Girl On A Hill

We continue our Spring Cleaning of the Heart and Mind series by diving into the destructive habit of future predicting. While we’re not pulling out a crystal ball, many of us escape our present and actively anticipate future worries - most of which will never happen. We’re afraid, desperately want control, and are wildly comfortable with uncertainty. We confront all of this today with some powerful (and yes, slightly painful) truths acknowledging both our lack of control AND the hope and freedom available to us when we’re willing to accept what comes as it comes and trust God’s plans for our future.

We continue our Spring Cleaning of the Heart and Mind series today by getting honest about blame-shifting. Why do we avoid owning up to our mistakes? What makes accepting responsibility so hard? We confront these questions head on as we get honest about our fears and insecurities. We talk about the inevitability of making mistakes and share how owning them allows us to grow. We’re sharing tips, truths, and the freedom that comes when we’re willing to humble ourselves and ask forgiveness for the wrong things we have done.

Why does everything always happen to me? Life isn’t fair! Everything is terrible! We all have these thoughts from time to time, but when we allow them to persist, our pity parties become life-long events that steal our energy, rob us of joy, and keep us focused on our problems. We’re getting real about the dangers of self-pity and talk openly about how our habits of complaint and negativity feed into this destructive habit. We want to be resilient problem solvers, so we wrap it up today with tips, truths, and our need to turn our eyes upward instead of inward if we want to rid ourselves of self-pity for good.

We continue our Spring Cleaning of the Heart and Mind Series by facing avoidance head on. We spend our limited energy avoiding people, situations, and feelings that make us uncomfortable - all the while avoiding necessary growth, change, and the truth that we CAN do hard things. We’re staring down truth, soaking in the tips, and admitting out loud that we must face what we’re running from and that we can do it all with the help of our Savior.

We continue our Spring Cleaning series by taking an honest look at some of the many ways we self-sabotage Some of the behaviors and mindsets that have become second-nature are holding us back - keeping us in negative thought loops and preventing us from not only taking steps towards growth but from walking in obedience. We confront the truth, share tips, and wrap it up with an encouragement to walk in faith - knowing we have been set on a course by a God who loves us.

We continue our Spring Cleaning of the Heart and Mind 3.0 series by taking an honest look at Codependency. Codependency often begins from a place of good intentions but can quickly develop into lasting and destructive patterns of people-pleasing, living without boundaries, and bearing burdens far beyond your responsibility. Our own issues of fear, avoidance, and a need for approval lead us to codependent behaviors but there is hope. We get to the truth of why codependency is not loving or the answer, and share tips to lead us away from unhealthy attachment and problem-solving to loving others while maintaining boundaries, working towards our own growth, and relying on God to love and care for the people in our lives.

Today we kick off our Spring Cleaning 3.0 series by digging into one of the ugliest and most harmful emotions we all experience - jealousy. We talk about what jealousy is, what it looks like, and how fear, discontent, comparison, and a lack of trust in God fuel our feelings. We’re afraid to lose and afraid we’re not as good as someone else. We confront these lies and encourage rooting out our triggers and recognizing our worth. And as always, we wrap it up with tips and truth to help us sweep away the lies and move us closer to accepting the person we were created to be and the life God prepared for us.

Things have a way of not going to plan. In fact, more often than not, our plans fall apart - requiring us to adapt and yes, even become semi-comfortable with change. When plans to record a new podcast didn’t work out this week, I decided to re-mix our episode on Disappointment. Today we wrestle with the gap between expectation and reality, get real about our lack of control, and discuss the beautiful truth about what can happen when we’re willing to meet what comes and what is with open arms.

We’re wrapping up our Wellness series today by taking a look at our occupational wellness. It’s an area of your life you might not be thinking about in connection with your whole body health - but finding meaning and joy in your work (no matter where you work) matters! We talk about our behaviors and mindsets that get in the way of our finding meaning in our work, share ways to cultivate our occupational wellness, and wrap it up with a few truths that could change the way we think about the work we’ve been called to do (whether it’s our dream job or something we’re doing out of necessity.) What you’re doing matters, and we’re getting into why.

We all know the basics - drink water, eat a balanced diet, get enough rest - but many of us are choosing to ignore what we know our bodies need. Today we’re getting honest about why - digging into things like immediate gratification and confronting just how good we are at ignoring our body’s signs and signals. We talk about our misconceptions surrounding physical wellness, share the signs that we’re working towards physical wellness, and wrap it up by sharing ways to cultivate physical health that are practical, doable, and don’t require you to completely give up donuts. We’re moving more, ignoring less, and taking small steps (and then bigger ones!) towards physical wellness today.

Today we take a look at our home as we evaluate our environmental wellness. We talk about the importance of creating a peaceful home environment and dig into what that really means and looks like. We talk about the practical and tangible practices like ditching the clutter and the deeper issues affecting peace in our home like the way we interact with our family and handle the unrest inside our heart. We’re sharing tips, speaking truth, and taking steps towards creating homes that truly feel like home.

In today’s podcast, we’re taking an honest look at the status of our spiritual health. Where are we struggling? How do we treat others? What do we believe and value - and does how we reflect those beliefs and values? We’re getting honest about our growth, our mindset, and the way our faith is or isn’t changing our life. We share what gets in the way, ways to cultivate our spiritual health, and wrap it up with a series of reflection questions to kickstart your own personal evaluation.

Our lives are spent in relationship with others - but how does the health of those relationships impact our health? As we continue our current series, we take an honest look at our social wellness - exploring the benefits of connectivity and belonging while also getting real about loneliness and the truth about how hard it is to establish friendships as an adult. We share signs of social health, talk about the barriers that get in our way, share ways to cultivate healthy connection, and wrap it up with a few truths to keep in mind as we seek to build the relationships we need to thrive.

Our emotions are a part of us - on purpose for a purpose, and are not to be feared or ignored - but how well do we cope with our emotions? How do we allow stress to affect us? Do challenges break or build us? As we take a look at our emotional wellness, we address these questions and talk about overcoming the barriers that keep us from feeling and healing. We share ways to cultivate our emotional health and confront the concepts of triggers, loss, mindset, and balance head-on. We’re here to feel our feelings and work towards accepting and growing through our emotions rather than running from them.

We continue our series on the 8 Components of Wellness by looking at our financial health. It may not be something we’ve considered, but our relationship with money affects our mindset, our choices, and our overall wellness - so we need to talk about it! We get real about the barriers that stand in the way of a healthy relationship with money and wrap it up by sharing some practical ways to cultivate our financial health - no matter the size of our paychecks. We’re talking values, our attitude about stuff, and contentment, and we’re so glad you’re here to get financially well along with us.

We kick off our new series on the 8 Components of Wellness by talking about our Intellectual Wellness. We’re digging into the importance of things like curiosity, commitment to life-long learning, and the bravery to take on new challenges. We get honest about the way our mindset and our aversion to change get in the way of intellectual growth - but share tons of practical (and pretty fun) ways to start cultivating this necessary component of our overall wellness. We’re trying new things, thinking about our thinking, and recognizing the power of learning.

We’re wrapping up our Fruits of the Spirit series by getting honest about self-control, and our lack of it! We get real about the role our negative emotions (and our refusal to deal with them) plays in our inability to control ourselves and talk about how our lack of control is sabotaging our goals. We’re wrestling with our temptations, talking about our triggers, and getting to the root of the things binding us to our old habits. We’re saying goodbye to over-indulgence and poor coping skills and saying hello to the disciplined and balanced life God has called us to.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit that sounds easy enough - until you understand being gentle means dealing with your anger, living a life full of grace, and keeping your emotions in check for the benefit of others. We get honest about all of it and provide you with a few ways you can start to cultivate gentleness in your day-to-day life. We’re working to love others (even when they’re difficult), slow down our judgements and responses, and learning how our belief in God’s goodness helps us to live gently.

We’re digging into the topic of faithfulness today, as we wrestle with our own reliability as well as our response to God when things get tough. We talk about what faithfulness looks like lived out and why we struggle with both our own dependability and our hesitancy to depend on the Lord. We share some challenging (but necessary!) ways to cultivate faithfulness in our everyday lives and wrap it up with a few truths and some important thoughts about trust.

We continue our series on living out the Fruit of the Spirit in our everyday lives by discussing the concept of goodness. We hear the word “good” a lot - but do we really know what it means? We talk about what goodness looks like lived out and share why we struggle. We address our selfishness and get to the root of what our motivation needs to be to reflect true goodness. We wrap it up by sharing ways to cultivate goodness and some painful but necessary truths to embrace as we seek to live lives that bless others and reflect our good Father.

Kindness is a trendy word and something we all like to think we show, but do we truly understand biblical kindness? We talk about what a kind person looks like, share why we struggle to be kind (including a few reasons you may not have considered before), and share some difficult but doable ways to cultivate kindness in your daily life. We wrap it up by sharing some truths that challenge our motivation and just might cause us to rethink the way we think about what kindness is and what it isn’t.

We’re continuing our Everyday Fruits of the Spirit series by digging into patience. We all know we need more of it, but if we’re being honest, most of us don’t really want it. And we get honest about why waiting is so hard! We bring up uncomfortable words like control, flexibility, and uncertainty and get real about how we make patience even harder than it has to be. We share a few ways you can start cultivating patience in your daily life and wrap it up with some painful but necessary truths to help us start to walk in patience and find peace in the wait.

We’re continuing our series on living out the fruits of the spirit in our everyday lives by talking about peace. We tackle some tough questions like, “Do we really understand what peace is?” and “Why are we rejecting the peace of God that’s available to us?” We get brutally honest about how our own behaviors and thought patterns keep us from experiencing the calm heart we long to have and share some practical ways to cultivate peace in our day to day lives. It’s time to end the spiral, trust our Savior, and embrace the peace-filled life intended for us.

We continue our series on the fruits of the spirit by talking about joy. We all want it, but what is it, and what's keeping us from experiencing it? We get honest about why we struggle to be joyful, acknowledging that joy requires intense vulnerability and a choice. We share what joy looks like, ways to cultivate joy in our everyday lives, and wrap it up by sharing some truths about joy all wrapped up in hope.

Today begins our series on living out the fruits of the spirit in our everyday lives and we’re jumping into the deep end today as we discuss love. We say we love pizza, our husbands, our friends - and we’re commanded to love our neighbor, but do we really understand what love is?

We talk about what love is, what it looks like, and why we struggle to love the people in our lives. We share ways to cultivate our love and wrap it up with a few truths we need to hear if we want to live the lives of love we were called to.

Today I’m wrapping up our series on rest by reviewing what we’ve learned and sharing how rest can change your life: and it can, because it’s changing mine! I share signs you need rest and why we’re exhausted. I dig into some of the lies we believe about rest, share some powerful (and painful!) truths, and a few ways to get the rest we need- the rest that’s always been a part of Gods plan for you.

Today as we start to wrap up our series on rest, we dig into the importance of spiritual rest - the rest that restores our soul and draws us closer to God, the source of true rest. We get honest about things like disconnection, worry, and our deep unhealed pain - and how those things keep us feeling broken and soul-tired. We talk about laying down our burdens, relying on God, and accepting the rest from our Savior that will not only nourish our soul but keep us from spinning.

We continue our series on rest by digging into a type of rest we all need - sensory rest. We’re overwhelmed by constant stimulation and even in our extra moments, we’re choosing noise. We talk about our relationship with silence, share some tangible fixes, and get honest about how sensory overload sends us over the top. It’s time to embrace quiet and get the sensory rest we need.

Our lives were built for connection, but are all connections restful? Today, we talk about the importance of recognizing and embracing the social interactions that lift us up and leave us feeling refreshed, and what to do about the ones that leave us feeling drained. Social rest is vital for our whole-body health, so we're digging into what it is, how to get it, and why we're feeling so alone. We're examining our boundaries, dropping the people-pleasing, and learning to love who we were made to be, all in the name of getting the social rest we so desperately need.

Our minds are overworked and exhausted, leaving us feeling stressed, cynical, and more distracted than ever. Today, we're talking about the importance of mental rest - the much-needed break our mind needs. We talk about the way mind-chatter and the constant onslaught of information wreak havoc on our brains and how things like perfectionism and drive play a role in our mental fatigue as well. We share ways to give our brains a break and some important truths we must embrace to truly get the rest we need.

We're emotionally exhausted, and it's time to fix it. Our minds and spirits need emotional rest. Today, as we continue our series on whole-body rest, we talk about what emotional rest is, digging into the why behind our stress and emotional burnout. We're out of balance, we stuff our feelings, we lack support, and we normalize constant stress - and it's showing! We talk about how to get the emotional recovery we need, why we need it, and why the changes we need to make to get it are worth it.

We continue our series on whole-body rest by digging into the concept of creative rest. While creative rest probably isn’t something you’ve ever thought about - it’s likely something your mind needs. We talk about the mental wear and tear of constant problem-solving and our need to reconnect with things that fill us with awe and wonder. We share practical ways to get creative rest that you can put into practice today and wrap it up by sharing tips, truths, and a few examples from Jesus.

We're tired, worn-out, depleted, and let's be honest it shows. We need rest! We're kicking off our new series on rest by digging into the concept of physical rest, what that means, signs we need it, and how to get it. We chat about sleep, movement, and the underlying issues that may be keeping us from the rest we need and were designed to get.

OH, Sorry!!! You may not even realize hose often you're apologizing, and today, we take a look at our habit of over-apologizing and dig deep into why we do it. Over-apologizing is wrapped up in perfectionism, shame, and people-pleasing, and it's time to let it go, unapologetically as we stand secure in who we are: worthy and loved.

We like being right but so often our need to be right gets in the way of relationship building, growth, and happiness. I get honest about the pitfalls of arguing and share how being right is about so much more than fact-checking. I talk about the blessing it is to not know everything, (we get to keep learning!) and wrap it up by talking about the power of love and the importance of seeing the person behind the difference of opinion.

We all want to be liked - but when we need everyone to like us, we put not only our mental and emotional health in danger, but begin to forget the truth about who we are and where our worth comes from. (Spoiler alert - it’s not what other people think of us!) We get honest about the cost of hustling for validation and talk about the traps of people-pleasing and perfectionism that go hand in hand with a need to be liked. We share hard truths, some tips for loving and embracing who you were created to be.

If we’re being honest, most of us don’t just yearn for control - we love it. We’re control freaks who are using the illusion of control as a way to cope with our stress and anxiety - only, it’s backfiring. Our attempts to control everything and yes, everyone - are exhausting, damage our mental health and relationships, and shut down creativity and new possibilities. It’s time to own up to the fact that our way isn’t always the best way and that if we truly want control, we should start with controlling ourselves. We wrap it up with tips and a hard truth about the link between our desire to control our world and our trust in God.

Why is the past so hard to let go of? Why do so many of us struggle to make forward mental and emotional progress? Leaving our past requires us to not only heal old wounds, but to accept change and appreciate the truth of our present circumstances. It’s a challenge, but a process we must work through if we want to grow, have healthy and fair relationships, and if we want to fully embrace who we are and what we have in our right now. We wrap it up by sharing a few helpful tips and the two things you need to actively look for if you truly want to leave your past behind and love your present.

We've all put decisions on hold, kept ourselves from taking risks, and hesitated to put ourselves out there relationally and creatively because we just want to be sure of how things will go. Today we're letting that go because as hard as it is to accept, we can't always be certain. We're getting honest about how control, fear, and anxiety play a part in our need for certainty, talk about allowing a little bit of room for a little bit of maybe in our lives, and share a paradigm-shifting statement about what certainty really is. As always, we wrap up today's pod with tips, and I share a reminder of the one thing of which you can always be certain.

This week, we’re continuing our Letting Go series by dropping our hurtful narratives - those negative thought loops running through our brain. We talk about how that hurtful inner monologue isn’t just keeping us sad and angry - it’s actually making our decisions and changing the direction of our life. We get honest about why these negative thoughts are so hard to shake and share the truth of why we need to start changing them. We’re changing our lives one thought at a time.

We want life to be fair, and most of the time, if we're being honest, we expect it to be. But as long as we're clinging to the idea that life has to be fair to be good, we'll be living a life filled with discontent, resentment, and chronic unhappiness. Today we're acknowledging that we must change what we can and work to accept the rest so we can learn to love our life, even in the midst of situations and circumstances we didn't choose.

Today we’re letting go of our mistakes - releasing the guilt and shame we’ve been carrying so we can move forward in freedom. We dig into what it means to forgive ourselves, but get honest about why forgiving ourselves is so hard. The guilt and the overthinking isn’t working - but there’s hope. We share tips for forward progress, a life-changing Scripture, and some truths that remind us of the abundance of grace available to us if we’d only uncross our arms and accept it.

We talk ourselves out of a lot of things in the name of being cautious or fully prepared when in reality, most of the time, we're just scared. Today we're kicking off our new "Letting Go" series by dropping our need to feel 100% ready before taking action. We're tired of putting our lives on hold while waiting for fear to subside. We get real about the things that keep us from moving forward in faith and share honest tips and truths that can help propel us out of the waiting zone into action. We're talking initiative, living that carpe diem life, and leaning into God's strength as a source of courage instead of waiting for ours to show up.

In the last episode of our "I Want You To Be Happier" series, we dig into just how important and beneficial it is to serve others. We get honest about why we don't help and get real about how things like selfishness, insecurity, and unhealed pain feature in our excuses for not getting involved. We share tips for starting small and stress the importance of serving who you know where you are. We're working to put love into action as we serve our families, neighbors, and communities.

We’ve all heard the advice, “Just be yourself.” So why do most of us spend our lives trying to fit in and be like everyone else? Today, we’re talking about the fear that holds us back from letting our personality shine, leaning into who God made us to be, and embracing what makes us - us.

How often are we fully present in our moments? The truth? Not often enough. Today we’re talking about the barriers that prevent us from living present and the changes we can make to help us be more mindful. We’re working to embrace the right now, accept what is, and be all the way where we are.

Life’s too short to spend it watching - just going through the motions, always the passive observer. So today, we’re talking about jumping into our life with both feet- rejecting fear, embracing growth, and daring to leave our comfort zone. We’re taking risks, joining in, and choosing to believe that there is more than a half-hearted, numbed-out, sitting on the sidelines kind of life. We’re choosing to LIVE!

We're continuing our "I want you to be happier" series by talking about our need to calm down. We talk about the way we've normalized stress, our misconceptions about what calm is, and how living rattled affects us mentally and physically. We share tips for calming down and wrap it up by talking about calming ourselves vs. trying to calm the storm and our need to rely on the one who is always in the boat with us.

We’re kicking off our “I Want You To Be Happier” series with a choice many of us don’t even realize we have - our mood! We talk about digging deep and uncovering what’s underneath our bad mood, how we give away our power and control when we fail to take responsibility for our mood, and how the way we think about the things we’re going through affects our moods. We wrap it up by sharing some mood lifters and some truth about the One thing that can hold us steady.

It's our 100th episode, and we're celebrating!!! Today we're celebrating, not only the podcast, but each other, highlighting our own journeys up the hill. We play a few games celebrating our quirks and personalities, and then get real about how we're growing, what we're learning, and the truths that are sinking in and causing life-change.