I didn't want to get up this morning. I'm gonna be so honest with you. I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I was weighed down by my stresses.. I was weighed down by feeling like I wasn't good enough. I was weighed down by all of the loud negativity, screaming in my mind about every area of my life, and it was so loud to the point where I straight up was just like. I don't want to get out of bed. Hard truth, sad truth, but I'm sharing that to kick off this podcast episode today because although it's hard, although it's sad, it's very real and I know that it is not just my reality. From time to time, I know very well that you, having clicked on this podcast episode, struggle with the exact same thing. So we're gonna talk about that today, and I want to talk about it from a very vulnerable place because this isn't just me preaching at you or teaching you coming from someone who has overcame this. No, my friend, I am still struggling with it too. Every single day. Have I learned to go about it better? To go about it stronger, absolutely. But that doesn't mean that I am no longer in the battle and I want you to open up your eyes to the possibility that you being in your own battle. Can get better, can get stronger. We together in our own journeys with God by our sides, can overcome this. I had a whole different podcast topic that I was gonna talk about today. I had notes. It was mapped out in my little project management dashboard, ready to go. But if you are a frequent listener, you know very well that I live by authenticity. If you're a new listener, you're learning that for the first time, my friend. I don't like the facades. I don't like to fake things. So if I woke up this morning and I wasn't feeling like talking about the topic that I had planned today because my mind was just struggling. You know what? Let me pivot. Let me instead share my own experiences as to why my mind was struggling this morning, because I know that I'm not alone. I know that you struggle with it too. And these episodes are meant to shine a light on the very hard truths, the very real things that we face that are so difficult in our life, in our business, in our creative journeys, in our calling. Everything in between. So just five minutes ago, I pulled out my phone and I created notes of what I wanna talk about today based off of my experience this morning, from someone who can relate to you deeply, my friend. So that we can overcome this thing together. Now, when I was laying in bed and I didn't want to get up, I was feeling this intense amount of anxiety. To the point where I felt all of this pressure and the pressure weighed me down so much to the point where I physically was struggling to get up. Now, I brought God into that moment with me asking him to help me move, asking him to help me get up, asking him for his strength to lean on because I had none this morning. And as I was bringing God into this moment with me, I felt this phrase overcome my spirit. Was it exactly God's voice? Maybe? Was it God's spirit mixed with my own mental strength coming in? Maybe I like to believe that any ounce of inspiration that I feel or motivation to get out of the funk that I've been in, I always, always love to praise Jesus for that and honor him with that, because I could not have ever done it without him. So that phrase that I felt in that moment was, you can choose to no longer be a victim. Of your anxiety, and that hit me really hard. A lot of times when we're anxious, when we're stressed, when we're worried, when we're depressed, a lot of times we take that on as an identity of I am feeling this. This is just how I am right now. This is just who I am right now. It is what it is, but that mentality is us unintentionally falling victim. To our own negative emotions, we can choose. Otherwise, it's not impossible to choose otherwise. It's just a matter of believing that we can, in fact, choose otherwise and decide that we are going to put in the effort no matter how hard it might feel in that moment to choose otherwise. You don't have to be a victim to this anxiety. You don't have to be a slave to it, and therefore not be able to get up from under it. You don't have to make that choice. Instead, you can fight. We can fight my friend. In that moment I realized that. I'm gonna continue to feel like crap, if not even worse if I don't fight. So I can choose for my anxiety and my stresses and worries that I'm dealing with right now to weigh me down enough to the point where that just becomes my identity and I'm enslaved to it. I'm a victim to it, or I can choose to fight. If I want to feel better, if I want to improve, if I wanna create change, if I want to feel like myself again, the woman that I know, that God is calling me to be in this life, in this world, in my home, in my calling, in my business, then I need to fight. Not by your flesh, not by your own power, but fight by the spirit. Fight by his power, God's power. Now, it's one thing for me to try to inspire you and be like, Hey, get up and fight. You got this? Go ahead. No. Okay. Because let's be real, when someone tries to pour into us to motivate us or to inspire us to get out of the funk that we're in, sometimes it's nice, but other times it that doesn't work. Okay? Because we're too far down deep that it's gonna take more than inspirational words to pull us up out of that. So my hope in this episode isn't just to tell you to fight, but I want to instill. A fire in you on how to fight in the first place. How can you find the will in yourself to fight the anxiety, to fight the worry, to fight the stress, to finally have the confidence and believe that you don't have to fall victim to that you can choose to be a victor. Over that, I'm not gonna lie. It's not necessarily easy. It's not a one and done thing. It's a gradual process. It takes patience. It takes time. It takes continual effort. For you to fight and every day you get up and you fight in that battle against your anxiety, your stress, your worries, everything that is weighing you down right now. When you choose daily to fight that battle, each day you get stronger. Each day your faith grows. Each day God is working more and more on your behalf because you are finally believing in him enough to do so. And when that happens. It's more moments of victory. It's more moments of feeling victorious. It's more moments of feeling competent. It's more moments of being able to be who God is calling you to be. So let's talk about how you can fight my friend. First thing that I want to say, you need to recognize that any shame you feel does not come from God Now. This episode isn't necessarily about shame. It's about no longer falling victim to our anxiety and how we can fight the right fight to become victorious over that. But I do believe that shame plays a part in why we get anxious and why we hide from God unintentionally. You might feel shameful or guilty about something that you either have done or something that you are currently not doing enough of This could be anything in your personal life, in your health, in your relationships, in your home, as a mother, as a friend, as a daughter, as a girlfriend, as a boyfriend. As a business owner, as a creative, as an employee, as a contractor, as a consultant, I am talking about in all regards, wherever you feel shame or guilt based off of what you've done in the past or what you feel like you are not doing enough of right now, and therefore feeling guilty about that, all that shame and guilt is going to do is completely disconnect you from God if you don't go about it the right way. Why? Think about it when you feel shameful, when you feel guilty. There's this sense of embarrassment that comes with it. And when we feel embarrassed, we want to hide. We don't want people to see us, to see the things that we've done or the things that we're not doing enough of. We just feel embarrassed by it. We feel small by it, and we just wanna hide. That includes hiding from God. And when I say hiding, I mean you just don't want to go to him. You are not running to him. Instead, you are running away from him. You're not praying, you're not talking to him like he's your best friend. You're not leaning on the Holy Spirit's help. You are just staying siloed in your funk and you don't mean to, you don't want to. You're just so held down by it that it's hard. It is hard to get outta that and run straight to God rather than stay in the funk or completely run away from him. There is a difference, my friend, between shame and conviction. Conviction is this sense of awareness, this sense of correction. When you become knowledgeable about something you have done or are currently doing that might not be in alignment with God's will. God's word, God's calling over your life. It is you recognizing that and wanting to repent for that. And make a genuine change Versus shame. Shame is this painful guilt. It is this painful heaviness that makes you want to hide. The enemy will use shame as a way to make you feel like you need to hide from God. He will use shame to amplify you not being good enough to emphasize that you're not doing anything right, that you'll never get it right. To try to make you believe that your life and just this moment of what you're feeling right now, you're just awful. Life is awful. That is not of God. God wants you to run to him. He is right there waiting for you to just talk about the things that he already knows about you in the past. The present, he knows it all, so why not talk to the person that is waiting for you right there, lovingly, patiently. Talk to the person who knows everything about you and is lovingly waiting for you to run into his arms, express it to him and work through it with him. If you feel shameful or guilty about your personal issues, about your delays, about your perfectionism problems, about your nonstop depression or anxieties, about your inability to be grateful. About your emotional problems, whatever it is, God is waiting right there. We get to decide if we run straight towards the arms that are open for us, waiting for us, wanting to hold us, carry us through this, or if we're gonna run away from it. And that's something I had to realize this morning. The shame of feeling not good enough this morning, I had to realize that that feeling was not coming from God. And if it's not coming from God, I don't want it. I can choose to not want it. I can choose to not cling to it. I can choose for it to not be my reality. And for me, when I realize that something is not from God, then that something is not truth. I only want truth. I only wanna live by what's real. Why would I want the fake stuff? Why would I want the temporary stuff? I want real? I want fulfillment. So why? If I know that something is not from God, why am I going to cling tight to that like it is my forever reality? Rather than run into God's arms, recognize the truth, and receive ultimate fulfillment from him, ultimate satisfaction from him, it's time for you, my friend, to wake up and realize. That, the shame, the negative thoughts, all of the things that you are feeling right now. It's not from God. God gives you a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. You get to choose to cl tight to that spirit rather than any other negative, toxic spirit that is trying to clinging to your life right now. If it's not from God, then it's not truth. And if it's not truth, then why would you implement false things, unreal things in your life. When you do that, you are literally choosing to live your life by a facade, not by what's actually real. Now, that brings me to my second thing. For you to find the will to fight, the anxiety, the stress, the worries, all of those emotions that are overcoming you so much to the point where you cannot walk in your God-given calling. You cannot get up and go today or do anything today. You're struggling to take action. You're struggling to do this. You're struggling to connect with God, whatever it is. This second thing. Is to recognize that you are not fighting the circumstances in this world. You are fighting the spiritual realm. You are fighting things you can't see that are disguising themselves as your problems. You see financial issues. You see nonstop stress. You see procrastination. You see not feeling good enough. You see issues at your work and your home being this and all of this stuff that you physically see the enemy likes to hide. The enemy likes to hide behind our problems, to the point where we blame our problems and try to fight our problems with worldly things and worldly solutions and worldly words. That have no effect, rather than fighting the reality of what's happening behind that problem, more than likely, which is the spiritual realm, the enemy himself trying to attack you, to prohibit you from becoming who God is calling you to be from doing what God is calling you to do, from healing what God is calling you to heal from. So let me ask you this. If the enemy himself, if the spiritual realm is disguising itself as our problems, then what makes us think that any worldly solution is going to solve that is going to defeat that. You can't fight spiritual battles with worldly things. You have to fight spiritual battles with spiritual things, armor of the spirit, those quick remedies, those uh, angry words that you wanna say to that person or to this situation over here. Those worldly solutions. When it comes to a lot of the problems that you're facing are going to do nothing in comparison to what happens when you learn to fight in the spirit. Now, that doesn't mean that you don't put in any effort when it comes to the solutions you're trying to bring about. Right. You need to put in effort. You need to actively work on your healing and do the things necessary to help you, like getting therapy, like seeking community, like implementing better habits into your everyday life. And when it comes to your work, you're calling your business. You have to actively put in effort, like creating that thing like time management, like finally being consistent in this area. So that's not what I'm talking about when I say worldly solutions. I am talking about you trying to implement those quick remedies. You, uh, saying those angry words to this thing or that thing that are ultimately gonna have no effect. You trying to control things that are completely out of your control. All of that worldly stuff is going to do nothing to the spiritual attacks that are happening in your life. So fight in the spirit. Use words of prayer. Put on the armor of God, believing that he will fight with you. He will fight for you. He will lead that battle so that you and him are victorious over it. Now. Notice how I'm saying the term fight, when you think of fighting, you think of. Strength. You think of power, you think of all of your energy. That is the type of fighting that I'm talking about in the spirit. So when you pray, don't just say itty bitty little quiet prayers. Sure. That's great. But in addition to that, my friend, lift your hands up. Walk around your house proclaiming God's truth, proclaiming what's written in scripture, praying to God about what it is that you need, where you need him to work in your life, what you need him to work out within you. Claiming in your home over yourself that the enemy has absolutely no hold over you. Anxiety has to go, stress has to leave. You worries, have absolutely no control over you because your faith is found in God, so you have nothing to worry about. That is the type of prayer that I'm talking about, and the only way for you to find that power that comes from the Holy Spirit within you to fight in prayer, just like how I was mentioning, is to open up your mouth and to just start talking. It might feel awkward at first. You might not know what to say at first, but when you just walk around your house and start talking. Start praying to God, bringing him into that prayer with you. The Holy Spirit will build your confidence so much through your words to the point where you feel yourself becoming stronger. You feel yourself becoming more powerful with your words because you're allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through you. That is what I mean when I say fight. You being a victim to your anxiety. Fight that by being a victor saying powerful prayers proclaiming that it has no control over you. That God is for you. And if God is for you, then absolutely nothing and no one can be against you and that includes the anxiety, the stress, and the worries that you feel. Those. Things cannot control you. They cannot be against you. If God is for you and he is my friend, you just have to believe that and you have to use your spiritual weapons. Putting on the armor of God speaking those powerful prayers to fight it, to combat it. Now, in addition to what I just mentioned, I highly recommend that you listen to the past couple of episodes on the God Empowered Entrepreneur Podcast because in those episodes I dive deeper into what those spiritual weapons are and how to lean more deeply into that so that you can fight the right fight. It is time, my friend. Last point that I'll say so that you can find the will to fight. You need to recognize that when you finally move the in fighting, God will move with you. And I think. A lot of times we need that reminder. I know I do, because sometimes when I move, when I'm trying to heal from something, when I'm trying to get something done, when I'm trying to overcome something, when I'm trying to accomplish this thing, sometimes when I move, it just feels like I'm doing it alone and it feels lonely. It feels quiet, it feels hard. It feels like nobody understands it but me, and I'm just kind of sitting in that pain, sitting in that journey by myself. But we need to recognize that as we move, God is right there moving with us. Maybe you don't see it at first. Maybe you don't feel it at first, but I promise you he is moving with you. You take one step, he takes another, you jump. He'll jump with you. He will meet you where you're at. Sure. He might pivot you. In a different way. He might redirect you. He might stop you and have you wait there before taking the next step. He might catapult you to take that next step before you even felt ready. Sure, God is gonna do all of those things depending on his calling over your life. But my point is that when you move. He will move with you. You're not in it alone. And for some reason, I needed that reminder this morning when I was genuinely just struggling to get out of bed. I needed to remember that if I just move, if I just get out of this bed, even though it's hard, even though I don't want to, even though I'm struggling with all of these negative thoughts, if I just move, I'm not moving by myself. God is moving with me. I get outta bed. He's right there. I go out in the living room and I start praying. He's right there. I'm on my knees. I'm crying out to him. He's right there. I take action in this. I try to heal from this. I try to overcome this. I try to accomplish this thing. He is right there. Sometimes we need to be reminded. That we're not silently walking through this by ourselves. He's right there with you. Never changing, always patient, always waiting for you. Move. Get up, decide not to be a victim of your anxiety or stress or your worries anymore. And when you do, God is right in it with you every step of the way. And even when you walk away from this episode today and the next day after the inspiration from this episode kind of dies off. And the next day or a month from now, you're feeling depressed again. You're feeling anxious again, and everything that I mention on this episode goes right out the window. I need you to remember this one thing fight. Remind yourself that one word fight, and ask yourself in that moment, how can I fight this right now? How can I take one step in fighting, remembering that God is taking that one step with me. What can I do right now to fight to find the will to fight? And if you need a moment to just cry, if you need a moment to just feel, that's okay, but my friend, at some point you have to get up and you have to decide to fight. I know that you can. And more importantly, God knows that you can. He believes that you can. He's right there waiting for you when you do. Thanks very much for listening to this episode. I appreciate you for being vulnerable with me, for leaning into the hard stuff and being open-minded to create change in your life because it is so possible. And remember, I am right there in it with you too. Now, just to wrap up this episode, if you are looking for more powerful inspiration like this and you want to apply it to your entrepreneurial spirit than my friend, I. I got a treat for you. I am hosting a free two day Mastermind, keyword free two day mastermind, teaching you about the mindset, the marketing and the money strategies to build a successful online business God's way. I wanna teach you how to do it without the stress. I wanna teach you how to do it without the anxiety. I wanna teach you how to do it in a way that builds clarity and confidence in you to the point where you finally believe that you can do this, you have the necessary things in place to do what God is calling you to do when it comes to entrepreneurship. So if you're wanting to start an online business, if you have a passion for coaching, for content, for community-based offerings and wanting to make an impact in the online world with it, then this free mastermind training is for you. I'd love to have you there. I had love to continue pouring into your spirit and setting your mindset up for success to do this thing because I know you can. If you're interested, you can head down to the show notes right down below where you're listening to this episode or in the YouTube description down below if you're watching it there. I hope to see you in the Free Mastermind and to meet with you personally. Again, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you next week.