Episode 954: Challenge Your Beliefs

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 954 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Shannon Miles: I'm Shannon miles from ballet. I challenged you to discover your calling and find your third option so you can be empowered to live every day to the fullest. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend and Scott Mader.

[00:00:23] Scott Maderer: thinking about your thinking and your emotions and recognizing that you can reframe or change the interpretation of that situation about an advent. And when you do that, it does have the benefit of lessening, emotional and physical feelings of stress and anxiety and pain. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:53] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your [00:01:00] talent and your treasures for your true. In the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:14] And today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why you may want to challenge your beliefs. I also share an exercise and some questions that can help you actually challenge your beliefs. And I share why this works. You've heard me talk about developing your talent.

[00:01:34] And one of the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from.

[00:01:57] And you can pick one and listen your [00:02:00] way to developing your talents via. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. There are often times in our life. When perhaps we undergo a challenging event, we have stress in our life and we need to challenge the beliefs that we have about that.

[00:02:26] We need to challenge our thought and our time and what we're doing welling on and how we feel about the event. This is one example of ways that we can challenge our beliefs. When you have those thought patterns where you begin to think, this thing is permanent. This thing is something that is going to destroy my life.

[00:02:46] This thing is something that everyone knows about and everyone is looking at and I'm being singled out. It's often times to sit down and take 10 or 15 or 20 minutes of time in person. [00:03:00] With some space to actually begin to challenge your thoughts. You can be kind and compassionate with yourself. You can look at it and recognize that you are a human being and that you're going to have struggles like this.

[00:03:17] You can reflect on the experience in a way and recognize that there are other people that have gone through similar experiences that you're not alone in the feelings that you have. And take some time to notice how you feel, not just in your mind and in your soul, in your body as well. And you may want to sit down with a trusted friend.

[00:03:39] Now, this isn't about counseling and there is a place for counseling, and this does not take that place of counseling, but it is something that we can do often to begin to reset a little. What are the steps of this? What do you do to go through this kind of exercise first? You need to identify the event.

[00:03:58] What is it that [00:04:00] happened that is causing these feelings and write that down. And then what thoughts are you having about that event? What are you imagining? What are you reflecting on water? What thoughts are running through your head and then give that thought a rating. How much do you believe? Do you believe it a hundred percent?

[00:04:22] Do you believe it 80% and then reflect on how it makes you feel and the strength of that feeling? Is it a hundred percent strong? Is it 80%? What is the feeling so that you're linking thoughts with feelings as you go through this process, that's going to take you a little bit of time. Once you've done that, then you need to spend the time to actually question the thought.

[00:04:51] Here is some questions that you can use to go through that exercise. What evidence do I have that this thought is [00:05:00] true or accurate? What am I seeing? What are other people saying what's out in the world that shows me that this is. Similarly, what evidence do you have that perhaps this is not true, or at least not completely true.

[00:05:16] Is there another way to look at this? Can you reframe it and look at it a different way? Oftentimes too, you want to reflect on what is the worst thing that could happen? What is literally the worst thing that could happen? And would you still live. Similarly, what's the best thing that could happen.

[00:05:37] What positive things could come from this event. And then if you can, what will most likely happen either based on past experience or based on getting input from others who have gone through a similar situation, what is the most likely outcome and what could happen if I continue to dwell on this [00:06:00] thought in my head, And what could happen if I can change my thinking about this, what advice would you give to a friend or a family member if this had happened to them?

[00:06:16] And then let's go back to those thoughts. Go back to the thoughts that you had written down in the first place. How much do you believe those thoughts? Now, give it a new ranking. Is it still just as strong? Or is it been weakened? And then how strongly do you feel the negative emotion associated with that thought as well?

[00:06:37] And then think about what are my next steps for one thing, if the emotion remains just as strong, you may need to get some professional help. You may need to work with someone else, but there's other coping strategies that you can use as well. And there are other choices of actions. You may even just repeat the process or do it with a friend or [00:07:00] someone who's gone through the experience as well.

[00:07:03] The truth is these kinds of exercises have actually been shown to work there. They're known as cognitive reappraisal. It's a way. Thinking about your thinking and your emotions and recognizing that you can reframe or change the interpretation of that situation of a V an event. And when you do that, it does have the benefit of lessening, emotional and physical feelings of stress and anxiety and pain.

[00:07:36] It reduces the onset of depression in many cases, because the truth is thoughts, emotions and behaviors are all interconnected. And if you question your thinking in a structured way, you can begin to shift your perspective. And by doing that. You become more responsive and more aware of your thoughts and your [00:08:00] emotions and how they trigger your behaviors.

[00:08:03] And over time it gets easier and easier when those thoughts pop up to challenge them right there on the fly and begin to shift your actions in response. And as you do that, challenging your beliefs begins to change how you act in the world. Thanks for less than eight.

[00:08:24] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:08:55] Or if you're in the U S you can text 4, 4, 2, [00:09:00] 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4, 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.