Narrating Hope

In this episode, Elizabeth shares about overidentification from Dr. Kristin Neff's research about self-compassion. Elizabeth encourages growing in self-awareness of any thought patterns where overidentification shows up, which is often big generalizations about what things mean and instead moving towards simply noticing and naming without so much judgment. This mindful approach helps promote self-compassion which impacts so many things, but especially our relationships with ourselves.

In this episode, Elizabeth emphasizes that we are in lifelong relationships with ourselves and how often we do not treat ourselves with the tenderness, care, and encouragement that we would treat a good friend. Elizabeth guides listeners towards asking yourself what you need as well as talking to yourself with more encouragement and kindness.

In this episode, Elizabeth encourages listeners about the goodness of boundaries--emphasizing that boundaries are healthy, not mean, and lead to more whole-hearted yeses, which then impacts there being less resentment in relationships and in general. Elizabeth encourages the naming of values and the consideration of priorities for the season that you are in. By examining these two things, it can become more clear what your yeses are and where you need to say no.

In this episode Elizabeth Burton encourages listeners to really consider their own patterns as well as the patterns in their relationships. This takes reflection and some degree of self-awareness. When you are honest with yourself about naming the patterns, you are more in a position to possibly grow through them and to help create healthier dynamics with yourself and in your relationships.

In this episode, Elizabeth Burton encourages movement towards a healthier body image by increasing awareness of all or nothing, highly critical, and rigid thought patterns. The good news is that we can work to cultivate and build a healthier view of bodies by intentionally shifting our thoughts towards more acceptance and more sustainable thoughts and choices.. This is relevant for adults listening in terms of their own body image and also for any parents listening to consider how they can model a healthy body image for their kids.

Anxiety often provokes developing coping strategies that are avoidant in nature. In this episode Elizabeth encourages challenging avoidance when it is not serving you. As people, we generally grow through facing hard things. When we become less avoidant and face what is anxiety provoking, we may find that the anxiety shift and become less powerful.

In this episode, Elizabeth encourages listeners to acknowledge and name their limits. This moves someone towards self-compassion and sustainability instead of expecting themselves to be rigidly perfect and continuously feeling shame and the loud voice of a noisy inner critic. Naming and embracing limits looks like someone acknowledging what they need, giving themselves permission to rest, recover, and accept "good enough" in accordance with their values.

In this episode, Elizabeth Burton encourages listeners to practice self-awareness of their thoughts and notice when thinking is all or nothing. Typically all or nothing thinking is problematic and an cause challenges both in someone's life and in their relationships. When we can move away from all or nothing thinking, we can make more room to name the both/and, see the complexity, and ground ourselves in a more true narrative.

Elizabeth encourages listeners to intentionally slow down amidst the harried pace and rush of life to claim some time to get quiet and get reflective. This posture of reflection leads to greater attunement in that someone can check in with themselves by noticing what they are feeling, what they are thinking, how they are doing in their body, and what they need. Reflection leads to noticing what's going well in relationships and whether someone is living in alignment with their values or if something needs to change. Being more intentional with reflection helps break cycles of auto-pilot and inspires more intentional doing.

Elizabeth encourages caregivers towards sustainable caregiving by noticing what they need in order to keep pouring out. Elizabeth challenges the idea that taking care of oneself is selfish and empowers caregivers to practice caring for others with attunement to their own needs as well. This involves permission to rest and be rejuvenated and building a support network for the hard work, yet meaningful work of caring for another person.