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Hello and welcome back to the Restored and Aligned Woman podcast. Today I want to talk about something I think every woman and every really every person experiences more than likely multiple times in their lifetime. I'm calling it the pivot. It's that moment when
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Nothing around you has really changed it, but something inside of you has. There's something that made you realize I don't want to keep living this way. I want something different. Or maybe there even it's a possibility that there is something different. Maybe it's in regards to your health.
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Or how overwhelmed you feel your relationship with God?
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something in your marriage, your family, your career or purpose.
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Or just simply how you're moving through your days and interacting with those around you. Something just shifts.
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And you make a decision inside.
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And honestly
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It's that one one decision that
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Can become the beginning of an entirely different life.
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Because it's like you have a f you're going along this path and and then all of a sudden there's a fork in the road and you just realize.
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I can keep living how I've been living and nothing will change. Or
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I can take this other path.
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That has
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Beautiful possibilities.
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Sometimes it's better to stay on the same path. But that's where the Lord comes in and having that relationship with him and and that discernment.
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But in this episode we're gonna talk about what I mean by by the pivot, why transformation often begins with a decision long before we see results.
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What happens when the world around us starts either supporting or resisting that decision? And why resistance doesn't necessarily mean you're making the wrong choice?
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How this connects to something I've been thinking about lately. Really, it's my whole purpose.
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in my business and my mission.
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and growth in my own personal life and that is stewardship.
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And also how to recognize the area of your own life where it may might be time to pivot.
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Because I believe that healing and restoration is about so much more than just fixing the symptoms, putting a band-aid on it, or covering it up.
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Shoving it under a pillow. It is about learning to intentionally steward our mind, body, relationships, gifts, time, purpose in the life God has entrusted us.
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Think about a time in your life.
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When you notice that your li your whole life changed. There was something that happened. Something, a thought, somebody said something to you.
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where it was just like light bulb or you just felt that energy shift inside.
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Usually when we tell the story later, we talk about the big things that happened at that moment.
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But if we trace it backward, there was often a much smaller moment at first. And sometimes we don't tell that, but we feel it inside.
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But it's a decision. Something inside or something happens and you say, I'm going to do something different. Could be I'm going to take care of myself or to get the help I need. I'm going to stop ignoring this. I'm going to create that boundary or pursue that thing that God keeps putting on my heart.
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Which I highly recommend doing, especially if he's persistent.
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I'm going to stop waiting until everything is perfect.
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Nah, when is it ever going to be perfect? There is not a perfect situation. But that's the pivot. Your circumstances might look exactly the same the next morning, but you aren't approaching them the same way anymore. You are different.
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Sometimes I think this is where we can get stuck. We have this decision.
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or this mo motivation. And we want
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We desire that there's also some fear in that and we want some of us could want evidence before we're willing to commit to something or willing to put forth the the energy that's needed to go in that direction. So some of the things that we can say to ourselves is, you know, I'll do that when I have more energy.
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When life calms down, I'll start to take better care of myself. I just can't right now.
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I'll go to the gym when I feel comfortable and confident in going to the gym.
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Or even taking that next step when I feel confident. But how do you gain confidence? You gain confidence by doing those hard things.
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Transformation usually works in the opposite direction.
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Much like you have faith before you see something come to fruition.
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Sometimes we have to make that decision before we have the evidence that it's working. We have to continue to walk through that.
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Sometimes we need to take a walk before we run, before we feel strong. We need to change the habit before we can see the lab result or create the boundary before we can feel comfortable holding it.
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You step into what God is asking of you before you can see where He's taking you. And in my experience there's a lot of steps before you get to s look back and see what he was actually doing.
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But the decision
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Comes first.
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That's when we start building a life that supports the decision.
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Some interesting things can happen when you start that pivot. You can start noticing things that support the direction you're going. A right conversation. There's a new opportunity. A door opens. A friend reaches out and encourages you. A resource is brought to your attention that you didn't know existed.
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you have a community that rises up and supports you.
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and you find people who really believe in what you're doing. And also, sometimes the opposite can happen too. There's resistance.
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When you put up boundaries, people don't always understand our boundaries. And sometimes boundaries can feel uncomfortable.
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To other people, especially when you haven't had them before or a certain boundary. Your schedule doesn't cooperate. And why would it? Because your schedule is created around your life before you made that decision. So there will be some resistance there. Some of your old habits can try to come create back in.
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Growth and change is uncomfortable.
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you might have that pull to return to what you've always done because it's easier. And that's where you need to be very careful. Because that resistance doesn't always mean stop.
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Sometimes it means that
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Like I just said, your old life was built around your old patterns and schedule. And now you're asking for to support something completely different.
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Your old life might not fit your new decision.
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This can happen with health very quickly.
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You can decide, I'm going to take better care of myself, but your calendar says there's no nor no time, your kitchen isn't stocked for it, your bedtime doesn't support it, your family routines, your thought patterns, that's a big one. Maybe even some of the people around you don't understand it.
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There will be resistance when you make a decision to change. And how you approach that resistance.
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and the decision or the life that you're wanting to create.
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Break it down into small steps.
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Take a deep breath. Slow down.
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Go to the Lord in prayer.
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And be still for a moment.
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some things may require you to to power through and
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Just get to the other side so you can r refocus. But sometimes it's okay just to slow down.
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Sometimes I find
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the best thing to do is just stop, slow down and pray.
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And somehow everything realigns itself somehow.
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Our strength comes from the Lord.
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So there are ways to push through the resistance. Should you always push through the resistance? No.
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But I'm talking about this pivot that you're deciding to do something to improve your health and your life for the better.
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When you say and when you decide to become the woman God is calling you to be, and some things just simply they cannot say the same. There's a bigger pull, a bigger push. Something needs to change.
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This idea
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not really an idea. It's just as I've done my prayer and Bible studies. Something that honestly I'd never even heard this word until I was in my mid to late thirties.
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Somebody said stewardship and I had no idea what that was.
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So I started to do some research and that word and that the meaning behind that word has grown inside me from that from that day.
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And I can tell you where I was. I was at my son's football game and I heard one of the other parents say it
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It wasn't even a conversation to me, I just heard it.
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And I feel like that that energy, that shift, like I need to know about this. I don't know what it is, but I know I need to know about it. And that started the pivot and the change. Started inside and it's grown, slowly grown for three years.
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So much of my work has been centered around health. And health still matters deeply. It's a very, very important and it's a part of stewardship.
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I believe
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That there is a higher importance.
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to health and stewardship of our health. Taking care of ourselves isn't simply about looking better. It's not even just about feeling better.
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It's about stewarding the body that God has given us and what fruits come from that.
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And when you're steward your body, it goes so much deeper. Ha stewardship of your time, your relationships, your marriage, motherhood, your resources.
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Your influence, your calling, your life.
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And suddenly health isn't just an isolated category. It's so much more than that. Just like healing your health is not just fixing that symptom. It's so much more than that.
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Health might be the beginning.
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for some. But it's not the final destination and that's not the there's a bigger picture. I always say this there's a bigger picture 'cause there is.
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But for many women and many just many humans, health is what finally gets their attention.
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They're exhausted, they don't feel like themselves. Their body is changing, hormones, irritability, anxiety, weight gain. Something physically happens. And you say, I need to do something about this. We can't keep doing the same thing we've been doing. And that symptom or that and that thought is what
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starts the pivot where you start restoring your health and then often discover that your body wasn't the only thing needing attention or that one area of your body. There's other areas that maybe you've neglected for years. But when you start to heal, you start to see and open your eyes and want to heal other parts of yourself.
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the the parts of your identity that have th fell away after trauma and overwhelm and motherhood and just life.
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the peace because it's been overrun by stress. Your priorities have gotten all out of alignment and you're disconnected spiritually. And I often use this, but when you wake up, one day you look in the mirror at physically and spiritually, you're just wondering who are you? Who who am I? This
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person that I once knew I no longer recognize.
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And you say, Is this how I want to live the life that I've been given?
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Is this how I want to show up for myself, for my family, for God? Is this is this it?
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And that's when
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Things can start to become bigger, a doorway into something much larger and much deeper, whole person restoration, body, mind, spirit, relationships, purpose, life. Life. Life is what we are supposed to live. God intended us for us.
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To live.
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Stewardship does not mean perfection. It doesn't mean obsessing over your health or controlling every outcome. It certainly doesn't mean that if something goes wrong, you somehow failed.
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Failure isn't reality. It's a label.
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You only fail when you give up. Even then
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You can still pick up. It's just a label. It's not a reality or a fact.
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Stewardship is about responsibility and being intentional. It's recognize recognizing that I've been giving something so valuable. How do I care for it well?
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And that might look different for everyone. Sometimes that means exercising or learning how to rest or managing your time.
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We're saying no. That is very hard for some people. I have a hard time saying no as well, but I'm getting better.
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Stewardship requires us to pay attention and to be intentional.
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about what we put in our mouths, about our movement, how we sleep, how we care for ourselves and our family, our relationship with the Lord. Intentional. Don't wake up one day
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And look back at a stranger.
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And even if you are in that moment right now, there's hope. There's hope in Jesus. There's hope for a brighter tomorrow. Trust me, I've been there. I've been in that moment when you are just so tired. You just
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Everything in your being is saying, I'm tired, I want to give up.
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But don't because there's a light
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And a beauty.
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Beautiful light, beautiful life waiting for you.
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Just don't give up.
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Tell somebody, ask for help, go to the Lord.
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He picked me up in that moment. I didn't know that.
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Actually I did. I knew I had two choices. I could give up or I could keep going.
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Giving up was harder for me.
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So I chose to trust God and trust the promise that He told me for my whole life that I was gonna be okay.
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I'd started to
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I had s I had doubted that for several years.
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But at that moment I had lost hope.
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But I still got up every day and just one foot in front of the other.
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And he broke me down.
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To restore me.
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what he had intended initially. I had strayed so far. And I'm so thankful. I'm stronger.
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and more resilient than ever before.
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Don't give up. There is hope.
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A scripture that fits this conversation so beautifully is
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Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Luke sixteen ten
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Sometimes stewardship can often be thought of just in terms of money. But as we've been talking about it in this conversation, it is so much more. What are we doing with all that God has placed in our hands? Our bodies, opportunities, relationships, our abilities, our time.
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Not from fear, not from shame.
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Not because we need to earn God's love, because we can't.
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He freely gives it.
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And he is giving us something so precious and we want to use it well.
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Maybe you're listening today because you know something needs to change. You may might not even know what exactly that is or what the whole plan looks like, and that's okay. You don't need the entire roadmap to make that pivot, to make that change, to improve your life.
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Most of the time, I feel like if we knew the entire roadmap, if we knew the whole picture, we wouldn't take the first step in the first place because it's so much better, so much bigger than we can handle right now. All you need to realize is your next decision. So ask yourself, where in your life do you know you can't keep doing things the same way?
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think where in my life do I know I can't keep doing things the same way?
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Just sit with that.
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What would look different?
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What would it look like to steward this area of your life differently?
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So this week I challenge you to choose one area of your life, not five, and not everything that needs improvement. Don't focus on everything. Focus on one.
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Go to God and ask him, What are you asking me to steward differently right now?
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Then identify one tangible action that aligns with that answer. Maybe you schedule that appointment or take the walk. Go to bed earlier, have that hard conversation, create a boundary.
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Have a little quiet time with God.
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Or finally ask for help.
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start that thing you've been postponing for days, months, even years.
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Or just stop doing something that you know is keeping you stuck.
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Sometimes those things can feel dramatic and sometimes they need to be be dramatic, but it doesn't have to be. Sometimes the biggest transformations in our lives begin with a very small, quiet decision. And then it's that decision made repeatedly. Every day you choose to
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make that decision over over and over again to reinforce that decision. I'm not going to keep doing this the same way anymore. You're going to pivot.
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This conversation represents something you'll be hearing more about as
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I continue my podcast. Because yes, we're going to continue talking about health, nutrition, movement, stress, hormones, habits, and taking care of our bodies. But we're also going to go deeper. Because I don't want you to just have a healthier body. I want you to become more intentional with the life you are building with the body you've been giv given. You have so many beautiful gifts.
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I want us to talk about what it means to restore the whole woman, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. To live aligned with what matters. To recognize what God has entrusted to us and to steward it well. Because transformation isn't just about changing your body. It's about allowing God to transform the way you think, the way you live, and ultimately the woman you're becoming. Transform your mind.
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Transform your body, transform your life.
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Until next time.
