What does it look like to be me when the holidays are difficult?  

This two-part holiday series strategizes how to "act like myself" during the press and potential triggers of the holiday season. 

In part one, we're specifically addressing two common reasons for why this can be difficult and making some plans for how to remain ourselves despite relational pain or pecking order issues.  

Join us on the trail!  

P.S. We also have a gift for you! Do you love Marcus Warner Acrostics? 

The team has put together some of our core acrostics into downloads you can print out for your office, fridge, or to use as digital screensavers! Get your free acrostics pages here.  

👉 Helpful Links:

• FREE GIFT: Acrostics Screen Savers: https://deeperwalk.com/acrostics/
• DONATE: https://deeperwalk.com/donate/
• Identity COURSE: https://deeperwalk.com/identitycourse
• SPANISH Spiritual Warfare Book: https://a.co/d/1mm6HuP 
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Does it ever feel like you have a powder keg inside you?  

Hit the wrong button, and negative emotions erupt inside. Or perhaps you've seen this in a loved one and find yourself in a "button dance" to avoid pressing each other's buttons. 

In this episode, we're looking at the relationship between beliefs and wounds. When our hearts are wounded, it's easy to believe lies that take root and shape our values and behaviors. 

Oftentimes those wounds aren't pervasive but are like pockets of pain that can be ignited like powder kegs in our heart.

No matter the size of the wound or the frequency of the trigger, we want to identify and uproot those false beliefs and replace them with God's truth in order to find breakthrough. 

If you’re following along in the book, check out chapter seven in Breakthrough!. 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• Preorder Identity Course: https://deeperwalk.com/identitycourse
• Trailblazers: https://deeperwalk.com/trailblazers/
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• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

My true identity is who I am in relationship to God. 

God is the definer of my identity. Because of this, any hole in my sense of identity is also a hole in my view of God, and any hole in my view of God is going to affect how I see myself. 

When we need a breakthrough in the area of beliefs, it's probably related to a lie we're believing. So, this week, we're also looking at two kinds of deception: bold lies and hiding elements of truth. 

Sometimes deception is an outright lie that needs to be identified and replaced. Sometimes we believe lies because we know some facts but not others. 

If you’re following along in the book, check out chapter seven in Breakthrough!. 

👉 Helpful Links: 

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book 
• Preorder IDENTITY Course: https://deeperwalk.com/identitycourse 
• Trailblazers: https://deeperwalk.com/trailblazers/ 
• Share Testimonies: https://deeperwalk.com/share-a-testimonial/ 
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• FREEDOM Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

Our emotions can't tell the difference between a truth and a lie. 

Many breakthrough strategies have to deal with beliefs at one level or another. For the next three episodes, we'll be looking at this engine of the Breakthrough Model. 

This week is all about the power of beliefs to drive our emotions and behavior. Sometimes we can't even picture what doing something looks like, and that keeps us stuck from moving forward. Sometimes our thought life is plagued by negative thinking, and that keeps us stuck.

How we think and what we believe shapes how we interact with others in many ways. 

If you’re following along in the book, check out chapter seven in Breakthrough!. 

Join us on the trail! 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• Preorder Identity Course: https://deeperwalk.com/identitycourse
• Trailblazers: https://deeperwalk.com/trailblazers/
• Share Testimonies: https://deeperwalk.com/share-a-testimonial/
• Bookstore: bookstore.deeperwalk.com
• Newsletter: share.hsforms.com/1xFlqLVlnR2y4xCK9c8oRCAoxn4w
• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

Part of being aware of our body is knowing how to quiet.

We quiet our minds by replacing toxic thinking with good thinking. We quiet our bodies by changing our body chemistry and calming our amygdala. 

In this week's episode, we're looking at four practices that can help us quiet our body when we feel stressed. 

We can remember these as B.E.S.T. practices for quieting: 

• Breathe in a box [inhale, hold, exhale, hold - repeat]. 
• Exaggerate emotions. 
• Soothe the senses. 
• Tense your muscles, and then relax them. 

If you’re following along in the book, check out chapter six in Breakthrough!. 

Join us on the trail! 

P.S. Most of you are still joining via audio-only (which is great!). But this could be a fun one to watch on YouTube, as we'll be making many funny facial expressions. 👀 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• Preorder Identity Course: https://deeperwalk.com/identitycourse
• Trailblazers: https://deeperwalk.com/trailblazers/
• Share Testimonies: https://deeperwalk.com/share-a-testimonial/
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• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

How can the BODY affect our breakthrough journey? 

In this series, we are exploring five areas where we often need a breakthrough. The first of these five engines that drive our emotions is the body. 

This engine functions like a two-way street. Sometimes emotions affect our body. Sometimes our body affects our emotions. 

If we have a physical issue, we probably need a physical solution. Maybe this involves diet and exercise, maybe medication, maybe surgery, and more. 

In today's episode, we begin our look at Engine One and the importance of being aware of our body. 

Join us on the trail! 

P.S. If you’re following along in the book, check out chapter six in Breakthrough!. 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• November 9th Event: https://deeperwalk.com/product/path-to-healing-sexual-trauma 
• Trailblazers: https://deeperwalk.com/trailblazers/
• Share Testimonies: https://deeperwalk.com/share-a-testimonial/
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• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

How can the brain affect our breakthrough journey? 

To continue this Breakthrough! series, we're talking about our God-given identity and maturity development by looking at three keys of brain function and five levels of maturity. 

For instance, the brain craves the fuel of ____. (If you filled in the blank with “JOY,” you may have listened to our series on joy. If not, check out this compilation of that series.) How do the brain's need for joy, its right-to-left functionality, and the four levels of the joy elevator shape us? 

We’re also looking at the five levels of maturity as named by our friends at Life Model Works. How do we recognize an emotional infant, child, adult, parent, and elder? And is there hope for gaps and holes? 

Join us on the trail! 

P.S. If you’re interested in a breakthrough rubric that walks through these five levels, check out chapter five in the book Breakthrough!. 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• Bookstore: bookstore.deeperwalk.com
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• Mailbox: forms.gle/P2UravG3j6zZMJKA7
• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

In this episode, we are introducing the core paradigms of the Breakthrough! series: Three Levels of Breakthrough and Five Engines that Drive Our Emotions.

When people are in search of a breakthrough, it's usually at one of three levels of need, and each need has its own solution:

• LEVEL 1: Relieve pain by focusing on symptoms. 
• LEVEL 2: Repair damage by focusing on root issues. 
• LEVEL 3: Rebuild maturity by focusing on new habits.

Once we have this framework, it is crucial to realize that the breakthrough we need might be in a different area than where we're looking. We outline a rubric of these five engines that drive our emotions (three physical, two spiritual):

• ENGINE 1: Be aware of your body.
• ENGINE 2: Unleash your beliefs. 
• ENGINE 3: Increase your joy bonds.
• ENGINE 4: Listen to the Spirit.  
• ENGINE 5: Defeat demons.

This is a key episode for building the framework for the rest of the series.  

Join us on the trail! 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: https://deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book
• Bookstore: bookstore.deeperwalk.com
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• Mailbox: forms.gle/P2UravG3j6zZMJKA7
• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

And we’re back! Sabbatical is over, we are together again in a new studio, and we're celebrating our 100th new episode with a new season! (Can you sense a theme here?) 

Season Three is kicking off with a series all about Breakthrough! In this episode, we're looking at growth models. 

Growth models are crucial because they determine which solutions we believe are essential to transformation. 

What are some of the common ones we turn to, and what is the growth model that will truly increase our breakthroughs and grow us into the people God designed and calls us to be? 

Join us on the trail! 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Breakthrough: deeperwalk.com/breakthrough-book 
• Bookstore: bookstore.deeperwalk.com
• Newsletter: share.hsforms.com/1xFlqLVlnR2y4xCK9c8oRCAoxn4w
• Mailbox: forms.gle/P2UravG3j6zZMJKA7
• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse

Has your life ever felt chaotic and empty? 

From Genesis 1 onward, God has shown us His purposes for bringing order and fullness to our lives.

In this compilation, we're revisiting the Advent & Incarnation series. (Stephanie says it's never the wrong time of year to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ.) 

But more than the Christmas season, we're looking at God's heart and plans for the redemption story He's telling, our ability to approach God boldly because of Jesus our High Priest, the conversational relationship He desires to have with us, and how to recognize His invitation to share joy with Him. 

This compilation episode covers Season 1, Episodes 75-78. 

Join us on the trail! 

P.S. A couple quick fact checks for this series from Stephanie: 

• Dad gave a casual etymology of the word incarnation. I’m not going to flesh out a whole etymology for you here (ha, pun intended?), but if you’re interested… He said carne was the Latin for “flesh,” and we didn’t make it clear that “carne” is the Spanish derivative of the Latin root. So, to keep it simple – in Latin, caro and carnis are the words for “flesh.” (Coincidentally, the ablative singular of both of these words is carne, but there you have it…) 
• We had joy on the brain. Dad said the final Advent candle is always Joy in every tradition, but then corrected and said it is the Christ candle (which is what I had in mind as “final” - the central candle. But we skipped over the 4th “final”). From what I understand, Joy is usually the third candle, but the themes can vary depending on tradition. 

👉 Helpful Links:

• Bookstore: bookstore.deeperwalk.com
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• Freedom Course: deeperwalk.com/freedomcourse