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Episode SummaryCan you burn out on your faith? Kayla Andersen grew up in church five to seven days a week, served on every ministry team she could, and by the time she finished Bible college she could barely open her Bible or walk through the church doors. In this episode of the God + Mental Health Podcast, Roslyn and Kayla talk honestly about spiritual burnout, the shame and apathy that come with it, and how learning to lament helped Kayla reconnect with God. What We Talk AboutHow spiritual burnout starts Kayla describes herself as a people pleaser, a perfectionist, and an eldest daughter who just wanted to know what was required of her and how to meet it. Before college she was at church most days of the week, serving in worship, children's ministry, youth leadership, and summer camp. Then Bible school added a new layer: reading Scripture like a textbook and writing long theology papers. She knew all the right answers in her head, but she was empty. And because she believed the problem was her, that she didn't want God enough, shame piled on top of the exhaustion. Why it's hard to name Most of us connect the word burnout to jobs and corporate culture, not faith. Kayla didn't have language for what she was feeling. She just knew she was tired and believed she was supposed to push through, find joy, and keep saying yes. She calls this "white knuckling" her faith, running on a list of supposed-to's about what a good Christian does. Apathy when you still care Kayla would have told you her faith was the thing she cared about most. But her body and mind were reacting to exhaustion with apathy in practice. What she was doing on the outside got disconnected from where she actually was on the inside. Roslyn shares that for her, burnout has shown up as full disengagement, pulling away from anything faith-related. She also names how lonely this season can be: people affirm everything you're doing on the outside while you feel terrible on the inside. Why we're afraid to get curious When your whole life has been built around pleasing God and the people who lead you, the main way to "go deeper" usually looks like serving more and doing more. So when something stops working, it feels like it must be your fault. Kayla shares that asking questions used to feel like the start of a slippery slope toward doubt. Real recovery started when she let curiosity ask what wasn't working and moved toward rhythms based on who God says she is, not what she does for Him. As she puts it, if she never does another thing for the Lord, she is still loved. You live life seasonally, not generally Roslyn shares something she's been chewing on: life comes in seasons. Her boys won't be little forever, and her relationship with God will look different over time too. There are seasons for serving and seasons for receiving, seasons of fasting and praying and seasons where God says rest. She's clear that church systems for serving aren't bad. They help new believers and give people meaningful ways to serve. The issue is treating one season's level of involvement as a permanent requirement. Asking God questions is part of faith Kayla points to the long Jewish tradition of wrestling with God that runs through the Old Testament, and to the question-based discipleship model rabbis used in Jesus' time. She compares it to a toddler's "why" stage. Asking questions is relational. It's how we draw near. Lament: Telling God the truth Kayla admits the first time she learned to lament, it felt like self-pity. If you're used to putting a positive spin on everything, you haven't built the muscle to sit in the tension that God is good and this situation is not. She walks through how lament psalms are built: name what's wrong, bring it to God, ask Him to act, even hold His promises up to Him. Yes, those psalms end in praise, but getting there can take weeks or months. Roslyn shares a moment from a wilderness season after her first son was born, when money was tight and she couldn't pay for his speech therapy. She cried in the car and asked God what more He wanted from her. She calls it "crashing out on God," and says it's okay. Kayla shares her own story of spending much of her twenties in a ministry that eventually imploded. She felt like a pawn on a chessboard and wasn't sure she'd recover. While wrestling with God, she pictured a small child throwing punches at their father while he pulled them in closer. When we skip the grieving and wrestling, we skip the healing too. Shame makes us hide Roslyn connects this to Adam hiding in the garden after eating from the tree, and God asking, "Who told you that you were naked?" Shame pulls us away from God. Kayla adds that we don't have to protect God from our emotions or make our feelings smaller and more palatable for Him. One of the biggest shifts in her faith was going from being "God's teacher's pet" to simply bringing her whole self to Him. Practical rhythms for recovery Kayla's biggest tip is structure, because it takes the pressure off. You don't have to feel a certain way or pray a polished prayer. Ideas she shares: Meet with God at the same time and place each dayUse a Bible reading plan or read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year app so you aren't deciding what to read when you're running on emptyLet go of chasing a big "download" every time you open your BiblePlay worship music while you do everyday tasks like washing dishesBuild in time to check in with yourself: Where am I at? Do I need to say no to something this week? Does my calendar need to change?Pray honest prayers like, "I want to want You, and today I don't."Key TakeawaysSpiritual burnout often grows out of people pleasing, perfectionism, and a faith built on performance.Apathy can show up even when you deeply care about God.Curiosity and questions are invitations to go deeper, not signs you're losing your faith.Lament is a biblical way to bring pain, anger, and grief straight to God.You are loved by God apart from anything you do for Him.Simple structures help you stay connected to God when you aren't at 100%.Scriptures ReferencedEcclesiastes 3:1-8: a time for every seasonPsalm 22:1: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (the lament psalm Jesus quoted)Matthew 27:46 (also Mark 15:34): Jesus quoting Psalm 22 from the crossMark 9:24: "I believe; help my unbelief," from the father of the tormented boyGenesis 3:8-12: Adam and Eve hide, God asks "Where are you?" and "Who told you that you were naked?" and Adam blames Eve1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22: David described as a man after God's own heartJohn 14:16, 26: the Holy Spirit as ComforterThe Psalms of lament (general reference): many written by DavidResources and Links MentionedTake It From Kayla website: takeitfromkayla.comTake It From Kayla on social media and Substack (same handle on most platforms)Kayla's blog series on spiritual burnout and lamentKayla's spiritual burnout blueprint, which includes scripts for saying no, the seven types of rest and how to practice them, Scripture for setting new rhythms, journal prompts for reconnecting with God, and ideas for restructuring your calendarBible reading plans and read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year apps (general mention, no specific app named) Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Denise Pimentel was diagnosed with bipolar 1 in her late twenties, after an abusive marriage, postpartum, and weaning her son converged into an episode that put her in the hospital. She's been hospitalized four times since, had a life-altering stroke in December 2024, and finished the memoir she started during a manic episode in 2017. In this episode she talks about living with bipolar 1 as a woman of faith, what a manic episode actually looks like from the inside, and what it cost her when people told her she just wasn't praying enough. Denise is a writer, educator, speaker, advocate, and visual artist, born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and now based in suburban New Jersey. She's the author of Unshaken: A True Story of a Bleeding Mind, a Broken Body, and Buried Grief, the founder of Glorified Writing, and the host of the Unshaken Voices podcast. She holds a BA in elementary education and history and a master's in liberal studies. This is the first podcast she's appeared on as a guest. HOW IT STARTED Denise spent most of her working life in education. In December 2024 she had a stroke that took her out of the classroom permanently. Her husband got her to the hospital in time for a TNK shot to clear the clot, and the recovery is what finally gave her the time to finish the book. The diagnosis came years earlier. She was in her late twenties, married to her first husband, in a difficult and abusive relationship. She describes her pattern at the time as trying to save people. She'd moved him out to New Jersey to get him out of the environment he grew up in, and she was trying to bring him to God while he was an atheist. She goes back to an illustration from her Christian school chapel, the believer standing on a chair trying to pull the nonbeliever up while the nonbeliever pulls the believer down. She wanted to be the exception to that. She wasn't. She didn't know mental illness could be passed down genetically. Her grandmother, her mother's mom, was permanently hospitalized when her mother was nine, and was given unregulated shock treatment that made her worse. Her mother lost her own mother to the illness at nine years old. Her grandmother's sister also had mental illness. It skipped her mother and came to her. That family history is part of why her mother initially tried to get her through without hospitalization, because she was afraid of what hospitals had done before. Several things converged at once. The abusive environment. Postpartum after her first son. Isolation, since she wasn't living near her parents and a therapist had told her to stop talking to her family, believing they were the problem. And weaning. She explains what she learned later, that nursing had been protecting her mind, and that stopping is when things started coming apart. The first hospital didn't take her in. She hadn't slept in about five days and was having delusional thoughts, and they sent her home with a sleeping pill. She explains why that doesn't work, that in a manic episode the mind overrides even the strongest sleep medication. WHAT BIPOLAR 1 ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE Roslyn asks Denise to explain bipolar 1 in her own words rather than clinically, and this is one of the most useful stretches of the episode. Sleep goes first. The hours shrink and shrink until there are none, and she describes lying in bed praying to fall asleep. Because of that, she keeps a strict sleep schedule year round, including summers when her kids are out of school, because staying up later while still waking at the same time has triggered relapse for her. Then the thinking changes. In her first episode she hallucinated, saw things above her, and heard voices coming through the baby monitor. She called the police in the middle of the night to ask if it was too late to report an abusive incident, something she says she wouldn't have done in her normal frame of mind, though it did start a process of things coming out. She still can't watch scary movies because of what she experienced. She's also candid about how it presented in her second marriage. She believed the problem had been the relationship, decided she didn't need medication anymore, and stopped taking it without telling her husband. Then came the paranoid thoughts, that he was cheating, that he was hiding money, about a man she describes as having taken care of her from day one. Anxiety climbed. She checked the locks over and over before bed, which traces back to people trying to break into her home growing up in New York. Her hardest part to convey: when you're in an episode you believe you're right about everything, and you don't listen to the people trying to catch it. WHAT ACTUALLY HELPS, INCLUDING IN A MARRIAGE Denise names four things as the core of managing bipolar 1: seeing your therapist, taking your medication, using your community or family, and seeing your psychiatrist. The practice she recommends most is joint therapy. She sees her therapist individually and also sees the same therapist jointly with her husband every two weeks. Her reasoning is that the therapist hears everything from her alone, advocates for her, helps her work through her thoughts, and over time also knows her husband well. When she's struggling to trust her own feelings, there's a third party who can ask her what she's feeling, ask him what he's feeling, and serve as a voice of reason for both of them. She's clear this isn't a confrontational marriage, it's someone helping keep a good marriage together. She's honest about how hard the first breakdown was on her husband. He'd never met the version of her that showed up, accusatory and mean and not who she was, and he almost left. Her father came and explained, and her sister-in-law, a nurse, told him it wouldn't be permanent and that she needed help. They also started doing couples devotionals together after that first breakdown, buying several and working through them, which she says has produced some of their best conversations and put God first in the marriage. Roslyn names what she's hearing as a wall of protection built out of community, accountability, and support, and points out that isolation is the first thing to go when shame is attached. She also names the piece Denise models well, that trusting your support enough to say "what I'm thinking may not be true" is not evidence something is wrong with you. FAITH, STIGMA, AND "YOU'RE NOT PRAYING ENOUGH" When Denise was first diagnosed she couldn't believe it. The public reference point at the time was Britney Spears, and she remembers looking at the paper and asking God how this could be her diagnosis. It didn't turn her away from God, but it was confusing, especially with people in her life telling her she didn't need medication and people in the church telling her that her faith wasn't strong enough and she wasn't praying enough. Her response: she didn't do anything for this to happen, and she had always been a strong believer. She also describes something she's since read about in other people with faith backgrounds, that when she becomes manic her religiosity heightens. She tells the story from her book of sitting in her living room during her first breakdown with her current husband, looking up at a skylight where the frost looked like an eye, and hearing God say "you're the chosen one." She's careful about this. She knows now that wasn't actually God, and she also believes that moment is when everything changed and she found the calling to write the book. Her advocacy message now is that your hardest seasons can become the transformative thing that leads to a new purpose. She believes her stroke and her mental illness were what God used to move her life somewhere she could help other people, and that people who think they're nobody have a story that can turn pain into purpose. The church piece gets addressed directly. Denise was told that if she left her marriage she would be setting her children up for divorce, because her own parents had divorced. She also admits she wasn't bold then, didn't tell the full truth, and didn't want to make anyone look bad, so the church wasn't working with complete information while her ex-husband was minimizing what was happening. Roslyn pushes back on the cause-and-effect theology underneath the "not enough faith" line, pointing out that belief itself is what ties us to Christ, and that God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Believers aren't absolved from pain. The question is how God is with us in it. THE BOOK Denise started Unshaken in 2017 during a manic episode, writing at night while her husband slept, because in mania the words come faster than the hand can keep up. She set it aside when she went back to teaching and picked it up again after the stroke, when a cognitive therapist asked if she could write and told her writing is healing for stroke recovery. She wrote weekly while her brain healed. It took seven or eight years total. The book covers her life from childhood in New York through the traumas, the first breakdown, the diagnosis, and the stroke. She's clear that she put the traumas on paper not to complain about them but to show what God did. She also talks about how afraid she was to publish, and how she told her ex-husband ahead of time that she used no names. They're on decent terms now. He's apologized, he's a good father to her son, and she declines to badmouth him. The stroke chapter centers on the TNK shot. She was told there was a seven percent chance the shot could kill her, and that seven felt like ninety. She describes everything freezing while she had a conversation with God, telling Him that if He wanted her here after the shot she would still be here. She heard Him say take the shot. She took it. After publishing, with Matthew 16:18 printed on the cover, she got an invitation from the New Jersey Governor's Council to be part of a breaking the stigma event. She was surprised that a government body invited a book with a Bi

Almost half the women in Crystal Renaud Day's 1,300-person survey were exposed to pornography between the ages of 8 and 12, and only 2 percent said they used it because a partner asked them to. In this episode, Crystal and Roslyn talk openly about female sex addiction, why Christian women stay silent about it, and why trying harder and praying harder has never been enough to break the cycle. It's a conversation about what sits underneath the behavior, not just the behavior itself. Crystal Renaud Day is a pastoral counselor, speaker, and recovery advocate who has spent close to 20 years working with women who struggle with pornography. She's the founder of She Recovery, the author of Dirty Girls Come Clean, and her newest book, What Drives Women to Porn, released last week. Her work started with her own story. She was exposed at 10, in magazines, and stayed deeply addicted through her teens until she was 19 and met a woman who told her own story out loud. That was the first time Crystal had heard a woman talk about pornography as her own experience rather than as a wife dealing with betrayal. It gave her permission to say "me too" and enter real recovery, not just sobriety. She walks through how She Recovery began. She was on church staff doing graphic design and media in 2006 when it came out that her pastor and mentor had been in a long-term affair. That was the catalyst. There are people in the church struggling sexually that no one would suspect, and nobody was talking about it. She started blogging her own story, got flooded with comments from women who thought they were the only one, and asked her church for a classroom to run a group. Her leadership said yes. None of the women who showed up actually attended that church. Crystal and Roslyn both name the same pattern in their own histories: exposure around age 10, unsupervised time, and a decade of carrying it alone. Roslyn shares her own experience with early exposure and the shame of sitting in church while struggling with it, which is part of why this conversation exists. The survey findings Crystal surveyed over 1,300 women about when and how they were exposed and what keeps them coming back. Forty-six percent were exposed between 8 and 12. Around 87 percent before 18. Only 2 percent named a partner's request as the primary reason, which dismantles the most common assumption people make about women and porn. Roughly 53 percent pointed to emotional release and 46 percent to physical release, which means it functions as both at once and moves back and forth depending on the need. About 47 percent had experienced sexual abuse. What female sex addiction actually looks like Crystal describes the presentations, because it rarely looks like the stereotype. Pornography. Masturbation. Excessive fantasy. Erotic novels. Serial dating. Hookup culture. Returning again and again to the same man. She makes the point that the presentations look similar in men, and that "men watch porn" is too narrow a frame for either. She also explains what early exposure does. It happens before a child has language for her own body, let alone for what sex is or is for, and it shapes her sexual palate and her sexual worldview. Things she never imagined doing become things she inches toward, because porn desensitized her first. Nobody wakes up at 15 planning to become an affair partner. It's what Andy Stanley calls a series of unwise choices, a slow fade. The addiction cycle Crystal walks through the full cycle in the episode. It starts with the wounded self, the place where the woundings live. Something triggers it. Then comes preoccupation, where the brain starts circling the thing. Then ritual, which she calls the point of no return, where you're getting on your phone, getting in bed, putting yourself in position. Then acting out. Then despair and shame, which should send a woman toward God but instead drops her back into the wounded self, which starts the whole cycle again. For Christian women, the shame layer is heavier, because the behavior doesn't match who she wants to be or who she believes she's supposed to be. Crystal names the identity piece plainly: I am dirty, I am unlovable, I am unwanted. And she names where she believes that voice comes from, an enemy who wants women stuck, far from God, and ineffective for the kingdom. Her new book organizes this around five primary drivers: emotional, relational, identity, trauma, and spiritual. A woman can be carrying one or all five at once. Why it isn't really about sex The most useful stretch of the conversation is about the nervous system. The nervous system learns early, it's built to detect threat and protect you, and it goes hyperactive after trauma, including the small-t kind that people dismiss and then feel ashamed for being affected by. Loneliness, stress, tiredness, hunger, boredom, and rejection all register as threat. The nervous system says let's fix it, and it reaches for the thing that worked when you were twelve. Crystal says the comfort framing misses it. It's about safety. That's why married women still struggle even when sex is available, why the masturbation and the fantasy are harder to give up than the porn itself, and why so much of it runs on muscle memory. It's also why trying harder fails. The groove is already cut. Until the nervous system learns a different path, that's the path it takes. Roslyn ties it to her own morning coffee habit, which she thinks about before she even falls asleep, and to neuroplasticity, the fact that new pathways can be built at any point. Roslyn also adds the clinical piece about locating emotions in the body rather than staying in your head, and notes that every emotion has a need attached to it. What actually helps Community. Crystal is direct that we cannot heal alone or recover alone, and that this is by design, going back to God saying it was not good for the man to be alone. She built She Recovery to be a place where women can belong, confess, be accountable, and take responsibility for their own healing. She doesn't tell anyone to stop praying. She says keep praying and keep letting God into the struggle, but be open to the possibility that He isn't going to remove it the way you assume. In her own story she prayed constantly, led worship, led groups, did all the godly things, and was still struggling until she told her story and got into community. Roslyn adds that her own life is vastly different because she has people who will expose her and who she will expose herself to. Her closing frame: healing begins with understanding, and there is more to your story than the fact that you watch porn. SCRIPTURE REFERENCED Genesis 2:18, referenced as it not being good for man to be alone, and used as the foundation for why recovery requires community rather than isolation.Galatians 6:2, referenced by Roslyn as bearing one another's burdens.1 Corinthians 10:13, referenced as God providing the way out from temptation, with Crystal suggesting that the way out may well be the community you need to recover in.Luke 15:11-32, the parable of the prodigal son, referenced by Roslyn for the detail that the father ran to the son rather than waiting for the son to come the rest of the way.LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED She Recovery, the organization Crystal founded to help women struggling with pornography and unwanted sexual behaviorWhat Drives Women to Porn, Crystal's newest book, released last week, written for women who are struggling and for clinicians, counselors, church leaders, college leaders, and coaches who don't know how to ask the questionDirty Girls Come Clean, Crystal's earlier bookThe five drivers framework from the new book: emotional, relational, identity, trauma, and spiritualAndy Stanley's phrase "a series of unwise choices," quoted in the episode Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Shunta Grant will tell you straight up that time management is the wrong term, and one of the first things she does with a new client is throw it out. She is a former business litigator turned corporate time management coach and the founder of Best Today, and in this episode she reframes the entire conversation around time stewardship, intentionality over productivity, and why you are both the problem and the solution. Shunta walks through a career path she calls organic rather than linear. She clerked for a judge for two years, moved to private practice as a business litigator, and started making hair bows for her daughter on the side. Those bows ended up in stores, and in 2015 she left law to run "Because of Zoe" full time. People started asking how she replaced her income, which turned into business coaching, and business coaching turned into something else entirely once she noticed she cared more about people's lives than their revenue. She launched Best Today in March 2020, the same week her daughter came home from school for what everyone thought would be a few days. Home became everything, people needed help with time, and the business grew from there into corporate coaching for law firms, hospitals, and universities, almost entirely by word of mouth. She also talks about the self-discovery underneath all of that, including the habit she had of opening every introduction with "I used to be a lawyer." She caught herself doing it and asked why she was introducing herself in the present by referencing a past she willingly left. She dropped the phrase and had to confront the belief that you only get one or two gifts, that you are either logical or creative but never both. The heart of the conversation is the distinction between time management and time stewardship. Shunta's argument is that time management makes time the villain, some wild beast you have to lasso and bring under control. But time does its job every single day. Sixty seconds still make a minute. Making time the problem is a convenient way to avoid ownership, and she would rather you be the problem, because that means you are also the solution. Every morning you wake up with hours you did not purchase, which makes you responsible for what you do with them. She gives the same treatment to the word productivity and swaps it for intentionality, since productivity lets you run yourself ragged and still check the box, while intentionality means doing only what actually matters. Roslyn and Shunta get into how intention gets lost in the first place. Shunta's answer is that it starts with the loss of self. She teaches what she calls top to bottom planning, where your days are the last thing you plan, not the first. Above your days sit your values and identity, and above your days also sits your season. She names her own three values as freedom, faith, and joy, and says if something costs her any of those, the answer is no. She also names her identity as a disciple first, before wife, mother, Black, or woman. Without that clarity, there is no filter, and you end up chasing whatever the world says is important that week. The season piece is where a lot of listeners will find themselves. Your season sets your capacity and your boundaries, and Shunta says most people are operating outside theirs because they are watching people who are not in their season and do not share their values. Her diagnostic is simple. If you are constantly comparing, constantly frustrated, or constantly saying you do not have time to do something, you are probably operating outside your season. She works clients through a framework called Name Your Season, built around four questions: what are the responsibilities, what is actually required, what are the opportunities, and what boundaries does this season need. They also talk about the invisible part of building anything. Shunta points out that the shortest part of an Olympic win is the part you watched, and that David was in the back tending sheep where nobody was looking, which is exactly what prepared him for what everyone eventually saw. Roslyn connects that to praying in the closet and to capacity, that the throne requires a level of groundedness and emotional maturity most people have not built yet. Then there is the Mary and Martha conversation, which Shunta says she brings up constantly enough that her friends tease her about it. Her read on Luke 10 is that the serving was never the problem, the order was. Mary chose to worship before the work, and the worship informs the work. Shunta applies that directly to how you start your day. If you are anxious, troubled, pointing at what other people should be doing, or in somebody else's business, those are signals that the order is off. Roslyn shares that this happened to her the morning of the recording, when she stopped, pulled out her prayer book, prayed for about forty-five minutes, and executed the rest of the day with noticeably more calm. On the practical side, Shunta gives her three planning non-negotiables. Preview your week in writing before Sunday ends, including what is most important and when you are going to stop. Plan every day in writing, limited to what is actually necessary. And let everything else live somewhere other than your head or your list, which for her is an "everything spreadsheet." She has no use for to-do lists and compares them to junk drawers, where the important and the unimportant get mixed together until things get lost. She also makes the case for not making real-time decisions, because deciding in the moment all day long can quietly cost you two hours. The conversation closes on why people resist hearing that they are doing too much. Shunta starts by asking what agreement you came in with, meaning who taught you that being important requires always going, always being on every board. Then she comes at it from self-love, because dragging yourself down to the bone is not actually loving, and she asks the uncomfortable question of whether some of the over-giving is really about being perceived as self-sacrificial. She uses the image of one cup trying to fill seventeen glasses, where seventeen people leave thirsty and you leave empty. Roslyn adds the clinical version from her own practice, where clients with high responsibility do not believe they are doing too much until they realize they give themselves no time at all. If you have ever been told to just manage your time better and it did not touch the actual problem, this conversation gives you a different starting place. SCRIPTURE REFERENCED 1 Corinthians 4:2, quoted in the episode as a steward must be found faithful, and used as the foundation for the time stewardship framing.Luke 10:38-42, the account of Mary and Martha, read in the episode from the New King James Version. Jesus tells Martha she is worried and troubled about many things, that one thing is needed, and that Mary has chosen the good part that will not be taken from her. Shunta uses this as her central illustration of priority and order.Matthew 6:6, referenced by Roslyn as praying in your closet, with what is done privately being rewarded openly.Matthew 6:27, referenced by Shunta with the question about worry adding a cubit to your stature.Matthew 6:34, referenced as tomorrow having its own worries, and tied to Shunta's trademark phrase one today at a time.Philippians 4:6-7, referenced as being anxious for nothing, making your requests known through prayer and supplication, and receiving peace.Philippians 4:8, referenced as thinking on what is true, pure, lovely, and of good report, framed in the episode as a choice you make about where your thoughts go.John 16:33, referenced as the promise that in this world you will have trouble, used to make the point that the goal is not avoiding trouble but becoming more resilient inside it. LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED Shunta Grant's website: shuntagrant.comInstagram: @shuntagrantBest Today, the planning and time management stewardship company Shunta founded, launched March 2020One Day at a Time for women, including a monthly workshop, a first Thursday of the month focus session, and quarterly planningWhere to Start, Shunta's program and her recommended entry pointRight Now Routine, an online resource Shunta created for building routinesWorth Reading Wednesday, Shunta's weekly emailName Your Season, her framework for identifying responsibilities, requirements, opportunities, and boundaries in your current seasonValues Vault, her tool for getting clear on your values and identityCorporate and team coaching, available through her websiteShunta has been featured in Forbes and Essence If this episode encouraged you, subscribe for new conversations on faith and mental health every week, and leave a review to help this podcast reach more people. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode SummaryWhat happens when a theology professor's own panic attacks and trauma make his lifelong understanding of faith fall apart? In this episode of the God and Mental Health Podcast, Roslyn talks with Dave, a professor of New Testament studies and Christian theology, about the anxiety, panic attacks, and trauma that reshaped his faith, and how tracing the Bible's recurring theme of water and chaos gave him language for suffering he didn't have before. Their conversation covers trauma, embodiment, shame, and community, and previews Dave's upcoming book, In the Sea Was No More: Reading the Bible in the Deep. Scripture ReferencedPsalm 69 — Dave describes opening his Bible to this psalm during a retreat and reading its opening lines, "Save me, O Lord, for the water has come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold." He does not cite a specific verse number, but identifies it as the beginning of Psalm 69.Genesis 1 — Dave references the creation account, where the Spirit of God hovers over the dark, watery chaos called "the deep" before God brings order and life into being. He references the chapter generally without citing a specific verse.Revelation — Dave references the vision of a new heaven and a new earth where "the sea was no more," and where death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more because the first things have passed away. He references the book generally without citing a specific chapter or verse.Roslyn also references the Genesis account of Adam and Eve hiding from God after their sin, including God's question "who told you that you were naked," without citing a specific chapter or verse.Links & Resources MentionedBook: In the Sea Was No More: Reading the Bible in the Deep by Dave — releasing (shipping) September 22nd, described as part memoir and part Bible studyGeneral reference to EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which Dave went through for roughly three years as part of his trauma treatmentGeneral reference to Alcoholics Anonymous, used as an example of a small, honest community where people can be fully known in a way Dave says "big church" often fails to provide Key Topics & TakeawaysA "high-functioning nervous wreck." Dave describes living with anxiety since childhood while still functioning well in daily life, including through a PhD in theology and a career as a professor. He explains that this changed significantly after the birth of his first child 22 years ago, when his anxiety began to escalate. When panic attacks began. Dave traces his first major panic attack to December 26, 2004 — Boxing Day — while watching footage of the Indian Ocean tsunami. As his son grew older, approaching the age Dave was during a significant childhood trauma, Dave began experiencing panic attacks, intrusive images, and intrusive thoughts, describing himself as coming close to, but never fully entering, psychosis. Getting help. Dave's wife, who is also a therapist, connected him with a trauma therapist. Through roughly three years of EMDR therapy, Dave says he came to understand how much unprocessed trauma his body was carrying separately from his conscious mind, and began learning to recognize his triggers. Faith as a "bag of tricks" that stopped working. Dave explains that his usual coping tools — prayer, Bible reading, and spiritual disciplines — became inaccessible once his anxiety intensified, forcing him to confront how cognitive and disembodied his faith had been up to that point. He describes having to discover what he calls an "embodied Christianity," recognizing that he wasn't just a mind carrying a body around, but that he was a body. Rediscovering scripture through Psalm 69. While attending a retreat and speaking publicly again after years away, Dave opened his Bible to Psalm 69 and found its opening imagery of drowning in deep water spoke directly to his experience for the first time. This led him to trace water and chaos imagery throughout scripture, from Genesis through Revelation, and became the foundation for his book. The theme of "the deep." Dave unpacks the biblical concept of "the deep" — the watery chaos present at creation in Genesis, which God doesn't destroy but instead gives structure and purpose within. He connects this to the flood narrative, where the waters of chaos "undo" creation, and explains that throughout scripture, water and waves become a recurring metaphor for catastrophic, uncontrollable overwhelm — illness, sin, invading armies, and grief. Death as the ultimate uncontrollable force. Dave explains that in scripture, believers are told they can resist Satan but not death, which he calls "the last enemy" — a force with total dominion over creation that only God has power over, paralleling the sea in biblical imagery. He connects this to the closing vision in Revelation, where the sea, along with death, mourning, and pain, is finally removed. Rethinking suffering and God's sovereignty. Dave shares that his crisis of faith wasn't about doubting God's existence or goodness, but about reconciling belief in God's sovereignty with a world that could "blow up on a heartbeat" without clear reason. He describes coming to see chaos and unpredictability as part of God's good creation rather than evidence of God's absence. Community over isolation. Dave emphasizes that humans aren't made to face suffering alone, describing how his wife, his therapist, and eventually others he opened up to all played a role in his healing by consistently showing up and saying "I'm with you." He talks about the need to be able to be, in his words, "naked and unashamed" before other people, not just before God. How this changed his teaching. Dave now speaks openly about his own mental health struggles in every class he teaches, noting that most of his students are navigating similar issues. He also teaches scripture through the lens of what it means to struggle as a human being, and reframes the power described in Paul's writing on the resurrection as something that enables deeper vulnerability and openness rather than an escape from weakness. A critique of "big church" culture. Dave and Roslyn discuss how mainstream American Christianity often emphasizes victory and control rather than making space for vulnerability and shame, using Alcoholics Anonymous as an example of the kind of small, honest community that church often fails to provide. Roslyn connects this to the biblical account of Adam and Eve hiding and covering themselves after sinning, framing shame as something rooted in disconnection rather than exposure. About the book. Dave's book, In the Sea Was No More: Reading the Bible in the Deep, ships September 22nd and interweaves his personal story with a chapter-by-chapter walk through scripture's water and chaos imagery. He describes it as "a memoir in scripture," noting that he spent about a year and a half considering publishing it anonymously due to shame before ultimately deciding to publish it under his own name. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode SummaryWhat does faith-based addiction recovery look like when it treats trauma and mental health as seriously as the addiction itself? In this episode of the Guided Mental Health Podcast, Roslyn talks with Adrienne Bumpers, Director of The Potter's House at Atlanta Mission, about the year-long residential program that walks men through recovery from substance abuse and homelessness. They cover why addiction and mental health are inseparable, what actually happens inside the program's first 30 days, and why understanding the "why" behind addiction matters more than treating the symptoms on the surface. Scripture ReferencedJohn 10 — Adrienne paraphrases Jesus's words that "the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but I have come so that you can have life and life abundantly," using it to describe the freedom, fullness, and peace the program hopes to offer clients. She references the book and chapter but does not give a specific verse in the episode.Genesis — Roslyn references the account of Adam and Eve after the Fall, recalling that God asks Adam "who told you that you were naked," and uses it to talk about God wanting people fully known without shame. She references the book but does not give a specific chapter or verse in the episode. Links & Resources MentionedThe Potter's House website: www.tphrecovery.org — where listeners can learn more about the program or apply onlineAtlanta Mission — the parent organization of The Potter's House, described as the largest homeless service provider in the city of Atlanta, founded in 1938The Potter's House campus — a 550-acre farm north of Atlanta near Jefferson, Georgia, in operation at that location since 1967General reference to 12-step recovery communities (NA/AA) and the practice of sponsorship, home groups, and step work, discussed as part of the broader recovery model The Potter's House draws from (no specific organization link given in the episode) Key Topics & TakeawaysAdrienne's path into this work. Adrienne shares a personal "God encounter" at 16, when a man experiencing homelessness at a gas station asked her to commit to helping five homeless people in her lifetime in exchange for a bracelet. That moment, paired with mission work through her church and later work with a nonprofit while attending seminary, set her on a path toward full-time ministry with people experiencing homelessness and addiction. Why she chose seminary over an MSW. Adrienne explains that she felt called to seminary rather than a traditional social work master's degree, pursuing a Master of Arts in Social Change Studies. She describes seminary as a place where she broke down and rebuilt her faith, giving her a rooted theological foundation she says she uses every day in her work, even though she ultimately felt called to community ministry rather than a pulpit. The history of The Potter's House. Atlanta Mission has operated since 1938 and runs three campuses, including two serving women with children and one serving men. The Potter's House, located on a 550-acre farm near Jefferson, Georgia, has served men with substance abuse struggles since 1967, after a family connected to Atlanta Mission's board donated the property, which had previously been used informally as a place where men in their own family worked through addiction. Why mental health and addiction can't be separated. Adrienne explains that a substance use disorder is itself classified as a mental health diagnosis, and that co-occurring conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia are common among clients. She stresses that nearly everyone who comes through their doors is dealing with an underlying mental health need, not just a substance problem. What the first 30 days look like. Clients arrive at The Potter's House through court mandates, probation referrals, or voluntary entry into the year-long program. Rules are strict: no nicotine use, and limited communication with the outside world, including cell phone access, to reduce distractions. Adrienne describes the early transition as emotionally overwhelming — grief, fear, withdrawal symptoms, and adjusting to community life among roughly 125 other men in the program at once. The interdisciplinary care model. Every client is paired with a counselor (licensed or working toward licensure), a peer in recovery who has walked the same journey, and a social worker focused on reducing barriers. Clients go through psychoeducation, evidence-based curriculum, and 12-step coaching with their peer mentor over the course of the year-long program, with employment introduced in the second half. Reframing "getting right with God." Adrienne describes pushing back on clients who say they need to "get right with God," reframing the relationship as one of ongoing pursuit rather than a transactional exchange based on behavior. She emphasizes that God is not withholding acceptance based on performance, but consistently drawing people closer, and that shame and guilt after a mistake don't reflect how God actually responds. Will's story. Adrienne shares the story of a client named Will, who came into the program with an undiagnosed and untreated case of schizophrenia, initially resistant to engaging in services. Through the trust he built with his counselor, he eventually pursued a full diagnosis and medication, finished his GED, stabilized in a job, and continues to manage his mental health independently — a story Adrienne credits to both the counseling relationship and his faith. Common misconceptions about addiction and homelessness. Adrienne addresses the assumption that addiction and homelessness are simply personal choices, explaining that most clients were introduced to substances at a young age and that addiction physically changes brain chemistry over time. She notes that most clients carry significant childhood trauma, and that understanding a person's story — the "why" behind the addiction — is essential to addressing it rather than just managing symptoms. Addiction as isolation, recovery as connection. Adrienne describes addiction as fundamentally isolating, and recovery communities as built around forced, intentional connection — sponsors, home groups, regular meetings, and accountability relationships. The Potter's House aims to send clients out with sustained income, housing, and community: a church home, a social group, a sponsor, and ongoing recovery meetings. Why the "why" matters. In closing, Adrienne explains that treating addiction without understanding its root cause is like using a band-aid on a serious infection — the underlying issue, often rooted in trauma, has to be addressed directly for recovery to hold. Message for anyone feeling too ashamed to ask for help. Adrienne closes by acknowledging that addiction can be a life-or-death matter, that relapse is a normal part of recovery rather than a failure, and that asking for help takes real courage. She encourages listeners who feel disconnected from faith or ashamed of their struggle that help and hope are available, wherever they live. How to get help. The Potter's House program is entirely free for men without income, and interested individuals can learn more or apply directly at www.tphrecovery.org. Adrienne notes that people come into the program from all over, not just locally. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode SummaryWhat does it actually take to build emotional endurance instead of just pushing through stress until you burn out? In this episode of the God and Mental Health Podcast, executive leadership coach, TEDx speaker, and author Leslie Bosserman joins Roslyn to unpack the science and scripture behind her new book, Emotional Endurance: Faith-Fueled Skills for Bouncing Back. They talk through stress thresholds, emotional safety, capacity, and what it looks like to let God into the process of recovering from burnout instead of overworking your way out of it. Scripture Referenced2 Corinthians 10:5 — Leslie reads this directly: "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ." She uses this verse to frame the idea of taking unhealthy thoughts captive and inviting God into how we process emotions, not just what we decide to do.Leslie also references the Apostle Paul's teaching on wanting to do one thing and doing another instead ("that we will to do, that we do not practice") when discussing the gap between our intentions and our stress-driven actions. She does not cite a specific chapter or verse for this in the episode.Links & Resources MentionedBook: Emotional Endurance: Faith-Fueled Skills for Bouncing Back by Leslie M. Bosserman, published by ZondervanBook website: emotionalendurancebook.comAudiobook and Kindle versions of the book, both mentioned as available alongside the print editionThe Coaches Training Institute — the in-person coach certification program Leslie flew from Central Illinois to Manhattan to complete in her mid-twentiesThe Maker's Place — Sacramento's first coworking space with onsite childcare, co-founded by Leslie and her husbandYerkes-Dodson stress-performance research — the century-old study Leslie references to explain the relationship between stress and performance (illustrated with a bell-curve graph in her book)Leslie's Substack, mentioned as one of the places she wrote short-form articles before deciding to write the bookInstagram Key Topics & TakeawaysWhat emotional endurance actually is. Leslie describes emotional endurance as a dynamic capacity built over time, combining the science of hope, resilience, and strength psychology with a faith-based understanding that we're designed to be "kingdom builders." She's clear that anyone can build this capacity, whether or not they currently identify as a believer. From residence halls to writing the book. Leslie traces her path from managing a 900-student UCLA residence hall, to building a coaching program at the University of Illinois, to becoming an early-adopter professional coach in her mid-twenties, to spending roughly a decade developing the framework that eventually became her book. She describes it as "a golden thread" — teaching what people needed, not what she planned to publish. Curiosity versus judgment. One of the episode's central ideas is that curiosity is the antidote to self-criticism. Leslie explains that asking "what motivates you?" instead of "why did you do that?" opens a person up to understanding themselves rather than shutting down in judgment. Understanding your stress threshold. Leslie unpacks the Yerkes-Dodson framework: stress improves performance only up to a tipping point, after which performance drops off sharply. She talks about helping clients identify their personal stress capacity and recognize what triggers them before those triggers "hijack" their best work and intentions. Emotions as messengers, not marching orders. A recurring theme in the conversation: emotions are meant to inform us, not command us. Leslie describes letting an emotion "wash over you like an ocean" rather than dismissing it or letting it dictate behavior. Roslyn connects this to her own experience of hearing that emotions are "information," like a thermometer reading rather than a directive. The emotion-to-character pipeline. Leslie walks through her coaching process: name the emotion, explore what's underneath it without diagnosing, decide how you want to feel instead, take that reframed thought captive, let it shape consistent action, and let that action shape character over time. She frames character as the lasting, "eternal" outcome of this work. Rest, Sabbath, and capacity. Leslie shares that without a commanded, intentional Sabbath, she would never stop working. She discusses building sustainable rhythms of rest and renewal before burnout hits, and describes her own "timeout" practices — a glass of water, a walk, even jumping jacks — as ways to get back into her body during moments of overwhelm. Defining capacity. Using the image of stretching a rubber band between your fingers, Leslie defines capacity as what you're able to handle before you break — and stresses that capacity isn't meant to be built alone. Asking for help, including relying on God, is part of expanding that capacity rather than a failure to have enough of it. The six principles of the book. Leslie explains that Emotional Endurance is structured around six core principles, each paired with science and scripture and broken into three actionable skills, plus reflection questions and a companion book club guide. The book is designed to be read in any order, with busy parents specifically in mind. Her own story with faith and timing. Leslie closes part one of the conversation by sharing her personal story of meeting her husband at age eight, staying close friends through their teenage years, and eventually marrying him at 27 — a story she uses to illustrate trusting God's timing over her own plans, and to reinforce the book's broader message about enduring through uncertainty with faith. A struggle God strengthened her through, rather than removed. In part two, Leslie gets personal about raising her son Luke, who has autism. She describes him as her greatest teacher — present, authentic, and full of joy — and pushes back on the assumption that a special-needs diagnosis is only a hardship. She shares the "God story" underneath it: her husband Joel spent 22 years working in early intervention with children with autism before Luke was born, which Leslie frames as divine equipping rather than coincidence. Reframing "good hard." Leslie talks about the mindset shift of separating what's hard from what's bad, and using difficult seasons to ask what God is building in her rather than trying to escape the discomfort. She ties this directly back to the idea that God's strength shows up in weak, unresolved moments rather than only after a struggle is removed. Her personal spiritual and nervous-system practices. Asked what holds her together, Leslie names three core practices for this season of her life: slowing her internal pace through a daily walk (often praying or listening to scripture through the Dwell app, sometimes attending a yoga class instead), immersing her home in worship music, and treating writing itself as a spiritual practice and a way of creating from truth. "Show up where you are." Leslie's closing piece of advice for anyone feeling burnt out or emotionally exhausted: no guidebook or prerequisite is required to come to God or to community exactly as you are. She encourages naming the hurt out loud, whether to God, a journal, a friend, or a partner, rather than waiting until you feel more put-together. Book structure and release details. Leslie confirms the book released July 28th and describes its structure in more detail: 18 core skills organized around six foundational principles for developing emotional endurance, designed to be practical and immediately usable rather than purely conceptual. Follow Roslyn onYoutube Instagram Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Show NotesMost high performers don't recognize burnout until their body forces them to stop — and for Dr. Jessica Houston, that recognition took years of overextending herself to outrun a childhood shaped by poverty and survival mode. In this episode, Dr. Jessica joins Roslyn to talk about healing from a condemning image of God, learning to trust him instead of perform for him, and building the self-awareness it takes to set real boundaries. If you've ever felt like rest is something you have to earn, this conversation is for you. Scripture Referenced2 Corinthians 9 (NLT) — Roslyn references this passage on being a "cheerful giver," noting that giving (or saying yes) reluctantly or out of obligation reflects a heart posture God doesn't want for us. She ties this to the idea that even our yes should come from a cheerful, willing place rather than fear of disappointing others.Links & Resources MentionedDr. Jessica Houston's website: drjessicahuston.comBook: Give Your All Without Losing Yourself: The High Performance Guide to Sustainable Success — Dr. Jessica's newly released book, available on Amazon or wherever books are sold. Includes a full chapter titled "Value Your Yes."Book: Women's Secrets: It's Time to Stop Suffering in Silence — Dr. Jessica's first book, written as part of her own healing process.Episode SummaryDr. Jessica Houston is a keynote speaker and self-leadership strategist based in Atlanta. In this conversation, she shares the layered story behind her work: a physically abusive relationship in college, years of infertility met with two unexpected pregnancies (including one after being told she had only a 5% chance of conceiving naturally), and a childhood marked by poverty, homelessness, and domestic conflict that she didn't fully recognize as trauma until she became a school social worker. Growing up in survival mode. Dr. Jessica didn't realize her family had experienced homelessness until she was an adult working in trauma training — she had assumed "homeless" only meant someone living on the street, not a family staying with relatives after an eviction. She discusses how this conditioning followed her into adulthood: even after achieving financial stability, she found herself anxious over small expenses and unable to expect good things to happen to her, because she'd been conditioned for lack and stress rather than blessing. A condemning view of God. Dr. Jessica also opens up about growing up in a strict, "condemning" church environment where she believed God was primarily watching for her mistakes — right down to feeling guilty for listening to secular music or saying a curse word. She describes spending roughly a decade rebuilding her relationship with God on her own terms, praying specifically that he would reveal who he actually is to her, rather than relying on what she'd been taught about him. She's candid that in the process of healing from religious condemnation, she noticed herself becoming judgmental of others in the same way — a pattern she had to confront in herself. Writing as obedience. Her first book, Women's Secrets, began as an act of obedience rather than a business plan — she describes God waking her up at 3 and 4 a.m. prompting her to be honest about her struggles. The book became the foundation for her speaking career and eventually her business, though she's candid that it took years of learning the "CEO side" of things — niching down, building an audience, and understanding that a book alone doesn't build a business. High performing and burnout. The conversation moves into the heart of Dr. Jessica's newest book: why high performers overextend themselves. She names two core drivers — the desire to win, and the fact that overgiving is socially rewarded while overworking rarely draws criticism. She unpacks the internal dialogue behind it ("If I don't do this, who will? I don't want to let them down") and the early warning signs people miss: chronic exhaustion that isn't fixed by sleep, irritability with loved ones, forgetfulness, restlessness in bed, and working through exhaustion rather than resting. The spiritual cost of burnout. Dr. Jessica speaks directly to what unmanaged burnout does to a person's relationship with God — he gets pushed to the back burner, only approached when something is needed, rather than being a daily priority. Her personal practice for combating this is giving to herself first, meaning she spends time with God before the rest of the household wakes up, before she's pulled into meeting everyone else's needs. Understanding capacity. She defines capacity as the amount of pressure or responsibility a person can carry without becoming overwhelmed, stressed, or burned out — and argues most people don't know their own capacity because they're afraid of disappointing others or being seen as selfish. The three questions before saying yes. From the "Value Your Yes" chapter of her new book, Dr. Jessica shares the three questions she asks herself before agreeing to anything: Do I actually want to do it?Do I have time to do it?Will taking this on push me into overwhelm?Roslyn connects this practice to the biblical concept of giving cheerfully rather than reluctantly (2 Corinthians 9), noting that the pause between being asked and answering is where the real work — and the real heart-posture check — happens. Boundaries as self-protection. Dr. Jessica describes using a personal filtering system before taking anything on: Does this align with my values? Does it move me toward what I actually want, or am I just doing it to be liked? She frames boundaries not as guarding herself from other people, but as "guarding me from me" — protecting herself from her own instinct to overgive. Who the book is for. Dr. Jessica closes by describing Give Your All Without Losing Yourself as a book for the person everyone calls on — the go-to friend, family member, or leader who is quietly running on empty while still showing up for everyone else. Her central message: self-leadership means being honest with yourself about who you are and what you need, rather than waiting for someone else to give you permission to rest. Follow Roslyn: Youtube: Click Here Instagram: Click Here Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Shame of Exposure: What Adam, Eve, and Paul Teach Us About Hiding from GodShame doesn't always look like guilt — sometimes it looks like silence, distraction, or simply not tracking the thing you don't want to see. In this episode, Roslyn unpacks the spiritual roots of shame starting in the Garden of Eden, traces how it quietly shapes our relationships, and gets vulnerable about her own weight loss journey and the moment she realized why she'd stopped tracking her food. Drawing from Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 12, this episode reframes exposure — to God, to ourselves, and to others — as the doorway to intimacy, not the danger we've made it out to be. Timestamps00:00 — Welcome back + episode intro 01:15 — Why this episode: a listener request for a deep dive on shame 02:10 — Episode roadmap: the Garden, relationships, a personal story, Paul on weakness, and practical tools 02:55 — The thesis: we were never meant to hide from God 04:00 — Reading Genesis 3:7-11 (NLT) — Adam and Eve hide from God 05:30 — God's first question wasn't condemnation, it was "Where are you?" 06:45 — The spiritual architecture of shame: why exposure starts to feel like a threat 08:00 — How shame shows up in relationships: self-protection, deflection, busyness, control 09:30 — Substitutes we reach for instead of being known (food, scrolling, achievement, numbing) 11:00 — Personal story: Roslyn's weight loss journey and why she stopped tracking her food 14:45 — The connection between tracking, budgeting, therapy avoidance, and addiction — why we hide what we don't want to face 17:00 — God never designed us to hide from Him — even Jesus modeled vulnerability in Gethsemane 19:00 — Naming the tension: exposure is uncomfortable and can feel anxiety-provoking 20:15 — Reading 2 Corinthians 12:5-10 (NLT) — Paul's thorn and "my power works best in weakness" 24:00 — Weakness as the entry point to faith, not the opposite of it 26:00 — How Roslyn applies this to her own self-sabotage doing the podcast 28:00 — Three practical tools to begin exposing yourself to God 31:00 — Closing thought: Adam and Eve's blame cycle (a preview of a possible part two) 32:00 — Land the message: exposure isn't danger, concealment is — this is about identity, not performance 33:00 — Outro + how to connect with Roslyn (Note: timestamps are estimated proportionally from the transcript — adjust once you have final edited runtime.) Scriptures ReferencedGenesis 3:7-11 (NLT) At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden, so they hid from the LORD among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked." "Who told you that you were naked?" the LORD God asked. "Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?" 2 Corinthians 12:5-10 (NLT) Such a person could boast about that experience, but I don't want to boast about myself, except about my weaknesses... Even if I did boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be telling the truth. But I won't do it, because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message... So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged God to take it away. Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Three Practical Tools for ExposureName it before God, not around Him — Journal prompt: "God, here's what I've been hiding, even from myself. This is what's actually true."Identify one substitute you reach for instead of exposure — Journal prompt: "What do I turn to when I don't want to feel exposed? What am I protecting myself from feeling?"Choose one tangible act of exposure this week — Journal prompt: "What's one uncomfortable, specific thing I can expose this week — to God, to myself, or to someone safe?"Connect with Roslyn📱 Instagram: @roslynrene 🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube: Click Here 💬 Send a voice memo or DM — I read every message Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode Description: We're closing out the Kindness of God series, and this one is the most practical episode of the three. In Episode 1 we talked about who God actually is toward us — kind, not shameful. In Episode 2 we looked at how Jesus modeled curiosity in his ministry. Now in Episode 3, Roslyn brings it all home with a practical framework for how you can apply that same kindness and curiosity to your own mental health journey. She introduces the KIND framework — four postures to move into when things feel heavy, stuck, or overwhelming — and closes with practical tips you can start using this week. What's Covered in This Episode Why we need a framework in the first place Most of us default to criticism, comparison, and condemnation when we're struggling. Our inner critic is loud — and for many of us, it sounds exactly like what we incorrectly believe God's voice sounds like toward us. The way we talk to ourselves in hard moments is often a mirror of the version of God we've been relating to. Kindness and curiosity aren't just theological concepts — they are practices that have to be learned and repeated. And the brain can actually build new pathways when we practice new patterns consistently. The KIND Framework K — Know What You're Actually Feeling Without Judging It The first step is simply naming it — not what you're supposed to feel, but what's actually happening inside you right now. Emotions are not good or bad. As the Holy Spirit once reminded Roslyn on a walk: "Emotions are just information." When you don't name what you feel, it drives you. When you name it, you can begin to work with it. Scripture: James 1:5 NLT — "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking." I — Inquire Instead of Indict Once you've named the feeling, the next step is to ask questions rather than make accusations against yourself. Indicting sounds like: "Why am I always like this? What is wrong with me?" Inquiring sounds like: "I wonder what this is connected to. What might God be trying to show me here?" The difference is not just tone — it's direction. Indictment closes things down. Inquiry opens them up. The Holy Spirit is your partner in this — you can ask him directly what something is connected to and trust that he will show you. Scripture: John 16:13 NLT — "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth." N — Normalize — You Are Not the Only One and Brokenness Is Part of the Journey Shame thrives in isolation. It tells you that you are uniquely broken and that no one else is struggling the way you are. Normalizing is not excusing — it's acknowledging that this is a human experience and you are not alone in it. Brokenness is not a disqualifier in the kingdom — it is actually the prerequisite. And healing was never designed to happen alone. Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT — "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful." James 5:16 NLT — "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." D — Depend — Your Weakness Is an Invitation for God's Strength Dependency is countercultural. The world tells you to be self-sufficient and figure it out — but carrying what was meant for God to carry is what steals your peace. In the kingdom, dependency is the posture that opens the door for God to move. And God's kindness is what makes dependency feel safe. If you believe he is kind, you can lean on him. If you believe he is disappointed in you, leaning feels like exposure. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT — "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." Practical Tips to Walk This Out Daily K check-in — Once a day ask yourself: what am I actually feeling right now? Name it out loud or write it down. Don't evaluate it yet — just name it. This builds emotional awareness over time.Keep a curiosity journal — When something hard comes up, write three inquiry questions instead of three criticisms. I wonder what this is connected to. I wonder what God wants to show me. I wonder what I actually need right now.Find your N — your safe person — Identify one person who is safe and seasoned in faith that you can be honest with without performing. Shame loses its power when it's spoken out loud in a safe space.Practice dependent prayer (the sincerity prayer) — Prayer that starts from honest need rather than polished presentation. Not "Lord I come before you grateful and blessed" when you're exhausted. But "God, I'm running on empty. I need you." That is the prayer dependency makes possible.Return to KIND when you feel stuck — It is not a one-time exercise. It is a direction to move in. When you notice yourself spiraling, come back to K — name what you're feeling — and start from there.Scriptures Referenced James 1:5 NLT — "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking."John 16:13 NLT — "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth."1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT — "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful."James 5:16 NLT — "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT — "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."Searchable Keywords Christian mental health, faith and mental health, God and mental health podcast, how to stop being hard on yourself, shame and faith, kindness of God, curiosity and mental health, Christian therapy, mental health framework, healing and faith, inner critic Christian, trauma and faith, how to hear God's voice, emotional awareness Christian, dependent on God, mental health and shame, Christian wellness, Holy Spirit and healing, brokenness and faith, sanctification and mental health Links Mentioned: Instagram: Follow ME W Method, Time with God Journal: Get Here Youtube Channel: Subscribe Here Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Show NotesEpisode Summary In episode two of the Kindness of God miniseries, we're going deeper — from God's character into the way Jesus actually engaged with people during his ministry. This episode explores curiosity as a spiritual and mental health practice, grounded in how Jesus consistently used questions rather than condemnation to invite people into truth. If you've ever found it easier to criticize yourself than to get genuinely curious about what's going on inside you, this episode is for you. What We Cover Why Jesus being a question-asker throughout his ministry was intentional, not accidental — and what that means for how we approach ourselves and GodThe principle that when God presents a way to live, he always models it first — from wilderness seasons to temptation to curiosity itselfA breakdown of three Gospel stories and what Jesus' questions were really doing:James and John (Mark 10:35–38) — childlike boldness, no shame, no performance, and what Jesus' response actually revealed about the cup he was about to drinkThe man at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5) — "Would you like to get well?" and why Jesus asked a question he already knew the answer toThe woman at the well (John 4) — how Jesus led with questions that allowed her to uncover her own story rather than being exposed by himWhy our default is almost never curiosity — it's criticism, judgment, and fearWhy "don't question God" is not only unhelpful but unbiblical — and what the Psalms, John 15, and Romans say about our access to God as a friendHow shame shuts down curiosity entirely — and what Adam and Eve in the garden show us about what happens when shame takes overThe role of the Holy Spirit as an active, personal teacher — and how to start asking him direct questions (John 16:13, 1 John 2:27)A personal story about lamenting before God during a hard financial season — and what it looks like to be broken and honest before himHow God's kindness (from episode one) is what makes curiosity feel safe in the first placeReflection Practice for This Week Bring a question to the Holy Spirit instead of a statement. Try: "Holy Spirit, what are you trying to show me right now? What do I keep missing? Teach me who you are in this season." Then be still long enough to listen.When you notice self-criticism creeping in ("What is wrong with me?"), try reframing it: "I wonder what's going on here."Read John 4 — the full woman at the well story — and pay close attention to how Jesus leads the conversation. Notice what he asks, what he doesn't say, and how she uncovers her own story rather than being exposed.Scriptures Referenced Mark 10:35–38John 4 (Woman at the Well)John 5 (Man at the Pool of Bethesda)John 15 (I no longer call you servants, I call you friends)John 16:131 John 2:27Hebrews (Boldly come before the throne of grace)Connect with Roslyn Instagram: @RoslynReneListening on Spotify? Drop a comment under the episode — Roslyn reads and responds every week.Listening on Apple Podcasts? Leave a review — it might even get featured on a future episode!Missed Episode 1? Go back one episode to hear the foundation: God's character is not shame or disappointment — he is kind, and his kindness is what makes curiosity possible. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode Overview This week on the God and Mental Health Podcast, Roslyn kicks off a brand new mini-series on the kindness of God — and she is not holding back. If you've ever come to God braced for correction, bracing for rejection, or feeling like he's somewhere in the distance shaking his head at you, this episode is for you. Roslyn gets into the actual character of God — backed by scripture — and begins dismantling the version of him that shame has built in our heads. This is the foundation for everything coming in this series, and it is rich. What's Covered in This Episode Why this series exists Roslyn has been wanting to talk about curiosity and kindness as tools for mental health, but realized she needed to start at the beginning first — with who God actually is toward us. Before we can practice curiosity and kindness with ourselves, we need to understand that it's modeled in God's own character. That's what this episode is all about. Point 1 — God's Nature Is Not Shame. It Never Was. The shame we feel toward God is something we project onto him — it is not something he projects onto us. His character is consistently described throughout Scripture as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and filled with unfailing love. Roslyn shares a personal moment where God spoke something to her heart: "Roslyn, I am obsessed with you" — and how becoming a parent helped her finally understand what that actually means. Scriptures: Psalm 103:8 — "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love."Psalm 86:15 — "But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness."Lamentations 3:22-23 — "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning."If his mercies are new every morning, he is not holding yesterday against you today. Shame says he is. His character says otherwise. Point 2 — He Moves Toward Our Brokenness, Not Away From It The world's pattern — and the enemy's lie — is that broken people get left behind. The kingdom pattern is the opposite. God runs toward what is broken. Roslyn unpacks the Prodigal Son story not just as a story about a son coming home, but about a father running while the son was still far off. She also shares a personal story about hiding a childhood scar on her knee — and what God showed her through it about how he sees ours. Scriptures: Romans 5:8 — "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."Jeremiah 31:3 — "I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself."Zephaniah 3:17 — "For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."God doesn't just tolerate you in your brokenness — he sings over you in it. That is not the posture of a God who is ashamed of you. Point 3 — His Kindness Is What Actually Changes Us Shame doesn't produce transformation — it produces hiding. Roslyn breaks down how it's actually God's kindness, not guilt or correction, that moves us toward repentance and genuine change. She uses the example of someone genuinely apologizing versus hiding something — and how the openness is what allows things to move forward. The same is true in our relationship with God. Scriptures: Romans 2:4 — "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?"1 John 4:18 — "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love."Shame makes us hide. Kindness makes us come home. Practical Tips Name the version of God you've been relating to. Journal it out. What does the God in your head actually look like — is he disappointed, distant, watching you fail? Is he the God of Scripture or a version shaped by a parent, a painful experience, or a person who let you down? Getting that on paper is the first step to separating the lie from the truth. Read Psalm 103 slowly this week. The entire chapter is a description of God's character toward us. Read it out loud if you can and let it begin replacing the wrong images. Practice receiving, not just confessing. Many of us are good at coming to God with what we've done wrong. This week, try coming to him and just receiving — sit with a verse about his love for a few minutes without asking for anything or apologizing for anything. You may be surprised at what happens when you simply make space. Notice when shame shows up in your prayer life. Do you brace yourself before you pray? Do you feel like you have to earn the right to ask? That's a signal. Name it directly — "God, I still feel like you're disappointed with me, even though I know that's not your character. Help me experience who you actually are." Meditate on Zephaniah 3:17. He rejoices over you with singing. He takes delight in you with gladness. He calms your fears with his love. Sit with that image until it starts to feel more true than the shame does. What's Next in This Series Episode 2 — Jesus and Curiosity: How Jesus used curiosity as one of his primary tools in healing and discipleship, and what that means for how we can approach our own mental health journey. Episode 3 — Curiosity and Kindness in Your Mental Health: Practical application of both — including the KIND acronym — for how to walk this out in your everyday life. Connect with Roslyn Instagram: @RoslynRene Enjoying the podcast? Leave a review and rate it — Roslyn reads every comment and loves responding on Spotify. Know someone who needs to hear this? Share this episode with them. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode Synopsis: In this episode of the God and Mental Health Podcast, Roslyn opens up an honest conversation about one of the most common struggles she sees in her therapy practice and hears from listeners — feeling disconnected from God. She unpacks what that disconnection actually looks and feels like, why it happens, and how God is always drawing us back to him. From shame and comparison to unrepentant sin and spiritual exhaustion, Roslyn names the real barriers to intimacy with God and offers practical, personalized ways to reestablish that connection — no matter what season you're in. This episode is full of scripture, personal stories, and the kind of honest faith talk that gives you language for what you've been feeling but couldn't quite say. Key Points Covered: What disconnection looks and feels like Confusion and double-mindednessIntrusive thoughts and mental noiseFeeling far from God even when he hasn't movedShame, underlying disappointment, and painThe pressure to perform and earn God's loveComparison on social media and measuring your relationship against othersUnrepentant sin — whether we know it or are avoiding itHow God draws us close He uses longing, restlessness, and even pain as invitationsHe whispers more than he shoutsThe seeking itself is often God-initiatedDiscernment is one of the ways he makes his presence knownWhy intimacy aids in healing, especially in trauma The secret place becomes a safe, regulated space for your nervous systemIntimacy helps you discern what's the enemy, what's a wound, and what God is sayingThe Holy Spirit's role as Comforter is often overlooked — you can ask him to show you how he's comforting you in the season you're inPractical Tips to Reestablish Connection Reset — take an intentional day off, a day of rest, or schedule dedicated quiet timeActive quiet time — walk, be present, and listen rather than just askingMorning pages — three pages of unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness writing to clear your headTime with someone safe and seasoned in faithA good cry — give yourself permission to actually feel and emoteIntentional time off — build a rhythm of rest into your scheduleSoaking music — sit in it and let it do what it doesGo back to what works — don't overcomplicate it, return to what connected you beforeScriptures Referenced: On abiding and remaining: John 15:4-5 — "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me." On drawing near: James 4:8 — "Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world." On stillness: Psalm 46:10 — "Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." On rest and quietness: Isaiah 30:15 — "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength." On the secret place: Matthew 6:6 — "But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." On grace, not performance: Ephesians 2:8-9 — "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it." On God's love that cannot be earned or lost: Romans 8:38-39 — Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. On longing for God: Psalm 27:8 — "My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face, Lord, I will seek." On dwelling in his shelter: Psalm 91:1 — He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. On lament and frustration with God: Psalm 13:1-2 — "O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart?" Psalm 22:1 — "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?" On unrepentant sin creating distance: Isaiah 59:2 — "It's your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore." Psalm 66:18 — "If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." On the way back: 1 John 1:9 — "But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." Connect with Roslyn: Instagram: @RoslynRene Leave a review or comment on Spotify — Roslyn reads and responds to them! If this episode helped you, share it with someone who needs language for what they've been feeling. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode DescriptionAfter months away, Roslyn is back with a brand-new framework that will shape the future of the God + Mental Health Podcast. In this episode, she unveils the 4-pillar framework she's been secretly developing—a simple yet profound map for understanding how mental health and faith intersect in your life. Born from a quiet retreat in November 2025 where God led her to study Genesis and identity, this framework provides clear language for concepts that often feel overwhelming: trauma, the nervous system, your relationship with God, and your authority as a believer. This isn't about staying stuck in your past—it's about understanding where you've been, addressing where you are now, and taking practical steps toward where God is calling you to go. In This Episode, You'll Discover:The 4-Pillar Framework: Identity – Your DNA in God and why you're 100% His daughter (not just positionally, but actually). Discover what it means that God is obsessed with knowing and loving you.Reclaiming Safety – How we adapt to our environments and why "undoing feels like dying." Learn what it means to find God safe again and why this might be the most challenging (and necessary) work you do.Rest & Its Power – Why rest isn't just about taking a nap. Explore how God's presence is restful, why He modeled rest in creation, and how your nervous system desperately needs this foundational practice.Authority – The delegated power God offers through Jesus. This isn't just about salvation—it's about reclaiming what's yours, including authority over the enemy and the power to transform how you think.Plus: Why Roslyn is shifting from talking about "where you've been" to focusing on where you are and where you're goingHow this podcast will provide emotional literacy (like teaching a kindergartener to read, but for your feelings)The Mary and Martha principle and what rest really looks like in Western cultureWhy this podcast is a tool, not a replacement for therapy or your relationship with GodKey Quotes:"I am 100% God's daughter in my identity. There is a crafted identity in Him—a blueprint of who we are and how He sees us." "God is obsessed with loving me and knowing me." "When we reclaim safety, we are reclaiming this aspect of us not adapting to what we've known." "Undoing feels like dying." "Rest allows us to understand that God's presence Himself is restful. It's powerful. It's full. It's heavy, but it's restful." "Authority is the delegated power God offers us through His son Jesus." "The past should hold information, but I also think we have to get curious about the past enough to where we can use that as not our current place, but our ability to say, I don't want to do this anymore and move forward." "This podcast will never replace mental health counseling. Just because I'm a licensed therapist does not mean I'm your therapist." "You are wanted and welcome in all that you do." What to Expect Moving Forward:This framework will become the foundation of every future episode. You'll hear Roslyn break down: The nervous system in simple termsCapacity and boundariesStillness and pauseYour authority as a believerEmotional literacy and language for complex feelingsHow to test everything against ScriptureEpisodes will be: Unscripted and authentic – showing up as your sister in ChristValue-packed and concise – short enough to listen without feeling overwhelmedPosted when inspired – no rigid schedule, just real, timely contentFocused on progression – past, present, AND future (not just dwelling on trauma)Action Steps:Take this framework back to the Father – Test everything Roslyn shares against ScriptureGet curious about your past – Use it as information, not your current identityAsk yourself: Where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going?Share this episode with someone who might need to hear itConnect with Roslyn:📱 Instagram: @roslynrene 💬 DM Roslyn to let her know this was helpful ⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or comment on Spotify 📤 Share in your stories if this resonated with you Resources Mentioned:Genesis (study on identity)The story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)Psalms (David's raw emotions with God)The concept of delegated authority through JesusImportant Reminders:✅ This podcast is a tool, like a devotional—not a replacement for the Bible or professional therapy ✅ If you need mental health support, please seek a licensed counselor ✅ Test everything against Scripture and wrestle with God through it ✅ You are wanted, welcomed, understood, and you belong—no matter where you've been Keywords:Faith and mental health, Christian mental health framework, identity in Christ, reclaiming safety, trauma healing, nervous system and faith, rest and spiritual health, delegated authority, emotional literacy, Christian therapy, mental health for believers, undoing trauma, God's presence, Christian counseling, faith-based healing Next Steps: Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where Roslyn dives deeper into these four pillars. This is just the beginning of something beautiful. God + Mental Health Podcast with Roslyn Rene Formerly Therapy as a Christian Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and everywhere you listen to podcasts Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

After a long pause, I’m back—unscripted, honest, and sharing from where I truly am. In this episode, I open up about where I’ve been, why I stepped away from the podcast, and how faith and mental health have deeply reshaped my perspective in this season of life. This isn’t a polished or highly produced episode—it’s a real-time reflection on burnout, rest, integrity, and learning how to walk with God without pressure or performance. I share how faith and mental health have influenced me across four areas of my life: As a therapist—what years of sitting with clients have taught me about belonging, safety, and being seenAs a person—why mental health is a daily practice and how motherhood forced me to relearn restAs a friend—the emotional labor of friendships, boundaries, and walking with others through hard seasonsAs a daughter in Christ—what I’ve learned about imperfection, vulnerability, and allowing God to meet me in pain rather than trying to escape itThis episode marks the beginning of a gentler, more spacious season for the God and Mental Health Podcast. For now, episodes may be shorter, unscripted, and released as I have the capacity and creative energy to share—without pressure, performance, or pretending to have it all together. If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you. 📩 Connect with me on Instagram: 👉 https://www.instagram.com/roslynrene If you’re listening on Spotify, feel free to leave a comment or share what stood out to you. Your messages help me know what’s landing and what you’d like more of as this space continues to unfold. Thanks for being here—and for allowing me to return as I am. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy