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Ep 31. The Biology of Becoming: Why Spiritual Formation Is More Embodied Than We Think
20 Plays10 days ago
Prayer and Scripture get most of the credit for spiritual growth, but Dr. Autumn unpacks a piece we usually skip: the body. This episode makes the case that sleep, emotional health, relationships, and daily rhythms aren't distractions from discipleship, they're part of how the Holy Spirit actually forms us. The payoff is practical too: the self-control and discernment we need to live out what we already know God is calling us to do.
Intro and Outro Music Credit: Savage by Beat Mekanik, Free Music Archive, License type: CC BY
Please visit: www.autumnswain.com
Contact: autumn@thealignedleader.org
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FB: Autumn Alena Swain
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Transcript
Introduction to Aligned Living Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello there, I'm Dr. Autumn, leadership consultant, wellness coach, author, and I'm incredibly grateful to be your host of the Align Living podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm here to equip you with the tools, inspiration, and practical tips necessary to lead a life of wholeness and pursue greater shalom in your life and that of your families, teams, and communities.
00:00:34
Speaker
My mission is to empower you to lead from a place of holistic wellbeing. It's time to say, peace out to the fatigue, fog, and frustration of living in a place that lacks abundant wellbeing.
The Role of Spiritual Growth in Perspective Change
00:00:49
Speaker
Join me as we embark on a comprehensive exploration of spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social, and economic well-being, all within the comforting embrace of one podcast.
00:01:08
Speaker
Hey good people, Dr. Autumn here and welcome back to the Aligned Living Podcast. I am so excited to talk about today's topic because it has been stirring on my heart for so long and I believe it has the potential to completely reshape how we think about spiritual growth.
Integrating Spiritual and Holistic Well-being
00:01:28
Speaker
So let me explain. I typically, when I get really excited about certain episodes,
00:01:34
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It's because I've gotten in so many conversations with people, either just randomly, organically out and about or through my coaching or my work. But either way, um i was in a meeting and the question was asked, what embody? What is abiding in God look like for you in your day day life in your work? Right. That was the question that was posed to us. And so many answers when I hear this question, I've heard it multiple times is you know, revolves primarily around the The spiritual disciplines, you know, you and I might might have thought of primarily, you know, prayer and pausing and, you know, taking a moment and meditating on a scripture something like that. um
00:02:16
Speaker
But we're missing the big picture significantly if we really think about how God created our bodies and the significant role of our physical, mental and emotional well-being when it comes to our spiritual health.
The Biology of Becoming
00:02:30
Speaker
And so that's why the title of this episode is The Biology of Becoming. I absolutely love this title because it speaks so much into understanding the vastness and how God created us, you know, with the brain and with a gut and with, you know, the the need for relationships and um You know, emotional and mental health is just a part of um our our lives, no matter how we slice it is just a reality. And so we're gonna be talking about why spiritual formation is way more embodied than we think.
00:03:06
Speaker
So super excited about this. And let me say, it doesn't matter if you're a follower of Jesus like me, or if you're just exploring faith or a spirituality, or maybe you haven't thought about God in a long time, or maybe you have and you're just not sure what you believe. You can listen to this episode and be inspired and walk away with some sort of tool for transformation in your life.
00:03:30
Speaker
Because regardless of where you stand, I think most of us are asking spiritual questions, right? And we want to thrive holistically. And
Rethinking Spiritual Health Beyond Practices
00:03:39
Speaker
um even if you're not exactly sure what you believe when it comes to truth,
00:03:45
Speaker
I will tell you what you learn about today's episode when when applied will make a difference in your life. Now stick around to the end because I do want to mention a couple things kind of on the on that topic that um that if you are exploring that could be helpful to you. But for now, I just want to jump right in. um So the but biology of becoming. Now, if you've been around, um you know, church or a faith discipline for a while now, you probably heard questions like, how is your prayer life? Or Have you been reading your Bible or are you spending time with God? And these are good questions, right? They're important questions, but what if they are so incomplete?
00:04:24
Speaker
What if we've unintentionally reduced our spiritual formation to a handful of spiritual disciplines while overlooking the way God actually created us? And if I was to say I am a nerd about one thing above all is understanding the way the body works, how God created our bodies, because this not only helps in my work in leadership development, and community building, but my passion for community impact in this pursuit of Shalom and caring for those in the
Interconnection of Physical, Mental, and Spiritual States
00:04:56
Speaker
margins. like Until we understand like how God created us, it's really hard to fully understand how we can successfully move in the direction of wholeness or Shalom, not just individually, but communally when it comes to our communities.
00:05:08
Speaker
And so today i want to challenge this narrative that many of us have likely carried for years. And that narrative is this, Spiritual health is mostly about spiritual practices. All right, now sit with that. i mean, long after this episode, you're going continue to need to meditate on this because like last episode, episode 30, when I talked about how stories and narratives like really impact our pursuit of our goals, whether it's, you know wanting to eat better or um mental health related things or relationship related things or financial related things or spiritual related things. Like at the end of the day, we have to acknowledge the narratives and stories that are behind um our pursuit of those goals, because it could be getting in our way or it could be helping us. And so listen to episode 30 if you haven't. But today's episode is all about how this is such an incomplete story. The narrative that spiritual health is mostly about spiritual practices, I believe,
00:06:05
Speaker
deeply that spiritual formation is far more embodied than we've often realized.
Misconceptions About Spiritual Formation
00:06:11
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And understanding that has transformed the way I think about following Jesus, the way I think about leadership and health and work and relationships and what it truly means to abide in God.
00:06:23
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So disclaimer, um again, wherever you are in your faith journey, this will add value to you. So so stick with me, I promise. And so ah yeah, let's dive in. I want to talk a bit about my why. um One of the reasons that I created Aligned Living, if you haven't heard this before, here we go, is because I kept meeting incredible people who love Jesus deeply They wanted to honor God. They wanted to serve others well. They wanted to make wise choices. They wanted to make a difference. Yet they were exhausted and burnt out, emotionally reactive, running on five hours of sleep, living in chronic stress, ignoring their bodies, wondering why they couldn't seem to consistently live out what they knew to be true.
00:07:14
Speaker
Now, for those who have been following my Aligned Living podcast for a while, you know I'm always talking about this gap from where you are to where you want to be.
00:07:25
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And that's essentially what I'm saying here. Like, if you're questioning why can't I seem to consistently live out what I know I want to do, what I know to be true.
Bridging Knowledge and Action in Well-being
00:07:34
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This is part of the story right here.
00:07:36
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So for years, I heard people asking, why do I keep struggling with this? What am I missing spiritually? Right? Like making it an isolated issue. Again, you know, this actually right here was the inspiration for why I call my work Aligned to Living, why this podcast is called Aligned Living. We need alignment. When we start living compartmentalized, fragmented lives,
00:07:58
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That's why we asked this question mistakenly. What am I missing spiritually? But again, spiritual formation is embodied. So we need to be thinking about other things. Sometimes the answer isn't what, you know, do I need another Bible study? The answer could be, I need more sleep.
00:08:16
Speaker
Sometimes those folks needed nourishment to eat a good, healthy, whole food meal. Sometimes they needed to process grief. I just did a talk with a group of, um ah Women in various leadership roles. And we talked about the effect of emotional suppression on our energy, you know, um brain fog, um so many things. And so, ah you know, sometimes a leader or a person just needs to process grief
00:08:47
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Sometimes they need healthier boundaries. Sometimes they need a healthier, more positive community.
Vital Aspects of Spiritual Formation
00:08:54
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I should say supportive, supportive community. And not because these things replace prayer. They don't. I mean, I'm not I'm not kidding. Actually, today. um I'm recording this on July 4th. It's actually been a little bit of a tough day for me. And in prior, like earlier today, i um was just sitting in the presence of God by myself, but not by myself. um
00:09:19
Speaker
You know, I never feel alone. This is a side note, but I never feel alone. Even when I am physically the only human around, I don't feel alone because There is a place for prayer and talking to God. And I was like, i wasn't even asking for anything. I was just sitting before God in that moment.
00:09:38
Speaker
asking um or or naming that I want to trust God with desires in my heart. And i was just sitting in that place and it just really helped propport propel me forward with better focus for the rest of my day. And so there is a place for prayer for sure, but it does not replace anything.
00:10:02
Speaker
how we steward the rest of our bodies. So let's keep going here. So because God designed those other things to support the life he's called us to live, we must pay
Abiding in God: A Holistic Approach
00:10:14
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attention to them. They are part of our spiritual formation. um i always joke with folks because, you know, i um i I make it through few conversations without saying something about, are you drinking enough water or getting enough sleep, right? When we're talking about, you know, people's struggles and whatnot, because um this is just such an important part of a life well lived that we often like to ignore. um We like to play off its importance or its significance. And so anyways, this narrative that we need to challenge, um again, last episode, we talked about stories. Listen to that if you haven't. But the stories we believe shape the lives we lived.
00:10:53
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That is a fact. That is not an opinion. We could talk about neuroscience and neuroplasticity in the brain and thoughts. You know, your thoughts are physical presences in your body. We have the ability to change them based on what we reflect on. So the stories, what we believe, that's shaping things in our body, okay, which will and can impact our choices. So let me ask you something. What story have you believed about spiritual maturity? Maybe it sounds like this, like if I just prayed more, if I just had more faith, or if I just trusted God better, if I were spiritually mature enough.
00:11:32
Speaker
Those things matter. Yes, they do. But what if God never intended spiritual formation to happen apart from the body he created? Genesis, in the Bible, the beginning of the Bible, Genesis tells us that God formed humanity from the dust of the earth and breathed life into us. We are not souls borrowing bodies. We are embodied image bearers. And I'm even to jump on this um soapbox about...
Genesis and Holistic Stewardship
00:12:00
Speaker
the richness of what we can learn from Genesis, but God wanted us to lead and be in co-dominion with him over the earth. This is why part of the pursuit of Shalom is stewarding our physical bodies, the relationships around us, what we've been given our earth, right? We were given these amazing plants and herbs and all of these things to Give us the nutrients we need in our bodies to function well, right? And so there's such a beautiful story to tell in Genesis to understand Shalom better. But nonetheless, we're again, we're not souls borrow ah borrowing bodies. I don't know why I'm having hard time saying that word.
00:12:39
Speaker
We're embodied image bearers, physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, relational, all beautifully integrated. And the reason I have that sixth pillar, the economic pillar, which I haven't talked about too, too much, but I will talk about it more is really because that's the resources around us. When I worked in community development and I'm looking at, okay, how can we have Like, and and again, this was leading into my my dissertation, what I wanted to pursue with my doctorate degree. And the thing is, is, you know, there's so much evidence for the integration of our physical bodies, our spiritual health, our emotional health, our mental health, right? Like those are within our, but our physical bodies are those presences, but also,
00:13:26
Speaker
The way that God created our bodies, we also have to understand the value of relationships and community in our life. And also economics is really just another way to say resources, right? um And so those play a role. If I'm looking at a community in need and we want that community to flourish, It is, yes, understanding the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual within each of us humans, but also understanding the value of community and resources and stewardship of those things and what that looks like. And so that's why there's the six pillars
Reevaluating Spiritual Practices
00:13:58
Speaker
there. But nonetheless, back to embodied image bearers. Abiding, this idea of abiding in God is so much bigger than we think today. Jesus tells us in John 15 to abide in him, right? This is where this conversation comes from. Most of us, again, are immediately thinking about prayer and worship and scripture and silence.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. But let's think a little bit bigger. If my body is chronically sleep deprived, if I'm dehydrated, if my nervous system is constantly living in survival mode,
00:14:31
Speaker
We could talk about that all day. um i love to talk to people about stress management because we can either we can't avoid stress, but we can cope in a healthy way or an unhealthy way. Knowing how to get our nervous system regulated is essential for a life well lived.
00:14:48
Speaker
God made us with a body that has a heart and a brain and a nervous system. So understanding that nervous system is essential to a bodied spiritual well-being.
00:15:00
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I'll just keep going. If I'm consuming more noise than truth, if I'm emotionally disconnected, if I never rest?
00:15:10
Speaker
Am I really stewarding the life God entrusted to me? Abiding isn't just about stopping long enough to pray. It's about remaining in Christ with your whole life.
00:15:23
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Hence the subtitle of my podcast, right? The Pursuit of Wholeness. So it's about remaining in Christ with your whole life. It's allowing every part of your life to become aligned with his design. This is why I love talking about spiritual formation. in light of creativity and science and how all of these things come together. And when you look at God as a creative, artistic God, when you look at God as a a brilliant scientist, you know, it starts to change the way that you view what God cares about. He cares about how our bodies function. He created them a certain way.
00:16:03
Speaker
And did you know that if you are in a place of chronic stress, like think about the things that biologically help our bodies move into a better, healthier place, mentally, emotionally, physically, you know, those things are all good things. Being around positive community, being in the sun, being in nature, this beautiful, the beautiful nature that God created, the colors of the flowers, right? The, the green that grows on trees, like,
00:16:31
Speaker
It is just incredible to me when we start to understand what we need in our lives to be well and how God has placed those things, like what he created to grow in our soil that is nourishment that helps us show up better in this world. Right. And so um let me ask you this, because I'm going to like bur bring it down to some bare bones here.
00:16:56
Speaker
Do you think hydration a spiritual practice? All right.
Biological Health and Spiritual Practices
00:17:00
Speaker
ah People who are really close to me probably get annoyed at how much I talk about staying hydrated. But think about it.
00:17:09
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This sounds almost strange to say out loud, but can drinking water really be a spiritual practice? Of course, as you can imagine, I think it can be. not because water saves us, not because hydration is holiness, not because not because you know there's something magical about water, although it's super essential to, you know we need it for survival, but it's because stewardship is worship.
00:17:35
Speaker
Okay. so So when it comes to embodied spiritual formation, think about that. Stewardship is worship. So if I am eating fast food every day of the week, that's not stewarding my body well, but if I'm making the time and margin,
00:17:49
Speaker
To cook whole foods, not only me, but my family, I'm stewarding my role as a mother while I'm stewarding my body. Well, that is worship. When I intentionally care for the body God entrusted to me so I can think clearly so I can love people well.
00:18:06
Speaker
so I can serve faithfully and respond with wisdom, that act becomes an expression of loving God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. I cannot love God and love my neighbor with all of me if I am barely surviving because I'm not stewarding all the parts of me well. Hence why i am so grateful God has given me opportunity through this podcast, through my Align Living community, through the certificate I'm dev developing, because if I can help people move in this direction, I feel like I am doing some good in this world.
00:18:42
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So ah just like hydration, the same is true for sleep. The same is true for movement, for our bodies, moving our bodies, exercise. The same is true for boundaries.
00:18:53
Speaker
The same is true for healthy relationships, Sabbath, nutrition. None of these things replace dependence on God. Mind you, there's always extremes to everything and the extremes aren't healthy, right? If we're like so obsessed with certain things that we forget that we need to be locked in with God and spend time with God and pray and you know None of this replaced dependence on God, but what it does is it helps us in that idea of co-dominion. Let me steward what God has given me well, and that is part of your spiritual formation.
Impact of Stress and Neglect on Spirituality
00:19:25
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It's part of your spiritual maturity.
00:19:28
Speaker
um i like to use that word maturity because nobody likes to think about themselves as immature, right? Like when I talk about emotions, especially with men, it's so funny, but actually men are way more open to conversations about emotions because it's become less taboo to talk about mental health in with men and women now, which is just really, really great. But nobody likes to think that they're emotionally immature.
00:19:49
Speaker
But if you don't regulate your emotions in a healthy way, there is some immaturity and intertwined in that. So sometimes that will kick people in the butt and light a fire and be like, okay, let me think about this.
00:20:00
Speaker
But again, none of these things replace dependence on God. They become ways we cooperate with the design God has already established. So what does that mean? This means that your biology matters. One of the things I've been studying extensively is how God designed the brain and the nervous system. Okay. Cause I already knew a ton about fitness. I've been in the fitness field since I was 18.
00:20:24
Speaker
um you know, nutrition, I've been a nutrition coach for a very long time. Um, I wanted to do a deep dive into thoughts in the brain and emotions, because these are all play a role in our physical and spiritual health, right? And so when we're chronically stressed, our brains shift into survival mode. When we're exhausted, our ability to regulate emotions decreases. When our bodies are neglected, our capacity for discernment is affected, okay? These are all things happening in our head, right? We want our brains, we want our thoughts to function well. We want to be discerning. We want to exercise wisdom, but it's hard when we're not storing these other things well.
00:21:03
Speaker
That doesn't make us less spiritual, okay?
Neuroscience and Spiritual Formation
00:21:05
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But it reminds us that we are embodied people, and God already knew that. And that's why so the scriptures in the Bible, it speaks so often about rest and wisdom and stewardship and rhythms and community, self-control, renewing the mind, guarding the heart. Like, we love throwing these little one-liners out there about, you know, we're supposed to renew our mind daily and guard our hearts and caring for the temple of the Holy Spirit. But what does that actually mean? We can't throw these things around without, well, we can, but I encourage you to pause and be like, what does it actually mean to renew the mind? Okay. None of these are disconnected ideas. They're all woven together because God has this idea, this concept, this vision, this desire for shalom when speaking about these things. We just don't always have that in mind. And so
00:21:53
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Align living's about cooperation, not perfection. okay Because when you start thinking about this, sometimes we have the tendency to be overly
Concept of Shalom: Integrated Well-being
00:22:01
Speaker
hard on ourselves. Okay, if I want to do right you know by God and by others, then you know I gotta to be eating right. you know Yes, but like grace, right? God's a God of grace. We want to extend grace to ourselves. It's not about perfection. It's about cooperation. Sometimes people hear me talk about physical health or emotional well-being and think I'm talking about like self-improvement, but but I'm not. I'm actually talking about cooperation. Like God transforms us. This isn't like purely self-care. We can't just do self-care aside from the spiritual formation.
00:22:37
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because of how God created us. He created us to be in community with Him and with one another. And so the Holy Spirit is forming inside of us.
00:22:50
Speaker
But part of discipleship's learning to cooperate with the way God designed us, Like, yes, we need God, important part of our spiritual formation, but God designed us to need sleep and water and vitamins, right?
00:23:03
Speaker
That's what stewardship has always been. Not earning God's love, but responding to it. All right. So Shalom, again, picture I'm trying to create here is it's way bigger than we often think. The biblical picture of Shalom is...
00:23:17
Speaker
bigger than inner peace. And this is something that I talk about a lot when I talk in front of groups of people, right? Because you have to redefine shalom. A lot of times people hear shalom They think peace, but it's so much bigger than that, right? Shalom is wholeness.
Life Aspects Enhancing Spiritual Practices
00:23:30
Speaker
It's right relationship with God, but also right relationship with ourselves, also right relationship with others, and right relationship with creation. It's whole person flourishing.
00:23:42
Speaker
And that's why line living isn't six separate pillars. It's one thing. integrated life, the spiritual and physical and mental, emotional, social and economic. They're competing. They're not competing priorities.
00:23:59
Speaker
They're interconnected expressions of faithful stewardship, all right? So the new story I want you to tell yourself is if you've been believing that I just need to try harder spiritually, what if the better question is, what has God entrusted to me that I've stopped stewarding?
00:24:16
Speaker
Maybe your next act of discipleship isn't adding another devotion. Maybe it's going to bed. Maybe it's taking a walk. Just get up for a minute. just get up and go walk without even thinking about it.
00:24:28
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Maybe it's drinking water. or having that difficult conversation. Because mind you, if you are mulling over, and again, I've done an episode on this. I also have it integrated into the course that I teach.
00:24:41
Speaker
When we are suppressing things, it is not neutral. It is causing stress, which is having an effect in our bodies. And so if you're holding that, if you're worrying subconsciously, that will impact you. So have the difficult conversation in a healthy, regulated way.
Practical Tools for Spiritual Formation
00:24:59
Speaker
prayerful, prayerful way, like, right? Like go into it with prayer. I'm not saying eliminate that part. What I'm saying is don't suppress it. Don't ignore it. Process grief.
00:25:10
Speaker
Okay. I've had to do that and it is freeing. It's releasing process grief, turn off your phone. Or if you can't turn off your phone, at least when you're doing something like step away from it for a minute be like, you know, this, I'm going to go on a prayer walk and I'm not gonna look at my phone.
00:25:28
Speaker
Ask for help. How about that one? Like we're in this society, there's many of you listening to this that are probably so hyper independent, and maybe some things happened in your childhood. I'm not going to go into all that right now. We're asking for help.
00:25:45
Speaker
is attached to your self-worth. When indeed we are created to help one another, we're not supposed to do this journey alone. Another one, choosing Sabbath, choosing to rest. Now, mind you, i am I have grown into a space of not being a big black and white thinker about things. There's a lot of gray space here, right? It's not legalistic how you choose to do your Sabbath. It's it's the It's the principle about it. Most of the Bible is about our heart's posture. How do you look at Sabbath? Do you give yourself space to rest? Because if you feel like you have to work and be productive 24 seven,
00:26:19
Speaker
that becomes an issue in and of itself because then your value, you're attaching more to what you're doing than being and just how you show up in this world to be. None of these replace spiritual practices. Mind you, all the spiritual practices are valuable and important and I integrate them into my daily life, but I also do these other things. And so they deepen them because they increase your capacity to be fully present with God and others.
Stewardship Over Doing More
00:26:46
Speaker
These things that I'm talking about, processing grief, drinking water, I'm saying Those practices deepen the spiritual practices because they're increasing your your capacity. Again, right? Your mind's thinking clearly. You're more fully present with God and with others. Actually, when I did my dissertation research, I had to do case studies with leaders. And I remember talking to my mentor, one of the leaders I... um
00:27:08
Speaker
He used in my research and he was saying like when he started eating right and exercising and all of these things, his ability to hear God's voice increased. Everything's interconnected. Now, I just want to leave you with this thought.
00:27:23
Speaker
Following Jesus isn't simply about practicing spiritual disciplines. I think you've got that by now. um But it's about becoming the kind of person who increasingly reflects Christ in every area of life. Okay.
00:27:37
Speaker
We need to look at the fruit of our lives to understand, am I locked in with God? What is the fruit of my life? That's embodied spiritual formation. That's stewardship. That's shalom. And that's why aligned living exists, because I believe God cares about every part of the person he created.
00:27:57
Speaker
So as you go through this week, I want to leave you with this question. And then I have ah one more thing that I want to um just kind of tell you about that i'm really excited about that's coming up.
00:28:08
Speaker
A little bit of an announcement, but it's kind of been an announcement. but I just want to highlight it again. But think about this question. What if the next step in your spiritual formation isn't doing more? but stewarding more faithfully what God has already entrusted to you. I'm to say that again. What if the next step in your spiritual formation isn't doing more?
Fruit of the Spirit as a Maturity Test
00:28:31
Speaker
but stewarding more faithfully what God has already entrusted you. Now, let's say if you're locked in with Jesus, you get this. You're like, okay, I am going to try this and change the story I'm telling myself. But let's say you want to know God more. Maybe some things happened in your past, in your childhood, that's just kind of traumatized you about faith, or maybe you just have questions.
00:28:55
Speaker
um I actually would encourage you to go back to one of my podcast episodes. I don't know which one, but it was all about um expressing to god your your doubt and your questions right because when you start asking god and seeking for clarity in the space you'll actually find a lot of evidence that guides us in a really peaceful healthy direction but ah again like if there's a narrative or story in your head that you can't do that then that's getting in your way of your spiritual formation but my point is is wherever you are on your faith journey like you can still do this And be like, I don't know where I'm at in my spiritual formation, but let me just try stewarding. Let me try like applying some I'm saying and seeing how it does positively impact my life.
00:29:36
Speaker
All right. So um just one more thought. um One of the reasons Align Living exists, I'm trying to think of how to say this, um is because i believe, again, that God cares about every part of you.
00:29:53
Speaker
And one of the ways i often think about spiritual formations through the fruit of the spirit, like it's like a litmus test of how we're doing. Okay. So for those who don't know, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Whole Person Stewardship and Spiritual Growth
00:30:15
Speaker
Those are some really, really lovely things. No wonder why they're the fruit of the spirit. But um these things here become a beautiful litmus test for our lives on where we're at, okay?
00:30:32
Speaker
Not because we produce them through striving, but because they reveal what God is cultivating in us. But here's what I have come to realize and I want to help you understand is the fruit of the spirit is spiritual. Yes, it's also embodied.
00:30:47
Speaker
So let me help you understand this because this could be deeply motivating for doing some of the things that you've been wanting to do, like eating better and just haven't. So the fruit of the spirit being embodied, what does that look like? Let's take self-control, for example. We often think, and this will come full circle to my announcement, just stay with me. We often think of self-control as simply trying harder. But what if your ability to exercise self-control is also influenced by whether you've slept well?
00:31:16
Speaker
Think of the last time you were sleep deprived and how did that impact your choices? Maybe exercising self-control is tied to whether you're emotionally regulated, whether your nervous system's overwhelmed, whether you've been isolated from healthy community.
00:31:31
Speaker
or even whether your body has the resources it needs to think clearly. Okay, and that's just self control. We can talk about patience. I'll talk about patience all day when you're chronically exhausted, or you're running on caffeine, you're not getting to the root of what your body needs for healthy energy. Maybe you're carrying unresolved stress or living in survival mode.
00:31:54
Speaker
Patience often feels impossible and not because you love Jesus less, but because your capacity has been diminished. We can talk about peace. Peace isn't merely the absence of anxiety. It's learning to cooperate with God in ways that help calm our minds and regulate our emotions and anchor ourselves in his presence, even in the middle of life's pressures. Okay. So none of this, none of it replaces the work of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you that for sure. But it reminds us that the Holy Spirit forms us as whole people. And so if we're wanting that peace, um,
00:32:30
Speaker
we need a relationship with god to have that type of unconditional peace but also we know that to have peace of mind if we have thoughts that are controlling certain choices we can change those thoughts you know there uh dr caroline leaf talks about this and it's absolutely brilliant but what thoughts we feed gross we're if it we're feeding Bad thoughts, those will grow. If we stop feeding those and start to feed good thoughts, those will grow. Okay, this is real. And so this is just all a reminder that the Holy Spirit forms us as whole people, spirit, mind, body, relationships, work, community, all of it. And again, this is why Align Living exists.
00:33:13
Speaker
Because I believe God designed every part of us to participate in the process of becoming more like Christ.
Invitation to Aligned Living Community
00:33:19
Speaker
And while there are many gifted teachers and counselors and pastors and coaches and physicians and practitioners out there, all serving um us as humans, to the serving the body of Christ, this is a unique contribution God has called me to specifically make.
00:33:35
Speaker
in helping people understand what is Shalom, the pursuit of Shalom, the pursuit of wholeness for individuals, for leadership, for our communities. My passion is helping people understand how spiritual formation and whole person stewardship work together so that they can build the capacity to faithfully live the life God's called them to. Like that is such a big part of my passion and my motivation each day.
00:34:05
Speaker
If this conversation resonates with you and you're looking for practical tools and coaching in a community committed to pursuing a whole person flourishing, I'd love to invite you to join us inside the Align Living community. And that's where I do all my coaching now.
00:34:22
Speaker
um But if you want to go even deeper, and this is my announcement, I'm really excited about it. I partnered with a graduate school. um it doesn't you you could You could participate this even if you have zero degrees. So that's not the the reason for me announcing that.
00:34:36
Speaker
But I've developed a professional development certificate called Aligned Leadership and Organizational Well-Being. a Shalom centered approach to transformational leadership. Okay. I'm super excited about this.
00:34:48
Speaker
And together we explore how spiritual formation and neuroscience and leadership and health, faithful stewardship, all intersect to shape resilient leaders who then cultivate flourishing in their families and their organizations, their workplaces, their churches, their communities. Right. And so I'm just really excited about this because we get to go deeper and then I get to empower those folks to take this into their spaces for even more lasting change.
00:35:14
Speaker
um This isn't just about becoming healthier. It's becoming more faithful, more discerning, more resilient, more present, more able to love God and love others with your whole life.
00:35:24
Speaker
and And so as you go throughout this week, there's one more question for you to reflect on. Where? might God be inviting you to steward your whole person, not just your spiritual practices, so that his spirit can continue forming you into the person he created you to become. So continue to reflect on that.
00:35:44
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much again for joining me today. There's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of competing entertainment on YouTube and Instagram and all the things, but you took the time to listen to this episode. i am truly, truly grateful. um Until next time,
00:35:59
Speaker
Stay aligned.
00:36:05
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to the Aligned Living Podcast. I'm Dr. Autumn, your guide on this journey to shalom or wholeness. Ready to embark on this journey of self-discovery and transformation?
00:36:20
Speaker
Head over to autumnswain.com to learn more and to dive deeper into the world of Align Living. Until next time, stay aligned.