032: Breakthrough Sessions - Reclaiming Your Identity

Have you been struggling with negative thoughts, loads of negative self talk, anxiety, fear, shame, overwhelm and just really feeling bad about yourself and just not really liking yourself anymore? This episode is for you today.

Struggling with our thoughts and emotions has become a normal part of life. Yet, it was never meant to be. Jesus wants us to have victory over our thoughts and emotions. He even outlines it in the Bible. But how do we apply it today? Can the same lessons Jesus taught 2000 years ago, help us with all the things we're dealing with today?

The simple answer is YES!  In this episode, We'll begin a series of episodes where we pull back the curtain on this Battle for Your Mind and Identity. I'll show you the tactics that are fueling the emotional roller coaster. You'll begin to understand why you've been feeling overwhelmed, anxious and fearful. 

By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with steps that will help you take your thoughts captive and begin to reverse negative thinking today!

Be sure to leave a review and subscribe if this podcast has been a blessing to you. And to find more tools for your journey to deepen your faith, emotional mastery, and thriving on purpose, visit https://www.michelleremington.com

If you enjoy worth it, consider joining the worth it squad Facebook group, we're a squad of fellow prayer warriors and thought conquerors, we pray together, we celebrate each other. And through all that's going on in life, we grow together, we encourage and keep each other accountable. There's no judgment here, no shame, we understand that life can be overwhelming, but you don't have to battle it alone, we can make it worth it together. So take a moment, look up Worth It Squad on Facebook, grab your sword warrior, and join your squad today. https://www.facebook.com/groups/worthitsquad

Transcript

Worth It! Squad: 0:00

If you enjoy worth it, consider joining the worth it squad Facebook group, where a squad of fellow prayer warriors and thought conquerors, we pray together, we celebrate each other. And through all that's going on in life, we grow together, we encourage and keep each other accountable. There's no judgment here, no shame, we understand that life can be overwhelming, but you don't have to battle it alone, we can make it worth it together. So take a moment, look up worth it squat on Facebook, grab your sword warrior, and join your squad today.

Michelle Remington: 0:39

Have you been struggling with negative thoughts, loads of negative self talk, and just really feeling bad about yourself and just not really liking yourself anymore. This episode is for you today. I used to have tons and tons of trouble with negative self talk negative thoughts. And, you know, I lived with it for a while. And I didn't even realize that it was an issue, because I found different band aids and stuff like that over the years. But it really came to a head at one point. After I had my daughter, I had postpartum depression, and it came to a head and it got real ugly, real ugly. And that's when I cried out to God for help. Because in spite of having all of these thoughts that just weren't helpful. And to be honest, were quite scary. I still knew and still believe deep down. Even though the surface thoughts and emotions were just not there. I knew deep down in my soul that I needed to cry out to Jesus. And that's what I did. And he showed up big time. And I've been on this journey to mental and emotional wellness for the past six years now. And today, I want to talk to you about how all of these negative thoughts and emotions basically going to pull back the curtain and show you how these things kind of spiral out of control what that all looks like as it's happening. But then I want to give you some hope today, I want to help you to understand the root cause of all of it. And I want to give you some steps so that today you can start fighting back and being the warrior that God created you to be you may not feel it right now. But I know you've got a warrior deep down in your heart. And that's why you're listening to this podcast because you're not done fighting yet. You may feel kicked down you may feel broken, but there's some part of you that still looking for hope because you know that hope is not lost. So I hope to be a friend, a sister and help and encourage her for you today. So if you're joining me with some coffee or tea or maybe you just need to listen and take notes however it is girl. Let's get started.

Worth It! Intro: 3:14

Welcome to worth it. The podcast where we answer anxiety, deflate fear and shut down shame you were made to thrive. My mission is to help you get deeply rooted with God and reclaim your weapon that the enemy of God has been using against you. After going to battle for my own mind. Four years ago, I realized that there is a war going on for our minds. A battle that begins with how we think says you have much more control than you realize. With each episode you'll learn how to fight back and become more confident and the truth that God already knows you are worth it. I'm Michelle Remington Christian mindset coach thought Captivate her daughter of the king and warrior mama. Grab your sword daughter of the king. It's time to unleash your inner warrior princess.

Michelle Remington: 4:10

Welcome back warrior. I need you to get used to hearing that because I'm gonna say it a lot. You are a warrior. And trust me I have been there when I have not definitely not felt like a warrior. I literally felt like I was in some kind of prisoner in a dungeon being kicked down and beaten down and I definitely did not feel like a warrior. But even though you may feel down, you may feel broken. You still have fight in you. And that's what we're going to get to today. Fair warning. This is gonna be a long episode. And there's really no way to condense it down because I feel like I would be taking away from the information I'm giving you if I didn't finish. So like if I were to just start by explaining how it works it but not leave you with steps to help regain your identity and to combat negative thoughts and thinking it would be of no benefit to you. And I want you to fully benefit from this, you can kind of think of this, like a course, this is some heavy hitting stuff. And feel free to take notes. I mean, I've put as much information as I can give you in here. And it's all free to you because I want to bless you in this. And I want you to be able to walk away from this feeling like you have now been given steps that you can take right now to start fighting back. And to start reclaiming your identity. First, we're going to take a look and see what this strategy is that being used on you, because there's things that you've experienced in your life. But then there's spiritual influences that have been going on and influencing your thoughts, your emotions, and it's taken its toll. But we're not done yet. You're not done yet. So let's dive right into it. I'll start out by saying, because I want to give you the root of all of this first. So that as I'm talking, God's going to help you piece this together, because the first thing I will tell you in beginning or continuing in your journey to mental and emotional and spiritual wellness, because every part of this has to do with God, It is so vitally important, you will not win, you will not see victory unless you partner with God in this. And that means laying it all out for God, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, because And here's the other key, so important. You have to give God he sees it all anyway. But if you could understand how much power there is, when we lay out the good, the bad, the ugly, and the really, really ugly stuff, the thoughts, the emotions that we have in our minds. And in our hearts. If we lay that out to God and say, God, this is me, and this is what I'm dealing with. But I know that you create in me, so this is this is all stuff that I've been dealing with my whole life and I need you Jesus, I need you to help me sift through all of this. the authority, full sovereign authority to begin working in all of those areas of your life, the areas that you see where you see all that ugliness, all that pain, all that suffering. And then there's also those hidden parts, those recessed thoughts and emotions that your brain has put away, because you're not quite ready to deal with it. Or it's something that you've forgotten about. But it's something that has impacted your life. So for instance, what I did, and what I do regularly is I say, God, I give you full authority, full sovereign authority to go through all of me, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, everything, I see everything I don't see everything that's hidden, the emotional, the mental, the spiritual, the physical, every single part of my existence. God, I lay before you, and I asked you, Jesus to please work in me because the true healing that I know is possible and that I truly desire is only possible with you. Sis, let me tell you, when you start praying like this, if you don't feel the power and what I'm saying right now you say it in your life. And you may start to feel like inner quaking things and feel like we're doing something now. But don't let it be just once that you pray that prayer, pray it every day, pray every week. Just keep on praying like that. And God will meet you exactly where you are. Because you don't have to be perfect to go to God. You don't have to have it all together to go to God and ask Him for His help. All you got to do is ask for God's help and be willing to let God start changing. And as you see those changes, you need to position yourself and your will to go with those changes to make those changes in your life. It may be inconvenient. Some of your friends and family may not like it. And trust me, I've been through that with friends and family, but God will never leave you. God will always be with you. And he will bring you new friends, new brothers and sisters into your life to help you through this process. So that's the first and foremost thing. Let's go ahead and dive in, I'm going to kind of map out for you how this all works. Because this is all rooted in your identity. And you may think, Well, I know who I am, I know what kind of job I have. I know what I'm capable of, and all that, honey, that's great. That's, that's wonderful. And I've been there, I have done that. I have had many titles in my life. But none of those titles was my identity. I thought they were and I based my identity and my self worth and my self importance in those positions, in those relationships in those statuses, but none of those were my identity. That's why people are having such a hard time right now. Because we have so many things that are influencing our heart, our mind, our soul, and it's interfering with our ability to see our true identity. Okay, so knowing that root, I'm trusting that God is going to help you put some puzzle pieces together, because I don't know your life or your experiences. But I know it's possible for God to put those puzzles together, as we're talking today, of your life experiences to help you see where he's been working, where these influences have come into your life. Okay, so let's map this out. The number one thing that can influence our emotions. That's our internal thought life, our thought life is 24/7. It doesn't stop. And our thought life influences our emotions, our experiences, and influences our identity. So the first thing we want to take a look at as probably a really big thing here is intake or influencing, how are we influenced? And these days, there's so much, I mean, just like pick a social media network out of a hat. So there's social media, there's the news, there's the music you listen to, I know, I know, I'm gonna get into it. But I mean, you're here for a reason. And we're just gonna attack it while we're here. Okay. Just forgive me while we get into this, but hopefully, you will thank me later, because this is, this is something that I had to do for myself. So we're talking social media, we're talking news, we're talking music, we're talking videos. What are you reading? Who are the people that you're listening to in your life? What are the things that you're saying? Yes to? What are the things that you're saying no to with your actions, with your words, with your emotions, that gets into like, what are you tolerating? Yeah, yeah, we're getting into it. And hey, you may have to listen to this a few times, you may have to just like, kind of keep this one on, repeat every week and be like, Okay, let's review. And you know what, that's great, I had to do that. And I wouldn't have had the growth that I've had, if I didn't do that. Let's move on down the line. So after you look at the influences in your life, those things that influence you, once you intake them into your self, whether it be through your eyes, your ears, your nose, your emotions, all of that, your brain starts to process those things. And as it processes, those influences that you have exposed yourself to, that's when it starts to influence your thoughts. Now, in influencing your thoughts, it's also influencing your emotions. What a lot of people don't realize is that and this actually started happening years and years ago, so with video with audio in like commercials, or that different social media influencers or creators use, like the video effects and stuff like that, that they use, and especially with AI going all crazy right now, like having this big boom of growth. Our emotions are easily influenced, not just by video by what we see by how people are acting, not just by music that's being used to enhance a video, but it's also influenced by smell, by taste. Our emotions can be influenced through our five senses. They can trigger memories. They can trigger emotions. And if you really think about it, that's a really dangerous concept, but it's been done for hundreds of years, if not 1000s of years. Influences weighing our emotions without us knowing. And no, I'm not getting into conspiracy theories. I'm telling you what the science says. So we've got all those influences that are taking a toll in influencing our thoughts and our emotions, that how we feel about people that how we feel about things and situations. Once that happens, then it also almost simultaneously begins to influence how we feel and how we think about ourselves. And very quickly after that comes that negative self talk. So how we feel about ourselves how we think about ourselves, there will come a point when it gets so overwhelming in your heart and in your mind that those thoughts will then spill out. And you'll have a negative self talk not only in your mind, but you'll start to say it out your mouth. Here's the problem with that. When you say something, you're sending a signal to your brain to create a new pathway, because you're using your brain to articulate a thought. And then you're using your vocal cords in your mouth to vocalize that thought. And then your ears are hearing that thought. That's a triple whammy. I mean, do you really want to be thrashing yourself three times over with all the negative self talk? And thoughts? Or do you think it would be more beneficial to totally dominate and get that victory? By hearing all of these things, but with positive thoughts with the truth of God's word? What does God say about you? Who does God say you are? Yeah, this is why you're a warrior, because we fight. Okay, we fight and these are fighting words we fighting. Okay, so next step, next piece to this puzzle, all those negative thoughts, emotions, and then the self talk that ensues. And as you start saying, it starts to create this false identity. And that kind of overlays who you really are. And you may be like me, and this may have been happening for like more years than you care to admit. Maybe you don't even know who you are anymore. Maybe you've been wishing you or somebody else for so long. You've already cast all the negative thoughts and emotions about the traits that God has given you out, and you're just done. And you just don't want to be that person anymore. Get it, I've totally been there. That false identity, your heart, your mind, your soul cannot maintain that, and you will crack. God gives us a conscience for a reason. And it's not just should I do good, should I do bad, it also has very much to do with understanding and accepting who God has created us to be. It's very much about our identity. You know, I always heard the phrase that people would say is, my identity is in Christ, my identity isn't God. But he never really understood that. I'm more of a scientific person, right. So before I came to the faith and living for God, and believing Jesus, I was very much a Trekkie, sci fi nerd. And so I gotta have this stuff breaking down, like, I can't have like just these vague thoughts. I need it broken down, I need to understand how this works. Just like I was a nerd. And I understood how a flux capacitor and all that fun stuff and warp drive worked. Yeah, I knew how the imaginary things worked. Well, I need to know how this real thing works. I need these puzzle pieces to be put together. So I can understand the mechanism of it. And if I can understand the mechanism of it, how it works, then my brain will kind of like spiral out on these other realizations of Oh, then this affects this, and then this does this. And then this does this. Maybe your brain is like that. Maybe not. But just to this is who you're dealing with. Okay. Yeah. So after we see those negative thoughts and emotions start to affect our self talk. And then after that, create this false identity, you're gonna start to see cracks, because you're trying to put this false identity on top of foundation that God's already laid. God created you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And you have been created by the Almighty God, who is the very definition of love, and you're trying to put this false identity on top of this foundation, this firm foundation that God has already laid when He created you, but yet you're trying to stack it on there. And because of that false identity is Made with such fragile thoughts and fragile emotions is going to begin to crack. Now, in the world, the way that people get to keep it from cracking basically is they just keep on layering on layer upon layer, upon layer upon layer upon layer. And the method is to break down the original Personality of who God created you to be. And then once you break down and disregard that personality of who God created you to be then they stack lies upon lies upon lies upon lies upon lies, and the lies are hurtful at first, because it's being laid upon this foundation, that that God's already created this truth. But the further you get from that truth, the easier it is to believe those lies. So today, hopefully, this will help you to fight for yourself, and also to let you know that you're not alone, God's fighting for you, and I'm fighting for you. So with this false identity, creating those layers, those layers are creating patterns by you doing new behaviors in your life. Like, I think I'm ugly, and all this stuff. So then you start to change certain things about who you are, those are behaviors that you're doing. And this could be done with your personality, it could be done with your looks in your appearance, it could be done with your emotions, those patterns, lend to the self sabotage, that you're then doing in your life. So you're you're sabotaging yourself, as you're trying to create this new person that isn't, you know, the good thing is that God definitely doesn't want us to get to that point. But in this world, with the advent of technology, not saying the technology is bad, as the years have gone on, in this world, and as technology increases in interconnecting the world, what also increases is influence in our lives. Now the great thing is, being that God created us with free will, we still have the free will to be able to choose who and how we are influenced, you get to choose what you see with your eyes, what you listen to with your ears, you get to choose it all. And in choosing it all. That means you can change it. If something's not working for you, if something is damaging you is hurting you if something is a negative influence in your life, you can change it. And that's where it's extremely helpful to submit yourself to God and give God that sovereign authority to begin working in your life and be willing to make those changes. I know this is big stuff. But if you're still listening, there's a reason right? Basically, I'm giving you the enemy's playbook. But the interesting thing is, is that the way that the world has evolved, as the enemy of God is going to and fro those influences have become so big and so expansive, that yes, the enemy is trying to influence us. But he's not having to do so much work. Because what he's doing is he's influencing those in the world that don't have a desire to live for God. And then those that are living in the world that don't have a desire to live for God are then putting out social media, they're putting out videos, they're putting out articles, they're putting out books, they're putting out those thoughts that are contrary to what God's Word says, about who you are, about who he created you to be about who God is. I mean, we're being attacked on all fronts. I mean, this may seem epic. But I mean, this isn't like a Marvel movie or anything like that. This is real stuff like this is what's really happening in this spiritual warfare. And whether you decide to follow God or not, you're still going to be involved in the spiritual warfare, you're still upon in this game. But you still have that very special gift that God gave only to us and that is free will. And with that free will you can decide which Kingdom you want to pledge allegiance to what kingdom you want to be involved in, to live in to work for, you get to choose. And this probably isn't a spoiler. But Jesus wins. So that's probably the side you want to be on. So yeah, all right. So now, I know this has been a long episode, but I had to I had to lay all these things out. So here we go, let's go ahead is going to be a super long episode either way. But there's a reason for that, because we're talking about gameplan. I'm giving you your own playbook on how you can begin to fight this spiritual battle that's being fought with you, whether you like it or not. So choose your side. Now, let's talk about gameplan. In the scripture, God says to take every thought captive, this tiny little thought in the scriptures is profound. After listening to this podcast, and then you read the Bible, I'm hoping that you will then see how much the Bible is really a playbook specially when you get in to the New Testament, I mean, is good stuff. So taking every thought captive, how do we do that? Well, you're gonna start to focus on those thoughts. Now, if you're like me, there was a point when I just tried to ignore the thoughts. And I didn't focus on them. And sometimes I ignored them, because some of them were just really scary to me. And they were unsettling. And I didn't know what to do with them, I didn't know how to handle them. In order to combat this part of the battle that's being fought against you, you need to be focusing on your thoughts. Now, one pattern that I've noticed is that the enemy will have certain thoughts that are prevalent that keep on coming to mind. And the reason why it keeps on coming to mind is that the repetition enough, they'll do it in hopes that the repetition of it will break you down. So maybe it's, I'm unwanted. I'm not worthy, I'm not loved, what have you, there's a plethora of them. And this is where journaling will help you. And you don't have to get a big fancy journal, you can even just start with a notebook or a piece of paper or something like that. Or maybe you start on your phone, and you're gonna take the most prevalent thoughts that keep on coming back into your head, and you're gonna write those thoughts down. And then after that, what you're going to do is you're going to take that thought to the Word of God. And you're going to ask what does the word of God say about this, and I would highly suggest, you can do it on your computer, or you can do it on your phone. But you can get like a Bible app that has a search feature. So you can look and see what the Bible says about that in your phone. A good thing about these Bible apps is that a lot of times, they'll give you some different versions of the Bible, which is going to be helpful, because if the thought that's in your mind doesn't match the language of a certain scripture, for instance, if you're looking at a King James Version, or a New King James Version, and you've got this certain phrase that keeps on coming up, but it's not finding anything, because that kind of phrase isn't found in that Bible, then you can look in the other versions of the Bible, maybe it's the Easy English Bible or something like that. And you can look at those and find those scriptures, and get some more insight into what God's Word says about that particular phrase, and what God's Word says about you, and I want you to pay attention to the context of what's being said, doesn't mean if you get to something, and there's a phrase there, and God is like giving a warning, saying, if if you don't do this, I will curse you. That's not where you want to be looking. That's a warning, we're not looking for a warning, we're looking for some truth about identity. Okay, so hopefully, that helps right there with trying to look up and break down those prevalent thoughts. So once you have written down that prevalent thought, and then I want you to find, if you can, at least three scriptures, maybe more about that thought, and write those down. And then as you're writing it down, I want you to write it down, look at it, and then I want you to say it, because just like that triple whammy, we're going to reverse that triple whammy. We're going to have God's word just permeate that we're just gonna totally switch around the game. And so once you have those scriptures that are giving you the truth of what God's Word says about you, or maybe even you can't find that particular thought, but you can think of whatever the opposite of that is, like I am not loved while there's tons of scriptures that talk about how much God loves us, right? So you would reverse your lookup, basically, and you would start to look up different scriptures that are going to be the opposite of that prevalent thought so that you combat it that way. And then once you have that, you're going to use that triple whammy technique. I may have just coined that phrase I don't know But you, you're gonna use that triple whammy technique, and you're gonna write it down. And you're going to say it to yourself every day, however many times a day you need to, because when you do that, remember what I said earlier, that when you speak something, you've processed it through your brain, now you've processed it through your vocal cords. Now you processed it through your mouth, and made it audible. And now your ears are hearing it, you just created a new pathway. But here's the thing about a new pathway. Just like creating a new trail, the worn trail is easier to usually take because it's more worn in and it's like a force of habit, you're used to taking that. So now you have to get yourself used to taking this new path. And the way that you can get yourself used to that is by using that triple whammy technique. And you're going to repeat that phrase to yourself every day, once, twice, 50 times, however, many times it takes, you're the one fighting this war, okay. And as you do that, you're going to create that new pathway. And then what's gonna happen to that old pathway is gonna fade out, because you've created this new pathway, but it is gonna take some time, you got to commit to it. Because if you start it, and you do it for a while, for like a week, two weeks a month, something like that, and then you stop, your brain will revert back to the negative thoughts and the negative emotion, not to say that you failed at this point or anything like that, you made progress. But because you needed to be more consistent with that progress and keep on fighting that war, it causes you to go back. I kind of hesitated in saying that, because I remember how much when I was beginning this journey, failure was such a trigger word for me. And I would almost instantly shut down even just at the insinuation of failure, because I thought it was such a failure. And I was so down on myself, so I hesitated on that. But I don't want you to focus on that. Keep going Keep fighting. So maybe you forgot to say it one day, put it somewhere where it's in front of your face. Like for me, I have it on my closet door, my closet door is right in front of my face when I wake up in the morning. So I see it in front of me every single morning, maybe you want to put it on your window, maybe you want to put it by your door that so that you can see it as you're walking out the door. Wherever it is, put it multiple places, make sure it's in front of your face, so you can be reminded of it. So maybe you know, there's one day oh man, I forgot to do that start back up again the next day, or maybe there has been like one of those weeks start back up again, you see in front of your face, do it. Kind of like I don't know who says this. But if it takes less than two minutes to do do it great strategy in this point. So you begin to partner with God and rebuild your identity by taking those negative thoughts captive. And that's where I'm going to leave it for today. Because I mean, that's that's some pretty big steps to take. And maybe you've been on this journey for a while and you needed to be reminded of this, maybe you're just starting your journey, and you didn't know where to start. Either way these steps can be taken today, to start helping you to reclaim your identity. In Jesus. Your identity is who God says you are. And being accepting and really embracing the qualities that God has created you with, you're basically asking God to strip away all the extra stuff that's not needed. And to really get down to the heart to the foundation of who God created you to be so that you can start to live the purpose that God has created you for. With that said, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join me in this lesson in this podcast today. My hope is that you've really been able to get some information out of this to get some tips to get some better understanding out of this to help you in your journey to mental emotional and spiritual wellness. So what I like to do is end with prayer because I feel like that is the most effective thing that we can do. So if I could pray over you right now, Lord Jesus, I thank you for this time that you have allowed us to carve out to really understand what's taking place in this spiritual battle that is being fought with us and a against us. And I pray over the person that is hearing this, I pray, Lord, that You would break through the darkness, break through all of the static, all of the doubt all of the shame everything that is getting in the way of them, experiencing you and getting in touch with you and getting right in front of you in your throne room. I pray, Lord, that You would take all of that stuff away, and that you would bless the one listening to this with a one on one audience with you, with a one on one strategy session with you to begin to retake this beautiful soul that you have created fearfully and wonderfully made. I pray, Lord, that they would feel your love. I pray, Lord, that she would feel your peace. I pray, Lord, that she would feel your presence. And I thank You, Lord, for being a counselor for being our Father, for being our champion, when we've lost all but the last shred of hope. God, you are still there. And I thank you for that last shred of hope that we can hold on to and call out your name Jesus, thank you for hearing us. Thank you for seeing us. We can never fathom your love God. But I'm very much want to be overwhelmed by your love. Because I can only imagine the very best feeling in the world. I pray that for this woman listening, I pray, Lord, that You would put a hedge of protection around her I pray, Lord, that You would touch her heart, her mind her body, her soul begin to work in her life. I pray, Lord, that You would begin to work around her as well in the situations and the people and the events that are going on. I thank You, Lord, for preparing that way. You are so amazing God and so loving. And I just thank you so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity. No matter how much we've been hurt, no matter how much we've lost, no matter how much we've failed, no matter anything. Because of you, Jesus, we have this opportunity. And we're kind of take in your name Jesus and says you can even say it with me and your name Jesus. I'm going to take this opportunity. I pray Lord, for clarity of mind and clarity of heart as she is going through this process of mapping out these attacks that have been made against her. And I thank you God for the victory. I thank you for her victory. In your precious and holy name Jesus we pray. Amen. And amen. Thank you for joining me on another episode of worth it. Be sure to leave a review and subscribe if this podcast has been a blessing to you. And to find more tools for your journey to deepening your faith emotional mastery and thriving on purpose, visit Michelle remington.com