Sucker Punched

In this episode, Courtney Ellis joins me for a really lovely discussion on the gifts and challenges of silence (including Courtney’s love of birding!). We talk about all the things we miss when we distract ourselves with noise and activity and how silence helps us to be grateful and present, whatever that might look like.For the transcript for this episode, visit BeckyLMcCoy.com/podcast/94HOW TO PRACTICE SILENCE: Pick a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Close your eyes or keep them open. Resist the urge to have background noise or music of any kind.Take some deep breaths and notice what’s happening in your body. Where do you have tension? Pain?Start with just a few minutes of silence at a time. It’s okay if your mind wanders or you get bored.Just a little bit of silence is great. Experiment with it in different ways. Use it in the car or while folding laundry instead of listening to something. Over time you can expand the amount of time you spend in silence.Try birding!STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Courtney’s new book Weathering ChangeThee Quaker PodcastDocumentary: Into Great Silence (a silent monastery in the French Alps)Becky L McCoy is a writer, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She is the communications and outreach coordinator for the Brian Dagle Foundation and podcast host of Sucker Punched. She earned her master of arts in Christian theology and spiritual formation from Regent University and is pursuing a doctor of ministry in spiritual formation and soul care.Courtney Ellis is author, speaker, pastor, and host of “The Thing With Feathers Podcast.” She’s also a birder based in Orange County, California where she lives with her husband (also a pastor!) and three children. Together they serve Presbyterian Church of the Master. Her newest book, Weathering Change: Seeking Peace Amid Life’s Tough Transitions is available anywhere books are sold.FIND BECKY ONLINE:Website: BeckyLMcCoy.comSocial Media: @BeckyLMcCoyFIND COURTNEY ONLINE:Website: CourtneyBEllis.comSocial Media: @courtneyellis____

In this episode, Mandy Capehart and I discuss labyrinth walking. We explore some special labyrinth experiences in our own lives, why somatic practices are an essential part of navigating grief, and how being present with our body, heart, mind is an essential part of healing and wholeness.For the transcript for this episode, visit BeckyLMcCoy.com/podcast/93HOW TO WALK A LABYRINTH: Find a labyrinth, a looped trail, or a walking path where you don’t have to make any directional choices.Walk toward the center of the labyrinth or to your halfway point, paying attention to your breath.Pray, meditate, or repeat a breath prayer as you go, letting go of everything that is overwhelming you.At the center (or halfway point), take a few deep breaths, pray, and notice what you are feeling.Begin the walk back to the starting point, filling up with the peace and calm you crave.STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: My new book "In the Company of the Weary: Ten Gentle Spiritual Practices for Your Tired Soul"Labyrinth directory onlineCircles in the Sand labyrinths at the beach in OregonBecky L McCoy is a writer, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She is the communications and outreach coordinator for the Brian Dagle Foundation and podcast host of Sucker Punched. She earned her master of arts in Christian theology and spiritual formation from Regent University and is pursuing a doctor of ministry in spiritual formation and soul care.Mandy Capehart is on a mission to normalize grieving and cultivate the conversations that bring us healing. She is the founder and CEO of The Restorative Grief Project, an online community focusing on one another’s stories and new methodologies for grief to create a safe environment for our souls to heal and our spirits to be revived. She is also the host of a weekly podcast, Restorative Grief with Mandy Capehart and the monthly podcast for premium subscribers, Restorative Grief: Expanding the Conversations, as well as a published author, certified trauma professional, grief educator, one-to-one coach, and somatic embodiment practitioner. She also specializes in working at the intersection of grief and faith, educating faith communities on how to create helpful healing environments to avoid spiritual bypassing and platitudes.FIND BECKY ONLINE:Website: BeckyLMcCoy.comSocial Media: @BeckyLMcCoyFIND MANDY ONLINE:Website: MandyCapehart.comSocial Media: @MandyCapehart

In this episode, I explore the contemplative practice Visio Divina with Charlotte Donlon. We discuss moments of surprise and transformation that happen in the unlikeliest of times and places and how Visio Divina helps us to slow down, get out of our heads, and stay open to seeing, hearing, and experiencing how God is moving in our lives. For the transcript for this episode, visit BeckyLMcCoy.com/episode/92 HOW TO PRACTICE VISIO DIVINA: 1. Choose a piece of art or something beautiful. 2. Sit and look, noticing what feelings you experience. 3. What questions do you have? What are you curious about? 4. Give yourself time to sit and look without having to learn or decide anything. STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: - Charlotte's book "The Great Belonging" - My new book "In the Company of the Weary: Ten Gentle Spiritual Practices for Your Tired Soul" - Charlotte’s new book “Spiritual Direction for Writers” - Joan Mitchell’s “Bonjour Julie” - Joan Mitchell’s “The Sink” Becky L McCoy is a writer, retreat leader, and spiritual director. She is the communications and outreach coordinator for the Brian Dagle Foundation and podcast host of Sucker Punched. She earned her master of arts in Christian theology and spiritual formation from Regent University and is pursuing a doctor of ministry in spiritual formation and soul care. Charlotte Donlon is a writer and spiritual director whose work centers on helping people explore themes of belonging through art and faith. Her essays have been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Christian Century, and The Millions, among others. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama. FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy FIND CHARLOTTE ONLINE: Website: CharlotteDonlon.com and SpiritualDirectionForWriters.com Social Media: @charlottedonlon and @spiritualdirectionforwriters

After an unplanned hiatus, Sucker Punched is back! Come explore spiritual practices that are gentle and kind and let us be human, limitations and all. For the transcript for this episode, visit BeckyLMcCoy.com/podcast/91 STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Charlotte Donlon's book "The Great Belonging" My new book "In the Company of the Weary: Ten Gentle Spiritual Practices for Tired Souls" Spiritual Directors International FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy

Sometimes when we share the innermost parts of ourselves we leave the encounter feeling like we've been stripped bare, sometimes even flayed on the altar of vulnerability. It can even feel like a hangover - like you can't face the world and your whole self is now too tender to even try.  CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Shop Our Place Cookware: BeckyLMcCoy.com/OurPlace Daring Greatly by Brené Brown Vulnerability is my Superpower by Jackie Davis You are Your Best Thing by Tarana Burke 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

We all experience loneliness. And we all have a built in desire to feel like we belong. But when we realize that loneliness and belonging can co-exist - what do we do with that? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 40% of Spiritual Direction & Coaching with Becky: BeckyLMcCoy.com/SpiritualDirection-FlashSale Shop Our Place Cookware: BeckyLMcCoy.com/OurPlace The Great Belonging by Charlotte DonlonThe Art of Belonging by Charles VoglAll the Lonely People by Mike Gayle4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

When it comes to friendship, there's some kind of unspoken fear that we have to have it all together or our friends won't want to be our friends anymore. Do you find yourself worrying that if your friends could see your *insert weakness, fault, or fear here* they'd go running? What if friendship was less about two perfect people finding each other and more about finding the people who compliment and fit in with your own humanity? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Shop Rothy's Shoes: BeckyLMcCoy.com/Rothys Big Friendship by Aminitou Sow and Ann Friedman Friendship in the Age of Loneliness by Adam Smiley Poswolsky The Art of Showing Up by Rachel Wilkerson Miller 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

If friends aren't the people we play with at recess or live down the hall from in the college dorm, what are they? Why do we need them if not to have a friend for hide and seek or someone to share the highs and lows of growing up with? Why do we even need friends at all? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Shop Rothy's Shoes: BeckyLMcCoy.com/Rothys Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

You know that healthy friendships are an essential part of your mental health and well-being, but it feels like making friends as an adult should be easier. Why does it seem like everyone else has it figured out and you're just sitting there hoping for someone to adopt you and be best friends forever and never have to make a new friend again? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Shop Rothy's Shoes: BeckyLMcCoy.com/Rothys Discernment by Henri Nouwen Daring Greatly by Brené Brown 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

Some of us grew up thinking that our faith was a permanent, immovable object and that any whiff of change or dissonance was a personal failure. But what happens when you realize that the ways you've always understood and practiced your beliefs are unhealthy and need to shift? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Courageous Community Course: Shop Rothy's Shoes: BeckyLMcCoy.com/Rothys Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero A Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

It's easy to feel like who we are is made up of all the things we can offer people - we are worth the sum of our productivity and helpfulness. But what happens when we have nothing to offer? Do my friends want me just for who I am or for the value I add to their lives? What kind of a friend am I if I have nothing to give? It's terrifying to be vulnerable enough to admit that all I can give my friends is myself, but sometimes that's all I've got. How can we navigate friendships when we are all overwhelmed, burned out, and exhausted? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Courageous Community Course: BeckyLMcCoy.com/CourageousCommunity (registration open til 9/29/22) Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab Peace Is a Practice by Morgan Harper Nichols 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

Have you ever worried what would happen if you had to be honest about your imperfections? Do you feel like life is sometimes a Jenga tower, balanced on some of your strengths with each weakness only precariously holding up the blocks above them? Do you acknowledge your weaknesses or do you prefer to pretend like they're not there? Are you holding your breath, waiting for one stressful, traumatic moment to make it all come tumbling down? What if there was a better way, one where we could be honest about our weaknesses and shore them up instead of just hoping for the best? CLICK HERE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Courageous Community Course: BeckyLMcCoy.com/CourageousCommunity (registration open til 9/29/22) Bandersnatch by Erika Morrison Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist 4 Mantras for When I'm Overwhelmed: BeckyLMcCoy.com/4mantras FIND BECKY ONLINE: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life! Links may be affiliate links, so you're supporting this podcast when you buy through them. Thanks!

You're running a nonprofit encouraging and helping women around the country. Then a global pandemic hits. You're single living alone and mostly isolated due to an autoimmune disease. Holly is figuring out what it looks like to live through a global pandemic as a single person who lives alone. She finds herself feeling like she's floating away and gets creative to figure out ways to feel grounded again. Holly is a writer, speaker, and the executive director of Rise. Get to know Holly: Website: NowSheRises.org Twitter/Instagram: @HollyStallcup Find Becky online: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life!

Marlena lost her job at a non-profit in February. Her mom had major surgery in March. And then a global pandemic hit. Marlena discusses what it means to be a neighbor and show compassion when we can't be in the same space as other people due to the COVID-19 quarantine.  Links from the episode: - Terrence Lester's organization Love Beyond Walls Marlena is published in a variety of venues, is an adjunct professor at Winebrenner Seminary. She is a board member of Evangelicals 4 Justice. Her new book, The Way Up Is Down: Finding Yourself by Forgetting Yourself, comes out soon (IVP, July 14, 2020). She is also the author of A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness (Brazos Press, 2014). She is a member of Ink: A Creative Collective and lives just outside of Toledo, OH with her husband three daughters.  Get to know Marlena: Website: MarlenaGraves.com Twitter: @Marlena_Graves Find Becky online: Website: BeckyLMcCoy.com Social Media: @BeckyLMcCoy Subscribe, rate, review, and share this podcast with the resilient people in your life!

Trillia Newbell and Becky wrap up the burnout series with a discussion on how to prevent it with healthy boundaries, margin, and regular rhythms of rest through the practice of sabbath. Check out Trillia's new book: If God Is For Us Links from this episode: Trillia's talk from the BRAVEtogether Virtual Retreat Trillia's book God's Very Good Idea Books referenced in this episode: Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend and Margin by Richard Swenson DREAM: BRAVEtogether Virtual Retreat 2/23/19 BLOG: What You Need to Know About Burnout From a Single Parent PODCAST: Holiday Burnout Episode #59 Resonate Recordings Connect with Trillia: BLOG: YOUTUBE: FACEBOOK: INSTAGRAM: TWITTER: Connect with Becky: BLOG: BeckyLMcCoy.com PATREON: patreon.com/BeckyLMcCoy FACEBOOK: facebook.com/BeckyLMcCoy TWITTER: twitter.com/BeckyLMcCoy INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/BeckyLMcCoy PINTEREST: pinterest.com/BeckyLMcCoy NEWSLETTER: BeckyLMcCoy.com/3truths Have a product or service Sucker Punched listeners would love? Send me an email at [email protected] for advertising information. Share your Sucker Punched story at BeckyLMcCoy.com/Podcast Please subscribe to and rate this podcast to help others find Sucker Punched.

When Chantel is burned out, she finds herself being weary and impatient and has used the enneagram to discover that her burnout includes avoidance, impatience, and Marshmallow Dream Bars. Coming out of a season of burn out requires Chantel to prioritize rest, sleep, eating well, and exercising. Links from this episode: Essentialism by Greg McKeown Strengths Finder 2.0 The Road Back To You by Ian Chron and Suzanne Stabile (great intro to enneagram book) Meyers Briggs BRAVEtogether Virtual Retreat Recording PERSEVERANCE (including Grace P Cho's marathon story) Resonate Recordings Connect with Chantel: TWITTER: twitter.com/ChaunRose INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/ChaunRose Connect with Becky: BLOG: BeckyLMcCoy.com FACEBOOK: facebook.com/BeckyLMcCoy TWITTER: twitter.com/BeckyLMcCoy INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/BeckyLMcCoy PINTEREST: pinterest.com/BeckyLMcCoy NEWSLETTER: BeckyLMcCoy.com/3truths Have a product or service Sucker Punched listeners would love? Send me an email at [email protected] for advertising information. Share your Sucker Punched story at BeckyLMcCoy.com/Podcast Please subscribe to and rate this podcast to help others find Sucker Punched.

Disappointment is one of those yucky emotions, but what if it's not all bad?