Sit With Them
Hello Resilient One
It's been a while. How have you been? I took some time off to refresh. That picture to the left was me disconnecting from the rat race to reconnect with God and nature. Oh how I wished I could've stayed there longer.
Have you ever been asked how are you doing with everything that's on your plate and... answered with an I'm good or I'm handling it? and afterward, asked yourself Why couldn't I share more openly with the very people who love me? (self-protection)
Then the conversation in your head moves to Get your act together! (self-shame)
And then shifts again to I need to be better at managing my time (perfectionism)
You know none of those negative phrases will actually motivate you to change. Not to mention, that looping negativity will keep resurfacing at different times. That's one good reason to step back or get away. Our reasons for not sharing are multi-faceted because we are complex human beings influenced by our environment and experiences.
It may be:
you were taught to keep your business private and therefore never really learned the art of sharing openly with safe people
you could have a very good reason for not opening up i.e., there are too many people in the room or not enough time to go into it all
you may be afraid of what your friend will think of you if she really knew the darker imperfect side of you.
you may be fearful your information will be used against you despite not having one shred of evidence this kind soul has a history of spreading rumors
We like to take complex multifaceted concepts and look for simple solutions. And it just doesn't work that way. We give ourselves thirty verbal tongue lashes and then move one. We don't dig deeper to notice that our inner critic is pulling out all the stops to keep us trapped, and stuck in false guilt.
Psalm 120:6 tells us we can live in hostile environments. "too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace."
That dwelling place lives within me and you. Our inner critic can cause our heads to swirl with looping thoughts of how to silence self criticism.
What happens to the soul in inner turmoil?
It learns to have God encounters through conevrsational prayer! That's what it does.
Scripture talks about giving us rest. It speaks in the language of allegory, metaphor, and parables.
They sound wonderful but often leave out the how to achieve that place of rest. I have loved reading metaphorical verses for years but I never quite understood how to get there. Until I learned how to tune in to have intimate, life giving conversations that actually bring my heart back to a place of rest.
It's in these conversations that the inner critic is silenced.It ends all the striving and media adice on how to be a better person. You don't need to do more to be better. You simply need to go to God and let Him remind you of who you are to Him.
No need to critique yourself
No need to try harder or give more of yourself than humanly possible.
No need to discipline yourself to be something that you think others expect your to be.
Nowhere in scripture does God ever suggests we perform or pretend. Instead He invites us to come naked and unashamed of who we are!
Today I'd like to invite you into a coaching conversation that will actually connect you to God in ways you may not have experienced before. I know that it's been said there's no better time than now to invest in yourself. I know what it's like to put it I off until tomorrow. I know about the fear of spending money on yourself rather than socking it away for family emergencies or some other "not enough" fear. I get it. But when you're tired and ready to take a step of faith to invest in your emotional health and spiritual wellbeing... I'll be here for you.
https://www.wholenessinpractice.com/services-7
Love you all
Lisa
Lisa Pinney is a certified encounter coach, a coach trainer, and the founder of Wholeness In Practice. She is an expert in working with hurting people to help them experience healing and emotional wholeness through deep personal encounters with God. She is an author and developer of The Attuned App. A groundbreaking, therapeutic, spiritual practice to promote emotional healing, wholeness, and spiritual rest. Lisa is a coach trainer, podcaster, and speaker who conducts Soul Care Retreats.
Her mission and call are to see the message of emotional healing through Christ become as much a part of the regular Christian experience as reading, worship, and prayer.