman as he should…as he loves himself and cares for her in that same fashion, he will find it easy to have a supportive and submissive wife. The wife is to respect her husband as the head, the leader and again when men encounter a woman who is strong and / or independent I will admit that this can be a challenge but even she will be submissive. It is all in how you love her and show her that you deserve the respect you seek from her. Marriage is a mutual respecting relationship. You must be equally yoked and have a relationship centered on God and what He desires from your marriage. Why? The design of marriage isn’t just to procreate, actually the design of marriage is to bring glory to God. The union of marriage signifies love personified, grace, mercy, faith is all needed in a successful Godly marriage. Dying to your flesh to become one! The man is to lead his wife through her spiritual walk and the woman is to encourage her husband and to complete him spiritually by assisting him with his work and his walk with Christ. Each marriage has a mission, a ministry to produce and if you are married to a man who has no God given mission then that marriage for a Godly woman will fail and if a Godly man with a vision marry’s a woman with no belief in his vision or in God, that marriage will fail. Below I have posted a few bible verses pertaining to a submissive wife but I will close my paragraph with a verse from Proverbs that I use for restoring my faith and affirming my thoughts when presented with difficult situations. I found it to also work for the idea of what a marriage should be. “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3-4 In other words, both people should be in prayer, worship together, study together to gain the wisdom needed for marriage, the strength of God to be in them both and by doing those things He will impart knowledge to them about how to deal with things in a Godly manner. When two people truly have their eyes set on having a God centered marriage, the blessings He will give to them will be beautiful because that marriage is bringing glory to His name and all that see that marriage will have hope and see God in it.

Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:18-19
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

© Brandi Anderson

Aerobic Cardio Exercises alone will not give you the results you are looking for in the belly region. Sticking to those type of exercises without lifting weights can result in muscle loss as well as the shape I like to call “skinny fat.” Skinny Fat people are those who are really thin but flabby. There is no definition to their body at all. Belly Fat responds better to exercise circuits that are High Intensity (fast paced) and include heavy weights. The reason being is that Visceral Fat is that fat that lines the abdominal cavity. So if you are using your abdominal muscles to lift or push weights, to run, to walk, and to perform abdominal exercises, you will burn more calories. In all actuality, you should be contracting you abdominal muscles in all of your exercises. Proper form requires that your core is engaged which will give you proper posture thus you will have proper form when performing your various exercises.

Don’t be afraid to lift heavy weight. The chances of you becoming bulky is very low but the chances of you looking fit are very high. What I mean by heavy weight? When you are using dumbbells to do squats, arm curls, chest press, shoulder press and tricep extensions you should be using dumbbells that are 10lbs and higher. I would encourage you to challenge yourself by changing the weight of your dumbbell every two weeks until you get to a dumbbell weight of 40 lbs. The heavier you lift the more your muscles have to repair themselves while you are at rest which can burn an additional 50 – 100 calories while you are sleep.

Create a High Intensity Circuit (25 – 40 mins) of 8 – 9 different exercise that includes weight training.
Try not to rest too much in between each exercise and drink water as needed while you’re exercising.
Your diet is important when trying to get in shape. After all, your belly fat is 70% of what you eat! Eat the majority of your carbs while you are most active. Carbs are an energy source and excess amounts of carbs in your body will be stored in your body as fat. If you are really serious about improving your belly fat then you must learn when and how to eat your carbs. Weight training will require that you eat carbs, you can’t get explosive energy from too little carbs. Yes, muscle needs protein but they also need carbs. Both protein and carbs will work together to help your body metabolize fat.
So don’t be afraid to lift those heavy weights and make It Hurt So Good.

© Brandi Anderson

The Zeit

Food Babe, Vani Hari looking at food labels.

We all complain and worry about not really knowing what is in our food. We may be slowly creating cancers in our own bodies without knowing. If I asked you what you think the solution is, most of you would reply that there is nothing much to do. I would have given the same answer a few weeks ago. But all that changed after I met the woman of my dreams.

Here’s the thing; you would be dead-wrong if you believed that there is nothing you can do. The average Joe/Jane like you and I wouldn’t know where to start but the woman of my dreams does. She is the woman of my dreams because she has given me a voice to take on the food industry.

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Spiritual Warfare is a subject that I believe takes years to understand so I encourage you to study it yourselves so that you too can equip yourselves appropriately. Spiritual Warfare is taking a stand against the evil in this world. It begun in Heaven when God defeated the devil and sent him away. Jesus was giving to us humans as our protector and savior from evil forces. When He ascended to Heaven, He left with us the Holy Spirit, the comforter. The Holy Spirit dwells in each and every one of us. We don’t have to go looking for the Spirit, all we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will obtain the Holy Spirit. Now feeling the Holy Spirit move in you is where the work comes in. That work is studying the Word of God and walking in the way of the Lord which is something we have to do daily. The devil uses many tricks to tempt us away from God. He tempts us with luxuries, material gains, jealousy, lies, a host of things that will cause us to not act righteously in the eyes of the Lord. The biggest tool the devil can use against us is ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. If you truly knew how much God loved you, if you really knew and believed His love for you, you would do what Jesus did on that mountain and deny the devil entry into your soul. You have to resist the devil but you can’t resist the devil if you brush him off as any old thing. The devil is real, evil is real and you need to understand that. Once you understand that you have to understand that the devil will use anything in your life to get to you. Money, relationships, friendships, jobs, strangers, and your thoughts. All of this is fair game to the devil. Even though all of those examples I used are separate, they all tie into your thoughts. Your mind must be stayed on Jesus, your mind must be equipped and protected with the whole Armor of God.

How to protect yourself:

Ephesians 6:10- 18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Verse 18 is a verse that is most important, a verse that I am reminded of during this writing. It is something that we must do every day if we don’t pray anything at all. We have to learn how to pray and give thanks daily. God wants our prayers and praises. He doesn’t just want our concerns and worries. God wants us to come to Him in the happy times just as much if not more than we do in our troubles. Imagine how you would feel after helping someone with something and they don’t say thank you. Doesn’t that just boil your blood at times? You will call them ungrateful and for some people, you actually cut them off. We should be happy that God doesn’t cut us off and He gives us many chances to get it right. So be grateful and give God the praises that He so deserves. We must also learn to pray for others more than ourselves as well. Praying for others is a form of love and love is what Jesus commissioned us to do. We must love one another and truly want the best for one another. Job 16:20-21

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.

I chose Job because if you know anything about Job, Job was tested by God to display to the devil that we can defeat Spiritual Warfare. Job had everything taking away from him but with his last ounce of faith he resisted the devil. We can defeat the evils of this world because the evil in the Heavens was defeated. If we understand that the battle for our souls was already won and that we have the Victory! John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” God never promised us an easy life but He did promise us a blessed life. You just have to understand what it means to be blessed and allow yourself to be blessed.

One more thing, learn to forgive. The devil loves for use to not forgive others. Unforgiveness is like a disease and it will kill us quicker than the one we supposedly hate or dislike.

The greatest thing you can do for an enemy of yours is to love them and release them.

© Brandi Anderson 2014

Being Whole

Posted: August 13, 2014 in Motivation
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Young women, 18 – 24, will mostly go through life unmoved by the fact that they are not married.
Of course the majority of women would love to be in a monogamous relationship but the fact of the matter is we live in an age and time where most men know that we out number them. Moreover, the so called “good catch” knows that he is in high demand and will play the field as long as he can. With that being said, ladies, if you are yourself a great catch, why settle with someone who has no ambition, who has no idea what his needs are other than his immediate wants like the newest video game coming out, Jordan gym shoes, fight night…you get the picture. You do not have to settle for a piece of a man to have a man. If you are a woman who has a vision and taking steps to get to that vision, you need a man that is doing the same thing. It is not wrong for you to desire a man that is financially stable, has a career or is going to school to better himself. I do understand that jobs are scarce and that women have climbed the corporate ladder of success quicker than men. I get that, but that doesn’t mean that you have to accept someone who is stuck at a dead end job not wanting to move up within the company because he is comfortable. If he is not willing to better himself, how is he going to be a good husband to you? Now, I am going to say something that may get a few of you upset. Please don’t take it personal but after you read what my opinion is, I want you to think long and hard about the state of relationships, especially in the black community and then I want you to comment your opinion. Step outside of yourself and look at the women around you. Women, through the course of 40 or so decades have totally taking over as heads of households. We did what we had to do to survive, to provide for our children and to pick up where the men left off. Whether it was due to drugs coming in and tearing up our neighborhoods, the need for money resulting in crime and prison time for men, or just plain selfishness being a man realizing that he is just the father. He planted the seed and he felt welcomed enough to leave, become a rolling stone and plant more seeds wherever he laid his hat. That acceptance of the men playing such small roles in the household has given us a problem that we women have to rectify.

You can start by truly loving yourself. Stop looking for acceptance from other people, like your family, friends and other peers. I am not saying not to listen to constructive criticism. You should always want to better yourself. But do realize that there is a difference between constructive criticism (positive reinforcement i.e: You have been doing such a great job but I have noticed that you lack in this area. I would like to help you with that) and destructive criticism (negative reinforcement i.e: You are doing great work but don’t work too hard, you will never have your own office in this place.) When you get to a point of loving yourself no matter what people say, you will also realize that you deserve your equal. A man who loves himself and will not allow himself to not be what he should to a woman.

I have read so many articles and have seen so many talk shows geared to women basically telling us to settle. This cycle must stop and guess what ladies, we are the key to stopping that cycle. If you want the men you date to be of a certain quality, start putting yourself where those men are. Start surround yourself with the men who have the standards you want. If you surround yourself with men who are impotent in heart, in life, then trust me when I say, you too will become impotent in heart and in life. Relationships should bring out the best in you, not the worse. Both parties should be happy, not one said and one feel like that hit the million dollar jackpot.

A man is to leave his family to start his own family. Not the other way around. How many men move out of their parent’s house to move in with their women? I like the idea of a man having his own place first and if they agree, he leaves his place to move in with his lady’s place if it is indeed better. Or the both of you getting a place together. Being blunt, stop taking on men who have nothing. We are not teenagers anymore, nor are we in are early 20’s. Most of the women reading this article I gather are in their late 20’s to 40’s. A real man of substance would not even consider dating a woman if he felt that he couldn’t give her the least she deserves. Reserve yourself for a man of substance and integrity. Stop concerning yourself with the thoughts of no one to keep your bed warm at night. Concern yourself with someone who can keep the entire house warm, food in the refrigerator, clothes on his back, gas in the car or money for transportation, and a know how attitude that just in case something doesn’t work out, he will make it work anyway. Why? Aren’t you doing the same thing? If you can do all of that then why not want that in your mate. Women, you are the prize that God created to help men. To help them build and sustain life. If we were created for them, make him earn you! Don’t give yourself away because you are tired. I truly believe that if you get yourself together, truly become a whole person by yourself, you will indeed attract that whole man. It just will take a bit more patience than what you thought. He will come, in God’s timing He will send you that Ram In the Bush! Just keep working on you!

© Brandi Anderson

Oxygen is important to sustaining life so it is natural that in order for something to grow (whether gaining muscle or losing weight) you need oxygen. When doing exercises, people know they should breather properly but never really bother to learn why it is important thus they continue to breathe normally. If you have ever used a heart monitor while running on a machine, you will see your estimated heartbeat. On that machine, you should also see a chart that will tell you the proper range you should be in. If you are drastically above that rate then I can guarantee you that you are breathing incorrectly. When you breathe properly, you will be able to run longer and focus more. Why? Breathing pushes out the carbon dioxide in your body and the oxygen enriches your cells oxygenating your blood. It is like a burst of energy actually. Also if you notice that faint feeling while running it is more than likely do to your breathing. You are over working your body if you are not breathing correctly. So try this while running, Breathe in during the first 3 steps of your run and exhale on the last 2 steps. Literally breathe like this, left, right, left, exhale right, left. It will be hard at first but you will see how easy it is. You will be in control of your breathing and not your breathing in control of you.
Breathing is important also during weight lifting and intense cardio exercises like jumping jacks and core routines. When lifting or pushing the weight, you should breathe in before you lift or push the weight and exhale when you lift or push that weight. Think of it as driving. When you want the car to move, you pull it out of park and press the gas pedal to make the car move. When you want to move some weight, especially heavy weight, you take a nice deep breath and blow it out when lifting or pushing.
Just think back to when you are doing house work like moving furniture. You probably never thought about it but you took a deep breath and exhaled on the pushing of that heavy couch or dresser didn’t you?
Last tip that you probably never thought about, proper oxygen balance in the body will help you lose weight. Water and Oxygen work together to burn fat. In order for this to happen you need to be doing some form of physical activity and an increase in your water intake has to happen. You thought it was going to be easy huh, just drink water and sit there. LOL, no you have to do some form of physical activity to oxygenate your body. Your body wants to get rid of things but it will hold on to any form of water if it doesn’t have anything to excrete. So hydrate yourself properly with water and get to moving. Help your body use its fat as an energy source.

My Vision

Posted: May 9, 2014 in Poetry
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I am inclined to sit in my chair and think about past loves that didn’t share my vision.

Dreams and ambitions, reaching goals that prayer brought into fruition.

These past loves didn’t see things my way, yes I tried to sway their thoughts and make them into my mold, my vision.

My eyes were blinded by my ambition to see the sunshine in men with cloudy skies blocking their sun from shining. I am further now convinced that even if their skies were clear that their sunlight would be dull in comparison to mine which would have made even bigger problems…their intimidation of mine.

Love is not a competition; I have no energy to compete. Stop competing with your blessing it’s cooperation that will find loves key and unlock our beautiful mystery.

My soul yearns for its mate not just a casual or a “just because I’m bored” date with wine, roses, and maybe a slice of my favorite… strawberry cheesecake. 

Don’t get me wrong, those dates are fun and sometimes informative but when I sum them all up I come up with negative options because they subtract from me.

I need options that will Add and Multiply the essence of me thus creating infinite possibilities for our union that can be divided amongst our children.

Indeed…I am inclined to leave from this chair because my vision is ever clear and someone who matches my sunlight will appear. When he does I hope he brings me a pair of dark shades because we have to be able to see each other…right?

 

©Brandi N. Anderson