January 20, 2025 • 42 mins
Send a text to Melissa and she’ll answer it on the next episode.
Imagine navigating the complexities of family health and wellness with grace and purpose. That's exactly what Anna McLaughlin, a dedicated homeschool mom and entrepreneur, has managed to achieve. In our engaging conversation, Anna opens up about her journey of balancing life's many demands while nurturing her family's well-being. She shares her insights on health stewardship, inspired by the parable of the talents, and how viewing wellness as a continuous journey rather than a fixed destination can lead to a more fulfilling and less fear-driven approach. Her stories and experiences offer a heartfelt exploration of the challenges and triumphs on the path to holistic health.
Anna's personal anecdotes, including stories of her father's battle with cancer and her own experience with Graves' disease, reveal the transformative power of faith and lifestyle choices. These narratives challenge conventional medical perspectives and highlight the importance of stewardship over control. Through prayer, meditation, and embracing small, incremental changes, Anna advocates for a balanced approach to health. Her reflections on navigating fear, judgment, and the desire for control provide valuable lessons on reducing anxiety and promoting sustainable lifestyle changes.
We also dive into the specific challenges faced by busy moms, particularly those homeschooling, as they strive to manage their family's health while maintaining their own well-being. Drawing inspiration from James Clear's "Atomic Habits," Anna emphasizes the power of small, two-minute habits to build healthier routines. She shares practical advice on setting sustainable goals, establishing priorities, and embracing life's gifts, even in tough times. Anna's stories serve as a testament to the importance of finding beauty in the present moment and stewarding our lives in a way that inspires others.
Anna McLaughlin empowers Christian women entrepreneurs and homeschool mamas to uncover and live out their divine purpose. Connect with her if you're ready to *love* your life while making an eternal impact, both at home and beyond, even in the midst of the fullness of daily life.
You can find Anna on her podcast, She Considers a Field ... providing one-on-one coaching for women ready for that next level of transformation ... and living her own best life homeschooling her four children and singing along to 80s rock in the kitchen with her husband. Get started on your own next level of transformation with Anna's free guide, From Overwhelmed to Overcomer, here:
https://sheconsidersafield.com/overwhelmed-to-overcomer-optin-via-flodesk/
Instagram: @sheconsidersafield
Website: sheconsidersafield.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa.
Hey Melissa, hey Bri.
We're really excited.
Tonight we have a little bit ofa special conversation.
We have Anna here with us tojust discuss what it looks like
to be good stewards of ourhealth.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, I'm super excited for this conversation.
Let me just introduce Anna.
So Anna McLaughlin empowersChristian women, entrepreneurs
and homeschool mamas to uncoverand live out their divine
purpose.
Connect with her if you'reready to love your life while
making an eternal impact both athome and beyond, even in the
(00:42):
midst of the fullness of dailylife.
I am so excited to talk to youtonight because, look, all three
of us sitting right here aremoms, wives, homeschoolers,
entrepreneurs.
We all three work and we're allthree stewarding our health.
So what does that look like foryou, anna, and tell us a little
(01:06):
bit about you and your story.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yes, so I'm so glad to be here.
First of all, you two arelovely and I've been so looking
forward to this conversation.
So when we talk aboutstewardship, that's something
that's such a passion of mine,because I think it really
reflects that this is not adestination that we necessarily
are, that we're going to arriveat.
There's no black and white,right and wrong.
You did it or you didn't.
(01:28):
It's a journey that we're allon, and so the goal is
improvement day by day.
The goal is to walk out theparable of the talents, where we
invest what God has given us,which includes our bodies, which
includes our minds, what Godhas given us, which includes our
(01:49):
bodies, which includes ourminds, and we daily endeavor to
do a little bit better than theday before at taking care of
this temple that he has investedin us for this time here on
earth.
As far as a little bit about me,I'm a homeschool mama, as you
said.
My kids are ages six to 12.
And I've been in business formyself and with my husband since
our kids were teeny tiny.
So juggling these differentplates in the air, trying to
(02:11):
keep them from falling, has beensomething that we've been
walking out to varying degreesof health and success over the
years, but it's something thatI've just found a lot of joy in
and just committing to theprocess and being able to
celebrate okay, we're betterthan we were last year.
Okay, what can we do next?
So I think that's what's goingto be.
So much fun about thisconversation is it's like what
can we do differently?
And those tiny changes arereally where the magic happens.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I love it.
I do that too, and so manyaspects of life and business and
homeschooling and being a momand a wife and I mean, can't?
I just feel like I can alwaysimprove, let's just keep
learning and growing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I also love your perspective, what you're saying,
because so much of at least myexperience in the crunchy
community, if you want to callit that at the beginning, can
really be instigated by fear.
So a lot of you know in our inthe natural world we do give
(03:10):
Western medicine or lots ofdifferent practices a hard time
because it's fear-based.
But I also saw a lot of that inthis community as well when I
first came in and at least in myheart there was a lot of
anxiety and a lot of black holesand I love your encouragement
to invest and steward thesethings rather than focusing on
(03:34):
the fear what not to do but thefocus on how can we better honor
God with these things, makebetter choices, invest better in
these areas.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So I love that.
It's very encouraging.
Yes, yeah, it's, it's beenhelpful to me.
And I resonate so much withwhat you said, brie, because I
remember when I first startedthis walk I was, I was just
weeks postpartum and I wasfeeling with our first baby so
about 12 years ago and feelingso very sick because between her
birth and all the pasta thateverybody brings you when you're
a new mom, my glutensensitivity that I never knew
(04:11):
about all of a sudden justexploded and so I felt just
terrible with every bit of foodthat I ate.
And then, as I was working witha chiropractor at the time, he
started kind of going well,these foods aren't good for you,
and these foods aren't good foryou, and these foods aren't
good for you.
And so I went from eating Sonichamburgers pretty much every
night, because that's what I wascraving when I was pregnant
with my daughter that lasttrimester, to sitting on the
(04:32):
couch and being postpartum witha newborn, my first baby, just
crying and going.
I don't know what to eat andI'm so hungry and so that fear
of just everything's bad.
And here's this perfect littlebaby and I don't want to break
her.
I think that the crunchycommunity does, does us.
We do a disservice to ourselves, and then the community can
(04:53):
kind of help foster this.
At times where there can bethis sense of fear of it's all
bad, you know, and every time wewake up to something there can
be that, that period of timewhere all of a sudden we go from
zero to 60.
And so for me balance has come.
The most important thing I hadto learn was my thoughts
actually can be the most toxicthing in my environment.
(05:14):
So I can't go all in from aplace of fear, because then I've
actually created an even worsesituation for myself than if I
just ate that Sonic hamburger.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Exactly.
You know, what I'm starting torealize and teach people and
encourage people with isbalancing.
So I've been teaching for yearslet's get balanced.
It's like that feels like adestination, let's get to that
(05:46):
balance.
And then we get there and thenyou just, you just bet you're
balanced right.
Homeopathy brings balance.
Well, what I'm starting torealize this year is we're
always balancing so, and I feellike for the rest of our lives
we're going to be balancing.
So I encouraged a client todaythat you know she was like
there's every time I gobackwards, because in the health
(06:09):
and the healing journey therecan be two steps forward, one
step back and so every time shetook a step back, she thought
she did something wrong and shekept trying to figure out what
am I doing wrong?
What did I do different todaythat I didn't do yesterday?
And so I encouraged her todaywith this balancing.
There's where you know the backand forth is just okay, we're
(06:31):
just going to be.
You know, we're going to bedoing this, and so instead of
like this, you know where peopleare when they first come in
we're just going to be like here, you know, and it's just, it's
just okay to walk in that, andthen the whole fear of eating
bad things.
Um, you know, I talk about thata lot too, that we just um, we
(06:53):
the the worry over your healthis just as detrimental as eating
the doritos or the cheeseburgeroccasionally.
Right, I mean there has to be.
I mean, have it sometimes andjust don't worry about it, Not
every day, you know, don't letit be habit.
So I don't like the fear, Idon't like the fear on either
(07:15):
side.
Both sides can do that fearmongering.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So I would love to hear about just your, so your
story coming into this.
What kind of led you youmentioned a little bit about
your first baby what kind of ledyou into, I guess, the natural
realm, but also what you do now?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, yes, so what?
My first, my first moment andhaving our first baby was kind
of the moment of action where itwas like, okay, we're going to
do things differently now.
But this question of what doesit look like to steward our
health started for me muchyounger, when I was in middle
school.
My father, who had always beenvery active, very vibrant, was
(08:04):
diagnosed with, at the time, anincurable form of cancer and he
went on a clinical trial and theresult of that clinical trial
was he did survive, but he wasparalyzed by the chemo that
saved his life.
And so from that point on,there was this it was traumatic
for our whole family because itwas such a sudden before and
(08:25):
after for us.
And then, once he was paralyzed, he was on this runaway track
of medical interventions thatdidn't stop until his passing,
about 25 years later.
And so from that and so fromthat, first I was like in this
fear, hijack, trauma, responseof, oh no, what if that really
(08:49):
plagued me for decades, and soso that was kind of the first
thing I needed to wrestlethrough.
And then my path to the otherside became this real curiosity
where I had to go before theLord and just say, ok, I will be
done.
And there's a.
There's a place of curiosityhere, and for me, that was
really the place of healing togo.
(09:10):
What can I do?
There's much I can't, but whatcan I do to take care of myself?
And so from there, it startedjust opening the door in my
twenties and then into mythirties, as I was raising my
children, of going.
Oh, actually, the beautiful sideof the holistic approach to
health is this idea of what wedo actually does matter.
(09:33):
Are we resting, are we living astressed out life?
And for me, during that timeperiod I was working as a
corporate lawyer that timeperiod I was working as a
corporate lawyer, my first yearin corporate law I developed an
autoimmune disease calledGraves' disease, which is a
hyperthyroid condition, forthose who don't know.
And so I'd never had any issues, I'd never been on any
(09:55):
medication and I kept saying tomy practitioners what happened.
Like could this be lifestyle?
Is it possible that the crazywork hours and the toxic
boyfriend and the McDonald's andthe coffee five cups of coffee
a day and the lack of sleep andthe crazy market conditions
because I came into work in 2008when the housing market was
(10:16):
crashing Is it possible thatcould have an effect?
All but one said no, no, it'sjust coincidence, just
coincidence.
And then this one dinosaurendocrinologist that I worked
with was, like you know, I'veactually kind of seen the two
things correlate more times thanI can understand and that was
all I needed.
I was like, okay, the way I'mliving matters so that was.
(10:38):
And my daughter I had mydaughter with.
I didn't end up marrying thetoxic boy, toxic boyfriend,
praise Jesus for that.
But a couple of years later Iwas married, had a baby, and so
that experience of actuallybeing able to get my Graves'
disease to go into remissionabout six to 12 months later, by
changing my lifestyle right, bygetting in a healthier
relationship, by changing mydiet, was the first experience I
(11:01):
had of feeling this sense ofempowerment, of, oh, what I do
makes a difference.
And that, I think, is onebeautiful thing about the
holistic perspective is, withthe, with a more allopathic view
of medicine, it's just Russianroulette.
Your genes are your genes andyou can't control anything.
And it created so much fear inme, especially given my
(11:23):
background with my fatheranything.
And it created so much fear inme, especially given my
background with my father.
And so once I found holisticmedicine, it's like this.
This I can believe in, becausecause and effect is all around
us, so why shouldn't it also bein the world of our bodies?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
That's so good, so true.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, I had a big realization with my last baby
that I think.
So.
I agree.
Everything that you were sayingis how I thought I believed
until I was having this laborexperience.
I had a terrible hospital birthand then a home birth and then
this time, very long story short, I was planning a home birth
(12:03):
but we chose to be induced at ahospital and that part really
doesn't matter.
But one big part of thatexperience for me was I was in
prayer, like meditative prayeralmost, to try to just work
through some of these fears Ihad and to help labor just move
(12:23):
along.
And I had this experience withGod where I realized a lot of my
, the way that I was using thesetools I had in the crunchy
community, crunchy world.
All the things I had learnedwas to control this outcome.
Like, if I do all of thesethings, I'm going to avoid all
(12:45):
the things everybody around meis dealing with.
And then if I, you know, if youmake a mistake, what are people
who are not crunchy going tothink about me?
Or, if somebody does, you knowall the things.
And God like really broke me of.
It turned from control tostewardship, where I'm not doing
(13:07):
this anymore to try to play agame of chess where, like, I
come out the end and I win theway that I want, or even my
approach to people around me haschanged and trying to be a
person who pushes and throws,you know, wants everybody to do
everything the way that I do it,because I remember that it's
(13:31):
been a journey, like you saidthere's, so everybody else is
also on a journey and not in thesame place that I am, so
stewarding.
The knowledge that I have, thatGod has given me for my family,
for the circle of influence Ihave, has changed a lot of the
way that I've moved forward thepast few years.
So I love the word.
Stewardship has been big in mylife, so I love that.
(13:52):
You sounds like that's a bigpart of your.
I mean, would you call it aministry or your?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
what you do.
Currently, everything I do yeah, it's my mission, it's one of
my core values is stewardship,because we all start in
different places.
And I love what you said, brie,because there can become almost
this religious element to thecrunchy lifestyle where it's
like if I do this, then I willearn.
Then I will earn what I want.
(14:18):
I will earn this, you know,this health, this well being.
And then the question on the onthe flip side, is what did I do
wrong?
Right and okay, if something'sgoing wrong, what was it?
What did I do?
And so one thing that's beenreally helpful for me is, first
of all, to recognize we arelimited and we're in a fallen
world, so it's not going to beperfect.
(14:40):
And then the other piece ofthat is just recognizing the in
Romans 14.
It's kind of become one of myanchor points because I can I
can bend towards judgment, whichis really just the flip side of
fear.
Right, if I, if you didsomething wrong, it protects me
from having to risk the samestory, and so it's out of fear
(15:01):
that we push that on people.
Oh, if you hadn't done x, y andz, then you wouldn't be dealing
with da, dada-da-da-da-da-da,while there may be some truth.
There is cause and effect thatwe face.
The truth of the matter is wehave limited.
You know, whatever you eat, allis permissible.
But also, like, what reallymatters is who are you
(15:31):
fellowshipping with, right?
But then he also says whateveryou do, whether you eat or
whether you drink, it's fine.
What matters is what yourmaster is calling you to.
Your master is calling you toand he says he says it's the
master's business whether yourise or fall, and you will rise
because he is the one whobasically covers you.
I don't have the wordingexactly right, but go look it up
(15:53):
, it's so beautiful.
And so we view everybody'sdifferences, when we're in
judgment, as a threat.
Oh, they think, okay,iridescent light bulbs, we all
need iridescent light bulbsbecause the other kind of light
bulbs are bad for us.
And oh, we need waterfiltration.
And oh, we need to use thistype of modality for healing and
infrared sauna.
And my husband at one pointlooked at me and said we're
(16:15):
going to go broke if we do allof these things.
We can't do them all.
And so that, to me, was thebeginning, cause I was trying to
do all of them.
Oh, what's another $10,000.
This is going to lead to thisresult.
This transformed so-and-so'slife.
I was always selling him onanother tool that we had to have
to fix the problems, cause Iwas sure that there was a
(16:36):
solution out there somewhere.
If we just put, if we justsacrificed enough right, which
is is a religious, essentiallythat I was operating under, and
when I go, okay, no, the Lordtells me what my next step is,
and it's okay if someone elsehas something else.
My job is to follow Him becauseI'm His servant.
(16:57):
So remembering that has taken alot of the pressure off to do
more, perform better, and it'skept me out of that space of
judgment like you're talkingabout, beth Dombkowski.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I love that.
So when I stepped intohomeopathy, it was also out of
fear and control.
So because I what I found wasgoing to the doctor, I never
knew what, what to expect.
I never, I never knew what wasgoing to happen.
(17:28):
So, going to the doctor or thedentist, so I had this lifelong
fear of like when my mom wouldtake me to the doctor or dentist
as a, as a child, I would say,am I going to get a shot today?
And that was my, that was justmy biggest fear.
And she would be like I don'tknow, or I don't think so, or
whatever.
And um, or if I was sick?
Every time I was sick, I hadstrep throat.
(17:49):
So I went to the doctor and Igot a penicillin shot.
If you've ever had one of those, that is the most awful, most
painful shot that there is, andyou know this was in the 70s.
So I had a lot of fear around,not knowing what was going to
(18:10):
happen to me at the doctor orthe dentist.
And then, when I foundhomeopathy, I felt like, ooh, I
can control this, I can stepinto this and be in control.
And um, and then that made mefeel better for a short amount
(18:30):
of time, because then camebecause I started using
homeopathy.
Before I learned about food andwater and air and sun and all
the other things, homeopathy wasfirst for me, so that felt like
a manageable amount of control.
But then when I startedlearning about food and then I
(18:50):
tried to change everything atone time and I was like oh, oh,
we can't do this and we can't dothat, we have to do this and we
have to do that.
And eventually I remember aboutaround when I realized I have a
lot of anxiety around this, Ihave a lot of anxiety around
this, and when I recognize theanxiety that was happening in me
(19:12):
, I literally had to take a stepback and say this is not okay.
And that was just the Lord.
I mean, this was beforeFacebook.
You know that I realized howmuch anxiety I had.
But then when Facebook came onthe scene, that brought me a lot
of anxiety, because now I cansee when everybody's sick,
they're all placing it onFacebook, we're throwing up
(19:35):
where we got a fever and I'mlike, well, you know.
And so the Lord took me throughthis beautiful journey from
fear and control and and youknow, trying to do everything at
once and do too much tostewardship.
I have never even thought aboutthat until this conversation.
So I love that and this is whyI like to teach baby steps.
(20:01):
So when somebody if you'relistening now and you're just
stepping into the natural healthcare world baby steps, you
cannot change it all overnight,you can't even change it all in
one year, don't even try it allin one year.
Don't even try.
Pick one thing, do that, dothat one thing.
Well, you feel good.
Everybody in the family is good, you know, because, like when I
(20:22):
changed um, now remember thiswas a long time ago, this isn't
even good.
I mean, we know this isn't evengood now, but back then old
milk was bad for you, so we wereall drinking almond milk, right
.
So when I got rid of the junkystore milk and replaced it with
almond milk, the whole familywas like this is terrible, you
(20:43):
know.
And so it took some time to getthem used to drinking the
almond milk, which now isabsolutely not not the best
thing.
But either way, it's baby steps.
So you just get your familysettled into the new thing that
you're doing and then you mighthave a list.
You might have a list of thingsthat you want to do, like all
the things that you just listed,with infrared saunas and all
(21:08):
the things homeopathy andsupplements and herbs and
vitamins and essential oils, andall the cleaning and your water
and just make a list and thenyou just leave it there.
Ask the Lord present, give thelist to the Lord, what do you
want me to do with this?
And wait and wait on them andjust take those baby steps,
(21:28):
because trying to do it all atone time is going to drive you
and your family crazy, and fearshould never, ever lead us.
But I'm just thankful for theprocess he took me through to
show me how to steward my healthwithout fear.
And now that's what I get toencourage people with.
(21:49):
That's what I get to encouragepeople with.
And Brie I know Brie does too,you know, with her clients and
then with all of our students.
Just just let's, we're going tostart using that, this word,
brie, in class.
Steward.
Steward our health instead ofyou know, instead of being a
fear about it.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh, it's so good.
Yeah, I think it's helpful toremember too this is something I
have to keep coming back toagain and again is that we know
that, um, that bad, bad treesdon't bear good fruit.
So, whatever changes I'm making, if I'm making them from a
place of like fear andoppression, as opposed to
feeling like the spirit's reallyleading me, then what I'm going
(22:30):
to create is more fear andoppression.
Right, I've controlled theproblem, but I haven't really
healed the root of the problem.
And so, even in our no matterhow good the thing we might
choose, is, if we choose it froma place of fear and the Lord
blesses it, because for years,fear was really driving me,
because I needed to heal fromthe trauma of my dad's illness.
(22:53):
So much that I did was inreaction to, instead of from a
place of accepting, how the Lordworked a lot of good through
his story, as hard as it was.
And then it wasn't until I'dreckoned with that in a deep
enough way that I was able to gookay, for love of the life that
God has given me.
As a result of that love for mylife, here are some shifts that
(23:16):
I feel like he's calling me tomake, these little tiny changes.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well and I love that the parable of the talents that
you used before, where theultimate goal is to present them
before the Lord, to be pleasingto Him, not to make something
of it for ourselves or for thepeople around us, and by default
, we get to enjoy that rightLike it's beneficial, but it's
(23:44):
not the end game.
So I think that's veryimportant to keep in mind, and I
think you mentioned this beforewe even started recording that
to be able to.
Well, maybe you can say thatyou said something about the end
.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, you go yeah, so .
So the vision that's been veryhelpful and orienting for me in
my life is to is to think aboutthe end goal, you know, and at
the end of the parable of thetalents, the Lord says well done
, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful inlittle.
I will set you over more.
Enter into the joy of yourmaster.
And he says that to both thefive talent and the two talent
(24:19):
servant.
And if you're not familiar withthe story, go and read it.
But really, the point was nothow much were you given, but
what did you do with what youhad.
And so exercise is a tricky onefor me.
It's not something that I getexcited about, it's not
something that I look forward tonecessarily.
I find it a little tricky tofit into my schedule at times
because of that right, and soI've really needed to do a lot
(24:43):
of work around.
How can I love this effort?
Because I know it's animportant part of longevity.
And so, for me, whenever I havea habit tracker and I'm happy
to make that available to any ofyou who are listening and at
the top it talks about why doesthis matter, why is this
essential as a habit?
(25:04):
And so for me it's beinghealthy enough and vibrant
enough to get down on the floorand play with my grandchildren
and my great-grandchildren.
That's why I moved today is sothat, in 50 years, being healthy
enough and vibrant enough toget down on the floor and play
with my grandchildren and mygreat-grandchildren, that's why
I moved today is so that, in 50years, I'm around and I'm
investing in their lives.
I'm helping lighten the loadfor my children and maybe even
for my grandchildren when theyhave children, and able to be
(25:25):
fully present for as long as Godhas me on earth.
And I can't control whether thathappens or not, you know but I
can control the inputs that I do.
I can control that I actuallydo the sit-ups and drink the
water and get the rest and lovemy people and love my life.
You know, live a life ofgratitude and so having that end
(25:48):
goal where I can say, at theend of my life, I used
everything you gave me, that endgoal where I can say, at the
end of my life, I usedeverything you gave me, I moved
my body, I loved the people thatyou put in my life.
I lived a life of gratitude forthe things that you gave me, no
matter how hard some of themwere to love at the time.
You know, ultimately thatactually is going to do far more
for us as far as well-beingthan if we discovered the right.
(26:12):
You know there's no rightsupplement necessarily.
There are good ones.
I mean, melissa, as you, youknow, taught me when you and I
had our conversation it's likebalance is something that's
really dependent on where areyou right now.
How can we bring you intoproper balance?
What depends?
Where you are?
And so far more important, thatwe get the foundational things
in good order, and then therewill be these things that then
(26:34):
we add on Right, then we go fromthere.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Um, what words of wisdom do you both have for busy
, homeschooling or not?
Moms, how can, how can theysteward, how are you stewarding
your family's health whileyou're so busy?
How can they do it, you know?
(27:10):
Do you have any, um, any ideasfor for them?
So that I love what you justsaid about taking care of
yourself so that you can bepresent and be for your
grandchildren I just did a reelthe other day about that.
Like moms, we have to take careof ourselves because you want
to be there and be able to playwith your grandchildren, right?
So stop putting ourselves onthe back burner with homeopathy.
(27:34):
Nobody has to go on the backburner.
You can help yourself and helpthe children Now.
Then, yeah, like what you justsaid with exercise, that's
another layer, right, we have tofind the time or the motivation
or the energy, or whatever, butwe'd love to hear both of your
thoughts on if words of wisdomfor these mamas listening.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You want to go first, Anna?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I will go first.
I have some thoughts on this.
This is one of the things thatI talk a lot about on my podcast
.
She Considers a Field becauseit is such a challenge to we
tend to, especially as mamas whoyou know, whenever we're,
whenever we're all hands on deckall the time, whenever the kids
are kind of always around, Icall it resistance training,
because there will come a daywhen they're gone right, whether
(28:21):
they're in activities orthey're working or they've
launched, and then we really canhave a rhythm that can look the
same most days.
But at this point I always, whenmy kids were very small, every
quiet time moment that I pickedokay, I'll get up at 5.30 in the
morning.
Well then, the baby startedgetting up at 5.30 in the
morning.
Okay, I'll do it after I putthe baby down at six.
Well then, the toddler wasawake, and so part of it, I
(28:44):
think, is it's important that wefocus on our efforts rather
than the results, because wemight think, well, I used to
have, you know, I used to have30 minutes with the Lord every
day, and then we would be, andthen we can be tempted to be in
judgment if we don't pull thatoff.
But the goal is, if we arewomen who are committed to sit
(29:05):
down in our little quiet chairevery day and be there for a
minute or two minutes.
The book Atomic Habits by JamesClear.
It talks about the habits thatyou form need to be two-minute
habits.
If we are women of commitmentwho will sit down and do that
activity every day, even if itonly lasts a minute or two, then
ultimately we will become thewoman who's able to do the 30
(29:27):
minutes and so on as the seasonpermits.
And so my first thing that Iwould suggest is look at your
priorities.
Get really clear on what are mypriority relationships you know
God, and then husband, and thenchildren, and how are those
doing?
How am I doing in stewardingeach of those?
How is my health?
Am I able to get rest?
(29:49):
Do I give myself permission tonap?
How's my mental health and myemotional state?
And then look at one areathat's feeling really challenged
and pick something that willtake two minutes to commit to
and then keep track of it.
That's it.
Like I said, I'll send the linkfor it.
I actually have a whole workbookcalled From Overwhelmed to
(30:11):
Overcomer, where I take peoplethrough this process, where it
says what are all the thingsthat are out of order right now?
And if you're anything likemost of the women, I know that
we feel like we have a long list.
But once we put it all down onpaper, there are some themes
that show up.
And a friend of mine has themost beautiful question.
Whenever we're out of order inan area, the question she asks
(30:40):
is why are you abandoningyourself?
So I find that like that'soriented me so often, like with
this exercise question, as I'vebeen struggling to build rhythm
around exercise why am Iabandoning myself?
This future dream is out there.
Why am I letting it go in favorof lesser priorities?
And so, yes, pick somethinglittle and just pick one thing,
because faithfulness begets morefaithfulness.
Just like Melissa said, whenyou have that one thing that
(31:01):
you've started to win at whereyou're like I'm getting in that
60 ounces of water a day, I'mdoing it, and we start to feel
like I'm a woman of my word.
I set out to do this and I didit.
I set out to do this and I didit.
Then that compounds on itself.
Same with our children.
We need to help them lovetaking care of themselves.
(31:22):
We need to help them see it asa gift that they give to
themselves and help them justrecognize the cause and effect
of oh, it may feel fun to stayup late, but then I'm cranky the
next day and my behavior's outof order.
So I have consequences and I'mnot able to enjoy time with my
friends.
Is it really worth it?
And so we are trying to findthat balance, at the age that
(31:43):
our kids are of 12 and under, ofgiving them a little room to
make decisions and then alsohelping them see, okay, what
really happened, what's the fullscope of this decision that we
just made?
And then we also have someexpectations.
Like you know, when you've gothealthy things on your plate,
it's a five-bite rule thoselittle tiny things that we've
implemented over time, but justtiny, tiny, little baby steps,
(32:05):
because what we don't want isfor them to do what I did when I
went off to college, where thefirst thing that I did was buy a
12-pack of Diet Coke and ramennoodles because I wasn't allowed
to eat that when I was home.
Right, didn't take long for meto realize that didn't feel very
good, but there's this sense oflet us fall in love with the
healthy freedoms, right, thepermission to.
(32:27):
So those are a few things Iwould suggest, but so simple,
just like Melissa talks about,and I'm sure you all say it
quite regularly on here.
So simple, so little, and letthe good crowd out the less
ideal.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
How about you Bree?
Sustainable thing and maybe acouple areas.
But, like when I startedhomeschooling, I really thought
God asked me to homeschool andtold me to homeschool because I
was going to be really good atthis and very quickly learned it
(33:16):
was actually not because ofthat.
So I I had to literally one.
My first thing was a mathcurriculum for my oldest because
he likes math.
That was literally the onlything I committed to for one
year.
Now I eventually did add inreading books with him and stuff
, but I only the weight wasdifferent because my commitment
(33:37):
was only to that one thing.
Then the next school year Iadded one other thing.
The next school year, then thenext school year, I added one
other thing.
The next school year I addedone more kid, you know.
And so I think that one thingand that felt big.
But I would look at other peoplesometimes and I would suddenly
start to be like I'm so behind,I'm never going to, my kids are
(33:57):
going to be, they're never goingto graduate and I had to rein
it back in.
What has God asked of me?
And I would approach theseprayerfully what do I?
What is my thing?
So that for me personally, ifI'm the person who's like I'm
going to go from waking up atseven to five 30, that is a bad
(34:17):
idea.
I would go from seven to six 30.
That feels sustainable.
I can do that long-term.
I'm not going to wake up atfive 30 for a whole.
I'm going to do it for twoweeks.
Then I'm going to be so tiredand go back to sleep until seven
because that was a bad idea.
So sustainable is my key when Imake a change somewhere.
(34:37):
Um, but I would say my I mean,maybe my biggest advice to any
person is always something I'velearned from my husband and
Melissa, and Melissa boundaries,but meaning that our mentors
told us to come up with pillarsin our lives when we were first
(35:00):
married and my husband's apastor lives when we were first
married and my husband's apastor.
So pillars are those thingsthat our lives, our life,
revolves around.
They cannot be.
They're like your big stones inthe bottom of your jar.
They have to be there, they'repriorities and that is how you
structure your life.
So for us, it's our marriage,so date nights, getting out
(35:24):
together, even if it's in ourhome date night, but that our
world revolves around that Hisjob is a big one because he is a
pastor.
So how?
Our availability, everything Ido, as I have a calling to
ministry as well.
So anything that interfereswith that, I say no.
It's by default, it's a nobecause that's already been
(35:47):
decided.
So that's been really helpfulfor me as a mom, the more it is
tempting to let life just getout of control and start letting
life happen to me.
When I go back to the basics,like, okay, all of these things
as my kids get older, there'smuch more to do.
More kids, more stuff, moreministry, more school, I go back
(36:12):
to well, is it interfering withmy five pillars?
Well, then I say no, even thiswork that I've started doing.
My first commitment was toministry my marriage,
homeschooling my children,making sure we still Sabbath as
a family.
So I give what I can give towork and that's it.
So it takes out, and this iswhy I feel like it's been
(36:34):
helpful.
Practically it takes outdecision fatigue, like I don't
have to overthink if something'spresented to me, does it fit in
here?
No, I say no, and I've seen thefruit of that pay off and it is
(36:55):
like I can give the best towhat God has asked of me.
So that is different.
Not everybody has the samepriorities and I've become okay
with that.
The past I mean probably sinceI've had kids it's been more
empowering, but I think that'sall.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
I love it.
So you can obviously all seewhy I love Bree so much.
I mean what, like you know,bree's taught me a lot too.
So but I love what you weretalking about with the
boundaries.
You know how women, a lot ofwomen, don't know how to say no,
and it's because, well, somewomen, maybe it's because we're
(37:33):
afraid of what they'll think ofus if we say no, but some or
maybe not just some women, maybesome situations and then other
situations it's because we wantto help, we want to, we want to
do all the things and we want tohelp all the people, and so my
piece of advice for all of youbusy mamas trying to steward
(37:54):
your family's health well is toask the Lord, and I mean ask him
about every single thing, right, you know, I love what you said
, bree, where decision fatigue.
So if it doesn't fit in here,because you already have that
laid out, you and you and Kylehave already laid that out you
know what those pillars are, youknow what that, where that box
(38:16):
is, and you know what can fit init and what can't.
But not everybody has done that.
I know that.
I have not done that.
So if, if something comes upthat I want to do what.
There's something coming upnext month that I want to do
really bad, and but I'm waitingon the Lord.
I really I'm just waiting andpeople keep asking me Melissa,
(38:37):
are you coming?
Are you coming?
I'm like I don't know yet.
Well, we've got to.
I mean people, people have saidwe've got a place for you where
we saved a spot for you and youcan, you can, stay with us, and
I'm like I'm wait.
I have to hear from him.
I have to hear that that it'sokay that he wants me to do this
, because I don't want to wastetime and I don't want to waste
money and um, and I don't want,and that really, really that's
(39:00):
it.
I don't want to waste time andmoney.
I know it's going to be good,but is it?
Is it what's best, and sothat's?
You know that's.
The other thing is there's adifference between what's good
and what's best.
So you have to ask the Lord,you just have to, and I mean it
could be the tiniest littlething.
Like you know, do I takeMelissa and Bree's next gateway
(39:21):
class.
Ask the Lord, I'm not kidding,I mean, don't you know, every
time you say yes to something,you're saying no to something
else or your family, and so youhave to weigh that.
This has been a greatconversation, so inspiring.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I feel great.
Thank you, ladies.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Anna, thank you so much for just being here.
Was there anything else on yourheart that you wanted to share
today?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Oh, I mean, I'm just going to offer this, like,
wherever you are today, love,love that place.
You know, love that place, nomatter how hard it is, no matter
how you know how much you'restruggling.
We have to.
We have to find the gift todayin order for us to move into a
(40:13):
more beautiful tomorrow.
It's like it's not until we'veunlocked the gift and it doesn't
always happen this way, but atbest, at my best moments with
the Lord, when I have mined thegift from the current season,
that's how we steward well,because then it's never wasted
right To go.
I will love every day you giveme, even the hard, because, if
(40:36):
nothing else, this is going tobe your testimony one day to
encourage someone else.
So just find that way to loveit today one day, to encourage
someone else, so just just findthat way to love it today.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So good, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for being with ustoday, anna, and so you guys.
If you look in the show notes,you should, or the yeah, the
description of this video.
If you're watching the video orthe show notes of the podcast,
you'll find more informationabout Anna and how to find her,
and we just thank you all fortuning in and we just pray that
you will steward your family'shealth well and use what he's
(41:15):
given you and use it wisely.
So thanks for being here, Thankyou.
Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa.
Hey Melissa, hey Bri.
We're really excited.
Tonight we have a little bit ofa special conversation.
We have Anna here with us tojust discuss what it looks like
to be good stewards of ourhealth.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, I'm super excited for this conversation.
Let me just introduce Anna.
So Anna McLaughlin empowersChristian women, entrepreneurs
and homeschool mamas to uncoverand live out their divine
purpose.
Connect with her if you'reready to love your life while
making an eternal impact both athome and beyond, even in the
(00:42):
midst of the fullness of dailylife.
I am so excited to talk to youtonight because, look, all three
of us sitting right here aremoms, wives, homeschoolers,
entrepreneurs.
We all three work and we're allthree stewarding our health.
So what does that look like foryou, anna, and tell us a little
(01:06):
bit about you and your story.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yes, so I'm so glad to be here.
First of all, you two arelovely and I've been so looking
forward to this conversation.
So when we talk aboutstewardship, that's something
that's such a passion of mine,because I think it really
reflects that this is not adestination that we necessarily
are, that we're going to arriveat.
There's no black and white,right and wrong.
You did it or you didn't.
(01:28):
It's a journey that we're allon, and so the goal is
improvement day by day.
The goal is to walk out theparable of the talents, where we
invest what God has given us,which includes our bodies, which
includes our minds, what Godhas given us, which includes our
(01:49):
bodies, which includes ourminds, and we daily endeavor to
do a little bit better than theday before at taking care of
this temple that he has investedin us for this time here on
earth.
As far as a little bit about me,I'm a homeschool mama, as you
said.
My kids are ages six to 12.
And I've been in business formyself and with my husband since
our kids were teeny tiny.
So juggling these differentplates in the air, trying to
(02:11):
keep them from falling, has beensomething that we've been
walking out to varying degreesof health and success over the
years, but it's something thatI've just found a lot of joy in
and just committing to theprocess and being able to
celebrate okay, we're betterthan we were last year.
Okay, what can we do next?
So I think that's what's goingto be.
So much fun about thisconversation is it's like what
can we do differently?
And those tiny changes arereally where the magic happens.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I love it.
I do that too, and so manyaspects of life and business and
homeschooling and being a momand a wife and I mean, can't?
I just feel like I can alwaysimprove, let's just keep
learning and growing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I also love your perspective, what you're saying,
because so much of at least myexperience in the crunchy
community, if you want to callit that at the beginning, can
really be instigated by fear.
So a lot of you know in our inthe natural world we do give
(03:10):
Western medicine or lots ofdifferent practices a hard time
because it's fear-based.
But I also saw a lot of that inthis community as well when I
first came in and at least in myheart there was a lot of
anxiety and a lot of black holesand I love your encouragement
to invest and steward thesethings rather than focusing on
(03:34):
the fear what not to do but thefocus on how can we better honor
God with these things, makebetter choices, invest better in
these areas.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So I love that.
It's very encouraging.
Yes, yeah, it's, it's beenhelpful to me.
And I resonate so much withwhat you said, brie, because I
remember when I first startedthis walk I was, I was just
weeks postpartum and I wasfeeling with our first baby so
about 12 years ago and feelingso very sick because between her
birth and all the pasta thateverybody brings you when you're
a new mom, my glutensensitivity that I never knew
(04:11):
about all of a sudden justexploded and so I felt just
terrible with every bit of foodthat I ate.
And then, as I was working witha chiropractor at the time, he
started kind of going well,these foods aren't good for you,
and these foods aren't good foryou, and these foods aren't
good for you.
And so I went from eating Sonichamburgers pretty much every
night, because that's what I wascraving when I was pregnant
with my daughter that lasttrimester, to sitting on the
(04:32):
couch and being postpartum witha newborn, my first baby, just
crying and going.
I don't know what to eat andI'm so hungry and so that fear
of just everything's bad.
And here's this perfect littlebaby and I don't want to break
her.
I think that the crunchycommunity does, does us.
We do a disservice to ourselves, and then the community can
(04:53):
kind of help foster this.
At times where there can bethis sense of fear of it's all
bad, you know, and every time wewake up to something there can
be that, that period of timewhere all of a sudden we go from
zero to 60.
And so for me balance has come.
The most important thing I hadto learn was my thoughts
actually can be the most toxicthing in my environment.
(05:14):
So I can't go all in from aplace of fear, because then I've
actually created an even worsesituation for myself than if I
just ate that Sonic hamburger.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Exactly.
You know, what I'm starting torealize and teach people and
encourage people with isbalancing.
So I've been teaching for yearslet's get balanced.
It's like that feels like adestination, let's get to that
(05:46):
balance.
And then we get there and thenyou just, you just bet you're
balanced right.
Homeopathy brings balance.
Well, what I'm starting torealize this year is we're
always balancing so, and I feellike for the rest of our lives
we're going to be balancing.
So I encouraged a client todaythat you know she was like
there's every time I gobackwards, because in the health
(06:09):
and the healing journey therecan be two steps forward, one
step back and so every time shetook a step back, she thought
she did something wrong and shekept trying to figure out what
am I doing wrong?
What did I do different todaythat I didn't do yesterday?
And so I encouraged her todaywith this balancing.
There's where you know the backand forth is just okay, we're
(06:31):
just going to be.
You know, we're going to bedoing this, and so instead of
like this, you know where peopleare when they first come in
we're just going to be like here, you know, and it's just, it's
just okay to walk in that, andthen the whole fear of eating
bad things.
Um, you know, I talk about thata lot too, that we just um, we
(06:53):
the the worry over your healthis just as detrimental as eating
the doritos or the cheeseburgeroccasionally.
Right, I mean there has to be.
I mean, have it sometimes andjust don't worry about it, Not
every day, you know, don't letit be habit.
So I don't like the fear, Idon't like the fear on either
(07:15):
side.
Both sides can do that fearmongering.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So I would love to hear about just your, so your
story coming into this.
What kind of led you youmentioned a little bit about
your first baby what kind of ledyou into, I guess, the natural
realm, but also what you do now?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, yes, so what?
My first, my first moment andhaving our first baby was kind
of the moment of action where itwas like, okay, we're going to
do things differently now.
But this question of what doesit look like to steward our
health started for me muchyounger, when I was in middle
school.
My father, who had always beenvery active, very vibrant, was
(08:04):
diagnosed with, at the time, anincurable form of cancer and he
went on a clinical trial and theresult of that clinical trial
was he did survive, but he wasparalyzed by the chemo that
saved his life.
And so from that point on,there was this it was traumatic
for our whole family because itwas such a sudden before and
(08:25):
after for us.
And then, once he was paralyzed, he was on this runaway track
of medical interventions thatdidn't stop until his passing,
about 25 years later.
And so from that and so fromthat, first I was like in this
fear, hijack, trauma, responseof, oh no, what if that really
(08:49):
plagued me for decades, and soso that was kind of the first
thing I needed to wrestlethrough.
And then my path to the otherside became this real curiosity
where I had to go before theLord and just say, ok, I will be
done.
And there's a.
There's a place of curiosityhere, and for me, that was
really the place of healing togo.
(09:10):
What can I do?
There's much I can't, but whatcan I do to take care of myself?
And so from there, it startedjust opening the door in my
twenties and then into mythirties, as I was raising my
children, of going.
Oh, actually, the beautiful sideof the holistic approach to
health is this idea of what wedo actually does matter.
(09:33):
Are we resting, are we living astressed out life?
And for me, during that timeperiod I was working as a
corporate lawyer that timeperiod I was working as a
corporate lawyer, my first yearin corporate law I developed an
autoimmune disease calledGraves' disease, which is a
hyperthyroid condition, forthose who don't know.
And so I'd never had any issues, I'd never been on any
(09:55):
medication and I kept saying tomy practitioners what happened.
Like could this be lifestyle?
Is it possible that the crazywork hours and the toxic
boyfriend and the McDonald's andthe coffee five cups of coffee
a day and the lack of sleep andthe crazy market conditions
because I came into work in 2008when the housing market was
(10:16):
crashing Is it possible thatcould have an effect?
All but one said no, no, it'sjust coincidence, just
coincidence.
And then this one dinosaurendocrinologist that I worked
with was, like you know, I'veactually kind of seen the two
things correlate more times thanI can understand and that was
all I needed.
I was like, okay, the way I'mliving matters so that was.
(10:38):
And my daughter I had mydaughter with.
I didn't end up marrying thetoxic boy, toxic boyfriend,
praise Jesus for that.
But a couple of years later Iwas married, had a baby, and so
that experience of actuallybeing able to get my Graves'
disease to go into remissionabout six to 12 months later, by
changing my lifestyle right, bygetting in a healthier
relationship, by changing mydiet, was the first experience I
(11:01):
had of feeling this sense ofempowerment, of, oh, what I do
makes a difference.
And that, I think, is onebeautiful thing about the
holistic perspective is, withthe, with a more allopathic view
of medicine, it's just Russianroulette.
Your genes are your genes andyou can't control anything.
And it created so much fear inme, especially given my
(11:23):
background with my fatheranything.
And it created so much fear inme, especially given my
background with my father.
And so once I found holisticmedicine, it's like this.
This I can believe in, becausecause and effect is all around
us, so why shouldn't it also bein the world of our bodies?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
That's so good, so true.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, I had a big realization with my last baby
that I think.
So.
I agree.
Everything that you were sayingis how I thought I believed
until I was having this laborexperience.
I had a terrible hospital birthand then a home birth and then
this time, very long story short, I was planning a home birth
(12:03):
but we chose to be induced at ahospital and that part really
doesn't matter.
But one big part of thatexperience for me was I was in
prayer, like meditative prayeralmost, to try to just work
through some of these fears Ihad and to help labor just move
(12:23):
along.
And I had this experience withGod where I realized a lot of my
, the way that I was using thesetools I had in the crunchy
community, crunchy world.
All the things I had learnedwas to control this outcome.
Like, if I do all of thesethings, I'm going to avoid all
(12:45):
the things everybody around meis dealing with.
And then if I, you know, if youmake a mistake, what are people
who are not crunchy going tothink about me?
Or, if somebody does, you knowall the things.
And God like really broke me of.
It turned from control tostewardship, where I'm not doing
(13:07):
this anymore to try to play agame of chess where, like, I
come out the end and I win theway that I want, or even my
approach to people around me haschanged and trying to be a
person who pushes and throws,you know, wants everybody to do
everything the way that I do it,because I remember that it's
(13:31):
been a journey, like you saidthere's, so everybody else is
also on a journey and not in thesame place that I am, so
stewarding.
The knowledge that I have, thatGod has given me for my family,
for the circle of influence Ihave, has changed a lot of the
way that I've moved forward thepast few years.
So I love the word.
Stewardship has been big in mylife, so I love that.
(13:52):
You sounds like that's a bigpart of your.
I mean, would you call it aministry or your?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
what you do.
Currently, everything I do yeah, it's my mission, it's one of
my core values is stewardship,because we all start in
different places.
And I love what you said, brie,because there can become almost
this religious element to thecrunchy lifestyle where it's
like if I do this, then I willearn.
Then I will earn what I want.
(14:18):
I will earn this, you know,this health, this well being.
And then the question on the onthe flip side, is what did I do
wrong?
Right and okay, if something'sgoing wrong, what was it?
What did I do?
And so one thing that's beenreally helpful for me is, first
of all, to recognize we arelimited and we're in a fallen
world, so it's not going to beperfect.
(14:40):
And then the other piece ofthat is just recognizing the in
Romans 14.
It's kind of become one of myanchor points because I can I
can bend towards judgment, whichis really just the flip side of
fear.
Right, if I, if you didsomething wrong, it protects me
from having to risk the samestory, and so it's out of fear
(15:01):
that we push that on people.
Oh, if you hadn't done x, y andz, then you wouldn't be dealing
with da, dada-da-da-da-da-da,while there may be some truth.
There is cause and effect thatwe face.
The truth of the matter is wehave limited.
You know, whatever you eat, allis permissible.
But also, like, what reallymatters is who are you
(15:31):
fellowshipping with, right?
But then he also says whateveryou do, whether you eat or
whether you drink, it's fine.
What matters is what yourmaster is calling you to.
Your master is calling you toand he says he says it's the
master's business whether yourise or fall, and you will rise
because he is the one whobasically covers you.
I don't have the wordingexactly right, but go look it up
(15:53):
, it's so beautiful.
And so we view everybody'sdifferences, when we're in
judgment, as a threat.
Oh, they think, okay,iridescent light bulbs, we all
need iridescent light bulbsbecause the other kind of light
bulbs are bad for us.
And oh, we need waterfiltration.
And oh, we need to use thistype of modality for healing and
infrared sauna.
And my husband at one pointlooked at me and said we're
(16:15):
going to go broke if we do allof these things.
We can't do them all.
And so that, to me, was thebeginning, cause I was trying to
do all of them.
Oh, what's another $10,000.
This is going to lead to thisresult.
This transformed so-and-so'slife.
I was always selling him onanother tool that we had to have
to fix the problems, cause Iwas sure that there was a
(16:36):
solution out there somewhere.
If we just put, if we justsacrificed enough right, which
is is a religious, essentiallythat I was operating under, and
when I go, okay, no, the Lordtells me what my next step is,
and it's okay if someone elsehas something else.
My job is to follow Him becauseI'm His servant.
(16:57):
So remembering that has taken alot of the pressure off to do
more, perform better, and it'skept me out of that space of
judgment like you're talkingabout, beth Dombkowski.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I love that.
So when I stepped intohomeopathy, it was also out of
fear and control.
So because I what I found wasgoing to the doctor, I never
knew what, what to expect.
I never, I never knew what wasgoing to happen.
(17:28):
So, going to the doctor or thedentist, so I had this lifelong
fear of like when my mom wouldtake me to the doctor or dentist
as a, as a child, I would say,am I going to get a shot today?
And that was my, that was justmy biggest fear.
And she would be like I don'tknow, or I don't think so, or
whatever.
And um, or if I was sick?
Every time I was sick, I hadstrep throat.
(17:49):
So I went to the doctor and Igot a penicillin shot.
If you've ever had one of those, that is the most awful, most
painful shot that there is, andyou know this was in the 70s.
So I had a lot of fear around,not knowing what was going to
(18:10):
happen to me at the doctor orthe dentist.
And then, when I foundhomeopathy, I felt like, ooh, I
can control this, I can stepinto this and be in control.
And um, and then that made mefeel better for a short amount
(18:30):
of time, because then camebecause I started using
homeopathy.
Before I learned about food andwater and air and sun and all
the other things, homeopathy wasfirst for me, so that felt like
a manageable amount of control.
But then when I startedlearning about food and then I
(18:50):
tried to change everything atone time and I was like oh, oh,
we can't do this and we can't dothat, we have to do this and we
have to do that.
And eventually I remember aboutaround when I realized I have a
lot of anxiety around this, Ihave a lot of anxiety around
this, and when I recognize theanxiety that was happening in me
(19:12):
, I literally had to take a stepback and say this is not okay.
And that was just the Lord.
I mean, this was beforeFacebook.
You know that I realized howmuch anxiety I had.
But then when Facebook came onthe scene, that brought me a lot
of anxiety, because now I cansee when everybody's sick,
they're all placing it onFacebook, we're throwing up
(19:35):
where we got a fever and I'mlike, well, you know.
And so the Lord took me throughthis beautiful journey from
fear and control and and youknow, trying to do everything at
once and do too much tostewardship.
I have never even thought aboutthat until this conversation.
So I love that and this is whyI like to teach baby steps.
(20:01):
So when somebody if you'relistening now and you're just
stepping into the natural healthcare world baby steps, you
cannot change it all overnight,you can't even change it all in
one year, don't even try it allin one year.
Don't even try.
Pick one thing, do that, dothat one thing.
Well, you feel good.
Everybody in the family is good, you know, because, like when I
(20:22):
changed um, now remember thiswas a long time ago, this isn't
even good.
I mean, we know this isn't evengood now, but back then old
milk was bad for you, so we wereall drinking almond milk, right
.
So when I got rid of the junkystore milk and replaced it with
almond milk, the whole familywas like this is terrible, you
(20:43):
know.
And so it took some time to getthem used to drinking the
almond milk, which now isabsolutely not not the best
thing.
But either way, it's baby steps.
So you just get your familysettled into the new thing that
you're doing and then you mighthave a list.
You might have a list of thingsthat you want to do, like all
the things that you just listed,with infrared saunas and all
(21:08):
the things homeopathy andsupplements and herbs and
vitamins and essential oils, andall the cleaning and your water
and just make a list and thenyou just leave it there.
Ask the Lord present, give thelist to the Lord, what do you
want me to do with this?
And wait and wait on them andjust take those baby steps,
(21:28):
because trying to do it all atone time is going to drive you
and your family crazy, and fearshould never, ever lead us.
But I'm just thankful for theprocess he took me through to
show me how to steward my healthwithout fear.
And now that's what I get toencourage people with.
(21:49):
That's what I get to encouragepeople with.
And Brie I know Brie does too,you know, with her clients and
then with all of our students.
Just just let's, we're going tostart using that, this word,
brie, in class.
Steward.
Steward our health instead ofyou know, instead of being a
fear about it.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh, it's so good.
Yeah, I think it's helpful toremember too this is something I
have to keep coming back toagain and again is that we know
that, um, that bad, bad treesdon't bear good fruit.
So, whatever changes I'm making, if I'm making them from a
place of like fear andoppression, as opposed to
feeling like the spirit's reallyleading me, then what I'm going
(22:30):
to create is more fear andoppression.
Right, I've controlled theproblem, but I haven't really
healed the root of the problem.
And so, even in our no matterhow good the thing we might
choose, is, if we choose it froma place of fear and the Lord
blesses it, because for years,fear was really driving me,
because I needed to heal fromthe trauma of my dad's illness.
(22:53):
So much that I did was inreaction to, instead of from a
place of accepting, how the Lordworked a lot of good through
his story, as hard as it was.
And then it wasn't until I'dreckoned with that in a deep
enough way that I was able to gookay, for love of the life that
God has given me.
As a result of that love for mylife, here are some shifts that
(23:16):
I feel like he's calling me tomake, these little tiny changes.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well and I love that the parable of the talents that
you used before, where theultimate goal is to present them
before the Lord, to be pleasingto Him, not to make something
of it for ourselves or for thepeople around us, and by default
, we get to enjoy that rightLike it's beneficial, but it's
(23:44):
not the end game.
So I think that's veryimportant to keep in mind, and I
think you mentioned this beforewe even started recording that
to be able to.
Well, maybe you can say thatyou said something about the end
.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, you go yeah, so .
So the vision that's been veryhelpful and orienting for me in
my life is to is to think aboutthe end goal, you know, and at
the end of the parable of thetalents, the Lord says well done
, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful inlittle.
I will set you over more.
Enter into the joy of yourmaster.
And he says that to both thefive talent and the two talent
(24:19):
servant.
And if you're not familiar withthe story, go and read it.
But really, the point was nothow much were you given, but
what did you do with what youhad.
And so exercise is a tricky onefor me.
It's not something that I getexcited about, it's not
something that I look forward tonecessarily.
I find it a little tricky tofit into my schedule at times
because of that right, and soI've really needed to do a lot
(24:43):
of work around.
How can I love this effort?
Because I know it's animportant part of longevity.
And so, for me, whenever I havea habit tracker and I'm happy
to make that available to any ofyou who are listening and at
the top it talks about why doesthis matter, why is this
essential as a habit?
(25:04):
And so for me it's beinghealthy enough and vibrant
enough to get down on the floorand play with my grandchildren
and my great-grandchildren.
That's why I moved today is sothat, in 50 years, being healthy
enough and vibrant enough toget down on the floor and play
with my grandchildren and mygreat-grandchildren, that's why
I moved today is so that, in 50years, I'm around and I'm
investing in their lives.
I'm helping lighten the loadfor my children and maybe even
for my grandchildren when theyhave children, and able to be
(25:25):
fully present for as long as Godhas me on earth.
And I can't control whether thathappens or not, you know but I
can control the inputs that I do.
I can control that I actuallydo the sit-ups and drink the
water and get the rest and lovemy people and love my life.
You know, live a life ofgratitude and so having that end
(25:48):
goal where I can say, at theend of my life, I used
everything you gave me, that endgoal where I can say, at the
end of my life, I usedeverything you gave me, I moved
my body, I loved the people thatyou put in my life.
I lived a life of gratitude forthe things that you gave me, no
matter how hard some of themwere to love at the time.
You know, ultimately thatactually is going to do far more
for us as far as well-beingthan if we discovered the right.
(26:12):
You know there's no rightsupplement necessarily.
There are good ones.
I mean, melissa, as you, youknow, taught me when you and I
had our conversation it's likebalance is something that's
really dependent on where areyou right now.
How can we bring you intoproper balance?
What depends?
Where you are?
And so far more important, thatwe get the foundational things
in good order, and then therewill be these things that then
(26:34):
we add on Right, then we go fromthere.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Um, what words of wisdom do you both have for busy
, homeschooling or not?
Moms, how can, how can theysteward, how are you stewarding
your family's health whileyou're so busy?
How can they do it, you know?
(27:10):
Do you have any, um, any ideasfor for them?
So that I love what you justsaid about taking care of
yourself so that you can bepresent and be for your
grandchildren I just did a reelthe other day about that.
Like moms, we have to take careof ourselves because you want
to be there and be able to playwith your grandchildren, right?
So stop putting ourselves onthe back burner with homeopathy.
(27:34):
Nobody has to go on the backburner.
You can help yourself and helpthe children Now.
Then, yeah, like what you justsaid with exercise, that's
another layer, right, we have tofind the time or the motivation
or the energy, or whatever, butwe'd love to hear both of your
thoughts on if words of wisdomfor these mamas listening.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You want to go first, Anna?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I will go first.
I have some thoughts on this.
This is one of the things thatI talk a lot about on my podcast
.
She Considers a Field becauseit is such a challenge to we
tend to, especially as mamas whoyou know, whenever we're,
whenever we're all hands on deckall the time, whenever the kids
are kind of always around, Icall it resistance training,
because there will come a daywhen they're gone right, whether
(28:21):
they're in activities orthey're working or they've
launched, and then we really canhave a rhythm that can look the
same most days.
But at this point I always, whenmy kids were very small, every
quiet time moment that I pickedokay, I'll get up at 5.30 in the
morning.
Well then, the baby startedgetting up at 5.30 in the
morning.
Okay, I'll do it after I putthe baby down at six.
Well then, the toddler wasawake, and so part of it, I
(28:44):
think, is it's important that wefocus on our efforts rather
than the results, because wemight think, well, I used to
have, you know, I used to have30 minutes with the Lord every
day, and then we would be, andthen we can be tempted to be in
judgment if we don't pull thatoff.
But the goal is, if we arewomen who are committed to sit
(29:05):
down in our little quiet chairevery day and be there for a
minute or two minutes.
The book Atomic Habits by JamesClear.
It talks about the habits thatyou form need to be two-minute
habits.
If we are women of commitmentwho will sit down and do that
activity every day, even if itonly lasts a minute or two, then
ultimately we will become thewoman who's able to do the 30
(29:27):
minutes and so on as the seasonpermits.
And so my first thing that Iwould suggest is look at your
priorities.
Get really clear on what are mypriority relationships you know
God, and then husband, and thenchildren, and how are those
doing?
How am I doing in stewardingeach of those?
How is my health?
Am I able to get rest?
(29:49):
Do I give myself permission tonap?
How's my mental health and myemotional state?
And then look at one areathat's feeling really challenged
and pick something that willtake two minutes to commit to
and then keep track of it.
That's it.
Like I said, I'll send the linkfor it.
I actually have a whole workbookcalled From Overwhelmed to
(30:11):
Overcomer, where I take peoplethrough this process, where it
says what are all the thingsthat are out of order right now?
And if you're anything likemost of the women, I know that
we feel like we have a long list.
But once we put it all down onpaper, there are some themes
that show up.
And a friend of mine has themost beautiful question.
Whenever we're out of order inan area, the question she asks
(30:40):
is why are you abandoningyourself?
So I find that like that'soriented me so often, like with
this exercise question, as I'vebeen struggling to build rhythm
around exercise why am Iabandoning myself?
This future dream is out there.
Why am I letting it go in favorof lesser priorities?
And so, yes, pick somethinglittle and just pick one thing,
because faithfulness begets morefaithfulness.
Just like Melissa said, whenyou have that one thing that
(31:01):
you've started to win at whereyou're like I'm getting in that
60 ounces of water a day, I'mdoing it, and we start to feel
like I'm a woman of my word.
I set out to do this and I didit.
I set out to do this and I didit.
Then that compounds on itself.
Same with our children.
We need to help them lovetaking care of themselves.
(31:22):
We need to help them see it asa gift that they give to
themselves and help them justrecognize the cause and effect
of oh, it may feel fun to stayup late, but then I'm cranky the
next day and my behavior's outof order.
So I have consequences and I'mnot able to enjoy time with my
friends.
Is it really worth it?
And so we are trying to findthat balance, at the age that
(31:43):
our kids are of 12 and under, ofgiving them a little room to
make decisions and then alsohelping them see, okay, what
really happened, what's the fullscope of this decision that we
just made?
And then we also have someexpectations.
Like you know, when you've gothealthy things on your plate,
it's a five-bite rule thoselittle tiny things that we've
implemented over time, but justtiny, tiny, little baby steps,
(32:05):
because what we don't want isfor them to do what I did when I
went off to college, where thefirst thing that I did was buy a
12-pack of Diet Coke and ramennoodles because I wasn't allowed
to eat that when I was home.
Right, didn't take long for meto realize that didn't feel very
good, but there's this sense oflet us fall in love with the
healthy freedoms, right, thepermission to.
(32:27):
So those are a few things Iwould suggest, but so simple,
just like Melissa talks about,and I'm sure you all say it
quite regularly on here.
So simple, so little, and letthe good crowd out the less
ideal.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
How about you Bree?
Sustainable thing and maybe acouple areas.
But, like when I startedhomeschooling, I really thought
God asked me to homeschool andtold me to homeschool because I
was going to be really good atthis and very quickly learned it
(33:16):
was actually not because ofthat.
So I I had to literally one.
My first thing was a mathcurriculum for my oldest because
he likes math.
That was literally the onlything I committed to for one
year.
Now I eventually did add inreading books with him and stuff
, but I only the weight wasdifferent because my commitment
(33:37):
was only to that one thing.
Then the next school year Iadded one other thing.
The next school year, then thenext school year, I added one
other thing.
The next school year I addedone more kid, you know.
And so I think that one thingand that felt big.
But I would look at other peoplesometimes and I would suddenly
start to be like I'm so behind,I'm never going to, my kids are
(33:57):
going to be, they're never goingto graduate and I had to rein
it back in.
What has God asked of me?
And I would approach theseprayerfully what do I?
What is my thing?
So that for me personally, ifI'm the person who's like I'm
going to go from waking up atseven to five 30, that is a bad
(34:17):
idea.
I would go from seven to six 30.
That feels sustainable.
I can do that long-term.
I'm not going to wake up atfive 30 for a whole.
I'm going to do it for twoweeks.
Then I'm going to be so tiredand go back to sleep until seven
because that was a bad idea.
So sustainable is my key when Imake a change somewhere.
(34:37):
Um, but I would say my I mean,maybe my biggest advice to any
person is always something I'velearned from my husband and
Melissa, and Melissa boundaries,but meaning that our mentors
told us to come up with pillarsin our lives when we were first
(35:00):
married and my husband's apastor lives when we were first
married and my husband's apastor.
So pillars are those thingsthat our lives, our life,
revolves around.
They cannot be.
They're like your big stones inthe bottom of your jar.
They have to be there, they'repriorities and that is how you
structure your life.
So for us, it's our marriage,so date nights, getting out
(35:24):
together, even if it's in ourhome date night, but that our
world revolves around that Hisjob is a big one because he is a
pastor.
So how?
Our availability, everything Ido, as I have a calling to
ministry as well.
So anything that interfereswith that, I say no.
It's by default, it's a nobecause that's already been
(35:47):
decided.
So that's been really helpfulfor me as a mom, the more it is
tempting to let life just getout of control and start letting
life happen to me.
When I go back to the basics,like, okay, all of these things
as my kids get older, there'smuch more to do.
More kids, more stuff, moreministry, more school, I go back
(36:12):
to well, is it interfering withmy five pillars?
Well, then I say no, even thiswork that I've started doing.
My first commitment was toministry my marriage,
homeschooling my children,making sure we still Sabbath as
a family.
So I give what I can give towork and that's it.
So it takes out, and this iswhy I feel like it's been
(36:34):
helpful.
Practically it takes outdecision fatigue, like I don't
have to overthink if something'spresented to me, does it fit in
here?
No, I say no, and I've seen thefruit of that pay off and it is
(36:55):
like I can give the best towhat God has asked of me.
So that is different.
Not everybody has the samepriorities and I've become okay
with that.
The past I mean probably sinceI've had kids it's been more
empowering, but I think that'sall.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
I love it.
So you can obviously all seewhy I love Bree so much.
I mean what, like you know,bree's taught me a lot too.
So but I love what you weretalking about with the
boundaries.
You know how women, a lot ofwomen, don't know how to say no,
and it's because, well, somewomen, maybe it's because we're
(37:33):
afraid of what they'll think ofus if we say no, but some or
maybe not just some women, maybesome situations and then other
situations it's because we wantto help, we want to, we want to
do all the things and we want tohelp all the people, and so my
piece of advice for all of youbusy mamas trying to steward
(37:54):
your family's health well is toask the Lord, and I mean ask him
about every single thing, right, you know, I love what you said
, bree, where decision fatigue.
So if it doesn't fit in here,because you already have that
laid out, you and you and Kylehave already laid that out you
know what those pillars are, youknow what that, where that box
(38:16):
is, and you know what can fit init and what can't.
But not everybody has done that.
I know that.
I have not done that.
So if, if something comes upthat I want to do what.
There's something coming upnext month that I want to do
really bad, and but I'm waitingon the Lord.
I really I'm just waiting andpeople keep asking me Melissa,
(38:37):
are you coming?
Are you coming?
I'm like I don't know yet.
Well, we've got to.
I mean people, people have saidwe've got a place for you where
we saved a spot for you and youcan, you can, stay with us, and
I'm like I'm wait.
I have to hear from him.
I have to hear that that it'sokay that he wants me to do this
, because I don't want to wastetime and I don't want to waste
money and um, and I don't want,and that really, really that's
(39:00):
it.
I don't want to waste time andmoney.
I know it's going to be good,but is it?
Is it what's best, and sothat's?
You know that's.
The other thing is there's adifference between what's good
and what's best.
So you have to ask the Lord,you just have to, and I mean it
could be the tiniest littlething.
Like you know, do I takeMelissa and Bree's next gateway
(39:21):
class.
Ask the Lord, I'm not kidding,I mean, don't you know, every
time you say yes to something,you're saying no to something
else or your family, and so youhave to weigh that.
This has been a greatconversation, so inspiring.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I feel great.
Thank you, ladies.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Anna, thank you so much for just being here.
Was there anything else on yourheart that you wanted to share
today?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Oh, I mean, I'm just going to offer this, like,
wherever you are today, love,love that place.
You know, love that place, nomatter how hard it is, no matter
how you know how much you'restruggling.
We have to.
We have to find the gift todayin order for us to move into a
(40:13):
more beautiful tomorrow.
It's like it's not until we'veunlocked the gift and it doesn't
always happen this way, but atbest, at my best moments with
the Lord, when I have mined thegift from the current season,
that's how we steward well,because then it's never wasted
right To go.
I will love every day you giveme, even the hard, because, if
(40:36):
nothing else, this is going tobe your testimony one day to
encourage someone else.
So just find that way to loveit today one day, to encourage
someone else, so just just findthat way to love it today.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So good, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for being with ustoday, anna, and so you guys.
If you look in the show notes,you should, or the yeah, the
description of this video.
If you're watching the video orthe show notes of the podcast,
you'll find more informationabout Anna and how to find her,
and we just thank you all fortuning in and we just pray that
you will steward your family'shealth well and use what he's
(41:15):
given you and use it wisely.
So thanks for being here, Thankyou.
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