A Desire Is Not a Demand
Lifting the Lifters
What do you want? For years, my answer to that question was usually, “Nothing.” I didn’t want to be high maintenance. I didn’t want to ask for too much. And honestly, there were seasons when I had spent so much time taking care of everyone else that I didn’t even know what I wanted anymore. In this episode, I’m talking about why we can lose touch with our desires—through stress, self-sacrifice, fear of disappointment, and the habit of constantly putting our own preferences aside. Having desires doesn’t make us selfish, ungrateful, or demanding. A desire is simply something we...
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What if Your Theme Was Joy?
Lifting the Lifters
What if you could stand back and pick a theme for the life you've lived thus far. What would it be? Exhuasted Busy Overwhelmed Anxious Have these just happened? Or have we chosen this? If I were to guess, most of us have a theme for our lives that has just kind of chosen us! But what if from this point forward, you decided that JOY is the theme for your life? What would that look like? It wouldn't necessarily change your circumstances. You'd still have the same life you live, but it would change how you lived it!? This week, we are discussing choosing the theme of JOY for the rest of...
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What's the Theme?
Lifting the Lifters
What’s the Theme? A good theme can make everything more fun! And it can also give us direction! After spending some time coming up with themes for golf prizes, I realized how much easier it was to create, plan, and make decisions once I knew the theme. What if we did the same thing in our everyday lives? Whether it’s a new school year, a busy week, a difficult season, or just an ordinary Tuesday, we’re often living by a theme without even realizing it: hurry, stress, perfection, survival, or “just get it all done.” In this episode, we’re talking about intentionally choosing our...
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Your Back to School Assignment
Lifting the Lifters
Back-to-school season can bring excitement, fresh starts…and a whole lot of anxiety. One phrase I’ve heard over and over from my kids and clients is, “I don’t know anyone in my class.” When we feel uncertain or like we don’t belong, our natural response is often to close in. That looks like looking down, staying quiet, pulling away, and waiting for someone else to make the first move. But sometimes the very things we do to protect ourselves from feeling isolated actually create more isolation. In this episode, I’m giving you a simple Back-to-School Assignment: notice when...
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Own It and Work With It!
Lifting the Lifters
What if the thing you keep fighting against is actually something you could learn to work with? In this episode, we’re talking about what it means to own what is and work with it. From hats left on the dresser, to unexpected changes in plans, to the Nephites becoming “exceedingly expert” at working with cement when timber wasn’t available, sometimes the answer isn’t wishing our circumstances were different. It’s learning how to build with what we have. Owning it doesn’t mean we have to like it, settle for it, or never make a change. It means we stop using all of our energy...
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Just Get There
Lifting the Lifters
Have you ever dreaded going somewhere, only to get there and think it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought? Maybe you even ended up having a great time. In this episode, we’re talking about anticipatory anxiety: the worry, resistance, and sometimes full-blown dread that can show up before we do something. Inspired by my boys’ recent experience going on trek (which they definitely did NOT want to do!), we’ll look at why our brains can make the “before” feel so much harder than the actual experience. We’ll talk about what’s happening in the brain and nervous system when we...
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Your Great Adventure
Lifting the Lifters
Do you ever feel like life is one big test and you're worried you're not getting the answers right? Or worse, you might "fail?" This week we are exploring a perspective that has the power to change the way we experience our daily lives. Inspired by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk Your Great Adventure, we'll discuss what it means to see life not simply as a test to pass, but as an adventure designed to help us grow. Adventures aren't meant to be easy. They include unexpected detours, setbacks, mistakes, and moments of uncertainty. But those experiences don't mean we're failing! They're often...
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The Scarcity Trap: When "Not Enough" Steals Our Joy
Lifting the Lifters
As summer comes to a close, many of us feel pressure to squeeze in one more trip, one more activity, or one more memory. But what if that pressure isn't really about summer at all? In this episode, we explore the mindset of scarcity: the belief that there isn't enough time, opportunity, or life. This scarcity quietly steals our peace and joy. We'll discuss how scarcity fuels stress and comparison, why our nervous system reacts this way, and how faith invites us into a life of abundance, presence, and trust. We'll discuss how fear and scarcity live in the future and how abundance and joy...
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Becoming a Sharp Tool
Lifting the Lifters
Abraham Lincoln is often credited with saying: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." A simple phrase my husband told our missionary daughter that has stayed with me: "Do what you can to be a sharp tool." It led me to ask : Am I working harder, or am I becoming sharper? In Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we'll explore the principle of "Sharpen the Saw" and how renewing ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially allows us to better serve God, our families, and those around us....
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Don't Delete the Strikeouts ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lifting the Lifters
Have you ever noticed how we tend to keep only the highlights? Whether it's the pictures on our phones, videos of our kids, a scorecard on the golf course, or even the stories we tell ourselves, it's easy to celebrate the wins while trying to erase the moments that didn't go as planned. In this episode, I share a few personal experiences that made me stop and ask, Why am I so quick to delete the hard parts? We'll talk about how joy and sorrow can exist together, why we don't have to wait for life to be perfect to experience joy, and how God sees so much more than our highlight reel. Maybe the...
info_outlineMy husband Jarred and I were having a discussion one morning in December and he mentioned his word for the year was intentional. I said, "That's funny! Mine is deliberate!" They mean basically the same thing! Doing things on purpose! Although most of us are intentional with some things, maybe there are some areas we could do a little better. Maybe it's with our relationships, maybe our health, maybe our scripture study or spirituality. At any rate, whether we choose to work on goals or pick words for the year, we've got to be intentional about them if we want to get the results we want. Listen in to this podcast as Jarred and I discuss being intentional and what that looks like for the two of us and our family!