Ever catch yourself frozen—stuck between wanting change and feeling paralyzed by all the "what ifs"?
Like, we want a more peaceful relationship with food… We want to show up more confidently… We want to pursue the things God has placed on our hearts…
…but that quiet voice of fear keeps us playing small.
This week on Nourished to Bloom, we're diving into something we all experience: fear-based decision making—and how it might be shaping more of our lives than we realize.
Because fear doesn't just show up in big moments… it sneaks into the everyday: our food choices, our relationships, our calling, and the way we show up (or don't).
And often? It disguises itself as "being wise" or "playing it safe."
But underneath… it's keeping us stuck.
✨ What we unpack in this episode:
🌱 How fear-based decisions sneak in (and why they can feel like the "right" or responsible choice at first)
🧠 Why fear gives the illusion of control but actually leads to more overwhelm, second-guessing, and disconnection
🙈 The subtle ways fear keeps us from showing up —in friendships, in community, and in the passions we feel called to pursue
✝️ What we can learn from the Apostles as they navigated fear after the resurrection of Jesus Christ—and chose trust anyway
🌿 A simple but powerful shift: instead of asking "How do I get rid of fear?" we begin asking, "What would trust look like right now?"
🔥 A practical invitation for us this week:
The next time we feel stuck in a decision—big or small—pause and ask:
- What am I afraid of right now?
- Is this fear leading me toward peace or away from it?
- What would trust look like here?
- What is one small step I can take in trust today?
Maybe it's: sending the text… eating the food you've been avoiding… signing up for the thing… or simply letting yourself be seen a little more.
🌸 You were made for more
The desires on your heart? The nudges you keep feeling? They're not random.
They're invitations.
Fear might always try to have a seat—but it doesn't get to drive.
Just like the Apostles, we don't have to wait until we feel fearless… we can choose to move forward in trust.
Together.
If this episode resonated with you, we'd love to hear from you—reach out at kara@karatrochta.com 💌
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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Welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast, where your faith meets
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your health. Today we're diving into something that shows up in
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so many areas of our lives, but especially when it comes to our health,
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our bodies, our dreams and our desires, and
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literally the decisions that we make day to day. Today we're going
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to talk about fear based decision making and not just
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in a surface level way, but really getting honest about how fear might
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be quietly running the show more than we realize.
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So we're going to connect this to intuitive eating, to your identity
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and purpose, to your daily choices, and also to
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the lives of the apostles. Because if anyone knew what it meant to
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feel fear and still move forward in faith, it was them.
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Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your
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health. I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and
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certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper, deeper connection
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with your body, your spirit and the nourishment that sustains them
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both. In a world filled with noise and
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confusion about food, health and body image, this podcast
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offers truth and healing from a Christ centered perspective.
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Together we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover
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what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful
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nourishment of mind, body and soul. We're here to dive into
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the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our
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Christian faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you on,
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offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to help
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you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty
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of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit with
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confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.
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Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
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one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,
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the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
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fulfill. You were made to bloom,
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to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
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for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
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feed your soul and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're
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in the right place. And I'm so happy you're here. Welcome
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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. I
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am so happy to be spending some time here with you this week
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and I'm really excited for this topic,
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fear based decision making. So this has been coming up quite
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a bit in coaching sessions with clients lately, things
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like, well, Kara, I know what I need to do, but
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I'm not doing it right. And when
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we go deeper and we dig deeper, it's not really that they don't
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necessarily want to do the things that they know they need to do
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or they want to do. It's. They
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are afraid to get started, right? There's this fear that's keeping them
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frozen. And that, y', all, is what fear does. It keeps us from
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frozen and stuck. And so I want to
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talk today about how we can work on
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not letting fear run the show in our lives
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and how we can do this in a practical way. And then I really want
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to incorporate looking at the lives of the apostles, especially because
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it's right after Easter and the daily readings are really focused
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on the Acts of the Apostles. And I think it was just a beautiful
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connection, because what kept coming up for me when
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I read the Acts of the Apostles is how they kept meeting
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in secret and how they were in
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hiding for fear of the Jews, right? And
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there was just something that just clicked for me this time, like how
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afraid they must have been in that
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moment that they were going to do something very, very new
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and radical. And I mean, how it just started
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with the apostles, these 12
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men, plus, you know, the other disciples and followers of Jesus, and how,
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because they did not let fear run the show, the church is what it
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is today. And I think we can really take these lessons from the
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apostles in how we cannot let
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fear keep us from doing what the Lord wants us to
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do. So first, I want to dive into what does fear
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based decision making look like? So let's just start
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by naming it. Fear based decision making is when our choices are
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driven by questions and thoughts like, what if something
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goes wrong? What if I lose control
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or fail? What if this doesn't work or go
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the way that I want it to or think that it should? What
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will other people think if I do this? And here's
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kind of the tricky part. It often kind of
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disguises itself as wisdom. Like, okay,
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I am being proactive, and I'm thinking about all the things and creating
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these contingency plans. And this shows up as, okay, I'm being wise,
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I'm being, you know, prudent and smart, but
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it isn't actually wisdom,
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right? Because underneath it, there's really
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anxiety, there's a desire for control,
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and there's this lack of trust. And fear is just kind of this
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blanket that's sitting on top of it, right? And so when we
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talk about that wisdom it can sound like, well, I'm just being careful or I'm
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just trying to be healthy or I just want to do this the right way.
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This shows up all the time in coaching and the women that I work with.
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I've felt it so many times too. And maybe you have. Also,
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it looks like things like staying in diet rules because you're afraid that
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you're going to gain weight or your body is going to look different,
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or you're avoiding certain foods because you don't feel like you can trust yourself around
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them. Overthinking every decision about food,
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movement or your body, or feeling paralyzed when
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there's no perfect choice. Maybe it's
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not taking a step on that dreamer, that desire,
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that passion that you know that the Lord is calling you to. Maybe it's that
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you're not sending that email or not working on your
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resume or not doing even the things that
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you're supposed to do in taking care of your house because
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I don't know, there's some sort of fear under there. There's some anxiety or
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overwhelm under that. The reality is, is
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that when we let fear run the show, it's
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exhausting and it just keeps us stuck.
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Because ultimately, fear being from the
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enemy. The play is to keep us small. And fear doesn't
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just influence our decisions, it ultimately shrinks our lives
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because it keeps us playing small and it keeps us in staying what
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feels safe and comfortable.
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It has us avoiding growth or
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making changes even when we really want and desire
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a change. And here's the hard truth,
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and man, it's a really hard truth. Fear will always feel more
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comfortable than trust, at least at first.
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Because fear gives the illusion of control.
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Fear gives that illusion that you know what you are
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doing. But it actually, in the long run,
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leads to more confusion, more second guessing and
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more disconnection and ultimately less peace in your life.
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And I really want to take this one step deeper because fear doesn't just
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keep us stuck in our habits. It may start
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with this fear around food and what our
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bodies look like, but it starts to spill over into
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other parts of our lives. And it keeps us from showing up
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the way we want to. It keeps us from things
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like reaching out to a mom that we'd love to get coffee with
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and get to know better. It keeps us from reaching out
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and saying yes to a new friendship or putting ourselves
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out there and being involved in community or starting the thing
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that's been on our hearts for months or even years. Maybe it's that
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business idea or a ministry, or a creative passion you have,
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or even the desire to just become more present
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and a more joyful version of yourself in the life that you are currently
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living. And when this happens, these
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are what those thoughts sound like. What if I'm awkward?
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What if they don't like me? What if I fail?
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What if I'm not good enough? So instead,
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we let fear keep us on the sidelines of our life. We
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stay quiet. We stay comfortable, but
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dissatisfied. And we stay hidden.
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And on the surface, we make it look like everything
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is fine. But deep down, there's
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this
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dissatisfaction. There's this quiet
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longing for more, almost like this storm that is under the
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surface. And this is where that fear
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becomes really sneaky, because it doesn't just keep us
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from discomfort. It keeps us from our calling,
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from our true purpose and passion. It keeps us from living the
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life that the Lord wills for us.
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And so this is where I want to zoom out for a second and really
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focus on the apostles. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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They had literally walked with him. They
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had seen Jesus perform miracles. They
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saw the empty tomb, and they finally understood and knew the
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truth. And yet they were still afraid.
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They were hiding from fear of the Jews.
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They were uncertain and what they should do next.
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They were questioning what was coming next.
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And honestly, this should bring us a sense of comfort,
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because it can remind us that fear isn't a sign that you're doing something wrong,
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but it can be a sign that you're invited into something bigger.
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This growth. What changed for them wasn't
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that fear disappeared. It's that
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they were open and created space and they received the Holy
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Spirit and they began to act in spite of
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the fear. They
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stood up and they preached. They traveled and spread
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the word. They risked everything, including their lives.
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Not because they suddenly felt fearless, but because they
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trusted God more than they trusted their fear.
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And I think this is why the lives of the apostles are so powerful to
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reflect on, because they could have stayed hidden.
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They could have continued to act out of fear, out of
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uncertainty, out of not knowing what would happen next.
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But imagine if they had stayed there. Imagine if fear had
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kept them from stepping out, from speaking, from sharing the truth they had
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encountered. Y', all. The church wouldn't look the way it does
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today. Think about how quickly and how
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fast the spread of Christianity happened and how far
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reaching it was and what it started from.
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Lives wouldn't have been transformed in the same way.
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Just as we know that Mary's yes mattered when she said yes to
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God, to being the mother of his son,
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their yes, the apostles, yes, mattered
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and dear sisters in Christ. So does your yes.
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So this, yes, this may mean showing up and
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healing your relationship with food and your body,
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but it also means showing up in
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conversations and opportunities,
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in being the version of yourself that you have kept
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putting off. Fear says,
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stay where it's safe. But God is inviting you to something that
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requires vulnerability, that requires courage,
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trust, fortitude. Not because he wants to
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make things hard on us, but because that's where growth and
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freedom live. Trust is what
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helps us grow and to live free. And
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that's what's being asked of you. To trust, to trust your body,
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to trust the process, to trust that God designed you
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with wisdom and a purpose and a passion. And I
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know that that can feel really scary. But here's the shift.
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The goal is not to eliminate fear. The goal is to
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stop letting fear make your decisions.
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So instead, we ask, what would this decision look like if it were rooted in
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trust instead of fear? And when we start to
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ask this question, it can change everything.
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And so I want to give you something tangible to walk away with this kind
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of practical shift from fear to faith. So the
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next time that you're faced with making a decision, whether it's about
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food, your body, your schedule, your purpose, your
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identity, anything, I want you to pause and ask,
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what am I afraid of right now?
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Where is fear keeping me from showing up right now? I want
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you to name it, and I want you to be honest.
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Fill in the blank. I am afraid of blank.
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And that shows us what's kind of hiding under that blanket of fear.
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Second question. Is this fear leading me toward peace or
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away from it? Fear often
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creates this. This urgency and this pressure and this
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rigidity. Whereas peace allows you to feel
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more creative, more curious,
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excited. Number three. What
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would trust look like here?
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Not trying to be perfect, not trying to do something with
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complete certainty, but just trust. What would trust
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look like in this moment? And what is one small step I
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can take in trust today?
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Maybe it's sending the text to a new mom that you want to
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get to know. Maybe it's signing up for the thing,
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sharing your idea, letting yourself be seen a
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little more than you did yesterday.
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Maybe it's looking like eating the food you've been avoiding
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or stopping when you feel full without being guilty.
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Letting go of control just a little bit.
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Taking the next small step instead of having the whole plan figured out.
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Y', all. Your life is not meant to be lived hidden by fear.
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The gifts, the desires, the nudges on your heart Those are not
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random. Those are all invitations. And fear will try
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to convince you to stay small. But God is
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always calling you forward to step out and trust.
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And so if you take nothing else from today's episode, just
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let it be. That fear might show up in your life,
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but it doesn't get the final say. You can feel
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afraid and still choose trust. You can feel
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uncertain and still move forward just like the apostles did.
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And you don't have to do it alone. God is with you in every
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step of this. And if you're
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ready to go deeper into this work, whether it's healing your relationship with
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food, your body, or growing in your identity, discovering
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your purpose and passion, I'd love to support you. You can always
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reach out to me@karaharatrochta.com and let
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me know that you're ready to go deeper. I pray that you
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have a beautiful and blessed week. Remember, beauty held is the seed,
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beauty shared is the flower. It is your time to bloom. God
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bless. Take care and I'll see you next week. Bye.