 Hi, guys. So we're going to get started if people still come in. That's fine. But I wanted to start with just a little pop quiz. Just see what you know. Why not, right? OK, so here is your quiz. Candice and Stacey Davis, our sisters, are married. By coincidence, happened to be married to two different bald men with the same last name, Davis, who are not related. See? You are right. We are colleagues. At first, they had on the sign Stacey and Candice Davis. We're like, guys, that does not. We need to separate the, OK, let's do that. We do, however, work together at the same place, Joy and Liberty Counseling Center, and tell you a little bit about ourselves before we get started. So again, I'm Stacey Davis. I have been in practice for about 15, 16 years. I've been in private practice since about 213 as a licensed professional counselor. I really, really love what I do. I'm a joiner. I like to be a part of things, so I'm super happy to be a part of Radiant. Like I said, I'm a joiner, so I'm a part of the welcome team. I lead community groups. I coach community groups, and I also lead youth. So that's just in my spare time. So I also have two daughters, two dogs, two cats, just one husband. We already know he's bald, Davis. And yeah, I am just really a geek about this topic. I really love talking about the brain and how this plays into our life and our mental health, our emotional health, our spiritual health, and really understanding how those things are really not separate. So before I get too excited and start giving away all of our secrets. Yes, and I'm Candice. So my husband, Steph and Davis, he's the campus pastor here at Radiant, and we moved here five years ago to launch the Portage Campus. And I mean, this is our people. The DNA is in our blood, the prayer, the worship culture. So happy to be here. And when we first moved here, I had a three-year-old and a little baby who wasn't even one yet. And we were launching a campus, like I said. And then the Lord says to me, hey, you should go to school and get your master's and become a licensed therapist. And I'm like, now this is, so I go tell my husband. And he's like, this is bad timing. And I was like, I know, I know. It just doesn't make sense that this is what the Lord wants. But grace of God was on it. That is how I got through all of those years of schooling and became licensed a couple of years ago. As Stacy said, I work at Joy Unlimited with her. So happy to have her as a colleague. And we have my husband and I, Stefan, which give a little wave. He's over there in the corner. We have two little girls. They are now nine and six. And they are beautiful and we have one dog. So there you go. Love what I do though. It is a passion. It just oozes out of me. And really what happened was I, you know, we were in ministry, Stefan and I were in ministry for about 15 years. And I would meet with couples. I would meet with young people, individuals. And eventually there would always come a point in our discipleship where I would have to refer out. I'm like, you, right, which guys, if you're in leadership or in ministry, it is so important for you to know when to refer. It is so important and so- Not just for those that you pastor and lead, but also for yourself. For yourself. For yourself. No one to get yourself a therapist. And so anyway, so yeah, I just feel like it was time for me to be the one that people referred someone to. And so got my license, love what I do. So I want to just jump in really quick here. So our topic today is mind the gap, but really here's what it is. We have different layers kind of like this per, you know, this image here. We've got the outer layer, right? Of skin, eyes, ears, nose, what you see, right? That's one layer. But then you have another layer, which is like the tissue, the organs, the blood, all of that. And then you go another layer deeper and it's the core, right? It's the skeletal system. It's the bones. Well, we have those layers as well, kind of in the terms of spirituality, physical sense and a mental and emotional sense. But you are all, it's not just you're just the skin, right? You're not just the bones. You're not just the tissue. You're all of it. It's the same for you. You're not just a spiritual being. You're also physical and you're also mental and emotional. And so we want to bring all of those together for you today. In fact, it says in Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 5, here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. He is one. He is whole. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And we want to take all three of those parts. Like, I don't think that it's out of coincidence that he said, hey, I am the Lord your God. I'm one and you're also to love me in wholeness and all of these parts to be one in all of that. So we want to teach you how to love him in your heart, which I can see as being like your mental emotional state with your might, which is physical, and with your soul, which is like your spirituality. So we're gonna integrate all of those together. And just to kind of also, before we segue into the next bit, to refer to Pastor Lee, he just talked about the Barnas study and that stress is the number one reason why people get burnt out and don't want to pastor anymore. You guys, that is sad. And as I think therapists today, we are like, we want to help you. Figure out how to manage stress, how to deal with stress because it's affecting your bodies, it's affecting your minds and it is affecting your relationship with Jesus. And obviously how you minister to people. So, and then lastly, John Tyson, he was preaching yesterday at Radiant and he said, he was talking about presence, the presence of God and practices. And we need to put those two together today. We're gonna really focus on that practice piece, right? So, without further ado. We're gonna educate you more about the brain. So just to make sure you're awake, we're just gonna randomly throw these out, just to make sure you guys stay awake and alert throughout our sessions, right? So we're gonna talk about stress, but listen, stress is not always a bad thing. How many people have seen that Ted talk on the master procrastinator? Anybody? No, but yeah, a couple of you. Okay, so this is his stress monster. Ah, because the instant gratification monkey who ran up the tree was just at the wheel, leading us into procrastination, into putting things off and living what he calls in the dark playground. And then the rational decision maker has come and taken over control because stuff needs to get done. Because there's a list a mile long and we have 24 hours because we don't sleep, right? To do it all. And so stress isn't always a bad thing. So stress can be really meaningful and purposeful. It doesn't have to look like this. Often it does, but it doesn't have to look like this. It can also look like this. So this is a zebra. This is from my book, I love books. There's so many people smarter than me. So I read their books. And this is from a book called Why Zebras Don't Get Alsersed, right? So the zebra, he's chilling, doing his thing, grazing on grass, he's perfectly calm and chill. But out of the corner of his eye, he spies a lion. And he knows in his little zebra brain that this lion wants to eat him for lunch and he doesn't want to be eaten for lunch. And so quicker than you can snap your fingers. A physical, physiological reaction occurs that the zebra doesn't think, go, go, zebra brain. Form of, you know, whatever. He just has that reaction that starts in his little zebra brain right in the back. And that goes all the way down his central nervous system that comprises the fight, flight, freeze response, right? Now again, this is not something the zebra thinks. It's not something he intends. It's just something that happens. God designed him with, and that's a good thing. So the zebra runs for his life and part of what helps him run for his life is his pupils will die light so he can see farther and faster. His heart rate will start to be kind of like mine is right now a little bit. Brain. And that helps get blood to the major muscle group so he can run for his life. Breathing, which is really shallow, becomes even more shallow. All that stuff that he was eating in his stomach, digestion slows down to a halt. And again, all of these things, all of these processes, a cascade of nerve-ending signalings and hormonal secretions run down that central nervous system. Luckily, the zebra gets away. Happy story. For this time. But you notice on the bottom, it says, what are your lions? Because we have this big, beautiful brain that the Lord designed for us, right? We have a bigger brain than the zebra. And this is a brain that the Lord intentionally designed for us. Prior to our modern world, humans lived on this earth and there were a lot of threats. And our brain needed to remember what those threats are so that we could stay alive, right? But now in this modern world, all I need is an Instagram post. I don't need a lion chasing me to have that same physiological response happen in my body. And here's the cool thing about this brain. On average, it weighs only about three pounds. And it contains a hundred billion nerve cells called neurons. Is that crazy? That is faster than any computer that has ever been invented. In your brain, here's the cool thing. It's not hardwired. It can create or reduce anxiety, distress, depression, according to what you do and how you think. We're gonna talk a lot about what you do and how you think as we go forward. I love Dr. Caroline Leaf, if any of you have heard of her. She has some great books out. But she said, she quoted Romans 12 too, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by what? Amen, sisters and brothers. Okay, she says that science in the last 20 years, let's say maybe 2025, is finally catching up with the word of God. Because neuroscience, the field of neuroscience has just blown up and we know more about the brain now than any other time before. And again, we know that it is not hardwired. And I'm gonna preach just one second to get a little ahead. You, I don't know what your backgrounds are. There's a lot of you in this room. You may have had amazing families. You may have come from a background of trauma. You may have come from whatever, lots of different experiences, lots of different people in this room. But the thing I want you to really take away from this is your brain is not hardwired. No matter what you've come through, no matter what you've gone through, no matter what you will go through, you have the power and the ability through the Lord to rewire your brain. That's good. So this is a picture of a car, all right? This is an aerial view of a car. This is a four wheels. Very high tech lead drawn by me in the status. Very high tech. That's about as far as I go there. Okay, so I teach this a lot to my clients because it helps us learn how to change things about our emotions or our bodies, what's going on or our thoughts. Okay, so I'm gonna step up here. Okay, a lot of times when people come in to see us, they wanna change their emotions. I'm depressed, I'm lonely, I'm sad, I'm anxious. Usually this is the one they wanna change. They also complain about, they can't sleep, they maybe have headaches a lot, they have stomach aches, stomach aches, bowel issues, all of that. They've got a medical list. Maybe they're on a lot of medications actually for a lot of that. And they're like, man, this is very problematic. But here's the thing. This car is a front wheel drive car. You car people out here, I don't profess to know much here, okay? But the front wheel drive car, right? This is the front. The power is in the front wheels, right? I turn the wheel and what happens? These tires are what moves. And then these follow, right? You see a lot of you guys are nodding. I can tell you already know where I'm going with this. So if you want to change your emotions and your physiology, you first need to focus on behaviors and thoughts. Not just first need to, you can only change your behaviors and thoughts. You only have power, you only have power to change your behavior and your thoughts. You do not have power to change your emotions and your physiology. You can't walk in here and go, I'm just not gonna have a headache. You can't walk in here and just go, I'm just not gonna be depressed anymore. Without first changing your thoughts and your behaviors. Those are first. So, and I just kind of want to even say really quickly here. Proverbs 12, if you don't believe, again, that's a whole like science is catching up with the Bible. This is in the Bible. So let me just tell you. Proverbs 12 too, it says kind words, which are just like your thoughts too. Words are in your, your thoughts are words, right? They're in the English, you think in English, right? Or whatever native language you have, they're the same. Words, whether they're spoken out loud or in your mind are the same, okay? So kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body, okay? Proverbs 15, one, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but hard words stir up anger. Hard words, thoughts stir up the emotion. Proverbs 11, 17, this is the last one on trying to prove my point here. Like I think you guys all agree already, but Proverbs 11, 17 says your own soul is nourished when you are kind. That's a behavior, all right? But you destroy yourself when you're cruel, right? When your behaviors are cruel or kind, it dictates how it's going to affect yourself, your body even, right? So now, as I said, a lot of people come in and they wanna change their emotions, but they have to focus on thoughts, okay? And I already said, your thoughts are much, they're words, they're the same thing, right? Your words and thoughts are linked. It's like an inner dialogue and a self-talk. You guys, that's a buzzword, right? You guys hear a dialogue, self-talk. Okay, Luke 645 says, for his mouth speaks from that which his heart fills. So whatever's in your heart about another person, about God, or about yourself, you will speak or you will think. That's just the word of God, that's not me saying that. That's the word of God saying that. So then Proverbs 18, 20 says words satisfy the soul as food satisfies the stomach. The right words on a person's lips bring satisfaction. So we need to be aware of our thoughts and our self-talk, those inner dialogues that we have. Ever wonder how God can feel so fond of us and love us so well? You ever wonder how he can feel those feelings towards us? Consider his thoughts toward us, okay? In Psalm 139, 17 through 18, it says, how precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them? If I would count them, they are more than the sand. Here is the big kicker. Every single one of those thoughts are good. How do I know that? Because God is good, he is only good, and his thoughts about you are only good, which would produce feelings of good feelings, right? Does that make sense? If you're struggling with people in your life or yourself in securities, look at the thoughts that you have about yourself. Look at those. Follow God in this, and he's got so many thoughts about you, and they're all good. That's why he loves you so much. So, and then one of my favorite verses, Philippians 4, it says, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. This is your filter, okay? If your thought about yourself or about God is not true or pure, if your thoughts about other people are not excellent or praiseworthy or admirable, I mean, Philippians kind of says, you got no business thinking those thoughts. And he tells you, and this is Paul, and I love this, because we all know, I mean, I think we all know, I'm going to assume we all know about Paul's journey and struggle and how much literally he's suffered. And he's telling you, this is what you think. Here is the recipe. Yes. And listen, okay, you can choose your thoughts. Some of you guys are like, meh, I don't know if I can. Listen, you may not, you may have an intrusive thought, but you get to decide how long you think about that thought, what you think about that thought. If you change that thought, you get to decide how long it sits in your head right there. You get to decide that. You actually can choose that. So one of the things that we like to tell people to do is put your thoughts on trial, which again is biblical. So second Corinthians 10-5, we demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. I love that word captive. It has that like an arrest, right? Like now it's been arrested, and now it's gotta be proven guilty or innocent, right? I have to take it and make it obedient to Christ. So one thing that you can do is put your thoughts on trial. Sometimes you're not sure if some of your thoughts are valid or not. You need to ask some of these questions, right? What evidence do I have that this thought is true or false, right? What evidence do I have, and you can even think to your, I ask my clients this all the time. You know, when they're having these thoughts maybe about themselves or someone else to say, what would your friends say to you in this situation? They'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, and I can totally understand. I'm like, why are you not saying that same thing to yourself? Even in your mind, right? So our thoughts are powerful. You must consider them, not just your words, but your thoughts and the self-talk that you have about yourself, and you can change them. Let's move on to emotions and see how that impacts your emotions. So this is a huge thing, guys. This is, we're gonna sit on this just for a second, okay? This is like a, I use this a lot with my clients. I give them a lot of times this like, it looks just like this, I hand it to them, and I have them look at it and talk about what feeling, because sometimes you guys come, I'm angry or I'm upset, and that's such a, do you know there's like over 3,000 words in our English language that describe emotion, and we use about like 10 of them? And sometimes, sometimes you're like, no, I am feeling humiliated. I'm feeling hopeless. I'm feeling devastated. You're like, those are the words mean something, and sometimes you really need to get to the root of what the emotion is. Also on here, depression and anxiety are on here. They're emotions, you guys. We happen to have a diagnosis, right? I mean, I only use, we use this thing because we kind of have to for insurance purposes, but here's the reality. There's an anger disorder. There's a depressed disorder. There's an anxiety disorder. These things though are only when you got, the emotions are out of control, right? Your tire, your back tire of your emotions is spinning and you're fish tailing, right? That's what's happening. It doesn't mean that it has to be lifelong and forever. Or it doesn't have to be an identity. That'll preach. Honestly, it's like, I mean, so I've heard that a depression and anger are like the common cold of mental illness. So when you get a cold and you see it coming on, what should you do? Which slow down, maybe take a nap, take some vitamin C, maybe cancel a meeting. Like slow down, right? What happens if you don't listen to that? That I got a cold coming on and you just start to bear through it. You might get sicker. And then if you really ignore that and you still keep plowing on, you're probably gonna get pneumonia, bronchitis, right? Now you're gonna have to go to the doctor and get antibiotics. And if you really ignore it even more, you could end up in the hospital. You can also pass it to other people. For sure. Now we see people a lot of the time, usually where it's at that level where they've ignored it, they've ignored all their emotions, right? They don't know how to deal with their emotions. And now they're spinning out of control and they're coming to us. And so that's okay. I think that's, you need to know when to go find some help, right? Let me give you some help as to what we teach our clients on how to deal with your emotions, how to handle your emotions. Now this is for you, but you first and then others, right? So you can't transfer what you don't already have. Please practice what you preach. So okay. So let me just say really quick though that these emotions aren't bad. God created you with them. I don't know that if you really believe that though. And that's why I know that because I have so many clients that are Christians and they come in and they deny their emotions. They deny and invalidate their anxiety and their depression. Why? Because they read verses like, do not be anxious. So I can't be. Do not fear. So I can't fear. And they ignore, deny, invalidate the very thing that is real in their heart. Now here's the thing I just wanna say. So Philippians 4-6 says, the Lord is at hand. Let's go back to that verse. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything. That's what he said. He said, hey, I'm here. Hey, I'm here. Don't be anxious. Right? He's not saying don't be anxious and you're sinning. That's different. That's like when my kids are around, I'm like, hey, baby, don't be afraid. I'm right here. It's not saying you can't be afraid. And then if you are afraid, you're doing something wrong. That's not what that's saying. It's the same thing. Oh guys, let's talk about depression for a second. If you don't think that is all over the place in Psalms, then you don't know David's life. Psalm 13, Amoritas, not the long one, but I love it. This is learn from David. How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? I long, how long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me. Oh my Lord, light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. I mean, you do hear his, he's desperate, but he's depressed. He is so depressed, he feels like he's gonna die. That is how my clients a lot of times feel when they are so deep in depression, they can't get out of bed. They can't function. That's depression. That's David's expressing it right here. And then he says, but, but, I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. He's choosing his thoughts. Do you hear it? Okay, I will sing to the Lord. He's choosing a behavior. Do you hear it? Because he has dealt bound to flee with me. So you can acknowledge your thoughts. Let's just go into the how-tos. All right, let's go for it, next one. All right, so, how do we deal with our emotions? How do we deal with them? All right, so emotions are a lot like toddlers, okay? You guys seen this movie? So good. Okay, listen, you, I have, I like to tell my clients, picture your emotions like this, all right? And you're gonna like a conversation. It helps people to remove themselves from their emotions sometimes. That they're not their emotion, right? So you kind of picture, all right, anger, you know. All right, so you name the emotion. Hi, nice to meet you. Okay, your anger, nice to meet you. That's the first one, write this down if you're taking notes. Step one, name the emotion. This is where a feelings wheel or that little picture that I showed you on the last slide is really good. You look at the emotion. Step one, name the emotion. Step two, what is the emotion trying to say to you? Right, like toddlers, if you go, hey, hey, hey, mom, you know, my mom, you know, my kids, mom, pay attention, look at me, and I don't. What happens? They get louder. They get louder. And if you still ignore them, they're probably gonna get violent. Your emotions are the same way. And some of your emotions are really violent towards you. They're actually there to help you. They're good, let's remember that. God created you with them. Just learn to work with them. Learn to get comfortable with them. They're not positive or negative, good or bad. They're either comfortable or uncomfortable. Which ones are you uncomfortable with? The more you can get comfortable with them, the more they can help you. So that's number two. What is the emotion trying to say? Anger would probably say something like, you know, that person disrespected you. Okay, yep, all right. Number three, what does the emotion need? This is the next step. What does the emotion need? Maybe the emotion would like to say, well, you need to communicate this injustice and let them know like they've crossed a line, right? Number four, how will you get the need met? What are you gonna do? Well, you gotta set up a meeting with this person. You gotta talk to them, right? Number five, release the emotion. This can be in a way of like running it out, going to the gym, journaling, crying, laughing, whatever you need to do, right? So that's a little bit of how you can process emotions, restructuring, even how you frame the emotion. It can help you. You really do feel like you can release the emotion once your kid is like, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, and you're like, what? And you have that conversation. What do you wanna say? What do you need? They get it, you do it, we're all good. Go back to normal, right? Same thing with your emotions, same thing, so. So if you registered for this conference, you will get an email with all of these slides. So let's talk about your body because we live in this meat suit, right? Like we have to deal with it. Yes, meat suit, trademarked by me. Healthy body, healthy mind, happy human because why do I need to worry about my physical health? It is just a meat suit, it's not my permanent home. But do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. And guess what? When you do that, He will give certain gifts to you. When you are physically active, when you move your body in the way that the Lord intended you to move, then you have better sleep because you have certain hormones and chemicals that are released into your body when your heart rate gets really high, not when you're stressed. Let's make this clear. When you're exercising, that help you get better sleep. It helps you have better memory and better thinking. You can concentrate more clearly when you have your body moving, when you are active. It increases your self-esteem too. Like you feel better about yourself and you're like, yeah, I went to the gym today. Oh yeah, I took my dogs for a walk, right? Energy, do you know the more energy you expend, the more energy you have? Isn't that like such a weird thing? But that's how the Lord designed our brains, catch. Resilience, you also have more resilience when you are more physical and more active. You just have the ability to bounce back from stressors. And did you know that exercise is the number one way to complete a stress cycle? So you have a stressor, right? You have a thought and you need to do something with it because that thought has an impact on your physiology. That energy needs somewhere to go. So just 15 minutes of exercise. Do you know what else can help close that stress cycle? 20 second hug, six second kiss, 20 second hug, yes. So we have to keep in mind that we have to take care of what the Lord gave us because what are we called to do? We need the energy for that. What if we're called to go live somewhere where you have to walk a lot of steps? You need the energy for that. You have to take care of what the Lord gave you. And then in turn, that will help you take care of your thought life and of just your overall health. So let's look at your body a little more. So this is what happens when we get into that fight, fight, fight, freeze, you know, that zebra and the lion comes at you. You just got an email because someone didn't like your preaching and they thought you're off in the theology. Someone, some parents mad because of what you did in a youth group night. You're right, I mean, come on. And then all the, then your dishwasher went out and your kids are failing math and there's all these things. You got a bad doctor's report. All of a sudden you can experience these physical things, right, like difficulty breathing, heart pounding, butterflies, dizziness, tunnel vision, dry mouth. All of these things start happening to your physical body. Okay, so I'm gonna tell you a little story. So I didn't anticipate you to be here, but this is your story. I did get approval from him, but, so one day, so we're on vacation and he is just chewing gum and his crown falls out. This is, we have a great dentist by the way and this was done by another dentist back home or in Colorado and anyway, he, this is like his fifth crown fell out. And he's like, oh no, I don't wanna call him. Like I don't wanna tell him another crown fell out. Well he goes to the dentist. He's so kind, our doctor is and a dentist is and he puts his, you know, fixes it and he's like, you know, there are two patients, two types of patients that I see have the worst teeth. Teachers and pastors, these are stress. They grind their teeth at night. You can get a night guard or you can go to therapy and actually deal with the issues of why you're so anxious and grinding your teeth at night, right? Which by the way, he does have, he has a therapist. We're all obviously, I'm a therapist, we're pro-therapy. So, and then he goes to his chiropractor, it's this same week, okay? Goes to the chiropractor and he's like trying to get adjusted and you know whatever and the chiropractor's like, dude, what do you guys, and he, the chiropractor sees a lot of the pastors are radiant and our dentist sees a lot of pastors are radiant so he's like, they're both like, they know. What is, they're like, the chiropractor goes, what is happening over a radiant? Like all the pastors are like, I can't adjust them. Now here's the thing, radiant is not like some workhorse. Like they're not, they're not slaving us away. No, this is everybody. I guarantee if I got all the pastors to go to the dentist and all the pastors from all over the earth, this would be a problem. Why? It's the same study that said, stress is the number one reason why I want to quit. Right? And so this is just trying to say, hey guys, like your body is communicating to you. Your emotions are communicating to you, but your bodies are, and what is your body saying? Pay attention, pay attention. Lot of the gut stuff you've got going on, the headaches, the sleepless nights, pay attention to that. Sorry, let's look at this a little different way. This is the more scientific way. We talk about the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is that fight-flight-or-freeze. And the parasympathetic nervous system is the rest in recovery. So did you know that when you get into that fight-flight-or-freeze, neurotransmitters, they increase and release cortisol, which is an inflammatory adrenaline, and lots of other stuff that I'm not smart enough to know about. But I know that if they are in your system for a prolonged period of time, they are connected to things like IBS. They are connected to things like autoimmune disorders. You will slowly erode your body over time if you allow yourself to live under prolonged stress. It impacts just about every system in your body, as you can see, right? So that's why God's saying, don't be anxious. Don't be so angry. Don't let these things fester, right? Because you think you're burnt out just from spiritual stuff and work. No, you're not. You just can't handle anxiety and stuff because you haven't been taught how to do it yet, right? You can go move to some other job. You're still gonna have the same issues. Because you're still gonna have this thing called the amygdala that sits in the core of your limbic system, which is the alarm that goes off when there's anything connected to something that is a remembered trauma, pain. And we talk about trauma in our office. We talk about big T trauma and little T trauma, which is just another word for anything painful that kind of gets stuck, right? And so maybe... By the way, you guys all have it. Just so you know, we all do. We all do. This is life. Everyone has it. It's a result of life living in a dying and decaying world and dying and decaying bodies that we all will have painful things that happen to us that get stuck, right? And there's ways to deal with that, obviously, therapy, right? The Lord. Friends. Pastors. Relationships, right? There's so many ways to deal with that. But the reality is we have to recognize that it's just the tip of the iceberg. Like everybody has stuff going on underneath. Yeah, I'll do. And so I wanna tell you a little story of how my alarm went off in an inappropriate way because it happens. So one day I'm home. I'm in my nice, comfortable home. I told you I had two dogs, so they bark if anyone comes near my door. I'm home alone, having lunch, watching one of my favorite Hulu shows, Handmaid's Tale. There's a particular high-intent scene, right? And I have this really cool Apple Watch, and it's never done this before, since, but it went off on me. It was like, I was like, what? Your heart rate is 140 beats per minute. I'm just sitting here in my nice, comfortable home in my little town with my dogs and myself, and I'm safe. There is nothing wrong with me. But my brain, it doesn't discern between real or perceived danger. It's just thoughts. Thoughts are real no matter what. So we have to recognize that that is something that's going on in our body. So it's a total car. We can't just pay attention to part of it. We have to know what runs the car, what steers the car, but we are a total human being, which is why we talked about, we named this Mind the Gap, because we live on this earth and we don't pay attention to that gap. We think, oh, I'm just, you know, go to church Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, twice on Sunday, and I'm good, walking in the Holy Spirit. Then I go home, and I eat chips, and I sit on the couch, and, you know, I'm praying, and I'm doing all this, but I'm not paying attention to my body. Or maybe I'm doing it the other way. Keep going, yep. Maybe I'm going to the gym five days a week, and I go to church on Sunday. It's good, it's all, yeah. But I'm at the gym five days a week, and that's my priority. I eat, live, and drink protein all day long. So I have to really be aware of how all of these things are interconnected, and then I have to be aware too that I have power. I have power in the Lord, but I have power in how I manage my life, my thoughts, my relationship with the Lord. So I'm going to take just one minute, just one minute really quick. I'm going to do a little little experiment. I'm going to all take your hands, put it on your chest, and breathe. Yes, you all breathe. Your brainstem tells you to. You don't think about it, it just happens. And we as humans are shallow breathers. We breathe from here. I want you to take your other hand, keep this hand here. I want you to take your other hand and put it on your stomach. I want to teach you how to do a belly breath or diaphragmatic breath. Some of you might know this, but I'm going to tell you the why. Guys, by the way, this is one of the easiest things that we can do, but hardly anyone ever does it. It's like, when you pastors teach people how to pray. It's the easiest thing we can do, but people don't do it. It's like, just do it, just pray and breathe. Can we do that? Let's just do it. So when you take a belly breath or a diaphragmatic breath, what you're really doing is you're inhaling through your nose and you're really expanding your stomach as if there was a balloon in your stomach and you're making it as big as you can, right? Don't do that yet. Because this is the really, really important part is your exhale. As you exhale, you are pulling your stomach back toward your spine, pushing that breath out of your body. And the really cool thing that happens is kind of down here, there's a vagus nerve that runs up and down that central nervous system. And when you exhale that breath and when you compress that stomach, you have the opportunity to trigger that vagus nerve that tells that parasympathetic nervous system that the Lord gave us to chill, to calm. So I want you to do that really quick. Just take a really nice deep breath in through your nose and push it out. Feel that stomach compress. Feel the power of the breath that the Lord has given to us. So, wow, we gotta wrap up really quickly. So I'm gonna go through this really quickly. You are what you eat, right? So, did you know that after you have a stressful moment, how many people crave carbs and sugar? Which is horrible for you, right? Not, I mean, too much of it. That your diet can actually make you feel worse. You crave the carbs and sugar because your body thinks that you ran for your life, like the zebra, it thinks that you expended the energy and so it needs a quick refuel. That's why you crave those things. So what you eat can either make you feel nervous or it can make you feel calm. So your appetite is directly also, that's physiology, is linked to your emotions. Again, if your appetite is all a whack, I had a whack, consider that. What are you feeling? A lot of times I ask the clients, just don't log your food intake, log your emotions before and after you eat. Consider that. And God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of this earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. So God perfectly prepared for us, right? And so the connection between your diet and emotions stems from that close relationship between your brain and the stomach and the GI gastrointestinal tract. So it's actually called your second brain, which is so cool to me. The GI tract is home to like a ton, think of like billions of bacteria that influence the production of neurotransmitters that are found up here in your brain. And the neurotransmitter, that's a chemical messenger that allows nerve cells to communicate to one another. Neurotransmitters like, well, let's look at some of them, serotonin. It helps us sleep. Do you know those are found in food that the Lord put here for us? I don't see lays potato chips on this list. So unfortunate. But look at this. These are the amino acid precursors, which are the basic building blocks for the neurotransmitters found in your brain and they're based in what you eat. And so again, remember that zebra who's running for his life, his stomach isn't digesting because he's in a stress response system. So if you're constantly stressed, your brain can't get what it needs to manufacture the serotonin, to manufacture the GABA, the dopamine. So we have to pay attention to the whole body. We have to pay attention to all of it. And again, this is emailed to you. Yeah, I just, I think that, you know, as we're kind of, you know, wrapping this up and talking about all of this, so often I think we hit a spot in our spiritual life where we get frustrated. We feel like God isn't answering our prayers or isn't with us. We don't feel them or, you know, we just hit a rock, you know, or a wall or we've plateaued and it's not, it's not always a spiritual issue or answer. It's sometimes it's because of something we need to change, a behavior or thoughts. We need to be aware of how we're treating our bodies. We need to be aware of how we're processing emotions, right? And you're wondering all the while, like why, you know, we work with clients all the time who, why, I mean, I'm telling you, it is huge, I don't know, it's a privilege and a success when I see people come into our office, work on their trauma, work on their anxiety, work on whatever's going on that presents. And it sounds so basic, so like it's just mental, emotional or physical, you know, but it always, every single time impacts their spiritual life. They have a better relationship with God when they leave my office and not tooting my own horn. I'm saying it just connects. It connects. And so here's the thing, guys, that just because you have a holy calling on your life does not mean that you have a holy anointing against all the stuff we talked about today. Amen, amen. Yes, amen. It's true. So I love this. This is a great quote. Holiness is a time management issue, right? Or a life management issue. We would tweak that a little, right? Because it's all about how you take care of the whole picture. Your whole self. That we really, oh my gosh, where's my little quote? I have a quote in here. That burnout, based on burnout literature, we know that burnout is higher in the start of our careers because we need good mentoring, we need good training, we need good support so we can manage the distress. There is a moral dilemma that we all face. And I think Pastor Lee spoke about it this morning like we're trying to catch everyone, right? And we can't. You can't. You have to first interact with the work, with competence and confidence. And how do you get this? You get this through discipleship. You get this through being around people who pour into your life, who speak over your life, who you can talk to about the thought and the struggles that you're facing. You just define my job description. That is what a therapist is. I don't know. I mean, the thing is is like, I love it when people say, oh yeah, I'm totally pro-therapy and pastors are like, yeah, yeah, go to therapist. You do it, but they don't go themselves. You can't give what you don't have, right? Do you have a dentist that takes care of your teeth? Do you have one? Raise your hand if you have a dentist. Raise your hand if you have a doctor that you already have. Yep. I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand now, but if I were to have you say, go, do you have a therapist? Why don't you have someone who's taking care of that part of your life? To check in, even if it is once a year, you check in. What if you have a toothache? You're more likely to call the dentist if you already have one connected, right? You're more likely to call the doctor if you've got some ongoing issue physically. You're more likely to go to the doctor if you already have one. You're more likely to go see a therapist in a moment of crisis if you have one. Create that relationship. Find somebody you really like who's on the same page. Find someone. And just that's that person that you go to when you, you know, crisis hits or you just need to check up. You know, you're like, I feel like I'm off lately. I don't know what's wrong, you know? Go talk to someone. Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do you notice that we had like a section on mental health and like physical health? We didn't really talk about spiritual health. It wasn't a separate section for that because it's interwoven in everything. It has to be. And you already probably do it well. This is what the conference is all about. It's focusing on your spirituality. So I'm like, you probably have that figured out. It's to some degree, right? But it's just other areas that we want to bring some mindfulness to and say, hey, let's be, God is one. We need to love him in wholeness, in oneness of ourselves. Make sense? So that is our talk, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your speech, Bill.