Hey friends! Welcome back to Nourished to Bloom. If you've ever felt like self-care is just another overwhelming to-do—or maybe it's been so far off your radar you can't remember the last time you truly cared for yourself—this episode is for you.
Today, I'm introducing the CARE Framework—a simple, Christ-centered, four-step process to help you create a self-care plan that's realistic, sustainable, and deeply nourishing for your body, mind, and soul. No perfection required, no complicated routines—just daily stewardship rooted in your faith that equips you to live out your calling with joy.
✨ In this episode, you'll discover: 🌿 Why self-care isn't selfish—it's a form of honoring and stewarding the gift God's given you. 🌿 The CARE Framework: Check-In, Action Plan, Renew, and Evaluate. 🌿 How to use CARE both in the moment and for building long-term, Christ-centered rhythms of care. 🌿 Real-life examples of how CARE can break cycles of burnout and instead bring calm, presence, and deeper connection with Christ.
When you pause, check in with your needs, take one small action, and evaluate with God, self-care shifts from being overwhelming to life-giving. Friend, you were made to bloom—and when you care for the precious gift you are, you're equipped to bear good fruit. 🌸
📣 This week's challenge: Practice the CARE Framework once a day. Pause, check in, make a plan, renew by taking action, and evaluate with God what fruit it brings.
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Do you ever feel like self care either becomes another
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overwhelming thing to check off of your to do list or
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maybe it's just fallen off your radar completely.
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Instead, I think that you need a simple Christ
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centered framework that's going to guide you in being able to care for your body,
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mind and soul in a way that is realistic,
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life giving and sustainable. How does that sound?
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Well, that's why in today's episode I am sharing the Care
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Framework, a simple four step process to create
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your own self care plan. It's not about indulgence
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or perfection, it is rooted and is all about
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daily stewardship that renews your strength, helps
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to anchor you in Christ, and equips you to live out your
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calling with joy and fulfillment. Welcome to the
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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
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Catholic Coach and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your
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body, 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
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care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind,
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body and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power of
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intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith.
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With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights,
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inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your
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relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as
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a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence and
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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. Hey there. Welcome
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back to another episode of the Nourish to Bloom podcast. So
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happy to be spending some time here with you this week and continuing
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our conversation all about Christ centered self care.
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Last time we unpacked those four pillars of Christ centered self
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care, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being.
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And we really dug into how tending to each of these
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areas helps to build that firm foundation for your life.
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But knowing the pillars is really just it's knowledge,
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it's not a practical application. So today
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we're going to be talking about what to do next and
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it's all about creating a plan that helps you live
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out these, these self care pillars with consistency
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and sustainability. Because the last thing I want to do
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is have you create a self care plan that is
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complicated. And so when I was thinking about this I was like,
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you know, maybe I want to do like a simple three step process. And then
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I was like, but you know what, maybe we just use that acronym care,
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right? We just come up with something that people can really
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easily relate to, easily just kind of bring up when they need
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that self care, when. And so I the
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acronym care, check in action
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plan, renew and evaluate. And so that's what I'm going
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to walk you through today. Each of the steps of the CARE
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framework and how you can use this in the moment when you're,
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you know, feeling overwhelmed or you're kind of in need of
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like a quick kind of pick me up or something to help you get
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through whatever it is that you're doing. Maybe it's the dishes or the laundry
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or carpool or whatever. How you can implement that care
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plan in the moment. But then also how you can really use this framework
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to help you go back and evaluate each one of those pillars
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of self care and build out a
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robust and yet simple,
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sustainable, long lasting care plan. So
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we're going to get started on that. So our
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first one is C, which stands for check in. So
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we can look at scripture and we can look at Psalm 46, 10 that says
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be still and know that I am God. Because before
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we can care for ourselves, we need to pause and pay attention
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both to know God's voice when he's
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speaking to us, when he's maybe, you know, trying to deliver a
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message to us. And then really to be able to know
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what our own needs are, to be able to tap into maybe those more
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subtle messages that he's sending us through, through our
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body cues, through our physical and emotional cues as well.
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So checking in is all about asking the simple question
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of what do I need right now?
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Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
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All right, so maybe you've checked in and
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you're noticing you're exhausted. Physically,
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mentally you are scattered, emotionally you're
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discouraged and spiritually you're just feeling like you're
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in a dry season, right? So you're just checking in,
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you're, you're being able to connect with, with your body, your mind and
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your most emotions just to take an
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inventory of where you are and what it is that you're needing right
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now. Because sometimes when we look at self care
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and we're like, okay, well I'm gonna go do this. Whatever action
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that we're taking, whatever self care strategy we may be
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implementing, not actually lining up with what we are, we
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are really needing in that moment. So there's kind of this disconnect.
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Self care just becomes this thing that you do instead of it actually
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being a form of care and stewardship. So take a
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moment and check in. Okay? That leads us to a.
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Your action plan. If we go back to scripture, James
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reminds us faith without works is dead. We can find that in
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chapter two, verse 26. So Y', all this awareness that
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you've picked up on in your checking in phase leads
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to action. You have to decide. And the thing is, is that
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it's a beautiful thing that you get to choose that you get to, to work
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with God on this, to decide what self care
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practice will meet that need and doing it
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in a Christ centered way. So
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that could mean eating a balanced meal or
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journaling on things that you're grateful for.
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Maybe it's calling a friend or reading scripture,
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praying through the Psalms, right? So you can go back to
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those pillars and that you, you can choose something that's going to
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nourish you and care for you in one of those four areas,
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right? So the action plan is just this, this phase of like kind of a
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brain dump or brainstorming idea of like, okay, you've checked in,
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you're, you're determining this is what you need. And your action plan is all about
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how am I going to meet this need? What would help me meet this need?
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And then that leads us into R, which is renew.
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Romans 12:2 calls us to be transformed by the
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renewal of your mind. Renewal is about
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actually stepping into the practice, right? It's
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oftentimes we know the things that we need to do, but we don't do them.
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And so renewal is all about just, it's not about just knowing what you
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should do, but choosing to do it with intention, right? And
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so this is that moment of action. It's that moment of
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stewardship where you're actually doing the darn thing, right?
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You are treating yourself, caring for yourself,
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acting in love towards yourself as God's
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creation that you care about Yourself because you are
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God's creation and you want to take care of yourself for that
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simple reason. And so
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sometimes it's starting small, maybe it's just drinking
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a glass of water or taking five minutes of
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just quiet and prayer. And then
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from there you can start to build up, right? I think we think
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that we just need to jump to this big huge
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thing in our self care plan that we get stuck
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in that all or nothing mentality. But renewal is all about
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being able to just implement something, right? So starting small and
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letting it grow from there. Inviting the Holy Spirit in,
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inviting God to really guide you and show you
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how he wants you to take care of yourself in that moment. And that
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leads us to e to evaluate. St. Ignatius
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taught us the daily examine, which is really a simple practice
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of just reflection. And so you can stop and ask
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yourself, did this action meet my need
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and how am I feeling now? You can do
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that, you know, that other, that, that check in again. How are you feeling
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mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually?
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Did it draw you closer to Christ? Right. And
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if it did, like great, right? That is progress. That is
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really being able to connect with the Holy Spirit
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and being able to care for yourself in the best possible way.
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But no worries if it didn't, right? If not, it's
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allowing you this opportunity to adjust without
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shame because it's all about a journey. Every day
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the way that you care for yourself is going to look a little bit different
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based off of circumstances and situations and
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your environment. So it's not a pass fail test. It's really
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just about being able to
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take care of your needs in that moment in a way that is being
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guided by Christ. And evaluation is just really
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there to help you refine your self care rhythm. So
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your plan grows with you over time.
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So I want to just kind of go through a couple of little like
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scenarios of what this would look like when we practice self care.
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So scenario one being that you've had a long
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day, work was overwhelming, the kids need your attention,
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dinner is late and you find yourself running on fumes.
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Instead of checking in, you just push through. You
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ignore any tension that you're feeling in your body. You're ignoring the stress
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that is racing through your mind and maybe the heaviness that you're
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feeling in your heart. So you just decide you're going to
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scroll on your phone late into the night, or maybe you
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are just mindlessly snacking, or you just
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collapse into bed without really resting. And the next day
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you wind up waking up feeling just as drained as you did
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the day before. And that cycle just continues.
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Okay, let's look at the same thing, but with practicing our care
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framework. So same day, same stress,
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but this time you pause, you check in and you
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realize you're emotionally exhausted and you are physically tense.
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You create your action plan. You decide that
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out of all your possibilities, you're going to step outside for five
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minutes, breathe deeply and pray a short
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prayer of surrender. You renew by actually doing
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it. You leave the dishes for a moment,
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you take that breath and you invite Christ into the overwhelm.
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And later you evaluate and you notice that in doing
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so, you came back and you felt calmer, you felt more
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grounded, you were able to be more present with your family.
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You didn't necessarily fix everything, but you broke that cycle
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of burnout with just five minutes
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of simple, practical self care.
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So can you see that difference? That one approach leaves you
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depleted while the other one restores you enough
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that you have the strength to keep going with peace.
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I kind of had this happen to me today. I,
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you know, I was just feeling this heaviness,
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this exhaustion. And if I take a moment and I, and I looked back on
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what has been going on, it really started with
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about like a week ago. My husband and I went on trip, on a
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trip to Chicago. And so we were gone Saturday through Tuesday. So it
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required, you know, getting to the airport early.
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We had late nights eating food that we didn't
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normally eat, the stress of,
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you know, coordinating kids and where they needed to be and you know, just
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the worry about being gone and away from from your home. And then we got
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back and we had our, the rest of our week as normal,
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which is busy because of the phase of life we're in. And then we went
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out of town this weekend and it was a road trip. We went to go
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see my sister and she lives about five hours away from me. So, so that's
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10 hours in the car, sleeping
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in a bed that maybe wasn't as comfortable or just in an environment that
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wasn't as familiar. Again, late nights, kind of being out
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of that normal routine. And then today
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hits and I had some training this morning and I just felt
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this heaviness. I felt it on the top of my shoulders
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and in my back and it just felt like I was being weighed down.
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And when I finished my training, I stopped and I was like, okay, the first
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thing that I need to do is I need food because my stomach, stomach is
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growling and I know that I am hungry. But in checking in it was like
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I acknowledged that I had this just heaviness and this weariness.
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And I could rationally implement this care program
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and this care framework and say, okay, checking in. I know that I feel
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this. I feel it in my shoulders, I feel it in my back. My
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head feels heavy. I just have this kind of like pressure and this
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tension. So then I kind of went to my action plan. What are my
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options? I could make myself a cup of coffee and
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just push through because there are always a million and one things to
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do on my to do list. And the thing that kept coming back to my
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head was, you need to dust the living room. You need to dust the living
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room. You need to dust the living room. Apparently that was the priority that
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my mind was focused on today. So that was my
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option. I could push through and get those things done. I could just
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take some time for quiet. And other times when
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I have been faced with this, one of the ways that I did that was
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to just pick up a book and read, read. Or I could actually
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be intentional and go set an alarm and
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allow my myself to rest. If I fell asleep, great. If not,
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I was resting in my bed with quiet where I could
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just kind of still my mind and either fall asleep and actually like
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rest or just let my body take a little bit of
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a breather. And it meant that if I chose that
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my living room wouldn't be dusted. And, and if I look at this long term
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and I'm playing this out, if I chose
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to just push through, I know that what was likely going to happen was I
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was going to be burned out. My
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body was already depleted because I hadn't been getting quality rest
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because of the trips that I had been taking. And
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I knew that it would probably lead to me maybe getting
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run down or possibly sick, which then meant that
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nothing was going to be getting done. Or I could choose to
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rest in that moment and either sleep or let my body
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just reset and I could wake up and I could
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feel renewed. And if time allowed in my day, I
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could dust my living room or I could also
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know that it would be there the next day or the day after that.
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But I wouldn't be facing kind of this piled up
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thing because by honoring what my body was needing, which was rest,
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it was going to allow me to not go down that path of
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depletion and possibly getting sick.
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So that was like my action plan and kind of my thought process.
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I know that that is very
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deep, but this is, this is what practicing daily self
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care builds up to, right? I told you we start small when
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we were first implementing this, but when you practice it and
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you're doing this on a regular and routine basis, you can start to
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see the trajectory of the choices that you're making and what
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that's going to look like depending on what you choose to do.
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So I chose to allow myself to rest and I set
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my alarm so I could wake up and
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do whatever I needed to do, which included recording the podcast. And so I did
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it. I, I practiced that renew. I went and I took a nap.
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Well, about 45 minutes into my nap, I get a phone call from
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the nurse at the school and she said that my little one's stomach
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was hurting and I, she'd already called me earlier in that day and I had
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said, if he comes back, I'll come pick him up. So I
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went and I picked up my son from school. And in
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that moment I thought, okay, if I just would have been pushing
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through all of this, I would have been frustrated that I had to go get
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him from school. And then it would have been just kind of that
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spiral of frustration and
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kind of acting from this place of like
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overwhelm and fear about, oh my gosh, is he getting sick? What do I need
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to do? Like on and on and on. But instead,
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just choosing to rest helped me to prepare for kind of an unforeseen thing
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of having to go pick him up, bring him home, get him
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settled, figure out what, how to best care for him in a place
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that I was doing it from, a place of being renewed myself.
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Right. So that was kind of that evaluation. I noticed that I was able to
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kind of handle that situation better. I wasn't exhausted.
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I had given my body what it was needing in that moment.
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Right. So I hope that maybe that paints the picture of what this care
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framework can help you. You do both in the moment
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and in the long term. Because that's kind of the beauty of this framework is
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that it works both ways. You can implement it in the moment.
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So your care framework is a tool that you can use really anytime you
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feel maybe off balanced or you're feeling these
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emotions bubble up, right. So just taking two minutes
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to pause and check in and respond can really shift the whole
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trajectory of your day, as I kind of showed you with own example
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today. But it also is really beneficial for the long
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term because care is also something that you can use as
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a planning tool. You can use it to reflect on your
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patterns, what drains you and what restores you in each one
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of those self care pillars, and you can begin to build sustainable
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rhythms of self care. And over time, those small daily
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choices add up to really a lasting transformation in your
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physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. So
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when we use care in both of these ways, it
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becomes not just a quick fix, but as I showed you, just a way
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of life, an ongoing act of stewardship that helps you live
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rooted in Christ. And so this week I challenge you to
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practice care once a day, check in,
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pause and ask what you need. Action plan. Choose
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the one small step that's going to best meet your needle. Renew,
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do the thing and do it with intention. Evaluate,
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reflect with God. What fruit did it bear in your life?
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You can write it down or you can share it with a friend. You can
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email it back to me. Karaharahattractive.com
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if you want to share how you implemented the care framework this week,
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I'd love to hear from you y'. All.
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By now you know my stance on self care, that it's not
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this self indulgence thing but and it doesn't need to be complicated,
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it just really needs to be intentional and meaningful. And it's a way to practice
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stewardship because you are a gift from God.
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And so I'm hoping that with this care framework, you have a Christ centered
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approach that helps you steward your mind, body and soul each
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day. I thank you so much for joining me here today. I
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hope that you have taken something practical, practical and useful
00:21:00
away from the podcast. I feel like I even kind of learned something
00:21:04
myself just writing down kind of this, exactly what I, what
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I really have been doing for so long, but putting an acronym,
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putting some action words to that. So thank you
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again for joining me. I hope you have a beautiful and blessed week.
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I will see you right back here next week. Until then, remember,
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beauty held is a seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is your
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time to bloom. Take care and we'll talk soon. Bye.