Finding Balance and Self-Acceptance Through Empowered Faith

Struggling to meet the expectations set by society, our families, and ourselves can often leave us grappling with guilt and self-doubt. I'm Michelle Remington, and I invite you to join me as I share my journey through these complexities, revealing how a lens of faith can shed light on the path to balance and self-acceptance. In a world where social media often amplifies our insecurities, I discuss how stepping back to view our lives through God's eyes can transform the mental battleground into a place of peace. For anyone who's felt the sting of societal demands, this conversation aims to uplift and empower you to reclaim your inner warrior with God's grace.

This episode is more than a moment to reflect—it's a call to action for anyone seeking healing and spiritual growth. Together, we engage in a collective prayer, asking for the wisdom to recognize the behaviors that hold us back and the courage to pursue a deeper connection with the divine. As we close, I thank you for joining this empowering discussion and invite you to share how our journey together has touched your life. Let's embrace the restoration that faith promises and walk confidently on the path set before us, armed with the strength and clarity that comes from above.

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

Michelle: 0:00

You know the feeling you get when you're feeling overwhelmed and it just feels like all of these expectations are pulling at you. There's all this guilt and the shame that's happening because you're trying to meet all of these expectations but you're not. So then you start to beat yourself up, you feel bad, and all of that snowball effect. So today, that's what I wanna talk about throughout this whole process of dealing with my mental health as something that I've recently gotten a lot of clarity on, and so I wanted to share that with you today and hopefully get you some clarity as well. So buckle up, get some coffee, do your thing and let's get into it. 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. Sis, you have much more control than you realize. With each episode, you'll learn how to fight back and become more confident in the truth that God already knows you are worth it. I'm Michelle Remington, thought captivator, daughter of the king and warrior. Mama. Grab your sword. Daughter of the king, it's time to unleash your inner warrior. Princess, welcome back warrior here.

Michelle: 1:37

Recently, for myself anyway, I've been praying for clarity so that I can see myself through God's eyes, because the more clarity I get, I know what I'm dealing with, and then it gives me a better idea of how to take action on it. At times I can literally say it feels like I'm being pulled in all kinds of different directions, and that's not even counting all the different directions. I feel pulled in with my family, with my children, with my work, managing a house, with all of that stuff. But then there's all of these other societal, familial, behavioral patterns, and so I wanna kinda do a little bit of a deep dive and then come back in and not get too deep, but deep enough to give you some answers. So that's where we're going today.

Michelle: 2:31

One thing that I've really come to understand is that with a lot of these expectations, they kinda come in these categories so there's society expectations, so there's a whole set of society expectations. If you're a woman, and then that's just in general, that's really enough, right, cause you've got feminism going on, you've got secularism going on, you've got the current culture going on and all of that rigmarole. And then if you're a mom, if you're a wife, if you're working in any capacity whatsoever, there's all of those expectations that are pulling at you. You need to be this, you need to be that, but don't be too much of this, don't be too much of that. You know, it's just like there's no balance.

Michelle: 3:20

There's also your familial, or like your family, expectations that you have, and maybe it is something that's part of your culture, or maybe it's just how your family does things, and so there's that kind of expectations that you're dealing with, and that whole thing can get into expectations that have been set by behaviors of other people and things that are allowed to happen in your family, whether it be like people being bossy or if there's like some kind of abuse going on. I mean there's, I mean there's so much into it. And then you have, like your own behavioral patterns that you have going on, based upon what you've experienced in life, but then also the things that are have been modeled for you in life, like your examples of how things should be done, how you should be, how you should feel, how you should act. So, as you can already tell, that's a lot, and what I'm finding is, the more I invite God in to my mind, to my present, my past, my future, my heart, my soul, my mind, every single part of me, the more I invite God in, the more I'm recognizing the balance that God is able to provide. And for me anyway and I think this is something that's probably really really relatable for a lot of women that have to deal with all these same expectations that you have to deal with in your life being able to let those things go and being able to invite God into that process amplifies it.

Michelle: 5:22

Right, because we can only do so much on our own. We can only get so far with our mental health journey, with our emotional health journey, on our own, but when we invite God into that process, I mean we're talking about inviting the God of redemption, inviting the God of immense healing into this process. Like he sees everything, he knows your past, your present, your future. He knows every single thing that you felt, even the things that you never expressed to anybody else. He knows your heart, he knows your mind, he knows your soul. He knows the things that you tamp down and you don't talk about. You don't even try to think about them, you just run over them with the rest of the things that are going on in your life. He knows all of it. And when you invite God into that process to start letting go of those expectations and just quite frankly be the person that God created you to be, that's when you can see immense transformation, spiritual, supernatural transformation with God. That's the catalyst here. That's what you need in your whole mental health, emotional health journey. You need God, no matter what you do. You may start out on your own, but if you're going to finish and you're going to finish well and keep on healing you need God.

Michelle: 7:06

Now, in my own journey, in my own process of understanding these expectations and myself, I have to get into the meat and potatoes of it. Right, I can't just be like, oh, there's expectations and I can let them go. No, I have to know where they're attached, what the mechanism is, how they work, how they've been working in me, how they've been affecting me, all of that. I need to understand all of that so I can properly let go of them. And so, in really diving deep down into that. There's a few things that I'm starting to understand and I want to share those with you Now.

Michelle: 7:53

Just because the expectation is there whether it be societal, familial, behavioral, anything like that, any expectations just because the expectation is there, it doesn't mean that you have to meet it. Yes, there have been certain behaviors and there are certain behaviors and certain ways of doing things that are modeled to us, and it's especially worse now because of social media. We have video just playing in front of our eyes and it's literally like an example that is there of how things should be done. If you watch any of those videos, here's our fridge restock and all of my containers and my refrigerator match and I've got everything perfectly lined up and everything looks like a magazine shoot when I'm done and this is how I live my life, that kind of thing, any kind of videos like that, whether it be social media or YouTube or anything like that. When you watch those things, sure they can give you ideas, but just be careful because they can also set examples in your mind and it can take an unhealthy turn when you're trying to meet those things and you look around your house and you're like my house does not look like that one that I just watched, that I really liked so much, and then you get frustrated and stressed over it and it's a vicious cycle. So that's why I say, just because there is an expectation or an example, there doesn't mean you have to meet it on either side.

Michelle: 9:42

And I say that because you know there's these expectations, especially for women and and moms it's. I mean, you can literally quite literally feel like you are the ping-pong on a ping-pong table and there's like six players on either side. I don't know how else to describe it. You know it's like oh, you have to be feminine, but then you have to be tough and you have to show them that you're no nonsense, but don't be too no nonsense, because then they're going to call you a Karen. They're just like ping-pong of all these ideas that you have to meet, don't be this, don't do that. And quite honestly, they're just opinions. It is not anything set in stone. It's not like if you don't act like this, you're not going to be accepted in society or anything like this. It's literally just opinions. But oftentimes, on social media especially, those opinions can be presented as some kind of authority like this is the way it should be.

Michelle: 10:51

If you're really going to be a woman, then you need to go to the salon and get your hair done every week and get your nails done every week and all of this stuff. Not knocking on anybody that does that, but like that is not realistic and you got to do what's right for your life. The way that you know what's right for your life is by inviting God into that process and really working with God in that, asking him to open your heart, open your mind, open your eyes, helping you to really take an objective look at your life and how you're doing things and looking at it from there and finding that middle ground, kind of like staying neutral, not really like oh well, this person says this, so I'm going to do it this way, or this person says this, I'm going to do it this way, just sticking with Jesus. Basically just sticking with Jesus, staying neutral, thinking your own thoughts, reasoning in your own mind. I mean, after all, in the scriptures God does say come, let us reason together.

Michelle: 11:56

You have to prioritize your own thoughts and sometimes that might even take like a detox from social media or any other thing that you're looking at that's influencing your ideas about how you need to be living life. Unless it is the Bible and you are looking at it with God and really applying to God to find out how it is that you need to be really looking at your life and living your life and really looking at it through the eyes and through the lenses, rather, of grace and mercy, then maybe you just need a break from it, because a lot of times we watch those things and expose ourselves to those things so much that we forget what God's word says. I know I've done that plenty of times. I'm like, oh yeah, that's right, it does say that. So just don't feel bad if you do it.

Michelle: 12:54

I'm just saying you know, there's a lot of times when we come full circle and we gotta come back around because there's so many things that are bombarding us. That's why it's so important to reason in your own mind and prioritize your own thoughts. Jesus wants you to be of one mind with him and it's hard to do that when we're exposed and influenced by so many different voices and ideas and opinions through social media or books or the news or shows or anything like that. Now I say that and just from experience I know that the challenging part of that is, is that a lot of times you can get so overwhelmed that you kind of have to veg out like I need a timeout, I need to scroll through something so I can kind of process this, because I feel like my wires are overloading right now. It's hard to do that and that's where we have to ask God to help us in changing our behaviors. And, trust me, I definitely know that as you get older it's harder to change your behaviors, but it's definitely possible.

Michelle: 14:10

I can promise you that Keep your eyes on Jesus, keep your eyes in his word, to understand what is in the life that God is giving you, that you should be doing things Now, while you're trying to detach yourself from these opinions and belief systems and things like that. Outside of you, you may also be dealing with deep-seated thoughts, beliefs, traditions and things like that from your own family and things that you've just kind of picked up, whether in your family or your friend group or your community, your church, anything like that. It is a challenge to dismantle those things, but when you partner with Jesus, it's basically like having the master engineer, like he knows how all the systems work. He knows exactly what wires to cut so things don't blow up you know kind of thing, and he can get right in there and he can help you out with that.

Michelle: 15:16

Now, another thing I will say is that it's possible to get impatient. You're like you know, I've been struggling with this. Why can't I just get over this? What are we doing? And then, all of a sudden, you get to a point where you see where God has been working through your past, through your thoughts, through your emotions, through all of that intricate weavings of all of that crazy stuff. God's been working through all of that and then you have a breakthrough. You may have not even seen it coming. So try to be patient, through the process.

Michelle: 15:49

I speak from experience. Partner with God through the process and it will be easier, I promise you. I mean, it's not going to be a cakewalk, but it's definitely easier to work with God than against God when you're trying to heal yourself mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Because when we try to heal ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually and like, just do it ourselves, there's so many things that we don't see and there's a lot of damage that we can do. But when we have God working with us, he sees it all, he knows how it all works and there may be things that he can instantly heal, but there's things that have caused a lot of damage and that healing has to take time because it's healing multiple areas. Like that's the healing that you just like, really feel, not like poof, it's gone one day, but like the healing that you really feel because you've been living with it for a while. I really hope this has helped you today. I've been at this for five years now in really trying to understand and heal emotionally and mentally, spiritually, and I can definitely tell you, if I had not had God in the process, I may not be here today, quite simply. So you definitely want God a part of that. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully this has blessed you.

Michelle: 17:14

Let's go ahead and finish out in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this opportunity to flesh out all of the ins and outs and kind of the mysterious things at times for us when we're trying to heal emotionally and mentally. Thank you, lord, for helping us to see those different components so that we can really see what's going on and understand where the healing has to take place and what kind of healing has to take place with these different components that you're allowing us to see in this healing process. God, you are so good and so amazing and so loving. If anything, through this whole entire process of healing emotionally, mentally, spiritually I have seen and recognized how big your love is for me, for all of us. I thank you for that, jesus. You are truly amazing and you are our loving Father. Thank you so much.

Michelle: 18:25

I pray, lord, that you would continue to open up our hearts, our minds, our souls.

Michelle: 18:33

Help us, lord, open our understanding, open our eyes, our ears.

Michelle: 18:39

Help us to really see what is going on, what the battle plan is of how we're being attacked and how maybe we're attacking ourselves and sabotaging our own healing.

Michelle: 18:57

Lord, you see it all. You see every aspect of all of these things. I pray, lord, that you would open our eyes and our ears to it. Help us, lord, to let go so that you can heal, lord, so that you can help us to release and detox the things that we need to detox. And I pray, lord, that you would give us a hunger and a thirst for your word and for that special time with you, god, in prayer. Help us to prepare ourselves and build up our hearts, our minds and our souls with your word and with our special time of counsel and prayer with you, jesus. I thank you, lord, for the work that you're doing us and I thank you for the healing that is to come. Jesus, it's in your precious and holy name 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 michelleremingtoncom.