Affirmations of Excellence
By Dr. Aerial Ellis
Affirmations of ExcellenceMar 30, 2020
Episode 32: Contentment
Do you believe God wants to bless you? You may say, “Yes,” but in your heart do you really believe this to be true? Are you truly okay with whatever chooses to do with your life and however he chooses to move in your life? Can you live God’s way and be completely content? It's time to have an honest talk about contentment. Let’s dive in.
Episode 31: Pursuit
A few years ago I pursued a BBL. Not the cosmetic one. I pursued a purposeful one that stands for "Big Beautiful Life." This episode is about pursuit. Because God is the ultimate big thinker, nothing you plan to pursue even compares to what He has in mind. So, how do you know what it is that God has for you? How do you go after what God has for you? And, how do you actually get that big, beautiful life? Let’s dive in.
Episode 30: Fulfillment
Have you ever had the best day ever? But soon after you have the worst day ever? It's in those moments of obscurity where you start to question the quality of your life and ask if you are truly - fulfilled. And in those moments we forget that God works in our lives in ways that we cannot see to bring us to true fulfillment. Let's dive in.
Episode 29: Brokenness
Have you ever had your heart broken? I mean shattered to pieces. For any reason or relationship, you can experience heartbreak.
Whatever the occurrence or the reference, to be broken is never a choice. Because no one by definition wants to be reduced to fragments, ruptured, torn, fractured, functioning improperly, or operating out of working order. And if your lives resemble any of those cracks, it doesn’t feel safe to reveal them. So what happens when you experience brokenness? Let’s dive in.
Episode 28: Selflessness
Have you ever been called out for being selfish? Has anyone said you were being greedy? Are you self-serving at times? In many respects, we are naturally selfish and we must be intentional about being anything to the contrary. However, being self-less isn’t what we often think it is either. I am certain you want to learn the difference so let’s dive in.
Episode 27: Self-Care
Self-care. How necessary is it? When you address the importance of your self-care, you are admitting that there are spaces and voids that you cannot fill by following your regular daily routine. It requires you to create a regimen – nothing special or elaborate – but the kind of regimen that establishes the necessary boundaries so that self-care becomes a normal way of life. We always use the reference of what we are told to do in the event of a plane crash, or in this instance - in case of a life crash - that you should place the oxygen mask on yourself first but how do you know when it's time to grab the mask if you don’t know that you’re crashing because crashing is the norm, and it feels more like you’re cruising? Let’s dive in.
Episode 26: Rejection - Healed Series with guest host Dr. Vanessa Abernathy
Rejection - we’ve all been through it. Whether in our careers or our relationships, we have experienced the sting of feeling unwanted or unloved. Rejection is a powerful tool of the enemy. Not only does rejection leave us wounded, it can affect our identity - how we see ourselves - and how we see God and His ability to heal those wounds of rejection. Let’s unpack how rejection forms and how we can recover.
Because conversations and incidents of mental health have been on the rise, the Affirmations of Excellence podcast is opening up a deep dialogue about the issue with a Christ-centered lens with a series entitled, Healed.
Inspired by Mark 5:33-34, the "Healed" series centers the critical intersections of mental health and spiritual development featuring licensed psychologist and liberation theologian Dr. Vanessa Abernathy as guest host. In this series, we want to share insights on important topics that position you to pursue healing in areas of life that often seem most difficult to overcome.
For show notes and references from this episode, visit aerialellis.wordpress.com
Episode 25: Money - Healed Series with guest host Dr. Vanessa Abernathy
Mental health and money are more connected now than ever. Mental health problems can make it harder to earn and manage your money, and debt can trigger or worsen conditions such as anxiety, depression and stress. Let’s explore how our financial decisions are informed by our mental health and how the status of our mental condition can affect us both positively and negatively when it comes to money.
Because conversations and incidents of mental health have been on the rise, the Affirmations of Excellence podcast is opening up a deep dialogue about the issue with a Christ-centered lens with a series entitled, Healed.
Inspired by Mark 5:33-34, the "Healed" series centers the critical intersections of mental health and spiritual development featuring licensed psychologist and liberation theologian Dr. Vanessa Abernathy as guest host. In this series, we want to share insights on important topics that position you to pursue healing in areas of life that often seem most difficult to overcome.
For show notes and references from this episode, visit aerialellis.wordpress.com
Episode 24: Relationships - Healed Series with guest host Dr. Vanessa Abernathy
The connections we have with other humans can be the greatest source of joy or our greatest source of pain. We often come to a place of reckoning with our mental health when a relationship in our lives has shifted - a dispute, a dysfunction, a death – its the interactions and the expectations in our relationships that can shine the light a path toward our healing or sink us into the darkness that delays our healing. Let’s look at the role relationships play in our mental health and how God may want us to respond.
Because conversations and incidents of mental health have been on the rise, the Affirmations of Excellence podcast is opening up a deep dialogue about the issue with a Christ-centered lens with a series entitled, Healed.
Inspired by Mark 5:33-34, the "Healed" series centers the critical intersections of mental health and spiritual development featuring licensed psychologist and liberation theologian Dr. Vanessa Abernathy as guest host. In this series, we want to share insights on important topics that position you to pursue healing in areas of life that often seem most difficult to overcome.
For show notes and references from this episode, visit aerialellis.wordpress.com
Episode 23: The Mind - Healed Series with guest host Dr. Vanessa Abernathy
The pursuit of healing is a very unique journey. We all have our own specific issues to acknowledge and overcome. Sometimes people are afraid to embark on the journey because they aren’t aware of the depth of their issues and how it affects their lives. Other times we are mindful that something isn’t quite right yet dismiss the sense to address those feelings and just accept them as a norm. The first thing we need to settle within ourselves is God’s desire and ability to heal. Let’s start at the beginning - the mind.
Because conversations and incidents of mental health have been on the rise, the Affirmations of Excellence podcast is opening up a deep dialogue about the issue with a Christ-centered lens with a series entitled, "Healed."
Inspired by Mark 5:33-34, the Healed series centers the critical intersections of mental health and spiritual development featuring licensed psychologist and liberation theologian Dr. Vanessa Abernathy as guest host. In this series, we want to share insights on important topics that position you to pursue healing in areas of life that often seem most difficult to overcome.
For show notes and references from this episode, visit aerialellis.wordpress.com
Episode 22: Expectations & Disappointments with Pastor Corey Sanders
For this episode, we introduce Pastor Corey Sanders. Corey is a very important person to me and you’ll hear more about why but for the purposes of this episode I will introduce Corey as the lead pastor of the Movement Church in Homestead, Florida. He has such a unique story filled with setting his sights on taking over the music industry but pivoting to answer the call to become a church planter.
Episode 21: Wealth & Prosperity with Anthony O’Neal
For this episode, we introduce Anthony O’Neal. Anthony is a millennial who has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smart decisions with their money, relationships, and education. He’s a #1 national bestselling author of Debt-Free Degree and national bestselling author of The Graduate Survival Guide. He reaches thousands of people with his podcast, The Table with AO, which is one of the nation’s top ranking money podcasts. He travels the country spreading his encouraging message to young adults to start their lives off right and helping people of all ages succeed with money. He has real, relevant and relatable conversations around money and relationships, and he does it with God at the center.
Episode 20: Transformation & Reinvention with A'Lelia Bundles
For this episode, we introduce Alelia Bundles - a woman who knows transformation and reinvention quite well. A’Lelia Bundles is the author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, the 2001 New York Times Notable Book about her entrepreneurial great-great-grandmother that was the inspiration for Self Made, the 2020 Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer. You may follow her at @aleliabundles on Twitter and Instagram and learn more about Alelia at www.aleliabundles.com and at the Madam CJ Walker at www.madamcjwalker.com
Video Episode 3: Expectations & Disappointments with Pastor Corey Sanders
Video Episode 2: Wealth & Prosperity with Anthony O’Neal
For this episode, we introduce Anthony O’Neal. Anthony is a millennial who has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smart decisions with their money, relationships, and education. He’s a #1 national bestselling author of Debt-Free Degree and national bestselling author of The Graduate Survival Guide. He reaches thousands of people with his podcast, The Table with AO, which is one of the nation’s top ranking money podcasts. He travels the country spreading his encouraging message to young adults to start their lives off right and helping people of all ages succeed with money. He has real, relevant and relatable conversations around money and relationships, and he does it with God at the center.
Video Episode 1: Transformation & Reinvention with A'Lelia Bundles
For this episode, we introduce Alelia Bundles - a woman who knows transformation and reinvention quite well. A’Lelia Bundles is the author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, the 2001 New York Times Notable Book about her entrepreneurial great-great-grandmother that was the inspiration for Self Made, the 2020 Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer. You may follow her at @aleliabundles on Twitter and Instagram and learn more about Alelia at www.aleliabundles.com and at the Madam CJ Walker at www.madamcjwalker.com
Episode 19: Warfare (Seasons & Shifts)
What happens when the seasons shift into spiritual conflict? It's called a season of warfare. It’s the time when good and evil are in a battle over you - yes two opposing forces are at war over you - your mind, your body and your soul. In order to navigate this season, you have to know what can take you down and how you can be. undefeated. This is the season where you are under attack and you need a specific strategy to win the war. In every battle, there is an end. Someone wins so let it be you.
Episode 18: Working (Seasons & Shifts)
Being in a season of working is similar to being in a zone. It’s a time when God is ready to put us to work. You could have just shifted out of a season of wondering and in that time you gained clarity on what actions you needed to take next. Or you could have just shifted out of a season of waiting and you got the green light to move on a plan or decision. It’s the time when you shift and actively work toward the things that were revealed to you in previous seasons. This is the season where you function in obedience and maximize your excellence.
Episode 17: Waiting (Seasons & Shifts)
In seasons and shifts of life, there is a pattern to waiting effectively. But sometimes waiting can feel unbearable. Do you find it difficult to wait? Do you think God should be moving in ways other than how you see it happening at the moment? Are you in a season of waiting right now? How does it feel? Is it a peaceful, productive wait or is it a stressful, worry-filled wait? What have you learned about yourself in the moments where God doesn’t move exactly when you think he should?
Episode 16: Wondering (Seasons & Shifts)
Our minds are in a state of constant wonder and we just don’t know what will be the result of a moment or a series of moments - what they are leading to, where they are directing us from or how they will unfold. In season two, this series of episodes entitled Seasons & Shifts, we'll dive in to topics that help us expect the extraordinary in new seasons and pursue excellence in the midst of a shift. If you are wondering about the next season or the shift it might bring, how are you managing this period of the unknown while wondering what’s next or what’s ahead?
Episode 15: Racism & Injustice
It’s hard to pursue excellence when you’re suffering from hate-filled racism fueled by anger and fear. It’s hard to feel like royalty when you're treated like a wild animal hunted as prey. It’s hard to believe that you are a king or a queen with your suffering due to the color of your skin. From one lifetime to the next. Generation to generation. Decade after decade. What should we say to black people right now? What should we expect from white allies? What about other people of color? How can we rise from pain and despair to empowerment and excellence in the face of racism and injustice?
Episode 14: Procrastination
Delay. Putting it off. Pushing it back. That assignment. That task. That thing. I’ll do it tomorrow. We appropriate many things for ‘tomorrow’ when, in fact, we don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. Truth is tomorrow is never for certain so being satisfied with how you left today is the other thing you can truly measure. Excellence is where your worth becomes who you are. It's not about proving yourself every single time instead it's about putting your best effort ahead of yourself every time. But what happens when procrastination gets the best of you? It does get the best of us from time to time. Whether it's doing laundry, making a phone call, writing a report, paying a bill - we are all prone to procrastination at some points. It's a tug of war between the rational and the emotional - what I’d like to be doing versus what I should be doing. So how do we keep procrastination from hindering our excellence?
Episode 13: Self-Sabotage
Self-sabotage happens when you get in your own way. What area of your life are you sabotaging? What could be transformational and life-changing for you but you’re stalling the progress? What are you holding hostage right now? Over the years you may have accumulated some distorted beliefs about yourself that led to doubting your capabilities, suppressing your feelings, limiting your potential or shutting out those close to you. So how does self-sabotage happen? And how do we get out of our own way?
Episode 12: Lies
We have all been lied to. And we’ve all told a lie. We lie more than we think we think do. But what about the lies we tell ourselves? We can get caught in a vicious cycle of perpetuating horrible lies that point the finger in our own faces and hinder every bit of excellence we could achieve. So how do you undo the lies embedded in your mind that make you believe the worst about your own existence and identity?
Episode 11: Time
As the whole entire world has been largely quarantining and social distancing due to the spread of the Coronavirus, we are confined to our homes and banished away from public settings. The time that we once used to work, travel, shop, dine and socialize is now swapped for being tucked away at home to cook, nap, clean, consume social media and watch Netflix. And since we seem to all of sudden have more time than we’d ever expect due to a potentially fatal virus sweeping the globe, most of us have gone from perpetually busy to painfully bored. So how do we manage our time and do it with excellence?
Episode 10: Peace
Many of us are wanting much more peace in our lives than we feel actually exists at the moment. In today’s time, peace can be an anomaly. This word “peace” is a very elusive and rare commodity. The equilibrium for stable peace in one’s life is way out of wack. Both excellence and peace are simple words to say, but sometimes so much more harder words to live, especially consistently. How does one find peace? Is it consistently achievable? And what does excellence have to do with peace?
Episode 9: Love
Love is three things - a feeling, a choice and an action. Do you reject the love and care of others due to past hurts and pains? Do you give love and never really feel like you get it back? What’s the one thing you believe about love at this very moment in your life, and it is a feeling, a choice or an action based on current conditions and circumstances? How can you learn to love freely without conditions? Love is brave. It's the bravest thing we could ever think, feel or do. And, it's the key to excellence.
Episode 8: Fear
In every situation, fear can hinder your pursuit of excellence. And, the fear of excellence can shift your entire perspective on life. Does fear push you to play it safe, avoid trying anything new, or freeze into your comfort zones? Or do you live beyond fear, willing to accept the possible negative outcome and the hope that you’ll achieve excellence? We have the authority to speak against perpetual fear, doubt, uncertainty, timidity and anxiety. Beyond fear, we have the authority to reclaim our minds, our thoughts and our destiny.
Episode 7: Relationships
We are better together. And we are safer together. Though society might tell us that we can do life on our own, God tells us that we simply can't function without each other. We need each other and we need relationships. Healthy relationships make life enjoyable perhaps more than anything else. We need them for our destiny. How do we get the right kind of relationships? Can you be the right kind of person in order to attract healthy relationships?
Episode 6: Difficult People
Episode 5: Righteousness
Excellence should appear in every facet of life. Righteousness is the evidence of excellence. There’s a constant awareness of falling short between excellence and mediocrity. And when it comes to God, that excellence is seen as righteousness. It has very little to do with getting things done and achieving worldly success, and everything to do with practicing personal humility and pursuing spiritual obedience. This truth should encourage you to level up and focus on pursuing excellence because how you do anything is how you do everything.
Episode 4: Struggles
In today’s world, we have been trained to assume that if something does not come easily to us, there must be something wrong. Every decision we make from technology to money to our careers to our relationships, we generally assume that if it’s not happening with ease or it feels unfair, then we’re experiencing a struggle. And naturally we believe struggle is bad. It’s impossible to live a life of excellence without struggle so we’ll talk about what means to tackle hardships with hope.
Episode 3: Desires
The opportunity to do a heart check is always worth taking advantage of - identifying what is in and on your heart and why. To pursue excellence, searching our hearts and making our desires free and pure is a fundamental approach. Every human alive has a desire of their heart. They aspire to be, they hope to become, they strive to do, something that is in their heart. Many of us are longing for more, we dare to dream, we hold the promise of prosperity. Each of us has a deep, heartfelt desire but how do we actually receive the desires of our hearts?
Episode 2: Goals
It’s still early in the year and if you haven’t mapped out your goals for 2020, this is the perfect time to fine-tune your intentions for the year. Getting clear on what you want out of life is the most important thing you can do as you pursue excellence. Your desire for excellence moves you to build a sturdy foundation on your goals.