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3 Foundations of Emotional Health Every Woman Needs
33 Plays5 months ago
Have you ever felt stuck in the same emotional cycles — people-pleasing, reacting out of fear, or carrying the weight of everyone else’s happiness? In this episode, Lisa shares the three foundational skills every Christian woman needs to build lasting emotional health: Awareness, Alignment, and Action.
You’ll learn how to:
- Recognize and name what’s really going on inside you
- Filter your thoughts through God’s truth
- Take small, practical steps toward healing and freedom
Packed with scripture, relatable stories, and actionable tools, this episode will help you move from surviving to thriving, responding with wisdom and grace rather than reacting out of old patterns.
Bonus: Grab Lisa’s free 7-Day Emotional Reset Challenge to start building healthier thoughts, emotions, and habits today: [YourWebsite.com/reset].
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Transcript
Introduction to Emotional Cycles
00:00:00
Speaker
Have you ever felt stuck in the same emotional cycles? People pleasing, reacting out of fear, or feeling like everyone else's happiness depends on you? I've been there. But here's the truth. Emotional health isn't out of reach. In fact, God gives us simple, practical tools to build it. Today, I'm sharing the three foundations of emotional health every Christian woman needs. Awareness, alignment, and action. When you put these into practice, you'll find freedom, strength, and purpose like never before. Join me.
Podcast Introduction & Mission
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome to Emotional Health for Christian Women brought to you by OurRelentlessPursuit.com where we are pursuing healing, purpose, and freedom in Christ. I'm your host, Lisa Archenall, here to help you break free from emotional baggage, heal from trauma, and live boldly in God's calling.
Free Emotional Reset Challenge
00:00:53
Speaker
Let's walk this journey together.
00:00:55
Speaker
Welcome back to Emotional Health for Christian Women brought to you by OurRelentlessPursuit.com. Before we dive in I've got a free gift for you.
00:01:06
Speaker
my friends. I have written a seven-day emotional reset challenge In just one week, you'll build healthier thoughts, emotions, and habits with simple biblical tools. So grab that now at OurRelentlessPursuit.com under resources. Okay, let's dive in.
Understanding Awareness in Emotional Health
00:01:27
Speaker
Okay, if you listened to episode two, you heard me talk about the ICU to Marathon journey. how healing happens in stages and how God can take you from barely surviving to thriving beyond what you thought was possible. Today, we're getting practical. No matter what stage you're in, there are three foundational skills that will help you build emotional health. And when you practice these consistently, you will start to notice real change in your life. So grab a notebook because I'm going to give you tools that you can start using today.
00:02:04
Speaker
All right. You can't heal what you won't acknowledge. Friends, Foundation One is all about awareness. Awareness is Foundation One. This is naming what is going on inside of you. When I was in the early stages of recovery, I didn't even have the language for what I was feeling. I would say, I'm fine when I wasn't, or I'd say, I'm mad when what I really felt was hurt, fear, or disappointment. Awareness means slowing down enough to ask what is really going on inside of me. So here's your first practical tool. Once a day,
00:02:44
Speaker
pause and ask yourself these two questions. What am I feeling right now? And where do I feel this in my body? What am I feeling right now? And where do I feel it in my body?
00:02:56
Speaker
I want you to write it down, even if it's just a word or two. Over time, this builds your emotional vocabulary and helps you notice patterns. It's also going to establish neuropathways in your brain so that you become very consistent and comfortable in noticing how you're feeling, how you're actually doing, what's going on inside of your body. Psalm 139.23 says, search me god Know my heart, test me, and know my anxious thoughts.
00:03:33
Speaker
David invited the Lord to look into his heart and his mind and help him to understand how he was feeling. In the Psalms, David poured out his raw emotions to God, whether it was joy, despair, anger, or hope. He didn't stuff them down. David named them, and in naming them, he invited God into them. I want to give you an illustration. Have you ever gone to a doctor's appointment? You've got these symptoms. You're not feeling well. Something is hurting. Something is off in your body. So you make an appointment. You take the time to go to the doctor's office. You get there, and probably you wait about an hour, right, to see the doctor.
00:04:17
Speaker
And so finally, you get into the examination room, the doctor comes in, he's all yours. Now it's your turn to tell him what is going on in your body. But instead, when he asks you how you're doing, you just clam up.
00:04:33
Speaker
You don't describe the pain you're feeling. You don't describe your symptoms. Of course you wouldn't do that, right? That's ridiculous. You made this appointment with the doctor just for the purpose of sharing what is going on with you so that you can get some wisdom and insight and help so that you can feel your best. Well, in the same way, You can't begin to heal what you won't name, my friend. Awareness is that diagnosis step.
00:05:02
Speaker
It doesn't fix everything, but it can show you where to begin. So, foundation one is awareness.
Aligning Thoughts with Truth
00:05:09
Speaker
Okay, foundation two is alignment. This is where you're going to filter your thoughts through God's truth.
00:05:17
Speaker
Our emotions are real, but they're not always reliable narrators. My counselor always says, emotions are not good or bad. They just are. They tell us what we feel, but that's not always what's actually true. After betrayal, I had thoughts like this.
00:05:38
Speaker
Man, my life will never be good again. My life is so broken. It's broken beyond repair. My heart will never be okay again. These are some of the thoughts that I had running rampant in my mind. Well, if I had let those thoughts define me, i would still be stuck.
00:05:57
Speaker
Alignment means holding those thoughts up to the light of God's word. So here is your second practical tool. When you notice a negative or fearful thought, run it through this filter. Here's three things. Number one, is this thought true according to God's word? Number two, Does this thought reflect God's character? And number three, does this thought bring peace or fear? I always tell my kids when they share maybe a fearful thought they're having or some worry that's kind of running in their mind, i always ask them, whose voice is that? Does that sound like the voice of God or does that sound like the voice of fear?
00:06:41
Speaker
So, for example, instead of a thought that says, I'm not enough, you could speak Philippians 4.13, which says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Romans 12.2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do you know what the scripture says to us, my sisters? It says that it is possible to be transformed. it is possible. possible to renew your mind. So whatever dark space you might be living in today, if you're having those thoughts that I did when I was early in my trauma, thoughts like, wow, I will never experience happiness again, you're just in a dark space. But that is not where you have to set up camp. You do not need to build a house there, okay? You can be transformed by the renewing of your mind through Christ. Okay, let me give you an illustration.
00:07:40
Speaker
I want you to think about the Israelites in the wilderness. Their thoughts constantly went back to Egypt, right? They had a lot of fear. They had a lot of doubts. And so they went backwards to where they were imprisoned. And they thought, well, we had food there. Maybe slavery was better. Their feelings told them one story, but God's truth was another. I really want you to catch that. Freedom was in front of them. They hadn't realized it yet. They needed to continue to walk in the truth that God was giving to them. They needed to trust God and keep moving forward, not go backwards into slavery. Their lack of alignment with God's truth is what kept them wandering. So let's not do that. In the same way, if we keep rehearsing lies in our minds, that's building those unhealthy thoughts neural pathways where our brains just automatically go to those fearful thoughts and we wander in circles. But when we align with God's truth, we can walk forward in freedom.
Taking Action Towards Health
00:08:48
Speaker
Okay, foundation three is action. So we've talked about awareness, we've talked about alignment, and now we're moving to action. This is where we can take one small step toward health. Healing is not just thinking differently, it's actually living differently. And this is where many women get stuck. They're waiting to feel ready before they act. But often, our feelings follow our actions. Here's your practical tool for Foundation 3. Each day, choose one small small step that moves you toward health, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Here's some ideas. Call a trusted friend instead of isolating.
00:09:35
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Another idea is to go for a 10-minute walk outside. Read psalm before bed instead of scrolling on your phone. I actually have a resource on my website to help you with this.
00:09:46
Speaker
Write down one thing you're grateful for. I'm a big believer in gratitude and how it improves our spiritual, emotional, and mental health. We're going to do a whole episode on gratitude, so stay tuned for that. But write that down and thank God for the strength to take that step.
00:10:04
Speaker
James 1.22 says, Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. And this, we could even circle back to the earlier scripture of Romans 12, 2, where we were talking about being transformed by the renewing of your mind. That is an action step. And so James is now saying, hey, don't merely listen to Romans 12, 2, but actually do what it says. You've got to work out that transformation with the Lord.
00:10:37
Speaker
Here's an illustration of these the action step, okay? Think about Peter stepping out of the boat. Maybe he was impulsive in stepping out, but wow, when he had his eyes on Jesus, man, action came first, okay? Faith rose in the doing, and he started to sink when he took his eyes off of Jesus.
00:11:01
Speaker
But I want you to really notice the beginning when Peter saw Jesus and he took action. He stepped out on that water to walk towards the Savior. In the same way, your healing will grow when you take that first small step.
00:11:19
Speaker
So let's put this all together. Awareness tells you where you are. Alignment points you to God's truth. Action moves you forward, even in small ways. If you practice these three foundations consistently, you're going to notice you don't just react to life anymore.
00:11:42
Speaker
huge. so this is huge you can respond with wisdom, strength, and grace. So here is my call to action for you this week. I want to challenge you to write down your feelings once a day.
00:12:00
Speaker
i want you to filter one negative thought through God's truth, and I want you to take one small intentional action toward health. So what are you going to do this week? I actually would love for you to pause this podcast right now and set an alarm on your phone or um call your texture accountability partner and say, here's the action steps that I am going to take this week for myself with Jesus to become the healthier version. that God wants me to become.
Engagement and Community Building
00:12:32
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And if you want extra accountability, share your one action step with me on Instagram at A Brave and Beautiful Life. You can send me a DM. I would love to cheer you on.
00:12:45
Speaker
Okay, you don't have to stay stuck where you are, my friend. With God's help, you can build emotional health that lasts. I know. i have been there. i have done it. and I'll be here every week to walk with you. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss our next episode where we're going to talk about how to set boundaries without feeling guilty. Remember, your healing matters, your purpose is real, and with Christ, you are free to live the brave and beautiful life you were created for.
00:13:21
Speaker
Thanks for joining me today on Emotional Health for Christian Women brought to you by OurRelentlessPursuit.com. If you found this episode helpful, would you take a moment to follow the podcast and leave a review? Your feedback helps other women discover this message of healing and hope. And if you want more encouragement and resources, visit OurRelentlessPursuit.com. or connect with me on Instagram at a brave and beautiful life. Remember, your healing matters, your purpose is real, and with Christ, you are free to live the brave and beautiful life you were created for.