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Are you drained with brain fog? Strung out with caffeine and sugar to get by? There are alternatives to boost your energy and concentration naturally and still have the convenience demanded by your hectic and busy life. Cultivate grit and build resilience naturally so you can have the physical reserves to better cope with stress. Let's see how close I am to understanding your current choices.

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I meet many people that fit this general profile. Less than six hours of sleep, caffeine and sugar to push through the exhaustion, and acids and aspirin to get through other discomforts. A little bit of alcohol, maybe a half a bottle or more of wine to wind down and sleep aids.

Breakfast is to go eaten standing in the kitchen, in the car, or at the desk. Convenience and easy to eat is the top priority. Lunch, sometimes you skip it because there's usually not enough time or it's partially eaten while you're working.

So dinner really is the main meal of the day and often later in the evening based upon your busy work schedule. You sit most of the day and probably don't have a lot of time for exercise because you're working 12 plus hours. This sound about right? Does that sound like you? So when you're drained and exhausted and all that's going on in your life, it really won't take all that much to begin feeling differently.

Just a little bit more sleep, more water, whole foods, a bit of stretching, slowing down to chew instead of gulping your food. It'll make a significant difference. Trust me.

So today let's go over a few simple substitutions that you can make in your eating patterns and how to improve your nighttime routines with small adjustments to get better sleep. So before I jump into that, let's go ahead and start with prayer. Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friends to listen today.

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A demanding and stressful career and a hectic and busy lifestyle have stressed and stretched my friend too far. Please help them ease their stress and cast their burdens on you. Provide the strength and energy for them to adopt small changes so they can feel better, enabling them to have a more fulfilling life.

I pray you can help every listener achieve their goals to be healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit. As they reduce stress and improve work-life balance, may they know your will and your love. In Jesus's name, amen.

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Hi, I'm Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. So great to meet you today. Early in my corporate career, I'd been where you are, figuring out how to naturally boost my energy and offset digestive discomfort from chronic stress.

Honestly, I was drinking more coffee and wine than water. Skipping meals was a regular thing because I just didn't have the time for it, or just grabbing a bite whenever it was convenient, just so I could squeeze in more work. It was just a way of life for me at the time.

Short nights with restless sleep left me waking exhausted and dragging the next day, which meant more coffee and more stomach irritation from not eating. It was just an ongoing cycle. So eventually, with my passion for nutrition and holistic wellness, I figured out a way and learned even more along that journey that I want to share with others now as a stress recovery coach.

So today's topic is one of my favorites. It's about how to build those inner reserves so that you have the grit, the resilience to handle whatever comes your way. And it's one of my favorite topics.

In the interest of time though, today I'm just going to keep it to water, whole foods, sleep, and then we'll go through an exercise at the end like we normally do. Because there are so many different ways to make minor changes to naturally boost energy and improve concentration. So we're just going to keep this to physical activities, things you consume, and things that you can do in today's discussion.

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But building reserves is a key way to better deal with stress. So last time, you may remember, we talked a little bit about halt. That when you're feeling any of these four things, hungry, angry, or anxious, lonely, or tired, it just makes everything so much more stressful.

You just, that emotional state that you're in, it just makes you so much more susceptible to stress. So if you aren't hangry and you're not tired, you're going to naturally feel that you're less stressed because you've got more capabilities internally to deal with it. So your body's less likely to get triggered in that stress response.

So some of these things then are, of course, sleep and hydration, whole foods, caffeine and sugar really play into the stress cycle. So you want to reduce those. Focusing on eating habits that aren't rushed and bad for your digestion and building energy and slowing down enough to make sure that they're helping you.

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Getting enough movement. It doesn't necessarily have to be exercise, but just moving your body more than you currently are with as sedentary as you are with work. Getting some sunshine.

It really makes a big difference to sleep and it naturally boosts up your energy, just getting that little bit of sun. It allows your body to naturally produce some of the vitamins it needs. And then getting some breaks and rest.

It's really not a lot of different things that comes with building your physical energy reserves. And all it takes is just a couple of small adjustments to improve concentration and to boost energy. So as you think about it, you, like many people, probably already know what is the next step on the spectrum of better for you.

You just need to implement it. So maybe some of you have already made some small steps. We've talked a little bit about the snack drawer before, someplace convenient in your office that you've put in some different snacks just to make sure that they're there, they're convenient so that you eat.

You just need to make sure that it's not full of just candy bars, that you've got some protein, fiber, meal replacement bars, some things with some broader nutrition portfolio than your typical quick, convenient snack, like a bag of potato chips or a candy bar or a bag of cookies. Just making that small change can make a huge difference because it helps start to take you off that energy roller coaster as you're picking some of those things out. And DoorDash these days, honestly, has opened up so many convenient food delivery options that maybe you're already picking some healthy and better for you items to be delivered to the office.

So you're not living off of whatever's in the vending machine, which is pretty convenient when I was at the worst of my stress, to give you many more healthy, convenient lunch options. And we're just looking for better for you, whatever is that next tiny step. So maybe you've done some of those already.

And then, or maybe you've picked frozen food and you're bringing in one of these little frozen meals. Don't know about you, but when I tried that for a while, that just didn't work because I couldn't find the time to get to the microwave. And let me tell you, thawed out, cold, frozen meals, no.

Those are horrible. Just don't do it. So if you do do that path, just make sure you actually get to the microwave and don't try and compromise and just eat it because it was convenient.

So, but for purposes of today's discussion, I'm just going to keep working with the scenario that I described earlier, where you're getting very little sleep, you're working 12 hours of a day, you're roughly spending about two of your hours prepping for your day. You think about it, you probably got a 30 minute morning routine from the time that you get up to when you get to your desk or you get to your car, depending on whether you're commuting or not. Dinner, you're making it, eating it, super short period of time, and just running the household stuff that takes about two hours.

And that running the household stuff includes things like your coffee prep, your plan for dinner, laying out your clothes, if you're bringing lunch, prepping it, following up on any personal business or communications, which just leaves you then three, four hours of discretionary time for loved ones and yourself, depending on your commute. So the reason you probably found me is because this lifestyle, it just doesn't, it's not conducive to work life balance. In that little bit of three to four hours a day, you're just not getting a fulfilling life.

Yet you're exhausted because of everything that you've got going on and that you're constantly on the run. So with these time constraints, boosting your energy may seem very difficult. But today we're going to focus on how you can do this and still stay as busy and hectic and crazy of a lifestyle that you currently have, and let you deal with making choices so that you can improve your energy while you're working on figuring out how you're going to end up reclaiming your time so you can have more family time and more balance.

So these strategies we're going to cover today are really just all about building those physical reserves and doing those immediate short-term wins to boost energy and to improve concentration just to get rid of some of that brain fog that comes with the exhaustion. So the first thing I want to kind of cover is cut the crap. C-R-A-P.

That's my secret to helping you cultivate grit, boost energy, and improve concentration. So let's go over what the crap is. C is for caffeine.

R is for refined sweeteners, flours, and starches. All of these things get you on an energy roller coaster. Alcohol, because often many of you as you're really stressed out and exhausted, you get so wired with everything that's going on and that high pace that your life is that you find yourself drinking a lot of alcohol in the evening, which negatively impacts your ability to get sleep.

And then the P is processed GMO seed oils. So these are like the generic vegetable oil, cottonseed, corn, canola, rapeseed, etc. You probably aren't reading labels, which is fine.

That is one of the things though that makes a long-term difference. It is a little more of an advanced item, and I'm not really going to get into that. Another bonus area that you can take a look at if reading labels is kind of up your alley is getting rid of artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners.

A lot of these artificial colors, for people that are sensitive to them, they trigger ADHD-like symptoms. And so they feed into that stress and that I'm constantly moving and worrying and in that cycle from that standpoint. So that may be one of those things, just as you continue on this journey, that you might need to take a look at cutting as you're looking to boost your energy and to reduce your stress and improve work-life harmony.

But we're going to keep this simple today and really focus on the highest impact, which is water and just focusing on whole foods. That way you don't have to focus on any label reading whatsoever. Well, maybe a little bit on the sugar part, but that's a really easy one to do a direct comparison on.

So why start there? You want to avoid the hangry, just not get hungry and angry, and make sure that you can get off that energy roller coaster. Because every time you have something sugary and caffeine, your energy, it peaks up, but then that crash that follows and it seems like it almost takes more sugar, more caffeine to get you back to normal so that you can continue on with your day. And that gets compounded when you're not taking your breaks and allowing your body to reset naturally as you go through the your energy ebbs and flows through the course of the day.

So the first thing you want to do is focus on water because dehydration feeds into all of this. So many times you get a hungry signal and it's actually you need some water. Sometimes you're feeling really down and your energy's low, you need some water because you're pushing on dehydration.

So to be properly hydrated, some estimate that you take your body weight, you divide it by two, and you have that many ounces of water, and that's enough to keep you hydrated. But to stay hydrated, it really all depends on what your other consumption patterns are. Every glass of alcohol, caffeine, it increases your water content that you need to have to properly flush these things through your system.

So it's really easy to get dehydrated if you're not focusing on regularly drinking your glass of water and having it right near you. There's a point in time when seriously I was drinking more coffee than anything else and then probably in the course of the day I was only drinking maybe a total of 64 ounces and almost none of that was water. It was like 30 to 40 ounces of coffee, a couple glasses of wine, and maybe one glass of water in the morning and at night.

So I was running dehydrated and I could feel how exhausted I was. I kept taking more and more caffeine because of how tired I was. I didn't realize it was dehydration until I started having some other issues.

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As I ended up deciding to make improvements on this, just slowly switching out anything after 1 p.m. started to make a big difference for me, going to the half-calf, going to decaf, diluting the coffee with water, making water more accessible. So I didn't necessarily feel that I was making big changes but just slowly incorporating more water in the course of the day and my access to it and reducing the caffeine. Switching out teas, all of these had huge benefits on my exhaustion and brain fog.

It can be really hard to reduce the caffeine because of how tired you are and your body also gets accustomed to really high levels of it and can create a dependency on it, which is why when you may have ever tried to cut caffeine before you get big headaches and you feel terrible and you just go ahead and just pick up the coffee again. So you might need to find alternatives to help you keep your energy up, particularly as you're slowly weaning yourself off of caffeine and finding other beverages that better suit and keep your energy up. So for example, you might want to try a B-complex vitamin.

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Getting that natural boost from this supplement can help you feel a lot more energy. B12, a lot of these other B vitamins that are necessary for your metabolism so it can work more optimally. So it's a really simple, easy way to boost your energy.

And it's really easy to tell if you're getting the right amount of B vitamins. So if you take a B vitamin and you're drinking water with your B vitamin, you'll feel better about it. But as soon as you're done using it because it's a water-soluble vitamin, you're going to piss it out.

So if you're regularly finding that right after you take a B vitamin, you are overly yellow to say that you're taking more B vitamin than you need to and you can cut it back and dial it back in. But if you're getting clear, it means your body's using all of the B vitamins and you can end up increasing your dosage. So just a quick way to identify another means of boosting your energy as you're weaning yourself off of caffeine and helping to get your body into a better spot.

And this is not something that's going to make a significant difference on your busy and hectic life. So moving into the next topic. So once you get yourself fully hydrated and switch up your beverages so that they're helping you, you want to take a look at whole foods.

So for whole foods, just keep it really simple. Whole foods, I mean things that look like produce. So fruit, dried fruit, nuts.

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Find foods that still look like foods that aren't completely processed in a factory. And you'll find that there's less additives in it and less crud that keeps you feeling slow and weighs you down. So an easy thing to tackle is if you have that snack drawer that you've maintained for any of these convenience items, like we talked about before even, is pick things that have less sugar in them.

So even if you normally have a whole thing of Snickers bars in there, well it's pretty easy to get a slightly better for you option than the Snickers bars. So just slowly change your grocery shopping habits to include items that have less sugar and more fiber in them and it will help you maintain a better control of your blood sugar. Actually eating breakfast and lunch will really help you too.

Even if you are having higher quantities of sugar, the protein, the fat, the fiber that you get with a well-rounded meal helps even out those highs and those lows. Not that you want to stay on those high levels of sugar that you're probably consuming right now, but it helps to buffer them if you have proper proteins, fats, and fibers to make it so that you're not getting these huge swings. Another super simple way to boost your energy with your food is actually to focus on eating it and slowing down.

You may not realize it, but your digestion is tied to your senses. Your brain and your gut are both required to digest food. So when you slow down and you can smell it and you can enjoy the taste of it and you chew it down to small enough pieces and enjoy the full sensation of eating, you also digest better.

So instead of feeling like a rock sitting in your stomach or because your digestion is not working as well since you're in a stress mode, it allows you to a relax more and two your digestion is working better and more effectively to get the nutrition out of your food. So just even if you make it for five minutes, three minutes, however long it takes for you just to eat that apple and just enjoy it, it will help you feel better. So minor changes.

That's all we're taking a look at. Things that can barely have an impact in how much time you spend on what you consume. And since I did mention supplements before, I do have a philosophy in regards to I typically recommend whole foods or freeze-dried supplements just because they contain so much more than just individual chemicals that get isolated out.

So if you're going through your day and you need to boost something up a little bit more, protein powders, green powders, other whole food supplements like freeze-dried organs, fish roe, psyllium or chicory root powder and maybe some cultured dairy. If you can add these things into your diet, even if you're not making major shifts, grabbing a handful of pills of these supplements, it's easy to fit into your day but it also gives you all of these nutritional benefits. Put a little bit of protein powder in with your milk and your coffee.

Again, you're getting that great boost. A little bit of fiber powder, same thing. So just figure out what those right small things are for you to get that next natural better for you step.

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So on that topic, what is the next better for you step? I don't know what it is that you're eating on a daily basis. So it's all kind of up to you personally. Is it replacing a diet soda or a cup of coffee with a glass of water? Is it using whole milk or cream instead of sugar-laden non-dairy creamer? Maybe it's just picking a lower sugar or less fried snack, half-calf, saying grace and just eating your food and just taking a moment to breathe and enjoy without multitasking.

Any of these are great places to start. So what is your next better for you step? And maybe it's not a food swap. Maybe it's an activity swap.

One of the things that I realized over the years is that I had a pattern of a 4.30 p.m. reward. I needed something to celebrate that I had gotten through all of the meetings that I had for the day and I was getting into quiet time. The nice thing about working in California is that everybody on the East Coast is done with their office hours and you get a quiet period of time.

So I developed this habit early in my career. It is everybody was done on the East Coast and logged off, I was finally able to get into doing my work and would take a moment to celebrate and reward myself with that afternoon candy bar or a cup of coffee. And really, I just needed a different type of reward.

So switching out that activity to a quick call or text exchange with a loved one, stepping outside for a moment, it can give you that moment of comfort, celebration, joy. Then that item consumed and maybe that's not, you can replace a food item with an activity. One of the things that worked out really well for me is when I checked in with home that late in the day, it reminded me I need to be going home, not spending two more hours getting everything wrapped up in the office and then going home.

So see what you can turn that 4.30 p.m. snack, if that's what your holdup is, to something that's more fulfilling and that helps you with your idea of work-life balance. And even just a mental shift and for me that at 4.30, that was instead of beginning my time to do my work, but that was my time to be wrapping up for the day, that made a big difference. So whatever works for you to help you boost your energy, improve your focus, and make sure that all of this is supporting your long-term goals of work-life harmony.

So what's that right next step for you? Moving into the next category, sleep. Sleep, honestly, I get it. It is probably one of the hardest things to do is to increase how much sleep you're getting.

At less than six hours a night, you've already kind of sacrificed back as far as you can because you're squeezing in as much as you can into your day. So it is probably the hardest, but honestly, it is one of the biggest impacts. If you can get yourself an extra hour of sleep on a regular basis, it will improve so many of your issues that you have in regards to energy and brain fog.

But if you can't, because I know it's hard to free up that time, let's talk about some of the things that can help you improve the quality of the sleep that you're getting. So let's take a look at evening routines. A couple of key things to keep in mind is you set up your routines to help you, and these still may be a little bit challenging, don't get me wrong, because it's going to take resorting your whole evening, but it's probably easier for you than trying to figure out how to get an extra hour of sleep.

So if you have no food or alcohol three hours before you go to bed, it helps your digestion to be done so that you can get, it can, your body can prioritize your brain and the rest that you need instead of being so focused on your belly. If you reduce the blue light exposure from your devices, it helps your body to start naturally winding down. All of this light that we get exposed to inside, it really throws off our circadian rhythms and particularly the super bright light from devices.

So the more that you can reduce that exposure or eliminate it at least an hour before bed, figuring out what are in that hour before you go to bed, how can you do more calming and soothing activities? Maybe it's some simple prep for your next day where you can reduce that lighting as you do them, journaling, prayer, Bible reading, snuggling with your partner. Any of these things help set you up in your routine to have better quality sleep. Another thing that you can do that helps you get better sleep is first thing in the morning.

Resetting your circadian rhythms so that you're connected with the light and darkness cycle that God designed us for and so that you can get the best sleep possible. You want to get a little bit of sunshine on your skin early in the morning in that first half hour of the day if possible because the sun is not like any of these artificial lights. You get so many more frequencies and different energy from that sun that helps you.

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We already know that when you're in the sun, your body makes more vitamin D and I'm sure that because we are electromagnetic beings, when you look at subcellular level, that there's probably other benefits to it as well that we just don't understand and they're coming. So just getting some of that sunshine that God designed for us to get exposed to on a daily basis will help reset your circadian rhythms so you can get better quality sleep at night. Another thing that I find that a lot of my clients do, like I mentioned, alcohol to wind down.

Some people use a lot of sleep aids, Z-Quil, NyQuil, they're kind of on the regular consumption list to help wind down and get better sleep. Switching these out in your evening routine for calming herbal teas like chamomile, lavender, any of the sleep combinations that the tea companies sell. If you're into supplementation, again, magnesium, glycinate in particular, low-dose melatonin, these can help you sleep.

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Do watch for melatonin because you can get a dependency on that and if you overtake too much melatonin, it'll be really hard in the morning to get going. It kind of feels a little bit like a hangover because your body's got to make so much more extra serotonin to overcome the melatonin in the system. That has to do with that sleep-wake cycle thing.

So just be careful in terms of what you're selecting and don't necessarily pick something at too high of a dose or become too dependent upon it. Any of these things can improve the sleep that you get. Getting good nighttime and morning routines resets those circadian rhythms.

So get it and then when you're ready, focus on getting more sleep. Get the games that you can with improving the quality of it and trust me, with better quality and a little bit more sleep, you will find yourself so much more productive, creative, strategic as you're working and you get through your day. But you do have to figure out where that extra time is going to come from and it's totally worth it.

Every single person that I've worked with and talked to that has figured out how to get that little bit more sleep in their life, there's physical, mental, relational work benefits that translates from those and carry into other areas of your life. So I've covered a lot really fast but I hope you get the idea. Super tiny little changes that you can make in your consumption patterns and the way that your routines are and your sleep.

So these are things that don't impact how busy you are, how crazy and hectic your life is. These itty bitty tiny little things you can swap out and to make small adjustments that you can easily fit in your schedule. This is the way to help you boost energy and improve concentration and focus.

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So as you think about this, I guess we've already talked about, you probably know what that next right step is for you. So what's holding you back from implementing it? What is preventing you from a better for you swap? So let's simplify this even further. So don't worry about changing any of your routines.

Don't try and pick up anything else. You already know when you eat, when you don't eat. Just change access.

Often it's just one time you change what you're picking up at the having more water bottles instead of sodas, the snack drawer, the mini fridge, changing out your K-cups so that they're half-calf or decaf, having a large volume water bottle in your office next to the coffee pot. Just some of those small changes. You're not making anything different in your day-to-day.

You're just swapping things out so it works seamlessly with the way that you live your life right now. Does that make it more accessible? So that you can make that small, tiny next step?

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I know I ran through these exercises pretty quickly so if you have any questions please email me sharon@whisperingfieldswellness.com. Next week I'll focus more on building physical resilience to stress as part of your stress management.

So it's all about building your grit. How do you increase your reserves and your tolerance and resilience? For in summary this is all about getting in back in tune and in rhythm with how God designed us and it gives us a lot of simple ways to restore energy and to improve that stress tolerance and they work perfectly with tiny habits. I hope this video has given you plenty of ideas for your stress management plan as you are do-it-yourselfing your stress recovery journey.

Click the link to download my worksheet on building tiny habits. You can effectively make change in your life with seconds a day. You can get started on this in five minutes or less.

It is that simple, I promise. If you've been working with this worksheet for a while and watching the videos, if you want to work with me so you can put these stress recovery tools together better and go deeper, click the services link below. As a Christian stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance, to ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes that you desire in your life.

I can come alongside to support and encourage you and share a few strategies and tools to help you with mindset, lifestyle, and diet changes. See you next episode. Have a blessed day.

How are stress and work wearing you down? What can you do to restore your energy reserves and feel better? That's our focus for today. With being caught in an almost unending survival mode, stress takes a significant toll on your body. Insomnia, digestive issues, tension, fatigue, moodiness, lack of focus, they're just the beginning.

Long working hours and with self-care being deprioritized and picking food for convenience over nutrition, it depletes your body even faster. Yet you can turn this around. With faith-driven tiny habits, you can find the time and energy to start implementing better for you actions and choices.

Today I'm going to address physical and environmental dimensions of wellness. So you have some ideas for next week as we get back into habit building to being able to promote those areas of well-being. Also, I'll be revisiting your vision of work-life harmony so we can continue to build out your wellness toolbox for stress management.

Let's go ahead and start with prayer. Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friends to listen today. Please help them find the motivation, guidance, strategies, and tactics to reduce stress and improve work-life harmony.

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Thank you for designing and creating this wonderful world for us to live in. Help us see how we can modify our environment to better reflect your glory so we can also feel more safe, secure, calming, and pleasant, which will help us relieve stress. I praise how miraculously you designed us, including our physical forms.

I am more than grateful for how you have graced us with these amazing temples to house your Holy Spirit and experience this life before we join you in the everlasting. I feel privileged to have a responsibility to care for these creations of yours. I gratefully fulfill my duty to care for my body and environment in a way that allows your will to be done and reflects my love for you.

I pray all is well with every listener, healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit. As they reduce stress and improve work-life balance, may they know your will and your love. In Jesus's name, amen.

In case if we haven't met before, I'm Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Today in Grace Over Grind, I'll be identifying how making a few small changes in your physical health and changes in your environment can help you to reduce stress and improve work-life harmony, allow you to start making those changes to achieve your goals of thriving and flourishing. As I get into physical health, I want to make sure you are aware of my underlying bias and belief.

It's a little bit different than other coaches that are out there. First off, you are bio-individual from your DNA to your mind to your spirit. There is no one else like you.

Physically, even if you had an identical twin with the exact same genetics at the time that you were born, from the life that you've lived, the thoughts that you've had, the experiences and its impact on your epigenetics and microbiome, you would be totally different today than that identical twin. This is how beautifully God designed our bodies is so that we can adapt to whatever is occurring in our lives to being able to have the best likelihood of survival. As a result of this, I firmly believe that God made every single one of us to be unique.

Yeah, there are some common things in regards to what body systems do. My heart, your heart, they work the same way. But within, deeply in terms of who we are as a being, a body, mind, spirit with the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, we are unique and also physically in the temple that we have to the Holy Spirit.

And because you are unique and created to fulfill part of God's plan for you, only you and God know what is truly optimal for you and what is required to heal you. God knew you before you were born and before you decided what faith you wanted to follow. He has put in your cells that inner wisdom of what your body needs to thrive and to flourish.

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Think about a paper cut. Your body heals automatically. You don't go tell it, hey, heal that paper cut.

It does. So God has this inner wisdom that's inside of all of us. And then once you make a decision to become Christian, you get that Holy Spirit that's indwelling in you.

But let's just get back to our physical being, our physical temple. So as you think about it, there are things that are in our environment that have been around for centuries. There are some things that are brand new and that are novel exposures that man has created in the last century or so.

So if we take a look, alcohol, dairy, grains, some people can consume them. Some people can't. Their bodies physically can't handle them.

And so this means that even though God designed these foods, they're not necessarily appropriate for some people in the way that he created you. So how can people end up blanketly saying that every single thing that man creates, fallible man, is safe for you to eat? Okay, so there are probably some things that in your foods or that are approved by the FDA, whether you know it or not, that you may have a sensitivity to. There may be things where the combination of the quantities that you've consumed in your lifetime or the combination of different ingredients, they are having an impact on you.

(5:49 - 6:40)

And so this is what I mean by it's up to you to know what's working for you. Only you and God knows truly what's working for you. Because what works for somebody else, that identical twin, it may not work for you.

So just to end up being on the safe side, I always end up advising my clients just to go back to the basics, okay? Foods that we've eaten for generations, that are part of your tradition, your family's traditions and heritage, and the activities that we've done traditionally over time, these are all things that our bodies have adapted to and are more likely to be the right ones that God wants us to eat and to do. And so when in doubt, simplify and see what happens. Use whole foods to being able to address what's ailing you.

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So I'm not going to, you can tell I'm super passionate about this, I'm not going to go drag us down into a rabbit hole, but it is fair to let you know. So if you have a particular inclination of, okay, I only want pills, I only end up wanting a shot to being able to solve all my problems, I don't want to do the work, we're going to have some disagreed differences of opinion. So just want to lay it out there before we get going.

So let me get back to the topic for today. So we're continuing our discussion on the eight dimensions of wellness and lifestyle. I've been using SAMHSA's model.

I find that this model, while simple, it's effective for any of my potential clients, but also anybody that I meet in my volunteering to support mental health and substance abuse recovery. So today, we're going to go over physical and environmental. The foundation of physical well-being, I'm pretty sure you can guess at the main pillars, most of us have been given some form of health training through the course of our lives.

It's whatever you ingest, however you ingest it. And I also include in this definition, the preparation of the things that you ingest. For me, for example, cooking is a great hobby and a way to unwind, as well as making sure that I put enough love and care into what I'm nourishing myself and my loved ones with.

Then the second part of physical well-being is all about what you do. It's about physical activity, rest, sleep. And then a third area of this is in regards to preventive care.

So if you have areas of concern, being able to get the care and taking action on it. Some of you may need professional intervention to being able to address what's going on in your life. But just keep in mind, as I said, philosophically, I believe that the more that you focus on what you ingest and what you do and keep it really simple, your body will start healing itself and being able to get you stronger, less stressed as a result of that.

So moving on to the foundation of environmental well-being. It's all about safety and security, having a pleasant and soothing space. And that could be wherever you are at the moment, at work, home, out in the community.

It's your natural environment. Some things to keep in mind for environmental well-being is making sure you get exposed to natural lighting at different times of the day, access to fresh air and water. And just honestly, for me, this is a really big one, enjoying God's beauty and majesty.

Just getting outside, looking out a window, it really can help me shift my perspective from whatever was stressing me out and getting me so tightly wound up. That look out that window, that step outside and a breath of fresh air and a bit of sunshine, it reminds me that there's a much wider world and how small whatever it is that I'm worried about is in the greater, bigger picture. So there's no need for me to create unnecessary suffering for myself by buying into some of these thoughts and beliefs that we've talked about in the prior weeks.

And all of these have an impact on well-being. So just a quick couple of questions. So feel free to pause the video as we go through and answer these.

(10:07 - 11:17)

What does physical health mean to you? Is it a number on a scale, a body image, a test result from the doctor, feeling energized, vibrant, good? What is physical health for you? And if you struggle with this, what does it mean to be unhealthy, to be discomforted, and then flip it all around? So thinking about the environment. So what's your safe place? What helps you relax? What attributes does that safe place have? And how can acknowledging the answers to both of these questions help you relieve stress? What clues are there that can end up guiding you to improve your current stress management plan? I find that most people have a lot of knowledge already on how to make better-for-you choices. It just hasn't been put into application.

We get bombarded across the internet, on the news, in the media, all this advertising. You generally have an idea of what is that next right step for you. So let's talk about a couple of the basic foundational items.

(11:18 - 12:22)

Like, you know if you're getting enough sleep or not. You can tell in the morning, do you wake up rested, energized, able to get on with the day? Or do you need more sleep or a higher quality of sleep, right? For physical activity, you know if you're sitting in your chair all day, too long, not getting enough movement, and you're starting to feel that physical tension build up in your body because you're not moving enough. You can end up feeling it in your muscle tone and your ability to do more physical activities.

You can tell if you're plowing through breaks and not giving your body its chance, middle of the day, to have these moments to recover and to recoup. And you can also tell if you've got safety and security. It's all in the way that you feel.

What is that thing that's next right step for you? You know what that next right step is. Now moving on to food. This is a little bit more complicated because food people have put so many emotional connections on.

And for others, it's just something that people feel that they can control. I physically put this in my mouth. I know I can know exactly what it is.

(12:22 - 13:25)

So if you have a tendency to want to control things, this is often an area that people go after. So when you're a high achiever in a stressful role, you may have tackled some of these things depending on what your interests are. If you're one of these that likes to get into the bio hacks or being able to control your eating, like I said, as part of your micromanagement. You may have done some of this work already. It's hard for me to say where everybody is because they're coming at such a different point. I've met folks across the whole spectrum as I've worked with them.

There's individuals that their next right step is just to cut back on the soda. It's being able to reduce empty energy and the sugar and the caffeine that's just winding them up and then leading to big crashes in the afternoon. To others that are fine tuning sub ingredients and what they have sensitivities to and they're trying to avoid secondary toxins from modern agriculture or animal husbandry practices.

(13:26 - 13:46)

So depending on where you are in your own journey, you know what that right next step is for you. And then on top of this, food also gets really complicated by food philosophy. Some people are animal based, plant based, kind of in between and then a zillion and one different flavors of diet.

(13:46 - 17:31)

So food is highly personalized and unless I'm in a one-on-one conversation with you, I really can't advise in regards to what that next step is. So you need to trust that you know what is the next step in what's better for you. So as you look at what you know from everything from the sleep that I mentioned to the food in regards to what's needed to improve your health and energy, what's the next natural step for you to have more energy and to give your body a chance to repair itself more? As the body repairs itself more, you're going to be able to be in more optimal condition and more resilient.

So we're going to go a little bit deeper as we go into today's exercise. So before we get started though, we're going to end up having you go back and review a couple of the things and pull out some of the items from prior episodes. So hopefully you've gone through those.

If not, it's just a chance for you to go back and look in the catch-up. So first off, it begins with reviewing that Christian identity statement. Remember, identity focus changes are more effective than outcome focus changes.

And so what we're doing is being able to focus on your vision of what work-life harmony means for you and who you are as a person, as who God is calling and created you to be. So you can go from identity to process to outcome. So pull out that statement, whatever it was that you came up with that really resounded with you from based upon a biblical reference.

Then you also want to pull out that vision of work-life harmony. So we had done a Venn diagram type model with body, mind, and spirit. We'd gone through and identified kind of what, where you are acting and behaving and thinking and feeling like the person that you want to be, that God is calling you to be.

And then where you have some opportunity for some growth. So you want to take a look at that Venn diagram because we're going to use that then for reference for today. So you can either use that document or I'll give you an alternative if that was something that you hadn't done or if that was not the right kind of activity for you.

Because I get it, everybody has different ways that they want to express themselves. Another way that we can do this is to, besides using the Venn diagram, is to continue with mind mapping. Some people like mind mapping better than Venn diagrams.

It kind of gives them a little bit of structure to work off of, to build up their ideas and to extrapolate it all out. And when they put it down and then pick it back up a couple days or a week later, they've got better sense of where they had left off. So we're going to go through a vision mapping exercise that's based on the mind map today as the exercise.

So just to describe what mind mapping for your vision of wellness is, is you're going to put at the center that who, what that vision of wellness is. You've got your identity statement at the top and then you want to go through and have a bubble off of that vision, just what your kind of summary statement is of who you want to be. And then kind of go through each of the different dimensions as a spoke coming off of that main one.

And then go through each of the different subcategories and just kind of blow it all out across the things. Again, like I said, you might have a couple of outcomes that pop up, but you can always end up turning them around and refining your identity statement a little bit more and who you want to be based upon as you lay this all out. So for today's exercise, let me tell you a story and I'll show how it works into this example of mind mapping for your vision of wellness.

(17:33 - 17:59)

This lady was a senior manager. Her son had just started middle school and had decided that he really wanted to play Little League. His elementary school friends hadn't really been into it, but now that he's at the new school, his new friends were.

And so this was important for him to build up his skills pretty quickly so he could play with them. So since they'd played for years, he wanted to do a lot of practice at home. So her husband and him were already practicing.

(18:01 - 26:32)

And with him in middle school, she'd recently been realizing, you know, he's growing up so fast. I got to start getting involved. And this was a really good activity for her to join her husband and her son because she had played softball when she was in high school and college.

A lot really rusty because she hadn't done anything really physical in a while. But it was something that she wanted to do and she felt it was really important and this was a timely way to kind of kick it in the butt that God's given in the situation for her to take on her responsibilities as a parent a little bit more. So though the problem was is that she had a high travel schedule and really long work days.

Already her husband and son were practicing while she was usually just at work or on her drive home if it was a time when she was in town. So she really wanted to make this work. So with some thought, her identity statement that she used to drive her habit building and to guide her vision for this phase of her life was based upon Proverbs 17, 6. And she had decided that was pride of her children.

She really wanted to make sure that her son walked away from this time of his life with some great memories, not just the skills, and that she was in those memories. And so as part of her personal meditation, she'd really included 1 Corinthians 9:25-26 for her focus on her personal training and then Proverbs 22:6 on starting children off on the right path. Because this was a kind of a big deal for her son and she was excited to support him through this.

Now that I've shared her story, now it's your turn. So up above you'll see that I have a blank version of a mind map that could be used for any focus on the physical part of well-being. So what, who do you want to be and what do you need to do to being able to become it as it comes to physical well-being? So just like in that last example, she knew that playing baseball and practicing with her son was a key part of her being able to be pride of her children.

That was so important to her. So take a moment and just do a mind mapping exercise in regards to that. So while you do that, I'm going to go ahead and continue on with the story in regards to this lady.

So as we work through this, she decided that if she could run multiple short sprints in a half an hour, then she could keep up with the pace of the practice that her husband and her son had. She'd chase the balls and do whatever was needed. And then with any hitting and throwing, because those were skills that she hadn't used in forever, she would just build those as she played, but she needed to build up that endurance to keep up with the activity.

And for her, physical well-being, it's not weight loss. It's not anything to do with the numbers with the doctors. It's about living fully and being involved with her loved ones.

And I'm sure she did get some other benefits because she lived a pretty sedentary life. We never really talked about those because it was always focused in regards to that work-life balance that she was looking for, that she was striving for. So as you think about your life, how can you break down that what you want to be as from a physical well-being standpoint into specific skills or habits? We'll take all of these and we'll turn these into habits next time, but I want you to go through and do that process.

How do you get from your vision of who you want to be, defining it clearly enough and kind of breaking it down so you can turn it into some of these skills and habits? So if you have any questions on this exercise, please email them to me at Sharon@whisperingfieldswellness.com. If you do take a little bit of time to commit to this exercise, I know you'll find something useful for you to help reduce stress and improve work-life harmony. Small changes that can be done the next time you go to the grocery store might even come up. You may not even need to go through and do a tiny habits approach.

That's the nice thing about the food stuff. Sometimes it's just a swap for something that you already do and it's already embedded in your routine, just switching out for better for you. In next week's episode, as I mentioned, we're going to get deeper into habit building on these dimensions of lifestyle and well-being.

We're going to really focus in on that how to use some geographical types habit building. So if you haven't downloaded the habit guide yet, it's available for you to jump right in. So I'm pretty sure you want to know, so what happened with the lady? Was she able to play baseball with her son and how did her son do? So as it came to work, it took her a little while to figure out how to reduce and change her travel schedule.

So it was a little tough initially at the beginning, not the morning part. So she was really smart on the morning part. She started running in the morning.

So what she decided to do is that instead of checking her work emails as the water was brewing for her tea, she just started doing sprint exercises in the house and then ended up getting on the sneakers and going outside and crisscrossing the backyards. And so it was really sprints and not a long distance run. It wasn't too bad.

So she'd go sprint one way and then walk a little bit and then sprint again. So she really did figure out how to make it kind of start by occupying time that she's already using to do something else. And while she's running, she can still think about whatever it is that she needs to do.

So she was able to just very easily embed the morning part in her routine. The part that was a little bit tougher was in the evening to make sure she got home on time. So it did take doing some things with her work habits and productivity to make those changes until the change in travel came.

Because once the change in travel came, for any of you that have traveled for work, you know how much downtime there is. It's not like you're effective and productive and working through all that time that you're on the road. So it made it so much easier and she was honestly able to pick a couple of extra things up that was part of the deal that she'd made to reduce her travel is that it allowed her more time to be productive and working on things in the office.

So she was able to get what she wanted, which was to have more time with her son and her husband and to form these memories that he's gonna have his entire life of them as a family building these skills and just having the laughter of fly balls and crazy running across the yard to go and chase after a ball. So I'd say that that was a pretty successful story from her standpoint. So to close this out today, let me go over a summary of what I've covered.

I talked about bioindividuality and then talked a little bit about physical and environmental well-being and I hope with those questions you're able to come up with a couple of ideas of what might be something else you can do to add to your stress management plan. What are some of those actions you can take to improve your wellness toolbox and equip you and build your resilience? And the last thing we did was another focus on a work-life harmony exercise continuing on how do you envision who you can become through faith-driven tiny habits. So I really hope you enjoyed today's session.

I am firmly convinced that if you just take any of these small ideas that you've had and being able to put them into place and take action on them, you will reduce your stress and improve work-life harmony. And the more that you lean on your faith, it makes it so much easier. Through God, he can do so many things if you just let him in a little bit of your life, a little bit more than you have been.

Starting to listen to that innate wisdom and to Holy Spirit to guide you on that next step. And then whenever you get stuck and you're in that weakness, just recognize his power and his strength being able to help you to move forward and to move on. So I thank you again for your time today.

If you want to work with me, so you can put these stress recovery tools together better and go deeper, click the services link below. As a stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance and ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes you desire in your life. I know you can reduce stress and improve your work-life harmony.

I'll see you next episode. Have a blessed day!

[00:00:00] Hello, I'm Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Today in Grace Over Grind, I'll address the importance of holistic wellness, reduced stress, and improved work life balance. We're going to really focus on the mind part of body, mind, and spirit today, which is emotion, intellect, those areas of lifestyle, and mental health.

[00:00:22] Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friend to listen today. Please help them find the motivation, guidance, strategies, and tactics to reduce stress and improve work life harmony. As we talk about emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and mental health today, may they find an opportunity for personal application.

[00:00:41] So many people who struggle with stress and are chained to the desk by work live most of their lives in their heads. Christ, help ensure our minds are a healthy, supportive growth environment. Let us see through the lies of the deceiver who wants us to be helpless, unloved, and unworthy and to believe that we have to get through the pains of life and suffering alone.

[00:01:02] Let us see through the illusion and recognize that believing the devil's lies has contributed to chronic stress and overwork. Believing these lies, the devil is literally devouring our time, energy, joy, and health. It is making us sick and separating us from God. God, with Holy Spirit, open our eyes, ears, and heart to know the truth.

[00:01:21] Through you, we are strong, loved, worthy, and never alone. So long as we keep coming back to you, there is nothing we can do that makes us unworthy of your love. And recognize that life is richer than just our thoughts. I pray all is well with every listener. Healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit.

[00:01:40] May they know your will and your love as they grow greater in Christian character. In Jesus name, Amen. God designed us as holistic beings, body, mind, and spirit. As Christians with the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, we are called to become more Christ like. I'm not God, but I bet that a life where career has gained primacy at the expense of health and relationships is probably not what God intended for you.

[00:02:05] Looking at modern American life, the noise and pressure to focus on more, being more, doing more, striving for more, have twisted a natural inclination to work and support our loved ones into overwork. Stress filled, hectic, 55 plus hour workweeks squeeze out time for meaningful connections and drain energy for important areas of life.

[00:02:25] Today, we're going to focus more on the mind part of our being. I'll cover how you can reduce stress and improve work life harmony by focusing on increasing satisfaction in emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and how they impact mental health. I'll close with a simple assessment exercise for you to work through so you can more clearly identify what changes can be most impactful for you.

[00:02:56] As we work through these dimensions of wellness, emotional and intellectual are just two of the eight dimensions that we'll be covering in this series over the next several months. As you saw last time we discussed wellness toolbox, when it comes down to it, the concept of multi dimensional well being is pretty straightforward.

[00:03:14] Everyone has a concept of what each dimension means for them. Today, I'll go over some quick considerations on both emotional and intellectual dimensions so that we're all on the same page. So emotional. This is all about coping effectively with life, no matter what happens to you, and being able to enjoy life.

[00:03:34] It's about creating satisfying relationships with yourself and others, being aware of and listening to your feelings, not suppressing them, expressing your feelings to people you trust, being involved in activities that bring you joy, peace, calm, happiness, enthusiasm. It's about activities to For personal development and maintaining a balanced and realistic self image.

[00:03:59] Empathy and emotional intelligence skills are also part of this dimension. As you're thinking about what you might be adding to your lifestyle to make it more fulfilling and enriching, some different areas to explore to increase emotional satisfaction and well being are your personal interest for leisure and relaxation, self care, some type of self awareness or reflection activity.

[00:04:25] And having good support. So moving on to the intellectual area. This is all about recognizing your creative abilities and finding outlets that stimulate your mind and allow for creative expression. Engaging your imagination and finding your sense of play or humor. You want to be able to expand your knowledge and skills through continuous learning and development.

[00:04:49] Encouraging a sense of curiosity and inquiry and then sharing what you learn. Thank you. Critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and decision making are all parts of this dimension. So, again, as you think about how you might want to enrich your life and being able to make it more fulfilling, if this is an area of well being that you want to work on, you can take a look at your personal interests, education opportunities, brain exercises, conversation, communication.

[00:05:18] Just when it comes to the intellectual area of wellness or of lifestyle, I'm pretty sure you're stimulated at work and you may end up focusing on this part of your life quite a bit. And you may be overall satisfied with it. There may be a couple of areas that you want to work on, such as in your creativity and being able to engage your imagination and play.

[00:05:38] You may want to think about it as what are activities that you can do instead of work that could end up stimulating this part of wellbeing. I want to encourage you to identify areas of your life that you feel that you've missed out on because of your commitments work. So this could be a hobby or being able to play and engage in fun activities with family and friends.

[00:06:02] So what is your current level of wellness and satisfaction in these areas of your life? Are these areas that as you seek more work life balance, that you seek to grow or strengthen? How can investing time and energy in these areas of your life help to reduce your stress and energize you more? If you think about it, expressing your creativity may be a great way to kind of reinvigorate yourself and to energize those parts of you that you've not had any time to do.

[00:06:29] On first pass, what are some of your initial thoughts on activities that you long to have time or energy for? These are ideas for your wellness toolbox so you can begin to collect stress management approaches. These can also be part of your habit building strategy or help refine what you're evaluating in your journaling as you're looking for areas of improvement.

[00:06:49] Moving on into more of the topic of mental health. Chronic stress impacts cognitive and emotional functioning. It also increases vulnerability to mental illness like anxiety and depression. If your pattern of overwork and stress puts you at a high risk of workaholism, this is a recognized process addiction.

[00:07:10] Note, I did put a link in the description for an evidence based assessment if you are concerned specifically about am I a workaholic. As a result, it is very important to support and monitor your mental health. You may not have a mental health disorder, but like physical health, you want a preventive approach so you can enjoy a fulfilling life.

[00:07:32] God designed our brain and nervous system with neuroplasticity, so that as we address our mental health, our brain and nervous system literally renews. Science has proven and caught up with what the Bible tells us, that growth and change result in a renewing of the mind. So keep in mind, mental health impacts physical health.

[00:07:54] The biochemistry of thoughts and emotions can take a toll on the body, just as much as an injury. This is not restricted to just brain health. Negative thoughts and emotions create an inflammatory cascade of biochemicals that can impact all body systems. Also, staying in stress response for long periods of time impacts multiple body systems because the body prioritizes fight and flight over rest and digest responses and repairs.

[00:08:22] If you experience stress, repeating patterns of thoughts and emotions for long periods, Or experience trauma. It changes your brain, gut, and possibly other parts of your body. Where it shows up in your body will be different for you than someone else. It all depends on your bio individually and what is the weakest point in your physical systems.

[00:08:46] We'll talk more about the physical side of this in a few weeks, but I wanted to call it out because of how related mental and physical health are. So before we move on, how do you assess your mental health? Have you observed if stress is wearing down your emotional and intellectual capability? Are you feeling brain fog, losing patience more easily than normal, less empathetic, just not feeling like yourself anymore and really want to get back to it?

[00:09:14] Just a few questions to consider in your assessment. Are you able to realize your abilities, learn well, think clearly? As you look at your patterns of thoughts, are you holding a more positive or a negative view? Are you viewing situations realistically or through the lens of a cognitive distortion? What is your attitude towards change?

[00:09:37] What is your attitude towards life's challenges? How well are acknowledging your emotions, dealing with them in a healthy manner? Are you judging emotions, suppressing ones that are bad? What about being able to recognize and respond to the emotions of others? Emotions are not good or bad. It's what you do with them and how you express them.

[00:09:59] Anger lets you know when a boundary has been violated. Fear flags you to proceed with caution. When there's a loss, it makes sense that you feel sad. Feelings are like warning lights in the dashboard of your car. They help you know when to pay attention and where to look for challenges going on in your life.

[00:10:18] As discussed before, I firmly believe that change is most effective when it starts with acknowledging your real identity. By fully embracing your identity, your beliefs begin to gain greater alignment with who you are. As you change your beliefs, you can change your thoughts and behaviors. This comes back to the idea on the smoker.

[00:10:40] If you're trying to quit, you're striving not to smoke. That's different than saying, I am not a smoker. It's a very clear cut distinction. Once you embody that identity, your change in beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, they all follow suit. We've discussed this previously, but for me, it really gets back to recognizing God's plan for you.

[00:11:05] Well, to the best of your abilities that you understand it. If we anchor our identity in anything other than how he views us, we lose out. Say in society, other people have different and limited views of who we are. Similarly, if we are overly protective of the parts of us that were heard as a child, that has influenced how we form relationships, we're defining ourselves and reacting to new people and situations based upon how life and others have heard us before.

[00:11:34] If we allow any of these identities become primary, There is pain and struggle. In this fallen world, it is hard enough to fully live within God's will. There's no need to make it tougher by picking up any of these limiting beliefs or cognitive distortions. When I last discussed the wellness toolbox, I shared an exercise for you to recognize opportunities in your behaviors.

[00:11:56] On your worst day, an okay day, a good day, if you're acting as Christ role model for us, Last time we mainly focused on the spiritual and social dimensions of life. You can repeat this same exercise, focusing on the emotional and intellectual dimensions of life and well being. This is a great approach to help identify areas in which you want to build tiny habits or routines.

[00:12:21] Today, I'm going to introduce a different exercise, though, for you to envision what it means to thrive and flourish. This exercise is called Envisioning Holistic Wellness. Some scientists say that change is more successful when you have a clear vision of what you want, when you have the end in mind.

[00:12:37] Focusing only on what you want to achieve requires a lot of willpower motivation throughout the change process, though. On the other hand, other scientists recognize that there is a more sustainable change process when you focus on changing your identity and your beliefs and then the behaviors and the thoughts follow.

[00:12:59] This approach requires less willpower and motivation. There's a big difference between trying and striving to be something versus I am something. This exercise documents both viewpoints so you can incorporate either approach to change based upon what resonates most with you in each area of your life.

[00:13:20] So to do this, you want a sheet of paper, maybe two, depending on how you're approaching this, and two colored pens or pencils. On the blank sheet of paper, make three interlacing circles. Label one body, another mind, and the last spirit. In the first color of pen, go through and put anything you can think of in your life today that reflects your vision of work life harmony or comes to mind when you think about who you are as a Christian and what it means to you to thrive and flourish as God intends.

[00:13:50] Write down anything you are satisfied with in your life as it comes to overall well being. Capture strengths, beliefs, positive thought patterns, and behaviors, not just outcomes. So for example, You may have an outcome of Financially secure future you want to write out what underpins that belief for example that God provides or the behavior of Daily prayers of Thanksgiving for what God has provided and asking for what is needed for self and others You really want to make sure that you're looking at this all the way from identity belief thought and Behavior to outcome.

[00:14:32] And make sure that you're capturing those. So where the circles overlap, they can be used for anything that touches both categories. In the center, that is for anything that touches all three categories. And this is just to organize things and so don't get too stressed about it. Just fill it out the way that you intuitively feel is the best guidance.

[00:14:55] Now, in a different color of pen, go through and write down anything that is missing that you feel is an essential part of thriving and flourishing. What do you want to have as part of work life harmony that you don't have today? You want to write this as a positive statement, not a negative one. You want to answer, what do you want more of in your life?

[00:15:21] For example, less working hours is a negative frame, whereas a positive frame is playing ball with the kids, a monthly golf outing with friends, Friday date night, right from the perspective as if you were fully embodying your Christian identity statement that you picked the last time we discussed the wellness toolbox.

[00:15:40] Again, you want to get to the belief Behaviors, thought patterns and outcomes. If you're stuck and all you can think about is that negative statement on that second sheet of paper, write everything that you don't want in your life that's currently in your life. And as you figure out how to rewrite it in terms of what you want in life, then transfer it over to the circle.

[00:16:04] This is a great exercise to get really clear on what is important to you. It can easily be converted to a vision board or cutouts and pictures if that's something that feels good for you and is inspiring. If you're comfortable, share it with loved ones, get their input and some dialogue on. This is intended to be an inspiration and ongoing work in progress to help you identify the changes you want in your life.

[00:16:27] This can be applied in designing and building tiny habits. It also can be done to help you better narrow down what stressors you want to work on by including what is currently going on in your life. It also helps you maintain a positive growth mindset that helps to defeat any of the lies that may be running around in your mind that reflects cognitive bias or limiting belief.

[00:16:50] Any questions on this exercise, email them to Sharon@whisperingfieldwellness.com. Today we talked more about the mind part of our holistic being, mental health, and the activities that are part of the emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and wellness. As a parting thought, as Christians, true transformation lies in who we are in Christ.

[00:17:14] It begins when you acknowledge your weakness in this sinful material world, have the humility to let God restore you, and surrender your life and will to God's care. He'll give you strength and courage and lead you to grow your Christian character. He has plans for you and a purpose for you. And if I had to guess, it is not for your contributions to a company to be more important than your relationships, health, and well being.

[00:17:38] In the next episode, I'll discuss how to keep moving forward with your habit building after you've been disappointed by a few misses. I want to ensure you get the most out of these simple strategies and tools to help you reduce stress and improve work life harmony. So if you just want to jump right in, click the link to download my Habit Building Guide.

[00:17:58] It all starts with being clear on who you want to become and then proving it to yourself with small wins. Because the Lord prompted you with his wisdom on how to get closer to him, take small steps towards something you know is a better path. Or if this series and the downloads have you thinking that you want to work with me, click the services link below.

[00:18:18] As a Christian stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance and ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes you desire in your life. Only you and God know how to heal your stress. I can come alongside to support and encourage you and share a few strategies and tools to help you with mindset, lifestyle, and diet changes.

[00:00:00] Hello, I'm Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Today in Grace Over Grind, I'll address the importance of holistic wellness to reduce stress and improve work life balance, focusing on spiritual and social dimensions of lifestyle. To open in prayer today, Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friends to listen today.

[00:00:23] Please help them find the motivation, guidance, strategies, and tactics to reduce stress and improve work life harmony. As we talk about spiritual and social dimensions of lifestyle today, may they find ways to boost satisfaction so that career or overwork can be less of an idol in their life and stress less of a burden.

[00:00:46] I pray all is well with every listener, healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit. May they know your will and love as they grow greater in Christian character. In Jesus name, amen. God designed us as holistic beings, body, mind, and spirit. As Christians with the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, we are called to become more Christ like.

[00:01:12] A life where career has gained primacy at the expense of health and relationships? That's not what God intended for us. Looking at modern life, the noise and pressure and the focus on more, being more, doing more, striving for more, you need that next shiny object in front of you. They have twisted a natural inclination to work and to support our loved ones into overwork.

[00:01:39] Stress filled, hectic 55 plus hour work weeks squeeze out time for meaningful connections and drain energy for other important areas of life. Today, I'll cover how you can reduce stress and improve work life harmony by focusing on increasing satisfaction in spiritual and social dimensions of lifestyle.

[00:02:01] Through this series, we'll be covering other dimensions of lifestyle over the next several weeks. I'll close with a simple self assessment tool and journal exercise for you to work through so that you can more clearly identify what changes can be most impactful to you. You'll notice that I ask a lot of questions and you don't lay out step by step instructions.

[00:02:22] I strongly believe that you are uniquely bio individual. From your DNA, to your mind, and to your spirit, you are unique. There is only one creation that God made like you. And as a result of that, only you and God know how to heal your stress. I can come alongside to support and encourage you, share a few strategies and tools to help you with mindset, lifestyle, and diet changes.

[00:02:51] As a stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance and ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes you desire in your life. Getting into today's topic. So the spiritual dimension of lifestyle represents personal beliefs, values, and involves having meaning, purpose, and a sense of balance and peace.

[00:03:16] And this goes for no matter what your faith is. As Christians though, this is all about our relationship with Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit. This area of lifestyle can be broken down further into beliefs and values, involvement, and personal time with God. To define the social dimension of lifestyle, that all involves having relationships with friends, family, and the community.

[00:03:43] It's about having an interest in and concern for others and not being tied up into just selfish needs. This area of lifestyle can be broken down further into family, community, safe and supportive people, and social time. So as you take a look at these two dimensions of lifestyle, What is your current level of wellness or satisfaction in these areas of your life?

[00:04:10] Are these areas that as you imagine what a more balanced work life looks like, that you seek to grow or strengthen, or are you satisfied with them as they are? If you're somebody that's seeking to being able to make some changes, how can investing time and energy in these areas of your life help you reduce your stress and energize you more?

[00:04:34] On first pass, what are some of your initial thoughts on activities you long to have time or energy for? Feel free to pause the video to jot down some notes or to think about this. Because I ask so many questions as I go through, I do encourage you to hit pause anytime that you feel the need for it. In my opinion, change is most effective, though, when it starts with acknowledging your real identity, which is more than your job title and your family relationships.

[00:05:06] You want to recognize what God's plans are for you. As a Christian, it all begins with your identity in Christ. I don't know you yet, so can't infer. As you read through the Bible and the teachings that are there, what resonates most with you as your identity? Are you sought after? Precious in his sight? A new creation in Christ?

[00:05:29] Forgiven? Loved? Accepted? There's so many ways that the Bible describes the relationship and who we are as believers. So what identity statement from the Bible resounds with you most? In my example, as someone who has struggled with worth, I have selected Precious Child of God, as it helps me see the truth through any of the lies I may tell myself.

[00:05:58] Whether they're limiting beliefs or negative thoughts, it helps me to capture and challenge them, and to be able to see God's truth. Someone else who struggles with relationships may feel that loved and accepted by God is the most powerful identity for them to being able to look towards and to being able to move themselves towards to be more Christ like.

[00:06:21] Another person struggling with guilt may choose forgiven and renewed in Christ. I think you get the point. You want to pick the, identity statement that resounds the most with you to being able to help lead you and guide you to grow in your Christian character. So as you pray and meditate on what that identity statement means to you, how does that interpret into how you can thrive and flourish?

[00:06:49] What does it mean for work life harmony and having less stress? As you think through this identity statement, what does it tell you about your spiritual gifts? As you look at your life, how can you use these gifts to being able to grow or into that identity, into your Christian identity? What has been revealed to you of your purpose?

[00:07:13] And how are you acting on these? Who are you called to be? These are all things that are tied up with your Christian identity. And so, as you take a step back into the topic for today, with that perspective, what goals then do you have that God's downloading into you related to spiritual and social dimensions of lifestyle?

[00:07:35] Like I said, maybe you're content and there are other dimensions of lifestyle that you're more focused on to improve wellness, harmony, and reduce stress and imbalance. Or are you feeling called to being able to work more into these two areas of your lifestyle? Did you look in your wellness toolbox at the spiritual tools that you have at your disposal?

[00:07:57] What spiritual disciplines are you being called to develop more and to practice? Or maybe you're not being called to develop the spiritual disciplines, but to explore more different ways to worship God and to celebrate your faith. There's so many different ways that you can end up adding to your spiritual toolbox that end up having the right things at your disposal anytime that you're in periods of high stress so that you can end up being able to soothe and to being able to get back into that right frame of mind.

[00:08:33] On to the social section of your wellness toolbox. So there are so many different roles and responsibilities that we play with. Family, friends, community, our co workers. So as you take a look at what's going on in these social aspects of your life, what do you need to develop? Are there tools? Are there skills?

[00:08:57] Are there activities that you want to be involved in? As you think about what your identity statement is or what the Bible says about family relationships, how can you become more godly in the fulfillment of that, of those roles? And currently, you may not have much time or energy for anything outside of your immediate loved ones.

[00:09:21] And maybe that's what's pressing on you and just making you feel like you're missing something in life. With This exercise dig in and figure out what skills, what behaviors, what activities do you need to develop to being able to have that fulfilled life and to being able to act in accordance with that Christian identity statement that we just talked about.

[00:09:46] So just take a look at the Bible and see what inspiration you can find for your spiritual and social areas of your lifestyle. So now that we've kind of gotten through the inspiration section of recognizing to the best of your understanding what God's plan is for you and what he's asking for you to transform and to grow into, the next step is to really to examine and test your ways by a point of comparison on your worst day to what you just defined as being Christ like in character for you.

[00:10:25] How does that compare on your best day? How close are you? What skills and capabilities do you have that you need to figure out how to leverage on those that worst day I'm sure you have a lot of existing behaviors, habits, routines to support you acting with the best aspects of your Christian character.

[00:10:46] It's just when the strain and the pressure of stress and too much work going on, it kind of creates that separation and takes you away from that. So we want to recognize your strengths to being able to build upon those. And to take a look, maybe there's some things in your routine that deter you, that create more separation, that end up weighing you down more so that there's more work to be done to being able to grow towards that Christian character and to be able to act that way consistently.

[00:11:16] And so as you think about this too, behaviors are rewarding. So maybe there are some cycles of behavior that you've gotten into, or Satan's deception has ended up influencing you to adapt. So you want to find out what is rewarding certain behaviors that you have. The good ones that you want to encourage.

[00:11:38] How do they bring you calm, joy, creativity, inspiration, any of these things that you find that lighten your soul versus rewards that just more feed the flesh and the material nature. These give you some guides in terms of where do you need to be able to make additional changes. So as we get into today's exercise, it's all about on identifying more specifically, kind of where you are on that spectrum, where are your behaviors on that worst day, on an okay day, on a good day, and then on your idealized, if you were consistently behaving with Christ like character, according to your identity statement.

[00:12:24] So, as you think about your worst day, when you've got this stress and like it's a really long work day, you're really feeling the weight of the imbalance. What behaviors do you demonstrate toward God and your loved ones? Since today we're focused on the spiritual and social dimensions, we're just going to focus on that area, just God and your loved one.

[00:12:48] And then when you take a look at your behaviors on that okay day. A good day, or a day when you're behaving in alignment with Christ like character. How do those behaviors change? What's different? So as you go through each of these different columns and call out your behaviors on each of these different types of days, it's really to end up clarifying your understanding of God's plan for you.

[00:13:18] And it gives you a chance to examine and test your ways. How are you behaving to what he expects of us? How are you missing the mark and needs being able to make some changes and improvement? Where can you ask him to inspire and to strengthen you? If you have any questions on this exercise, email them to Sharon@whisperingfieldwellness.com.

[00:13:42] I'm here to support you in your transformation. So in closing today. Change begins when you have a view of the opportunity of what can be different. Truly understanding to the best of your ability what God's plan is for you, and examining and testing your ways to understand how you are behaving now, versus what He wants from you.

[00:14:06] It calls out where those opportunities are. True transformation begins when you acknowledge your weakness, Have the humility to let God restore you and you surrender your life and will to God's care. He'll give you strength, courage, and lead you to being able to have the life that he's planned for you.

[00:14:29] In the next episode, I'll discuss how to build habits based upon your awareness of where the most impactful changes can be to reduce stress and improve work life harmony. We're going to take all the work that you do in today's exercise and then turn it into actionable habits, things that even though you are tired and exhausted and feel that you don't have any time, that you can fit this your life and take those small steps to be able to grow.

[00:14:58] In the way that you want to transform in the way that you want. So if you want to jump right in, click the download link for my habit building guide that can let you get started today. And we'll just go into more depth over next week and in the upcoming weeks, being able to develop out your plan more fully.

 [00:15:18] If this makes you think about wanting to work with me and to explore stress recovery, coaching, and more depth, Click the services link below. I'll see you next episode. Have a blessed day!

[00:00:00] Hello, Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Welcome to the Grace Over Grind podcast. You are in the right place if you are done with busy and hectic long work days with almost no breaks in sleep, which has led to stress and exhaustion. If you've been working greater than 55 hour work weeks for a long time with barely any time for sleep and loved ones by the time you get done with everything you need to do at work and at home, and if you find yourself regularly running on fumes, Despite how much caffeine and sugar that you're consuming through the day to being able to keep your energy up.

[00:00:40] Well, welcome. Today, we're going to cover a little bit on my perspective about why you are feeling so much stress and exhaustion from working too much. So as we take a look at your childhood, I am sure we will find that you are a studious little kid doing everything possible to being able to ensure that your parents were proud of you, which set the foundation of how you're, you constantly are striving for excellence and to succeed.

[00:01:09] And that has carried you into your career where you're doing your best to ensure that you can provide a great life for your loved ones and for yourselves and taking care of their future. As you've been at work, you've noticed that because of your success, your strengths and the confidence that you have in what you do, people keep coming to you for help or to being able to give you new projects.

[00:01:33] And that's great for all of the recognition, but it is slowly increased that workload, particularly in these last few years as every company it seems is being at, is asking their employees to do more with less. They keep coming to all other stars. But they're not giving them the support that they need to being able to to have a manageable workload So it takes a little bit of different approach to being able to handle some of it But slowly through all of this the hours have ticked up that you're working each week And so as you've been thinking about it, you know, this is like a lot of stress, you know a lot of hours Maybe it'd be better at a different company, you know, and I'm sure this has crossed your mind You're like I have invested a lot in this organization.

[00:02:24] I like the people that I'm working with. I like what I'm doing It's just it's a little too much. I could go look for another job, but I Really don't want to this is an insecure economy I don't want to end up having to add the stress to my life of looking for another job. It just, that just doesn't seem like the right solution.

[00:02:45] And so all of this combined has ended up leaving you just a little more stressed and exhausted than normal. There's really more to it. There is so much more than just what's going on in your work environment and your normal Drive to succeed. If you take a look at modern Western culture, it really is designed to wear us down and to being able to keep us compliant.

[00:03:13] They don't want us questioning what the norm is. And through all of this, it strives to create isolation for everyone, where we're always looking around and comparing ourselves to each other. We're feeling separated from God because of how chaotic it is. And it's hard to be able to find the time in the space, being able to see that there's something more than what's going on right in front of us.

[00:03:38] Everything in mainstream media and advertising, it keeps trying to constantly convince us that we are not enough. That we need to be thinner. We need to end up being smarter. We need to be able to do more and be more than who we are. Which just puts us in a little bit of that ongoing grind and strain on a regular basis.

[00:04:02] And they're always encouraging us. to being able to go after that next shiny object or to keep up with the Joneses and to being able just to keep doing more that there's never enough and never to be content with what you've achieved. And in this environment, the last thing that they've done is for anybody that has traditional Christian values, they started to twist them.

[00:04:26] They have displaced the family as being the center. Faith is being put to the side. So many workplaces, it's not safe to be recognized as a Christian anymore. And you have to almost completely separate it so that it's only in your personal life. To why you are feeling stressed, exhausted, frustrated, and drained.

[00:04:48] It just keeps adding up. It's no wonder that it's got you spinning and feeling a little bit stuck on how do I make these changes? How do I do this in a way that doesn't risk my financial stability? Doesn't risk my performance at work? Feel that there's a need for the change. So that you can end up being more present for your loved ones and available.

[00:05:11] You really want this, you want to be able to be recognized as that parent of the year to your child, that spouse that's going to end up being there through thick and thin, no matter what's going on. You recognize As much as you've been ignoring it, your body, mind, and spirit have been encouraging you to rest and restore.

[00:05:33] You've been burning the candle at both ends, and it is getting to you, and you need to make some changes before it leads to a health crisis. And on top of that, you've realized, you know, you've got such great hobbies and interests in some, but you haven't been able to spend any time on them. But I believe that there is hope.

[00:05:53] By doubling down on your values of faith, family, and freedom. We can make the space in your life to be able to enjoy these things more and reclaim that time from work. You can restore your energy so that you have enough for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by applying different tips and strategies to manage your workload and your boss's expectations, you can still be successful at work.

[00:06:24] For example, when they come to you with that next big project that would be great to do and you're like, “Oh my goodness, how am I going to do it all?” You will have the strategies on how to handle it and tackle it so that you do not overcommit yourself. And you do it in such a way as to develop the team and to being able to make people recognize about how well you are safeguarding the company's resources and time.

[00:06:49] We also figure out how you can end up adjusting your mindset and. including prayer to being able to stick to your priorities. So that one more thing at 445 that you're like, I've got time to get this done before I head home doesn't turn into, Oh my God, I'm late again. How do you make sure that you can consistently being able to be there for those things that are really important for you?

[00:07:13] And also end up making sure that you have those tiny healthy habits. Find those little small areas of change that just take a few seconds, maybe a few minutes each day. that then can snowball into much larger changes. With this approach through stress recovery coaching, you will be able to slow down, recharge your energy, reclaim your time from work, and reconnect with God, self, and your loved ones.

[00:07:43] Book a free consultation at the link below to learn more. If you're not ready for one on one coaching yet, check the website for more articles and quick tips on how you can being able to better manage your stress and your workload. In the end, I want to make sure that you have the support that you need to being able to improve your work life harmony.

[00:08:05] You deserve to flourish and live the life that God intended for you. I want to thank you for your time today and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Have a blessed day!