Episode #282: Big Ideas, Small Steps: How to Break Through Resistance and Overwhelm

Transcript — scroll to read here (or download above)

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Grit ‘n’ Grace — The Podcast

Episode #282: Big Ideas, Small Steps: How to Break Through Resistance and Overwhelm

Grit ‘n’ Grace — THE PODCAST Episode #282

Big Ideas, Small Steps:
How to Break Through Resistance and Overwhelm

Do you love dreaming, brainstorming, and making big plans – but then get completely stuck when it’s time to actually do the thing?

As the year wraps up, it’s easy to look back at 2024 and feel disappointed – and maybe even somewhat guilty – over all the things you meant to do but didn’t quite get to?

Friend, you are not alone!
HSPs often stall out when the details become overwhelming or resistance creeps in.
So in this episode, we’re talking about why this happens, how procrastination might actually be protecting you, and – best of all – how you can move forward without guilt, shame, or forcing yourself to push through.
Listen in to learn how small, gentle steps can help you build momentum in a way that honors your unique wiring.

[Intro music]
Welcome to Grit ‘n’ Grace – The Podcast for Highly Sensitive Christian Women!
I’m your host, Cheri Gregory.
Are you tired of the overthinking, overwhelm, and exhaustion that come with being a Highly Sensitive Person?
Are you ready to stop worrying that something’s wrong with you and start understanding and nurturing yourself as an HSP?
Together, we’ll build resilience, practice self-compassion, set healthy boundaries, unlock your creativity, and learn to embrace – not fight – your God-given sensitivity.
Let’s dig in!
[Intro music fades]

Hey friend, welcome back! I am so glad you could make it today.

Last week we hung out at my kitchen table, but today it’s cold and rainy outside, so it’s a fireplace day.

I’m already halfway through a mocha, so feel free to make yourself a hot drink, grab a fluffy blanket, and curl up by the fire.

Here’s a funny story: when I called to order firewood last year, it was so late in the season that all they had left was what they called “odds and ends.” I quipped to Daniel and our kids, “Odds and ends sounds like Gregory firewood to me!”

But although all these mis-fit pieces of wood took more time and space to stack – let me tell you, this is the best firewood we’ve ever had. It’s lightweight to carry, easy to start, and it burns down to very little ash.

It’s another reminder that different does not mean defective – just like our HSP differences are often strengths once we rightly understand them.

And today’s episode is all about rightly understanding our HSP differences when it comes to making BIG PLANS, but getting stuck on the details of DOING.

Marisa Terrell, my guest co-host and I had a rich coaching conversation over the weekend, and we covered such good ground I texted her afterwards to say, “So… I don’t want to put you on the spot… but would you be okay if I turned today’s conversation into a podcast episode?”

Marisa graciously replied, “ABSOLUTELY! I feel like a lot of women could really benefit from our discussion and know that they are not alone. And how to process and move forward.”

When the transcript showed that I did most of the talking, I texted her and I said, “Look, I’m trying to figure out how to tell our friends who are listening, ‘I really DO let Marisa talk during most of our coaching calls!”

And she said, “Just tell them, ‘Marisa usually talks my head off, but today she let me lead.’”

And this whole conversation got started because Marisa asked such a great question.

Here it is.

Cheri Gregory
Alright. So how are you and what are we working on today?

Marisa Terrell
Yes, I am okay. You know what? It’s funny. I want to, I want to talk to you about something that maybe you can help me with, with your sage wisdom that you always have. I’m okay. Just still busy. I’m like, I can just make it to Christmas. I’m good, because then I’m off the rest of the year. I can relax, hopefully get into the, back into the mode of, ‘Okay, we need to focus Marisa, because we haven’t been able to focus on what we really want to do,’ and then just start January off really good, so that, that’s my plan.

But my thing is, because, you know, it’s funny, my husband and I were talking about that this morning before he left, we were talking about how it’s like, we’ll feel really like, on fire to do something, like, yeah, I’m gonna do it, but then it’s like, but then the next day, we’re not really feeling it. And it’s kind of like giving and flowing for both of us.

Because, you know, he’s doing his thing with photography, and you know, other things that he’s got going on, and then, you know, with me and, and I’m just like, what, is that normal to feel, you know? And then how do you combat that? Because I feel like it’s a lot with me. I feel like he’s more on than I am? Glad he shared that with me this morning. So I’m like, okay, he feels the way that I feel. And of course, I’m telling him this, and we’re talking, I’m just like, how can I not be in – I feel like I’ve been in that way for a long time now.

I’m glad I have you, because I feel like you’ve helped me kind of get out of it, because I think it’d be way worse. But it’s just, I’m like, why do I feel like? I’m like, yeah, and I’m like, nah, like, yeah. I’m like, no, but I don’t feel anything today.

Cheri Gregory
May I put on my teacher hat?

Marisa Terrell
Yes, please.

Cheri Gregory
Okay, I’m not going to use the exact right words, but there’s this concept that I ran across in a book – that I’ll have to find the title and the author for you later. Okay?

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
But I think the concept was so helpful to me. And that is, there’s two different kinds of timelines that our brains work on, okay. When we get excited about something – let’s pretend that you got asked to do something at church or at work, and you say yes to it,

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And it’s a few weeks or months down the road,

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And so you say yes, and you are truly excited about it, right? It feels like it’s in your wheelhouse. It feels like a good match. You kind of check with your values, you pulled out your values board, and you’re like, Yes, this is in alignment with my values. It feels like a good yes.

And then you get much, much closer to it, and suddenly all of this resistance starts to come up. And it’s a combination of, hey, when you said, yes, your calendar was empty,

[Marisa laughs]

Cheri Gregory
there were all of these empty spots. And you were like, I will fill those spots with preparation. But then life filled those spots, or those spots actually had things in them, you they just hadn’t been added to the calendar yet, right? Or emergencies came up, or whatever, right?

And so when the time actually comes, you’re like, oh my goodness, there’s all of this stuff I should have done, and you know, if only I had known, or if I had thought to do. And then the thing you said yes to may have changed.

Marisa Terrell
Mmm.

Cheri Gregory
It may have shifted to something else, it may have grown much bigger than what you originally said yes to.

And the thing that this book said is, imagine that you’re out on the plains of America, and you’re looking out and in the distance you see these little black creatures, and your brain might think they’re ants, except we’re humans, and so we know we’re far away from them.

So we know they’re not ants. We know they’re buffalo, right? And so from a distance, everything is hazy. Everything is we can’t see their eyes, we can’t see their fur, we can’t see their tails, we can’t see any of the details. We just kind of see hazy. And from a distance, we think, you know, we kind of, we kind of accurately identify them. It’s only when we get up close that we see all of those nitty gritty details, and we see that one of the buffalo may actually be charging straight at us.

I find for myself, this sense of saying yes to the concept, but struggling with the details.

Marisa Terrell
Mmm.

Cheri Gregory
It happens over and over again. I want it done, but I do not want to actually do any of the tasks.

[Marisa laughs]

And so it’s these, it’s the big picture, which is so beautiful. It’s surrounded by mist and glowing sparkles, and there’s a halo, and the Alleluia chorus is playing around it. And, I mean, you’re a visionary! And I mean that in the absolute best sense of the word. You are someone who can see the future. And you’re that way with your clients, right? You’re like, “I can see how things could be so much better for you.” And so in that sense, you love imagining what it will be like for them and for you,

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
When you’re at that place.

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
And here’s the other problem, okay? And that is, okay, I don’t feel like doing it today, but tomorrow Cheri is going to feel like doing it right. Tomorrow Cheri is going to be in a good mood. She’s going to have gotten lots of sleep. I am just going to totally trust tomorrow Cheri, and today Cheri is going to do other things right? She’s going to balance a checkbook. I just, I switch to something that feels a little bit safer, or more predictable, or at least not as agonizing.

It may be boring, but it’s not that unknown. Where it’s like, gee, I thought this was going to be more fun. I thought this was going to be more fulfilling.

And then there’s also a concept – and I know I’m throwing a lot at you here, but there’s a concept known as time optimism, and it really goes along with that whole, loving the big picture concept, but struggling with the details.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And time optimism is “This shouldn’t take too long. I should be able to knock this out in no time flat.” That’s time optimism. And then we feel persecuted. We feel a combination of two things, I think, persecuted and defective simultaneously. Like, it shouldn’t be this hard, and what’s wrong with me that it’s this hard?

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
Right? Tell me if it resonated at all.

Marisa Terrell
It did resonate. It does. But now I’m like, okay – because I hear you. I’m like, yes, you are speaking my language. All of what you said, that is exactly how I feel, and especially the last part that you just said, like, “It shouldn’t be this hard!” And then I’m like, “Why is it this hard?” So it’s like, so now what do we do? How do we get past this, all that, and just do?

Cheri Gregory
Yeah. That’s a great question. And the answer that I know works for me,

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
is I have a little five minute rule for myself, okay? And it says ‘I’m going to engage in this for five minutes, and then after five minutes, if everything in me’ – because, as HSPs, we’re double checking with ourselves – ‘if everything in me says that was enough, that’s what I can do today.’

And sometimes when I engage in that five minutes, and it sparks something, and I really do want to kind of keep on going. And that feels really, really good, but it keeps it in my mind, and it keeps me from telling myself “I’m going to wait until the perfect time.”

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
Now again, as HSPs, we know that this time of year, there’s all these different demands on our time. These are legitimate energy drains. These are legitimate time drains. I want to make sure that I’m not accidentally ignoring what is true inside my HSP body.

The term for all of this is iterating, just staying engaged with it in small ways. It’s avoiding the all or nothing thinking. You get to kind of choose, and you also get to frame it for yourself. You get to frame it in terms of, ‘I am choosing to take the rest of December off,’

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
Unless something wells up within me, and I’m like, yeah, let me, let me set a little timer for five minutes and, and just kind of pet my project, right? Let, let me just kind of stir it a little bit without any guilt, without any pressure, just know that it’s there waiting for you.

Because I think it’s that, when we, when we’re like, “I should be working on it. So now let me force myself to do it and sandwich it between everything else.” There’s such a difference between that obligation, guilt, shame, whatever-based forcing to do something versus the, “You know what? I’ve got a half an hour. Let me go stir the pot.” Right? Like, just think of it as kind of a stew that you can’t ruin no matter what you do, because it’s on really, really low heat. And you’re just going to go stir the pot and take a little taste and go “Mmm, that’s good stuff,” knowing it’s going to be there waiting for you when – you’ve probably seen it referred to as the holidaze, d-a-z-e, when the holidaze is over and you’re back to being your full, your fuller capacity self, you know.

And let’s also keep in mind, you know, if my timeline is, is serving me correctly, the holidays were somewhat close on the heels of you having a health scare. And when we have a health scare, and we’re slowly – the first thing we might have is that joy of relief. But then there might also be the letdown of wow, that was scary, or, wow, that was unexpected.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah, you’re right. I’m glad you said that, because I didn’t realize that. You’re right. It’s like I did, I kind of like, was coming down off the high and then it went slam right into holiday season with October. Like, you’re right. I didn’t realize that. I didn’t really get too much time to breathe, and kind of process, like we have to process that’s just, that’s how God wired us. As HSPs. Yeah, so I’m like, okay, you’re right. I didn’t, yeah, I didn’t have time to breathe. Like, two weeks, and then boom.

Cheri Gregory
Yeah, and you also are a very positive person who loves to focus on the possibilities and on growth and on forward motion

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And so you might be a little less likely to be intentional, to be like, this was kind of hard, this was kind of scary. Let’s take a little bit of time to – you know, everything I’m reading about trauma these days, the reason that trauma ends up feeling so fresh when we’re triggered is that the way our brains store memories, is that when something happens and we’re processing it in a healthy way, it may have been a really painful experience, but either we had help or we had support, or we have the maturity and the skills; and so it’s like everything gets filed away in its appropriate file folders.

And in that sense, it’s gone. We can access it if we need to, but it’s not, you know, just laying out.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
The problem with trauma is it’s like all of those papers are just constantly in front of us and and so the moment there’s a trigger, it’s as if a huge wind has stirred up, and all of these things are now flying and floating everywhere, and we’re, we’re wildly grabbing for them. And so the importance of taking that reflective time – and I don’t mean to say that the thing you had happened was, you know, big T traumatizing, but it was certainly a concern.

And so when we take that time to process – you know, me, I like to call it pray-cessing, – in a very real sense, we’re filing those papers away. Our brain is able to go, “Oh, thank you. Okay, I don’t have to keep this in the forefront. I don’t have to keep all this here.” And so when the next big wind comes through, things aren’t going to be as stirred up.

And you know, one of the things I’ve heard from so many Cafe members is that when we don’t have time to process, it just backs up. It backs up and it backs up and it backs up. And honestly, I think that’s one of the reasons HSPs tell me they’re overwhelmed, is that, yes, of course, our lives are busy. We have too much to do all of that. But I think one of the number one causes of HSPs feeling overwhelmed is that they’ve got, you know, weeks, months, years worth of processing that’s all backed up inside their heads.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And they know that they work best when they’re able to – well, I can tell from your office a little bit about, you know, how you like to have things you feel good about that office, because everything is kind of in order. It’s tidied up. It doesn’t, you know, I look at it and I’m like, not like, “Oh, she’s such a perfectionist.” I just, I’m like, I have this sense of order and night and tidiness and calm, right?

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
And so doing that inside of our brains is part of what processing is all about.

Marisa Terrell
Oh, I love that you said that, yes, because I need to do this, just in here.

Cheri Gregory
Yes, that is, you made the connection perfectly, yes.

Marisa Terrell
Yes. Because you’re right, because I don’t think – you know, it’s so funny. I’m so glad we’re talking about this. I did not know this was gonna turn into this, but I need this because, actually, I just realized this is my week for therapy, because we meet every two weeks, and I want to be bringing all this up because I need to, like, I love that we’re talking about this, but I know this is gonna be a deeper conversation with her. It’s like, okay, how do I stop just letting things back up? Like, how do I start really processing things?

Because you’re right, I’m – oh, I’m glad you’re touching on this, because I’ve noticed that about me, but once again, it’s just something that I just shuffle to the back and I just – like you said, I, because the optimism and the positivity kind of overtakes me? So I just push forward, not realizing that I need to process the trauma, or whatever it is, you know, little t trauma, or big T trauma, or just processing things and not holding on to them, because I do, I feel like they’re taking up a lot of bandwidth and storage in my brain, causing the overwhelm and the anxiety that I have because I’m not processing what’s going on and releasing it.

Cheri Gregory
Well, and just to use a computer analogy, if I have too many windows open on, on Chrome nowadays, it tells me how many megabytes of memory each one is using. So that’s another analogy that we can, we can use is that when we have all these tabs open, those are the things that need to be processed, but they are using up Brain Juice as the brain is waiting.

It’s like “We’re waiting, we’re waiting, we’re waiting, we’re waiting,” and we’re busy pushing through.

I’ve seen some really interesting research that says that when we push through the kind where we’re like, “No pain, no gain!” “Go big or go home!” thing, like that kind of stuff, the body interprets that as trauma,

Marisa Terrell
Oh.

Cheri Gregory
And we’ll go into fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flock or frenzy,

Marisa Terrell
Ooh, girl.

Cheri Gregory
If we do that too much. And if we do that without asking our bodies, “Are we in a state to do this?”

Now, obviously, when there’s an emergency, our bodies will rise to the occasion. However, this time of year, everything’s an emergency, right? Everything’s a crisis. Everything has to happen last minute, and when that becomes the new norm, when that is cascading and getting more and more and more, the body is going to go, “Hang on. This has been happening an awful lot.”

And of course, the body doesn’t understand why we’re doing it. The body doesn’t understand “Well, this is what makes the boss happy,” or “This is what makes the children happy,” or whatever else.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
So the body is basically like, “Okay, we’re, we’re in this perpetual state of crisis. Something must be terribly wrong.” And it starts to interpret that as trauma.

And I was just, literally, before we got on, I was seeing something on Facebook, I want to look up, that really talked about the fact that when – that we have to take brain breaks, that we we will lose the capacity to think clearly if we’re constantly going, going, going, pushing, pushing, pushing.

And I found that so interesting because I did a co-working session last week with one of my clients, and during the last two hours, I said, “I’m going to think, I’m going to think through a particular thing for 2025, but all I’m going to do is think.” I spent two hours – now, yeah, I did some typing, and I did a spreadsheet and stuff like that, but mostly I was just kind of staring off into space or jotting down a few notes and even trying to figure out why was I feeling some resistance to something, and did it mean something?

And and I came to some really important conclusions that I wouldn’t have come to if I hadn’t taken all that time to “just think,” and those conclusions are shaping the first six months of the New Year for me, like I was able to really kind of zoom in, pan out, zoom in, pan out in a seemingly – like nobody else would see that I had gotten anything done, but I’m like, “Wow, that was so important.”

And part of what I did during those two hours is I pulled out my values, and I was like, How will I be able to live these out? And so coming back to values was really important, but having that time and I wasn’t able to report it to anybody as an accomplishment, right? Like, I had nothing to show for it, except I knew that I did. I knew that I recalibrated and I pivoted my way of thinking about it, and I made a decision. I made a real important decision, the details of which aren’t important here, but that, like I said, that will, that will have a long term impact,

Marisa Terrell
Yes, which is important! Because you, you’ve got me on that. I’m like, yes, I’m over here looking at my board and I got my flash cards. But I’m like, yeah, we have to do it. Because if not you, if you don’t go by your values, just from what you told me, then you’ll be miserable.

Oh, you made me think, too, when you were talking earlier about like, you’re like, I did all this stuff, and no one can really quantify it. That’s what, as they call, as my husband so eloquently put it years ago, the sweat equity. You know the things that you do that, quantify. It’s the sweat equity! So it’s like, yes, you are doing the work in the background, and you can’t, no one can put a name on it, but I’m like, no, but it all. It all matters.

Cheri Gregory
From Susan David, who is a psychologist, she said “Research shows values help us access greater levels of willpower.”

Marisa Terrell
Oooh. I like that.
Cheri Gregory
So this is connecting values to the question you asked me in the beginning: How do we get ourselves to do these things? That’s literally the kind of stuff I was thinking about for those two hours. I could just feel my body calm down. And then the enthusiasm started to grow in all new ways. And it wasn’t the fleeting enthusiasm, it was like, “Okay, let’s go, let’s go. Let’s build this thing.”

I mean the wisdom of our bodies and the way that they are sending signals to us, because, it’s our bodies that cause us to procrastinate.

[Marisa laughs]

And honestly, I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I see procrastination as protection sometimes. And I know we’ve probably been taught that it’s just laziness, it’s ungodly, it’s the sin of sloth, it’s all of these things.

But I have come to get curious with my procrastination, and I’ll say, “What are you trying to protect me from?” So that might also be a worthwhile question.

Marisa Terrell
it is. And you know what? I’m so glad you brought that up, because I beat myself up for so long about that, about not, about procrastinating, and about not jumping on it and doing it. And then I realized – Cheri, I kid you not – there – I mean, because this has been going on for years, so this years of me hating myself, and I’ve noticed whenever I feel really hesitant about doing something, and I was like, “Nah.” And I just, it was always resistance! And it was good stuff, to me, I thought!

The next thing I know, it’d be, like, a couple months later, either something would change, or, like, that relationship would go away, or something – and I’m like, that’s why I had resistance. And it was, it was, it was a protection! It really was. And it’s something that was just preventing me from doing whatever it was, or, or being friends with that person, or whatever. And so now I kind of embrace it, because I think, “Oh, good. This is, okay, this is that same feeling. There’s a reason why I’m not able to move forward in whatever it is.” I’m like, t here’s a reason I just don’t – but what I need to get better about, though, is maybe sitting with God and asking Him, like you said, or asking my body? That I don’t do. I need to do that.

Cheri Gregory
So this is really important, and I love that we’re having this conversation. I think there are two different scenarios that can feel very similar,
Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregoy
Because we weren’t taught to discern between them. One of them. Let’s call it protection, that sense of protection,

Marisa Terrell
Okay.

Cheri Gregory
The HSP term for that is the pause to check instinct. Where everybody else is just going pell-mell forward, HSPs are pausing and we’re looking around. Okay, so there’s that protection, there’s that pause to check. And then what you – we’re describing here as resistance, and that is going to be what I’m going to refer to as garden variety discomfort,

Marisa Terrell
Mmm, okay!

Cheri Gregoy
And we start to feel discomfort, and we’re like, I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never done it before. I’m not good at it. I mean, years ago – I can still remember driving around the parking lot of Safeway in circles because I was like, “I hate being so bad at book proposals. This is dumb. This is stupid. I hate it.”

And what I hated was that feeling of discomfort. I hated that I didn’t know how to do it well, and I was going to have to try, and try again, and try again again. I hated that I was going to go from terrible, to really bad, to bad, to mediocre, to a little better than mediocre, to kind of okay, to kind of good.

I just wanted to be superb. I just did! I didn’t want to have to go through all those stupid phases. Especially since I’m not a spring chicken, I don’t have a lot of time. I ain’t got time for all that!

Marisa Terrell
Yeah, just get to it, just boom!

Cheri Gregory
There is a distinct difference between a Holy Spirit check in the spirit that says “The timing isn’t right right now; either you’re too tired or there are circumstances that will be revealed to you and you’ll understand,” versus “I don’t want to do something I’m bad at, I’m going to go do something I’m better at.”

Marisa Terrell
Yes!

Cheri Gregory
And I think that’s such an important distinction to notice. We need support. We need our cheerleaders to be cheering us on, we need to be supporting ourselves, to say, “Hey, this is going to be hard. This is vulnerable, right? I don’t like feeling vulnerable. I don’t like doing something I’m not really great at, and finding out I might have to do it again.”

And at the same time, this is where we can draw on other strengths. “Okay, I may not be great at this one aspect of it, but I’m pretty good at…” And you can pull out your values.

So I’m going to mitigate, I think that’s what I’m trying to say here. I’m going to mitigate the discomfort. I’m going to notice the discomfort and be like, “Okay, this is my not favorite part. So now can I surround it with things that I’m good at. With things I do enjoy. So sometimes we promise ourselves a reward at the end.

Marisa Terrell
Yeah.

Cheri Gregory
And sometimes we tell our people “This is what I need to hear from you when I get done. I really need you to wave pom poms for me. Like, literally, here they are. Please wave them.” Or whatever it might be.

Kathi calls it habit pairing, where you pair this thing that’s going to be more uncomfortable for you with something that is a go-to that feels good.

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
And so that those things get used to going together. And the thing that we do know under the right circumstances, we know that the more often you tap in and do a little bit of that uncomfortable thing,
Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
That’s the definition of building resilience. You do it, and the only measure of success is that you did it. It’s not “Is it perfect? Does everybody love it?” The only measure of success is that you did it.

Marisa Terrell
Yes.

Cheri Gregory
And you put the check mark by it. And that has, right there, that builds, that builds resilience.

Marisa Terrell
Yes. Oh, that’s so powerful. I love that.

And you know what? You’re right. I was – and I cannot remember this lady, but it was like a couple, it was like a month ago, and she’s literally said what you were saying about how – but she said it in a different way. I mean, not in different way, but just in a different sense.

But she was just saying, like, you know, say, if you’re really nervous or scared about going to the doctor, she’s like, go, you know, make the doctor’s appointment. You know, you need to go. So make, you know, the doctor or the dentist appointment, right? But then put, like, you said, put something behind it that’s fun. So she’s like, okay, yeah, you go to the dentist. Dentist sucks. So then make sure afterwards you go and get yourself some ice cream or you go buy your shoes, or you go for a walk,

Cheri Gregory
A massage.

Marisa Terrell
Yes! Yes. It’s something that brings you joy, and that way, like, it’s it kind of like, you were saying, like, it softens the blow a little bit.

And it was funny, and I shared that with my husband, because he had a appointment – I forgot it was appointment for something, and he wasn’t that excited about it. And I was like, “Well, I just listened to this podcast. This lady was saying that if you couple it with something that’s fun, it kind of makes you look forward to it, in a way, she’s like, okay, I know I gotta go doctor, but afterwards I get to do this.” Done it. So it works, yeah, it works.

Cheri Gregory
And I’m so excited that we’re having this conversation. I’m going to transcribe the whole thing, because it’s so good.

Marisa Terrell
I’m gonna go back and listen. I mean, all of them are fantastic. I’m like, this is the one. And sorry, I did not know we were going to go here today. But I needed this.

Cheri Gregory
I do too. This is, this is great, my friend.

Marisa Terrell
But now that we’ve had this conversation, I’m like, “Okay, so I have to make sure, when these, when these feelings arise, is it protection, or is it resistance?”

Cheri Gregory
Yes, yes, yes.

Marisa Terrell
And then go forward once I find out what the answer is.

Cheri Gregory
I love it. I love it.

Marisa Terrell
I feel – I do. I feel better now. I’m like, okay, now I know I’m not crazy, and this is normal to feel this way.

Cheri Gregory
100%.

Marisa Terrell
Of which, like I said, which one is it?

Cheri Gregory
Yeah, well, and I feel like this time of year, the things that we haven’t gotten done, they loom large, because we’re reflecting on the year, and we’re either sending out cards or we’re receiving cards. And so of course, we’re seeing other people’s highlight reels. I graduated from here, and I sold 10,000 of this, and my child is this, and, you know, and we’re like, “Oh, I thought about this, but I haven’t gotten very far with it.” I’m thinking of myself here.

Like, I mean, Marisa, you’re talking to somebody whose agent has been waiting three years for a book proposal. And yet, I had something happen this last month, and I shared it with her, and she’s like, “Girl, this may be the reason that you’ve needed to wait this long.” It’s that dance of ‘I want to know when I am needing to lean into the discomfort a little bit more while also being mindful of God’s timing,’ which often includes so much protection that we don’t know about in the moment.

Marisa Terrell
Thank you for being vulnerable this morning, because I’m thinking like, “Oh, Cheri has got all her stuff together, everything that she does, she does it.” And I’m like, “Why am I not like this?” And you’re like, “No girl. I’m just like you.” (Laughs)

Cheri Gregory
Yep. 100%. 100%. All I have is a little bit more experience under my belt, and that experience does give me the assurance of ‘If I do this uncomfortable thing, I’m going to be so glad I did. I’m going to be so glad.’

And I’ve also learned this is where we need a team around us, holding us up. And I’m, I’m so excited that you’re going to have this conversation with Ryan. That’s marvelous.

Marisa Terrell
I know. Like, I’m excited. Yes. Ah! I’m so glad we had this conversation, now I can like, “Guess what? I have knowledge.”

Cheri Gregory
This conversation has been such a gift to me, my friend.

You may have noticed Marisa talking about her “values board” – that’s one of the exercises we worked on together earlier this year.

Now, if you might be interested in one-to-one coaching with me, check out the show notes for links to my HSP coaching and writing coaching.

● HSP Coaching with Cheri = https://sensitiveandstrong.com/hsp-coach/

● “Write Beside You” Short-Term Coaching with Cheri = https://writebesideyou.com/writing-coach/

● “Write Beside You” Unlimited Coaching with Cheri =
https://sensitiveandstrongbook.com/wby-unlimited-coaching-program/

And if you’re a member of the Sensitive & Strong Community Cafe, take a look in the Write Beside You area for the un-edited video of today’s episode, complete with personal stories and examples.

Sensitive & Strong Community Cafe

And remember, as a Cafe member, you get 30 minutes of free one-to-one coaching for every quarter of membership in the Cafe.

Thank you for listening to Grit ‘n’ Grace – The Podcast for Highly Sensitive Christian Women!

I hope this episode leaves you feeling encouraged and equipped to thrive – especially when it comes to making big plans and following through on the details of doing.

Be sure to follow in your favorite podcast app and share this episode with a friend!
If you’re brand new to the whole HSP concept, come take the “Am I a Highly Sensitive Person?” quiz – you’ll find that link in the show notes.

https://CheriGregory.com/hspquiz/

And remember: God created you sensitive; in Christ, you are always strong.