Personal Growth | Grit and Grace Life

Ask Dr. Zoe – How Do I Find the Right Therapist for My Needs?

‘Liz’ Asked: How do you find the right therapist? I know I need one, and I also know the value of a good therapist. I’ve tried faith-based counseling in my area- found it to be very surface level and frankly kind of sexist. I’ve tried finding one through my healthcare network and even through an app. It’s just hard to find the right fit. I want someone who shares my faith, but also someone who has experience with serious mental health issues, which are a part of my story. Dr. Zoe Answered: Hi Liz, this is such a great question. Finding a good therapist is much like dating. Sometimes frustrating, but when you’ve found “the one,” you’ve found gold. I suggest that […]

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Being #filterless with Whatever Life Throws Your Way

By The Grit and Grace Team / Purpose

About this photo: “When I was (very) pregnant with twins, I decided to skip the staged pregnancy photo shoot with long flowing gowns and all that. It felt so fake at the time. My experience being pregnant with twins was not something I wanted to cover up with a dress I only wore for pictures. Carrying these babies was so gritty that I thought it would be funny to post these pics that my husband took of our own joke photo shoot.” —Caroline Beidler, writer for Grit and Grace Life Being #filterless With Whatever Life Throws Your Way It’s no secret that life is going to throw us curveballs. Some will be great; others won’t be so pretty. No matter

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5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

By Meaghan Dawson / Life & Culture

The other day, as I was participating in my daily scroll on social media, a Facebook memory popped up on my feed. It was a heartwarming throwback of me and my youngest when she was just a baby. I looked tired, yes, but also had that new-mom glow as I held my daughter in her “Baby’s First Christmas” outfit. She was three months old and this was, sadly, quite a few years ago. I remember that picture well. We were at my in-laws’ house after church, and it was the first time I had gotten “dressed up” since giving birth. And I remember being wildly insecure about my new, mom-of-three body. I felt frumpy, overweight, and gross. I didn’t want to go,

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Behind Her Struggle With Alcohol With Lindsey Encinias – 161

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreIs social drinking just a glass of wine at dinner (the answer is yes), or can it become something else (the answer is also yes)? Current statistics show that many women find themselves in a struggle with alcohol, experiencing a significant upswing after the stress of 2020. With this knowledge in hand, Darlene Brock and Julie Bender interview Lindsey Encinias, writer for Grit and Grace, who bravely shares her battle overcoming alcoholism. In this personal story, she recounts contributing factors- her family history, the tragic loss of her father while she was a teenager, and wrestling with her identity after leaving an exciting corporate role after becoming

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Making These 3 Changes Helped Me Reclaim My Joy

By Amber Koehn / Purpose

It started with one word: shutdown. At first, it wasn’t really noticeable. I went about my days as best I could, navigating the “new normal,” and even reveling in the fact that I had more time to slow down and enjoy life. I was reading more books, I was doing more one-on-one activities with my girls, and I started spending more of my days on social media to stay connected with people. I was so thankful for technology and the ability to get updates on friends and family from afar. I was grateful for the accessibility of news reports and pandemic updates. But over time, I became consumed by the dark side of social media, and like a slow leak in a

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You Don’t Have to Stay Stuck Anymore – 160

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreLife ebbs and flows. Some days are filled with excitement and hope. Then there are others where you feel just plain “meh.” When the mundane feeling lingers beyond a few days, it’s time to ask yourself if you’ve become stagnant. Since we all face these emotional roadblocks, we wanted to tackle them. The first thing Darlene Brock and Julie Bender share is a simple way to determine if you’re in an actual rut. Then, if so, how to begin the battle forward, reminding you to give yourself much-needed grace as you determine why you’re feeling this way. Next, they suggest an exercise you can use today to

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This Is How to Avoid Stagnation and Get More out of Life

By Rachel Hagstrom / Purpose, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) Toward the end of one of our sessions together, my life coach tasked me with an unusual piece of homework: “I want you to write your own obituary and read it to me during our next session. What did loved ones say about you? What kind of life did you lead? What was your impact? Put it all in there and let yourself go wild with it.” This particular session had centered around my feelings of being stuck regarding a new venture; I was desperate to get back to my “why” and remember what it was I was originally after. “It’s like my feet are glued to the ground and everything around me

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Stop People Pleasing Now With Cherlyn Decker – 159

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreDo other people’s opinions affect how you feel about yourself? Often find yourself trying to please others, hoping they will see you as you want to be seen? If so, you’ll appreciate this episode. Darlene Brock and Julie Bender interview Cherlyn Decker—a speaker, writer, and coach who has helped hundreds of women turn their struggles into a source of strength. They discuss everyday battles many women face: people pleasing, mom guilt, and obsessing over what others think of them. Cheryln shares practical tools that can help you turn from these harmful habits, encouraging you to look back on past life experiences for how they “stack” on each

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Ask Dr. Zoe – How Do I Stop Being a People Pleaser?

By Dr. Zoe / Ask Dr. Zoe

‘Paranoid and anxious’ Asked: Dr. Zoe, HELP ME! I know that this question, not even a question really, may seem bizarre and a no-brainier, but to me, it’s my life and I hate it! I’m such a people pleaser, always wanting to help someone out even if it means spreading myself far too thin. I’m always worried if someone doesn’t text me back, want to hang out, like my post on Facebook or return my phone calls that they are mad at me, secretly hate me, or they are laughing behind my back. I’m constantly paranoid about my friendships and even sometimes with my marriage. My anxiety will be so bad that I take it out on my husband and children. At

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This Is How God Matured the Anxious Girl I Used to Be

By Allison McCormick / Faith

In our home, we purge what has gathered in the corners of closets and the backs of drawers each year. We find new homes for jackets that haven’t been worn for the past few years, and we toss the reams of paper we no longer need. It is a freeing, satisfying time. This year my husband was looking through a box of treasures he’d collected over the past 40 years: cards from family members that have long since passed; notes from his son; handmade cards from children he’d coached. They all brought special memories of times he’d almost forgotten. At the bottom of the box was a letter addressed “Mac.” Seven pages of thoughts and emotions, handwritten, and badly faded. He called

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Challenges to Conquer? All You Need Is a Growth Mindset

By Katie Cress / Best Of, Life & Culture

Ever find inspiration in the most unexpected places? A TV show? A friendly cashier at the supermarket? A good book? I love when that happens, when fate just seems to throw you a signal, grabbing the attention of your heart just when you need it most. Well as fate would have it, I was in desperate need of some encouragement, and I found it when I was least expecting it. Just When I Was Starting to Lose Hope, Something Told Me to Hold On I was going through the growing pains of real adulthood in my mid-20s. In conversations with friends, I described this stage of life as a domino effect where, whether in my personal life or the lives of my

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As Life Changes We Ask, What Defines Me? – 156

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | More Are you feeling a bit lost? No longer know who you are? The demands and circumstances of your life have taken over, and you’re unsure what defines you. Is it what you do? The titles you hold? The roles you play? The opinions of another? Women go through numerous changes and seasons, some by choice, others beyond our control, bringing with them struggles to know who we are. Co-hosts Darlene Brock and Julie Bender ask pointed questions to get to that elusive answer. What defines me? Our priorities, principles, and convictions will lead us to that answer. In this episode, we want you to remember that

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God Showed up When I Was Tired of Waiting

By Amanda-Lee Pitzer / Faith

I remember those special holidays on Sunday mornings as a little girl when my family got extra dressed up. My dad pulled my brother and I outside and grabbed his camera to snap photos of us, super thrilled, in front of our Rose of Sharon bush. I was not thrilled by my frilly dress, curly hair, or my brother’s attitude. After the photos, we’d head off to church. My mom was so proud of that bush, along with many of her prized rose bushes. She was the only one in the family with a green thumb. She tried to teach me the proper method to preening her roses or trimming back the Rose of Sharon, which grew well over eight feet tall,

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This Is How Carpe Diem Can Change Your 2021 – 154

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | More Do people still say “carpe diem” or is it merely an overused cliché? Darlene Brock and Julie Bender think it’s a relevant phrase, especially now. In this episode, they are inviting you to embrace its meaning for 2021. Who knows what tomorrow brings, today is what you have. The unexpected twists and turns from last year reminded us that life can change in an instant. It’s grit and grace that will help you seize the day; this episode will tell you how to do so while inspiring you to take hold of every moment 2021 brings. Viewing in an app? Full show notes here! Articles We

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My Life Is a Canvas, God Is the Painter

By Rachel Hagstrom / Audio Articles, Faith

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) For many of us, the new year is an opportunity for a fresh start. We’ll seize the newness of the season by taking intentional moments to reset and re-calibrate. We visualize what the next 365 days hold for us. Perhaps because I grew up in the home of an artist, I liken the new year to a blank canvas ready to be primed and painted with brilliant hues and brush strokes of far-off adventures, rough timelines, and enormous potential. The canvas is etched in lofty goals, dreams, and aspirations; our hopes and everything we resolve to one day achieve are saturated in its fibers. Each January, I’d have a vision and high ideals

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This Grit and Grace Life Podcast Preview – Episode 139 Post-Pandemic

By Our Grit and Grace Life Videos / Life & Culture

The pandemic changed our lives in countless ways. Maybe you started building your new normal, or in some ways, you returned back to the way things were before COVID-19. Either way, we also learned a lot, whether that was the importance of spending time with family or how to be wiser with spending amid an economic downturn. Rather than ruminating on the darker parts, Darlene and Julie decided to look at how living through the pandemic has served them. In this episode, they chat about the positive takeaways, and how we can still pick out the good parts from challenging experiences.

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10 Truths for Every Strong Woman’s Grit and Grace Life – 100 This Grit and Grace Life

By Our Grit and Grace Life Videos / Life & Culture

We’re celebrating our 100th podcast with our core message—that you are a strong woman! And if you’ve forgotten what she looks like, this milestone episode will remind you. In this segment, Darlene and Julie shares 10 truths that will help guide you as you maneuver this life, including tips on working through your struggles, managing comparison, giving yourself grace, and of course, reassurance that your house isn’t the only one that’s not spic-and-span 24/7. Whether you’re a strong woman or you’re trying to be, these tips are for you.

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