Think About What You’re Thinking About

We spend so much time doing, reacting, and pushing forward that we rarely stop to think about what’s actually going on inside our own minds, or to invite God into that space. In this episode of Imagine Yourself Podcast, co-hosts Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach encourage a slower, more intentional check-in that centers our thoughts, our hearts, and our faith.

In a culture driven by hustle and constant noise, our thoughts can quietly drift toward pressure, guilt, and perfectionism. This conversation explores how slowing down helps us get centered with God, recognize what’s shaping our inner dialogue, and replace harsh self-talk with grace. When we learn to think about what we’re thinking about and invite God into that process, clarity grows, peace deepens, and we begin to move forward with greater intention.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• Why awareness of your thoughts is a spiritual practice
  and how noticing what’s happening inside you can realign your mind with God’s truth.
• How to get centered with God in a hustle-driven world
  without adding another “spiritual task” to your to-do list.
• The connection between inner dialogue and grace
  and how faith-filled self-talk can replace guilt and pressure.
• Why rest and reflection aren’t optional for spiritual health
  and how slowing down helps you hear God more clearly.
• How pausing before reacting changes everything
  from your emotions to your faith to your everyday decisions.

🎧 Listen now 

For more info on IMAGINE YOURSELF, visit imagineyourselfpodcast.com. You'll find blogs, inspirational quotes and of course our podcasts!

Join the conversation on our FACEBOOK, or INSTAGRAM pages. Email at imagineyourselfpodcast@gmail.com

Thanks for being part of the Imagine Yourself Family! Follow or subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

"Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Lanée Blaise [00:00:01]:
Hello, everyone. This is Lanee and Sandy, and we are coming here to help you imagine yourself being really centered in who you are and what you're here on this earth for. Because there is a lot going on right now. The world has been very heavy, and if we spend our days and nights trying to constantly please everyone, trying to do every single thing right, trying to manage our lives perfectly, then we will get worn down and we will lose our way, and we'll forget what it's all about. Imagine yourself always tries to steer us back to God and faith and our inner soul and inner workings. And so Sandy and I wanted to take a moment and just encourage everyone to check in, check in with yourself even. How are you doing? What are you doing? We just had one all about, like, the diet culture and, you know, trying to make sure that you're eating well and moving well and nutrition, which is all beautiful. And that's one aspect.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:17]:
And we had Erin Tennant, who gave such great advice on how to, you know, really focus in on what you're eating, why you're eating it, what you're thinking about, when you're doing it, and, you know, why you're moving your body certain ways. But we want it to expand it and to cover so many areas, such as why are we, you know, doing things for work or for other people, different people, pleasing activities. It's just a lot. There's a lot to unpack here. And we hope and pray that every single word in this episode goes out as a way of a healing balm, as a way of a plan of action to kind of change your mindset, to really think, to really be with yourself and to really check in.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:00]:
Checking in with ourselves and discovering our motivation can be for anything. You know, why did I say this? Why do I want to do this? So many things. But one of the things that keeps us from doing that is that we're so distracted with everything, and we're going from point A to point B to point C. Case in point, you and I were talking about this podcast this morning, and you sent me an email, which is really well thought out. And I'm in the middle of a couple of different things. And I read the email, and I think I understand it, but I email you back something totally different that just doesn't even reflect your first intent. And I ran my ideas through ChatGPT and then sent them to you. It wasn't thought out at all.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:42]:
It was just like, okay, here's what I think, and I'm gonna run it through AI and I wonder sometimes if we're going from point A to point B. We're rushing as fast as we can. We're using whatever we can to make it convenient. And I've got nothing against AI or apps or whatever we need to make our life better, but I feel like we're losing real communication and really being in touch with our motivations.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:08]:
I think sometimes it blocks us from processing the way that we're meant to process. I think think it also I know you and I were talking about earlier, you said like as much as it's supposed to be a convenience and supposed to make life easier for us, sometimes it puts us at a disadvantage and sometimes the pace of life is going too fast. And I really want folks to embrace the concept of slowing down, taking time, having some white space in your day, in your calendar, in your life, in your mind. Every single second of your life does not need to be full speed, productive. And like you said, relying on apps and tracking, because that was in what Erin Tennant said in the last episode. Sometimes we're so busy tracking our water, tracking our steps, tracking our miles, that it becomes something where we're not living. We are meant to live and live life abundantly according to the Bible. The other component is again, social media or even just the cell phone in general.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:19]:
We become so reliant upon it. I was having a conversation with my daughter the other day and saying, even Jesus as a human here on earth, how would all of this information coming in about every country that's at war right now and every person who is homeless or starving or in pain or how does a person process all of that? As opposed to definitely caring about everyone in the world and praying over and understanding that God is in charge, but also listening to that inner voice of where am I supposed to be helping and blessing in this world? Sandy and Linnae are not supposed to be out saving every aspect of the world. We're not supposed to be fixing all of the economic problems and all of the natural disasters and all of these things. But we are built to love one another. We are built to focus in on some areas that God has specifically in this season for us and in our wheelhouse to help. But when we don't take time to check in with ourselves to process, we're not going to get where God wants us to get.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:36]:
No, we're not. And whether we're talking about just taking five minutes to take a deep breath and think about their situation or your day or who you might need to pray for, taking Time in the Word too. Sometimes just filling yourself up with scripture and what God says and thinking about what God says about you instead of thinking about what the world says about you. The world says I need to be in the case when we're talking about Erin Tennant and her Diet Culture podcast. The world says we need to be thinner or the world says I need to follow a certain diet and I'm not, hey, I'm not putting down any of it. I'm gluten free and lactose free and living on the edge here with like hardly being able to eat anything. And so I'm not gonna throw up my hands. You know what, I'm just gonna eat lactose or drink milk and I'm gonna see what happens.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:27]:
I don't care. I mean, I don't mean it like that. We have to follow certain rules, but we don't have to think of ourselves as some kind of loser if we go off the beaten path in some way, shape or form.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:41]:
Yeah, because that brings up two things. First of all, it brings up listening to yourself and your body when your body is telling you, I'm not able to digest this. I used to be able to. I'm not anymore. There's been a change. But listening to your body, honoring that request of your body and yourself. And the other part is that yes, we do tend to in this society, jump to, I'm a loser, I'm not enough, I'm so imperfect. As opposed to, hey, I am doing better than I was before.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:14]:
I am trying to live this life the best that I way that I can. I am trying to stay in the word, I'm trying to stay close to God and I move towards those things without guilt or shame. When I fall short because I am a human, I will make mistakes. We, I really love to think of it like we do with little children. If your nine month old baby, not even a toddler yet, tries to get up and stand up and take a few steps and tumbles and falls and is not able to walk at nine months old, do you look at that child and say, well, you're over here trying but you're not succeeding and it sucks. You suck.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:58]:
Yeah, right. It's just a perfect example. But yet we will tell ourselves we suck if we don't get something right automatically the first time or the second time. Hey, I thought you went through this before. What are you doing here? God's grace is new every morning. And I love that line, that grace is not an excuse, but it's more of A motivator. It's more of a freedom giver. Like, okay, I have the freedom to try as many times as it takes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:25]:
I get as many fresh starts as I want. And I think Erin said that in her podcast, too. In relating to food and diet, she had gone through the gamut of weight loss techniques and apps and programs, and none of them worked. And she made the point. Look, I'm able to make everything else work in my life, but there's something sticky about this, and a lot of us have those sticky things.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:48]:
And especially because I think we're under the impression that tough love and hardcore and being mean and harsh is the motivator. And that is not correct. I mean, I don't know, maybe there's a handful of people in this world that that's what works for them, but for the majority of us, I mean, we don't want it to be where, oh, just like you kind of said earlier, oh, just do and eat whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. That is not what we're advocating. But we don't want to go to the opposite end either, of restriction. And you cannot do this, and you can never do this, and you can't ever be happy. You can't ever eat what you want, can't eat anything good. You can't do anything fun.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:29]:
You have to always be, you know, worried about. No, no, no. We want to live this life as a gift that we've been given. And the motivator is thinking of it as a little baby that will gently get up and try to take a few steps again the next day and still tumble around and then maybe crawl for a little bit and then try again. And we do get even from God, like you said, the ability to try again and again until we get it right. And to me, that is a beautiful motivator and. And I really want us to understand that we can be accountable and have grace and succeed.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:11]:
Yeah. So let's walk through what that would be like to check in with yourself, because I think that that's kind of a. I mean, it's not a new concept or anything like that, but it's something that feels kind of like, okay, well, what does that mean? Is it like going to the receptionist at the doctor and checking in or checking it on my app and, okay, so I'm checking in with myself because I feel very stressed out. There's no obvious reason. I don't have, like, a big job interview coming up. I'm not about to go outside in the negative 12 weather. That's enough to stress you out.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:46]:
Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:46]:
Yeah. So, Lynnae, what would that look like? If I'm trying to figure that out.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:51]:
I believe that it looks like a person that we. I guess when I was a little kid, maybe I would have joked and teased a person like this, an older lady who's talking to herself, but really and truly talking to yourself as if you were your own therapist. And when you get really honest. So I feel like it looks like this. Like Lynae or Sandy. Like Lynae. I'll give an example right now. Speaking of that cold weather, I just slipped and fell in my driveway very badly.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:24]:
It was a. It was a little patch of. Kind of. Because it was. You know, it's been terrible here. Right. But the. The driveway had been cleared.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:32]:
But the snow. It's been so windy. Snow blew over some patch of ice, and I didn't see it. And I was out there by myself. It was like negative 11 degrees. And I slipped and fell, hit my back and then my head.

Sandy Kovach  [00:11:47]:
Your head?

Lanée Blaise [00:11:47]:
And I'm. Yes. And I'm laying there like, okay, I don't want to freeze to death and get frostbite. I hope I don't have a concussion. I hope I don't have some kind of brain injury. I have got to slowly get up without slipping and falling again. I'm giving this as an example of talking to myself, too. Just an intro to, you know, linnae.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:13]:
And how about this? My husband said later, nobody was outside walking their dog or driving by. No. Not a single human. I live on a regular neighborhood. Not a single human was anywhere in sight. So I'm laying there because it's so cold, like, nobody's walking their dog or whatever, but. And I'm just talking to myself, linnae, we're gonna do this. We're gonna do it slowly.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:38]:
We're gonna process. We're gonna think through. Let's make sure that we don't get up too quickly and hurt our head, that we don't slip and fall again. So we're going to crawl and we're going to crawl over to the lawn because the lawn has snow on it, but not ice.

Sandy Kovach  [00:12:56]:
Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:56]:
So I crawled over to the lawn and I was able to stand up. And then there's this part of me because I'd gone out there to bring in drag in the trash bin, and I'm like, should I still drag in the trash bin? Or is that not a good idea? You had to ask yourself, yeah, like, is this. Like, what am I really trying to do let's, you know, so I get inside safely and I'm freezing. I just can't. I'm bone chill cold. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to slowly take a hot shower. Then I'm like, dear God, what do I do next? Because I want to make sure that I have. So I call my daughter Kayla, who's in med school and explain to her what happened.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:40]:
She says she's going to come right over, she's going to give me a concussion protocol and do the things where I can touch my fingers to her fingers and I can follow with my eyes and, you know, to make sure I don't have a concussion. And she also advised me, you know, don't try to take a nap. Let me know if you have a headache. These are things that some people have died from because they were like, oh, I hit my head, I just have a headache, I'm just gonna take a nap. And it turns out maybe it was a brain bleed. So she went through all the protocols. But before I even got to that point, when I was in that shower, I started howling, crying, just like it all hit because I guess I was on adrenaline before, but just almost like scream crying because it was painful and cold and almost embarrassing even though no one saw me. But also being alone and just all the things.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:34]:
And I had to talk to myself, Linnae, why are you like howling, crying, you know, because the, the initial pain is over, the initial incidents over. You're inside and safe and, and being warmed now. And it came up. I'm frustrated with so many things right now in this world. Some things career wise or a little wonky. I'm trying to balance them. There's so many of my friends going through so many hard times. There's so many friends that are looking for work, health problems, and it's all feeling like it's on my shoulders.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:10]:
And I haven't given any of it up to God. I haven't released any of it. I haven't released any of the steam. And I am not saying that I needed to fall down in order to come to this realization, but I do know that God will take something that sucks and can work it together for my good. And I feel like God was doing work within me after this not good, not fun thing happened. And I did check in with myself on all the levels, you know, the spiritual level, the emotional level, the physical level, taking Advil, rubbing this arnica cream on the parts where the bruises were going to be, you know, all these things. So physically Emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and my heart. What is Linnae's inner soul and spirit trying to convey? What is God trying to say? What is.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:07]:
What is going on? Let's check in fully. Let's take this time, because I tell you, the rest of my day was canceled. Any other meetings I had or whatever that day, canceled. So I had plenty of time before my daughter got home and my husband got home to sit and be and think and check in and rejuvenate and grow myself back up to where I'm supposed to be.

Sandy Kovach  [00:16:33]:
Wow, so you're good now. Was there. Are there any long term effects?

Lanée Blaise [00:16:38]:
Nope, I'm good now. That happened on. That happened on MLK day. That was Monday. That today is Thursday. And that was the other part. I prayed to God. I started thanking God, thank you, God, that I hit my bottom first and my.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:54]:
Even my back first, like the upper part of my back and then my head. Because your feet can go up from under you and you can hit your head first. That probably would have been devastating. So I thanked God that I was able to crawl and not slip again. I was thankful for warm water and heat. Like, you know, right now my daughter's heat is out in her apartment. You know, thank God for Advil. Thanking God that I had the arnica cream.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:21]:
Thanking God that I did feel this inner sense that God was telling me kind of what to do. Because at first I took like two Advil and I felt that nudge of in this case, you can take more, get that inflammation, that pain down. Thanking God for any of the little good things. Wow, that's a check. That's a form of checking in as well. Sitting and actually taking time to look at your life, at the good things that are happening. Because there's plenty of bad things in our lives, in other lives in this world. But to take time to be grateful and it builds.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:57]:
As soon as you start being grateful to God for something, it just starts growing and growing and growing.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:04]:
Yeah, that is a huge example. I was sitting here with my mouth open thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe you went through that. But let me just ask you one more question about it and then we can move on from what you're getting from it. Cause this is crazy what you went through. So you went out. So this was during the day. And I know sometimes when you take out the trash, you're not really fully coated up. Did you have a decent amount of coat on?

Lanée Blaise [00:18:33]:
I had a little jacket. I know what you mean, because my husband asked the same Thing he said, did you have on a hat? I'm like, nope. So it was. Luckily I got hair because my hair. I was like, my hair kind of cushioned. The coat was a jacket, because I was just playing to your point. Just gonna run out there, grab it, bring it back in. So just a jacket.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:53]:
My cell phone, yes. Even though the cell phone fell away from me. But, I mean, I guess I could have grabbed it, but. So, yeah, just a little jacket. Thank goodness I had on pants. And the other part, too, is even though I was paying attention, I tell you what, Lynae will pay even more attention when she goes out and there's any possibility of ice, because, like I said, it kind of fooled me. It looked like it was just a little bit of snow sitting there, but it was gently on top of a patch of ice. But, you know, just really being intentional and even talking about this on this podcast right now, again, God uses it, right? Not that it was good, not that I wanted to happen, but God didn't waste it.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:33]:
God will use it. If there's somebody out there who will be careful as they're walking or who will really think about. Let me just take time, block out some time in my schedule to check in with myself, to listen to my spirit, to listen to the Holy Spirit through me. It is just a way to. To make change and to listen to God's nudges on how to heal your body and care for yourself and what to do next, what to eat. My mother does a thing where she will ask God what to eat each day. She'll open up her fridge and say, God, what should I fix? What should I eat?

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:13]:
Does he ever tell her to go to the store and get something?

Lanée Blaise [00:20:16]:
Okay. Yes. And I'm. Oh, my. I'm Sandy. I'm telling you, honest to God, you. Yes. She says that sometimes God will tell her, go to the grocery store, get your coat, get your shoes, go right now.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:27]:
And she's like, I don't really feel like going right now. But she obeys and she goes and she gets whatever God is like, get all the groceries that you need. And she will go get it. And as soon as she gets home, within five minutes, a thunderstorm or whatever will just, boom, drop. The sky opens up. And then she's so grateful that she went right then.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:48]:
Wow.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:49]:
And that she got all her little groceries for the week or whatever. There is a rhythm that we can develop with God, with the Holy Spirit and with ourselves and with our own spirit. Because I also believe that we have a Soul within us that is eternal and that goes, you know, to heaven to be with God after we pass. That is different from our personality and from our regular Sandy and soul Sandy.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:14]:
Yeah, exactly. I think that's so cool about your mom doing that and developing. And I'm sure she spends time in the Word and in prayer and just syncing herself up to be able to do that. God's not gonna give that gift to everybody probably, but he communicates in different ways. I am fascinated that he communicated that way to you. And I'm thinking if there's somebody out there that's going through something, it doesn't have to be falling on the ice. It could be maybe somebody's having a surgery. Maybe somebod is like you were saying, having health or job issues.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:50]:
But something big, something that's shaking you to the core, that makes you ugly, cry. Maybe something like that hasn't happened recently, but something that hasn't felt right in your spirit. Maybe there's something God is trying to tell you about that. There could be a million reasons. And life is so frustrating sometimes. Like you say, like God, why? I'm like, God, am I ever gonna be able to eat anything? I watch commercials on TV now. Like somebody would be eating pizza, something I really love. And I'm thinking, God, will I ever be able to eat, you know, pizza again? I'm sure there's a way to prepare it, but it's like if I don't have the right ingredients and prepare it in a certain way.

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:30]:
And so this is teaching me maybe I have to start thinking ahead a little bit more. Otherwise I'm just. What I end up doing is I have these things called Bobo's Oat Bites. I don't know if you've ever had them. They're gluten free and dairy free. They're. They're amazing. But I'm pretty sure they're not just like health food because they're like, you know, gingerbread flavored and strawberry flavored and chocolate chip and so.

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:51]:
So I'll just eat Bobo's Oat Bites and coffee all day. That's not.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:57]:
You gotta ask help. Because I definitely am praying for some new things too, for you. And remember too, don't forget, God tends to come to you like in your dreams even. I'm just wondering if you pay attention because the other part of this episode is besides just checking in. This world is loud. Everyone and everything thing is coming at you for attention. Whether it's advertisements, like for, you said for the pizza stuff. Because you weren't even really thinking about the pizza.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:26]:
No, I wasn't.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:27]:
Your cell phone listens to you. Because right now, like, as soon as we get off this podcast, it's going to probably say, hey, pizza Domino.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:35]:
It's gonna give me a coupon. I can feel it. Yeah, exactly.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:37]:
It's loud. And the whole purpose of this episode is to quiet that down, slow yourself down and listen to your spirit and to the Holy Spirit and get into a practice of that. And to be fair, now, let's. Let's not forget my mother is retired. She is a retired school teacher. She put in all the hours and all the work and was doing all the things as I was growing up. And now she's retired and she definitely has more time to sit with God and to be with God and to get still. And so maybe we don't have the luxury of all of that time, but God still gives us 24 hours.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:22]:
And within those 24 hours, part of that is resting and sleeping. Part of that is eating. Part of that is showering. Part of that is working. But we have to acknowledge that just like we take time to eat and brush our teeth, we can take time, even if it's a few minutes, to sit still, be still with God. It will change everything. And I forgot to tell you, Sandy, there was one more message that God gave me when I got in the house after I got out of that shower and got dressed. This was very specific and something I truly hadn't thought of.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:58]:
God said, gently lay your head gently hanging off the edge of the bed. So I got on the bed slowly because, you know, my back and everything, and I laid on my back and I eased to the edge of the bed and gently, not my head, like hanging off the bed, but just gently kind of laying off the lip of the end of the bed. And I sat there or laid there and everything calmed down and the pain started to diminish. My neck started to feel better, too. Hitting the head on the ice. I did kind of a whiplash movement. And it just. All the muscles started to just relax.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:44]:
And I'm like, okay, God, thank you. I just want people to take their time and practice. Practice listening for God. Believe that you will be able to hear from God in some way, whether it's dreams, whether it's through other people, whether it's directly, whatever. Believe it.

Sandy Kovach  [00:26:05]:
Yeah. So now we're talking about having the time to listen to God. And I'm gonna take it. Like, I kinda wanna go back to your mom's example, only In a little bit of a different way, I wanna bring it back to food for a minute. Because, you know, food's a big thing and there's so much guilt around food and there's so many rules around food and there' apps that tell us this and that and the other thing. One of the things that Erin said in her podcast was she allows herself to emotionally eat. Like you'll always hear, don't emotionally eat, only eat when you're hungry. But we're gonna do that.

Sandy Kovach  [00:26:42]:
Cause we're people and, you know, it's okay. Comfort food. That's why they say comfort food. I'm not saying go out and, you know, eat a whole plate of macaroni and cheese, but like, let's say that's your absolute favorite. Let's say that you had felt well enough to eat something when you came in from hitting your head. Maybe something like that, Maybe that's just what you needed. So when we approach something, you know, she basically said, just ask yourself why? What is motivating me to eat this food right now? So I say not only take, take down time with God, but when you come to a decision, if your eating is an important part of your life, and it is important part of everyone's life, but I mean, if it's a thing for you, if, if you have guilt or shame around it, or you're always wondering what to eat, then this is for you. If not, maybe apply it to something else.

Sandy Kovach  [00:27:33]:
Why do I want this big chocolate chip cookie right now? Is it because I truly think it's delicious and I just want to sit and enjoy it? Or is it because I'm emotionally stressed out? And if so, is it okay to have it? Just know why you're doing it, know your motivations. If we could do that and give ourselves grace, but at the same time think about the consequences. I think you brought that up a little earlier.

Lanée Blaise [00:27:56]:
Yes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:27:57]:
Like, am I going to feel like crap after I eat this?

Lanée Blaise [00:28:01]:
Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:01]:
Or am I going to feel like crap in an hour?

Lanée Blaise [00:28:04]:
It is something to consider in this world where we are very used to now having instant gratification. We went from when we were little kids, we didn't even have a microwave oven yet when I was little. It had been invented, but it wasn't like widely in homes. So if you wanted to heat some food up, you needed to put it on the stove and do the whole shebang. To microwave ovens, to having food delivered straight to your door. Instant gratification. I just don't believe it's the way that we are meant to be as humans. And that cookie, if we can sit for just a bit and think about, okay, the cookie is there, I could eat it.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:48]:
Why am I craving it? Do I need to eat the whole thing? Is this something emotional? Do I need to act on the emotional? Do I need to wait a bit and just let it pass? And also, will my stomach hurt after? Am I so full that I'm just. Am I feeling like everything is hopeless anyway? I may as well just give up and give in. Can I turn that around and say, wait a second. God lets us know and promises that. That God will be with us and we don't have to be hopeless and we don't have to say just, all is lost. So maybe I have talked myself gently out of eating all of the cookie, or maybe even any of it. And maybe that was what was best. Or like, like you said, maybe a little bit of it, just for a little comfort, a little sweet.

Lanée Blaise [00:29:37]:
I just wanted a little sweet. Because sometimes that's it too. Sometimes it wasn't as big as all that. I just wanted a little taste, you know, a little chocolate morsel, and I'm good. And that won't make me feel bad emotionally or physically. It is just so much the art of thinking, the lost art of thinking. Taking time to think before we act, before we do, before we say, before we grab our cell phone and start scrolling, slowing things down.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:08]:
They are so good. Once you grab your cell phone of keeping you there, the algorithms, I mean, you can go from one video or, you know, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or wherever you're at, if you spend more than 1.5 seconds looking at a cat video, your next seven videos are gonna be cat videos. It's just.

Lanée Blaise [00:30:28]:
Yes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:28]:
I don't know. I mean, the technology and I understand that platform needs to make money and they want advertisers or they want people to buy, you know, from their advertisers, and they want advertisers. But do these folks have any kind of an idea what they are doing to our brains? And I'm not even sure how our kids are going to react to this in the long run. Or our kids, you know, kids, kids, when we have them people coming up.

Lanée Blaise [00:30:54]:
Right now, it is vastly different. Even my daughter was saying that she remembers coloring books, and she's four years older than my son, and he does not remember coloring books. And I'm like, dang, you know, little things like that. Technology has just gone so fast that the world is going to do what the world does. But that doesn't mean that you have to participate in that. It doesn't mean that you have to get swept up in it. And that's where thinking and being intentional and being conscious and being close to God helps protect you from that. Yes, I understand that I have a cell phone.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:29]:
Yes, I understand now that they do an algorithm to intentionally pull me in, get my dopamine levels up or whatever. So I understand that happens. And yet I will remain firm and I will talk to myself like my own little internal therapist and say, lenae, it is in our best interest to put that phone away, put it on, do not disturb, do our little read a little devotion or something like that, brush our teeth and go to sleep instead of staying in that loop and getting carried away with what the world has created for financial gain.

Sandy Kovach  [00:32:09]:
That's good. So we've gone through a lot of different strategies here, or a few sort of intermixed. And some of the things that are free that we can do that we can be grateful for that we need more of that. Maybe we need to put on a list somewhere in an app or maybe not. You mentioned prayer. That's obviously gonna be huge. Spending time in the word, like you said, it'll change your life. Fresh air.

Sandy Kovach  [00:32:36]:
I'm not talking about like today when it's negative 5 or whatever it is, even then it just peak out, breathe, and then go back in movement. And Erin brought this up instead of looking at exercise as a punishment. And she said that Elizabeth Sherman is a big proponent of that. And I remember her saying, we gotta stop looking at exercise as, you know, some sign of a trade off for, okay, over eight. So now I gotta go on the treadmill. Movement is good for your body and you're feeding it. And if you can pick something fun that you like, that's good. And the nourishing food we talked about and just getting enough rest and enough time to play, quote, unquote, play like.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:18]:
That'S another lost art.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:19]:
Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:20]:
As adults. Play, play around, joke around. I had this little game that I bought for my nephews and forgot to give it to him. And my son and I were over there playing. It's kind of like a little puck thing. And you try to get it through the. Shoot your puck through the little hole to the other side. And it was delightful.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:36]:
It was dumb, but delightful. So you're playing a little toddler game with your grown up son. I love it. Yes, I love it.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:43]:
It is just light and lively and playful. And living.

Sandy Kovach  [00:33:48]:
Yeah, I remember I used to kind of be okay with downtime. And then I read this book one time, and it was a great book, and it's good for motivators. One of those business books called Today Matters by John Maxwell. And I felt like after I read it, okay, I cannot waste one second. If I'm. For five minutes. If I'm standing there waiting for my coffee, then I better go and wipe the counter or, you know, I can't waste any time ever. And I just took it to the whole extreme, and it's that whole hustle culture that I think we all leave and not John Maxwell's.

Sandy Kovach  [00:34:20]:
Awesome. This is not about that book. It's about my reaction to it and our reaction to hustle culture. If you don't rest, if you don't take downtime, that is going to be a detractor because you're not going to be as productive anyway, so why resist it?

Lanée Blaise [00:34:36]:
I challenge you to. Or challenge myself or all of us to think that God would very likely whisper in our ears, hey, taking five minutes apart with me, the Lord, the creator of everything, will add not only value but productivity and time to your life and your day. It will help you avoid some detours that you might have taken. It will give you some wisdom and discernment in areas that you wouldn't have had on your own. It will brighten your day. It will remind you that even though the world will have trials and tribulations, that you are a light bearer. You are the light atop of a hill. It's just so many things that can switch it around and it doesn't make sense logically.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:32]:
Like, five minutes could have been spent doing. I could have had all the dishes put away by then. No, no, no, no. You have added time to your day with that time with God.

Sandy Kovach  [00:35:44]:
That's so good. So have we covered? Well, there's no way to cover everything, but we covered everything. All the questions.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:54]:
It's really just about remembering. Also to. The only other thing I can think about that Aaron mentioned was think about what you're thinking about. That is just a fun little saying. But what is running through my brain? Am I constantly thinking about being productive? Am I constantly thinking about all the negative things in the world? Am I accidentally thinking that I'm a loser? Am I thinking about how much I love myself? Am I thinking about how much I love God? Am I thinking about how grateful I am to wake up in the morning and be a part of this life? And am I thinking about a person that God puts in my head, I have a friend who's dealing with the health issue right now. Do I stop, drop and pray for her? Do I call her and give her encouragement and she says, perhaps, Lynae, I just felt like, alone and I'm just so glad you called. What are we thinking about? Think about what we're thinking about. That was just something that really helped me.

Lanée Blaise [00:37:00]:
And then the other part was choosing wisely. If we, if we are thinking badly or doing badly. When I say badly, you know, things that are not serving us, choose again, wisely, start again. Just like the toddler or the little baby, they sure enough try again. They fall on their little bottom. Sometimes they laugh even.

Sandy Kovach  [00:37:21]:
Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:37:22]:
You know, and then they, like, are just as happy and eager to pull themselves back, try it again a new way, a different way, the same way, whatever. Not afraid of trying again, choosing again, doing better.

Sandy Kovach  [00:37:36]:
Yeah, we, like you mentioned, even though people weren't out when you fell about being embarrassed, like, why would you be embarrassed? But that's so human. You're so worried about, oh, well, what would people.

Lanée Blaise [00:37:48]:
Why did I. Why did I let myself fall? Like, why didn't I see? Why did I notice that that could have been ice patching. See, that's the thinking about what I'm thinking about. That was what I was thinking. Like, Lynae, you know, it's icy, but you miss that. So big as a big miss, you know? But Grace, Grace, like, yep, I sure missed it. It was hiding under the snow and it sucked that it happened. But I'm so grateful that God took care of me.

Lanée Blaise [00:38:19]:
And I'm so grateful to God that now I have this testimony and that God used it.

Sandy Kovach  [00:38:24]:
Yeah. I can see this being like the. A whole motivational speech based on your fall.

Lanée Blaise [00:38:30]:
Yes. Yeah. And it's almost. Yeah, like, like a literal. And figure. Like, figuratively, too. Like, I fell because I was so frustrated with all the things going on in the world. And in order to get back up, I had to reach to God because there was nobody else around and slowly get back up and slowly heal and recover.

Sandy Kovach  [00:38:52]:
And nobody was there to come to your rescue. Nope, just God. And I guess that's a party of two. You and God. Sometimes that's all you need.

Lanée Blaise [00:39:01]:
Yes. I didn't know this episode was going to be quite like this, but I am so grateful. I just want everybody listening to know that you're loved. You're loved by God. I hope that everyone can imagine yourself getting. Still getting quiet, thinking about what you're thinking about and really getting a good read from God on what you're supposed to be doing and having grace the entire journey.

Sandy Kovach  [00:39:36]:
Thank you so much for spending time with us today. We hope this episode gave you something to hold on to. Something encouraging, real, something that maybe reminds you you're not alone on this journey. If you found it helpful, we would love for you to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you feel led rating and leaving a comment is a great way to help others find us too, and to give us some of the feedback that we need, you can always reach out. We'd love to hear from you. Use the text feature in the app. Visit Imagine Yourself podcast dot com.

Sandy Kovach  [00:40:07]:
You'll get more faith filled encouragement and content there too. And also ways to connect. We're on Instagram, Facebook and all the links are waiting for you in the show. Notes.