Declutter Our Mindset and LIVE JOY LIFE

And I'm like okay, not all things are going to be good, but all things are going to work together for good. So a lot of times I've found that asking the question what not, why, is more helpful Instead of God. Why did this happen to me, god, what do you want me to do with it? Which isn't always an easy question to answer either, but it gives a lot more of that purpose that we're talking about.

Hey there, welcome to the Grace Telf podcast, your source for aging strong in your physical, mental and spiritual health. My name is Amy Connell. I'm a weight neutral, certified personal trainer and nutrition coach who loves walks with friends, chocolate and Jesus. Whether you're looking to grow stronger as you age, nourish your body, mind and spirit, or fit all the pieces of your health together to holistically thrive, this is the place for women over 40. I am here to guide you in the areas I can and bring on experts in the areas I'm still learning, and, of course, we cover it all in a whole lot of grace. I'm glad you're here. Okay question Do you feel like you are a cluttery person? I am. My husband will confirm this. I am a bit cluttery and a bit is probably being generous when it comes to certain areas of our house. If you came over unexpectedly, you probably would not believe it, because I'm relatively good at keeping certain areas, like the ones that you might see if you came over unexpectedly, like my living room and my kitchen. Those are relatively clutter free. But go further in, go to a few of the doors or through a few of the closed doors and you will definitely see spaces that have built up stuff and junk that makes me feel overwhelmed and unsettled. Clutter happens in our head as well. These I should I need to. I wish I had all of these words can junk up our mind and leave our souls feeling restless. My guest today, sonia Mack, is here to help ditch the mental clutter and living into something bigger God created us for. As a physician assistant, she helps people's bodies heal, but as a life coach, she helps busy moms fight the emotional and mental clutter so they can live a relaxed, empowered and joy filled life. I know you're going to really enjoy this conversation. Let me tell you a bit more about Sonia. Sonia Joy Mac is the CEO and lead life coach at the live joy life organization that empowers busy mom professionals to banish the busy and mental clutter and live the something bigger God created them for her debut book. This changes everything is based on Sonia's own something bigger story of hope and healing through the grief of her mother's passing and inspires readers to follow their God given dreams. Sonia lives in Des Moines, iowa, with her husband and two spunky daughters, where she continues to bring joy to busy mamas everywhere. I also did not get a chance to say this during the episode, but Sonia graciously offered a 10% discount on her group coaching classes. So mention graced health when you sign up. It's just all caps, all one word G, r, a, c, e, d, h, e, a, l, t, h. And we do mention a couple resources and things you may want to check out. Those are in the show notes. Let's bring on Sonia. Welcome Sonia.

Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's very, very exciting to be on the show with you.

I'm thrilled that you're here, and I would love to hear what ages your spunky daughters are.

Yes, they're 10, so we have a tween and then seven, and, yes, with every year comes more spunk Spunking, worse ass right. I don't know how many of you out there have raised daughters, but that's what I'm finding out.

I was just listening to a podcast this morning with Lisa DeMore and I don't know if you know about her work, but she does a lot of research into teen teenage girls and I tell you it's she does amazing work and I did. I used some of her research into my new book for young women and, anyway, it is not easy raising girls. I have two boys and I think I got the better end of the deal.

Yes, there's a lot more emotion with girls, I think, than there are with boys, but I don't know any different. So this is this is what we're doing and this is what we're in for. So I know.

But there's a wonderful things about them as well. Often they'll communicate more, whether or not. This is a good thing. I think they use the look, they learn to use their words more, so they're absolutely wonderful, wonderful qualities.

Yes, yes, and they are different.

They're both kind of mama's girls right now, so I like that, yes, and yes, so I would love to start out by you sharing with us a bit about your journey and what inspired you to start. Live joy, life Sure.

The bulk of my story really starts in 2010. My mom passed away from ALS when I was 29. And, as you might expect, there's a lot of grief that went along with that and I really dug in. I've always been a writer and I really dug into my writing in that period of time and what I really focused on with God was how do I find my joy? My mom had always said I named you Sonia Joy Mac, because you were meant to spread joy to the world, and I was like, how do I find joy without this person who was my main cheerleader? And as I was writing through that grief, god kind of gave me this download of what would become the live joy life and these 12 principles and the ACE framework. But it really wouldn't develop until years later, after I'd gone through a few more kind of really hard pain, suffering kind of moments. And once I really figured out what that live joy life was, what all of that information that God was giving me was for and how much it had changed my own life, I knew that I was like, oh, this is something I have to share with other women. And so I was like what's the best way I can do that and that was really life coaching kept coming to me and so I got my life coaching certificate. On the side, I'm a PA by day or physician assistant by day, so I did all of this and like the day like weekend, evening hours and I got my life coaching certificate and so I do that also. Now, too, I'm a life coach to busy moms and what we do is we really just work through some of that live joy, life framework. But it really went from grief or pain, knowing that God gives us a purpose for it and how can I bring that forward to other people. So that's, that's really how it all progressed.

May I ask your mom's name? Yeah, Vicki. Vicki, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, the other thing too. I mean you mentioned that she passed from ALS, so I have to imagine that was a very long, hard journey from that. I mean, I don't know how long that was, but it's not like you unexpectedly lost her at age 29.

It was a five year journey. So I was actually in PA school while I was actually studying for MCAT. So I was thinking about going to medical school when my mom got diagnosed and so then I really changed paths and became a physician assistant because I knew that I could kind of get through school a little bit quicker and also still get that medical degree that I wanted. And it ended up being a really great you know, god always knows what's better right Ended up being a really great transition for me. But yeah, it was actually during that five-year period of time that God gave me this really very distinct words of something big or something different. And I wouldn't know what that was until you know the light, the lovejoy life really came to be. And so it was probably a period of seven or eight years of, okay, what is this? Something big or something different? Am I something bigger? I know you are, but and it really I really figured out over that that those years that it was, this grief went for something big or something different. So if I can put that in place with God and the things that he gave me and bring it forward to other people, you know, our pain really does have a purpose.

And it's so hard. That's just a hard reality when you're walking through it and when you're walking through the pain and I and you know having that perspective is good, in addition to acknowledging the pain, that it is hard, and not just brushing that aside, but just kind of holding both of those at the same time.

Yeah, and I would be the first to tell you that I didn't always do that well, that sometimes I would look up and be like what are you doing? Why is all? of this happening Because, you know, after my I didn't have children until after my mom passed, and so my first daughter went to the NICU with some infection issues and then my second daughter almost died when she was born. She had a major surgery when she was four days old to remove part of her lung, and so she's still doing really well. But you know, through all and through all of it, it's hard, because when you're in the midst of that pain it's hard to trust that. And I'm human, just like everyone else, so sometimes I'm not the best at it either, but I think that's where your faith just you know eventually it rules over. And you're like okay, I know we talked earlier in the pre show about favorite Bible verses. This feels like a great way to sum up how all this came about, but my favorite verse was always Romans 828, which is all things work together for the good of those who love God. And I'm like, okay, not all things are going to be good, but all things are going to work together for good. So a lot of times I've found that asking the question, what not, why, is more helpful Instead of God. Why did this happen to me, god? What do you want me to do with it, which isn't always an easy question to answer either, but it gives a lot more of that purpose that we're talking about.

Yeah, and I think it also is that releasing that like okay, I'm not, and it's it kind of reminds me of when the angel appeared to Mary. Yes, you know it was like how can this be? I think it was her response, not why, and it wasn't it was saying. Essentially she was saying I trust you. I don't really know how you're going to make that happen, but I'm trusting you in it, and so I think that that kind of reminds me of that, like what. So what are you trying to teach me? What's going to happen? What do you do to make good of this? Not rather than the why? Rather than yeah. Yeah, so you mentioned being a physician assistant. Yep, and first of all, I don't know how you do all of that together and I will say this too the physician assistants I know are so incredible and such a value add to the physicians they support and it's like that's where you really get a lot of one on one time and attention, and so I just thank you for your work in that role, because I have always felt very cared for by physician assistants and we've had I've had Jenna Anki on gosh I'll put the link in the show notes. That was a while ago and she's incredible. She does gynecological cancer and empty Anderson. So I think that that's when you get a physician assistant and you're like it's your lucky day.

So thank you. No, I appreciate that. I do especially love the moments when I get to kind of be one on one with the patients and kind of it. For some reason I don't know why a lot of us are a little better at explaining things in a way that they can understand. But yeah, I thank you. I really appreciate that we and really the only way I can do all of this is because I have an incredibly supportive husband and I time block.

Oh, we need to talk more about that because that's the thing. I have been playing around with yeah Um. So let's pull in your personal experience, let's pull in your professional experience and I would love to hear, before we kind of get into sort of, I want to talk some about mental and emotional today. But, how do you pull all of this in? And I guess I would say, like, what's your either personal approach or you're encouraged approach to holistic health, holistic well being, because you have a lot of wisdom and areas that you are learning and growing in and it's I would just love to hear your perspective on that.

Yeah, absolutely. So it became pretty obvious to me very early in my career that you know, western medicine, what I love learning about the body, I knew that I wanted to learn about, you know, be in medicine somehow. But we're not as great at we're really good at treating the physical, what we're not always as great at treating the emotional and the spiritual, you know, and the psychological sometimes even. And so I realized really early on in my career I started my career in family practice, urgent care, and then moved and transitioned actually into plastic surgery, which we do a lot of breast cancer reconstruction. So you know, especially in these breast cancer women, you know they're just they're getting so much information all at once and I would be the one part of the reconstructive process is often tissue expander, and so I would be the one filling them every week and so I would have this 15 minute period of time every week where I would have them sitting there, they could talk to me, and it just became really easy for me to ask kind of how the rest of things were going and and and I realized, as I started kind of reaching into that part and not just treating the cancer but treating the whole person that you know they'd come back next week and say things like oh, you don't know how much our conversation meant to me, or I would get carved into the. Oh, you don't know how much our conversation meant to me, or I would get carved. That would say, oh, I didn't realize I had this also going on. And then you know, I actually was diagnosed with my own chronic illness just about a year ago and I realized again like the importance of treating the physical, the emotional and the spiritual, like we are all connected holistically. So where I work right now at in a big hospital setting with the surgeon I work with, there's actually a really great integrative medicine program specifically for cancer patients. But they they add in acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropractic, mindfulness, they add in all of this and so I'm a really big proponent of getting a lot of these women in to see this integrative medicine clinic. And then also, you know, I practice what I preach. So for my own self, with this, like I said, chronic illness that I have, I've used EFT tapping, I've used mindfulness, and so I'm I think the biggest thing is just being in the position that I'm in, not being afraid to mention that to these women, because I work mostly with women. I do see men but, just as you might imagine, with plastic surgery and breast reconstruction and things, I work a lot with women. But it's also been able. It's also helped me too when they've been really anxious about a procedure or something we might be doing. You know I'll sit and breathe with them or you know we'll talk through stuff before things are happening and then that just really helps a lot. So that's been really just kind of an incredible part to see my own practice and evolve over time, to be able to add in some of that holistic approach.

It's probably one of the first times people have been offered that in a medical setting and it might be something new that they haven't considered. It's a novel idea that oh if I'm anxious about this, I can actually embody that and get into my breathing and you know, kind of take that in and consider it holistically rather than well, we're just going in there to. You know, whatever the procedure, is.

I love that you do that.

And what a gift too, because that's something that can translate outside of the clinician setting.

Yes, for sure, absolutely. And something that, again, when people reach out to me because when you're in medicine you get people to reach out to you a lot about different things, and so a lot of times I will bring that back up to them too which is what I love so much about your podcast too is that you know it's. You know you're taking the exercise like the wellness, right? I hate the word exercise. I usually call it movement, just because you know, exercise seems like such a dirty word but it's not. But I usually call it movement. And then, just what we're putting into our bodies, just doing it in such a way that it doesn't feel like it's something that you're pressured to do, but more something that's almost like a gift to your body, and that's what I love so much about what you're doing too. So it's always fun for me to meet other people who are really promoting that, because I know there's a great book I've heard about it and I've heard parts of it, but I haven't read it yet called the Body Keep Score, and it's all about you know how our bodies keep score and all of these anxious, traumatic moments will actually, you know, they create that effect in our body and they keep score.

I have read most of that book. It is a heavy read in terms of like it's just, it's a lot. With your medical background you might be able to get through it a little bit easier. But it's very powerful and I actually quoted it a lot in my book as well, because that is it truly does, and it gives you a completely different perspective in health in general and how trauma affects our health and how it manifests in the body. So, yeah, I would say definitely, when you're ready for like heavy learning, check that one out.

And if you want to dig deeper, then go to that one.

Yeah, exactly Exactly. I mean mine's a little bit broader in scope, but his work is very powerful and is a baseline for a lot of conversations about how trauma affects our body and all of that. So, yeah, it is, it's a really good one. One of the things you talk about is ditching the mental clutter, and I want to talk about this because I don't even know what you mean by mental clutter. But what I mean by mental clutter is just the nonsense going through my head, the I shoulds, the I need to, the in my new book I call it the inner mean girl, like just all of that, all of that kind of stuff. So, and you talk about ditching that and living into something bigger that God created us for. So can you tell us more about that? Because I think a lot of us have this type of mental clutter.

Right, yeah, so a lot of times when I explain it to people, my mental clutter to me means something very similar to you, basically. Just, you know, if we believe in God, we also there's an opposite force, right, and that enemy attacks most women through busy by. Just constantly I say pick, pick, pick, pick, pick. He just throws things at us, and so then we have so many things going on in our minds, like you said, the shoulds, the I forgot to, the, what I need to do, the where my kids are going, who needs an appointment, just all of the things, and then also the things that we're dealing with internally. What's making us anxious, what's making us not feel well, all those things, and so that is is what I would I explain about is mental clutter and how I talk about ditching. That, basically, is for me, that's where the live, joy, life really came into play. So there's what I call this ACE framework, and it's assess, contemplate, execute, assess is taking, and I do this once a week. I take a list of all the things that are going through my mind, because there's something about writing it down that also makes it less like it's not just this, these words and things that are just continuing to swirl through your head, but something about writing it down makes it more concrete. Assessing it is going through all of the different parts of each. So maybe I'm worried about my kids for some reason, and then I've got something with my house or my husband or you know, for me I've got the business and the kids and we're remodeling our whole house and like all these things, right. So then the contemplate is the part of bringing it to God with these specific live, joy, life principles, and what that does is it gives us an anchor to for all of this worry, right. So we have all this worry and when we bring it back to God and we anchor it with these principles so, for instance, just this, just one. This morning I was thinking about something business related and one of my principles was so the main ones faith, hope and love, right, and so I was like faith okay, I need faith is the one that stuck out to me, and so I I know that the faith is what I need to work on, and what does that look like for me? And that's something I usually work through with my coaching clients, but is also something that you can do on your own. And then there's a bunch of supporting principles and, for me, inspiration, which is hearing God's word, so really I need to. That tells me I need to focus more in prayer time and writing and what God's asking me to do. And then fortitude, which is, you know, still just feeling like I can go forward and move forward. So, basically, these principles, with the contemplate, bring it back to God and give us this anchor to go off of, and then we have a plan. So we have an executable plan. So now, instead of all this worry about this thing I'm worried was worried about with my job whenever that comes up in my head I can say, okay, faith, inspiration, fortitude which one of these do I need to work on? And then I have this executable plan. So then, instead of worrying about it, I have something I can do about it, and it's something that God brought with you know was part of also because I think sometimes so much of what we worry about is maybe not something that God wants is telling us we should worry about it, something that he, we really don't even have control over some of it. And so the way I kind of the easiest way I explain that it's people of how the live joy life works is. It's the difference between a mom going to the grocery store with two kids no list, no meal plan, no, just knowing that she needs groceries right Like she's. She's just needs food in her house, but she just I don't know. We're just gonna go to the grocery store throwing things in the car, forgetting things. The kids are yelling, they want to throw stuff in. That's what mental clutter feels like, like I think most of us can put a visual that oh yes right? I think yes, and whereas, you know, after I've worked through all of that with the live joy, life, it's like going to the grocery store with a list, a meal plan, and probably by myself even, you know, and I just I go to the aisles, I get what I need, I go to the checkout, I feel much more relaxed, and so there's something about having the anchor and then the executable plan that makes us feel the difference between those two, and so that's usually how I explain kind of ditching the mental clutter. So it's always going to be there, but it's more organizing it in a way that it feels doable and then letting go of the learning to let go of the things that maybe aren't ours to even worry about.

That's a great analogy and I think that we can all relate to. Yeah, showing up at the grocery store with two kids and no plan. No plan, just knowing you need food. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the live joy, life principles. I want to make sure that I got them. Is it just the three? The faith, inspiration and fortitude?

So there's actually 12 of them and I can definitely send you I'll send you a link where people can click on them and I might have forgot to put that in the notes where people can click on it and it even gives. I mean, they're very self-explanatory, they're things like faith, hope, love, laughter, gratitude, generosity, but basically what I found over time as God presented these to me are in every situation that I'm going through. The reason why I'm worried or anxious is because I'm missing one of these. I'm either missing, like, my faith component, or I'm missing the gratitude component, or I'm missing the forgiveness component or something. And so that's why, you know, he said faith, hope and love are the greatest. So that's why one of those three is going to be at the top. And then there's usually one or two supporting principles that we're missing out on, and so I can definitely send you that link for anyone who wants it, in the show notes where they can just click on it and it shows all 12 principles and kind of just gives a brief explanation.

Yes, that would be great. I think I'm looking here. You may have given that to me, but go ahead and send that to me and we'll definitely include that. Yeah, that's helpful. I love we always love the downloads and kind of the concrete stuff. So that is fantastic so you talk about this clutter and the mental clutter and kind of getting it organized and making sure that we've got a smooth trip to the grocery store. Sometimes it's hard to keep doing that. We'll do it once or twice and it's like, okay, this works, but it's hard to go. It's hard to be ongoing and to make these lasting changes. So how can we maintain that sense of joy and clarity after we get organized and clear that clutter one time?

Absolutely Yep. So there's something I talk about a lot is one having a mentor, whether that's a coach, a spiritual director, someone who you feel like you can kind of, can kind of guide you through something like this, whatever it is like. You would be a great mentor, obviously for someone's health related stuff as well, and I consider myself a mentor when I'm at work, when someone's going through that. So having a mentor to go through it with you and equally along with that is a community or a network. Some women, somebody who is gonna support you on the journey, reminds you someone to do it with you. Sometimes I so, like anyone who signs up for, like when they do my coaching, I put them in a private Facebook group and so then everyone in there has gone through the program and they can kind of help each other. So when they have something going on, they've got this network. So mentor, network and then practice right, practicing, just doing it over and over and over again. I learned a really great trick the other day. It's super simple and most people have heard it before, I think, but you know, wearing a rubber band or a hair tie around your wrist all the time and when you start to find yourself kind of catastrophizing or worrying, and you flick the wrist right, flick the rubber band or the hair tie, and so that's what I started using myself too. So when I start to realize that, oh, okay, I'm starting to get all cluttered up here again, I click, you know, I flick the rubber band or the hair tie. That reminds me, okay, what are my principles and I can go back to them. But a lot of it, as you know, is just consistency practice. But then I really think there's something about having that community people who support you, and then a mentor, someone who can coach you or teach you or help you.

Those are all great. I agree with all of them. And you know you talk about the community. I just keep seeing and maybe it's because my news feed knows that I like learning about this but just article after article after article that talks about the power of community, how important it is to have quality relationships. It doesn't matter where you are in your life, but that is so important and I think it's really nice when you have people who are walking through. You know, in this, somewhat in the same space, no one's ever gonna have the exact same story as you, because you know we're all unique, but I do like that. And then you know your little rubber band thing. I mean, to me it's kind of like a reset right. Okay, nope, let's go back. Let's go back to what we know. And then also, I like how you talk about just kind of getting the rubs in and the more we do it, because anytime we do something new it is different, it's hard. We don't have that muscle memory, whether it's physical or mental or emotional. But the more we do it, the better we are at it.

Yeah, and then the more it becomes second nature and then the more it's like it's any habit, right? Any habit you wanna start takes 30 to 60 days, depending on who you listen to or which researcher you're reading about. But and it's the same for anything. But, I think putting those pieces in place so that you have support and you have, you know, backup and someone maybe doing it with you, is really helpful.

Yes, and someone in your corner, and I boy the power of a mentor as well and the power of leaning into someone and saying I just need a little bit of guidance. I know I have used a couple different people recently to help me with some projects because, like you know, you know more than I do and it's really nice to have someone in your corner cheering you on, holding you accountable if that's something that you need and just imparting that wisdom for sure.

Even I tell people, even I have a spiritual director and two coaches. I mean even coaches have coaches and even you know even doctors or physicians assistants have doctors and physicians assistants that they go to. So I mean everybody needs somebody, no matter what level you're at. It's just finding someone who's just like steps ahead of you and has gone through things similar and can kind of coach or guide you, like you said. Yeah.

Yeah for sure. Tell us some about your book. It's called. This Changes Everything when Death no Longer has the Final Say and, if I remember correctly, it is part of the journey that you learned when and going through grief when your mom, vicki, passed.

Yeah, thank you for asking about that. So, yes, after my mom passed. So I mentioned earlier that my mom passed before I had kids and she was my best friend by far and always the one that encouraged and supported me. And so the book started, actually just as me, being like after I had a couple kids. How can I like bring my mom into, into what is here that I wanted her to share with me so much for? And we had always talked about going on trips and things like that, and but as I was writing it for myself basically, and also just to give my girls this story, this recollection of what grandma Vicki was like, I realized that I was getting so many. I always call them downloads from God. But when I'm writing and it's just like someone else is using the pen and not me, or the keys are just going and someone else is writing, I realized that the book was so much more than just for me, even though that it is a Christian nonfiction. So it's a deep, you know it's a deeply personal story, but I realized that I needed to share it and so it really became this story of you know, helping any, helping anyone who's lost someone, recognize how powerful our memories are to bring them forward and keep them a part of our lives. My daughters talk about missing grandma Vicki. They've never met her. Because we talk about her so much and what she would do and like sometimes at nighttime when my kids are having trouble sleeping, we'll get rid of all the bad feelings and we'll give them to grandma Vicki up in heaven. You know just things like that. But then it also became a story of like following your dreams, because in there I tell my mom, you know, like my dreams and that I never got to tell her about, and she supports me and encourages me and even though technically she's passed, so yeah, it's just. I'm just really proud of it, not because of anything that I necessarily did, but because of because of what God really turned it into and what I've gotten responses back from people who have read it. I actually had a patient come to me who read it and she was getting kind of teary-eyed and I said, did you have someone pass recently? And she said no, but I've kind of fallen away from the church and God and your book really made me like want to start getting back into it and I was like, yes, you know. So it's just one of those things where you know not not even what I thought it was intended for, but just another way of showing like God has a purpose for our pain. Had I not gone through all of that with my mom, the book wouldn't be here and it wouldn't be helping people the way that it is.

Oh, my goodness, I was getting a little teary-eyed you telling that. I mean, I just think how healing that is. I had a friend tell me this one time about a book and I wish I could. I wish I could give credit to the author. But they were basically saying how, just because someone passes, that doesn't mean that your relationship has to end there, and how we can continue the relationship and grow it in different ways. And I love that you are doing that with Grandma Vicki, with your girl. So they're getting to know her in a different way, but still they're getting to know her as they are growing up and that's just so special and I have to imagine that it's been very healing to you to keep her alive and to keep her her name active, yeah, as you raise your daughters.

Yes, very much so, very much so. We talk about her. I mean, we celebrate her birthday, still the Christmas time what would grandma have done? Like it's just really, it's just been really great and it is. It's so healing. You know we of course it's not the same, we all know that but also it just really is so healing and such a powerful way of keeping these loved ones that we've lost with us and keeping their memories alive. My mom was such an amazing person that I just I love that. People are getting to know her personality too. You know people who would have never otherwise met her. They're getting to know her and learning to love her the way that I did. So that's also very, very cool.

That is wonderful, that's gorgeous. Tell us some about your, your LiveJoy Life program. Who is it for you, you know, and what they would get with working with you?

Yeah absolutely so. I really work the most with moms who are busy working moms. You know people that, because not that everybody else doesn't have clutter, but those are the ones, mental clutter, but those are the ones I understand the most because I am one and what it is is. You know, there's a every once in a while I do some group coaching or there's one-on-one coaching and what we really do is we focus so much on the, the ACE, that ACE framework we went through and we work through all of these different mental clutter topics. What is the assessment, what is, what are we contemplating? What is God telling us about this and how we execute it. But as a life coach, you do that from a way that it really comes from the person. So it's not me just telling you what to do, it's me asking the right questions to get you to answer the question really that you weren't sure you were even answering. You know, with that we also, like I mentioned, we have that community on the Facebook page and we record everything so people can go back to it and use it. I also teach time blocking as one of the sessions, because we mentioned earlier I with all the things I have being a physician assistant, a mom, an entrepreneur, an author and remodeling this whole house. I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't block my time off. That's the only way I can figure out exactly. You know what I want to do, what I need to do in certain you know, we even block off family times and we block off everything really, and so we teach a whole time blocking session in there, which really helps, kind of, when these women who are so busy gain control of their schedule, feel like they can get some time back. And yeah, so it's just about providing that plan, providing that mentorship, and really helping them go from just feeling anxious and busy and worried to feeling like they have this plan, like I said, this anchor that they can go back to to be able to go forward and feel more confident and powered and then ultimately just live in that joy that God intended.

Absolutely yeah. I mean in saving time too. You know you go to the grocery store with your list and you're going to save time. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah, awesome. Well, I have a few questions that I ask all my guests and, by the way, we will put all of those links in the show notes. So if you're interested in that, if you grab in the book or join in the program, go to the show notes and get that. But I love learning about tattoos because I have found that people who put tattoos on their body for the rest of their life often have a meeting behind it. So I was wondering, if you have one, if you would be willing to share what it is and the meeting behind it, and if you don't have one but you had to get one, what would it be and where would it go?

Absolutely, actually. So I don't have one yet, but I have two that I would like that I keep floating around. One are my mom's initials, in a very scripted kind of scrolling with a butterfly, because that is that's why I wear this butterfly with her initial on it. It's very. That's how I remember her. That's how, when we see butterflies out and about, we remember her. We think, oh yeah, what would grandma Vicki do right now, or what would she be adding? Or my kids will be like, hi, grandma Vicki, when they see a butterfly, which I love. And the other one is another one of my favorite verses and I would probably put them. I would probably put them on my forearms just so that I could see them too and be reminded of them. But the other one is be still and know that I'm God, because I'm 4610, I think, from 4610. Yep, and so either be still and know, or be still and know that I'm God. That's why I haven't gotten it yet, because I can't decide how much of it I want. But be still and know, I think, is what I want. But just because, how? What great advice for a busy mom, right? What great advice that. So that and the all things work together are my two favorite. But what great advice, when we're busy and overwhelmed and anxious and worried, to be able to just look at your arm and think just be still and know Yep so simple. Yeah, harder to implement sometimes.

Yep, yes, but always worth it, always worth it. So I typically ask for a meaningful Bible verse, but you shared both of those with us the Ephesians 828 and then Psalm 4610. So thanks for that. Tell people we'll put this in the show notes as well, but tell people how they can connect with you. And then I've got one final question.

Yeah, absolutely. So probably the easiest way is through my website, which is SoniaJoyMaccom, so S-O-N-Y-A-J-O-Y-M-A-C-K. And then you know I'm pretty active on Facebook and Instagram, so those are another other ways where I share a lot about the live, joy, life, the ACE method and just really sometimes laughs we just sometimes it's a meme about a mom feeling like she's drowning or something and what we can do to help with that. So those are probably the two best ways to stay connected with me. Fantastic, thank you Okay.

So what is the one final simple thing that you would like us to remember about the conversation? It can be big or small, but just one thing to not forget I would say, really find a mentor.

Whatever it is that you are going through, there's someone out there who can help you through it. And I think so often, especially as busy moms and if we're type A, like I am, you think you can do it all yourself. But the really the truth is that God created all of us to be helping somebody right To use our gifts, like we talked about in pre show, really. And so finding a mentor, somebody who can help you through what you're going through whether that be, like I said, someone at your church, spiritual director, a coach, therapist, somebody some kind of a mentor just just to help you through.

So true. Okay, that is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day. Thanks for listening today. If this episode was valuable to you, could you do one of two things that are enormously valuable to me but super simple for you? Number one just share this with a friend. Super simple. Number two provide a rating and review, particularly if you listen in Apple podcast. This is super valuable for me. Also, if you haven't yet subscribed to my monthly journal, why not? I send it out twice a month and it is a private fun space for me to share some of my favorite foods and recipes, movements, books, sermons and more. You never know what you're going to get, but I promise it will add value to your day. You can sign up at gracedhealthcom slash monthly dash updates and, of course, the link is in the show notes. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time.