An automatic response to pain is fear—but what if not all pain was  bad, or to be avoided? What if you were better off working through the  pain to find recovery from injury or illness? Physical Therapist Melanie Connell joins me to discuss the link between physical and emotional pain that might easily be overlooked in traditional physical therapy. In this insightful conversation, we discuss fear avoidance, working through pain to get back to what you love, adopting a holistic approach to recovery, overcoming persistent pain, and lifestyle factors that you can control to help with pain of various kinds. She helped me look at minor, serious and even chronic issues so differently and I trust you’ll learn a lot too, whether there’s a current presence of pain in your life, or you’re better prepared when/if it arises in the future.

Melanie Connell has been a Physical Therapist for over 20 years with certifications in Manual Therapy and Nutritional Health Coaching. She currently serves as the preferred provider for the Pacifica Christian High School Athletic Department. Her clinic, Remedy Physical therapy opened in Costa Mesa, CA in May 2018. Melanie’s mission is to provide a remedy for athletes of all ages who are sidelined by persistent pain and injury.

The 3 main ideas she desires for every patient to understand:

You can find her on Instagram here!

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Listeners of The Julie Bender Show can get 10% off an online session with Melanie Connell by visiting her site and putting Julie Bender in the comment section. Melanie can help you return to what you love and perform better than you thought possible.

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God doesn’t rate sin, so why do we?

The Bible says God hates sin but loves the sinner. So why does the Church seem to put special emphasis on the sin of divorce—often going so far as to say that remarriage is biblically wrong? This is a question I have wrestled with and know many others have as well.

After walking through a painful divorce and healing from her codependency issues, Rylee turned her life over to God and now loves to share her passion for marriage as God intended it. She is also passionate about sharing God’s word through Bible journaling on her instagram. She lives in Indiana with her amazing husband, Nick, as well as their three fur babies. When she’s not responding to trolls on social media she enjoys hitting the gym with her husband or watching him race his dirt bike at the track! Find her on Instagram here!

Episode Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by FaithfulCounseling, from BetterHelp. They assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. It's not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it is professional counseling done securely online. Faithful Counseling is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches so they make it easy and free to change counselors if needed. It’s more affordable than traditional offline counseling and financial aid is available.

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I have been asked this question in countless ways, countless times. And it comes from a sincere loving heart—but it's the wrong question. In this episode I share 4 things (and a bonus) you can do when this is your ultimate desire. I hope to encourage you by giving you practical advice learned from trying to solve this problem in my first marriage coupled with honest examples of how I'm doing things differently now.

If you haven't heard my About Me series, go back and listen, now!

You can also hear the episode about my video series #prayingforyourhusbanddaily, here.

Listen to the episode on arguscussions™ here.

You can get my top marriage book recommendation here:

The Power of a Praying Wife

**Get the rest of the links + resources mentioned in the episode in the full show notes here!**

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Do you struggle with imposter syndrome? Do you fear you are not qualified for or valued in the role(s) you have? I’ve been there too, girl. And so has my friend, reporter, Shari Armstrong. She joins me to explain what this is and why we face it. We share boldly how it affects us, where our faith comes in, and real tips we have found help us to combat it.

Shari is the Southwest-Florida girl who wanted to leave this area as  soon as she could! She graduated from Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers, and then the University of South Florida in 2011 with a degree in Mass Communications – Broadcast Journalism. She fled to New York, D.C., Atlanta, and Los Angeles to pursue her changing dreams and looking for fulfillment that you actually don’t find in a place – you find it in your heart.

Four years ago, God led her right back home as the Lifestyle Journalist position at Hello SWFL. In the craziest way, that led her to become the station’s Weekend Anchor – and now anchor on FOX 4 News at 5PM.

She loves TJMaxx, Netflix, volunteering, dancing, eating pizza, squeezing in a two-day flight somewhere, or spending time with her incredibly supportive and loving family…that hails from Barbados. You can find her on Instagram here or on Fox4!

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Your size and/or shape does not determine the quality of your character, yet many of us confuse these two measures all the time.

Coach and nutritionist Sam Gwaz (@thesamplan on Instagram) joins me to discuss how diet culture has affected how we see ourselves, food and fitness and ultimately our value. Starting with her experience having distorted body image, she shares practical ways we can begin to reframe the messages we've received and believed and how to feed our body and minds life-changing truth.

Learn more about Sam

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No two widows are alike.

I struggled to "find myself" in the stories of other widows. It wasn't until I embraced the truth that no two people's lives are the same (even when they experience incredibly similar circumstances) that I gave my widowed self some grace.

In this episode you'll meet my friend Alison Burns. We bonded quickly when our boys found each other, and she bravely recounts her journey of loving, losing and living without her husband and Duncan's dad, Michael.

My hope is that you never face widowhood, or know someone who will, but that is unlikely. In this conversation Alison and I candidly share what hard things were said to us along the way, how we told our sons they lost their father in a tragic way and what finding our new normal was like for each of us.

I was shocked by her willingness to boldly share about her miscarriages, and I surprised myself when I told her why remarriage was a dream of mine right away and why my husband is not a "stepdad".

As you hear us learn more about each other's individual journey, we hope you'll learn to give grace to all those grieving in your life. We invite you into the space of our pain, and encourage you to hold space for those you love.

If you haven't heard the About Me series, start here!

Alison is a teacher, referee, widow, mom and spiritual warrior who ministers God's word through her devotion while infusing her life with irreverent humor. She and her son share their faith by moving forward, honoring daddy's memory by living and laughing daily. Alison, her son and poodle are always playing out in the sunshine, celebrating their blessed life in SWFL.

Here is the book Alison recommended in the episode:

The Power of a Praying® Parent

velleity vel·le·i·ty /vəˈlēədē,veˈlēədē/ noun

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Are you considering waving the white flag of surrender? Is there a red flag you're overlooking? Do you need to proceed with caution in some area of your life? Or should you put the pedal to the metal like someone was waving the checkered flag?

And I talked about beginning your faith journey. You might want to read this post: This Is What You Need for Your Own Coffee + Bible Time.

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Are you holding yourself back?

Maybe we're not experiencing health, happiness or fulfilling our purpose because we believe the lie that we're flawed or that everyone else matters more. It happens to me more often than I'd really like to admit.

Other episodes noted with Morgan Kline Coffee & Kettlebells:

This Grit and Grace Life Podcast On Business, Happiness & Health with Burn Boot Camp’s Morgan Kline – 065

Get Devan's book Stop Starting Over

Learn more about Devan and get the full show notes here (including the IG post I mention as my bold thing).

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Every marriage has disagreements. Conflict is normal and even healthy. 💯

Listen now, and share this episode with a wifey or wanna-be wifey you know it could help.

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Are You Scared of the Hard Stuff?

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