Today we have a solo episode with our host, Sierra Brown (Faith-Based Health & Wellness Coach and Founder of Melanin Well & Co).
Episode 1 is all about increasing intentionality and creating space for small moments of nourishment; specifically a God-centered morning routine designed for optimal relationship with God, food, and your body. And this episode… her fav yet.
She shared 4 hard truths holding you back from executing a consistent God-centered morning routine each morning; as well as info on...
- Why nourishment is truly so impactful
- How much small moments of nourishment add up
- The secret to a God-centered morning routine for optimal health and wellness
- 4 examples of what wellness can look like executed within your morning routine
- Her best pre-bedtime practice to increase consistency and decrease how often you hit snooze
Listen… the Season 1 3W’s episode is the most downloaded episode of Melanin Well so far and this one is even better. So many gems. So many nuggets. So excited for you to tune in.
Join us in “Living Melanin Well” our ✨free✨ community hosted in the Geneva app. Each week, we have live prayer and weekly challenges. And there’ s so much more to come. Click the link below and join us.
https://links.geneva.com/invite/b99efbc7-f663-4140-b75f-5069c2915c10
Want to join us on March 8th for Heavenly Habits; our God-centered morning routine workshop designed to help you create & implement your own routine built for optimal relationship with God, food, and your body? 👇🏽
Email the phrase “HH” to [email protected] and nab your seat. Seats are limited and you do NOT want to miss this event.
About Sierra:
Sierra is a Faith-Based Health & Wellness Coach residing in Dallas, TX.
She helps Black women of faith all over the world unlearn diet culture’s LIES so they can THRIVE in purpose, make health & wellness second nature, and avoid burnout.
Over the past decade, through trial & God's gracious leading, she's helped thousands of women remove weight loss and thinness as idols and strengthen their relationship with God tenfold.
As a result, these beautiful women are bringing God's light and love at such a great capacity into varying industries all over the country, into their homes, and their communities.
The best part? They're doing this while also honoring God and their bodies first.
Episode Transcript:
Season 2 Episode 1
You are listening to Melanin Well with Sierra Brown, a podcast where we bring faith-filled messages to Black women all over the world to help them discover how to unlock their very own version of sustainable wellness. I am your host, Sierra Sarah, your favorite wellness coach and goofy online BFF. Every week we will expose and discredit a new diet culture, lie, and provide you with tailor made habits, skills and practices to help you leave that life of misery behind and reposition God at the forefront of your life and center of your heart. Thank you so much for making some time for me today. Booze. Now let's dive in 1s guys. And welcome back to the Melon Wall podcast. Like, can you believe it? It has been nearly, I don't even know how long at this point since we started this podcast. It's been over a year and it's been a while. It's been a while since we've gotten together. But I'm so excited to bring you guys season two, episode one. And it's actually a part two, episode two, our most downloaded our most popular episode. So without further ado, let's look at into it. Okay, so listen, since I recorded season one, episode one, which was managing holiday stress as a black woman with the three WS, I've really picked up on about four hard truths related to why black woman of faith either choose not to implement morning routines or feel like they can't stick to them. If you've been here long enough, then you know how truly important morning routines aren't. Just to me from my coaching philosophy standpoint, what I teach clients, but also to me personally in my personal life. If you follow me on Instagram, then you literally see me nearly every single day really sharing these breakthroughs and things that I got from my morning routine. So it's not just something I teach you guys, but it's something that I practice in my real life every single day. So let's get to those four hard truths and today I'm going to expand on a lot of what I taught you last year, give you some new nuggets. This is going to be your new favorite episode. 1s Those four hard truths. And listen, when I say they're hard, I mean they hard. Okay? So just embrace yourself. So number one is that we keep our eyes fixed on our struggles at times. Like, because as a black woman, especially, you know, and specifically a Black woman of faith, our struggles tend to be more than the average person. And even for 2s even for the greatest believer, even the person who lives in God more than anybody, if that even exists, it still can be difficult not to keep your eyes fixed on your circumstances when there are so many things bubbling around. So when we keep our eyes fixed on our struggle at time, our circumstances, we then rush off to the struggle. I know it sounds crazy. I know it really does. But I literally see black women to faith do it all the time 2s because it is struggle and because we're already under a lot of stress and also not managing our stress very well. The struggle feels urgent. Okay? So we rough off to the struggle because it feels urgent. But the truth is that we actually struggle a lot in our daily lives because we are going out into the world, whether it is physically or it is virtually without our armor on. Without our armor on. So I'm not invalidating the struggle. The struggle is real. But you have your best chance. You have your best chance to laugh against that struggle when you put on the full armor of God. And not just that, when you start your day with your eyes fixed on Jesus. 2s That's that first hard truth. Okay? We're looking at our struggle too much, and we're rushing off to it because it feels urgent. Okay, now, our second struggle, and this is a very common one and a very, very, very hard pill to swallow as well, is that we believe thinness is what is most important. Now, this is due to diet culture. This is due to weight and fat stigma. But because of this, our value are worth lies in our ability to execute actions that lead to weight loss, things that change the scale number so those actions come first, and then we kind of give our remaining time to whatever else we choose. Now, for most of us black women of faith, that tends to be God. I mean, most of the women that I encounter on Instagram 1s or on TikTok, because I've been doubling the tiki tucker a little bit. Most of you guys who I encounter there is some level of connection with God in the morning. However, it typically comes after several other things for a lot of people. So for those of you guys who may be in a season where you want to live a healthier lifestyle or you're quote, unquote, making a lifestyle change in those seasons because thinness has become so centric to your being, you tend to prioritize those things over God, turning your body, turning your weight, turning those actions into idols. And we all know that I be throwing that word around here, but it's true. 2s So that's the second hard truth. We're placing those actions. We're placing those behaviors before God. We're not actively consciously saying they're more important, but we are putting them first. And a lot of it has to do with the weight and fat stigma that we have and that there is. And because of that, we feel so uncomfortable in our bodies. Feels like weight loss is an emergency. Thinness is an emergency, but it's not. Now the third truth goes along with the second one. Now, 1s guys, quick break from the episode to tell you I have some news, the major news. On March 8 on March 8, I am hosting a free workshop. It's called heavenly habits, honey. And literally everything that you learn in this episode, everything I introduce you to, is going to be covered in depth in this workshop. Not just the education piece, but also the implementation piece. So in Heavenly Habits, you are going to create your own three step morning routine for optimal health, wellness, and relationship with God. So if you want to join us on March 8, it's going to be limited availability. Email. HH stands for Heavenly Habits, honey. HH to [email protected]. That's HH to [email protected]. Now, let's get back to the episode. 1s This third truth is that we believe that we're not good enough until we lose weight. Now, I have never once heard someone say that out loud or just freely give me that information. But I've asked people that question in like a passive way a million times. The answer, nine times out of ten, is yes, there is something that we are waiting on until we hit a certain scale weight, until we be returned to a certain dress size, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, list goes on. So because we subconsciously believe that we're not good enough until we lose weight, our identity, our worth is tied to our appearance, our body shape, the number on the scale. So if we have that strong belief ingrained into us, then of course we are going to prioritize actions, tasks, things that are closely and tightly connected to thinness, to weight loss duh, because we're forgetting who we are. Now, I'm not saying this happens 100% of the time. I'm not saying that this happens for every single person, but these are all things that everything I added to this Hard truth list. I've had conversations with at least ten to 15 people in the past year. I didn't just throw out random things. These are basically statements based off of case studies from our conversations in the Instagram DMs. So with that being said, we have our final hard truth, and that is that we believe that we can't be both fat and worthy of God's best. Okay, so this is kind of very similar to three, but it's a little bit different in this sense. So because we believe that we can't both be fat and worthy of God's best, we limit our relationship and we limit our purpose. So think about how often actually, I literally just had a decision call with somebody last week where she told me that there were things that god was calling her to, certain ministries, certain places that god was calling her to, but she hadn't committed to doing it, and she hadn't been obedient yet because she was waiting until she lost weight. She didn't feel comfortable going into spaces. So because we tie our worthiness, 2s because we tie our worthiness and to our size, our dress size, how much we weigh, all of those things, we are limiting our relationship, we are limiting our purpose, and we're limiting our influence in the world. And ultimately, because we also believe those other things, we have a hard time of believing that we are actually the masterpiece that God's does, that we are. So those are those four hard shoes. I really hated to come. 1s Throwing darts this early in the season, but I really just had to get those things out of the way now because we're actually in part one of a four part nourishment series, where I'm going to be talking about four different small moments of nourishment that are just so stinking powerful. These four small moments of nourishment are all things that literally, if you implement these four things, you don't have to change a thing. If you continue to pursue these things for the rest of your life, you will continue to improve your health outcomes, you'll continue to increase your nutrient intake, you will continue to feel well and be well. But listen, we got four weeks to go over this. So with that being said, I do want to talk a moment about nourishment before we hop into the morning routine aspect of this episode. So why nourishment? Okay? So if you guys have been around for a bit, 1s you guys know that I've been saying the word nourishment a million times a day. Now, there's a reason for that, because it's freaking important. And it's not just freaking important, but it is impactful. So why nourishment? The answer to that is because nourishment. And when I say nourishment, what I want you to think about is pouring in. Anything that pours into you is what I classify as nourishment. Now, 2s obviously, I have super clinical and scientific definitions for all of these things. 1s That's not this episode, but for the sake of this episode. And so I don't have you here longer than 30 minutes, I want you to think about nourishment as pouring in. So nourishment creates a biological, a mental and emotional, a spiritual environment where our bodies feel supported, to live abundantly, to pursue health, to pursue purpose. Okay? That is why nourishment, so many of you guys struggle with even getting started. I used to talk about consistency all of the time, but really, over the past couple of years, what I've noticed the most, a lot of you guys are stuck in park. It's what I call failure to start, okay? A lot of you guys are stuck in park, and that's because you guys haven't created that foundation. 2s You guys really haven't created a supportive environment for your body to even feel for your mind, body, and spirit, to even feel ready to pursue health, to pursue purpose. And so you heard me say the phrase small moments of nourishment earlier. I didn't just say nourishment because also, a lot of you guys are doing too much. It doesn't take all that. That used to be my phrase. I used it all the time. It all take all that, okay? It doesn't take all that. Ultimately, all it really takes is a series of small moments of nourishment. Okay, and I cannot say this enough my client Stacey, actually, she's actually a Melanoma Academy graduate ad now, as of last week. But. She actually said this exact phrase last week, and I was like, snap my fingers in the background. But she said, small moments add up. And she couldn't be more right. Those small moments add up. So don't you worry
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