August 1, 2025 • 36 mins
What if anxiety isn’t a flaw—but a signal calling you back to God? In this powerful episode of Curious for Christ, I sit down with Christian leadership and mental health coach Eric Gilbert to explore how faith, neuroscience, and past wounds intersect—and how healing in Christ is not only possible, but promised.
We talk about:
- How fear and trauma keep us spiritually stuck
- The lies we believe about ourselves and God
- Why busyness and burnout are symptoms, not solutions
- And the steps to experiencing peace and purpose again
If you’ve ever felt frozen by fear, overwhelmed by anxiety, or ashamed of your struggles—this conversation is for you. Jesus came to set the captives free, and He wants wholeness for every part of you—mind, body, and soul.
Key Takeaways & Scriptures:
1. The 3 B’s that keep you spiritually stuck:
• Busyness – Avoiding pain by staying distracted
• Burying – Numbing or shutting down emotionally
• Broken relationships – Living disconnected from God or others
“Be still, and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10
2. Fear is not a flaw—it’s a signal.
Anxiety may be your body asking for safety. Bring it to Jesus.
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.” — Psalm 56:3
3. You don’t have to imitate anyone else.
Your calling is unique and handcrafted by God.
“We are God’s masterpiece… created to do good works.” — Ephesians 2:10
4. Healing is spiritual and embodied.
God uses breath work, counseling, prayer, and His Word.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…soul…mind…strength.” — Mark 12:30
5. God meets you right where you are.
Perfection isn’t the goal—presence is.
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” — Psalm 34:18
Want to go deeper with Eric?
- RisingCalm.com: A Christ-centered mental health practice helping individuals heal from trauma, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion through biblical and neuroscience-informed care.
- CourageousCallings.com: A coaching and leadership resource to help believers step boldly into their God-given purpose.
- Take the free Courage Quiz and find out what’s holding you back from living fully aligned with your calling.
Closing Scripture:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” — Psalm 34:8
Ready to walk in freedom?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Cure for Christ.
(00:01):
I'm your host Alexandra Alvarez,and today we're talking about a
struggle.
So many of us face, but rarelyknow how to overcome spiritual
paralysis.
What do you do when fear,anxiety and past trauma keep you
stuck even when your heart longsto trust God and move forward in
your purpose?
I've been there more than once,and even recently in my
(00:24):
marriage.
I mean, it's bound to happen.
Two imperfect people with woundsin history bumping into each
other, and I believe God allowedit not to shame us, but to
lovingly reveal what's stillruling our hearts beneath the
surface.
So I know it's love.
But to be honest, it's beenpainful and I've felt
(00:45):
frustrated, and honestly, I'vealso felt broken hearted.
But as I sat with God, he met meright there.
He brought people into my lifeto walk with me to speak.
Truth and healing started tounfold.
It is a slow process, but it'sreal, and it's worth it because
there's nothing more importantthan growing closer to God even
(01:08):
through the heart.
And that's exactly why I broughttoday's guest, Eric Gilbert onto
the podcast.
Eric is a Christian leadershipand mental health coach, and a
founder of courageous calling.
He helps high achievers breakfree from anxiety, burnout, and
fear-based living by integratingfaith, neuroscience, and bold,
(01:29):
practical action.
With over 15 years of experienceand a Master's in Marriage and
Family Therapy, he's guidedhundreds of professionals who
felt stuck, overwhelmed, orspiritually drained into lives
of renewed purpose andconfidence rooted deeply in
Christ.
In today's episode, we explorehow our brains, our faith, and
(01:50):
our past experiences intersect,and how God meets us In the
middle of it all, we talkneuroscience, faith, trauma,
scripture, and how to find peacewhen life hasn't gone the way
you thought it would.
Are you ready?
Let's listen now.
(02:12):
Welcome to Curious for Christ.
Do you ever find yourself lying,awake at night wondering about
God's plan for your life?
Maybe you wake up with bigdreams, but feel unsure where to
start or what your next stepshould be.
If you're curious aboutexploring your faith and finding
purpose, then you've come to theright place.
(02:33):
Hi, I'm Alexandra.
I too felt lost and sure of thedirection my life was taking.
I yearned to understand mypurpose and have someone guide
me, but I kept telling myself Iwas too busy.
The timing wasn't right, and mylack of clarity prevented me
from being consistent until Ifound Christ.
(02:54):
He brought peace into my lifeand revealed the way to find
purpose by anchoring myself.
In him.
In this podcast, we'll journeytogether exploring the Bible to
gain a deeper understanding ofhim and cultivate your own
personal relationship withChrist.
So open up your Bible, put inthose earbuds and listen up
(03:15):
because God is speaking to you.
He's making everything new andyou don't wanna miss it.
Let's get started.
Good morning.
Thank you Eric for joining me onCurious for Christ.
I'm excited about ourconversation today.
(03:37):
Me too, Alexandra.
Thanks so much for having me.
I'm so glad to be here with you.
Yes, of course.
So Eric, let's just dive in asyou are a Christian leadership
and mental health coach.
And I always like to start myepisodes with our personal
stories'cause I feel like theythey carry so much value and
they're very impactful.
So can you start by sharing yourpersonal story?
(04:00):
What led you to help Christiannavigate fear, anxiety, mental
health through both faith andneuroscience.
Yeah, I'm happy to share.
It's been quite a journey to saythe least.
If I could try to boil it downto a key pivotal time in my life
around college was where I hadactually a professor who was an
atheist, but he said, whateveryou believe you can believe.
(04:22):
He just said, just make surethat your life actually reflects
what you believe.
In other words, if somebody hitthe mute button on me, and I
can't say any words, but theycan only look at my life, would
they be able to gather that Itruly, sincerely love Jesus and
that I live for Jesus.
I knew in that time in my life,no, that's not the message they
would take.
They would think that I was justlike any other college kid
(04:42):
trying to fit in, trying to goto parties, trying to dig girls
where I could, those kind ofthings, and trying to learn a
thing or two in college with myclasses, but mostly my life is
more consumed with myself andsuccess and what I wanted to do
to fit in.
God really grabbed a hold of mein college to be able to say I
had to answer the question, isGod really?
There?
And is he really worth livingwholeheartedly for?
(05:05):
Because I grew up in a Christianhome, but I was just like, if
you, if God's not real or ifthis is just something that I've
been told from my parents, butit's just stories, then I don't
wanna live for it.
And I wanna be willing to leaveall this behind.
But if this is real, I have tobe able to give my whole life
because Jesus is worthy.
Oh my whole life, if this isreal, if he's really the God of
(05:25):
the universe and I'm just oneout of seven plus billion people
and he cares for me.
You can go, you can guess whereI'm gonna go.
I was able to get around othercollege kids and see them
authentically living out theirfaith and that to me was so
contagious.
'cause I'm like, I'm growing upin a private school.
I saw so many of my friends.
Where it was just like, I don'tknow if you can relate to this,
but they would say, I loveJesus.
(05:47):
I'll go to church and then I'lldo whatever I want on Friday
night, and then I'm gonna dowhatever I want with my
lifestyle.
'Cause it's my life, quoteunquote.
And so that message to me was soconfusing really, because I just
felt like there's no realclarity, like who really lives
authentically for God and stillhas personality.
I felt like all these peoplewere more like my dad's age, my
(06:07):
mom's age.
Where at the time, in mytwenties, I'm like good for
them.
They're happy, but they're alsosettled in their life.
They've already figured out somany things in their twenties
and thirties, and I don't feellike they're in this, the youth
of life with all these majorlife decisions.
So when I started to really getahold of that in college and
say, I wanna live wholeheartedlyfor God, I had to be willing to
even lay down some of thosefriendships and say, I'm willing
(06:29):
to say if my friends don't wannabe around me anymore.
I'm willing to journey thisalone because I'm,'cause God is
worth the journey.
God is the, if he's my closestcompanion and even my only
companion, then it's worth it.
And so I got really into a spaceof where I wanted to
wholeheartedly for God, andthank God he brought community
into my life and otherbelievers.
(06:51):
Through that I started to doyouth ministry, so I started to
help out.
Other teenagers and things likethat.
And then I got into this spaceof realizing for myself, I had
wrestled so much with anxietythat I was showing up even as
I'm trying to do ministry whereI'm working in this office in a
town called DeKalb in Illinois.
And even then I was strugglingwith wanting to get out of the
(07:12):
office even though I sincerelybelieved Jesus, that they could
change people's lives.
Because I would get so anxiousabout what are people gonna
think or what's gonna happen,all this kind of stuff.
And that in combination withstarting to work with some of
the youth.
One of the youth, just as anexample, I'll call him Travis.
His mom was struggling as analcoholic and so he's trying to
(07:33):
work on his faith and trying toget.
Things right with God.
And then at the same time, he'sstuck into the same pattern
whenever he gets home with allthis dysfunction.
And so I started to say, what'sit look like to try to go deep
into the levels of not justknowing how to share the gospel,
but try to be able to help setwhole family free so they can
wholeheartedly live for God.
And so that's took my journey ofovercoming my own anxiety to be
(07:57):
able Tori really try to helpfamilies as a whole, and God led
me to where I am now.
That's great.
That's great.
There's so many scriptures thatcome to mind because God is
whatever we go through, there'salways something in the Bible
that talks about that.
It's living and active.
Yeah.
And first Timothy four talksabout what your life and
doctoring closely but by doingso, we can save both ourselves.
(08:19):
Here the people that arewatching us.
Even from someone who was not abeliever, it's hypocrisy, right?
You say one thing, but then youlive another.
Exactly.
Is to be one and to have theheart and then the actions that
follow whatever is within, andthen when your heart is in the
right place, God always bringspeople to help along the way.
We not, isn't that buzzing?
(08:40):
Yeah.
Alone.
It's a beautiful journey to seehow God definitely is with us
and.
To be found and wants us to havea meaningful life in the sense
that when we shine, we reflecthis love for us.
And he desires to be known, tobe found.
And yeah, that was an awesomething too, is when I started to
let go of the fear of peoplelike me or they don't like me,
(09:02):
am I gonna fit in?
Do I have friends or not?
I'd start going to these collegeparties,'cause those were the
friends I was around, right?
But instead of drinking, I wouldbe there with my solo cup, with
a cup of water, and I would justsincerely try to love on people
and just say here's what Jesushas really been doing in my
life.
What are you going through?
What do you wanna talk about?
What do you feel like your lifeis for?
And those kind of things.
So it felt really.
(09:22):
Freeing and empowering to beable to say, I don't have to try
to impress people anymore.
I can just genuinely share whatJesus is doing in my life, and
if they reject me.
If they don't wanna talk to mefor the rest of the party,
that's okay.
They don't get it.
But I sincerely wanna be theperson that just says, Jesus
changed my life, and I know thatthere's hope for you too.
And I know that there's morethan what you're living for.
If your life is only for aparty, there's so much more to
(09:45):
live for.
Yes, definitely.
And it's true that sometimes wepeople party to avoid those type
of conversations that you work.
It's easier with loud music,right?
Yeah, exactly.
Hence the anxiety sometimes whenyou have to.
Face yourself and what's reallyunderneath.
Unless we do that and face themwith God, we just push them down
and we don't really deal, but wecarry them nonetheless.
(10:07):
Yeah, exactly.
Just show up sideways.
They show up over here and overthere'cause we haven't gone,
it's gonna be there and it's, wehave to face it.
So might as well face it with aGod that loves us and cares and
understands.
And walk the walk and so thatleads me to this question.
Why do you think.
So many sincere Christians staystuck in fear and anxiety or
even spiritual paralysis.
(10:27):
Even though they know the Bible,they pray regularly.
I myself can sense that when Ido something new or will God be
there with me?
The Bible mentions so manytimes, hundreds of times to not
fear and even more that talksabout the peace that surpasses
understanding.
And so why do you think that is?
Yeah.
This is such a great questionand it took me a while to try to
(10:49):
like process, where's thiscoming from in our culture and
even at times of Bible, like yousaid, fear is just something for
humanity that we struggle withso much.
And I.
I basically have boiled it downto three main reasons.
I call it like the three Bsbehind it.
I feel like one of the biggestthings that we're struggling in
our culture today is busyness,just the ability to be
(11:12):
distracted if we want to.
We got phones, texts, emails,calendars, agendas sports for
our kids, all sorts of thingsthat can go on at any time.
I remember this might date me alittle bit, but I remember back
in high school when it wasmostly about the main TV shows
that you would watch and thingslike that, and there wasn't much
happening for social media yet,so it didn't feel like there was
so much noise to keep up with,but now it feels like there's
(11:33):
all sorts of busynesseverywhere.
With all our demands on life.
And so that keeping up withthings, social media, all that
kind of stuff is onlysnowballing and compounding the
problem if we're not careful andconscious of how we're using it.
The other part of the busynesstoo is it keeps us to the point
we never actually get to, likewe said, look, look at what's
(11:54):
going on inside of us, what doesit actually mean for me to slow
down and be aware of my anxiety?
So I think consciously can giveit to Christ.
When I say give my anxiety toChrist, a lot of times people
think just about I just wannagive him my thoughts, but what I
mean is giving him our wholebeing with even our body.
I don't know if you're familiarmuch with the ability to reset
our nervous system and how weare able to work with our body.
(12:17):
I like to say that motion is themost powerful way to shift
emotion.
So if I'm not conscious of whatI'm feeling.
'cause I'm busy with my phone,I'm never gonna be able to be in
a place where I can make achange.
And then unfortunately, a lot oftimes for Christians, I think we
get conscious of okay, I'manxious.
But then we just stop at sayingI'm just going to say a prayer
(12:40):
or have this thought.
And we don't realize we can alsouse our body in our worship to
God to say, I wanna combine itall together.
I wanna love Lord my God withall my heart, soul, mind, and
strength.
The first one is busyness.
The second one is that we getinto burying ourselves.
So I bury who I really am, andthis was probably the biggest
(13:01):
concern I had if I looked at thecore level of what was going on
with me in college, was I feltoh man, if I'm, if I really try
to go all in for Christ, I'mjust gonna be a performer.
I'm just gonna be inauthentic.
I'm just gonna try to memorizethe main verses as possible.
So I can say the right thing inthe right moment and then try to
outdo others with how much Iknow of scripture or how many
(13:22):
prayers I could say and all thiskind of stuff.
And unfortunately, I think partof this might be from social
media as well, but it's becomingeasier and easier to hide behind
a mask these days of people whoare really impressive online.
Man, they got it all figuredout.
They got how many followers.
They got, how many reactionsthey got, how many people to
(13:42):
give or to pray or to dowhatever, and then I might think
to myself, man, there's no waythat God would really wanna
spend time with somebody likeme, or there's no way that God
really desires me when I havenothing figured out.
And these people seem to havemillions of followers and
already a huge ministryaffecting millions of lives, so
there's a lie that gets inthere, right?
(14:03):
And so a lot of that is, if Ican look at where I've been
burying myself, what was the liethat I believed that caused me
to become inauthentic, thatcaused me to try to perform for
Christ rather than just beingwith Christ abiding with him.
And then the third one is brokenrelationships.
Broken relationshipsunfortunately are nothing new.
But the rapid rate thatrelationships happen now in our
(14:25):
fast-paced culture, it's like,if we're not careful in high
school, it can be like you got anew boyfriend or girlfriend
every month if you wanted to,especially for women.
I especially feel for womenbecause it can feel like there's
so many messages you can receiveas I work with a lot of men,
sometimes they'll talk about, orwomen too, somebody who's trying
to sneak in there to break theirrelationship, to break out the
(14:47):
things that God's given them tomess up their blessing that they
receive from God.
And try to feed those lies of,you're not good enough.
No one's really there for you,you know you're gonna screw up
anyways.
Any of those kind of lies thathave been buried.
If they come into my livingright, if I believe the lie and
come into agreement with it,then it's going to break my
relationships.
(15:08):
So as I work with people, thoseare the three biggest things I
see with fear, anxiety, beingbusy, being buried, and having
broken relationships.
Yeah.
Satan has always deceived us,right?
And maybe it's differentplatforms, different ways, but
the same old, right?
Of the deceit and doubting God'scare, God's goodness is he
holding up on me?
(15:29):
Yeah.
In comparison definitely theplatforms now make everything
accessible so we have more toworry about, to compare
ourselves with.
It is okay if I give an exampleof somebody I've worked with
around this.
Sure.
So a person that was coming tomy mind, I'm gonna call him
Brandon when I met him, like aachieving young man, bright
young man, he's in engineeringand things like that.
(15:51):
And he not only wanted to be anengineer, but he was trying to
use it for a purpose.
He wanted to see God, are youcalling me to try to go overseas
and to be able to build.
Like an engineering firm outthere so that it blesses a lot
of people.
And so he came to me with a lotof questions and confusion like,
God, what are you calling me to?
I feel like all thisresponsibility'cause I've
completed these programs andI've got a good job.
But also he had a terriblebreakup recently and
(16:13):
unfortunately the message thathe kinda received from that
breakup from his ex was like,Brandon, you're the problem.
Brandon, you're the one thatmessed this up, Brandon.
You don't really know how tolove people.
You don't really know how to dolife.
You don't really know how tolove God, all those kind of
things.
And so he is struggling withinternalizing a lot of these
messages, and so he started tonotice himself, if I'm not
careful, I'm gonna start to liveinauthentically.
(16:35):
I'm gonna try to prove my worth,prove who I am.
Overcompensate for things or getinto my work too much and try to
achieve so much of my careerthat it's gonna make my ex
jealous that she ever left me.
Or if I just get so busy with somany activities.
And so we, we slowed it down tobe able to look at those
relationships and everything,and we looked all the way into
the past with brokenness withhis mom and all his
(16:56):
relationships and everything.
And long story short, basicallyhe was able to look at the
patterns of how he'd been hurt,especially with his mom.
And how he has gotten to thehabit of trying to strive to
always prove his worth and beingable to connect with Christ.
To know that Jesus always said,Brandon, I love you so much.
I made you my image and I diedfor you.
So you don't have to proveanything to anyone.
(17:18):
Just be with me.
And then the a awesome thing inthat journey was I got the
journey with him through aseason.
He got clarity on his career ofwhere to work and then.
We got to the point where he, itwas about a year later, he
started a healthy relationship,a good relationship, honest with
who he is, what he wants to livefor, all those kind of things.
And then him and that girl gotto the point where they're
(17:39):
married today and they have alittle child.
They have a little boy together.
So all that to say, we get realabout these things and we're
able to move past them andthrough them life can really
change.
That's a great story.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks man.
So you often talk aboutneuroscience based reset or
overwhelmed Christians.
What exactly is that and howdoes it align with scripture?
(18:01):
How did you come about?
This concept practice.
Yeah.
Thanks for asking that.
So a neuroscience-based reset,right?
That might sound really new fora lot of people, is it even big
biblical?
So the way to think of this islike I said, I frame it in the
greatest commandment, which isto love the Lord of God with all
our heart, soul, mind, andstrength.
So being able to do a neuralbase reset is engaging our whole
(18:24):
person, our whole being.
To say, I wanna be radicallyreleased from stress, from all
this anxiety, all this stuffthat I've put internalized
inside of me over the years sothat I can wholeheartedly serve
God, be totally free to serveGod.
So if you've ever had a momentwhere it felt like, man, I feel
like in this moment my mind andmy hearts are finally lined up
(18:47):
together in agreement, itfinally feels not only am I
saying the right words.
But I'm believing it and I'mexperiencing God.
That's the kind of power we'retalking about here is like the
neuroscience based way to say,my body, my whole being is in
alignment to serve the Lord alot of times, just to try to
make the picture more clear whenI get into fear or anxiety.
(19:10):
A lot of times it actually getsinto my nervous system.
So the way I like to describethis is if you, at least for me,
when I remember being ateenager, I started going to the
gym.
I didn't really know exactlywhat I was doing, and I started
using these weights, and Iremember particularly like the
bench press, I'm like, what isthis exercise?
It didn't feel natural rightaway.
But the same way that you buildmuscle by learning to do the
(19:31):
exercises, you're also able todevelop.
Your vagus nerve, your vagal toyour ability to handle
stressors.
So a lot of times, you're doingwell with this and the reset, if
you're no longer saying I justknow how to manage stress
instead, this is the capacity togrow so that my body isn't such
a place.
(19:52):
That I've released stress away.
And so when it comes intobecause life is gonna be
stressful, things are gonnahappen.
But when it comes into thepicture, now I have a greater
capacity to push that weightoff.
I have the capacity to bereleased from it and no longer
carry it inside of me.
Yeah, I've experienced thatmyself definitely.
Not through working out, butmovement walking.
(20:14):
Processing my thoughts David wascalled the man after God's own
heart.
His faith is a faith that was,he was connected with the heart.
It's not something from ourminds sometimes we can believe.
But we don't believe in ourhearts.
And even Satan believed in God,so Yeah.
Yeah.
do you believe in God good.
(20:34):
And demons do and they shudder.
That's convict and curse ofwhoa.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So it's important work, right?
To make sure that we have, thatwe are cut to the heart, that we
are open.
The heart is deep waters, right?
And so where everything kind ofstarts.
Yeah.
And a simple example of thisfrom scripture, if you wanna
know, like more the biblicalside of it is if we know, look
(20:56):
at Elijah in his life, there's atime where he calls down fire
from heaven and burns the altar.
It's at least in my mind, I justimagine this amazing display of
God's power, right?
And then all these prophets ofBaal are defeated and then it
seems like, now God's people aregonna get it.
But then the next part afterthat is Queen Jezebel says, I
want Elijah dead.
(21:18):
And you'd think he'd be full offaith and let's go, but instead
he runs away in fear.
And so that's kinda like themoment of the fear, the anxiety
taking hold of him.
And so it's leading his body tofear, fight or flight.
He's in that mode.
The interesting thing that Goddoes is.
A lot of times we know the partof the gentle whisper, but even
before that happens, Godactually meets him with an angel
(21:38):
when he is lying down under thisbush.
And the angel does some verypractical things, which is gives
him some touch, be able to givehim a meal, and then be able to
put into a sleep.
So there's a whole reset processeven in this to be able to say,
I want to get established androoted and safe with God first
before I just go straight intothe battlefield.
(22:01):
And then you can even think ofPaul and his ministry too,
right?
When he has the whole vision onthe way to Damascus, he has
three years where he goes intothe desert area and he goes to
be with God to really get clear.
God, how do I know that you'reso real?
And what is my life reallyliving for now?
And then he begins his ministry.
So it's kinda like that veryimportant step that I think so
(22:24):
many Christians miss of, okay, Ilove God, I'm ready to serve.
Let's go.
Action.
It's this very importantneuroscience based way to reset
ourselves to make sure thatwe're properly equipped for
being able to go and serve God,to be able to go into the
battle.
That's great.
My husband is a lot moretrusting.
He doesn't need as muchprocessing, he just trusts.
(22:44):
And I think that God knows thatabout our needing to rest and
his timing.
And I think that that is anotherway to trust more that God
really knows what we need.
We need to reset.
We're not ready for whatevertask he has for us.
And it, he does that very thingthat science now discovers or
(23:07):
understands about our brains.
And our bodies were fearfullyand wonderfully made.
Yeah, that's often that yourhusband's, that way, that level
of Yeah.
No, he's great.
That's why we're togetherbecause I'm different, but I do
like to understand.
It helps me let go and trustwholeheartedly.
Even the podcast, the process ofthe podcast is really an anchor
(23:28):
to understand God's process andthen being able to do his will.
'Cause that's the goal, right?
Is to Yeah, exactly.
To do his will.
What does it mean to renew ourminds, not just spiritually, but
also physiologically?
You've touched on that.
It's like Romans 12 verse twomeets brain science.
About being transformed by therenewing of our mind to not be
(23:50):
conformed to the word.
So you've touched on that oncewe are reset in our nervous
system, then we still need to berenewed, in our minds.
Yeah.
It doesn't come automatically.
I'm assuming.
What do you have to say on this?
Yeah the first part is renewingour mind is so much more than
just affirmations, than just,stopping and eliminating ne
(24:13):
negative thoughts.
It's a whole process ofretraining our body, retraining
our heart and soul, so that weknow, kinda like your, you said
with your husband, right?
He knows that he can trust.
It's kinda like I can trust whenI know that I'm safe.
And it's being able toexperience that kind of safety,
that truth with God.
So that fear can be overcomenow.
So renewing my mind is, it's awhole being experience with
(24:37):
being able to do that.
So I don't know if you'refamiliar with this concept
already.
They found a lot.
In recent studies with scienceand everything that the brain is
neuroplastic, right?
There's a lot ofneuroplasticity, which means it
can actually rewire itself basedon what you focus on, what you
believe, and what you repeatedlydo.
So why does that matter?
If I wanna renew my mind, thethings that I do, the things
(25:00):
that I focus on, and the thingsthat I believe will help me to
actually make those changes.
So if I'm trying to renew mymind, one of the best ways I
said this before, but is to beable to know that motion helps
to shift emotion.
It sets everything else inplace.
So if I change my state, inother words, if I and going
through life and I have my handson my head and I'm always
(25:21):
looking down and I'm alwaysfeeling oh, there's so much
pressure.
Things are so hard.
Then that state of keeping mybody there is gonna keep me in a
state in the pattern ofperpetuation on all the.
Things that are messed up in mylife.
All the things that I feel likeI'm just ruminating on
negativity.
That's also the problem with ifI'm on my phone and I'm always
staring at this and I'm puttingmy head down in that position,
(25:42):
i'm putting my body in such astate that it says I guess I
just gotta dwell here in thisnegativity.
So if I focus on changing whatI'm doing with my body, that can
be through my breathing, myprayer, the ability to focus on
Christ.
Even those somatic exercises,movements with my body and my
breath can all be ways that nowI'm opening up my mind to be
(26:05):
renewed so I can focus on thetruth from scripture.
So now I actually have thecapacity to experience the power
of scripture.
The scripture's always beenthere.
It's always been true, but I'vebeen so distracted or in the
wrong posture that I'd neverbeen able to really experience
it on the inside.
Now that I'm focused on Christand no longer distracted, now I
(26:26):
can actually feel and ta likethe word says, right to taste
and see that God is good.
It doesn't say memorize and rerecall, but to actually
experience it in a real moment.
So then being able to renew yourmind is like rewiring your
nervous system to be able to getyour whole being in alignment.
(26:46):
Does this vary from person toperson?
Some people may prefer to be ina place of calm with candles and
to be present with God.
Some prefer to be outdoors innature, walking in nature.
Or is it different?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's absolutely can bedifferent.
There's a really cool, I forgotwho wrote it, but there's even a
book called Like The Nine SacredPathways, and a cool thing in
(27:09):
that book is it talks about theways of experiencing God.
That some people really feelclose to God through nature.
Some people feel really close toGod through traditions or
services.
So there's nine different waysthat it talks about within that
book of being able to experienceGod's presence.
So it's not like a cookie cutterapproach with God, which is a
beautiful thing.
'cause God didn't say, you knowwhat, I'm just gonna make 7
(27:32):
billion Erics in the whole worldwith one person.
He wanted to make us in hisimage so that he could show all
the multi-facets of who he isthrough us, because he is an
infinite being, right?
There's infinite ways that hecan express himself.
And so the power is being ableto say, Alexandra, I made you
this way, so that you canexpress the beauty of who I am
(27:54):
in these areas.
And people can realize thesecharacteristics of who Jesus
really is when you live thisout.
So that's the beauty in thiswhole process of renewing our
mind is it might look like somedifferent scriptures.
It might look like somedifferent experiences.
It might look like going out innature.
Some people prefer stillness andline the candle.
It's not gonna all look thesame.
(28:14):
And that's the idea of thebeauty of the body of Christ, is
it I'm going to reach certainpeople that resonate with my
message in a certain way andyou're gonna reach other people
that I will, I'm not able toreach.
So if we just try to mimic allof each other, we're literally
saying this whole group of otherpeople, this is gonna sound
harsh, but they can go to hellbecause I don't even want to try
to reach out to them in the waythat God designed me to do.
(28:38):
But when I live outauthentically what God's given
me to do and who I am, then I'mable to bring heaven to earth.
I'm able to reach the rightpeople, that God is in alignment
for me, for his purpose.
Thank you for sharing.
I'd love to talk more aboutCourageous Calling and the
Rising Comm Center.
Also you have a free resourcethat speaks to overthinking,
(29:00):
fear of failure, spiritualparalysis.
Can you tell us about that andwhere our listeners can access
it and find you, connect withyou in your work?
Thanks for asking that.
The Rising Calm is the name ofmy organization.
My practice that I have, we haveright now a staff of five
people.
And so we're all workingtogether in Florida.
We have offices in Gainesville,Orlando, Jacksonville.
(29:24):
We also meet with peoplevirtually.
So even if you're overseas, weare able to work with a lot of
different people.
So kinda like I was saying, it'snot just my skillset.
But it's our whole team that hasdifferent specializations to
help people.
Usually.
Of course, with rising column,we're focused around the key
areas of anxiety, stress, thenervous system, and
relationships, those brokenrelationships too.
(29:45):
So if somebody's interested inthat and saying I wanna meet
Eric and his team, and I want tobe able to even have a free
phone consultation, be able totalk with you about if I'm the
right fit and what you'relooking for you can just go to
Rising Calm, and be able to justgo on there for scheduling a
session or scheduling aconsultation.
And then courageous calling isfor the people that are like I
feel like I'm pretty calm, but Ireally don't know what God's
(30:08):
calling me towards.
Like I feel like I've got moreof the anxiety thing, it's a bit
better, but what in the world amI supposed to do with my life
and how do I actually take theaction?
Like I have this huge vision ordesire to be used by God, but
how in the world do I becomecourageous enough to step
forward with wisdom and to do itwell?
So courageous calling has awhole faith over fear program to
(30:28):
be able to help.
Do a 10 week deep dive.
Here's how you break outanxiety.
Here's how you step forward toyour calling with courage and
with purpose and with acommunity so that you'll be
likely to succeed and be blessedin what you do.
And so that website is justcourageous calling.com.
A cool thing about that one isif you click on there, you can
(30:49):
see a free quiz that will helpyou with to know how's my level
of anxiety, how's my level ofconfidence?
And some free tools on there aswell with this whole idea of how
do I reset my nervous system.
Great, thank you so much.
I put all the links in the shownotes it seems really
interesting and needed intoday's society.
(31:09):
What would be a final word ofencouragement that you'd like to
leave our listeners with today?
A final word is I was recentlycame across this story and I
don't know if you've ever heardof Laura's story or not.
But she wrote that song thatsays what if his blessings come
through raindrops?
What if your healing comesthrough tears?
(31:29):
Nice voice.
It was like a huge song, likewhen it came out and everything.
I think it's still really big,but I didn't know.
The backstory was that she was aworship leader for her church
and then she married her husbandMartin, and then he got di
diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And so it went from we're gonnalead worship and help change the
world to like, I've gottaconcentrate on my husband and
(31:51):
see if he's gonna actually livethrough this thing.
The good news is that he livedthe hard truth was that he now
has long-term disabilities fromit, which was like memory loss,
impaired vision, all those kindof things.
And so the dreams that she hadfor being able to say I thought
my ministry was gonna look likethis.
But now my whole life haschanged because my husband has
changed and I wanna be.
Faithful and still in mymarriage.
(32:13):
But how do I do this?
God.
And so she ended up writing thatsong in a moment of surrender.
So just to all that to say ifyou're ever at a crossroads in
your life where I thought mylife was gonna look this way.
I had that in my own life whereI thought, I'm gonna do this
kind of ministry for collegestudents and this way at this
time.
And then.
Due to some of my ownshortcomings and failings, it
didn't work out that way, andthen I had to be able to still
(32:34):
say, okay, God, I want toclinging to you even if I don't
know where I'm going with mylife.
And so that's kinda theencouragement I just wanna say
is you don't have to have it allfigured out.
Especially if you wanna meetwith me and talk with me.
I'm not expecting you to tellme, here's your 10 year vision
and plan.
It's okay if you feel like I'm ahot mess and I'm just trying to
hang on through the day I'vebeen there.
And we can journey through thatwhole thing together.
Thank you so much.
(32:55):
I really enjoyed ourconversation and I look forward
to more perhaps in the future.
I feel like it's been too shortand we can Oh, me too.
Talk forever about this.
So thank you so much.
Yeah, thank you.
What a blessing to be here withyou.
Thanks so much for what you do.
I think it's awesome that you'rehelping so many people to get
curious for Christ.
Amen.
Thank you.
(33:15):
Wow.
Eric's story is such a powerfulreminder.
Fear doesn't have to define us,and healing really is possible.
God has every answer we need,but so often he brings healing
through people.
Whether it's someone like Ericwho's trained to walk with
others or through a trustedfriend, a quiet moment of.
Prayer or even walking throughthe doors of a local church.
(33:39):
You don't have to stay stuck.
And as we close, here are a fewkey takeaways.
I hope we'll stay with you thisweek.
Number one, the three Bs thatkeep us spiritually stuck,
busyness, burying, and brokenrelationships.
Eric identifies three commontraps that keep us frozen in
fear, busyness, stayingdistracted to avoid discomfort,
(34:01):
which only makes things worse.
Burying, suppressing emotionsand losing authenticity.
Broken relationships oftenfueled by lies we believe about
ourselves and about God leadingto isolation.
Recognizing these patterns isthe first step toward healing
and truth.
Number two, fear isn't failure.
It's a signal.
Your anxiety might be your soulasking to feel safe again, don't
(34:23):
ignore it.
Bring it to God.
Psalm 56, verse three says, whenI'm afraid, I put my trust in.
You are not meant to mimicanyone.
Number three, God's calling foryou is personal.
You won't find it by copyingsomeone else.
Ephesians two verse 10 says, weare God's handy work created in
Christ Jesus to do good works.
Number four.
(34:43):
Healing is spiritual andphysical.
God works through scripture andyour body both matter to him.
Mark 12 verse 30 says, love theLord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Number five, you don't need tohave it all figured out.
Your next step isn't perfection,it's presence.
Keep showing up with God.
(35:03):
James four verse eight says,draw near to God and he will
draw near to you.
If this conversation spoke toyour heart, I want to leave you
with this promise from Psalm 34verse eight.
Taste and see that the Lord isgood.
Blessed is the one who takesrefuge in him.
Friend, you don't have to livein fear.
You're not too far gone.
(35:23):
Healing is possible, peace isavailable, and even in the
middle of exhaustion, God isreaching for you.
Thank you for joining me todayon Curious for Christ.
I pray this episode gave youhope and practical tools to walk
by faith.
Don't forget to subscribe sothat you don't miss next
episode.
I will see you next week.
Bye for now.
(35:49):
Hi, I hope you enjoy today'sepisode.
If so, would you like to take 30seconds and share it with a
friend who may also strugglewith knowing God and his purpose
for their life?
Also, leave a review on ApplePodcast and let me know what
topics you'd like to hear aboutin the future.
Your voice matters.
(36:09):
I'll meet you back next Friday.
For another episode.
Welcome back to Cure for Christ.
(00:01):
I'm your host Alexandra Alvarez,and today we're talking about a
struggle.
So many of us face, but rarelyknow how to overcome spiritual
paralysis.
What do you do when fear,anxiety and past trauma keep you
stuck even when your heart longsto trust God and move forward in
your purpose?
I've been there more than once,and even recently in my
(00:24):
marriage.
I mean, it's bound to happen.
Two imperfect people with woundsin history bumping into each
other, and I believe God allowedit not to shame us, but to
lovingly reveal what's stillruling our hearts beneath the
surface.
So I know it's love.
But to be honest, it's beenpainful and I've felt
(00:45):
frustrated, and honestly, I'vealso felt broken hearted.
But as I sat with God, he met meright there.
He brought people into my lifeto walk with me to speak.
Truth and healing started tounfold.
It is a slow process, but it'sreal, and it's worth it because
there's nothing more importantthan growing closer to God even
(01:08):
through the heart.
And that's exactly why I broughttoday's guest, Eric Gilbert onto
the podcast.
Eric is a Christian leadershipand mental health coach, and a
founder of courageous calling.
He helps high achievers breakfree from anxiety, burnout, and
fear-based living by integratingfaith, neuroscience, and bold,
(01:29):
practical action.
With over 15 years of experienceand a Master's in Marriage and
Family Therapy, he's guidedhundreds of professionals who
felt stuck, overwhelmed, orspiritually drained into lives
of renewed purpose andconfidence rooted deeply in
Christ.
In today's episode, we explorehow our brains, our faith, and
(01:50):
our past experiences intersect,and how God meets us In the
middle of it all, we talkneuroscience, faith, trauma,
scripture, and how to find peacewhen life hasn't gone the way
you thought it would.
Are you ready?
Let's listen now.
(02:12):
Welcome to Curious for Christ.
Do you ever find yourself lying,awake at night wondering about
God's plan for your life?
Maybe you wake up with bigdreams, but feel unsure where to
start or what your next stepshould be.
If you're curious aboutexploring your faith and finding
purpose, then you've come to theright place.
(02:33):
Hi, I'm Alexandra.
I too felt lost and sure of thedirection my life was taking.
I yearned to understand mypurpose and have someone guide
me, but I kept telling myself Iwas too busy.
The timing wasn't right, and mylack of clarity prevented me
from being consistent until Ifound Christ.
(02:54):
He brought peace into my lifeand revealed the way to find
purpose by anchoring myself.
In him.
In this podcast, we'll journeytogether exploring the Bible to
gain a deeper understanding ofhim and cultivate your own
personal relationship withChrist.
So open up your Bible, put inthose earbuds and listen up
(03:15):
because God is speaking to you.
He's making everything new andyou don't wanna miss it.
Let's get started.
Good morning.
Thank you Eric for joining me onCurious for Christ.
I'm excited about ourconversation today.
(03:37):
Me too, Alexandra.
Thanks so much for having me.
I'm so glad to be here with you.
Yes, of course.
So Eric, let's just dive in asyou are a Christian leadership
and mental health coach.
And I always like to start myepisodes with our personal
stories'cause I feel like theythey carry so much value and
they're very impactful.
So can you start by sharing yourpersonal story?
(04:00):
What led you to help Christiannavigate fear, anxiety, mental
health through both faith andneuroscience.
Yeah, I'm happy to share.
It's been quite a journey to saythe least.
If I could try to boil it downto a key pivotal time in my life
around college was where I hadactually a professor who was an
atheist, but he said, whateveryou believe you can believe.
(04:22):
He just said, just make surethat your life actually reflects
what you believe.
In other words, if somebody hitthe mute button on me, and I
can't say any words, but theycan only look at my life, would
they be able to gather that Itruly, sincerely love Jesus and
that I live for Jesus.
I knew in that time in my life,no, that's not the message they
would take.
They would think that I was justlike any other college kid
(04:42):
trying to fit in, trying to goto parties, trying to dig girls
where I could, those kind ofthings, and trying to learn a
thing or two in college with myclasses, but mostly my life is
more consumed with myself andsuccess and what I wanted to do
to fit in.
God really grabbed a hold of mein college to be able to say I
had to answer the question, isGod really?
There?
And is he really worth livingwholeheartedly for?
(05:05):
Because I grew up in a Christianhome, but I was just like, if
you, if God's not real or ifthis is just something that I've
been told from my parents, butit's just stories, then I don't
wanna live for it.
And I wanna be willing to leaveall this behind.
But if this is real, I have tobe able to give my whole life
because Jesus is worthy.
Oh my whole life, if this isreal, if he's really the God of
(05:25):
the universe and I'm just oneout of seven plus billion people
and he cares for me.
You can go, you can guess whereI'm gonna go.
I was able to get around othercollege kids and see them
authentically living out theirfaith and that to me was so
contagious.
'cause I'm like, I'm growing upin a private school.
I saw so many of my friends.
Where it was just like, I don'tknow if you can relate to this,
but they would say, I loveJesus.
(05:47):
I'll go to church and then I'lldo whatever I want on Friday
night, and then I'm gonna dowhatever I want with my
lifestyle.
'Cause it's my life, quoteunquote.
And so that message to me was soconfusing really, because I just
felt like there's no realclarity, like who really lives
authentically for God and stillhas personality.
I felt like all these peoplewere more like my dad's age, my
(06:07):
mom's age.
Where at the time, in mytwenties, I'm like good for
them.
They're happy, but they're alsosettled in their life.
They've already figured out somany things in their twenties
and thirties, and I don't feellike they're in this, the youth
of life with all these majorlife decisions.
So when I started to really getahold of that in college and
say, I wanna live wholeheartedlyfor God, I had to be willing to
even lay down some of thosefriendships and say, I'm willing
(06:29):
to say if my friends don't wannabe around me anymore.
I'm willing to journey thisalone because I'm,'cause God is
worth the journey.
God is the, if he's my closestcompanion and even my only
companion, then it's worth it.
And so I got really into a spaceof where I wanted to
wholeheartedly for God, andthank God he brought community
into my life and otherbelievers.
(06:51):
Through that I started to doyouth ministry, so I started to
help out.
Other teenagers and things likethat.
And then I got into this spaceof realizing for myself, I had
wrestled so much with anxietythat I was showing up even as
I'm trying to do ministry whereI'm working in this office in a
town called DeKalb in Illinois.
And even then I was strugglingwith wanting to get out of the
(07:12):
office even though I sincerelybelieved Jesus, that they could
change people's lives.
Because I would get so anxiousabout what are people gonna
think or what's gonna happen,all this kind of stuff.
And that in combination withstarting to work with some of
the youth.
One of the youth, just as anexample, I'll call him Travis.
His mom was struggling as analcoholic and so he's trying to
(07:33):
work on his faith and trying toget.
Things right with God.
And then at the same time, he'sstuck into the same pattern
whenever he gets home with allthis dysfunction.
And so I started to say, what'sit look like to try to go deep
into the levels of not justknowing how to share the gospel,
but try to be able to help setwhole family free so they can
wholeheartedly live for God.
And so that's took my journey ofovercoming my own anxiety to be
(07:57):
able Tori really try to helpfamilies as a whole, and God led
me to where I am now.
That's great.
That's great.
There's so many scriptures thatcome to mind because God is
whatever we go through, there'salways something in the Bible
that talks about that.
It's living and active.
Yeah.
And first Timothy four talksabout what your life and
doctoring closely but by doingso, we can save both ourselves.
(08:19):
Here the people that arewatching us.
Even from someone who was not abeliever, it's hypocrisy, right?
You say one thing, but then youlive another.
Exactly.
Is to be one and to have theheart and then the actions that
follow whatever is within, andthen when your heart is in the
right place, God always bringspeople to help along the way.
We not, isn't that buzzing?
(08:40):
Yeah.
Alone.
It's a beautiful journey to seehow God definitely is with us
and.
To be found and wants us to havea meaningful life in the sense
that when we shine, we reflecthis love for us.
And he desires to be known, tobe found.
And yeah, that was an awesomething too, is when I started to
let go of the fear of peoplelike me or they don't like me,
(09:02):
am I gonna fit in?
Do I have friends or not?
I'd start going to these collegeparties,'cause those were the
friends I was around, right?
But instead of drinking, I wouldbe there with my solo cup, with
a cup of water, and I would justsincerely try to love on people
and just say here's what Jesushas really been doing in my
life.
What are you going through?
What do you wanna talk about?
What do you feel like your lifeis for?
And those kind of things.
So it felt really.
(09:22):
Freeing and empowering to beable to say, I don't have to try
to impress people anymore.
I can just genuinely share whatJesus is doing in my life, and
if they reject me.
If they don't wanna talk to mefor the rest of the party,
that's okay.
They don't get it.
But I sincerely wanna be theperson that just says, Jesus
changed my life, and I know thatthere's hope for you too.
And I know that there's morethan what you're living for.
If your life is only for aparty, there's so much more to
(09:45):
live for.
Yes, definitely.
And it's true that sometimes wepeople party to avoid those type
of conversations that you work.
It's easier with loud music,right?
Yeah, exactly.
Hence the anxiety sometimes whenyou have to.
Face yourself and what's reallyunderneath.
Unless we do that and face themwith God, we just push them down
and we don't really deal, but wecarry them nonetheless.
(10:07):
Yeah, exactly.
Just show up sideways.
They show up over here and overthere'cause we haven't gone,
it's gonna be there and it's, wehave to face it.
So might as well face it with aGod that loves us and cares and
understands.
And walk the walk and so thatleads me to this question.
Why do you think.
So many sincere Christians staystuck in fear and anxiety or
even spiritual paralysis.
(10:27):
Even though they know the Bible,they pray regularly.
I myself can sense that when Ido something new or will God be
there with me?
The Bible mentions so manytimes, hundreds of times to not
fear and even more that talksabout the peace that surpasses
understanding.
And so why do you think that is?
Yeah.
This is such a great questionand it took me a while to try to
(10:49):
like process, where's thiscoming from in our culture and
even at times of Bible, like yousaid, fear is just something for
humanity that we struggle withso much.
And I.
I basically have boiled it downto three main reasons.
I call it like the three Bsbehind it.
I feel like one of the biggestthings that we're struggling in
our culture today is busyness,just the ability to be
(11:12):
distracted if we want to.
We got phones, texts, emails,calendars, agendas sports for
our kids, all sorts of thingsthat can go on at any time.
I remember this might date me alittle bit, but I remember back
in high school when it wasmostly about the main TV shows
that you would watch and thingslike that, and there wasn't much
happening for social media yet,so it didn't feel like there was
so much noise to keep up with,but now it feels like there's
(11:33):
all sorts of busynesseverywhere.
With all our demands on life.
And so that keeping up withthings, social media, all that
kind of stuff is onlysnowballing and compounding the
problem if we're not careful andconscious of how we're using it.
The other part of the busynesstoo is it keeps us to the point
we never actually get to, likewe said, look, look at what's
(11:54):
going on inside of us, what doesit actually mean for me to slow
down and be aware of my anxiety?
So I think consciously can giveit to Christ.
When I say give my anxiety toChrist, a lot of times people
think just about I just wannagive him my thoughts, but what I
mean is giving him our wholebeing with even our body.
I don't know if you're familiarmuch with the ability to reset
our nervous system and how weare able to work with our body.
(12:17):
I like to say that motion is themost powerful way to shift
emotion.
So if I'm not conscious of whatI'm feeling.
'cause I'm busy with my phone,I'm never gonna be able to be in
a place where I can make achange.
And then unfortunately, a lot oftimes for Christians, I think we
get conscious of okay, I'manxious.
But then we just stop at sayingI'm just going to say a prayer
(12:40):
or have this thought.
And we don't realize we can alsouse our body in our worship to
God to say, I wanna combine itall together.
I wanna love Lord my God withall my heart, soul, mind, and
strength.
The first one is busyness.
The second one is that we getinto burying ourselves.
So I bury who I really am, andthis was probably the biggest
(13:01):
concern I had if I looked at thecore level of what was going on
with me in college, was I feltoh man, if I'm, if I really try
to go all in for Christ, I'mjust gonna be a performer.
I'm just gonna be inauthentic.
I'm just gonna try to memorizethe main verses as possible.
So I can say the right thing inthe right moment and then try to
outdo others with how much Iknow of scripture or how many
(13:22):
prayers I could say and all thiskind of stuff.
And unfortunately, I think partof this might be from social
media as well, but it's becomingeasier and easier to hide behind
a mask these days of people whoare really impressive online.
Man, they got it all figuredout.
They got how many followers.
They got, how many reactionsthey got, how many people to
(13:42):
give or to pray or to dowhatever, and then I might think
to myself, man, there's no waythat God would really wanna
spend time with somebody likeme, or there's no way that God
really desires me when I havenothing figured out.
And these people seem to havemillions of followers and
already a huge ministryaffecting millions of lives, so
there's a lie that gets inthere, right?
(14:03):
And so a lot of that is, if Ican look at where I've been
burying myself, what was the liethat I believed that caused me
to become inauthentic, thatcaused me to try to perform for
Christ rather than just beingwith Christ abiding with him.
And then the third one is brokenrelationships.
Broken relationshipsunfortunately are nothing new.
But the rapid rate thatrelationships happen now in our
(14:25):
fast-paced culture, it's like,if we're not careful in high
school, it can be like you got anew boyfriend or girlfriend
every month if you wanted to,especially for women.
I especially feel for womenbecause it can feel like there's
so many messages you can receiveas I work with a lot of men,
sometimes they'll talk about, orwomen too, somebody who's trying
to sneak in there to break theirrelationship, to break out the
(14:47):
things that God's given them tomess up their blessing that they
receive from God.
And try to feed those lies of,you're not good enough.
No one's really there for you,you know you're gonna screw up
anyways.
Any of those kind of lies thathave been buried.
If they come into my livingright, if I believe the lie and
come into agreement with it,then it's going to break my
relationships.
(15:08):
So as I work with people, thoseare the three biggest things I
see with fear, anxiety, beingbusy, being buried, and having
broken relationships.
Yeah.
Satan has always deceived us,right?
And maybe it's differentplatforms, different ways, but
the same old, right?
Of the deceit and doubting God'scare, God's goodness is he
holding up on me?
(15:29):
Yeah.
In comparison definitely theplatforms now make everything
accessible so we have more toworry about, to compare
ourselves with.
It is okay if I give an exampleof somebody I've worked with
around this.
Sure.
So a person that was coming tomy mind, I'm gonna call him
Brandon when I met him, like aachieving young man, bright
young man, he's in engineeringand things like that.
(15:51):
And he not only wanted to be anengineer, but he was trying to
use it for a purpose.
He wanted to see God, are youcalling me to try to go overseas
and to be able to build.
Like an engineering firm outthere so that it blesses a lot
of people.
And so he came to me with a lotof questions and confusion like,
God, what are you calling me to?
I feel like all thisresponsibility'cause I've
completed these programs andI've got a good job.
But also he had a terriblebreakup recently and
(16:13):
unfortunately the message thathe kinda received from that
breakup from his ex was like,Brandon, you're the problem.
Brandon, you're the one thatmessed this up, Brandon.
You don't really know how tolove people.
You don't really know how to dolife.
You don't really know how tolove God, all those kind of
things.
And so he is struggling withinternalizing a lot of these
messages, and so he started tonotice himself, if I'm not
careful, I'm gonna start to liveinauthentically.
(16:35):
I'm gonna try to prove my worth,prove who I am.
Overcompensate for things or getinto my work too much and try to
achieve so much of my careerthat it's gonna make my ex
jealous that she ever left me.
Or if I just get so busy with somany activities.
And so we, we slowed it down tobe able to look at those
relationships and everything,and we looked all the way into
the past with brokenness withhis mom and all his
(16:56):
relationships and everything.
And long story short, basicallyhe was able to look at the
patterns of how he'd been hurt,especially with his mom.
And how he has gotten to thehabit of trying to strive to
always prove his worth and beingable to connect with Christ.
To know that Jesus always said,Brandon, I love you so much.
I made you my image and I diedfor you.
So you don't have to proveanything to anyone.
(17:18):
Just be with me.
And then the a awesome thing inthat journey was I got the
journey with him through aseason.
He got clarity on his career ofwhere to work and then.
We got to the point where he, itwas about a year later, he
started a healthy relationship,a good relationship, honest with
who he is, what he wants to livefor, all those kind of things.
And then him and that girl gotto the point where they're
(17:39):
married today and they have alittle child.
They have a little boy together.
So all that to say, we get realabout these things and we're
able to move past them andthrough them life can really
change.
That's a great story.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks man.
So you often talk aboutneuroscience based reset or
overwhelmed Christians.
What exactly is that and howdoes it align with scripture?
(18:01):
How did you come about?
This concept practice.
Yeah.
Thanks for asking that.
So a neuroscience-based reset,right?
That might sound really new fora lot of people, is it even big
biblical?
So the way to think of this islike I said, I frame it in the
greatest commandment, which isto love the Lord of God with all
our heart, soul, mind, andstrength.
So being able to do a neuralbase reset is engaging our whole
(18:24):
person, our whole being.
To say, I wanna be radicallyreleased from stress, from all
this anxiety, all this stuffthat I've put internalized
inside of me over the years sothat I can wholeheartedly serve
God, be totally free to serveGod.
So if you've ever had a momentwhere it felt like, man, I feel
like in this moment my mind andmy hearts are finally lined up
(18:47):
together in agreement, itfinally feels not only am I
saying the right words.
But I'm believing it and I'mexperiencing God.
That's the kind of power we'retalking about here is like the
neuroscience based way to say,my body, my whole being is in
alignment to serve the Lord alot of times, just to try to
make the picture more clear whenI get into fear or anxiety.
(19:10):
A lot of times it actually getsinto my nervous system.
So the way I like to describethis is if you, at least for me,
when I remember being ateenager, I started going to the
gym.
I didn't really know exactlywhat I was doing, and I started
using these weights, and Iremember particularly like the
bench press, I'm like, what isthis exercise?
It didn't feel natural rightaway.
But the same way that you buildmuscle by learning to do the
(19:31):
exercises, you're also able todevelop.
Your vagus nerve, your vagal toyour ability to handle
stressors.
So a lot of times, you're doingwell with this and the reset, if
you're no longer saying I justknow how to manage stress
instead, this is the capacity togrow so that my body isn't such
a place.
(19:52):
That I've released stress away.
And so when it comes intobecause life is gonna be
stressful, things are gonnahappen.
But when it comes into thepicture, now I have a greater
capacity to push that weightoff.
I have the capacity to bereleased from it and no longer
carry it inside of me.
Yeah, I've experienced thatmyself definitely.
Not through working out, butmovement walking.
(20:14):
Processing my thoughts David wascalled the man after God's own
heart.
His faith is a faith that was,he was connected with the heart.
It's not something from ourminds sometimes we can believe.
But we don't believe in ourhearts.
And even Satan believed in God,so Yeah.
Yeah.
do you believe in God good.
(20:34):
And demons do and they shudder.
That's convict and curse ofwhoa.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So it's important work, right?
To make sure that we have, thatwe are cut to the heart, that we
are open.
The heart is deep waters, right?
And so where everything kind ofstarts.
Yeah.
And a simple example of thisfrom scripture, if you wanna
know, like more the biblicalside of it is if we know, look
(20:56):
at Elijah in his life, there's atime where he calls down fire
from heaven and burns the altar.
It's at least in my mind, I justimagine this amazing display of
God's power, right?
And then all these prophets ofBaal are defeated and then it
seems like, now God's people aregonna get it.
But then the next part afterthat is Queen Jezebel says, I
want Elijah dead.
(21:18):
And you'd think he'd be full offaith and let's go, but instead
he runs away in fear.
And so that's kinda like themoment of the fear, the anxiety
taking hold of him.
And so it's leading his body tofear, fight or flight.
He's in that mode.
The interesting thing that Goddoes is.
A lot of times we know the partof the gentle whisper, but even
before that happens, Godactually meets him with an angel
(21:38):
when he is lying down under thisbush.
And the angel does some verypractical things, which is gives
him some touch, be able to givehim a meal, and then be able to
put into a sleep.
So there's a whole reset processeven in this to be able to say,
I want to get established androoted and safe with God first
before I just go straight intothe battlefield.
(22:01):
And then you can even think ofPaul and his ministry too,
right?
When he has the whole vision onthe way to Damascus, he has
three years where he goes intothe desert area and he goes to
be with God to really get clear.
God, how do I know that you'reso real?
And what is my life reallyliving for now?
And then he begins his ministry.
So it's kinda like that veryimportant step that I think so
(22:24):
many Christians miss of, okay, Ilove God, I'm ready to serve.
Let's go.
Action.
It's this very importantneuroscience based way to reset
ourselves to make sure thatwe're properly equipped for
being able to go and serve God,to be able to go into the
battle.
That's great.
My husband is a lot moretrusting.
He doesn't need as muchprocessing, he just trusts.
(22:44):
And I think that God knows thatabout our needing to rest and
his timing.
And I think that that is anotherway to trust more that God
really knows what we need.
We need to reset.
We're not ready for whatevertask he has for us.
And it, he does that very thingthat science now discovers or
(23:07):
understands about our brains.
And our bodies were fearfullyand wonderfully made.
Yeah, that's often that yourhusband's, that way, that level
of Yeah.
No, he's great.
That's why we're togetherbecause I'm different, but I do
like to understand.
It helps me let go and trustwholeheartedly.
Even the podcast, the process ofthe podcast is really an anchor
(23:28):
to understand God's process andthen being able to do his will.
'Cause that's the goal, right?
Is to Yeah, exactly.
To do his will.
What does it mean to renew ourminds, not just spiritually, but
also physiologically?
You've touched on that.
It's like Romans 12 verse twomeets brain science.
About being transformed by therenewing of our mind to not be
(23:50):
conformed to the word.
So you've touched on that oncewe are reset in our nervous
system, then we still need to berenewed, in our minds.
Yeah.
It doesn't come automatically.
I'm assuming.
What do you have to say on this?
Yeah the first part is renewingour mind is so much more than
just affirmations, than just,stopping and eliminating ne
(24:13):
negative thoughts.
It's a whole process ofretraining our body, retraining
our heart and soul, so that weknow, kinda like your, you said
with your husband, right?
He knows that he can trust.
It's kinda like I can trust whenI know that I'm safe.
And it's being able toexperience that kind of safety,
that truth with God.
So that fear can be overcomenow.
So renewing my mind is, it's awhole being experience with
(24:37):
being able to do that.
So I don't know if you'refamiliar with this concept
already.
They found a lot.
In recent studies with scienceand everything that the brain is
neuroplastic, right?
There's a lot ofneuroplasticity, which means it
can actually rewire itself basedon what you focus on, what you
believe, and what you repeatedlydo.
So why does that matter?
If I wanna renew my mind, thethings that I do, the things
(25:00):
that I focus on, and the thingsthat I believe will help me to
actually make those changes.
So if I'm trying to renew mymind, one of the best ways I
said this before, but is to beable to know that motion helps
to shift emotion.
It sets everything else inplace.
So if I change my state, inother words, if I and going
through life and I have my handson my head and I'm always
(25:21):
looking down and I'm alwaysfeeling oh, there's so much
pressure.
Things are so hard.
Then that state of keeping mybody there is gonna keep me in a
state in the pattern ofperpetuation on all the.
Things that are messed up in mylife.
All the things that I feel likeI'm just ruminating on
negativity.
That's also the problem with ifI'm on my phone and I'm always
staring at this and I'm puttingmy head down in that position,
(25:42):
i'm putting my body in such astate that it says I guess I
just gotta dwell here in thisnegativity.
So if I focus on changing whatI'm doing with my body, that can
be through my breathing, myprayer, the ability to focus on
Christ.
Even those somatic exercises,movements with my body and my
breath can all be ways that nowI'm opening up my mind to be
(26:05):
renewed so I can focus on thetruth from scripture.
So now I actually have thecapacity to experience the power
of scripture.
The scripture's always beenthere.
It's always been true, but I'vebeen so distracted or in the
wrong posture that I'd neverbeen able to really experience
it on the inside.
Now that I'm focused on Christand no longer distracted, now I
(26:26):
can actually feel and ta likethe word says, right to taste
and see that God is good.
It doesn't say memorize and rerecall, but to actually
experience it in a real moment.
So then being able to renew yourmind is like rewiring your
nervous system to be able to getyour whole being in alignment.
(26:46):
Does this vary from person toperson?
Some people may prefer to be ina place of calm with candles and
to be present with God.
Some prefer to be outdoors innature, walking in nature.
Or is it different?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's absolutely can bedifferent.
There's a really cool, I forgotwho wrote it, but there's even a
book called Like The Nine SacredPathways, and a cool thing in
(27:09):
that book is it talks about theways of experiencing God.
That some people really feelclose to God through nature.
Some people feel really close toGod through traditions or
services.
So there's nine different waysthat it talks about within that
book of being able to experienceGod's presence.
So it's not like a cookie cutterapproach with God, which is a
beautiful thing.
'cause God didn't say, you knowwhat, I'm just gonna make 7
(27:32):
billion Erics in the whole worldwith one person.
He wanted to make us in hisimage so that he could show all
the multi-facets of who he isthrough us, because he is an
infinite being, right?
There's infinite ways that hecan express himself.
And so the power is being ableto say, Alexandra, I made you
this way, so that you canexpress the beauty of who I am
(27:54):
in these areas.
And people can realize thesecharacteristics of who Jesus
really is when you live thisout.
So that's the beauty in thiswhole process of renewing our
mind is it might look like somedifferent scriptures.
It might look like somedifferent experiences.
It might look like going out innature.
Some people prefer stillness andline the candle.
It's not gonna all look thesame.
(28:14):
And that's the idea of thebeauty of the body of Christ, is
it I'm going to reach certainpeople that resonate with my
message in a certain way andyou're gonna reach other people
that I will, I'm not able toreach.
So if we just try to mimic allof each other, we're literally
saying this whole group of otherpeople, this is gonna sound
harsh, but they can go to hellbecause I don't even want to try
to reach out to them in the waythat God designed me to do.
(28:38):
But when I live outauthentically what God's given
me to do and who I am, then I'mable to bring heaven to earth.
I'm able to reach the rightpeople, that God is in alignment
for me, for his purpose.
Thank you for sharing.
I'd love to talk more aboutCourageous Calling and the
Rising Comm Center.
Also you have a free resourcethat speaks to overthinking,
(29:00):
fear of failure, spiritualparalysis.
Can you tell us about that andwhere our listeners can access
it and find you, connect withyou in your work?
Thanks for asking that.
The Rising Calm is the name ofmy organization.
My practice that I have, we haveright now a staff of five
people.
And so we're all workingtogether in Florida.
We have offices in Gainesville,Orlando, Jacksonville.
(29:24):
We also meet with peoplevirtually.
So even if you're overseas, weare able to work with a lot of
different people.
So kinda like I was saying, it'snot just my skillset.
But it's our whole team that hasdifferent specializations to
help people.
Usually.
Of course, with rising column,we're focused around the key
areas of anxiety, stress, thenervous system, and
relationships, those brokenrelationships too.
(29:45):
So if somebody's interested inthat and saying I wanna meet
Eric and his team, and I want tobe able to even have a free
phone consultation, be able totalk with you about if I'm the
right fit and what you'relooking for you can just go to
Rising Calm, and be able to justgo on there for scheduling a
session or scheduling aconsultation.
And then courageous calling isfor the people that are like I
feel like I'm pretty calm, but Ireally don't know what God's
(30:08):
calling me towards.
Like I feel like I've got moreof the anxiety thing, it's a bit
better, but what in the world amI supposed to do with my life
and how do I actually take theaction?
Like I have this huge vision ordesire to be used by God, but
how in the world do I becomecourageous enough to step
forward with wisdom and to do itwell?
So courageous calling has awhole faith over fear program to
(30:28):
be able to help.
Do a 10 week deep dive.
Here's how you break outanxiety.
Here's how you step forward toyour calling with courage and
with purpose and with acommunity so that you'll be
likely to succeed and be blessedin what you do.
And so that website is justcourageous calling.com.
A cool thing about that one isif you click on there, you can
(30:49):
see a free quiz that will helpyou with to know how's my level
of anxiety, how's my level ofconfidence?
And some free tools on there aswell with this whole idea of how
do I reset my nervous system.
Great, thank you so much.
I put all the links in the shownotes it seems really
interesting and needed intoday's society.
(31:09):
What would be a final word ofencouragement that you'd like to
leave our listeners with today?
A final word is I was recentlycame across this story and I
don't know if you've ever heardof Laura's story or not.
But she wrote that song thatsays what if his blessings come
through raindrops?
What if your healing comesthrough tears?
(31:29):
Nice voice.
It was like a huge song, likewhen it came out and everything.
I think it's still really big,but I didn't know.
The backstory was that she was aworship leader for her church
and then she married her husbandMartin, and then he got di
diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And so it went from we're gonnalead worship and help change the
world to like, I've gottaconcentrate on my husband and
(31:51):
see if he's gonna actually livethrough this thing.
The good news is that he livedthe hard truth was that he now
has long-term disabilities fromit, which was like memory loss,
impaired vision, all those kindof things.
And so the dreams that she hadfor being able to say I thought
my ministry was gonna look likethis.
But now my whole life haschanged because my husband has
changed and I wanna be.
Faithful and still in mymarriage.
(32:13):
But how do I do this?
God.
And so she ended up writing thatsong in a moment of surrender.
So just to all that to say ifyou're ever at a crossroads in
your life where I thought mylife was gonna look this way.
I had that in my own life whereI thought, I'm gonna do this
kind of ministry for collegestudents and this way at this
time.
And then.
Due to some of my ownshortcomings and failings, it
didn't work out that way, andthen I had to be able to still
(32:34):
say, okay, God, I want toclinging to you even if I don't
know where I'm going with mylife.
And so that's kinda theencouragement I just wanna say
is you don't have to have it allfigured out.
Especially if you wanna meetwith me and talk with me.
I'm not expecting you to tellme, here's your 10 year vision
and plan.
It's okay if you feel like I'm ahot mess and I'm just trying to
hang on through the day I'vebeen there.
And we can journey through thatwhole thing together.
Thank you so much.
(32:55):
I really enjoyed ourconversation and I look forward
to more perhaps in the future.
I feel like it's been too shortand we can Oh, me too.
Talk forever about this.
So thank you so much.
Yeah, thank you.
What a blessing to be here withyou.
Thanks so much for what you do.
I think it's awesome that you'rehelping so many people to get
curious for Christ.
Amen.
Thank you.
(33:15):
Wow.
Eric's story is such a powerfulreminder.
Fear doesn't have to define us,and healing really is possible.
God has every answer we need,but so often he brings healing
through people.
Whether it's someone like Ericwho's trained to walk with
others or through a trustedfriend, a quiet moment of.
Prayer or even walking throughthe doors of a local church.
(33:39):
You don't have to stay stuck.
And as we close, here are a fewkey takeaways.
I hope we'll stay with you thisweek.
Number one, the three Bs thatkeep us spiritually stuck,
busyness, burying, and brokenrelationships.
Eric identifies three commontraps that keep us frozen in
fear, busyness, stayingdistracted to avoid discomfort,
(34:01):
which only makes things worse.
Burying, suppressing emotionsand losing authenticity.
Broken relationships oftenfueled by lies we believe about
ourselves and about God leadingto isolation.
Recognizing these patterns isthe first step toward healing
and truth.
Number two, fear isn't failure.
It's a signal.
Your anxiety might be your soulasking to feel safe again, don't
(34:23):
ignore it.
Bring it to God.
Psalm 56, verse three says, whenI'm afraid, I put my trust in.
You are not meant to mimicanyone.
Number three, God's calling foryou is personal.
You won't find it by copyingsomeone else.
Ephesians two verse 10 says, weare God's handy work created in
Christ Jesus to do good works.
Number four.
(34:43):
Healing is spiritual andphysical.
God works through scripture andyour body both matter to him.
Mark 12 verse 30 says, love theLord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Number five, you don't need tohave it all figured out.
Your next step isn't perfection,it's presence.
Keep showing up with God.
(35:03):
James four verse eight says,draw near to God and he will
draw near to you.
If this conversation spoke toyour heart, I want to leave you
with this promise from Psalm 34verse eight.
Taste and see that the Lord isgood.
Blessed is the one who takesrefuge in him.
Friend, you don't have to livein fear.
You're not too far gone.
(35:23):
Healing is possible, peace isavailable, and even in the
middle of exhaustion, God isreaching for you.
Thank you for joining me todayon Curious for Christ.
I pray this episode gave youhope and practical tools to walk
by faith.
Don't forget to subscribe sothat you don't miss next
episode.
I will see you next week.
Bye for now.
(35:49):
Hi, I hope you enjoy today'sepisode.
If so, would you like to take 30seconds and share it with a
friend who may also strugglewith knowing God and his purpose
for their life?
Also, leave a review on ApplePodcast and let me know what
topics you'd like to hear aboutin the future.
Your voice matters.
(36:09):
I'll meet you back next Friday.
For another episode.
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