Have you ever caught yourself mid-scroll thinking…
"Why do I feel so much pressure to be smaller… more productive… just better?"
Like—where is that even coming from?
Because sometimes it doesn't feel like it's us.
It feels like something we've been formed by.
This week on Nourished to Bloom, we take a step back and name something bigger than food:
The cultural ropes.
Diet culture. Productivity culture. Performance-driven worth.
These aren't just personal struggles — they're the air we breathe. And they quietly shape how we see ourselves, how we eat, how we live… and what we believe we have to prove.
In this episode, we unpack:
✨ The Invisible Ropes – How diet culture and productivity culture subtly tether our identity to results, appearance, and achievement.
🪢 Performance as a False Measure – The lie that our worth is something we earn through discipline, output, or "doing it right."
💡 4 Types of Goals – A powerful reframe:
- Performance (results-driven)
- Fulfillment (peace and values-driven)
- Learning (growth and skill-building)
- Awareness (noticing without changing)
🌿 Cultural Repentance – Lent as a time not just to change behavior, but to renew our minds and turn away from false messages about our worth.
🛑 Practical Ways to Fast – From self-criticism, body-checking, constant productivity, and the voices that keep us striving instead of abiding.
The Gospel doesn't say, "Prove yourself."
It says, "You are already loved."
So this week, we're practicing something different.
🌱 Your Invitation This Week
• Notice when you're measuring your worth — through food, your body, or your productivity • Pause and ask: "Better according to who?" • Choose one way to fast from performance — maybe leaving something undone, interrupting self-criticism, or stepping away from comparison triggers
By Easter, we're not aiming to be more impressive.
We're becoming more free.
Because the rope isn't just what we do…
It's what we believe we have to prove.
Let's untether together.
You were made to bloom. 🌸
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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So over the past several weeks on our Lenten journey, we've been talking
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about ropes, the attachments that tether our hearts,
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whether that's food or distraction, comparison,
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emotional comfort. But today we're really going to zoom out and
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really understand that some of these attachments, some of these ropes, aren't just
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personal. They're really cultural. They're these things that we've
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been conditioned to believe. They're almost like the air that we
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breathe that keeps us moving. And two of the strongest that we face
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are those from diet culture and from a productivity and
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performance culture. So today we're going to break those down, see
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how they keep us tethered, see how they keep us stuck, and how they are
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not from the Lord, and how we can reframe some of these beliefs
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to allow us to really cut those ties, cut those ropes, and
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ascend towards the life that the Lord desires for us to live.
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Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast. Where your faith meets your health.
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I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic
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coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body,
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your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both.
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In a world filled with noise and confusion about food,
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health, and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from
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a Christ-centered perspective. Together, we'll untangle the deep
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roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly care
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for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body, and
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soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating
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coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith. With every
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episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration,
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and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food
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and embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
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With confidence and courage that can only be found in
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Christ. Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic
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approach to wellness, one that honors the wisdom of your body as
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God's creation, the teachings of our faith, and the unique
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purpose you're called to fulfill. You were made
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to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in
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order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready
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to nourish your body, feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of
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yourself, then you're in the right place. And I'm so happy you're here.
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Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
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invitation to thrive.
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Hey there, welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast. So happy to be spending
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some time here with you this week. It's been a little bit since I've
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actually recorded an episode since I had been in Rome, but
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had a really amazing trip with my family. I think some of my
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highlights were the papal audience and
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just being able to really see how universal our
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church is and all the languages that were spoken,
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um, the, the readings that were proclaimed and the blessings
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that Pope Leo gave was just really, really amazing. And
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I think that kind of leads into what we're going to talk about today and
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just really understanding what are the things that are fueling our beliefs,
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these maybe cultural or belief attachments
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that we have, and are they keeping us tethered, or are they really helping us
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ascend towards the Lord? And the ones that we're really going to deep
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into— dive into today, two of the strongest ones that I
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believe are diet culture and kind of this productivity
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culture. So when we talk about diet culture, when we hear that
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phrase, we often think food rules, weight loss,
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these before and after pictures that we see on our Instagrams. But
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diet culture really goes deeper than food. It's this
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systematic belief, this systematic
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messaging that tells us you are only as good as the
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results that you get. Your worth can be measured by
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a scale, by a jean size, that
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your body is a project or a problem that is constantly
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needing to be worked on, that more discipline
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equals more value, that rest is lazy,
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and that productivity proves your worth. And if we're honest,
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this doesn't just show up and how we eat, it really has bled over into
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how we live. Because that same voice says you
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should eat less, be smaller, do better is often
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the same voice that says you should be doing more, you should be
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achieving more, striving for more, producing more. And it's that
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performance-based belief system, that performance-based,
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productivity-based culture that we're living in. And this
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performance can become this rope, this tether And so that's what
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we're going to talk about, this idea of fasting from this diet
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and performance culture, and how we don't have
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to rely on these things as our identity, because both of them
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are rooted in that same lie that our worth is something that we earn.
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But we know that that's not what the gospel says. The gospel does not say
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you have to prove yourself. It simply tells us that you are already
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loved. No questions asked, no
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performance needed, just simply you are loved because of who
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you are. So Lent becomes a time of not just giving things
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up, but it's really that time of repentance. And repentance simply
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means to, to turn, to reorient, to come back
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into right order. So what are the things that you need to turn away
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from? It's not just certain foods, but really those false
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messages, those false identities, and those false measures of
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worth that have been tethered, that you have been conditioned to believe
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over the course of your life. And so here's where I want to give you
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something really kind of practical, and it's really talking
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about how we can look at goals. And when we talk
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about growth or goals, we maybe somehow
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unknowingly stay stuck in kind of the same performance mindset, these
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same performance-type goals. So I want to talk about these
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4 types of goals, and I want you just to simply notice— it's not to
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say that any of them are necessarily bad, but it's just saying that we as
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a culture tend to get stuck this one type of goal, this
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performance-based goal. And so I want you to notice, has
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there— is there one type of goal that's driving you? And we
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really should strive for kind of a balance of these goals because it really helps
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us grow in all areas of our life. Um, remember
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we're that integrated body, that integrated person, mind, body, and soul.
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And so unfortunately, when we get stuck in those performance-based goals, we're not really
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growing as a whole person. So I'm just going
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to kind of go through them and I just want you to simply notice and
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take inventory. Um, you know, are you stuck focused
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on this, these one type of goals or what's really been driving you forward?
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So the first one is those performance goals. Now these are
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strictly kind of these results-driven outcome-based goals, things that we
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hear like lose 10 pounds, hit a certain size,
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stick to a plan perfectly, work out 5 days a week.
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These are the goals that diet culture loves. Because they're
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measurable, they're visible, they're praised, but they can
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also tether us because our peace becomes dependent on the outcome.
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Instead of really focusing on the habits that we're building, we're so focused on
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the outcome that it becomes that tether that we can tend to be
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obsessive, or we tend to fall into that, that
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failure mindset when we can't really hit this mark
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that somebody outside of ourselves has set for us.
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So kind of some alternatives that we can look at are fulfillment goals,
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and these are different because they're not really about the outcomes, but they're about a
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direction that you're moving. So what leads to peace?
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What are things that align with your values? And what helps you live with more
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contentment? And these might look like eating in a way that feels
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nourishing and satisfying to your body, nourishing foods
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that feel good in your body and that are satisfying.
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Creating a space for family dinners or choosing rest when
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you need it. So this is about how you're living those kind of
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behaviors and those habits, not really about how you measure it.
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Now there's also learning goals, and so these focus on growth, not
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perfection. So these can be things like learning to understand your hunger
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cues, learning how your body responds to different foods, or
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developing a new coping skill for, you know, stress and
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emotional management. So instead of, I need to get this right, it
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becomes, I'm learning something new, a different way to do
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something. And that can really change everything.
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And the fourth one is awareness goals. And this is one that
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can often be overlooked, but it's really powerful. And so it's really
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not about changing anything, but it's just about noticing.
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When do you feel the urge to restrict? When do you find
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yourself overeating? What triggers
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comparison in your life and what messages are you believing?
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And so awareness creates this space and that space is where God
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works. And so here's the shift: diet culture
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and this productivity culture can keep us stuck in those performance goals,
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but the gospel invites us into, you know, fulfillment, learning,
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and awareness. One says do more, be better, try
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harder, where the other says abide. Live in
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relationship, receive, and
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grow. So what does it look like to fast
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from diet culture and productivity culture messaging this week?
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Not just in food, but really in that mindset.
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Here are a few invitations. Fast from
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self-criticism. Notice how often you evaluate yourself,
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your body, your food, your productivity, and gently
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interrupt it. Pause and just say, oh, I noticed that this popped
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up. Maybe it's fasting from body checking,
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that noticing when you're walking by in the mirror or measuring yourself on the
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scale or just constantly adjusting yourself, and just
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let your body exist without constant evaluation.
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Another invitation is to fast from performance-driven thinking.
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When you catch yourself saying, I need to be better, just pause and ask
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Better according to who? By what are you measuring yourself?
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Is it a diet culture and productivity culture
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message or standard that you are trying to measure yourself up
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against? And what would the Lord be asking you to do
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instead? And maybe it's fasting from
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constant productivity. Try leaving something undone
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at the end of the day, not because it doesn't matter, but just
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because you need to know that your worth isn't on the line with what you
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can accomplish in a day. And maybe it's fasting
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from the voices that reinforce all of this. Maybe that looks
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like taking a break from social media or other influences
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that are driving the cultural and productivity messages in
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your mind. Maybe that's unfollowing accounts that stir
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comparison or striving, or step away from
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other inputs that keep you tethered. Because truly,
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what it is that we're consuming forms us. So instead of reaching
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for that social media or those, um, you know, other
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inputs that are really inputting
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how you're, you're thinking about yourself, reach for your Bible
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instead. And this is what I mean by that cultural repentance.
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It's not just changing behavior, but it's really about renewing our
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minds. It's choosing truth and the
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absolute only truth over noise. And slowly,
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with the Lord's help and his grace, that rope is going to loosen.
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That tether is maybe going to start unwind or fraying, because
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freedom doesn't come from perfect performance. It really is just
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coming from this right order, reorienting our minds, our
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hearts, our bodies to putting God at the center, and then
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everything else is going to fall into its place. So this week I
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want you to ask, where am I still measuring my worth?
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Which type of goals am I living from? Am I living from
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performance or something deeper? And by
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Easter, we're not trying to become more impressive or meet somebody else's
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standards. Again, it's about being able to live more
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free in God's truth. And so next week we're going to talk
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about how we can sustain this freedom beyond Lent and how to
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live untethered in a world that constantly is trying to pull us
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back. Until then, pay attention to the messages that believing
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and that you're receiving, because that rope isn't often what you're doing, but
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it's really what you're thinking you have to prove. Thanks again for spending
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this time here with me. I hope you have a beautiful and blessed week.
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I look forward to seeing you here again next week. We'll talk soon. Bye!