0:00Episode 3,989, what brings the mind rest. Mom's, it's time to rediscover, rejuvenate, and renew who you are in mind body and spirit. Welcome to Create Your Now, Your Best Selfie, the show that help you do just that. Here's your host, Certified Life Coach, Personal Trainer, and Nutritionist, Kristian Wardo. Happy everyday, I hope you're ready for an incredible week, because guess what? You get to set the tone, you get to have the attitude, and that means it's all in your mind, but what brings the mind rest. For those of you who are brand new to Create Your Now, welcome to this incredible family. I'm so delighted of your presence. If you already have the opportunity, you want to head on over to CreatureNow.com, where you can learn more and sign up for the Kisses newsletter, to keep it simple strategy, everyday solutions, to live, love, and impact, with this episode is brought to you by AIM, Inspiring Connection, and Community. Well, let me just let you know.

1:01This is not any problem with your speaker, or your earbuds, or whatever. I have a slight case, I think, self-diagnosed. Yes, I know not a good idea of larynxitis, so you get what I have. So it might be a little more challenging. I apologize. I will do my best to speak a little bit slower, not too bad. You know, I like to talk fast, but also just so you can understand me, my voice may go in and out. I apologize for that. But you know me, I'm going to be here, right? It is what it is. We do life together. We create our now together. We're going to look at what we're doing together. And I show up regardless now. Of course, if there's something like really bad, you know, I've had that happen, right? One time, one big time, and praise the Lord. We're not there anymore, and I'm very, very grateful. So, count your blessings. Maybe you need that reminder today. Count your blessings. Because I don't know if you looked at what's going on in the world today.

2:02But life is a little crazy. And maybe it's not just how fast you're moving, but it's the pace of what's going on that you can't control. And fear may be coming at you faster. You know, like the speeding, you know, rocket or whatever. You're like, it's going to crash. Is it a crash right into me? And sometimes we just don't know what to do with all of these feelings, emotions. And yet we still have this whole thing called life to live. We've still got to keep going. We got to keep doing what we're supposed to be doing. Because honestly, life's pace is brutal. We chase endless tasks. We pile on responsibilities. And we keep grinding and grinding until we crash. Yeah, here comes the rocket chip. Boom. And that crash is physically and mentally. We're done. But as you know, running on empty is no way to run life. It's no way to run a business or anything worth having for that matter.

3:03So what brings the mind rest? I know, probably not a question you've answered recently. Maybe not one that we think about. If you haven't listened to yesterday's episode, I would encourage you to go and listen to it. It's episode 3988, refreshment for your soul. And it's going to talk a little bit about what we're talking about now, but from a different perspective. However, I don't want you to think that, gosh, I can't listen to this episode. I have to listen to that one first. You don't. They stand alone. I try not to have ones that go on and on and on. Because then you're like, what? I don't have time for that. I get it. Right? That's why we're here. Our to-do list is long. Well, let's bring in some comedy. And this is going to date me a little bit. But I can't say I watched him always live, but I watched the reruns for sure. Are you familiar with the I Love Lucy? Oh, my goodness. It is great. If you have not watched it and you're younger, much younger than me, go look it up, seriously. It is just great.

4:03It's good, wholesome comedy. But there's this one episode in the classic I Love Lucy. We're Lucy and Ethel. Lucy is, of course, the main character. Ethel is her best friend. And they're both married and, you know, it's kind of taken into place is that, you know, where do women fit in? And how does this work? And there's trouble or struggles. It's like struggles and troubles put together. And yeah, I'm leaving that there for a reason, because it kind of goes along with what we're talking about here. But in this episode, and if you know it, you'll be like, I remember that one because it's one that I just love. I giggle at all the time. Do you remember the one about the job wrapping chocolates? And they're at this conveyor belt. Oh, man, it's pure, comedic gold. And it truly is this metaphor for life just being out of control, right? At first, they get this job right in their show where they sit and they're just conveyor belt in these little chocolates. So just kind of think of, like,

5:04the chocolates, even though they're not a sponsor of this episode, we can pretend whatever chocolate it is. If you like Lendor, if you like, Gary and Deli, whatever it is, and they're wrapping these finest of chocolates individually, and it starts off slow and manageable, right? They've got their little white hats on, and they're on their little stools, and they're, oh, no, bad. Like, this is pretty easy. I like this. They calmly wrap the chocolates one by one. Confident, no problems. They're going to keep up. The chocolates begin to come by a little bit faster, a little bit faster and a little bit faster. But somehow, they figure out how to keep going, and as it gets faster and faster, they're like, oh, my God, I can't keep up. Like, I get five and three are passing me by. What do I do? Well, they end up just kind of pulling them off. Lucy's like, oh, I'll just keep them here. Now, they're not talking at all during this entire scene, okay? So Lucy just kind of pulls them off the conveyor belt, and Ethel's just looking side by side just trying and she just let some go, pass, pass, pass.

6:06And all of a sudden, they hear the supervisor out, like, oh, she's coming in. Well, the conveyor belt starting to go faster. And so they've pulled off, like, probably 15 to 20 chocolates sitting in front of them. They take off their hats. They sit there and throw the chocolates in. They puffin' like, three or four, you know, chocolate, you know, chocolate, you know, chocolate, you know, popcorn, right? You know, they've got their mouths, and I really wish they had dripping chocolate out of their mouth. That would have been kind of an added scene bonus there. But they're just like, stuffed, and she comes in and supervisor looks over and glances over everything. And she's like, okay, this looks good. She yells to the operators in the back, speed it up, speed it up. Let's get this going. So now, not only is it going fast, but it's going faster than what it was before when they couldn't keep up. And suddenly, that conveyor belt moves faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. Flooding, Lucy, and Ethel was more and more and more chocolates than they can handle. Now everything is a disaster. Their hands fly, rappers pile up, and chocolates go flying. And they keep stuffing frantically into their mouths,

7:06right, to avoid missing to be like, I could get more. And they look like little chipmunks sitting there, but they still cannot keep up. The chaos just, I mean, literally takes over. And it's just this tempo that is like, I can't do it. How fast is your life moving compared to that conveyor belt? Are you calmly handling your tasks? Or is everything speeding up so fast that you're struggling just to keep all the pieces in play, keeping all the chocolates aligned, everything wrapped up so nice and neatly? You know, when the pressure builds and the pace quickens? Do you catch your breath? Or do you start stuffing whatever you can into the rappers, hoping for survival? I just can get there. I can do it. I'm just going to try harder. I'm going to will myself there. I got this. Might be sick when I'm done. I got this.

8:07If your life feels like that, run away conveyor belt on I love Lucy. And it doesn't have the sweetness of chocolate on it. Maybe it's time to hit pause. Maybe it's time to take control and slow the pace before the whole thing spins wildly out of your grasp, totally out of control. You're already there, right? I mean, think about it. If we're honest, we live in a culture that worships doing. Go, go, go. Do, do, do. Right? You're to do list. I like to call it the Santa Claus to do list because it just keeps going and going. It becomes a measure of your worth. But here's the problem. The mind is not designed for non-stop action without renewal. Scientific research shows that constant, cognitive load leads to decision fatigue. It's a real thing, by the way. If you've never heard of it, go look at app decision fatigue. If I can only pronounce it right. Poor focus and emotional burnout. Worse, when the mind is exhausted, your clarity vanishes, creativity stalls,

9:09and motivation tanks. It's like, I don't have any more to give. I can't do it. I've been down that road. Right? I'm here every single day with you. We're over 4,000 episodes in. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Our numbers are actually about to hit the 4,000 mark. But we actually technically have over 4,000 episodes. I think we're like 4,000 and I don't know, 10, 11, 12, something like that somewhere. I don't keep track. I just keep writing. I keep showing up because you matter to me. And I don't want to leave you hanging there. It's not fun feeling like you're doing life by yourself. It's nice to know at least maybe one person on this earth kind of gets you. And I do. Our lives may not be exact, but I get you. I see you. I hear you. And so when you are sitting there and you're like, I just can't go anymore. Whether it's traveling, raising kids,

10:09going back to school, working in your church or in the community, volunteering at the, you know, the local food bank, whatever it is for you. Maybe you've given all that you've got and you're just at the point of breaking. And it's the kind of breaking that you may not come back from. And on top of that, you get the spiritual dissidents that adds layers of unrest, right? Psalm 232 says, listen to this. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. Think about that for a minute. When you just take that one verse, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. That's not a suggestion for a quick power nap. I'm all for it. Research shows it's a good thing. Well, I guess technically it depends on what research study you read. But it goes both ways and I've done it. Power naps are great. It's truly a blueprint for deep mental and spiritual rest.

11:14Like I said, go listen to yesterday's episode if you didn't. And then make sure you hear this one too. So when your mind is spinning and that conveyor belt is moving way out of control, moving so fast and the exhaustion is so real, what's your first move? Maybe it's to get back to the basics. Reset and renew your mind. That is your kiss to keep it simple strategy. Reset and renew your mind. Think about it. What do you do now to renew your mind? Or would you even call it that? Maybe you're scratching your head or you're like Christian, you're just full of it today. I'm not full of it and you know it. You just haven't thought about it. Why? Because we don't think about these things. And there's nothing wrong with not thinking about these things. That's why I bring them to your attention. So we can talk about them and think about them. And we can make changes in our life that actually has impact not just to ourselves but impact in the world that we touch. And that first world is within the privacy of your own four walls.

12:15The second world is where you go out. Maybe your career, your volunteer work. And then it goes out even further. And then there's a ripple effect, right? This is a big stuff. This isn't stuff that you're like, oh, there's no big deal. It's a big deal. If I don't think it was a big deal, I wouldn't be wasting my breath right now with my voice. It isn't much of a voice in forcing you to listen to me. I'm not forcing you to listen to me. I pray that you are truly here because you want to be here. And thank you for being here and sharing and subscribing and all of that. Cool things around the corner by the way. I'm just, I'm excited. But you see, you can't do cool things. You can't have that creativity. You can't see what God wants in store for. You can't discern where you're headed because you're not rested. You haven't given yourself time to reset and renew your mind because you're just always go, go, go, go. And sometimes it's important to have that cheer.

13:15Go, go, go, go. But it needs to be more of a cheer than an actual action. Because I think we've done the go, go, go part a lot. We've become this go, go, go fish. And all we do is keep swimming, keep swimming. And I feel like I hear Dory and little Nima just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. At times we need to just keep swimming but other times know. Think about this, most people have a hard enough time exercising let alone making time to reset and renew their minds. That just is kind of comical too. I think I love Lucy had some funny ones on exercising too. I think they did something with some what we would call a treadmill now but it wasn't that back in the day. They didn't even have treadmills back in the day. You know, you stood there and it just shook you to death. You know, you know those. If you don't go look them up, you'll think it's hysterical. But you see when you reset, we knew your mind.

14:15It's vital. It's vital to your survival. So what does it look like in real life to actually reset and renew your mind? Number one, disconnect, to reconnect. You got to embrace sacred stillness. That's the 1128. Jesus invites us, come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Jesus is not vague here. He is calling you to stop doing and start receiving rest for your soul and mind. Did you know Jesus rested too? He got tired. He rested. He fasted. He's like, I got to go sleep. It's important. Don't try to be like the winner of the Guinness Book of World Records to go where you're only living on three and a half hours of sleep. But I did that growing up. I can't do that now. What about you? What do you need to change? Disconnect, to reconnect. Maybe you need to schedule 15 to 30 minutes daily to be intentionally still.

15:19No phone, no screens, no noise. I love this. Why? Well, because right now, my life is a little noisy. A lot of the noise has to do with my grand babies. A lot of the noise has to do with my family. I love all of that. I would not change that. But I will tell you this. I appreciate the harmony of stillness in my mind. Where nothing's turned on literally. I don't have my phone on. I'm not listening to a podcast. Sometimes I'm sitting outside. I hear the birds that I do hear the birds. But there's nothing that I have to focus on. Truly, I'm still. And in that stillness, it gives me that time for me personally to meditate, to pray, to listen, to honestly, if I'm listening to music, I don't usually listen to it with words. That's just me. I might be sitting poolside. I hear the birds singing and I just listen to what they're saying. And if you listen and you do that enough,

16:19believe it or not, I can recognize different birds when they're talking like what kind of bird they are. Now, I don't have 20 different species of birds outside my house. But the few that I do have, I'm beginning to actually understand not what they're saying. Don't think I know. You're going to be Christian, you're a little cookie. No, I'm not. Stick with me here. But I hear their calls. And I could even sometimes, when I'm listening, especially in the springtime, right, the eggs are lay, then they hatch. I can hear the babies. Because outside, it's still, the neighbors are very kind, so they're not loud and obnoxious. And so I can listen for that. What have you listened to lately? That's not your kid's screaming at you. That's not devoted to reading a text message or listening to your boss or trying to listen to your daily devotionals. All of that's good. Don't get me wrong. All of that's good.

17:20But you've got to rest, reset, and renew your mind. Studies confirm even short mindfulness sessions can reduce cortisol, right? That's stress hormone. Yeah, we don't need any more of that. Come on, spring is going to be here any minute. You want to look good in that bathing suit, right? So who needs more cortisol? So just keep that in mind and maybe you'll think about, okay, stillness is a good thing. Stillness is a good thing. And it's going to improve your attention. This sacred pause rewires your brain to lower fight or flight mode. All right, we don't need to always be in a hurry and hurry and hurry. And it helps you gain mental clarity. Who doesn't need more clarity in their mind? I do. There's a lot of stuff happening. Number two, guard your mental inputs. What are you plugged into? Filter what you feed your mind. All right, Philippians 4-8 says, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

18:21whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. In other words, I give you permission to turn off the news. There's a lot of stuff coming at us right now. The weekend has been a hard weekend. And it doesn't matter where you are in your opinions, politically, whatever it is, right? But here's the thing, your mind is going too fast. And the news cycle just keeps repeating itself every two hours or so. So you're not missing anything if you turn it off for the majority of the day. And check in maybe only twice a day versus having it on 24-7. Or maybe you just need to turn that notification off on your phone. I don't need to know what's going on with the news. I'm not saying the, you know, alert that comes out. You want to have those, but I'm talking about just what's coming in with the news.

19:22Your mind is not a dumping ground for a random stimulus. Mental clutter fuels anxiety and distracts you from purposeful action. If you really want to get that to do list done, you got to make sure you're ready. Guard your mental inputs. Where do you plug it into? Maybe you need to conduct, okay, you're, I think this is sterical. I'm saying it anyway, because when I wrote it, I was like, yeah, this is really good. Conduct a mental diet on it. I want you to do a mental diet on it. Has nothing to do with the food that you're taking, even though food does, you know, affect your mind. Please understand that. We'll leave that for another episode though. But what news? What social media? What conversations? What thoughts are you absorbing? What books are you reading? Let me expose you to negativity and chaos. Like I said, turn the news off. Check it with it.

20:23But not when you need to be resting, right? If it kind of makes you a little bit tense, then don't do it right before you go to bed. That's not thinking, right? And you're like, yeah, that's why I have issues with mental clarity. Kristi, yeah, okay, you see. All right, we're having an I love Lucy moment, right? Don't keep speeding up the conveyor belt. Slow it down. Enjoy those chocolates. So maybe instead of having all those negative stuff coming into you, replace with reading your Bible, having an uplifting conversation. If your mom's still with you and you enjoy her and you love her, if you don't have a good relationship with it, don't listen to me for the next 20 seconds. But if you do have a good relationship with your mom, call her, talk to her for a few minutes. Maybe you need to get a new book. Yeah, I know books are great. Some educational content that aligns with your faith and your goals. Something else that moves you out of chaos and moves you into,

21:27allows you to be grounded. This conscious curation trains your mind toward peace and focus. That doesn't mean that you're not going to, you know, get everything from this. Like, peace isn't brought in, you know, just from this. In my opinion, get the peace because you have hope in Jesus Christ. That's my opinion. But you can help have the earthly part, the physical part of what we're feeling. We know from the eternal part where that comes from. But you can calm the anxiety about, okay, wait, I can take some action in this manner, right? Guard your mental inputs. And then finally, number three, move intentionally. Refresh the mind through physical action. Now I get it while rest means what, to stop, to slow down, right? No more. Complete inertia can backfire too, right? Being still for too long and being stagnant, yeah, we won't go down the road or not even use that word.

22:28But you know what could happen, right? We don't need that in our lives. Proverbs three verses five and six tells us to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Trust leads to action, not paralysis. So trust in what God has in store for you. And you can find this more so when you have that mental clarity. When you're not all stuffed up and I'm not saying like, what I'm going through and it sounds like I'm talking in a tunnel or I'm straining to get whatever it is over my laryngeitis. I mean, I'm pushing harder than normal, trying to use my diaphragm to get out the air that I need to get out so you can hear the words. But it's more about saying, you know what? I can do this in a manner that serves my mind. What serves your mind? What's adding life to your mind?

23:31Think about that. Research shows physical activity improves neuroplasticity. I love that word, say that word five times fast. It's a fun word, neuroplasticity. Meaning that your neurons are working, they're connecting. You're still smart. That's my funny part of it. You're still smart. And your mind is in all of this with the release of activity and our physical activity and going through it, it releases endorphins. Right, running, walking. It's awesome. And those endorphins sharpen the mind and it reduces depression. You feel better. You don't want to do it at first. I get it. Been there. We do that, right? That's called real life. So just go for a walk. Choose a moment that really resets you. You know, I love walking in nature and praying. I love that. That's me though. What is it for you? Maybe it's walking and singing at the top of your lungs. I'll pray for your neighbors. I'm joking. But seriously, right? What is it? Maybe it's stretching. Maybe it's taking a hot shower and singing in the shower, right?

24:33What is it for you? But get that physical activity and something that connects the mind, body, and spirit. I just want to remind you that you can't out-hessel mental exhaustion. You can force yourself to stay awake. You can force yourself to, you know, quote-unquote be in a room. Not necessarily alert, but in a room physically. But that exhaustion, your mind begins to say, I can't do this anymore. I can't process it. Why do we have to turn our phones off or our computers off and reset them? When was the last time you did that? Well, this just isn't working so right. Why? It's called clearing the cache. Go look it up. I'm not kidding you. It's clearing all the stuff that has come into it that you keep doing it. Do you know how many tabs I have open between my computer and my phone? Yeah, you don't want to know. It's in the hundreds. Yes, you just heard me correctly. In the hundreds.

25:34Ridiculous. I totally agree with you. Ridiculous. And I have different ones on different devices. So they stay that way because I'm on one thing for another and something on this for another. And they're all there. Every once in a while, I go through and they're like, oh, I haven't looked at this for a long time. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. But I may only take out 10 to 12. And I still have a couple hundred. That's like, seriously? Yeah. But you see if you can't out-hessel mental exhaustion. Then maybe ignoring your mind to giving it rest isn't really a good idea. All right, because it's like trying to drive a car and empty. You stall or worse you crash. You're stuck in the middle. You can't get out of the middle of the road because you have no gas. You're done. What happens when you stall in life, real life? Yeah, your heart stops. Yeah, that's all we're going to say about that. Because you can let your mind go down that road.

26:36But here's the thing. When you integrate deliberate stillness, mental discipline, and movement rooted in faith, you build a system that keeps you sharp, productive, and aligned with what God wants for you. This is about your purpose-driven life and God's divine plan written especially for you, especially for you. The reflection you see. Who's is it? Is it yours? Or is it God's? And you see, without this, without this mental rest reset and renewing of the mind, you're just going to keep spending in chaos. You're going to keep chasing those to-dos. You're going to make your Santa Claus to do this longer. Even though we're only in March, happy March, by the way. And feeling farther from peace, you're like, I just, I have so much.

27:39Some people have, they don't even know a word to put with it. They're like, I can't even explain. It's like not anxiety. It's not like, it's just so much built up. It's not overwhelmed. Those words aren't big enough. And what they're feeling, maybe that's you. So I want you to start with something small today. Nothing big. Maybe you just go and turn off your phone 10, 15 minutes. And be still. Be still. Whatever that means for you, be still. Maybe you can unfollow one social channel that just drains you. You're kind of addicted to it, but you know, gosh, I don't get more. Maybe that's a good indication you don't need to be going there. And say get your Bible out. Maybe go read the good old Psalm 23. Or maybe you need to ground yourself. Take that 10 minute little walk. Sing to your heart's discontent, right? Let your neighbors hear all that you have, focusing on your breath and God's presence.

28:42My friend, you can't keep running on fumes. So stop. Leave your mind. Not the other way around. You heard it from yesterday's episode, right? Matthew 1129, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. This is Jesus speaking for I am gentle and humble and heart. And you will find rest for your souls. You got this. Because God's got you. So get out of your own way and take aim. Real actions that rest and renew your mind. Go in peace. Be present. Be incredible. Be you. I love you so very much. I cannot wait to see you on the other side. Plus in tugs and lots of lots of love. We'll talk to you real soon. Have a glorious blessed day. Bye bye. Feeling inspired and ready to train for life and love your journey. Visit createyournow.com for more incredible resources to help you along the way. We'll see you next time on create your now your best selfie.

29:43And remember, always be sure you consult your physician before beginning any health and fitness plan.