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Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
116. What If Faith & Neuroscience Are Telling Us the Same Story? with Carli Streich
We speak with Carli about renewing the mind through Scripture and science, from naming lies to practicing daily tools that reshape the brain.
• identifying recurrent lies and replacing them with Scripture
• how childhood labels become adult identity loops
• bridging faith and neuroscience
• media, fear, and the mental health aftershock since 2020
• gratitude, kindness, and training attention toward good
Reach out and share how knowing God's truth is changing your heart and mind.
You can find Carli at...
Brightwavesneuro.com
carli@brightwaveneuro.com
Instagram
Listen to episode 114
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1882033/episodes/18310860
https://generationstogenerations.com/podcast
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Hey, welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm Nancy and I'm so glad you've joined us. We had our last episode right before Christmas, and I planned to release another one just two weeks later. But sometimes life doesn't go planned. Can you relate? Honestly, I've been struggling with time management and feeling overwhelmed. I've tried cutting things out of the schedule, but that didn't really change how I felt. I don't have it all figured out yet, and maybe you felt that way too. Or maybe you're feeling it right now. Sometimes the overwhelm isn't really on the calendar. It's in my mind. So if your schedule feels full, or especially if your mind feels full, I can't wait for you to hear today's episode. Carly is going to share how to put the right things in your mind because we must be intentional with our thoughts. Here's Carly. Well, welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm so excited to have Carly on. Carly, thanks for being on the podcast.
Carli Streich:Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah. Well, I'll tell everybody how we met in a minute, but could you give three words or phrases to describe yourself?
Carli Streich:Yeah, absolutely. I would say just resilient would be one of the first words that I would describe myself with. Visionary. If you ask anybody on my team, they're going to tell you that I just constantly am coming up with new ideas and vision, probably to an overwhelming amount. And leader. I lead a lot of things and I enjoy it in every capacity that the Lord has called me into it.
Nancy Bruscher:That's awesome. That's awesome. And so can you tell people what you do for a business or your ministry, however you want to call that?
Carli Streich:Yeah, absolutely. I consider my business a ministry. I always call it business as a ministry, but I have a couple parts in which I work. I own a company called Brightwave. We do neurofeedback, brain mapping, and counseling here in the Colorado area and remotely. And then on the ministry side of things, I run, we'll call it a social account, but it's also speaking and groups, but it's called the Aligned Mind. And so that's all about helping people just align their minds with truth and get them into a place where their nervous systems can accept that truth that Jesus has for us.
Nancy Bruscher:Mmm, that's good. That's really good. It's fun. So I met Carly at a women's retreat just pretty recently. We went up into the mountains. I knew you were a speaker. Did you also get to be a part of the weekend as well?
Carli Streich:I did. It was amazing to be able to go through the whole thing myself while also getting to speak.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah. And what you did, it was just it was so powerful. And I'll actually link my podcast that I did on it on why it was so impactful for me.
Carli Streich:During that time, I attempted to walk people through what it looks like to overcome the lies that Satan oftentimes has for us. He's trying to bring us down in so many ways. And one of the easiest ways to do that is through our minds. When we don't have that practice of knowing truth and knowing scripture and coming back to the Lord, then we can get really off track. And it's not hard to get off track because, as I had said in the retreat, there's really no gray area. You're either working on your mind and putting it towards truth, or you're allowing Satan to come into that space. And there's just there is no gray area because of how our minds are created. And so I was able to walk everybody through what that looks like, and then we were able to do a really fun exercise. I think it's fun. But going through what are those things that I believe that maybe I don't even realize that I've been believing as hard as it was. Like you could see it was hard.
Nancy Bruscher:It was hard.
Carli Streich:And I know you had mentioned it being pretty challenging. Like it's hard to sit there and admit that these are things that come through our minds, right? It's uncomfortable. And so to be able to sit in that and identify what those lies are, which truly, if we don't capture those thoughts, become identity statements for us. If we don't figure out what those are, then we can't take the next step into stepping into truth and really figuring out how does Jesus overcome this for me? What does this look like? And so we were able to walk through those lies and then walk through what it looks like to have the Lord overcome it. And it was fun to watch everybody move move through the activity.
Nancy Bruscher:Right, because you don't want to believe people in this, oh my goodness, I'm believing all these lies. Exactly. And just stay there.
Carli Streich:No, you want to be able to have a tool to actually overcome it with truth. And the Bible's the perfect tool for that. It's right there, it's in front of us, and in it, we have every single answer for every single lie. And so if we can just take that time to really know how do I access scripture in a way that I can use it to overcome those lies in my mind to like really be able to speak truth into myself, then it becomes a very powerful, powerful tool for our minds.
Nancy Bruscher:So you feel like this is something that it's not a one-and-done thing, right? It's it's something that forever you're gonna maybe believe the same lies or different ones, or what do you how do you see that as I think it can I think it can change for people depending on what they're going through and how how you're experiencing life or the different stress points that life gives.
Carli Streich:A lot of times we bring lies from childhood into adulthood, and that was one of the big challenges that I gave people was to think about those labels that had been placed on you, those labels that you never actually asked for, right? Whatever, whatever that is, they look different for everybody. But I know for women, a lot of the ones that I hear are like you're too much, you're too sensitive, you're too emotional, you're just too much, right? That's usually something that's placed on you from a really young age. And so being able to bring out some of that as you get older and identify, oh, this is something that I've believed for a really long time, and it's impacted me in all of these different ways. That's that's a piece of it that you can unpack. But then you have all these different stress points that you go through as we develop, right? From children to teenagers who now have peer labels that are placed on them, and those are challenging because they can become identity, just pieces of identity for teenagers. And if they don't know the truth of the Bible, if they don't know who they are because of Jesus, it can be really hard to separate what my friends or peers are saying about me from what is true about me. And then you move into young adulthood, and there's that again, and then you keep you keep going, and there's always these opportunities, I believe, for Satan to get into the cracks if we are not truly renewing our minds.
Nancy Bruscher:So it's just something do you recommend people doing this exercise or every daily, okay?
Carli Streich:Yeah, going through those lies daily and having having that scripture to back it up. And if you can if you can identify those lies, and there's there's always certain ones, thoughts that we have that are pretty consistent throughout our day. And I usually tell people identify the ones that show up a lot, those are the ones we really want to battle and renew our minds in. I think we uh given you guys a journal and we called it the combat journal.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Carli Streich:That's what I like to call it. Like this is your place where you go to combat for your mind so that you can actually get into a place where it's not the lies that seep in, but the truth that seeps in. And so when you're constantly looking at, I don't actually suggest that you look at the lies all the time. I suggest that you look at the truth. Okay. All the time. So if every single day, if you can just realign yourself with the truth, it's that renewing of the mind. It's that getting your mind into a place where you're essentially brainwashing yourself to to believe it, to memorize it, to know it so that it gets so deep inside your nervous system that it becomes your point of safety. It doesn't, you don't have to focus on any of the other things any longer when you're bringing Jesus into it.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah. I I was really surprised by this because I would say that I don't have a lot of trauma. I I grew up pretty just normal. I mean, we all have things, but nothing compared to what I've heard of other people. And it just really made me realize how much we still have so much to work on, though, no matter where you are. If you're listening to this and you're like, I think I'm pretty good, I would really recommend you doing this. Um, would you recommend people kind of do what we did and like journal a little bit on like what are you thinking, what are you allowing your mind to come up with?
Carli Streich:Yeah, absolutely. It it does not matter what you've been through in life, there is always going to be something that has that has challenged you or a place where you're feeling inadequate or feeling like you're not measuring up. I don't I don't think uh trauma is a prerequisite to this activity, right? And so, yeah, I would suggest that to get started on it, you just grab a pen and paper and just start writing down those things that that go through your mind when you're feeling inadequate, that go through your mind when maybe you're feeling like a failure, or like you're not measuring up in some way, or you're feeling like I just respond really poorly in this situation every single time for some reason. I encourage people think about thoughts that go through your mind when you're in an argument with your spouse, or you're frustrated with your children, or you're frustrated with a friend or a coworker. What are those thoughts that go through your mind really consistently about yourself in those situations? Okay. Because a lot of times it's kind of consistent. Like there's a theme in the background of of what you're feeling or what's underneath it, and if you can identify that, you can usually identify where the lies are stemming from. And so if you can journal about that, get yourself to find the real root of it. Is it inadequacy? Is it feeling like a failure? Is it feeling like you're not measuring up, not good enough? Is it uh just truly having been told that you're not good enough over and over again? What is that? Journal about that, get yourself to that point, and then that's when you can pull out the Bible. Or as I taught you guys the Bible app. Yeah. And you can throw some of those thoughts or lies into the search bar, and then scripture will start to pop up for you that you can use to combat those feelings, those lies, those inadequacies that you're experiencing so that you can step into the truth of who you were created to be.
Nancy Bruscher:And then when you hear yourself start going through and replaying that over and over again, you can kind of stop yourself. Yeah.
Carli Streich:Just pull it out. In the beginning, you're not gonna have it all memorized, right? So you wanna. I I suggest getting kind of a smaller journal, or one of the things that I like to guide people to do is scripture cards and have just index cards that are on those little rings. Write down your scripture truths and just have them in your purse. Have them, I guess if you're a man, have it in your pocket.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Carli Streich:Right? Wherever you need to be so that you you have easy access to it. Write it in your phone, in the notes app. Have a place where you can quickly go to it to remind yourself and realign yourself very quickly. Because if we get stuck in the loops of the old stuff, you can go down pretty quick. Yeah. And so we want to be able to pause, acknowledge this is not true. This is true, and then sit in that. And eventually, if you do that enough, you actually start to memorize a lot of it. So you don't need to pull up on it.
Nancy Bruscher:And do you kind of like rework your brain, like literally start reworking your brain to do what God tells us to do, like whatever is noble, whatever is worthy, whatever is praiseworthy. Think on these things.
Carli Streich:Yes. Uh yeah. When you do this, you you create new connections in the brain. The renewal of the mind, I think what we miss so often is that it's scientific. Like the it's something that your brain is created to be able to do. Your brain has connections that you can recreate to move into a different direction. That's why I'm so passionate about what I get to do in my work. Uh, where we get to we get to really help people change how their nervous system responds to the world. You can do that through neurofeedback, like we do in the office, where we're giving the brain essentially a reward every single time that it makes a change in a positive direction, but we're looking at electricity. So, so sorry, what are you what is that? That's the neurofeedback.
Nancy Bruscher:So So you have like stuff you place so in neurofeedback. Sorry, I'm like my mind's like thinking of a lot of things. I'm like, whoa, I gotta ask what this is. This sounds interesting.
Carli Streich:So on the neurofeedback side of things, what we do is we place electrodes on the head, we look at electrical activity in the brain to understand the parts of the brain that are overfunctioning and underfunctioning. And that helps us to get a good view of the nervous system and how it's responding to the world and your environment. You have different brain waves that are responsible for different types of function, all the way from sleep to keeping you safe if you're in a dangerous situation. And we can evaluate that to help understand: do we have a healthy nervous system? Is the brain able to make the shifts that it needs to make from task to task or feeling to feeling or situation to situation? And then we can teach the brain how to strengthen those different areas by teaching those neuropathways how to strengthen themselves. And that's done through giving the brain rewards every single time it achieves a goal that we set for it. We get to use technology for this. It's really cool. So little electrodes that are placed on the head measure that activity in real time. And every single time the brain achieves what we want it to, we reward it with visual and auditory stimulus. So it's kind of like giving the brain a treat over and over again. I bring that up because it's very similar to what you do on the renewal of the mind side of things. Every single time you move your brain in a direction of positivity, of moving your brain in a direction of truth, it's like you're giving it a reward, right? We're giving it that ability to say, oh, this is actually how I want to feel. This is more aligned with who I am. And the more you practice it, the easier it becomes to call upon that truth. Our brains are created so amazingly to be able to renew themselves to call upon truth. The more and more that you practice rewiring it, the stronger those connections become.
Nancy Bruscher:I've been hearing more and more about this kind of work as far as in the Christian world, and it's really exciting because I feel like science is now catching up to what the Bible has already said. Yes. Would you ag would you agree? Do you think well, of course it is. Is it exciting for you?
Carli Streich:No, it's really exciting. For the longest time in my career, I felt like, especially in the the Christian world with the church, it felt like I was sometimes battling the science versus the faith component. And I feel like we're finally getting to a place where people are starting to recognize that the two can exist together. Yes. Like science was also created, right? Like something that we've been given wisdom into, and we can utilize it to build and strengthen our faith. And when we really bring the two together, especially neuroscience, how our brains are created, and just like our physiology, how our bodies are created, and you bring that into the faith component of it, of just how and just how we were created by our creator, it's it's amazing because they should be the same.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah.
Carli Streich:Yeah. There shouldn't be a huge argument around it, right? Like we were created so specifically and so beautifully. And then there's the science component of it, and it it all meshes together so beautifully.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah, I feel like for a while it's been science is over here and your faith is over here, and for some reason we can't bring them together. Yeah, we don't talk about them. Right. And and it's so silly.
Speaker 2:It is.
Nancy Bruscher:So I I'm loving that we're starting to see this, and I don't know if people were afraid. What what if we dive into this and it like negates our faith? Or do you think that there was something like that where Yeah, you know, I don't know.
Carli Streich:Maybe maybe there is a little bit of fear around it. I I think um science gets painted as a very secular thing. And it could just be more more related to that of like, oh well, science and all of these all of that over there is is just more secular. Like God's not in it. Oh. So we can't focus on it.
Nancy Bruscher:So we can't, yeah, chat about it.
Carli Streich:Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's hard to say.
Nancy Bruscher:Do you think that everyone has these lies going around in their mind? Are there people that are really a little bit more susceptible to it and others that don't struggle with it as much? Or sure.
Carli Streich:I think if you look at uh just development in general and the resiliency of different people, there are people who are set up a little better to probably have less lies going through their head. But no, I don't think anybody's immune to uh struggling with with the lies that can come. It's like I said, you're either focused on truth or you're focused on the world. And we all go through, I don't care how strong your faith is, there are gonna be moments where you get off track. If you're not consistently renewing your mind to scripture, I mean 24-7, then there is an opportunity for a lie to sneak in there, right? And that's why we have to be consistently renewing our minds and thinking on things that are that are good and praiseworthy, because we get off track so easily. Yeah. That's just our sinful nature, right? Like it's not how we were created, it's not what was intended, I don't believe, but it is it kind of is what it is for where we are now.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah. Do you believe that I would consider myself more of a pessimist instead of an optimist? Do you think that there is a way that if I keep on focusing on things that are good and optimistic and praiseworthy, that I would shift more toward an optimistic person or not really optimistic?
Carli Streich:If your brain follows your focus. Okay. So if if you are focusing on things that are more optimistic, more positive, more empowering for you, you would Will start to notice more of that. There's actually a part of your brain, it's called the reticular activating system. You've probably heard of this, but when you start thinking about something, you start to notice it as you go. A lot of people use this example with like cars. Yes. Right? So all of a sudden it's like you've never seen a Ford Explorer. And then all of a sudden you're thinking about it, you're gonna go buy it, and you're like, why does everybody have this Ford Explorer? Right? Yeah. Your brain, everybody's always had the cars. Your brain's just noticing it more because you're now focused on it. That is the same for when you're focusing on truth and scripture and focusing on more positive types of frameworks or ways of thinking. Your brain is going to notice those good things more when you give it more good things to focus on.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Carli Streich:And that is ultimately the renewing of your mind, right? That is exactly what it is. It's teaching your brain how to notice these different things with practice. Okay. It helps anxiety too. I mean, think about it again, going back to like my counseling profession, but it it helps anxiety, it helps depression, it helps anything that this regulates your nervous system in such a way that it makes you feel like you're only focused on the bad things, right? That's ultimately anxiety for a lot of people, it's just an inability to focus on anything other than that feeling of just doom. Or feeling like, when's the next ball gonna drop? Or for some people it's it's chronic worry, whatever that shows up as. But when you and I'm very oversimplifying this, as somebody who has dealt with panic disorder myself, like it is not as simple as I'm just going to think positive things and now all my panic goes away. Okay. But a true practice of it is incredibly helpful because your brain will start to learn that we don't always have to focus on the worrisome things. Okay. There are positive things, there are things that we can move toward that can help us feel a lot better. And the more opportunities you give your brain to do that, the less opportunities it has to panic.
Nancy Bruscher:I feel like so much happened in 2020. Do you think that there really was some kind of a mental thing that we did to ourselves and have maybe continued to do to ourselves since then?
Carli Streich:I mean, there had to have been. The amount of anxiety and depression that we're seeing since 2020 is skyrocketed. It was already pretty high, and I don't have the exact statistic, but I had looked at that in the last few years, and it's just it's so significantly higher than it was before that it's it's palpable. You feel it when you're around people, you feel the difference and and just the the fear that exists. And at the end of the day, I think it's also a media thing. Like fear cells.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Carli Streich:And we're just seeing it get bigger and bigger.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah.
Carli Streich:Fear is gonna spread faster than any disease ever could, in my opinion. When you get people fearful, it's amazing how you change behavior. And we're we're just we're seeing more headlines, in my opinion, that are fear-driven, that are trying to essentially dysregulate people because well then we get more clicks, we get more things on this, right? I don't necessarily know that there's any other uh crazy motivation behind it other than money and just getting more media attention and things, but it works and it drives more fear. Yeah. And so with more fear, you have more anxiety, you have more depression, you have more isolation. And I think 2020 isolated people more than we than we realize. Yeah. And that isolation, it's just not, we were not created to live in isolation. We were definitely created to live in community and with people and to be pulled away from that. And for some, I mean, they lost some of their most personal, deepest relationships through that. And it changes you.
Nancy Bruscher:So you were kind of talking about media and through that, would you say because we're trying to put the thoughts of God into our mind that we need to at least be aware of what we're taking in?
Carli Streich:Yes.
Nancy Bruscher:Through whatever, whatever way you're doing that, right? Maybe you're watching TV, maybe you're watching the news, maybe you're on social media a lot. I mean, does this affect us more than we like to believe?
Carli Streich:Absolutely. It is incredibly impactful the type of content that you are receiving. I think we wildly underestimate what it does to us when we are constantly receiving messages that are just not truth, that are not aligned with our biblical values in a lot of ways, or just our faith, or where we're trying to go in that in that direction. Because you you can't help but start questioning things when you see them, right? You can't help but be in a position where you're like, oh, like I don't necessarily believe that, but now I've taken it in and I have to think about it to some extent, or I have to filter it. I think the less things that we have to filter, the better. Yeah. Uh if we can if we can keep our filter mainly on on things that just align a bit better with our faith, it's you'll you'll be in a probably less anxious position to do that. And I mean adults, uh a lot of people try to place this on just teenagers, but it's everybody. Yeah. I think we just love to focus on how it impacts teenagers, which is greatly. Yeah. We I personally don't believe that teenagers should have access to social media. Uh at all. At all. Until they're 18 out of the house. Hopefully, we can build like a strong enough foundation that they just never feel like they need it. I don't know. That's not reality. Uh that's just where our world is now. But I think until there's at least a very strong identity and values and morals and base, uh, social media is just not a good idea. It's you end up in these very large comparison games, you're always feeling inadequate, and it targets our kids. It targets our kids to to see things that we just probably don't want them taking in, and we don't even realize it. It doesn't matter what you do, those algorithms are good. Yeah. And, you know, we're all of a sudden in kids, we're seeing the largest amount of like reported loneliness ever in kids. They're staring at their phones all the time. They're most of their friendships are through social media, or um, some people have some of their some kids, teenagers, have some of their strongest, best friendships completely through an app. And I think there's a level of acceptance that has to come with like how communication is changing, but then also recognizing as parents what's that what that is doing to their ability to connect with others and have like a strong sense of identity and not feel so isolated. I don't know. I my my poor children, they're gonna be so weird. They're gonna be the ones who are like, nope, I've can't have that, can't have that. No, like no cell phones? No, I'll probably do cell phones. I think that that's just the world we live in. You can't really, I bet you just can't really get around without them, but uh definitely not any social media until they're older. I I've have a goal with all of my friend group to be like, okay, let's all do this together so that all of our kids don't have it, and then they can complain to each other and be like, Oh, I'm not alone. And the fact that I don't have access to all of this. Yeah. I'm like, if we just get a large group of us, then it might seem a little bit more normal. Right. So I I do know a lot of parents these these days are very concerned about the social media side of things and trying to navigate what that looks like, and who knows, I've got young kids, this might change.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah.
Carli Streich:You know, I'm talking to you with a five-year-old who doesn't even need access to social media, but I think uh it's something that we have to really consider for our kids and for us as adults. Like I often delete my social media. If I didn't do some of my work through it, I wouldn't have it. Because it's just not helpful. Yeah.
Nancy Bruscher:It is hard when a lot of work does get done on it. So that it is a game to play. I feel like I have always known that my brain is just it's always going, right? It's always thinking and it's always kind of doing something. I feel like a lot of times in the shower, I'll feel it, is my brain goes to something that's never happened, and I'll just start to think of, oh, what if this happens, and then your brain kind of goes down this like little rabbit hole. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that. Of, oh, I just thought for like five minutes about something that's a fake scenario. A fake scenario that really probably wasn't like a great fake scenario, right? And uh so I have started to realize how um bad my thoughts can get. And I started to realize that I was putting that onto my kids. Is that like this, what I was carrying was coming up on them. And so we've have started, even before I got to know you, kind of started like when you feel a lie, you can't just say that's not true. Right. Kind of like you have to almost like replace it, right? Is that yes, yes, you have you just don't say no. You have to like, what is that truth then, right?
Carli Streich:What is the truth? You always want to come back to what is the truth, right? What is real? What it and the more you practice this, actually, the quicker you get at stopping those loops. Yeah. Where yeah, you know, you it's maybe five, ten minutes, you're like, oh my gosh, I just created a whole story. Right. And that was terrifying. I've I have done that and started crying. Like legitimately, as if it was happening, started crying. I especially postpartum. I remember like walking. We had like a stair hallway, call it, that had a railing over the side of it, and I would literally imagine my quit my kid like twitching out of my arm, falling over the side of the stairs and like splatting on the ground. And I'd start crying, thinking about it.
Nancy Bruscher:Is this another showing of how powerful our minds are?
Carli Streich:Our minds are so powerful. I didn't do so, I didn't do this tool at the retreat because I didn't have enough time. But one of my favorite tools is what I call alignment journaling. And this is where you take it's actually taking imagined experiences, like just things that you can emotionally connect to in real time, as if they're really happening right now, but you want them to be positive, things that you you actually want to see happen. And so if you grab a journal and you just start writing how you want something to go, but you write it in the present tense, right? So I like to, especially with um, I do a lot of this work with women and moms specifically who find themselves getting really overwhelmed or overstimulated or just really burnt out by all of the mental load that women hold all the time. But if you imagine yourself and you think of a scenario, I'm gonna use a super simple one, but your kid grabs milk out of the fridge and then they spill it all over the floor, and you're just like, why? Right? Like it's that immediate reaction of frustration. None of us intend to have that. Some of us are a little bit better at controlling it than others. But what you can do is take those scenarios that do happen in life, you write them out in the present tense of exactly what is happening and how you are responding. As if you are responding right then and there. I am so patient, I am so loving, I walk over to them, I pick up the milk, I reassure them that it's okay, you clean it up together, we move on with our day. When you write things in the present tense and there are there is an emotional connection to it, your brain actually doesn't know the difference between that lived experience and an imagined experience. And so that's why when you're talking about those moments in the shower where you're like, gosh, that felt so real. And all of a sudden you're down a rabbit hole and you've been thinking about it for five minutes, your brain is thinking it's really happening. That's why you're having the reaction that you're having. Oh my gosh. And so I had no idea. You want to, you want to stop it and replace it. And then if you do that with this technique that I'm talking about, it's like you're giving your brain a mental rep of I I just did this. Like I actually responded as that patient, wonderful mom. And your next time that actually happens, you will be more likely to respond in that way. Because your brain goes into that situation and it's like, oh, I've seen this before. I've done this before. I know exactly how to I practiced this. So your brain doesn't know the difference. It just when you bring emotional connection into things, it's it's crazy. Wow. Your brain is so cool. Wow. But it goes to show you how disciplined we need to be in our thoughts. Because your brain is very powerful. Yeah. And it really does, uh it really does have an impact.
Nancy Bruscher:Do you think that there is a time where only focus on this on your 40s? Or because when I've told people that I'm making my kids like work on this, they're like, oh, they're so young. And I thought, uh, yeah, but their minds are already playing games with them. And so why wouldn't I at least try to help them to get good practices in while they're young?
Carli Streich:Yeah.
Nancy Bruscher:Do you think that there's a time that this is too young or you're too old? No.
Carli Streich:I think you can start this at any age. I do this with my five and three-year-old.
Nancy Bruscher:Okay.
Carli Streich:I mean in a much different way. Sure, that they're not journaling. Sure. Uh, but I speak life into them. I want I want their self-talk to be one of truth. I want their self-talk to be who Jesus created them to be. And you start that at such a young age. Because their self-talk starts at such a young age. Right. I mean, even my three-year-old, right? It's it's things as simple as like, I am brave, I am courageous, I am kind, I am curious, right? Just reminding them of those things because for kids, what we tell them as parents is what holds the power. Right? Like our dialogue towards them becomes their long-term self-talk. Like there is a ton of research on that. That how we speak into our children as teenagers and then adults, when you uh ask them in like certain studies, when they've asked them like what their thoughts are, it's the tone of their parents. I mean, we we speak so much, so much into them. I mean, it's just so nerve-wracking to be a parent when you think about it from that perspective, but I think that's why we as parents have to be so disciplined in the renewing of our own minds. Because we can't lead children on our own. We need Jesus to be able to do that. We need that guidance, we need the scripture, we need the truth so that we can actually speak that into them. I often tell my kids, like, how I just acted, like Jesus would never treat you that way. Right? Like, I'm so sorry. He would never treat me that way. Like that's the human side of me. And I think our kids need need those tools to be able to filter through like what is this world and what is not.
Nancy Bruscher:So like what we tell our kids really impacts. Really impacts.
Carli Streich:It becomes their identity. I mean, uh as this is going to sound like a very uh I think extreme statement for a lot of people, but anytime you use the words you are before whatever statement you're going to make after that, you are creating identity for your children. Be really careful what you put after that you are. Like really careful. Because they hold on to it.
Nancy Bruscher:Probably what we say to ourselves too, like I am unsuccessful, or I am.
Carli Streich:Yes, all of our I am statements are oftentimes the um you are's that we place on our kids, and those become their IAMs. And that's why we have to be so careful, because they just hear if you hear it enough, and this is where it goes back to the activity where I tell people, think back to childhood. What are those statements that have been placed on you? They come from URs. You are too sensitive, you are too emotional, you are too much, you are not enough. You can never make me happy. And then it turns into I am not enough. I am too much. I am too sensitive. I am too emotional. And then we carry it. So we want to be, we want to teach them the strategies. And I don't think it's we don't give the kids enough credit. Yeah. They're so capable.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah.
Carli Streich:I think about that like all the time with my five-year-old. I'm like, I do not give this kid enough credit. Like the things she is capable of doing and the conversations she is capable of having are mind-blowing. So imagine, you know, six, seven, eight, nine, ten-year-old teenagers. They're capable. But you have to have built a relationship with them. Sure. There has to be a level of connection there for them to want to have those conversations with you. Definitely.
Nancy Bruscher:Well, this is this has been amazing. Before we wrap up with some of these questions, I always end with, is there anything you want to share with our listeners?
Carli Streich:I would just say that you don't have to sit, you don't have to sit in it alone. There are so many people that are willing to step into this space with you and really start to unravel some of the lies and work on the renewing of the mind. You don't need any special skills to necessarily be able to do this. You just need help sometimes, and somebody to help guide you through scripture or guide you through truth or how you were created or help you to really look at like what is my God-given purpose, my God-given identity. I think we're not always taught that. And it's not always talked about in church either. So uh you're not alone in that. And if you need help, reach out. Yeah. I especially for women, I personally do one-on-one coaching with a very small group of women. I will usually take on about five at a time, where I bring in the neuroscience, the neurofeedback that I was talking about, and I do the coaching side of things to work on just building an identity that is really foundationally anchored in Christ. And when you do both of those things together, I mean it's so powerful. So, you know, I can help, like I said, I take a small group because I uh I work and have kids and partially homeschool and all the things, but it's a passion, it's a passion of mine. But there are tons of books out there on renewing the mind. There's groups on renewing the mind. I mean, you can find anywhere you can find stuff about renewing the mind, just dive into it. It's so good. Yeah, so helpful. Yeah. Oh, I appreciate that. What is your website? BrightwaveseNuro.com But if you want to contact me for the one-on-one coaching, the easiest way to do that is actually on Instagram. I know. That's what I was saying.
Nancy Bruscher:But it's the aligned mind. So as we're wrapping up, I always love to end with these questions. What is your favorite Bible verse or story?
Carli Streich:My favorite Bible verse is uh Joshua 1.9, just be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. I have it tattooed on my arm. So wow. Yes, with some brainwaves. I've been through a lot of hard health stuff in my younger years. I'm similar to you. I didn't have a lot of trauma growing up. I my parents got divorced from a young age, but even when I do therapy, I've always said, like that, I just it I don't identify with it as this like super challenging thing that I went through. My my parents handled it, in my opinion, just very beautifully and always put us first in that. And so it never felt like this huge thing. And I was always so thankful for that. But as I started getting into young adulthood, I just started having some battles on the health side of things. And so I dealt with very severe anxiety and panic disorder. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2015, and that was really challenging to get through. It turned into what they call neurological Lyme, and so it impacted my brain.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Carli Streich:And my ability to remember things and think straight. And it always felt like I had like bugs crawling on my scalp, and my face would go numb randomly. And it just was really scary to go through that. And it exasperated the panic that I was experiencing during that time. And it was while I was getting my master's degree in counseling that all of that happened, and I was just like, I don't know how I can do this. And it was in that time that like I I settled into this verse of just be strong and courageous, do not be afraid. Like, I am with you, I will go before you. I have already taken care of all of this. And so it's been something that I've just sat in. That is my truth that I like to sit in. And it's a reminder that I have on my arm all of the time that I don't, I'm not in this alone. I don't have to do any of this alone, and honestly, I'm never gonna be able to be strong enough or courageous enough on my own without Jesus in that with me. So it's been it's been my verse to get me through a lot.
Nancy Bruscher:Yeah. Yeah. What are you grateful for?
Carli Streich:Oh, I could I love doing little gratitude lists all the time. I I could go on and on about all the things that I'm grateful for, but I would say that the two main things are my husband and my kids. My husband is by far my biggest supporter and biggest cheerleader. He believes in me in ways that I probably don't even believe in myself a lot of times. And my kids, they just make me better. I truly believe that my children bring me closer to Jesus. Like ever since having them, I my relationship with the Lord has gotten so much stronger because probably one, I've just recognized my need for it. Like I can't do this on my own. This is so hard. Right. This is so hard. Uh but it's also just like you look at them and you you don't want to guide them anywhere else. And so it becomes if it becomes your main focus, which I feel like it has for me, I mean, I just owe so much gratitude to them. Like they have changed my life. And it's amazing. I love my kids. I love my husband too. I love my kids.
Nancy Bruscher:What what kindness have you seen, or what kindness have you received in the last week?
Carli Streich:So you were talking about how you're you're a little bit more on the pessimistic side. I'm actually a little bit more on the optimistic side, and so I find that I see kindness everywhere. I I just I do believe that people are very kind. They have a there are some who have a harder time maybe finding it in their hearts to have that kindness, but a lot of the people that I interact with on a daily basis are just genuinely kind, thoughtful, caring individuals. And it's hard to pinpoint it's hard to pinpoint exactly like one bit of kindness that that I see. But I will say, um, again, going back to like my kids and my husband, they're both they I mean, they're just so kind. And so every day I get little bits of kindness. My five-year-old, my little girl Lincoln, she is just the most thoughtful small child. Like we were putting together our new office, I don't know, 16 hours, I think we put in of the office this past weekend, and they had to be there. And uh she just would take moments to stop and come in and be like, Mama, are you doing okay? You know, or do you need some water? And I'm just like, why are you such a kind little human? Or uh, you know, she'd be helpful with her three-year-old little brother, like, I'm gonna go take him to the water fountain, or I'm gonna do this or that. And and even him, he for being three, he has a lot of kindness in him. So, I mean, I'm with my family the most, and so I probably noticed the most kindness. Yeah. That was a long answer.
Nancy Bruscher:No, that's why I have these questions at the end, is because I know the more that we think about these things, the more that we think about what we're grateful for, the more we think about the kindnesses that we see, the more we're likely to focus on those instead of the world's falling apart, you know, and bring it back to what we can control.
Carli Streich:Yes, there's so much we can control, and there's so much good. That's good. There's so much good.
Nancy Bruscher:Well, thank you for being on. Thank you for sharing about how we can do this and how important it is to renew our minds daily. Yes, of course. Thank you for having me. On Ordinary People Extraordinary Things, your story is his glory. This is a practice I keep coming back to, and one I probably always will, because my mind has a way of slipping back into the lies. Today I'm reminding myself of what Scripture says about worry, as well as Philippians 4 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. If you want to hear more, in episode 114, I share a specific lie I believed and how intentionally turning to God's word helped me find truth and peace. So I'll leave you with this question What lie are you believing and what does God say about it? I'd love to hear from you. Reach out and share how knowing God's truth is changing your heart and mind.