Have you ever felt like you've suddenly entered a dry season… where things that once felt clear now feel quiet, heavy, or uncertain?
This week on Nourished to Bloom, we're having a real and honest conversation about what it looks like to walk through a "desert season"—when our faith feels dry, our motivation is low, and we're unsure what God is doing or where He's leading us next.
In this episode, we're opening up about what this season has looked like lately—from struggling to hear the Lord's voice, to feeling stuck in business and daily life, to navigating body image challenges and the constant noise of diet culture… all while carrying the emotional load of motherhood.
And instead of trying to rush out of the desert, we're talking about how to walk through it with faith, intention, and trust.
Here's what we're focusing on in this season:
✨ Staying committed to daily prayer—even when it feels dry ✨ Leaning into gratitude and growing in patience ✨ Creating a "holy headspace" and managing our mindset ✨ Moving our bodies in a way that fosters appreciation, not control ✨ Continuing to show up—without needing to have it all figured out
If you've been feeling off, overwhelmed, or a little lost lately… this episode is for you.
We're reminding ourselves that the desert is not permanent—and that even in the quiet, God is still present, still working, and still leading us forward. 🌿
If this episode resonates with you, share it with a friend who might be walking through a similar season. And if you're ready for deeper support in your relationship with food, your body, or your direction in life, I'd love to walk with you.
💌 Book a session! Send an e-mail to kara@karatrochta.com
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The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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I almost didn't record this episode because if I'm being
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completely honest, I have been feeling stuck and
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uninspired and truthfully, just lost
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lately. But maybe that's exactly why this
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conversation matters. Maybe you're going through this
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kind of desert season too. So today I'm sharing what it
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looks like to walk through this dry season and how I'm
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staying really grounded in my faith, my health and my purpose.
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And even when things feel super unclear.
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Welcome to the Nourish to Bloom podcast, where your faith meets
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your health. I'm your host, Kara Trachta, a registered dietitian and
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certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a 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 what
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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
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our Christian faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you
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on, offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to
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help you heal your relationship with food and embrace the
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beauty 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.
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Happy to be spending some time here with you this week.
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Today's episode might feel a little different. Definitely going a little
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more personal, a little more real time. Because
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if I'm being honest, I almost didn't record this.
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Really, because I didn't really want to record this.
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I felt like I have nothing to say
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lately and have just been feeling,
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I don't know, like I'm in a dry spell and
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there's my phone going off because my husband's calling me as I'm
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recording this. Here we go. Right?
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That's life right now.
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But, yeah, it's been a little bit of a struggle. And I have,
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like I said, just have felt like I've been in a bit of a dry
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spell, really, like in my faith, in
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my work, and really just even in my own energy
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and. And motivation. And I get it. This irony is not
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lost on me. Like, we just came out of Lent that season where
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we're supposed to be entering the desert.
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But for me, it really has felt like the desert didn't really hit
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until this last month. And it's been
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rough. Not gonna lie. I've just felt kind of
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dry, kind of done kind of meh.
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Spiritually. I feel like I've been struggling to hear the Lord's voice
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in my business and on the podcast. I've been super
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uninspired and unclear. I feel like I don't have anything to
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say, don't feel encouraged
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in the podcast or with the business, which is tough.
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I've had a lot of moments of discouragement around trying to get new
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clients for my coaching business. You know,
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add that with feeling, like, just really uncomfortable in my body
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and feeling like that diet culture noise is just
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so loud in my head right now. And then, I mean, on top of
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all of that, you can just add in that everyday emotional load of motherhood.
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I mean, you know what I mean? The dinners, the laundry,
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the schedules, all of that end of school chaos starting to creep in,
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and it just feels like a lot. And
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maybe that's where you are too. Maybe you are finding yourself in
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your own kind of desert right now where things feel
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very quiet, but not in a good way.
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Maybe things feel very unheavy or just very
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unclear. And you're wondering maybe, like,
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I am like, God, where are you in this?
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And so I sat down to record this because I
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thought maybe this would help somebody else. When I really kind of, kind of
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thought about being in this desert season,
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knowing that it's temporary. But just what are the things that I can
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focus on that I know will help me
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kind of navigate this and get. And get through this
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kind of dry spell? And I don't have it all figured out,
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but I just do want to share a few things that I've been leaning
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into, not because I've mastered them, but just
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because it has. Has felt like this is what I needed right now or
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ways that I could focus that really
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supported me, mind, body, and soul.
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So the first one is just that Commitment
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to daily prayer. Just really being committed to
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continuing to show up in prayer every day. It
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has felt really quiet in my prayer life right now.
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I have not really felt a big emotional
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connection to the Lord. I've struggled to hear
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his direction, to hear his voice, to know what he wants me
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to do next. But I have still been getting
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up before my kids and spending time in God's word.
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Father Mike Schmidt has a really good kind of
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analogy or kind of phrase about this of just, like,
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growing through the motions. So kind of these
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times where things feel really stagnant, they are opportunities
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for growth. They're opportunities to still
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practice faith and trust. And so that's
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why that daily commitment to prayer is something I'm really
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leaning into. Not because it really always
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feels amazing, because sometimes I would rather be
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sleeping, but really it's because it helps me to
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feel anchored in what's true
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when so many things seem very uncertain or unclear
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right now. It's leaning into God's
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word to remind myself that
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I am not alone, that The Lord is
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100% with me in this desert, even if he
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feels distant. And one prayer that I want to
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share that's been especially meaningful to me lately is
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the litany of trust that a prayer that I come back to over
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and over and over again. Because I feel like the words just
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really pour out what is on my heart and what is on my mind, the
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struggles that I have. And then it just helps me reorient myself
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back to. To the Lord
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and knowing that that relationship is my
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priority and knowing that this trust
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feels like the invitation that I need to lean into right now.
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The second thing I'm focusing on
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is really practicing gratitude and patience.
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Because it's really easy in a dry season to feel like everything
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is just off. But when we pause
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and we think about it, we know that that is actually not true.
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There are still really great things happening
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in my life with my family, with my friends, my community,
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my loved ones. Like God is still moving,
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even if it personally feels quieter or slower or different
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than what my expectations are. So I've
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been trying to intentionally practice gratitude and looking
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for where he is present in my daily life,
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and then at that same time, asking for that grace of
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patience to be able to grow in that virtue of patience,
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of it just being, like this holding pattern and knowing that
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even though it feels uncomfortable, that
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it's a place that I can learn to be comfortable in,
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that just because I don't like this feeling of being in between or
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feeling like things are dry or uncertain or unclear,
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that having patience to
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let the Lord navigate this part of my
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life and knowing that growth can often happen in these
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types of situations.
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The third thing I'm doing is protecting my
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mindset. We've talked about it a lot on the podcast, just that
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creating that holy headspace. And this one is always huge
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because I know from experience that when I'm in these low
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or dry seasons, I am always way more
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vulnerable to the enemy. Working through negative thoughts,
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things like, maybe this isn't working, maybe I don't
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know what I'm doing, maybe I should give up the
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podcast in the business, maybe I should just do something
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different. And instead this is where I have to be
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really intentional to kind of notice these thoughts,
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to be able to challenge them and come back to God's truth.
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And this is what I talk about as that creating that holy
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headspace where we're not just believing everything that
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pops into our mind, but actually filtering it
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through God's truth and holding it up to God's truth
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and not letting our minds
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lead us into this victim trap or lead us into
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this all or nothing thinking.
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The fourth thing I'm focusing on during this desert
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season is moving my body just really as a
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way to connect with it and not and not control it.
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It's just focusing on simple, consistent moving.
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And it's nothing super extreme, it's nothing complicated. It's
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not focused on, you know, anything related to
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changing my body, calories burned, whatever. It's
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just being able to move through my day. Maybe it
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is going to a gym class that is
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fun, like the trampoline class. Maybe it's just
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going on a walk to be able to get outside, fresh air,
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connect with the beauty that's around me. And sometimes it's just
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buckling down and doing the housework that needs to get done.
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But all of this just helps me reconnect with my body in a way that
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feels grounded and grateful. And this is especially
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helpful for me. When body image struggles feel
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really hard, and when that diet culture noise feels really
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loud, that tries to tell me that I need
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to fix my body. But when I just practice this
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simple, consistent movement, it's instead allowing me
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to shift to being able to appreciate my body,
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to be able to see my body as something that
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allows me to love, to serve and to show up.
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And number five, it's that that's it. Keep
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showing up even without clarity. And
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this is sometimes the hardest one of all guys. I
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will fully admit it would have been a lot easier to just say okay, I'm
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not going to record a podcast. And then it's like the guilt
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seeps in, like, oh, I haven't missed a podcast episode in
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a really, really long time. And then it's like, okay, but then I'm going to
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let people down. But then, am I? Does anybody listen? It's just this, like,
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spiral, right? That's where controlling that headspace is really important.
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But it's just this idea of keep showing up, keeping keep
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showing up. And it's hard. And I have to keep reminding myself
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that to keep showing up, I don't have to have everything figured
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out, but I can still show up for my family,
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that I can show up for the clients, that I do have, that I
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can show up for you here on this podcast and share some
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honesty and truth, even in this uncertainty.
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Because the truth is, is that I've been in desert seasons before.
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You've probably been in desert seasons before, and they feel so
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hard and they feel so uncomfortable and frustrating in
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that moment. But if we stop and we kind of look back on
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our lives and the points where we've been in these desert seasons,
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we have to remind ourselves and really lean into knowing that
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desert season is not permanent, that the Lord
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does lead us to those green pastures. It's just
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not on our timeline. So keep
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showing up in the ways that you know that you can, and that's going to
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look different for everybody. But just showing up,
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learning to grow through those motions, as Father Mike Schmidt says.
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And if this is where you are right now, if you are finding yourself
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in a desert season, too, I just want you to hear this, that
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you're not doing something wrong, you're not behind,
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and you are really not alone.
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Sometimes we have to have these desert seasons because they're
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invitations to slow down, to let go of the
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busyness and rest. Sometimes it's to deepen
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trust so that we can completely surrender
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our expectations, our desires, our dreams, our goals all
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over to the Lord, to be able to loosen our grip on control
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and to let God lead us into a new way.
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So if you're walking through a desert season right now, know that you're not
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alone. I'll be walking with it through you. Walking
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it. Guys, the brain not
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clicking today that I am walking through a season
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alongside with you. Lean in, keep
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showing up, keep praying, keep trusting, even when
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it feels uncomfortable, because God is still there and he is still
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working. So if this episode
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hit you right in the feels, I'd love for you to share it with a
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friend who might be going through a desert season too, or just needs
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this kind of dose of honesty in reality. And as always,
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if you are feeling stuck in your your relationship with food, your body, or
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even just the direction.