Ever set a bold goal only to watch your body reach for the old comfort? We pull back the curtain on why change feels like a tug-of-war, showing how the limbic system, dopamine, and attachment history shape cravings—and why that makes perfect sense. Rather than shaming the body or glorifying willpower, we map a kinder route to lasting transformation where faith and neuroscience meet.

We unpack the tension Paul names in Romans 7 and the invitation James offers to count trials as joy. Trials don’t create reactions; they reveal them, giving us the exact data we need to grow. Drawing on exposure and response principles, we explain how staying present in safe, intentional doses rewires the amygdala, builds steadfastness, and aligns long-term values with moment-by-moment choices. From fasting to the marshmallow test, from smoking and soda to social belonging, we explore how immediate relief competes with deeper hope—and how to train the heart without denying human need.

You’ll learn a five-step process to integrate body and belief: expect activation, notice impulses, resist the automatic escape, bring it to Jesus with honest prayer, and re-anchor in safety before moving forward. We also challenge the myth that trauma isn’t real or that spirituality should override biology, offering a shame-free approach where story, faith, and neurobiology work together. With vivid examples—including a climbing analogy that reframes “discipline” as integration—we show how the gospel functions like a harness: it doesn’t remove the climb, but it secures you while you practice new moves.

If this conversation helps you see your habits and hopes with fresh eyes, share it with a friend, subscribe for more story-informed episodes, and leave a review telling us which of the five steps you’ll try first. Your reflections help others find a gentler path to real change.

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We kick off Season 4 with a timely exploration of goals, Lent, and the deeper workings of the human heart. Drawing from neuroscience and Christian spiritual formation, we unpack why 80–90% of our daily actions originate in the limbic system and how that reality reframes change, healing, and sanctification.

We define the “inner world” of the heart—emotions, memory, and subconscious patterns and the “outer world” of visible behavior and public image. Then we trace how triggers actually work: the amygdala fires before the prefrontal cortex weighs in, while the hippocampus matches present cues with past experiences. That’s why willpower collapses when stress, fatigue, or loneliness hit. We share a powerful client story about sleep, loss, and “missing out,” we show how reframing memory can quiet the alarm and open space for compassion, choice, and genuine transformation.

We also connect this science to one of our favorite statements in scripture “I believe; help my unbelief.” This captures the tension between what we cognitively affirm and what our bodies fear or doubt.

We talk habituation, Romans 12, and practical steps for aligning belief with behavior: noticing triggers, naming stories, practicing gentle exposure, and meeting younger parts of us with kindness. The aim is integration—a life where the mind and heart move together and love becomes the new normal.

If this resonates, listen now, share it with a friend and leave a review. Subscribe for the full series as we get practical about transforming the inner world with wisdom, compassion, and hope.

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In Season 1 we had a conversation the week of Thanksgiving that we want to share again as we conclude Season 3. Holiday tables can be warm, funny, and deeply desired—and they can also be minefields of subtle jabs, old roles, and unspoken rules. We name the ache beneath nostalgia and share a grounded, faith-based way to move from autopilot to awareness so you can keep your peace without losing yourself.

Using Dan Siegel’s flashlight metaphor, we show how to shift your focus intentionally, notice what sits at the edge of awareness, and choose responses that fit your values. The goal isn’t a flawless holiday; it’s an honest and hopeful one.

If this conversation helps you breathe a little easier heading into the season, share it with a friend, subscribe for more story-wise episodes, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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What if the shortest path to joy runs straight through your tears? We sit down with Mary Ellen Owen to unpack why uncomforted harm teaches us to banish tenderness, how that “closed book” stance blocks love, and why grief— often done in the presence of a safe other—becomes embodied surrender that restores our capacity for connection. This conversation bridges trauma theory, attachment, and Christian hope, showing how the Spirit turns stony, stubborn hearts into tender, responsive ones.

We name the defenses that once protected but now imprison, and we explore the “banished feminine” as the lost capacities of openness, need, and comfort that every person carries. You’ll hear practical ways to begin: change your posture to signal intention, seek a wise story-hearer, notice unexpected tears in films, songs, poems, or scripture, and cultivate imagination for God as the tear collector who comes close. Along the way, we wrestle with desire and risk—why grieving well actually expands longing for God and people, and how hope invites us to love again even after deep loss.

Threaded through are anchoring scriptures: Ezekiel’s promise of a heart of flesh, Paul’s mirror of being known, and the Revelation vision of home where God dwells with us and wipes every tear. Rather than managing pain by numbing, we practice grieving as those with hope, enlarging our inner home for the Comforter. If you’ve ever wondered how to move from self-protection to real presence, this is a gentle, courageous guide.

If this resonates, share it with someone who needs permission to cry, subscribe for more story-centered conversations, and leave a review with the question you’re sitting with right now.

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We sit down with counselor and artist Mary Ellen Owen for a candid, life-giving conversation about why tears matter, how to tell when your present reactions are hooked to old stories, and what it takes to move from self-protection to genuine comfort. Mary Ellen unpacks the crucial difference between acute grief—the wrecking ball moments of death, divorce, and diagnosis—and the quieter, lingering grief we outrun with busyness and control. Her insight is disarming and practical: it is not pain alone that shapes us, but pain plus isolation. Comfort changes everything.

Mary Ellen revisits her own turning point with the “wailing women” of Jeremiah and shows why many of us need to be led into lament. This isn’t wallowing; it’s relational healing. When we risk grief in safe company—human and divine—we discover the Comforter who collects our tears in a bottle and restores our capacity for delight. The result is a lived paradox: holding death and resurrection at once.

Book reference: “Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God’s Delivering Presence in the Old Testament” by L. Juliana M. Claassens

Listen now, share this episode with a friend who needs comfort, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for part two with Mary Ellen as we go deeper into practices that make lament a path to resilient joy.

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A simple question can expose a lifetime of scripts: what do you want? We unpack why that prompt can feel threatening, trivial, or strangely blank, and trace the roots back to childhood moments where wanting was ignored, shamed, or made expensive. From birthday wishes to high-stakes life decisions, we show how many of us learned to kill off desire or tailor it to others’ capacity—and why that strategy leaves us numb.

Together we explore how faith, psychology, and story work meet at the crossroads of desire. We reflect on C.S. Lewis’s image of mud pies versus the holiday at the sea. Drawing from James, the language of epithumia, and Psalm 27’s gaze upon beauty, we challenge the reflex to label all longing as dangerous and instead offer a path to form desire toward God, beauty, and connection. We also talk about arousal in the broad, embodied sense—what it means when the body wakes toward goodness—and why that energy can feel confusing after the purity culture or sexual abuse.

We address longings that can’t be met right now and why grief—not denial or impulsivity—is the way desire grows up. If you’ve ever said “I don’t care” to avoid disappointment, this is your invitation to care again with wisdom, limits, and hope.

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We explore how triggers reveal unhealed wounds, and how integrating top‑down truth with bottom‑up practices helps the body and mind trust each other again. A biblical story of David’s overreaction, real‑life examples with horses and rivers, and practical disciplines show how redemption replaces denial.

• what a trigger is and why reactions can be disproportionate
• understanding the brain with easy-to-remember metaphors
• David and Nathan as an example of overreaction
• top‑down approaches to renew the mind
• bottom‑up practices to regulate the nervous system
• how story work integrates sensation, memory, and meaning
• grounding in the present while revisiting the past
• replacing “let it go” with redemptive processing
• building trust between body sensations and core beliefs

We can be reached through our social media: Story Matters Initiative or our website StoryMattersInitiative.com or send an anonymous text in the Apple podcast app.

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The word “triggered” has wandered far from its clinical roots, but we all hear it referenced often. We pull the term back into focus by walking through what actually happens when the brain’s alarm system misfires and how prior wounds teach the amygdala to sprint while the prefrontal “watchtower” is still lacing its shoes.

We break the triune brain into plain English: the thalamus gathers the data, the amygdala hits the siren, and the cortex adds context. In a regulated system, that update quiets the alarm. In a triggered system, chemicals flood too hard or too fast for logic to land. That’s why a whiff of smoke after a neighborhood wildfire can spiral you, or a partner’s micro‑expression can feel like a cliff edge. We connect these patterns to early attachment imprinting and name the hidden role of shame in keeping mind and body at odds. From there, we offer a practical path forward: top‑down tools and bottom‑up approaches (from both Scripture and discoveries made through Psychology) that help the system return more quickly to safety and calm.

We pull from the works of Bessel Van Der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score" and Dr. Dan Siegel's "Mindsight" and Christine Ann Lawson's "Understanding the Borderline Mother" and the Bible: Romans 7,8 &12, and other scripture references.

We close by previewing "Triggers" Part Two, where we’ll dive deeper into healing: bottom‑up practices, understanding unique trigger profiles, and inviting your stories and questions as we keep learning together. If this conversation helped, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs better language for what they feel, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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