Sickness, School, and Snow OH MY!

Will the snow ever stop?! I don't know how much longer of this snow I can take. Trust me I love the snow. I love building snowmen, sledding, and running around in it but why can't it stay off the roads and sidewalks?! That would make my life a whole lot easier. :) Just kidding. I am actually happy for the snow because that means there will be lots of water for surfing and tubing this summer with my family! So I can't complain really. Plus I am excited for Friday when I can actually go out and play in it.  I haven't been able to really enjoy it this time around because of my crazy school schedule. 
Sickness is being passed to everyone this time of year. My dad, mom, sister, and I were all sick this week and last. Then some of my friends ended up sick. It is like a plague! :) Luckily we are all on the mend and I am so excited for this weekend for my father's annual Superbowl party. It should be pretty epic! 
School is intense. Everyone told me senior year would be the easiest well you are wrong. Senior year is by far my hardest year of school. I love my professors especially Mary Brown who has helped me get so much farther in academia then I thought I could go. I am presenting not only at UCUR in a few weeks up at Utah State (so you peeps up that way we need to do something or come see me or something!:))  I am also presenting at HEAU which is a health education conference that is held in salt lake this year. It is a pretty big deal. It is all the health educators from across the state that come so this is the time for networking. I am so excited for all these opportunities. Group work still sucks! I am in this group that I am like the mother who has to tell them exactly what to do and when. It is annoying and tiring but good experience for the real world! I love working at the Health and Wellness Center. I have 2 clients this semester and have loved working with them. I tutor part time now which is nice. I have loved having some extra cash to spend so I don't have to rely on my parents as much anymore. I can't believe I am graduating in April! It is craziness! I am going to miss the mentoring friends I have made, professors who I love, and the classes that I have taken. 
I have been so blessed in my life. I keep getting blessed and I feel like I don't really deserve it at times. I owe my Heavenly Father so much! He has given me great friends, family, and people in my life to steer me in the right direction. I am excited for everything my life holds. I did get an interview for an EFY counselor position for the summer but I don't think I am going to get it. Not because the interview went bad but because I have a feeling that there is something waiting for me this summer so I need to be patient and realize it is all in the Lords timing. This is going to be a crazy semester but I can't wait to move forward to the next stage of my life. Which is graduate school and working. Unless God changes those plans for something better. ;) 

Happiness Post

I have been reading this book I got from the Health and Wellness center at UVU. I have been doing my internship there and this last semester got to do some one-on-one coaching. My client signed up for the Happiness course that is based of  the book I am currently reading called Be Happy by: Robert Holden. When I took my client through this course I started out as a critic thinking this course would never help her become happy or help her become happier. I can say that there was a true change in her. She became happier over the weeks of this course. After I met with her for the last time she asked me what I learned from teaching the course. This question through me off but I told her that I learned what true happiness is and how many of us lack true happiness. I told her I discovered my own barriers to happiness. My boss challenged me to read the book that the course was based on and go through the course by myself to help them see any flaws to their course or if they needed to add anything. 
Well I have been reading the book and was again very skeptical of it at first but I have discovered a lot about myself and what happiness is. He is not LDS but he has a whole chapter on the spiritual path and health of individuals. It is amazing how much it aligns with the gospel. The section I read tonight really helped me see what I need to work on and I hope it causes an eye opening experience to those who read this post. He starts of this section of the book by talking about why we suffer. He says: "When you forget who you are, you forget what happiness is. And when you forget what happiness is, you suffer." He then talks about how people try to discover who they really are. The first way is the search. He talks about how this search for happiness is denial of happiness. He says: "For as long as you deny the joy of your being, your ego and your personality will never be completely satisfied or pleased with the world....You only search for that which you fear you do not have, or for that which you are not yet willing to accept that you have already. The truth is, you are what you seek." Happiness is already with us and we will only discover it when we call off the search for happiness. So I have learned by just this first way that I have been searching for happiness or think that I will achieve happiness when I am married, graduated, and working. In reality I won't find it there because it is already with me. None of these things will satisfy me either because "it is impossible to find happiness for as long as you overlook your true nature." So as of tonight I am calling off the search for happiness because I already have it. This post is super long so I will write more later this week or on sunday.

Who Am I?

I decided to post again since I don't post very often. I recently went to see Les Miserables with 2 of my guyfriends. I love the song Who Am I that Jean Valjean sings when Javert thinks they found Jean Valjean and apologizes to the real Jean Valjean about wanting to arrest him. Once Jean Valjean leaves he sings this song about how could he condemn this man to slavery but yet if he doesn't then his workers won't survive. My favorite lines in the song are: "Must I lie? How can I ever face my fellow men? How can I ever face myself again? My soul belongs to God, I know I made that bargain long ago. He gave me hope when hope was gone. He gave me strength to journey on. Who am I? Who am I? I am Jean Valjean."
These lines ring so true to me. I have fallen short of who I am and wasn't sure if I could face myself again. I give and have given God my soul and He truly gave me hope when hope was gone. He constantly gives me strength to journey on because of this fact I know who I am. I am Chelsea Newsome, a Daughter of God, which no one can take that knowledge from me. I am grateful for this knowledge because even though I don't know what the future knows God does. He is constantly guiding me to where He needs and wants me to be. I trust Him because of the strength He has given me and the hope.

Weaknesses

This Christmas Break I have learned a lot about myself through my weaknesses. I have had amazing friends and family who have been there for me and helping me understand myself in ways I didn't think possible. This break I was diagnosed with Mono and had an enlarged spleen. One of my friends and I started talking about the emotional ties to sicknesses and what triggered the mono. He talked to me about different emotional triggers. He has this book of sicknesses and the emotional triggers to each one. I realized that I didn't get mono from someone else but I got mono from myself. I have been through a lot of tough things lately and felt lost. I am so grateful I knew who to turn to. I turned to God. I let Him carry my burdens & trials. I finally let Him and my family and friends in to help me. I have realized that I have many weaknesses that can be turned to strengths. I don't regret any choices I have made. They have helped me become a stronger person. I know that God is there. I know He loves us. No matter what we have done He will always love us and wants us to let Him in. 
So this friend of mine then started to talk to me about essential oils and which ones will help me with my mono and help my body balance itself back out. It helps your spirit and body become one. I have started rubbing essential oils on since yesterday I have felt a lot better. I know a lot of you are thinking it is all in my head, but I believe my body and spirit were out of sync with each other. I hope this makes sense. I am still really out of it and my brain is groggy. 
School starts next week as well. It is my last semester of school for a year. I am uber excited and also very nervous. My whole life I have been very dedicated to my education. It is going to be interesting to not start in the fall again. I have also come to love being a mentor and don't want to give that up. Luckily for me I know that with each end to something there is always something better around the corner. I am applying to be an EFY counselor and should finish that up this week and hopefully will be a counselor this summer. I feel like that is my "mission." I have wanted to be an EFY counselor since I was 14 and went  to EFY. I also want to tell my mom, dad, sister, brothers (Jordan this includes you), and sister-n-laws how grateful I am to each of you. You never give up on me and have always been right beside me supporting me. Thank you all so much for everything! I love all of you. :)