I’m super excited to have my friend, fellow coach and podcaster on the show this week, Christine Petty. Christine is the host of the show Free Her Spirit, where explores the important questions of spirituality. I always love chatting with her, and especially love our chat in todays episode. Christine shares about how everything in our lives is spiritual when we choose to se it that way, about how to connect with your spirituality. We talk about building spiritual practices, and how our life’s work and purpose can be further amplified by saying yes to something that feels both scary and exciting.
In this episode, we talk about:
– Christine’s love of story, make believe and music as a child
– Looking for the magic and unexpected in the every day
– Her spiritual journey, starting in an evangelical church
– How anything and everything is spiritual, when you look at it with that lens
– Learning to love yourself, and love your truths
– How to Connect with Your Spirituality
– The growth that often happens in our twenties, or as we leave home
– Podcasting as a spiritual practice
– Figuring it out as you go along
– Feeling isolated and where that takes us
– Christine’s thoughts on jump starting joy: write a letter to someone you know, put down your cell phone and speak to someone, find whatever it is that makes you feel connected with yourself
Finding the joy
Christine shares a lot about doing internal work as she entered her twenties, work that looked at what she really and truly wanted for herself, what made her happy, what lit her up. I loved our discussion about this, as I have certainly taken my own journey to discover what sits at the heart of what I want to do. Sitting in the heart of so many shoulds, it can be hard to hear your own voice, and know your own heart.
Here’s what strikes me after having spoken to Christine – joy starts with knowing herself, in learning to love herself, and in learning to love her own truths. She shares that through her own journey, she “learned to create her own sacred safe space.”
And, I see that it’s her own safe space that then gives her the foundation to build on her own purpose. What I love is that Christine says “I want to do this thing, and so I”ll figure it out as I go along.”
What I think you and I can take from this is that while the world wants us to get hung up on focusing on the external pieces (the “right” job, fitting in, doing things the way that others do them), it’s really the internal work that makes a difference. You need to know who you are, what you love, before you can then start spreading that message with the rest of the world. And, once you know what you love and what you really sense your purpose is, then you gain the confidence to start sharing that with others.
Joy in this case is that deep seated knowing, it’s a sense of purpose, it’s being connected with yourself. Joy is inter-tangled in the heart of this; knowing yourself, sharing your own unique point of view, encouraging others to do the same… and I adore how Christine has found her voice and her way, and is sharing that with all of us on her own podcast.
Resources:
The “crossover” episode, where I was a guest on Christine Petty’s Free Her Spirit Podcast: Journeys of Faith with Paula Jenkins
Christine Petty’s website: Free Her Spirit
