Giving Yourself Grace - Where Does Spirituality Play In?

[00:00:02] Hey, I'm Amy Chang. I'm a nationally board certified health and wellness coach and this is Healthy AF. In this podcast, I'll be bringing you all things health from the newest health strategies to how to tackle those personal roadblocks that just will not let you move forward.

[00:00:25] So buckle in. We're going to be inspired and instructed and dad gum we're going to have a little fun on Healthy AF.

[00:00:37] Hey everybody and welcome to this episode of Healthy AF. This has been a really great month of April where we've been exploring spirituality and really everything that I've been doing.

[00:00:51] I've put out a lot of social media and of course the podcast and I just led a event in Hickory, North Carolina on the power of women and how we give ourselves grace.

[00:01:06] Now, I started by saying like why is it weird that a health coach is talking about some grace? But this is why I did that presentation.

[00:01:16] Every person I work with tends to bring with them to their health coaching session a boatload of shame, which we have to clean up before we can move forward.

[00:01:28] And that boatload of shame is best cleaned up with a dump truck full of grace.

[00:01:38] And it had me thinking, well what is grace and how well do we do it? And what does it really look like?

[00:01:48] When do we think we're doing it? But actually we're not doing it. We're just laying out some excuses and complacency and hiding.

[00:01:56] That's not grace. So I actually was able to deliver a whole about a 30 minute chat with 20 some odd women about the spirituality of grace and giving yourself that grace.

[00:02:16] And so I thought I would just pop some of the more enlightening, inspiring tidbits that came out of that talk.

[00:02:32] So I looked up the definition of grace and it had three parts to it that I really loved.

[00:02:42] One was that it was unmerited assistance from a divine source to help you regenerate and sanctify yourself.

[00:02:58] And the other definition I found that I really loved was to honor someone with one's presence.

[00:03:07] So let's talk about grace and how you give it to yourself. If you just take three of those concepts, grace is free.

[00:03:19] It's not attached to your worth. It's not attached to your accomplishments. It's not attached to your behaviors, your actions, your decisions.

[00:03:32] It's just for free. You've got it already. It's like fingernails. They're just there.

[00:03:40] You don't have to like buy them or you don't have to get straight A's, you know, in the fourth grade.

[00:03:47] So then you can apply your fingernails. They're just there, right? Grace is free. We just forget.

[00:03:59] That's the first thing. Grace is free.

[00:04:02] And the second thing is being present. It's honoring ourselves with our presence.

[00:04:13] The example I gave was ever sit at the dinner table with your friend and you really want to tell them something like maybe you've already finished all the chit chat about the weather,

[00:04:23] about, you know, how tight or loose your jeans have been feeling recently or the workout that you did that morning.

[00:04:31] And you really are kind of wanting to get something off your chest and you look across the dinner table and they're sitting there with their phone kind of scrolling

[00:04:40] and giving you the mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh God. Yeah. It was a hard one. 816 burpees. What? Yeah. They're not present

[00:04:48] and they're not honoring you or or themselves with their presence.

[00:04:54] But on the flip side of that, I've ever been at that table with your friend about the time you start saying, man, I don't know what to do about this.

[00:05:06] They look you dead in the eye and it's like nobody in the restaurant is even else there.

[00:05:13] It's just you and them and they are listening to every word you say and you know that they really get you.

[00:05:22] Like that bestie that really knows you better than like anybody.

[00:05:27] They can spot a foul mood or broken heart on your face across the room and they honor you with that presence.

[00:05:37] So part of giving yourself grace is giving yourself that presence.

[00:05:42] And do we do that? And do we do it well?

[00:05:49] And I would say no. I'd say it's a work in progress.

[00:05:55] So those were two components of definition of grace that I really liked.

[00:06:01] It's got to be free and you got to be present with the person to whom you're conferring your grace.

[00:06:09] Whether it's to yourself or to someone else.

[00:06:13] And the third component was that it was divine.

[00:06:20] See, I don't really think as human beings we are wired to be able to use grace.

[00:06:30] I'm not talking about cognitively understanding grace,

[00:06:34] but really to use grace, really to love ourselves that unconditionally really be that present to ourselves.

[00:06:45] Certainly not in the American lifestyle.

[00:06:48] I don't think we're wired to do that.

[00:06:53] I think that that power to cultivate the grace that we need for ourselves has to come from outside ourselves.

[00:07:05] Something that is both outside ourselves and yet we belong to.

[00:07:11] And really, you know when I stopped to think about it, when I was making that presentation,

[00:07:15] there are so many studies that correlate some sense of spirituality with health and happiness and longevity.

[00:07:26] I mean, it just comes up time and time and time again.

[00:07:30] This spirituality is really important.

[00:07:33] And PS, that's why health coach is talking about it.

[00:07:37] Right? It's important for your health.

[00:07:39] So no matter what your spirituality is in, if it's connected to a religion, if it's based in nature, if it's pagan, if it, you know, whatever it's in.

[00:07:52] I think it's important to realize that when you really want to give yourself a grace that accepts you for the beautiful mess that you are right at this moment,

[00:08:04] that also holds you to account for all the gifts and the brightness that you are.

[00:08:16] And contends that without attachment to your behaviors and your choices and your accomplishments, you are completely precious.

[00:08:26] There's a drawing on the power that is greater than you wherever you find that.

[00:08:33] So I hope that gives you something.

[00:08:39] I did that whole thing because I've been saying to y'all for months, give yourself grace and realize that's a tall flipping order.

[00:08:53] So when you're in the process of learning how to really give yourself the kind of grace that's free and present and from a greater divine source than just you,

[00:09:12] give yourself some grace as you're learning to give yourself grace.

[00:09:18] Like, subscribe and share this podcast.

[00:09:21] Brought you something.

[00:09:23] And I'll see you next time on Healthy AF.

[00:09:24] P.S. in May we're doing all movement.

[00:09:27] Very excited about that. See y'all then.

[00:09:30] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Healthy AF podcast.

[00:09:36] I hope that it has helped you create a new possibility for your health and sets you into action to go get it.

[00:09:43] If you want more information or if you want to connect with me, visit my website at myhealthylife.coach

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