Aug. 8, 2025
Better Habits for Mental Health Stability: Healthy Ways to Handle Difficult Emotions (Minisode)
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Season 5MinisodesPodcast Episodes / All EpisodesHealing & RecoveryCulture & Hard ConversationsRelationships & FamilyPrayer & Spiritual GrowthSeason 5 – Testimonies + Minisodes (Reflections & Growth)
Mental health matters.
In this minisode, I reflect on the importance of developing healthy habits that support emotional stability, especially when we are facing difficult emotions.
I share some personal insights about learning to move away from unhealthy coping mechanisms and how these lessons have shaped the way I navigate challenging parenting moments.
If you struggle with your mental health—or know someone who does—this minisode offers encouragement and perspective for taking small steps toward healthier emotional habits.
And if you know someone whose mental health struggles have led them to harmful behaviors like cutting, this conversation may help you better understand the importance of compassion, support, and healthy emotional tools.
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Hey friends, before I start today's mini-sode, I want to remind you that I am doing a giveaway for my friend Kathy Garland's book Revelationship.
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If you want to be the winner, you need to do what it says in the giveaway episode.
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I will have that episode link in the show notes so you can listen and know what it is you're supposed to do.
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All right, let's get to the mini-sode.
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Did you enjoy this episode with Brittany Tinsley?
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I really enjoyed her story.
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Not because of the content, obviously I'm not a proponent of doing self-harm, but, as I mentioned in the episode, if you listened, it's something that's dear to my heart because my eldest has dealt with it and her father as well.
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So it's something that I'm familiar with and Brittany just has a love for Jesus and for those who are in this perpetual state of doing self-harm.
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I really enjoyed talking with her and getting insights.
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As a mother of someone who does that, it was encouraging to know that it is not really a sign of being suicidal.
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That was the biggest encouragement for me.
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I don't know what the takeaway was for you, but I really appreciated that.
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She was honest and vulnerable with me and it gave me a lot of insight and I hope it did for you as well, especially parents and grandparents of people who have dealt with self-harm.
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I want to talk about the importance of having healthy ways of dealing with our negative emotions.
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For anyone who's known me for a time, or you've listened to one of the episodes where I was blessed to be a guest on a podcast, you've heard me share how I struggled with a pornography addiction.
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That's what I turned to when I had tough emotions.
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Eventually, god took care of that and healed me from it.
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But I had to find healthier ways to handle when negative emotions came.
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I couldn't just go to that anymore and anger I couldn't just let that continue to build up.
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I had to find a healthier way to handle all of those negative feelings and emotions that rise up in me.
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I'm still working on it.
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I'll be honest.
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I still have moments where I am angry at the drop of a hat and I really don't like it.
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But I have learned to put God first and if I do that reading my Bible, praying in the morning, trying to be thankful I find that it is a little easier for me to handle the negative emotions in a healthier way because I remember that God is always with me.
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That is important for me to remember.
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I struggle a lot with anger, especially when my kids are irritating me.
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I'm always telling them that people can't make you do things, they can't make you feel things, that your emotions are your emotions and you have to figure out how to handle those.
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I don't want to be a hypocrite.
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If I'm telling them to do that, I need to do it as well.
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So that is something I have been working on.
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It is not easy at all, trust me.
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It is not easy, especially when you're older and you've had all these learned habits and just things that you've learned throughout life, to just stop.
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It's not always easy and sometimes it's not possible.
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I got frustrated this morning with a couple of my children because they were fighting with me and I was trying to listen to a podcast, so it was loud.
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They're upset with me because I told them to go do something and they didn't want to do it.
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I was feeling myself, getting boiled, angry, frustrated, like I could have just lashed out at any moment.
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I just felt so irritated.
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But instead of doing my normal, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, took a moment and said Lord, I need help.
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And then I opened my eyes and I calmly and gently told my children Mommy doesn't want to have an episode.
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I need you to go listen, please give me this.
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And I just told them the truth that mommy was having a moment and I didn't want to have a moment.
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So please just go do what I asked you to do and you don't have to get in trouble and I don't have to do something wrong.
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That was encouraging for me.
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Needed to know that I can control myself when I'm feeling big emotions.
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And I know that young people, their emotions feel so, so big and it's harder for them to learn how to manage those If they don't have an adult in their life who can help them.
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Then I feel sorry for them and I don't want my children to feel that way that they don't have an adult in their life who can help them through their tough emotions in a healthy way.
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So I need to learn how to do that first before I can teach them.
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It's just like in the Bible.
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It says take the plank out of your eye before you take the speck out of your brother's.
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If I'm going to try to help them manage their difficult and big emotions, I need to learn how to do that myself first, and I can be the example to them, and then they'll learn from my example.
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So that's what I've been working on.
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I missed the mark several times because I am not perfect, but I also have big wins as well, and I give God the glory for that.
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Here's your question and your challenge when do you feel that God is asking you to work on your big feelings in a healthier way?
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There's so many different ways where we just put all of our self into it because we want to mask something.
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So what is God telling you?
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Enough is enough.
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Come to me, let me help you with these big feelings, figure out what that is and then ask God to show you how you can come to him and how he's going to help you heal and what you can do to work on that process and then do what he asks you to do.
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It's not going to be easy.
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It might not be quick, but it'll be worth it.
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In the long run, you'll feel healthier, you'll feel happier.
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I think everyone will be better off for it.
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That is today's mini-sode.
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Remember listen to the giveaway episode so you can know what you need to do, because the giveaway only lasts for this week, next week and the week after.
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I will talk to you later, god bless.
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