anxiety – Sarah Faith

pause

if you’re following along with my things on this blog, i feel like i owe you an apology of sorts. it’s been a minute since i wrote in here. but. that’s going to change.

there’s a lot of irons in the fire on my side of the fence — family and kids, music, business, and things added in here and there that don’t fit into any categories at all, like building a chicken coop (haha yes. for real). i lost track of this community for a minute… but that’s ok. or at least i’m hoping it is 🙂

i’ve found that when i feel overwhelmed with the number of “things” the best thing i can actually do is pause. take a step back from one or two or three of the things. figure out if all of the things i’m doing actually need to stay. what can go. what do i want to continue to invest time in. by now we’ve all wished we could have more time in a day for long enough and it’s still not happening. so if that’s not going to change, we need to.

so i put the blog down for a second along with a couple other things that seemed like great things on paper, but if i’m not able to invest the time to do them well, what’s the point? power through to overwhelm and just do things with half effort? tempting… i do always say that done is better than perfect. but when i see my overall mental capacity decreasing as i have less and less space to even think, something had to go.

i find value, though, in nurturing through written word. i feel like it’s something with external as well as internal benefit… so i think it’s time this gets added back into the rotation.

this blog has always been a place for me to share mental health, motivation, self-care, and overall mindset things i’ve learned along the way or am personally working through or am gaining insight on. my compass has been Holy Spirit, and it will continue to be. i can’t take credit for all the good ideas i have — they’re borrowed, but i believe they need an outlet, because keeping them to myself would be selfish. kind of like music and songs — i write them, but if i never share them or give them to anyone, what purpose do they serve?

let this be your reminder that it’s ok to pause. it’s ok if you’re not where you thought you would be. it’s ok if stuff doesn’t look like you thought it would. it’s ok if God’s plan looks different than your own — actually, if you’re anything like me, that’s sometimes a very good thing. i’ve talked myself in more negative, overly self-critical circles than i can count, and i’m just here trying to help someone get off the ride a little faster than i did with as little collateral damage as possible. here’s how:

encourage → i wanna remind you you’re not alone in your struggles and give you hope to keep going.

equip → i always love to share tools, habits, and practices that actually make life lighter, healthier, and more balanced.

normalize → i wanna break the stigma around mental health and self-care by talking about the messy and the real.

inspire → i like to show you what it looks like to grow through faith, resilience, and self-compassion.

connect → i wanna co-create a space where you feel seen, understood, and like part of this community.

thank you for being here. thank you for sharing in my vulnerability. thank you for taking any of my advice — it truly is something i hope serves you. take what you need and live a little lighter today, knowing you’re not alone and whatever valley you’re in is never permanent.

♥, SF

//anxiety//

it’s been a heavy week for me mentally, and if i’m alone in that, that’s a good thing – i don’t wish weeks like this on anyone. i’m not tired necessarily from the week. i’m tired because i’ve been constantly battling with my mind trying to keep it as positive as possible. unfortunately, i’ve been falling short majority of the days…

what on Earth do i possibly have to worry about?! you may ask… and i’ll give you my whole whimpy list right here – maybe you can see yourself in some of this: am i doing enough?, am i good enough?, am i enough, period?, is this working?, fear and worry about success or failure, anxiety over what people think, worried i missed the boat on something, am i parenting well enough?, am i “relationship”ing well enough?, i didn’t work out today, what a failure, why am i eating so terribly?, why isn’t this happening faster?, mad that my efforts aren’t turning to fruit, worried that they won’t… should i continue? i won’t… you get the picture.

i took it to the Word, though. and without getting too preachy on you, i’ll give you some of my practical takeaways.

did you know that sometimes people obtain their success in not-so-innocent ways? have you ever stopped to consider that when you’re scrolling around in comparison mode in the black hole of the internet? people will go out of their way, oftentimes against their own inner dialogue, morals, or values to obtain success. and they’ll go brag about it like it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to them. no one is telling you exactly how they got to where they are. they are simply showing off that they got there.

when i stop to think about that, it kicks me in the face and brings me right back down to Earth. or whatever planet i’m from.

did you also know that fast success isn’t sustainable? it’s not lasting success. fast relationships, fast money, fast anything – not the same as steady and sustainable. it’s just not the thing that’s built on a firm foundation and gonna stand the test of time. fast success is just that – fast. success. not lasting success. not fulfilling success. not better, not more, not happier…. fast. and sometimes the bigger they are, the harder they fall. that’s my first takeaway.

my second takeaway – it’s not the prudent person that’s got something to prove. it’s not the grounded, sound, confident person that’s out here trying to show off or show out. that’s the insecure, not confident person. and you can be whoever you wanna be in this life, but if i’ve got my choice, i want to be grounded. i want to be well-founded. i want to build my house on rock, not sand. it’s not usually the modest person that gets noticed first, but i’ll be danged if they’re not well-respected in their own time.

i’m gonna go ahead and print these words for myself and make wallpaper out of them… i know i’m going to forget tomorrow and need a front and center reminder… feel free to do the same.

♥, SF

grace + legalism

ok, raise your hand if you’ve ever had a Tate’s cookie…? they’re this semi-recent discovery of mine, and what i’ve REALLY discovered in my adventures with Tate’s cookies is that it’s nearly impossible for me to eat just one or two. once a pack is open, it’s as good as gone.

you’re catching me right now at bed time, post tooth brushing, analyzing tonight’s snack endeavor, asking myself why i have such little self control when it comes to this particular brand and kind of cookie. but then i took it one step further and began to judge myself because i truly do try to be a person that watches what i consume, attempting to make good, informed choices. low tox, natural living, baby!! there’s just something about these dang cookies that make me throw all caution to the wind, rules in the dumpster, and devour… i mean… smash… dunked in milk, they’re an absolute delicacy.

then… as i thought further into this… i started thinking about how little grace i give myself and how downright legalistic i can be. it’s very all or nothing in this brain of mine. it’s either good or bad, but nothing in between, and if i’m being honest, i’m pretty good at picking myself apart for all the “bad” – i’m using quotations because i’m also pretty harsh when it comes to classifying and separating good from bad.

i’m “bad” for eating all seven of those cookies – but they tasted so good!! but i have no self control and how dare i ever even talk about health, wellness, or anything remotely related with habits like this.

does anyone else crack down on themselves entire too harshly, or is it just me? something moved me to write this tonight while i was brushing my teeth, so i just kind of went with it, assuming the nudge was because there was quite possibly someone that needed to hear that they weren’t alone in this internal legalistic battle.

we are together in these self critical moments, but i want us to lay off ourselves a little. i want us to not be so dang serious and legalistic about all this stuff – just eat the dang cookies and be ok with it, alright? sheesh. i mean, sure, we don’t wanna go housing packs of cookies every night, but there’s also something to be said for enjoying this life and coloring outside the lines a bit every once in a while. there’s goodness in those moments, too. a LOT of goodness. and i would hate for us to miss things that are readily right in front of us because we were too worried about perfectly adhering to some “rules” – most likely rules that we made up for ourselves!!

i didn’t do a “word of the year” this year – i’m just on a mission and i’m headed there full steam ahead. but. if i did, there would’ve likely been a whole list of words because i’m generally so indecisive. somewhere near the top of that list would have been “grace.” you’d be hard pressed to find someone that was a harsher critic on themselves than me, but dang it, i am determined to give myself some grace. i have got to loosen the necktie a bit. let the hair down. i know it might seem like i’m totally carefree and whatever – i’m here to confess to you that i truly need to give myself some more grace. grace when i’m three minutes late, grace when i eat something a bit “off brand,” grace when i don’t feel like getting ready in the morning, grace when the outfit of the day is sweats, grace when one of the kids doesn’t like the dinner i made, grace when i’m having a hard time clearly seeing the vision and i’m confused, ready to quit… just some more grace in basically every situation.

i’m gonna go ahead and assume you could use some more self-gifted grace, too. because guess what – i’m a human and so are you. and we’re gonna make mistakes. we’re here on this big blue and green rock, spinning around, semi-blindly wandering through life just like everyone else – the least we can do is make it a little easier on ourselves if at all possible.

i challenge you to letting yourself off the hook a little this week – what’s that gonna look like? and better yet, how are you gonna feel next Friday when you’ve gone a little easier on yourself for Seven. Days. Straight?!??

♥, SF