Find out what works for you, whether it's exercise, gardening, prayer, cooking, reading or any other activity... — Karen Pence

Find out what works for you, whether it's exercise, gardening, prayer, cooking, reading or any other activity that engages you and your family in positive acclivities and plan these activities into your day.

Author: Karen Pence

Insight: The real insight here isn't that you should exercise or pray or cook—it's that the specific thing matters way less than actually doing something intentional. We waste enormous energy trying to adopt hobbies we think we're supposed to want, when the magic happens once we stumble onto whatever genuinely pulls us in. Your neighbor might find peace in prayer while you find it in kneading bread dough. Both work. The friction disappears when the activity fits. What often gets missed is the "plan it in" part. We treat meaningful activities like bonuses—nice if they happen but not essential. In reality, they need protecting in our calendars the same way we protect work meetings. A Tuesday evening garden session that's actually scheduled gets done; a vague intention to "garden sometime" dissolves into scrolling your phone instead. The structure isn't limiting—it's what makes the good thing actually real in your life instead of just a nice thought. The family angle is worth noting too. Shared activities create something harder to build through screens or forced conversation: a rhythm where everyone's actually present without it feeling staged. When your kid sees you genuinely absorbed in something, that teaches more than any speech about balance or wellness ever could.