Episode 94: Simple Habits for Un-Complicating Life—with Brenda Yoder
Does your calendar have nearly every square filled to the brim? For most families, May is a particularly busy time of year with graduation parties, school concerts, sports, final exams, and all the things that go along with wrapping up the school year.
Even with such a busy schedule, we can get to the end of a packed-out day and still feel like we don’t have much to show for it. We can be in the same room with the people we love and feel like we haven’t connected at all. When we take a minute to slow down and look inside, we may even realize how we have lost our sense of purpose and joy in it all.
Brenda Yoder is here to talk about this very thing! Brenda is the author of Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life. She’s also a speaker, a counselor, an educator, and a mom who knows what it’s like to juggle a full and complicated life. Brenda is here to share how the wisdom and simple habits of the past can speak into the busy and hectic lives that we lead today.
Brenda shares with us:
- Some of the underlying reasons for stress
- The role of interdependence in regaining community
- The simple power of ordinary practices
- And more!
We hope you find encouragement and hope in this episode!
Links:
- [BOOK] Fledge: Launching Your Kids Without Losing Your Mind
- [BOOK] Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life
- [BOOK] The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
- [BOOK] Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything by Viktor Frankl
- Episode 65: Raise and Release: How to Prepare for Your Kids to Leave the Nest—with Brenda Yoder
- Connect with Brenda on her website, Instagram or Facebook
Our Takeaways:
1) Regain your sense of shelter. A sense of shelter is that place (a physical space or even just a state of mind) where we feel completely safe and secure. For many, this used to be our grandparent’s kitchen table or perhaps our childhood home. But today, a sense of shelter may be more elusive as we have forgotten how to strike a balance between our safe haven and the outside world. We have far more things invading our shelter, from social media to news stories and more. These things generate worry and stress, and cause us to lose a sense of peace.
2) Cultivate contentment. This isn’t about going without or denying yourself things that you actually need, but is about understanding the difference between needs and wants. We often already have things that will meet our needs. The more we cultivate contentment in ourselves and our children, the easier it is to find joy in what we have.
3) It’s not about simplifying your life, it’s about focusing on what is most important. We tend to think we need to eliminate things from our lives in order to regain our sense of connection, accomplishment, and joy. However, that is not always the case and often is unrealistic to obtain. Instead, we need to ask ourselves, “What is the most important thing I will do today?” When we understand what we are doing and why, it gives us a sense of accomplishment and purpose, even when our to-do list is yet to be completed.
Meet Our Guest
Brenda Yoder is a national speaker, author, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, podcaster, and life coach whose passion is giving biblical wisdom to parents who want to launch their children well. Brenda is also a former teacher and school counselor and was twice awarded the Touchstone Award. In her book, Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life, she offers timeless wisdom for a simpler life. Brenda is a wife and mom of four children, ranging from college students to adults, and lives on a farm in Indiana.
