August 27, 2024 • 29 mins
What if the alarming surge in youth mental health issues isn't just about increased awareness? Join us as we sit down with Jessica Zautja, a clinical social worker and co-owner of BZA Behavioral Health, to dissect the 150% rise in mental health symptoms among Gen Z since 2008. We'll uncover the multifaceted influences driving this trend, from the incessant information flow through smartphones to shifts in parenting styles and community engagement. Jessica provides an eye-opening analysis of how these contemporary changes are shaping the mental landscape for today's youth.
Throughout our discussion, we’ll unpack the societal changes that have left Gen Z more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. With the arrival of smartphones around 2008 and the subsequent flood of information, we explore how constant connectivity has altered our mental health. Jessica will also delve into evolving parenting styles, highlighting how increased caution and a decline in face-to-face community interactions are impacting children’s abilities to handle real-life challenges. By juxtaposing the past and present environments, we pinpoint the crucial role of community and mindfulness in fostering emotional well-being.
To wrap up, Jessica shares actionable strategies for building resilience and promoting mental health in daily life. From the benefits of physical activity and achieving a sense of accomplishment to the importance of community connections, you'll walk away with practical tips to enhance your mental well-being. We also delve into the powerful role of spiritual or religious communities like Light of Christ in providing resilience through purpose and altruism. This episode is packed with insights and advice that will not only inform but inspire you to take steps toward better mental health.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, welcome to today's episode of Unpacking
Truths.
I'm excited to have a guestwith me.
Jessica Zautja is here.
One of the questions that comesup oftentimes as a pastor and
as I'm listening to people isjust questions around emotional
health, mental health, andpeople have just been asking me
you know what's going on.
(00:21):
I seem to be hearing so muchmore of that.
Why is that?
And so I thought let me bringin someone who deals with this
day by day and helps lead animportant practice in our
community.
I'm Pastor Kendall and I'mPastor Mo.
Welcome to Unpacking Truths,where we dive deep into God's
timeless truths for our livestoday.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Grab your coffee.
Open your hearts and your minds.
Come take this journey with us,as we unpack God's truths.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And so, jessica, it's great to have you a part of
this episode of Unpacking Truths, so welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, thank you.
I've been really excited tocome and just sit with you and
have a good conversation todayabout such an important topic.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It is such an important topic and so let's dig
in.
But before we dig into thetopic, let's just dig into just
a little bit about you.
Can you just say sort of whatyour work is today and sort of
the practice that you have inthis community?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely so you don't want to hear about like
walks on the beach or my specialno, no, no.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We want to hear about what you do that relate to
mental health and that, no, I'vebeen a social worker clinical
social worker for about 20 years.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I am a co-owner of BZA Behavioral Health, which is
a local practice.
We have three locations here inthe northwest suburbs of
Chicago.
We're actually the secondlargest behavioral health
practice in the northwestsuburbs of Chicago outside of
Chicago proper.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Way to go.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, and it grew, I think, really relevant to this
topic.
It grew very quickly andunexpectedly, I think partly
because of the topic you'rebringing up today.
The need is just very, very.
There's just a huge need rightnow in so many largest, at the
(02:02):
largest community mental healthcenter until about 2012, when,
unfortunately, due to budgetrestraints, that agency had to
very suddenly close its doors,and so I partnered up with a
longtime friend of mine, jeffBondora, who was a friend from
graduate school, and weco-founded BZA, and it was just
the two of us.
We had grand aspirations toprovide something that was
pretty comprehensive andintegrative in terms of really
(02:25):
trying to put a number ofdifferent mental health services
under one roof, and really weboth came from backgrounds in
youth mental health that wasprior to BZA.
I had worked in all youthprogramming.
I was the program developersorry, program manager at family
service and community mentalhealth prior to that, and so so
(02:47):
the adolescent mental health hasjust always been something I've
been really proud of and reallyinvolved in, and so we knew
that was going to be kind of thecornerstone of our business,
and since then it's, it's, it'smaintained.
So we have about about 50% ofour, of our clients who are seen
at BZA are under the age of 22.
So kind of consider that likeextended youth and man, they
benefit from the services,they're passionate about it and
(03:10):
so we're excited to serve them.
We have three locations hereOne in our local, one is here at
the corner of Algonquin andRandall Road, and yeah, that's
probably about it for me.
So, unless you have, anyspecific questions?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
No, I think that's good, and let me just ask you is
we're hearing more about mentalhealth issues with youth?
Is it because we're moresensitive to it that it's more
being talked about, or is theredynamics that are causing it to
be more of a challenge for youththese days, keeping a
(03:46):
groundedness in healthy waysmentally and emotionally?
Can you give us someperspective on that?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I would say yes and yes, I think there's a little
bit of all of it.
I would love to say that thereason that we are talking about
this more is because we'retalking about this more is
because there's more people thatare learning about it.
We're more educated, we'recertainly able to get
information out in a moremeaningful way, and so I think
that you know, naturally, whenwe start to experience things
that we recognize aren'tcomfortable or aren't feeling
(04:15):
good, we are, we are, we areidentifying them and and we're
reaching out for help more.
I think that's very true and Ithink that's the good news.
I think the not as good news isthat also, there is, independent
of that, there are increases innot just awareness of mental
health and people identifyingwith mental health concerns that
maybe before they might havefelt stigmatized by, but we see
(04:36):
rates of suicide increasingexponentially, we see symptoms
rising and we also see thingslike self-injury and
hospitalizations also going upsignificantly, specifically
since about 2008 is when wereally saw you know there was an
increase before then, but a youknow that line just started to
skyrocket.
(04:57):
So it's real and it is being ledby youth.
It has been, sadly, in thiscase, it's being led by youth,
our Gen Zs, who were born after1995, they've seen about a 150%
increase in their mental healthsymptoms since 2008, where we're
seeing about double the ratesfor millennials and as we get
(05:19):
older we're actually seeing thatthose rates are more stable.
So, folks, the Gen Xs of uswere a little bit more
moderately impacted and actuallybaby boomers were not.
We are actually seeing thattheir rates actually slightly
declined since 2008.
So we definitely see youthbeing impacted more than any
other population during thistime.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's fascinating.
So to me, being the guy whoalways tries to understand how
the world works, do we have anybeginning answers of the why of
we think that is happening?
We're also, by the way, we'realso going to engage the
question audience of how do wedo, what do we do to help
(06:01):
present it, prevent this and tokeep ourselves strong and in a
healthy way.
So we're going to get to thosetopics too.
But let me just ask sort of thewhy.
I'm sure there's a lot ofdebate, discussion on that.
Do they have a sense of the why?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I think this is a good time to reference.
I think in the description ofthis particular podcast or
YouTube, you guys are going toreference these two sources that
I'm not going to specificallyrefer to, but I'll just say like
I'm borrowing a lot from thosetwo sources.
So, if you want to check outthe anxious generation, uh is a
is a very recently written bookreally speaks to this topic.
Um, almost, you know, when youmentioned it, I was, I was had
(06:36):
just started.
When you invited me here, I hadjust started reading that book
and I'm like, oh God knew, youknow, to put that in my hand.
So I would highly recommendthat.
It's not it can be read byprofessionals, but it's really
intended to be for anybody to beable to.
Yes, absolutely, Parents.
You know people who themselvesare struggling.
And then another one is Rewireyour Anxious Brain, which is
(06:57):
very much more of the how-tobook, although both have a very
hopeful and proactive message tothis.
So I would agree with theauthor of the Ancient Generation
that I think there are a lot ofdifferent sources, everything
from changes in the way thatkids and that we as adults are
engaging in society.
I think it's very easy to pointat just the timeline and to say
(07:20):
, okay, what was going on in2008?
Well, about 2008 is when most ofus got our first smartphones in
our hands, and it was a wholenew youth whose brains are still
developing.
We just know we're impacteddifferently.
They were more engaged in itbecause their brains are ripe,
they're sponges.
At that time we as adultsdidn't know how to protect them
yet, because it was a newfrontier for us.
(07:41):
So I think that's a big factor.
It's not that the smartphonesor cell phones are the enemy.
It's the whole change insociety that was happening even
before that Our exposure asadults and as youth to news
sources.
When I was a kid, you had twoopportunities to watch news and
to consume news, and then therest of the time you were out
(08:03):
doing your life.
Now we have constant feedbackabout what's going on in our
society, and this is more of areference to the rewire, your
anxious brain.
Our brains were not reallydesigned for a 2024 or even
really a 2004 environment.
They are still kind ofevolutionarily, you know, more
like our ancestors.
They're meant to be out there,living in the here and now,
(08:25):
dealing with real-life threats,not threats from across the
globe that we hear about butcan't necessarily take action on
.
So we know that there's a numberof different issues that come
along with that that probablyhad a lot to do with that.
Also, the sense of in-personcommunity has diminished quite a
lot, and so you know when weget later on to what we can do
about some of these, you knowthese concerns for our kids, for
(08:47):
ourselves.
Community is one of the bestthings we can do is stay
involved in your community inperson, in real life, be in the
here and now.
You know it's important to knowwhat's coming, or to try to
know what's coming.
It's important to reflect onthe past, but we need to be here
and present, and there's somany things that take us away
from that right now that I thinkare a big reason why our mental
health is declining.
So that's a very in spite of mylong-windedness, that's a
(09:09):
pretty succinct answer tosomething that, if you're
interested the anxiousgeneration is a good one to
really dig into that topic.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No, I think that was very on point.
You know one of the things myback in high school, one of my
world history teachers said ifyou don't learn anything else
from this class, learn this.
He said learn multiplecausation.
Everyone will want to tell youit's one thing that causes that.
It's usually multiple factorsand you know, I held up my cell
(09:37):
phone when you said whathappened in 2008.
And, yeah, smartphones, butthere were.
It was also the Internet beforethat that was inundating us
with more and more access toinformation.
But are we able to process thatand how do we filter that out?
And, as well as you, as yousaid, a declining sense of
connection and community inpeople.
(09:58):
That it is probably multiplecauses.
It's not just one evil thing,it's just factors of our
environment changing and we'renot able to adjust quick enough.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We're meant to struggle.
Humans are meant to struggle.
We're meant to take onchallenges.
We're meant to be uncomfortable.
But when we don't feel like wehave any way to deal with the
things, that we're beingpresented with the challenges
we're being presented with thechallenges we're being presented
with, that's where anxietythrives.
That's where hopelessness anddepression can really take hold
(10:31):
is because we know the problemsare there and yet we don't feel
like we have a nucleus ofcontrol to do anything about it.
And I think that you knowanother thing that was happening
during that time, and I know,you know we constantly are, you
know, joking around about this,but you know this.
But if you were to go into agroup of multi-generational
folks and you look at anyonefrom our teenagers through our
(10:51):
folks who are in their 60s and70s and you ask when was the
first time that you were allowedto go ride your bike alone,
that age range has consistentlyticked up to the point where I
have a daughter who's going tobe 13 and she's got friends
whose, you know, parents arevery, you know, cautious about
even letting their kids walkdown the block unattended.
Yet we live in a safer placetoday.
(11:13):
For kids and adolescents, it issafer across almost every
measure other than online.
That's about the one place thatthey face more threats.
They're, you know childkidnappings and abductions are
down.
You know pedestrian accidentsare down, interesting.
But are they prepared?
(11:40):
Do they feel like they canhandle it?
And if they don't feel likethey can handle walking down the
street to their friend's housewithout a threat happening?
How are they going to feel allof a sudden like they're in high
school or college, or even toadulthood, and handle the bigger
threat?
So I think, like I said, it'snot just the devices that was
happening far before thesmartphone that took hold, where
we started to see a change, afear-based change in parenting
(12:03):
that said that parents have toprotect kids at all costs, and I
think that was not probably tothe benefit of our mental health
.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So in some ways and again, this is a conversation
where I'm learning, but I'm alsobringing my experience of
observing, just in my role- andas a parent role and as a parent
.
Well, and as a parent exactly,with 320-somethings who, by the
(12:31):
grace of God, have gotten themhealthy to past the 20th
birthday, which is by the graceof God.
But that sense of and I guess Ialso want to say to those
listening, to those watchingthere is nothing in this where
we are trying to judge anyonefor doing this or that or the
other thing.
We're trying to learn togetherand this all hit us all real
quickly and we're all stilltrying to catch up.
(12:53):
But you know, when you sayfear-based parenting, some of
that is what I think.
In the other way that it'sframed is sometimes the
helicopter parenting, whereyou're just always monitoring,
always managing, alwaysprotecting, but sometimes that
doesn't.
Is the danger there that you'renot allowing?
You referred to the autonomy ofthe young person to figure out
(13:16):
who they are or to explore theirenvironment, or what is it
about that fear-based or thathelicopter, and is that a
correct?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
name yeah, very correct term to use, and I love
that you said it's not aboutjudgment, because you know I
have a child who struggles withanxiety.
I know that there have beentimes where I have, you know,
fear-based parented her becausewe have anxiety.
As parents, we desperately wantto give our children everything
and yet there's nothing worsewe could do than to not let them
struggle.
(13:45):
You know they need to strugglebecause they need to learn that
they can struggle and getthrough hard things, and so,
whether it's our well-intended,you know, going in and trying to
fight a battle for them, orprotecting them by not allowing
them to do things that seem alittle bit risky, you know they
all come from a really goodplace in us and on the surface
it is protective.
They all come from a reallygood place in us and on the
(14:06):
surface it is protective.
But what we're now learning,and to that point like it's
taken a decade or two to lookback and say, okay, now we can
see that this is not it'sprotecting, that maybe they're
not getting as many broken armsat the park or that you know
that we feel more secure, thatwe know they got to their
friend's house.
You know in one piece, but it'snot letting them feel like they
can handle hard things.
And that's, I think, a messagethat even you know, jumping
(14:28):
ahead a little bit, like whenyou think about how do we parent
a little bit differently, likeI even have to watch this with
my own daughter when she says,well, I'm really worried about X
, y or Z happening, it's sonatural to just want to provide
reassurance You're going to befine.
You know you want to providereassurance You're going to be
fine.
You know you're going to acethat test, or like that's not
(14:48):
going to happen.
Or don't worry.
You know like you're going tohave so many more loves after
this.
Or you know so many morefriends.
You know those are all verynormal and natural things to say
to our kids.
And yet what they really need tohear is you know what, maybe it
will, maybe it won't, butyou'll handle it.
You know, maybe you aren'tgoing to do as well on that test
as you think, but we'll dealwith it.
You'll deal with it.
You can get through it.
You'll figure it out afterwards.
You don't need to take that onright now.
(15:08):
You can't really take that onright now, but it's a very
subtly different message ofinstead of don't worry, you'll
be okay, it's whether,regardless, you'll be okay
because you'll work through itand you have a community of
people to help you work throughit.
So I think it's a subtle changethat we need to get used to.
You know, parenting A part ofthat is letting them struggle,
letting them even fail sometimes.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, well, and yeah, and because a parental love is
so deep and so instinctual andso powerful that
over-protectiveness is justflows naturally that it's almost
.
We have to guard against that.
And and I am struck by what youcame back to say is that the
(15:50):
that while most families incommunities around where we are,
those kids are safer than theyhave ever been, the one place
they are less safe is the oneplace we sort of have not put
any controls over and just letthem go and that's on screens,
and that online is the one moredangerous place.
That going to the park, goingto you know, that whole sense of
(16:11):
, yeah, getting up and ridingyour bike down two miles to a
friend's house is almost unheardof these days for anyone under
16.
But maybe that's actually saferthan some of the things that we
think are not some of thechallenge places.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Even the real, scary threats we think about, like you
know, human trafficking andthings that, of course, are a
real threat online.
I think you know understandingthat the developers of most of
our apps, most of our technologyon a smartphone or a device are
built to create addiction.
I mean, it's behavioralscientists got behind these.
You know these developers andsaid okay by putting in an
(16:50):
endless scroll, by allowing foryou know only some of the things
that they're seeing to beinterested by having a for you
page or having likes andimmediate feedback.
These are things that we knoware hitting on and to get a
little, a little little sciencey.
it's the dopamine center of ourbrain, and the dopamine center
never is really happy.
It's always seeking pleasure,and when it gets a dose of
pleasure it wants more.
(17:11):
So that is very much addictionand uh and.
And so our, we are all.
We all have a little bit ofthat.
I I do, you know.
I know I will sit downsometimes and say I'm going to
watch a couple of videos becauseI love myself a funny cat video
or something, and I'll falldown a rabbit hole of that and
all of a sudden 45 minutes hasgone by and I wanted to be there
for 10.
(17:32):
So adults are susceptible to ittoo.
But we have our breaks arefully in place.
That's what we didn't reallyunderstand at the time that
these came.
Our adolescents, they don'thave breaks in place to know
when to stop at all, and this isvery it feels very satisfying
in the moment.
So it is a risky place to beand yet it's.
You know you're kind ofstanding alone sometimes as a
(17:52):
parent if you're stronglyregulating that with your middle
school or your high school oreven your grade school, or
because a lot of parents arevery much, you know they don't
want their kids to fall behind.
They don't want them not tohave the social opportunities.
So even we, as parents, gettingoff Instagram or Facebook, well
, I miss out.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So it's a little FOMO for everyone.
So, jessica, let me shift thisa little bit, because there's so
much we could talk about inthis topic.
I want to go back to you gave alittle bit of a definition of
anxiety and anxiousness, and Ijust want to circle back to that
because I think that word getsthrown out a lot these days and
(18:32):
I would just, I would be helpedby hearing how you define it,
how you understand that, so thatwe're in sort of what are some
of the causes of thatgeneralized anxiety that we hear
talk about?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
So fear and anxiety are connected, but they're not
one and the same.
Fear is something that ishappening and my body is
responding to it.
Anxiety is the physical and themental response to a fear that
might happen.
It's an imagined fear, or it'sa potential fear, you know, or a
potential situation.
So you know, when we thinkabout you know, you know if
(19:08):
you're about to get on stage ordo something like this and you
start to feel your body activate, your heart rate a little bit
of, you know, yeah, you know,that's, that's a little bit of a
fear response and that's a.
That's an.
That's a healthy thing to haveit.
You know, um, when our anxietysystem takes over, it's
pummeling us with a lot ofimagery and the what-ifs, and
the problem is our brain cantake on an insurmountable number
(19:29):
of what-ifs and go through allof them and then we kind of
become paralyzed.
So the clinical definition ofanxiety is twofold.
It's a set of symptoms thatusually involves both physical
symptoms, basically your bodyactivating.
So these things would be reallyhelpful if you were running
away from a rival tribe or awoolly mammoth or fighting
against something.
You know your heart rateincreasing, your perspiration
(19:51):
coming up, your, you know yourstomach trying to, you know,
empty its contents so it canpreserve and send energy to
where it needs to, would all bereally helpful.
When we are sitting and havinga feeling like panic because of
something that might happen, Imight walk into a social
situation and screw up.
You know that our kids might goand fail a test that day.
You know that that that thengives us those symptoms
(20:12):
prematurely and then it alsoaffects our brains.
Our brains, you know, start wehave racing thoughts, very fast,
thoughts that again bring onall of these.
You know worst case scenariosand it can be incredibly
physically uncomfortably,physically uncomfortable, and it
really can be.
It can induce a sense of likeparalysis, honestly.
So the common symptoms that comeout of that will often be, or
(20:32):
functionally will start to avoidsituations that make us
uncomfortable, whether that's asocial situation or you know, if
you have a phobia you know aspider phobia you'll do
everything you can to avoidinteracting with a spider and
even though there's almost noway to do that, and then you
become kind of hyper, fixated onthat.
Or sometimes it can also bethings like obsessive and
compulsive cycles, that you canobsessively think about
(20:53):
something and do things kind ofcompulsively to set that off.
So that's kind of a generaldefinition of anxiety.
There's a lot of differentdiagnoses that fall under that
and then depression is kind ofthe opposite of that.
If you think of anxiety as aheightened emotion, depression
is kind of a slowed emotionalresponse and we're struggling to
kind of activate our systems orfeel good and feel like we can
(21:14):
really get ourselves going.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay, well, jessica, I just got the little signal
here that we're I saw it.
We're coming towards the end.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I thought it's been five minutes.
I know exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So I'm going to shift it again because this has been
so important.
But we've been diagnosing someof the challenges, the whys
behind it.
Let's talk about some of thepositives.
What are some of the thingsthat we can do as people, as
adults, as parents, whatever tohelp, if not fully inoculate
(21:44):
ourselves, build up a strongfoundation to withstand some of
these new challenges that arecoming at us as a society.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, no, I like how you said that.
Because it's not you know, weare not.
There is no cure, you know.
And it's not because you knowthis is a terminal illness.
It's because you know pursuitof happiness, pursuit of peace
is something we have to activelypractice every single day.
And so you know, rather thanand sometimes when we feel like
we can't inoculate something, itbecomes overwhelming.
But if every day we wake up andthink of what are the things I
(22:16):
can do to kind of balance, youknow, if I'm feeling on the
depressed side, I know it'sgoing to be hard to get my
system going.
So what are the sources aroundme that can really activate and
keep me going?
And if I'm anxious, what arethe things that I can do to kind
of promote better mental health?
And so you know a couple ofthings.
And one thing I do want to justkind of mention is how important
, you know, a religious orspiritual community, how
(22:36):
important Light of Christ is forour community.
When we think about the placesand the activities that are
really going to promote mentalhealth.
We want places that are goingto give us a sense of connection
, a sense of purpose, a sense ofaltruism.
Of that I'm doing something forthe greater good, you know, of
knowing that there is a commonbelief system.
These are things that you know.
(22:56):
Across all religions we seethat it's a resilience factor is
to be involved in yourcommunity, whatever community
means.
So I'm very proud of being partof Light of Christ that there
is such a strong community here.
There's so much, you know youguys do so much for the mental
health community.
The eye care, you know.
The whole program that you guyshave here is a wonderful way of
(23:18):
also kind of reaching out andpromoting mental health.
But on an individual level, youknow, I always kind of think of
you know the acronym BASE, butwith a C is a great way to think
about how do we support ourmental health every day, finding
activities that activate ourbody, that get our body moving
or that calm our body if we havesome anxiety, but basically
tuning into our bodies.
What does our body need?
(23:38):
A healthy mind requires ahealthy body.
What do we do?
That gives us a sense of?
It's supposed to be one A.
I'm going to add three.
The actual A is accomplishment,but I add achievement,
accomplishment, adventure, whatare things that kind of get us
looking forward to somethingAgain, kind of that sense of
purpose.
What are activities and thingsthat we do that make us feel
(23:59):
connected, connected to God,connected to nature, connected
to our family, connected to ourinner selves?
Meditation can be a good sourceof connection.
And then what do we do forenjoyment?
You know, kind of going back tothe phones.
You know a lot of times whenwe're scrolling, we're numbing,
we're not.
Yeah, maybe there's a littlebit of enjoyment, but it's more
that we're getting through thatmoment instead of really
engaging enjoyably in a moment.
(24:19):
So really stepping back andfinding those enjoyable
activities.
So I would say the combinationof that and plus, you know, good
, taking care of your sleep.
If you're a parent, you knowit's never too late to have good
conversations with your kids,not just about this is.
You know you're not allowed tohave your phone because you
violated this or you did thiswrong.
(24:40):
You know I had a conversationwith my daughter about why,
while she's in my, under my roof, she will never have a phone in
her bedroom.
After dark, like after it'snighttime, like it.
Just it's not going to beanything I ever take away Cause.
I believe it's just a, and sheknows why that there's a.
There's a reason I'm protectingyour sleep and protecting your
peace.
So have conversations, you know.
Be slow to give those thosethose incremental steps into the
(25:01):
adult world of social media andtechnology.
Um, and give our kids andourselves a chance to play, a
chance to adventure, a chance tobe autonomous.
I said it earlier, butcommunicating instead of it'll
be okay, it'll be, it's, youknow.
Regardless, we'll get throughit, you'll handle it.
You know we want to build asense of resilience, not
(25:21):
security all the time, becausethe world isn't secure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I love that resilience versus security and
you know and maybe this is whereI'll just wrap it up a little
bit, though I would love thisconversation to go another hour
what you just said, jessica,there is no security in this
world.
As a pastor, as a theologian,there's no guarantee of tomorrow
(25:47):
.
I mean Scripture again andagain says.
I mean Jesus said do not worryabout tomorrow.
Tomorrow will have enoughworries for itself.
How do we learn to trust Godwith today and be present to
today and the gifts that Godgives us, the challenges that
are in front of us, that we'regoing to have to figure out and
(26:08):
solve, that are going to thenlead us to a sense of
achievement, but also theenjoyment of that and the
enjoyment of other things, thatit is a world where we're prayer
, going to God and surrenderingour future.
When we try to think we cancontrol our future, we can't.
That's, to me, part of thepower of faith is we get to turn
(26:32):
over and say God, I'm trustingmy future to you and you've
given me today.
So what do I do with today andwhen I can entrust that to God
in the future, I don't have toget caught up in the anxious and
worries.
I have to do some planning forthat, but I don't have to get
overwhelmed in the worry and itis, and just so many scriptures
(26:53):
are coming to mind.
Maybe we'll put some underneaththat, but this is such an
important topic and so many ofus wrestle with this in
different ways ourselves orpeople in our families and so
thanks for what you've sharedhere.
We may have to come back tothis topic again, jessica.
We may have to come back tothis topic again, jessica.
We may have to revisit this,but thanks for taking the time.
Go again and check out thoseresources below in the
(27:15):
description.
Thanks for lifting those up,thanks for being a part of this
and thanks for listening in, andwe'll catch you next time on
unpacking truthscom, next timeon unpacking truths.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The Holy Spirit's worked in a whole lot of
different ways 100%, and I thinkthat's why I have such a heart
for either the unchurched or thepeople who don't feel they
belong in church, because I'mlike no, no, no, we all belong
here and we don't have to.
Of course, we all want tochange and be our best selves
for Christ, but I'm still Jewishyou know what I mean and so
(27:50):
that has been refreshing to feellike I don't have to give up
that piece of myself.
I don't feel that God iscalling me to give up that piece
of myself.
If anything, it makes myexperience even richer, and even
with working with the PATHstudents, I've been able to
bring up things to them likeanti-Semitism my favorite
(28:11):
subject my wildly twistedrelationship with Martin Luther.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yep, yep.
Well, we wanted to go there, Iwas going to say you've heard a
lot about that one yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Unpacking
Truths.
If anything that we discussedsparked any ideas or you have
any questions, we would love foryou to go to unpackingting
Truths.
If anything that we discussedsparked any ideas or you have
any questions, we would love foryou to go to unpackingtruthscom
, or you can also email us atunpackingtruths at locchurchcom.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And don't forget to like, share or subscribe to the
podcast, because you doing thatallows other people to connect
to this content and grow withGod as well.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Until next time, we hope you know that you are loved
.
Well, welcome to today's episode of Unpacking
Truths.
I'm excited to have a guestwith me.
Jessica Zautja is here.
One of the questions that comesup oftentimes as a pastor and
as I'm listening to people isjust questions around emotional
health, mental health, andpeople have just been asking me
you know what's going on.
(00:21):
I seem to be hearing so muchmore of that.
Why is that?
And so I thought let me bringin someone who deals with this
day by day and helps lead animportant practice in our
community.
I'm Pastor Kendall and I'mPastor Mo.
Welcome to Unpacking Truths,where we dive deep into God's
timeless truths for our livestoday.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Grab your coffee.
Open your hearts and your minds.
Come take this journey with us,as we unpack God's truths.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And so, jessica, it's great to have you a part of
this episode of Unpacking Truths, so welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, thank you.
I've been really excited tocome and just sit with you and
have a good conversation todayabout such an important topic.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It is such an important topic and so let's dig
in.
But before we dig into thetopic, let's just dig into just
a little bit about you.
Can you just say sort of whatyour work is today and sort of
the practice that you have inthis community?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely so you don't want to hear about like
walks on the beach or my specialno, no, no.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We want to hear about what you do that relate to
mental health and that, no, I'vebeen a social worker clinical
social worker for about 20 years.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I am a co-owner of BZA Behavioral Health, which is
a local practice.
We have three locations here inthe northwest suburbs of
Chicago.
We're actually the secondlargest behavioral health
practice in the northwestsuburbs of Chicago outside of
Chicago proper.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Way to go.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, and it grew, I think, really relevant to this
topic.
It grew very quickly andunexpectedly, I think partly
because of the topic you'rebringing up today.
The need is just very, very.
There's just a huge need rightnow in so many largest, at the
(02:02):
largest community mental healthcenter until about 2012, when,
unfortunately, due to budgetrestraints, that agency had to
very suddenly close its doors,and so I partnered up with a
longtime friend of mine, jeffBondora, who was a friend from
graduate school, and weco-founded BZA, and it was just
the two of us.
We had grand aspirations toprovide something that was
pretty comprehensive andintegrative in terms of really
(02:25):
trying to put a number ofdifferent mental health services
under one roof, and really weboth came from backgrounds in
youth mental health that wasprior to BZA.
I had worked in all youthprogramming.
I was the program developersorry, program manager at family
service and community mentalhealth prior to that, and so so
(02:47):
the adolescent mental health hasjust always been something I've
been really proud of and reallyinvolved in, and so we knew
that was going to be kind of thecornerstone of our business,
and since then it's, it's, it'smaintained.
So we have about about 50% ofour, of our clients who are seen
at BZA are under the age of 22.
So kind of consider that likeextended youth and man, they
benefit from the services,they're passionate about it and
(03:10):
so we're excited to serve them.
We have three locations hereOne in our local, one is here at
the corner of Algonquin andRandall Road, and yeah, that's
probably about it for me.
So, unless you have, anyspecific questions?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
No, I think that's good, and let me just ask you is
we're hearing more about mentalhealth issues with youth?
Is it because we're moresensitive to it that it's more
being talked about, or is theredynamics that are causing it to
be more of a challenge for youththese days, keeping a
(03:46):
groundedness in healthy waysmentally and emotionally?
Can you give us someperspective on that?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I would say yes and yes, I think there's a little
bit of all of it.
I would love to say that thereason that we are talking about
this more is because we'retalking about this more is
because there's more people thatare learning about it.
We're more educated, we'recertainly able to get
information out in a moremeaningful way, and so I think
that you know, naturally, whenwe start to experience things
that we recognize aren'tcomfortable or aren't feeling
(04:15):
good, we are, we are, we areidentifying them and and we're
reaching out for help more.
I think that's very true and Ithink that's the good news.
I think the not as good news isthat also, there is, independent
of that, there are increases innot just awareness of mental
health and people identifyingwith mental health concerns that
maybe before they might havefelt stigmatized by, but we see
(04:36):
rates of suicide increasingexponentially, we see symptoms
rising and we also see thingslike self-injury and
hospitalizations also going upsignificantly, specifically
since about 2008 is when wereally saw you know there was an
increase before then, but a youknow that line just started to
skyrocket.
(04:57):
So it's real and it is being ledby youth.
It has been, sadly, in thiscase, it's being led by youth,
our Gen Zs, who were born after1995, they've seen about a 150%
increase in their mental healthsymptoms since 2008, where we're
seeing about double the ratesfor millennials and as we get
(05:19):
older we're actually seeing thatthose rates are more stable.
So, folks, the Gen Xs of uswere a little bit more
moderately impacted and actuallybaby boomers were not.
We are actually seeing thattheir rates actually slightly
declined since 2008.
So we definitely see youthbeing impacted more than any
other population during thistime.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's fascinating.
So to me, being the guy whoalways tries to understand how
the world works, do we have anybeginning answers of the why of
we think that is happening?
We're also, by the way, we'realso going to engage the
question audience of how do wedo, what do we do to help
(06:01):
present it, prevent this and tokeep ourselves strong and in a
healthy way.
So we're going to get to thosetopics too.
But let me just ask sort of thewhy.
I'm sure there's a lot ofdebate, discussion on that.
Do they have a sense of the why?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, I think this is a good time to reference.
I think in the description ofthis particular podcast or
YouTube, you guys are going toreference these two sources that
I'm not going to specificallyrefer to, but I'll just say like
I'm borrowing a lot from thosetwo sources.
So, if you want to check outthe anxious generation, uh is a
is a very recently written bookreally speaks to this topic.
Um, almost, you know, when youmentioned it, I was, I was had
(06:36):
just started.
When you invited me here, I hadjust started reading that book
and I'm like, oh God knew, youknow, to put that in my hand.
So I would highly recommendthat.
It's not it can be read byprofessionals, but it's really
intended to be for anybody to beable to.
Yes, absolutely, Parents.
You know people who themselvesare struggling.
And then another one is Rewireyour Anxious Brain, which is
(06:57):
very much more of the how-tobook, although both have a very
hopeful and proactive message tothis.
So I would agree with theauthor of the Ancient Generation
that I think there are a lot ofdifferent sources, everything
from changes in the way thatkids and that we as adults are
engaging in society.
I think it's very easy to pointat just the timeline and to say
(07:20):
, okay, what was going on in2008?
Well, about 2008 is when most ofus got our first smartphones in
our hands, and it was a wholenew youth whose brains are still
developing.
We just know we're impacteddifferently.
They were more engaged in itbecause their brains are ripe,
they're sponges.
At that time we as adultsdidn't know how to protect them
yet, because it was a newfrontier for us.
(07:41):
So I think that's a big factor.
It's not that the smartphonesor cell phones are the enemy.
It's the whole change insociety that was happening even
before that Our exposure asadults and as youth to news
sources.
When I was a kid, you had twoopportunities to watch news and
to consume news, and then therest of the time you were out
(08:03):
doing your life.
Now we have constant feedbackabout what's going on in our
society, and this is more of areference to the rewire, your
anxious brain.
Our brains were not reallydesigned for a 2024 or even
really a 2004 environment.
They are still kind ofevolutionarily, you know, more
like our ancestors.
They're meant to be out there,living in the here and now,
(08:25):
dealing with real-life threats,not threats from across the
globe that we hear about butcan't necessarily take action on
.
So we know that there's a numberof different issues that come
along with that that probablyhad a lot to do with that.
Also, the sense of in-personcommunity has diminished quite a
lot, and so you know when weget later on to what we can do
about some of these, you knowthese concerns for our kids, for
(08:47):
ourselves.
Community is one of the bestthings we can do is stay
involved in your community inperson, in real life, be in the
here and now.
You know it's important to knowwhat's coming, or to try to
know what's coming.
It's important to reflect onthe past, but we need to be here
and present, and there's somany things that take us away
from that right now that I thinkare a big reason why our mental
health is declining.
So that's a very in spite of mylong-windedness, that's a
(09:09):
pretty succinct answer tosomething that, if you're
interested the anxiousgeneration is a good one to
really dig into that topic.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
No, I think that was very on point.
You know one of the things myback in high school, one of my
world history teachers said ifyou don't learn anything else
from this class, learn this.
He said learn multiplecausation.
Everyone will want to tell youit's one thing that causes that.
It's usually multiple factorsand you know, I held up my cell
(09:37):
phone when you said whathappened in 2008.
And, yeah, smartphones, butthere were.
It was also the Internet beforethat that was inundating us
with more and more access toinformation.
But are we able to process thatand how do we filter that out?
And, as well as you, as yousaid, a declining sense of
connection and community inpeople.
(09:58):
That it is probably multiplecauses.
It's not just one evil thing,it's just factors of our
environment changing and we'renot able to adjust quick enough.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We're meant to struggle.
Humans are meant to struggle.
We're meant to take onchallenges.
We're meant to be uncomfortable.
But when we don't feel like wehave any way to deal with the
things, that we're beingpresented with the challenges
we're being presented with thechallenges we're being presented
with, that's where anxietythrives.
That's where hopelessness anddepression can really take hold
(10:31):
is because we know the problemsare there and yet we don't feel
like we have a nucleus ofcontrol to do anything about it.
And I think that you knowanother thing that was happening
during that time, and I know,you know we constantly are, you
know, joking around about this,but you know this.
But if you were to go into agroup of multi-generational
folks and you look at anyonefrom our teenagers through our
(10:51):
folks who are in their 60s and70s and you ask when was the
first time that you were allowedto go ride your bike alone,
that age range has consistentlyticked up to the point where I
have a daughter who's going tobe 13 and she's got friends
whose, you know, parents arevery, you know, cautious about
even letting their kids walkdown the block unattended.
Yet we live in a safer placetoday.
(11:13):
For kids and adolescents, it issafer across almost every
measure other than online.
That's about the one place thatthey face more threats.
They're, you know childkidnappings and abductions are
down.
You know pedestrian accidentsare down, interesting.
But are they prepared?
(11:40):
Do they feel like they canhandle it?
And if they don't feel likethey can handle walking down the
street to their friend's housewithout a threat happening?
How are they going to feel allof a sudden like they're in high
school or college, or even toadulthood, and handle the bigger
threat?
So I think, like I said, it'snot just the devices that was
happening far before thesmartphone that took hold, where
we started to see a change, afear-based change in parenting
(12:03):
that said that parents have toprotect kids at all costs, and I
think that was not probably tothe benefit of our mental health
.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So in some ways and again, this is a conversation
where I'm learning, but I'm alsobringing my experience of
observing, just in my role- andas a parent role and as a parent
.
Well, and as a parent exactly,with 320-somethings who, by the
(12:31):
grace of God, have gotten themhealthy to past the 20th
birthday, which is by the graceof God.
But that sense of and I guess Ialso want to say to those
listening, to those watchingthere is nothing in this where
we are trying to judge anyonefor doing this or that or the
other thing.
We're trying to learn togetherand this all hit us all real
quickly and we're all stilltrying to catch up.
(12:53):
But you know, when you sayfear-based parenting, some of
that is what I think.
In the other way that it'sframed is sometimes the
helicopter parenting, whereyou're just always monitoring,
always managing, alwaysprotecting, but sometimes that
doesn't.
Is the danger there that you'renot allowing?
You referred to the autonomy ofthe young person to figure out
(13:16):
who they are or to explore theirenvironment, or what is it
about that fear-based or thathelicopter, and is that a
correct?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
name yeah, very correct term to use, and I love
that you said it's not aboutjudgment, because you know I
have a child who struggles withanxiety.
I know that there have beentimes where I have, you know,
fear-based parented her becausewe have anxiety.
As parents, we desperately wantto give our children everything
and yet there's nothing worsewe could do than to not let them
struggle.
(13:45):
You know they need to strugglebecause they need to learn that
they can struggle and getthrough hard things, and so,
whether it's our well-intended,you know, going in and trying to
fight a battle for them, orprotecting them by not allowing
them to do things that seem alittle bit risky, you know they
all come from a really goodplace in us and on the surface
it is protective.
They all come from a reallygood place in us and on the
(14:06):
surface it is protective.
But what we're now learning,and to that point like it's
taken a decade or two to lookback and say, okay, now we can
see that this is not it'sprotecting, that maybe they're
not getting as many broken armsat the park or that you know
that we feel more secure, thatwe know they got to their
friend's house.
You know in one piece, but it'snot letting them feel like they
can handle hard things.
And that's, I think, a messagethat even you know, jumping
(14:28):
ahead a little bit, like whenyou think about how do we parent
a little bit differently, likeI even have to watch this with
my own daughter when she says,well, I'm really worried about X
, y or Z happening, it's sonatural to just want to provide
reassurance You're going to befine.
You know you want to providereassurance You're going to be
fine.
You know you're going to acethat test, or like that's not
(14:48):
going to happen.
Or don't worry.
You know like you're going tohave so many more loves after
this.
Or you know so many morefriends.
You know those are all verynormal and natural things to say
to our kids.
And yet what they really need tohear is you know what, maybe it
will, maybe it won't, butyou'll handle it.
You know, maybe you aren'tgoing to do as well on that test
as you think, but we'll dealwith it.
You'll deal with it.
You can get through it.
You'll figure it out afterwards.
You don't need to take that onright now.
(15:08):
You can't really take that onright now, but it's a very
subtly different message ofinstead of don't worry, you'll
be okay, it's whether,regardless, you'll be okay
because you'll work through itand you have a community of
people to help you work throughit.
So I think it's a subtle changethat we need to get used to.
You know, parenting A part ofthat is letting them struggle,
letting them even fail sometimes.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, well, and yeah, and because a parental love is
so deep and so instinctual andso powerful that
over-protectiveness is justflows naturally that it's almost
.
We have to guard against that.
And and I am struck by what youcame back to say is that the
(15:50):
that while most families incommunities around where we are,
those kids are safer than theyhave ever been, the one place
they are less safe is the oneplace we sort of have not put
any controls over and just letthem go and that's on screens,
and that online is the one moredangerous place.
That going to the park, goingto you know, that whole sense of
(16:11):
, yeah, getting up and ridingyour bike down two miles to a
friend's house is almost unheardof these days for anyone under
16.
But maybe that's actually saferthan some of the things that we
think are not some of thechallenge places.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Even the real, scary threats we think about, like you
know, human trafficking andthings that, of course, are a
real threat online.
I think you know understandingthat the developers of most of
our apps, most of our technologyon a smartphone or a device are
built to create addiction.
I mean, it's behavioralscientists got behind these.
You know these developers andsaid okay by putting in an
(16:50):
endless scroll, by allowing foryou know only some of the things
that they're seeing to beinterested by having a for you
page or having likes andimmediate feedback.
These are things that we knoware hitting on and to get a
little, a little little sciencey.
it's the dopamine center of ourbrain, and the dopamine center
never is really happy.
It's always seeking pleasure,and when it gets a dose of
pleasure it wants more.
(17:11):
So that is very much addictionand uh and.
And so our, we are all.
We all have a little bit ofthat.
I I do, you know.
I know I will sit downsometimes and say I'm going to
watch a couple of videos becauseI love myself a funny cat video
or something, and I'll falldown a rabbit hole of that and
all of a sudden 45 minutes hasgone by and I wanted to be there
for 10.
(17:32):
So adults are susceptible to ittoo.
But we have our breaks arefully in place.
That's what we didn't reallyunderstand at the time that
these came.
Our adolescents, they don'thave breaks in place to know
when to stop at all, and this isvery it feels very satisfying
in the moment.
So it is a risky place to beand yet it's.
You know you're kind ofstanding alone sometimes as a
(17:52):
parent if you're stronglyregulating that with your middle
school or your high school oreven your grade school, or
because a lot of parents arevery much, you know they don't
want their kids to fall behind.
They don't want them not tohave the social opportunities.
So even we, as parents, gettingoff Instagram or Facebook, well
, I miss out.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So it's a little FOMO for everyone.
So, jessica, let me shift thisa little bit, because there's so
much we could talk about inthis topic.
I want to go back to you gave alittle bit of a definition of
anxiety and anxiousness, and Ijust want to circle back to that
because I think that word getsthrown out a lot these days and
(18:32):
I would just, I would be helpedby hearing how you define it,
how you understand that, so thatwe're in sort of what are some
of the causes of thatgeneralized anxiety that we hear
talk about?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
So fear and anxiety are connected, but they're not
one and the same.
Fear is something that ishappening and my body is
responding to it.
Anxiety is the physical and themental response to a fear that
might happen.
It's an imagined fear, or it'sa potential fear, you know, or a
potential situation.
So you know, when we thinkabout you know, you know if
(19:08):
you're about to get on stage ordo something like this and you
start to feel your body activate, your heart rate a little bit
of, you know, yeah, you know,that's, that's a little bit of a
fear response and that's a.
That's an.
That's a healthy thing to haveit.
You know, um, when our anxietysystem takes over, it's
pummeling us with a lot ofimagery and the what-ifs, and
the problem is our brain cantake on an insurmountable number
(19:29):
of what-ifs and go through allof them and then we kind of
become paralyzed.
So the clinical definition ofanxiety is twofold.
It's a set of symptoms thatusually involves both physical
symptoms, basically your bodyactivating.
So these things would be reallyhelpful if you were running
away from a rival tribe or awoolly mammoth or fighting
against something.
You know your heart rateincreasing, your perspiration
(19:51):
coming up, your, you know yourstomach trying to, you know,
empty its contents so it canpreserve and send energy to
where it needs to, would all bereally helpful.
When we are sitting and havinga feeling like panic because of
something that might happen, Imight walk into a social
situation and screw up.
You know that our kids might goand fail a test that day.
You know that that that thengives us those symptoms
(20:12):
prematurely and then it alsoaffects our brains.
Our brains, you know, start wehave racing thoughts, very fast,
thoughts that again bring onall of these.
You know worst case scenariosand it can be incredibly
physically uncomfortably,physically uncomfortable, and it
really can be.
It can induce a sense of likeparalysis, honestly.
So the common symptoms that comeout of that will often be, or
(20:32):
functionally will start to avoidsituations that make us
uncomfortable, whether that's asocial situation or you know, if
you have a phobia you know aspider phobia you'll do
everything you can to avoidinteracting with a spider and
even though there's almost noway to do that, and then you
become kind of hyper, fixated onthat.
Or sometimes it can also bethings like obsessive and
compulsive cycles, that you canobsessively think about
(20:53):
something and do things kind ofcompulsively to set that off.
So that's kind of a generaldefinition of anxiety.
There's a lot of differentdiagnoses that fall under that
and then depression is kind ofthe opposite of that.
If you think of anxiety as aheightened emotion, depression
is kind of a slowed emotionalresponse and we're struggling to
kind of activate our systems orfeel good and feel like we can
(21:14):
really get ourselves going.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay, well, jessica, I just got the little signal
here that we're I saw it.
We're coming towards the end.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I thought it's been five minutes.
I know exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So I'm going to shift it again because this has been
so important.
But we've been diagnosing someof the challenges, the whys
behind it.
Let's talk about some of thepositives.
What are some of the thingsthat we can do as people, as
adults, as parents, whatever tohelp, if not fully inoculate
(21:44):
ourselves, build up a strongfoundation to withstand some of
these new challenges that arecoming at us as a society.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, no, I like how you said that.
Because it's not you know, weare not.
There is no cure, you know.
And it's not because you knowthis is a terminal illness.
It's because you know pursuitof happiness, pursuit of peace
is something we have to activelypractice every single day.
And so you know, rather thanand sometimes when we feel like
we can't inoculate something, itbecomes overwhelming.
But if every day we wake up andthink of what are the things I
(22:16):
can do to kind of balance, youknow, if I'm feeling on the
depressed side, I know it'sgoing to be hard to get my
system going.
So what are the sources aroundme that can really activate and
keep me going?
And if I'm anxious, what arethe things that I can do to kind
of promote better mental health?
And so you know a couple ofthings.
And one thing I do want to justkind of mention is how important
, you know, a religious orspiritual community, how
(22:36):
important Light of Christ is forour community.
When we think about the placesand the activities that are
really going to promote mentalhealth.
We want places that are goingto give us a sense of connection
, a sense of purpose, a sense ofaltruism.
Of that I'm doing something forthe greater good, you know, of
knowing that there is a commonbelief system.
These are things that you know.
(22:56):
Across all religions we seethat it's a resilience factor is
to be involved in yourcommunity, whatever community
means.
So I'm very proud of being partof Light of Christ that there
is such a strong community here.
There's so much, you know youguys do so much for the mental
health community.
The eye care, you know.
The whole program that you guyshave here is a wonderful way of
(23:18):
also kind of reaching out andpromoting mental health.
But on an individual level, youknow, I always kind of think of
you know the acronym BASE, butwith a C is a great way to think
about how do we support ourmental health every day, finding
activities that activate ourbody, that get our body moving
or that calm our body if we havesome anxiety, but basically
tuning into our bodies.
What does our body need?
(23:38):
A healthy mind requires ahealthy body.
What do we do?
That gives us a sense of?
It's supposed to be one A.
I'm going to add three.
The actual A is accomplishment,but I add achievement,
accomplishment, adventure, whatare things that kind of get us
looking forward to somethingAgain, kind of that sense of
purpose.
What are activities and thingsthat we do that make us feel
(23:59):
connected, connected to God,connected to nature, connected
to our family, connected to ourinner selves?
Meditation can be a good sourceof connection.
And then what do we do forenjoyment?
You know, kind of going back tothe phones.
You know a lot of times whenwe're scrolling, we're numbing,
we're not.
Yeah, maybe there's a littlebit of enjoyment, but it's more
that we're getting through thatmoment instead of really
engaging enjoyably in a moment.
(24:19):
So really stepping back andfinding those enjoyable
activities.
So I would say the combinationof that and plus, you know, good
, taking care of your sleep.
If you're a parent, you knowit's never too late to have good
conversations with your kids,not just about this is.
You know you're not allowed tohave your phone because you
violated this or you did thiswrong.
(24:40):
You know I had a conversationwith my daughter about why,
while she's in my, under my roof, she will never have a phone in
her bedroom.
After dark, like after it'snighttime, like it.
Just it's not going to beanything I ever take away Cause.
I believe it's just a, and sheknows why that there's a.
There's a reason I'm protectingyour sleep and protecting your
peace.
So have conversations, you know.
Be slow to give those thosethose incremental steps into the
(25:01):
adult world of social media andtechnology.
Um, and give our kids andourselves a chance to play, a
chance to adventure, a chance tobe autonomous.
I said it earlier, butcommunicating instead of it'll
be okay, it'll be, it's, youknow.
Regardless, we'll get throughit, you'll handle it.
You know we want to build asense of resilience, not
(25:21):
security all the time, becausethe world isn't secure.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I love that resilience versus security and
you know and maybe this is whereI'll just wrap it up a little
bit, though I would love thisconversation to go another hour
what you just said, jessica,there is no security in this
world.
As a pastor, as a theologian,there's no guarantee of tomorrow
(25:47):
.
I mean Scripture again andagain says.
I mean Jesus said do not worryabout tomorrow.
Tomorrow will have enoughworries for itself.
How do we learn to trust Godwith today and be present to
today and the gifts that Godgives us, the challenges that
are in front of us, that we'regoing to have to figure out and
(26:08):
solve, that are going to thenlead us to a sense of
achievement, but also theenjoyment of that and the
enjoyment of other things, thatit is a world where we're prayer
, going to God and surrenderingour future.
When we try to think we cancontrol our future, we can't.
That's, to me, part of thepower of faith is we get to turn
(26:32):
over and say God, I'm trustingmy future to you and you've
given me today.
So what do I do with today andwhen I can entrust that to God
in the future, I don't have toget caught up in the anxious and
worries.
I have to do some planning forthat, but I don't have to get
overwhelmed in the worry and itis, and just so many scriptures
(26:53):
are coming to mind.
Maybe we'll put some underneaththat, but this is such an
important topic and so many ofus wrestle with this in
different ways ourselves orpeople in our families and so
thanks for what you've sharedhere.
We may have to come back tothis topic again, jessica.
We may have to come back tothis topic again, jessica.
We may have to revisit this,but thanks for taking the time.
Go again and check out thoseresources below in the
(27:15):
description.
Thanks for lifting those up,thanks for being a part of this
and thanks for listening in, andwe'll catch you next time on
unpacking truthscom, next timeon unpacking truths.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
The Holy Spirit's worked in a whole lot of
different ways 100%, and I thinkthat's why I have such a heart
for either the unchurched or thepeople who don't feel they
belong in church, because I'mlike no, no, no, we all belong
here and we don't have to.
Of course, we all want tochange and be our best selves
for Christ, but I'm still Jewishyou know what I mean and so
(27:50):
that has been refreshing to feellike I don't have to give up
that piece of myself.
I don't feel that God iscalling me to give up that piece
of myself.
If anything, it makes myexperience even richer, and even
with working with the PATHstudents, I've been able to
bring up things to them likeanti-Semitism my favorite
(28:11):
subject my wildly twistedrelationship with Martin Luther.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yep, yep.
Well, we wanted to go there, Iwas going to say you've heard a
lot about that one yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Unpacking
Truths.
If anything that we discussedsparked any ideas or you have
any questions, we would love foryou to go to unpackingting
Truths.
If anything that we discussedsparked any ideas or you have
any questions, we would love foryou to go to unpackingtruthscom
, or you can also email us atunpackingtruths at locchurchcom.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And don't forget to like, share or subscribe to the
podcast, because you doing thatallows other people to connect
to this content and grow withGod as well.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Until next time, we hope you know that you are loved
.
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