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Breathe: The Stress Less Podcast - The Science of Joy: How Your Brain Breaks Free From Stress #234 · LifeAudio

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey friend, ever notice that stress can sometimes
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  Speaker 1: make your world feel blah? You want to be able
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  Speaker 1: to feel more joy, but you're not too sure how
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  Speaker 1: to break the cycle of of worrying. Maybe there are
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  Speaker 1: problems that you want to fix, and you're not sure
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  Speaker 1: how you can just feel joy again. Well, today we're
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  Speaker 1: exploring the science of joy. We're going to learn why
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  Speaker 1: your brain needs more than just being in survival mode
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  Speaker 1: and problem solving. Well, friend, welcome to Breathe, the Stress
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  Speaker 1: Less Podcast. I'm your host, Bonnie Gray. I am a
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  Speaker 1: soul care mentor. I'm the best-selling author of four books,
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  Speaker 1: including the bestseller Breathe, 21 Days to Stress Less and
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  Speaker 1: Transform Chaos to Calm. Today, we are talking about joy.
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  Speaker 1: Joy is such a big topic. I can definitely do
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  Speaker 1: a whole series on it. It could be a book
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  Speaker 1: that I'd love to write, but today, I just want
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  Speaker 1: to Focus on one aspect just to highlight it for
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  Speaker 1: you and give you a spark. What happens in our
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  Speaker 1: minds and our bodies when joy can break us out
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  Speaker 1: of our survival mode and our stress mode? And this
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  Speaker 1: is a joy that is not going to be hard
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  Speaker 1: for us to access. It's something that God designed for
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  Speaker 1: us to release stress. Well, welcome to our current fall series.
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  Speaker 1: We're doing science and scripture wellness series. We're taking a
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  Speaker 1: look at what are the ways God designed our nervous
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  Speaker 1: system so that we can be able to find peace
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  Speaker 1: and joy. And today's topic is going to be about joy.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to share a personal story with you about
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  Speaker 1: something that's happened to me this past week where I
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  Speaker 1: also had to use the practice to move from stress
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  Speaker 1: to joy. Dear friend, if stress has left you feeling
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  Speaker 1: emotionally and physically depleted, I wanted to commend to you
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  Speaker 1: a very important book that changed the course of my
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  Speaker 1: life because there was a point in my life where
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  Speaker 1: I was suffering from severe anxiety and panic attacks. And
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  Speaker 1: I had to go on a whole new journey to
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  Speaker 1: learn more about how scripture and science work together to
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  Speaker 1: help us feel better and to heal. I wrote a
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  Speaker 1: book called Whispers of Rest, 40 Days of God's Love
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  Speaker 1: to Revitalize Your Soul. I wrote it because I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to put together the 40 most powerful promises in scripture
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  Speaker 1: that had helped me along my journey to heal. And
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  Speaker 1: I pair each chapter, each scripture with a practical rhythm,
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  Speaker 1: something you can do based on science that will help
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  Speaker 1: your body and your emotions to feel more peaceful and joyful.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to put a link in our show notes.
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  Speaker 1: I hope that you check it out. It will be
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  Speaker 1: a comfort and encouragement to you as we enjoy our
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  Speaker 1: fall season and prepare for the holidays. And we'll be
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  Speaker 1: right back. Our breath prayer today comes from a powerful scripture, Jesus' words,
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  Speaker 1: his invitation. John 1, verse 39. Come and see. Just
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  Speaker 1: breathe in, breathe out gently. Relax your shoulders and your hands.
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  Speaker 1: And inhale. Come and see. Exhale. Come and see. Hear
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  Speaker 1: God's loving voice whispering to you now as you inhale,
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  Speaker 1: come and see. Exhale, come and see. I wonder which
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  Speaker 1: word especially speaks to your heart this moment. Allow Jesus
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  Speaker 1: his hand to encircle your hand as he whispers, come
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  Speaker 1: and see. And just relax and be present with Jesus
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  Speaker 1: now in our time together. Well, friend, I had a
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  Speaker 1: tough week. For some reason, I just wasn't sleeping very well.
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  Speaker 1: And I think at least part of it was something
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  Speaker 1: that happened the prior week. It stirred things up. I
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  Speaker 1: went to a small group and the activity asked us
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  Speaker 1: to draw a map of our childhood homes. And then
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  Speaker 1: we were asked to label places in our home where
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  Speaker 1: we remembered feeling happy or sad. And I had never
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  Speaker 1: actually drawn a map of my childhood home before. And
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  Speaker 1: even though I've done a lot of healing through therapy
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  Speaker 1: and I have made peace with difficult memories in my past,
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  Speaker 1: trauma from my past, there was something about physically drawing
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  Speaker 1: that layout that seemed to I don't know, activate something
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  Speaker 1: in me because starting that night, I had trouble sleeping.
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  Speaker 1: And for the most of the week, I just felt off.
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  Speaker 1: And I couldn't sleep deeply, couldn't sleep very long. And
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  Speaker 1: every day, I just worked hard to just get through
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  Speaker 1: my usual rhythms that usually helped me, like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: calming prayer time, being outside, reading a book before bed.
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  Speaker 1: I just couldn't seem to find any relief. Then Friday morning,
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  Speaker 1: I noticed when I woke up, my mind automatically, as
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  Speaker 1: soon as I woke up, it was just full of
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  Speaker 1: questions like, OK, why was I not sleeping well? Maybe
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  Speaker 1: I should drink mint tea tonight and that'll help. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: I need to add soothing music and maybe I didn't
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  Speaker 1: spend enough time outside. And, you know, my mind was
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  Speaker 1: just immediately in the problem solving mode of what's wrong?
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  Speaker 1: What did I miss? What do I need to fix?
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  Speaker 1: What are my to do's? But interestingly enough, that Friday,
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  Speaker 1: my husband Eric had decided to take the day off
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  Speaker 1: so we could spend some time together and have like
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  Speaker 1: a daytime date. And so when I saw him that morning,
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  Speaker 1: something happened that really surprised me. It honestly felt like
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  Speaker 1: my brain just jumped onto a completely different network, like
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  Speaker 1: a different track, because within seconds of saying good morning
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  Speaker 1: to him and seeing him, I started feeling good. I
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  Speaker 1: started thinking about funny things I hadn't had a chance
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  Speaker 1: to tell him earlier in the week. And we started
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  Speaker 1: talking about maybe where we could go for lunch or
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  Speaker 1: grab a cup of coffee and pastry. And wow, within
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  Speaker 1: less than 10 seconds, my mind was no longer thinking
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  Speaker 1: about my sleep problems. And I was thinking many different
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  Speaker 1: ideas about how we could spend our day. Nothing about
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  Speaker 1: my circumstance had changed, and I still hadn't slept well,
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  Speaker 1: but suddenly my thoughts filled with things that made me
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  Speaker 1: feel like the day was going to be a good day.
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  Speaker 1: And so what I needed that morning wasn't another sleep strategy.
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  Speaker 1: I needed someone. I needed a loving presence, someone I
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  Speaker 1: felt safe with and happy to be with. And without
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  Speaker 1: trying to force myself to be in a better mood,
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  Speaker 1: I just started having more peaceful, joyful thoughts. And I
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  Speaker 1: started thinking more about what we could do together. It's
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  Speaker 1: like my brain just moved on to a different network
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  Speaker 1: of ideas. And so previously they were all negative. And
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  Speaker 1: then suddenly within a minute, I became plugged into a
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  Speaker 1: different network of thoughts. And they were thoughts of peace
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  Speaker 1: and joy, things that we can enjoy together. And so
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  Speaker 1: the day just totally turned around. And it just made
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  Speaker 1: me think of Jesus. When Jesus called his disciples, he
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  Speaker 1: didn't just simply give them information about himself. In the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel of John, chapter 1, two of John, the Baptist disciples,
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  Speaker 1: began following Jesus. And they asked him where was he staying.
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  Speaker 1: But instead of telling him, Jesus said, come and see.
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  Speaker 1: And so I love that he used the word see.
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  Speaker 1: The Greek word for see is harao. It means to
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  Speaker 1: perceive through experience. It's experiential seeing. So Jesus wasn't just saying, hey,
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  Speaker 1: come and get some information about me. He was inviting
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  Speaker 1: them to spend some time. Come, be with me. Experience
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  Speaker 1: life with me. And so they went. They stayed with
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  Speaker 1: Jesus that day. I love it because the day completely
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  Speaker 1: changed our lives, right? So when Andrew came back, from
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  Speaker 1: spending the day with Jesus, the first thing he did
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  Speaker 1: is to go tell Peter, his brother, we have found
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  Speaker 1: the Messiah. And I love that the Greek word used
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  Speaker 1: for found is hierisko. And it means to discover. And
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  Speaker 1: you discover something through an experience. We spend so much
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  Speaker 1: time in our heads thinking about our problems. And yet
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  Speaker 1: Jesus says, come and experience. Peace and joy. Come and
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  Speaker 1: be curious. Come discover something new. And so that is
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  Speaker 1: really the key to joy. Joy is something we don't
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  Speaker 1: just think about or analyze. Joy is something we were
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  Speaker 1: designed to experience. And often we experience it with another person.
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  Speaker 1: I love that God sent Jesus because he knew we
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  Speaker 1: needed to see and hear and experience Jesus. We can
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  Speaker 1: see that the disciples went all different places with Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: a variety of experiences. Somebody that they can laugh with,
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  Speaker 1: someone that can listen to them, someone whose presence can help.
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  Speaker 1: come back to the present moment, right? Spending time together.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the reasons God calls
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  Speaker 1: us as believers to be together. It's always about personal
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  Speaker 1: relationships and connection. That's how Jesus can encourage us. He
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  Speaker 1: can help us to have different experiences when we're together.
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  Speaker 1: A conversation, sharing a meal, a laugh, a walk. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that's part of Jesus's invitation to you and me.
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  Speaker 1: Come and see. Come out of the problem for a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Come into my presence. Come receive what is good. Because
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  Speaker 1: God didn't design us only to survive difficult things. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: came and said he wants us to experience joy. He
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  Speaker 1: came so we can experience joy fully. Now, after the break,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to look at some fascinating science about joy
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  Speaker 1: and how it can help us break out of our stress.
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  Speaker 1: Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson developed what is called the broaden and
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  Speaker 1: build theory of positive emotions. What that means is that
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  Speaker 1: when we feel afraid or stressed, our minds tend to
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  Speaker 1: zoom in on the problem. But when we experience positive
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  Speaker 1: emotions like joy, our minds can open back up and
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  Speaker 1: help us notice more possibilities, And we become more curious
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  Speaker 1: and engaged. I like to think of it as I
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  Speaker 1: just don't feel off anymore. I'm like in the flow,
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  Speaker 1: in the moment. When we feel threatened or afraid, circling
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  Speaker 1: around some worry we can't shake, our attention naturally narrows.
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  Speaker 1: Our whole world seems blocked. But when we can experience
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  Speaker 1: positive emotions, have some experiences that bring us joy, it
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  Speaker 1: will then open up. broaden our attention. We get the
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  Speaker 1: color back into our world. We can hear the birds sing.
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  Speaker 1: We can actually notice the sunlight and feel the warmth.
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  Speaker 1: Our whole body, our whole emotions, we can come back
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  Speaker 1: and engage with life again. So when I'm talking about
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  Speaker 1: joy helping break our stress, it can come through being
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  Speaker 1: with somebody that brings us peace or joy. It could
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  Speaker 1: be a moment of beauty. And it can come through,
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  Speaker 1: most importantly, a shared experience. Apparently, that's what I needed.
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  Speaker 1: Something that can make us just feel our joyful self
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  Speaker 1: come alive again. It's when we're in that joyful mode,
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  Speaker 1: that's when the ideas flow. Even simple ideas suddenly feel
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  Speaker 1: exciting to us. And the day doesn't feel blah. The
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  Speaker 1: day has color again. And so I'm just curious, what
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  Speaker 1: would help you to bring out your joyful self. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean we don't have problems. It doesn't mean there
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  Speaker 1: isn't a time to solve them, but our brain needs
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  Speaker 1: those moments where we can take a break from our
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  Speaker 1: worries and through an experience, an experience of what brings
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  Speaker 1: out your joyful self. What is it that has brought
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  Speaker 1: you joy in the past? And maybe another question to
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  Speaker 1: ask is, what is a new joy? God may be
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  Speaker 1: inviting you to experience something As for me that day,
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  Speaker 1: we decided to go try a new sandwich place for lunch.
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  Speaker 1: It had opened up recently and we just never got
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  Speaker 1: a chance to go and try it out. But you
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  Speaker 1: know what? It was so good to just step out
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  Speaker 1: and do something different because my world had become so
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  Speaker 1: narrow and small earlier in the week. But once I
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  Speaker 1: stepped out of it, then I wasn't thinking about my
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  Speaker 1: sleep problems anymore. And guess what? Yes, I did sleep
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  Speaker 1: better that night. Because, friends, science shows that repetitive worry
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  Speaker 1: can keep our stress response activated. That stress response just
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  Speaker 1: stays on. And that means higher cortisol. And that's hard
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  Speaker 1: to go to sleep and sleep deeply when our cortisol
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  Speaker 1: levels are so high. But when we have some positive emotions,
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  Speaker 1: that is associated with lower cortisol. So then sleep was
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  Speaker 1: much better that night. physiological and emotional state was different.
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  Speaker 1: So friend, I just really want you to know that
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  Speaker 1: your joy, your moments of joy is important, especially if
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  Speaker 1: you're under stress. It's even more important to break out
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  Speaker 1: and go give yourself time with an experience that can
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  Speaker 1: bring you joy. Those positive emotions can help open up
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  Speaker 1: your world and it will make a difference. So friend,
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  Speaker 1: here is your soul care challenge. I always want to
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  Speaker 1: send you out with something practical you can do. I
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  Speaker 1: want you to choose one small experience of joy. And
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  Speaker 1: if you're like me, you've tried a lot of different things,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to do it with another person because
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  Speaker 1: that is ultimately important. what Jesus came to do. He
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  Speaker 1: came to join us, walk with us, and he brings
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  Speaker 1: others alongside us. And it's part of our wellness. It's
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  Speaker 1: part of the way God designed us. We need to
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  Speaker 1: be with others, especially when we're feeling down, to go
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  Speaker 1: do something, take a break, do something that can bring
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  Speaker 1: you joy. Is it having coffee, go trying out a
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  Speaker 1: new place for lunch, or taking a walk together, or
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  Speaker 1: just sharing space together to have some tea? I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what it is, but I trust the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: is going to spark an idea in your heart and
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  Speaker 1: maybe it's already surfaced. And remember, you don't have to
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  Speaker 1: feel like you're in the mood. It's because we're not
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  Speaker 1: in the mood. We want to step out by faith
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  Speaker 1: to follow Jesus wherever he's put the idea on your heart.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe notice what makes you curious. Sometimes joy begins with curiosity.
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  Speaker 1: It's a seed. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, thank you that
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  Speaker 1: you invite me to come and see. When stress makes
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  Speaker 1: my world feel so small, help me to notice the
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  Speaker 1: people you've placed in my life. Help me to notice
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  Speaker 1: beauty and the moments of joy you're inviting me to
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  Speaker 1: experience with you. Amen. Well, friend, I hope that today's
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  Speaker 1: episode has lifted your spirit up. And if you know
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  Speaker 1: a friend that you can encourage, share this episode with her. Remember, friend,
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  Speaker 1: you're loved, you're cherished. Just rest. And I'll see you
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  Speaker 1: next time. Breathe, the Stress Less podcast is a production
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  Speaker 1: of Life Audio and Salem Media. If you liked what
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  Speaker 1: you heard today, please take a second to rate and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: review this podcast in your favorite podcast app so that
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  Speaker 1: more listeners like you can find the show. For more faith-filled,
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  Speaker 1: inspirational podcasts, visit us at lifeaudio.com.