A Christian Woman's Guide to Stop Overthinking: Featuring Erin Kerry [Podcast Transcript]

Title: A Christian Woman's Guide to Stop Overthinking: Featuring Erin Kerry [Podcast Transcript]

Podcast Date: October 3 2025

Description: In this episode of Compared to Who, Heather Creekmore and Erin Kerry explore overthinking, stress physiology, and how Christian women can integrate Scripture with practical strategies for mental and physical well-being. The discussion touches on personal stories, neuroscience, trauma, and actionable practices to calm the mind and body.

Listen Here:

Are you an overthinker? Do you find yourself replaying conversations from weeks ago, worrying about every possible outcome, or getting stuck in endless thought spirals? You’re not alone—and this episode is for you.

Join host Heather Creekmore and special guest Erin Kerry—health coach, mental health advocate, and original friend of the show—for an honest, hope-filled conversation about overthinking and how to break free. Erin shares insights from her new book, "Live Beyond Your Label," diving deep into why we overthink, how our bodies and minds respond to stress, and what true relief looks like from both a scientific and biblical perspective.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How to recognize if you’re an overthinker—and why it’s more common than you think

• The physical and emotional roots of overthinking

• Why “just take your thoughts captive” isn’t always enough (and what’s missing from that advice)

• The body’s built-in responses to stress and fear, and how you can work with your physiology instead of against it

• Simple, practical strategies to calm your mind, address anxiety, and ground yourself in truth

• Encouragement for Christians who feel stuck, powerless, or alone in their mental battles

• How to move forward when labels, diagnoses, or past trauma have left you feeling “broken”

Plus: Erin and Heather talk about slowing down, why true rest matters, and how to build daily habits that soothe both body and soul. You’ll discover you’re not the only one wrestling with these thoughts—and there is real hope for change!

Ready to stop overthinking and start living free? Listen now and be encouraged, empowered, and equipped—with both biblical truth and holistic mental health wisdom.

Resources and Next Steps:

• Find Erin Kerry’s book: Live Beyond Your Label (Amazon and wherever books are sold) *Amazon affiliate link.

• Join Heather’s 40-Day Journey group coaching experience at improvebodyimage.com – scholarships available!

• Get Erin’s free Food is Mood guide and Mood Reset Assessment at erinbkerry.com

• Follow Erin on Instagram: @sparkingwholeness

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio.

Erin Kerry [00:00:04]:
Hey, friend, Heather Creekmore here. Question for you. Are you an overthinker? Are you still riddling around in your head about what you said to someone two weeks ago or that text message that you got? You're not quite sure how to interpret it? Do you think about all the things and worry ahead of time? Oh, friend, if you are this person, and frankly, I don't know, I've been that person a lot. So I'm right there with you. Today's conversation. Conversation is going to be super encouraging and helpful for you. My friend, Erin Carey is here. She has a brand new book out.

Erin Kerry [00:00:37]:
Oh, Erin's been a friend of the show for a long time. She was one of the, like original contributors to the Compared to who podcast. She's a health coach, a mental health advocate, and she really understands the nuances of taking a holistic approach to healing those things, especially those mental health things that we struggle with. But centering everything on scripture and what the Bible says. And so I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation today. Hey, I want to let you know a couple things. Our 40 day journey starts like next week and I actually have some extra funds. Someone was generous enough to donate.

Erin Kerry [00:01:18]:
They loved the 40 day journey so much, they said, I will give you two scholarships, the 40 day journey. So if you have been thinking about joining us and maybe money was an issue, reach out. You still have to buy the book, but reach out. Heatherapareto who me? And maybe we can hook you up with one of the scholarships before we get started. Otherwise, friend, it's only $59. It's six weeks of group coaching. You will get so much out of it. I promise you that.

Erin Kerry [00:01:43]:
We've got a long list of success stories of people who have just experienced tremendous change going through the 40 day journey. In fact, my husband is a pastor and he randomly ran into another pastor at a conference a couple weeks ago and that pastor was like, hey, a woman in my congregation just went through your wife's thing. He didn't know what it was called, but he's like, she got so much out of it. She is a new person. She's changed. It has helped her so much. So if you want that to be your story, join us. Go to improvebodyimage.com, look for the 40 Day Journey tab and sign up.

Erin Kerry [00:02:18]:
And if you're listening to this and we've already started, hey, it's okay. You can watch the replay from the first session. Just get in there. Don't wait till January, just get in there. Now go to 40 day journey at the improved body image.com site and I hope I see you on Tuesday. Now let's get to today's episode. Erin Carey, welcome to the Compare to podcast.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:45]:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Erin Kerry [00:02:47]:
We go back a while. I think we do, like way before you were a published author.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:54]:
Well, I'm only a published author because of Heather Creekmore. Let's make sure set the record straight from the beginning. That is so true. That book would still just be like in a whole bunch of different files on my computer. Truly.

Erin Kerry [00:03:06]:
Yeah. It was my pleasure to help get it to the world. But, you know, we've been doing this kind of stuff, though, for a long time. You were a contributor back in the days when I had contributors to my blog, which was so fun. I know, it was fun. I was thinking this morning, I was like, maybe we need to bring that back. But I remember you wrote a piece on overthinking and it had a great response because that just resonated with everyone. Like, you know, all the overthinkers stand up.

Erin Kerry [00:03:41]:
You've got the whole all the women in the room stand up. And just maybe two of the men, right? But I think a lot of us have the struggle. So today I'm excited that we're going to talk about overthinking and we're also going to talk about the reality. And I just, I want to be clear here because a couple weeks ago on the show I apologized. And really the context of my apology was Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Lean not on your own understanding. Right? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.

Erin Kerry [00:04:13]:
In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. And what I felt like I had kind of gotten wrong over the last year or so was I've been trying to kind of figure out intellectually, like what was going on behind my body image issues. Like, you know, where do they come from? You know, what is, what is the psychology behind body image, right? And I think what scripture instructs us to do, right, is to not try to figure it all out, but to trust the Lord. But today's content I think is going to be a little different, right? Because there's something different about psychology, right? And those man made concepts that come from analysis, right? And our actual biology, our physiology, like the way God made our bodies. And that's what's so fascinating about like, even the overthinking stuff. And you've got a great new book and we're going to Talk about that at the end. But you kind of go into in this book, like, what's actually going on in. In your body with these various things? And then what does scripture have to say about that? Always coming back to the fact that, like, scripture has the answer and there's nothing we're going to discover about our bodies or the way we're wired that is going to like, contradict or override scripture.

Erin Kerry [00:05:32]:
Right. It always goes back to the biblical truth. But we talk about overthinking, right? Like, Aaron, what are we really talking about? Like, let's, let's maybe start with just baseline. Like, what does that look like? How do you. How do I know if I'm an overthinker?

Heather Creekmore [00:05:45]:
Yeah. I mean, I have a phrase that I use. I call it wcsb, Worst Case scenario brain. And that's when. So here's a perfect example of what I would say. These are like little pesky thoughts that are not necessarily overthinking, but they just kind of like come out of nowhere. You're like, what in the world? So if I'm driving over a bridge, I am like, oh, gosh, what if I swerve to the side? What if I fall in? Or my. And I check my windows? You know, it's like things like that.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:06]:
Check the windows, make sure those kinds of things. The other thing, like, lately here in East Texas, the allergies have been crazy. I don't know if it's been that way for you, but I've been really congested. And my thought when I'm congested, did is always, oh, gosh, I hope I don't get kidnapped. Because if they put duct tape over my mouth, I won't make it. I can't breathe through my nose. Right? That's like these weird.

Erin Kerry [00:06:26]:
Never had that one. Now, the bridge thing, yes. I've thought about, should I keep my hand on the window roll down? Because don't you have to have it halfway rolled down before you get all the way in?

Heather Creekmore [00:06:36]:
Or am I prepared? It's kind of a. And, and I do talk about this in my book. There's like four reasons I break down, four different reasons that we overthink. But I do think a lot of it is preparation. Right? It's say, blessed are the overthinkers. They shall be prepared for any situation. Right. Like that's the missing beatitude in the Bible.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:54]:
Because I think it's really about us wanting to feel like we're going to be okay no matter what outcome is going to happen. And for some of us, we've had a lot of, I would say everybody, we've all had situations filled with uncertainty and that can plant little bugs in our mind to where when there's a situation that might lead to uncertainty, I better have other options, I better have escape routes, plant. I better know what's ahead. And it can be anything. I mean it's mostly pretty minor. But then in the grand scheme of things, like for me, early in my marriage, I was convinced my first year of my marriage is that things are going too well, too well. So I don't know if my husband, how much longer he's going to want to stay with me, you know, because if things are too good too long, well, anything could happen at any time. So it's like, it's things like that.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:39]:
So it's not even, I would even say overthinking. It's not for some people can be diagnostic, right? You can end up being diagnosed with like, you know, intrusive thoughts or OCD or like any of these anxiety type of disorders. But it's really just these flickers that hit us momentary day to day, depending on where we are in our menstrual cycle. They're not super disruptive, but they're there and they're kind of frustrating because they do sometimes get in the way of our enjoyment.

Erin Kerry [00:08:04]:
Yeah, well, and I think for some, right, the. I'm going to use air quotes here for the listeners. The Christian answer has been a little oversimplified, right? Like just take the thought captive. Just take the thought captive. But then, I don't know, for me it was like at a concentration camp of thoughts that were captive or something like that, right? And they were still so loud, like maybe they were all in the same room or something. But it was like still so noisy in there it couldn't fully work that way. And let me be clear, like God's word works, but there's like a missing piece there, I think. So, like, why is it not that simple physiologically?

Heather Creekmore [00:08:58]:
Oh, I love this. Because I think that that is sometimes the missing piece is that logically it's that whole idea that logically we know that God is good, we know that we trust. But the body doesn't always believe that because the body's in a stress response. And God designed us with a body that is sensitive to our thoughts, our thoughts are sensitive to what the body is picking up on. We've got that gut brain axis that goes both directions. And actually, you know, we 80% of the signals from brain to gut are actually going from gut to brain. They're not necessarily going from brain to gut all the time. So our body is sending us more information often than our brain is.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:34]:
So that's one thing, that's a huge thing. But that internal stress response system is called the HPA axis. It stands for hyper hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal, let's say that a little slower, hypothalamic being your hypothalamus, pituitary being your pituitary gland and your adrenal glands, which are down low, hypothalamus and pituitaries in your brain. Adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys. And so what happens when your amygdala, which is kind of the fear emotional reaction center of your brain, when that picks up on an alert and it can be real or perceived. That's the tricky thing. It can be a real threat or a perceived threat. Or maybe you just read a really upsetting news article that morning.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:13]:
Well, your amygdala gets activated. Your amygdala sends. Literally presses the. I say literally. I mean, there's a panic button somewhere. And that amygdala is going to hit it, right? Sends it to the hypothalamus, who tells the pituitary glands to send signals to the adrenals to start sending alerts to the rest of the body through cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine. And God designed us this way because if we didn't have this alert system, David never would have defeated Goliath, right? He would have been like, no, I'm good with my sheep. No, he had a fight response.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:46]:
Because what happens with our HPA axis is everything is impacted. Our blood pressure, our heart rate, our breath rate, the way we breathe. Are we mouth breathing, are we doing chest breathing, short shallow breathing? And then we have these senses to either fight, flee, freeze, or fawn, which is kind of like the best way to describe it is people pleasing, which is a whole other topic. But it's like you, but you're doing it to keep yourself safe. You're not really doing it because of the fruit of the spirit, right? Like, you're doing it because you're so stressed, you're just going to keep everybody happy. And so these are good alerts that God designed us with that happen just in an instant because it's part of that whole system. The, the problem occurs is when we let those alerts run the show. And so initially, like I said, David, David didn't just sit with the sheep, like, he listened and he's like, okay, fight mode.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:38]:
Should I do fight mode? Should I fight? Okay, cool. We're gonna fight Goliath, right? Like, I mean, I can name. That's like, the. The best example I can come up with. But think about all the Bible stories that we read in the Bible. And I'm kind of in this, like, Moses era right now. Like, I'm. I'm reading all sorts of Moses y things.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:53]:
And I love it because just the. The Israelites were constantly in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Right? They're always easily activated. We get so easily activated, and we have to be reminded of the truth. And I think that's where the Holy Spirit. I think that's where the word of God can pierce through some of that fog that's created by our body. But until we can address those alert system responses, the fact that they are. They're creating inflammation, and some people are chronically activated, and it's making it really hard for the brain to hear truth.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:28]:
It's making it really hard for the brain to hear truth. And that's where we get stuck as Christians. And that's where it's like, well, why can't I take my thoughts captive? I mean, I struggled with that. I remember being so beaten down by depression in eighth grade, trying to pray, thinking I'm just a bad Christian, knowing that in the psalms, there are all these, you know, beautiful poetic verses about being depressed and giving it to God. I'm like, I. I'm depressed, but I can't give it to God. I don't even think he hears me right now. That was my body being in such a state of disconne.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:58]:
My body was reacting with freeze mode. Freeze mode being I'm playing possum right now. I can't do anything. And my body was reacting that way. My brain knew the truth, but there was. They couldn't connect. And that. We do know physiologically that when you're in a state of chronic stress, your amygdala sends that prefrontal cortex offline.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:17]:
Your prefrontal cortex is what tells you, okay, we can make the right decision here. We can. We can choose not to react impulsively. We can show empathy to others. We can actually connect with others. But when you're in a state of that chronic high stress alert, everything's off. Including that ability to know what to do next. So it just gets.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:37]:
It gets tricky.

Erin Kerry [00:13:39]:
Yeah. One of things, thinking about conversations I've had with clients where they're like, okay, but I've got like all these verses memorized and. But you know when this happens, I mean, maybe specifically around like body image, like when I walk into the room and I feel like I'm the fattest person in the room or I'm not dressed as cute as everyone else, or I'm the ugliest person in the room, like something happens, happens inside me and I just can't access all of those verses. I know about my value and my worth and how loved I am. And. And so I've kind of tried to explain it like that. Well, that's because you go into fight or flight. Right.

Erin Kerry [00:14:11]:
Like you. Yeah. You're like, oh man. I like, I am, I am in a room full of lions, me to shred. And they might be nice women, but in your brain you feel that way and so you don't have access to that. So like if you could go back and talk to your eighth grade self.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:31]:
Yeah.

Erin Kerry [00:14:31]:
Or just really? Because I know someone is listening and they're like, oh, I feel that way all the time. Like I'm depressed and I don't know why. I can't take the thoughts captive or you know, like, what, what would you go back and say? Like, where do you start?

Heather Creekmore [00:14:41]:
Well, I focused a lot on what my. Well at the time, I tried to focus a lot on thinking my way out of things. And even just this overthinking, I think over intellectualizing is, is another stress response. Right. It's like as you're talking about, you know, studying the psychology and digging into the science and all that, that is a stress response for me because if I can understand what's going on, then maybe I won't have to like suffer through it as much.

Erin Kerry [00:15:05]:
Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:05]:
If I can just make sense of it. Right, right.

Erin Kerry [00:15:07]:
Like, I don't want to, I don't want to derail this, but I just have to pause here because that happens all of the time. When we start working with new clients, they decide they want to dig into everything and they want to start like, they've got my course and my book, but then they start reading this and this and what else can I listen to? What else can I read? And we. That all the time. Like, no friend. Like that's a stress response in the modern world too. Do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:33]:
Everywhere. I mean, there's so many rabbit holes to get down. And so. Yeah. So I think for me it's. And I'm always, that's always going to be a go to for me when I'm stressed is to try to think and explain my way out of it. My husband can verify this.

Erin Kerry [00:15:46]:
Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:46]:
So many conversations. He's like, hey, can you just be.

Erin Kerry [00:15:49]:
I can't just be, you know, right.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:51]:
I've got to figure it out. So.

Erin Kerry [00:15:52]:
Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:52]:
So I think in my 8th to my 8th grade self, I was so focused on what I was experiencing mentally, I didn't think about. And nobody explained it to me this way either. What did my body need? How could I care for my body? To make sure that my body, on some level, I do think that there was an unsafety that I was picking up on because I will say my depression was a result of ptsd. So all humans have a desire. God created us with a desire, deep desire for safety and connection that was ruptured at the fall in the most extreme way you can imagine. And when we experience trauma, when we experience adversity, even if it's not what you would consider trauma, just stress, chronic stress. Safety and connection is ruptured safety and how you feel in the world, like just how your body picks up on how you feel. It's called neuroception.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:37]:
It's that felt sense of safety, but your connection to God, your connection to other people, your connection to yourself. And so that was all ruptured for me. And I felt it in my body, but I couldn't make sense of it. So I wish that body part would have been addressed. I was really just trying to go into something spiritual and mental and that. And that was all that they're. I mean, this was. We're talking about the 90s, you know.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:59]:
But I do think this is still happening today. It's not. This is not new. I mean, this is. This is not. Yeah, we haven't changed much.

Erin Kerry [00:17:07]:
Well, and I think about Elijah, right? Like God had just shown up and done these amazing things, right? We brought down the fire and you know, all the amazing things, right? And then suddenly he got in his head over Jezebel's going to kill him. And he's spiraling, spiraling, spiraling. And God's address, like, or God's not address. What God did for him, right, was he had him go to sleep and eat a couple times, right?

Heather Creekmore [00:17:34]:
And I will say I also just read because I'm super into numbers right now. I never in my life. It's a totally. But I was reading it when Aaron died. It said the entire house of Israel wept for him for the 30 days. We are not supposed to push through life on autopilot the way we are. And when I was in eighth Grade I was an overachiever. I was trying to make the good grades.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:56]:
I was trying to do all the sports, I was trying to do all the theater. I was trying to do whatever because it made me feel good. It made me feel. And so I would go, go, go. And then I would crash and I would go, go, go. And I never had time for the nap and the meal that Elijah got. I never had time to. To weep.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:12]:
I didn't get to grieve the loss that I experienced when I went through my PTSD episode. When I was nine years old, I watched my grandpa die of anaphylactic shock in my front yard. And nobody was there to save me or him or any of us. And that sat with me for years. And I thought, that's not a trauma. Like that stuff, that kind of stuff happens to people all the time. But it was stuck in my body, right? And so I needed to be tended to. I needed to rest, I needed to just chill.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:41]:
And I didn't get to. And when I did, it was reactionary. It was, I'm gonna sit in my room and write in my journal and write like really depressing poetry and then read books like Jane Eyre non stop for hours at a time. You know, like, I read a lot of Thomas Hardy. I don't know if anybody's an English nerd, but it's the most depressing English literature that you can read. Like, that wasn't good for me or my body, right? But that was my response to what I was experiencing because I didn't know what to do. And so I think, yeah, if we look in the Bible at even. And I'm still kind of processing through this, but the purification laws after you touch a dead body, like, I think those were protective.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:15]:
I know that there is an aspect of, you know, God being holy there. And I'm still trying to. I need to really dig into the actual. I need an Old Testament specialist to help me with this expert, truly, because I'm wondering, so many of these weird Old Testament laws that we don't understand, I know they're for our protection. And so I do think that just experiencing death, experiencing loss for people and experiencing that disruption of safety and connection, that is something we need to be able to grieve and rest from and give ourselves. And we don't do that, especially now. We can watch death real time on the little handheld device on our phone. And so many people did recently.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:50]:
And then they just moved on to the next funny video that is not good for your nervous system. That's not good for your HPA axis, Right.

Erin Kerry [00:19:55]:
Anyway. Yeah, yeah, well. And. And, I mean, this kind of segues, but one of the four things you talk about as, like, a reason for overthinking is to not feel.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:07]:
Yeah.

Erin Kerry [00:20:07]:
Yeah, right.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:09]:
Yeah.

Erin Kerry [00:20:09]:
And. And, I mean, I know I'm guilty of that, right? Like, like you said earlier, right? It's so much easier instead of, like, just being like, wow, this happened and this hurts. I am much more likely to be like, well, maybe this happened because of this and this and this scenario in their life and this thing that happened here. And, you know, this, like, I don't know, like, the way the moon was like, I don't know, like, I'm not that crazy, but. But, you know, like, you just start to come up with things like, oh, maybe. Like, maybe that's why. And then if I can understand why, then I actually don't have to feel hurt because they didn't actually hurt me. They were just, like, a victim of whatever, you know, was going on with them.

Erin Kerry [00:20:52]:
And now I'm a victim of them. And, you know, it's just like, just try to make it make sense instead of just being like, wow, that really.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:01]:
Sucked, and just sitting with it and being okay with feel. We don't want to feel the unpleasant feelings, you know, because it also. There's a guilt sometimes, depending on how long of a Christian you've been and what kind of, you know, Christianity you were raised with. But I think sometimes we feel guilty for feeling fear, for feeling anxiety, for feeling these internal alerts. We feel like it's our fault, and we feel like we're not taking our thoughts captive enough when the reality is God gave us those alerts to turn toward him, right? And to bring to him. We just get so trapped in feeling the yuck that we're like, oh, gosh, what's wrong with me? I'm thinking the same thought again. There must be something wrong with me. Oh, my gosh, I need to go.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:43]:
I need to go see a specialist, right? Instead of going, okay, wait a minute. What is the state of my stress? What is the stress alert telling me about my safety, about my connection? Am I. Am I feeling connected to people in my life right now? Am I feeling connected to God? Am I feeling safe? Am I feeling secure? Am I. Something is off. My body's telling me. And that's not a bad thing.

Erin Kerry [00:22:05]:
Yeah. So how do we help our bodies? Because, like, our bodies are going to feel the fear, right? It's protective. Like, kind of helpful that now that I've been burned a couple times when I open the oven, I remember to get a potholder out. Right? Like those. That kind of fear is helpful, right? And then there's another level of fear, right, where we are really imagining things. You know, the. The classic example, perhaps. And I remember this as a young wife, you know, where.

Erin Kerry [00:22:44]:
Oh, my husband was supposed to be home two or three hours ago. Like, okay, let me go through all the scenarios. And my husband was a fighter pilot at the time. So he was always like, you know, flying. They would be flying. I don't know what they call them, training missions or drills or something like that. Right. So it's like, okay, well, if he's not home and, you know, if he's three hours late, okay, has something happened? Well, if something had happened when they've called me, why haven't they called me yet? Well, it must be really bad because they have to, like, identify the body or, you know, like, you just get that far and.

Erin Kerry [00:23:13]:
But then, you know, go the completely other way. Like, oh, maybe he's having an affair. He met up with someone after work and that, you know, and we didn't have. Fine, my. At the Time or Life360 here. Right. Like, that would have been. I don't know.

Erin Kerry [00:23:27]:
I don't know if that's more helpful or more harmful for the overthinking brain.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:31]:
I still haven't done it for my husband. Because of that. I'm like, I think I will just be checking it too much.

Erin Kerry [00:23:36]:
Well, like a baby mom. It's been helpful with the college students. That's true.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:40]:
I have it for my daughter. Yeah, for sure.

Erin Kerry [00:23:43]:
But. But, you know, so. So some fears aren't as helpful. Right. And then I. I don't know, like, for me, sometimes even, like, he'd get home and I'm like, almost angry. Like, I can't believe all these things you did. And it's like, what? No, I just, like, was stuck at the office in a meeting or something.

Erin Kerry [00:24:01]:
It's like, oh, I guess I can't be mad at you for that.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:04]:
You already wrote the story in your head. Yeah.

Erin Kerry [00:24:07]:
Great. So, like, how do we. How do we calm ourselves down? How do we chill? How do we calm ourselves down?

Heather Creekmore [00:24:16]:
I mean, the first thing I would say, and this is something that I've really had because I'm an overthinker and an overanalyzer and an over intellectualizer, I like to examine the data. So that would be the first thing. Like, what data do I have right now? Do I have any data to believe that what I'm thinking or creating in my head is true. A lot of times I have zero data. And sometimes I can come up with data because I'm so deep into my worst case scenario, well, this happened to this person or this happened the last time. Okay, but do I have any data that that's true today in this situation? And I don't. And so sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't. But just for me as a person who does like the data, who does like to dig into over analyzing things, it's helpful to just stop and examine the data.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:04]:
The other thing I really think is important is to, especially right now with, I think there's just a lot of some of us who are super feelers, right? We feel the weight of the world right now in different ways. I don't know if it's age, I don't know if it's hormones, I don't know what, but I just feel the weight of the world in a different way. And one of the things that I am committing myself to doing more so than ever before, is to start my day with intentionally calming my body down before the day gets started. That's not intuitive to my nature. I am just naturally, I like to run late because it gives me a spike of dopamine. It gives me. And I figured this out, it gives me norepinephrine, it gives me that rush. And so I've always hit the ground running because I feel like if I don't, it's all going to fall apart.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:52]:
But now I'm learning that if I can start my morning by slowing down, my day goes so much better. So that means slowing down in prayer, slowing down and meditation. A lot of us Christians in the modern world, we don't know what it means to meditate on God's word. And so I love talking to people about lectio divina. There's a, there's an app like dio365. I'm sure there are more. But just sitting with a passage and just breathing through it and just letting that passage seep into you and starting with that, instead of I got to do my Bible study, I got to answer the questions. That's head knowledge.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:23]:
That's still all head. Where is your heart? There, right? And so just starting my morning and sometimes it's just journaling. Because I'm a word person, it's easier for me to brain dump. I don't brain dump at night. I brain dump in the morning because I wake up with so much I feel like I have to do. And so that's another thing for me that's really helpful. And then for other people that or anyone who if it's real time stress in the moment. The greatest gift that God has given us through our bodies is to be able to self, I'll use the baby terminology, the parenting terminology, self soothe.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:54]:
Right. We really can by shifting the way we breathe, by shifting our body language. Sometimes even like putting, putting your hand on your heart and taking a big deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth. That thought might still be there, but it might feel a little bit different. We really can shift some of our thinking just by using the physiology that God gave us. That could be taking a nature walk. So you're getting that bilateral stimulation. It can be doing tapping and that's yes that science and psychology.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:23]:
But this is the body that God gave us us to help to work through some of these emotions, these big feelings that feel unpleasant and they're feeling stuck. And so that's way a way to use the body to shift the mind. And I do think when we do those things are we are more open to being receptive to God's word and what God's word has to say. If we just sit and try to think our way, it doesn't always work.

Erin Kerry [00:27:50]:
Well as I understand it, the tapping is really just kind of like, for lack of a better word, like reminding us you have a body, you're right here. Be in this physical space right here.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:02]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean think about all the grounding sensory exercises, things that we do. I, I think too about, I mean all the time. I keep going back to David as an example, but I think in the past they had so much time to sit in nature and kind of wait. We have none of that now in our mind now. They had stressors that I would never be able to withstand, that is for sure. But we have a 247 news cycle. We have text alerts, we have social media, we have all of our regular day to day things that we have to do and it's constant.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:31]:
We have no wait time. I miss the wait time. Do you remember like being at the grocery store and waiting in line and just like chilling. Now everybody's on their phones, right? Or we're like at restaurants or we see all those examples of our Gen Z group, like they're at a party and everybody's just like looking at a phone. That's so crazy. We forget. It shifted so quickly and I don't know if our Bodies know how to respond to that because they. That feels like a threat a lot of times.

Erin Kerry [00:28:55]:
Right? Yeah. I mean, I remember watching this. The. Have you ever seen the series premiere of Little House on the Prairie?

Heather Creekmore [00:29:04]:
Oh, the, the old one.

Erin Kerry [00:29:05]:
The old, like the original. Like the. Before the, the series started.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:09]:
Okay.

Erin Kerry [00:29:10]:
There's a movie and it's them like moving. It's the first move they make right before they get to Walnut Grove. Like the first move they make is. I don't even remember where it was, but. But they made it so far. It's. It's in the little house in the big woods. It's like whatever the first book is series, right.

Erin Kerry [00:29:27]:
And so Caroline Ingalls, okay, so Paul has to go out and like find food and trade and stuff so they can actually like have build a house and stuff. And Caroline Ingalls, like, protects the kids from the attack of the, you know, the Native Americans that were there, right. And then the house catches on fire. She tells like baby Carrie to go lay in the stream so she won't burn. And like. And there was like two other really like big traumatic things that happened. And I'm reading this thinking, like, man, like, I'm pretty messed up after scrolling for five minutes, like, how could I. Like Caroline Ingalls, like, that woman had some PTSD stuff going on.

Erin Kerry [00:30:15]:
But I think what you just said is really important, right? Like to some degree it's not a fair apples to apples comparison because most of Caroline's day was spent being able to live in the present.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:29]:
Right.

Erin Kerry [00:30:29]:
And being outside and working with her hands and you know, like being physically embodied.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:36]:
The circadian rhythm was more balanced. They had natural lighting that. I mean, it just. They went to sleep when the sun went down. It's like all of those things that have shifted for us. We've got these blue lights in our faces and it's. It's disruptive. I think it is disruptive to our physiology.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:50]:
And I think, I mean, have you ever tried to get your kids to watch an old Disney movie compared to like a cartoon? Now my kids can't watch Robin Hood. I loved that as a kid. They get halfway through, they're done because they're watching things like into the spider verse. If anybody sees that. It's like fast paced. Like it makes me feel adhd. I've never been diagnosed with adhd. Probably you have it, but it makes me feel so ADHD watching it.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:11]:
And that is what all of our kids are being. It's just a different pace of life. Life. And it Is different micro stressors that it brings up these perceived threats more where I think, yes, like you said, they had these big major, like they were really like these are life threatening events that were happening for them. But then they had times of peace. We have no time of peace. Like none. So it's, it's a different.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:31]:
It's. Yeah, we can't compare it because it's so different. But I do think it's impacting our physiology for sure.

Erin Kerry [00:31:37]:
Okay, so to tie this up with. And then we're going to talk about your book, but to tie this up with some like tangible takeaways like things I can do today to help my overthinking, we're gonna start with slowing your day down. The beginning of the day prayer meditation. And don't skip that part, friends. Like, I mean, hopefully it's obvious from what we just said. But, but scrolling Instagram does not count as your prayer meditation, even if all the people you follow are Christians. Okay, that's, that's not the same. Scrolling through Bible verse memes is not the same.

Erin Kerry [00:32:15]:
And then what else, Aaron? Is there, is there anything else like that simple. You know, we talked about, you know, getting good rest and being in your body and breathing the breath prayer. I love that. And you, you go into detail about how to do the breath prayer in your book.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:30]:
Anything else in examining the data. And I think that's, that's that Philippians 4 concept, right? Of whatever is true, whatever is honorable. I can never remember the order of the rest of them. Yeah, but it's like, it's truly like, like what is true in this situation? If you need to pop out that verse, like I have to do because I can never, never remember the order. Okay, what is true right now? What is worthy of good repute? Like, like, is this even a thought that I should be dwelling on right now? Is this good for me? Is this good for my body to be dwelling on this? And that's again, that's still in your head though, and you might not be able to get there. And so that's where you might just need to have some daily habits that shift your body into believing your brain a little bit more.

Erin Kerry [00:33:11]:
Yeah, yeah, that's good. And you know, in the, in the I'm sorry episode. So if you haven't listened to that yet, go listen to my apology episode. It's called I'm sorry for leaning on my own understanding. But in that I talk about Philippians and I don't remember if it's in two or four. I Get two and four mixed up. I have a words, but I have numbers. They're not my favorite.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:34]:
It.

Erin Kerry [00:33:35]:
But it was really fascinating. I go through this, in this episode, you know, to get to that. Take your thoughts. Captive verse in Philippians. You know, we can't just pick that one out. And I think that's probably why it's ineffective sometimes, right, because we just pluck that little verse out. But to get to it, you read all about contentment, right. And.

Erin Kerry [00:33:56]:
And it's like, there's a way. You have to be grounded in scripture and in, I think, also in. In the body God made you in before you can get to that. So go. Go listen to that if you haven't listened to that episode yet. Erin, let's talk about your book. It's called Live Beyond. You'd label, and I'll hold it up here for the YouTube audience.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:20]:
That title came out of our conversation.

Erin Kerry [00:34:22]:
Yeah, that's right.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:23]:
I was trying to think of what to title it, and you were like, well, what do you. What do you like to tell people? I'm like, well, I like to tell people not to. To live beyond the label they were given. You were like, well, that's a good title.

Erin Kerry [00:34:33]:
I do remember that. Yeah, they liked it. That's awesome. But. But, you know, to give more context for. For someone who hasn't heard you on the show before. Right. Your story is you were diagnosed bipolar.

Erin Kerry [00:34:46]:
How old were you?

Heather Creekmore [00:34:47]:
18. So first the PTSD, depression, bipolar. Followed. Yeah. By 18.

Erin Kerry [00:34:53]:
And so, I mean. And you've really. I mean, you've done a lot of hard work across a variety of disciplines, shall we say. Right. But your encouragement in this book is that you don't have to. You have the label. Okay? That's my sentence in life, and now I've got to be that. Right? So fill that out.

Erin Kerry [00:35:13]:
What are you trying to encourage people with in Live beyond your label?

Heather Creekmore [00:35:17]:
Yeah, And I think what's really important to distinguish for people is that a label. Getting a label is not a bad thing, and it's in Living Beyond. My encouragement to live beyond your label is not to sit and pretend that your label doesn't exist, that it's not important, that it doesn't bring some kind of value. Because for a lot of people, your label, whether that's diagnostic or a label that you give yourself. Right. We. I mean, because I put it in a whole bunch of different categories, but we have our diagnostic labels that we're given from a doctor, specialist, whatever. We have the labels that we give ourselves that Sometimes can be negative, sometimes can just be neutral.

Heather Creekmore [00:35:50]:
Like, I'm a firstborn, so that's why I do this, right? Like that. It's not bad or good. It's just what it is. I am. I am a firstborn, so I probably try to achieve too much. It's fine. But what happens is, is that those labels can quickly become our identities, and they can become a false identity for sure. And that can keep us away from doing the work that God has called us to do.

Heather Creekmore [00:36:12]:
Because the ultimate. I mean, there are many labels that God gives us, us in Scripture, but one of them, most important, I think, is, is that we are his workmanship. We are called to do good works in him, through him, for him. Right? That's the ultimate label. I mean, I could, you know, you're a child of God, you're redeemed, you're whatever you want. I mean, countless labels in Scripture, none of them are diagnostic. None of them are based on a checklist or lab work or anything like that. None of them.

Heather Creekmore [00:36:39]:
And I would also say that other than saying, you know, you're. You're human and so you have a sinful nature, other than that, the rest of the labels are pretty positive, you know. And so unfortunately, a lot of the labels that we give ourselves are negative. And those negative labels, negative core beliefs, becoming our identity can really create a rupture of what I was saying earlier, of that safety and connection that we want to have in our. In our world and our relationship with God and our relationship with others. And it really can prevent us. Us to live this connected life. Mind, body, spirit.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:10]:
It kind of puts us against. It definitely can put us against our body. I mean, when I was diagnosed, like, well, my body's broken, my brain is broken. Because I didn't just get the diagnosis. I also got a pretty hefty amount of weight gain from the meds they gave me. And so just from a body image perspective, I created a whole new set of labels because I gained a whole lot of weight without changing a thing. And I know a lot of women relate to that. A lot of women are struggling with that.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:35]:
And that becomes negative self talk. That becomes a negative core belief. And it. It just can lead to a powerlessness, a helplessness. And for me, it definitely prevented me from being able to live the life that. That I think God called me to live. And so I'm still working on it, though. And that's what I always want to say is, like, this is a work in progress.

Heather Creekmore [00:37:58]:
So, yeah, I say live beyond your label, but I'm still trying to live beyond mine. Because in the back of my head, when I have big feelings or when I do feel a little bit sad, or when I do feel a little bit overthinking, I'm like, oh, gosh, are those my symptoms coming back right now? It's gotten so much better as I've gotten. I haven't had symptoms, just so everybody knows. I've been symptom free for. I mean, you can ask my husband, but a little over. I mean, he's never seen me manic. He's never seen me truly depressed. He sees my moods shift seasonally because that's just, that's what I do.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:26]:
But he's never seen anything diagnosable. Like he's, he looks at the checklist, he's like, you don't meet any of these. I might on some days, but you don't, you know. And he's a. I'll say he's a licensed therapist. I'll add that in there too. And so he works with a lot of people with labels as well. And we, we hear this languaging and the work I do as a health coach, I hear so much languaging from people that's really preventing them from being able to know what their body needs to be nourished.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:50]:
So.

Erin Kerry [00:38:51]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good.

Heather Creekmore [00:38:53]:
I think I interrupted myself there at some point, but I don't know. You can.

Erin Kerry [00:38:58]:
It was a good interruption. Well, yeah. And so I would say anyone who has a label, like, can you just like some of the labels, like, what are some of these labels that you're talking about? And so I can, if I have that label, be like, oh, there's something in this book for me. Yeah.

Heather Creekmore [00:39:13]:
I mean, anxious is one. Depressed, nervous, high strung, high maintenance, lazy, impulsive. ADHD is a big one. How about perimenopause? Let's throw that one in as a label because we, I mean, that's definitely. At some point, I'm like, can I just, like, can I, can I just be in my 40s and enjoy my 40s without having to attribute everything to perimenopause? Right. I'm kind of. I'm done with it. But yeah, I mean, you name it, worthless, and we can get real negative, powerless, helpless.

Heather Creekmore [00:39:44]:
I think broken is one that a lot of people carry. Unlovable. That's, that's a tough one too. But I mean, you can. And some of those are. They're their core beliefs that have seeped into the identity so much that some People just really can't see anything beyond that label that they've given themselves or that they experience. That's the other thing. It's not that they gave it to themselves.

Heather Creekmore [00:40:07]:
They experienced feeling unlovable for a long time. They experienced feeling powerless for a long time. And so it becomes the identity naturally, because it makes sense to them. And there's nothing wrong with that making sense to you. You. It's just. That is not. That is not who you are.

Erin Kerry [00:40:23]:
Right.

Heather Creekmore [00:40:23]:
That's not who Jesus says you are.

Erin Kerry [00:40:25]:
Right, Right. Absolutely. And you did something unique in this book. Right. Your format is. It's like a little bit of. I don't know, it's a combination of a couple things you want to explain kind of how it's not structural, but it's not just like it's. It's.

Erin Kerry [00:40:44]:
There's a lot of scripture in it, but it's not just like a Christian. Like a traditional Christian book. Like, explain. Explain how you laid it out.

Heather Creekmore [00:40:52]:
Yeah. And that comes from me being a health coach and a former teacher. You know, I want something where it can feel practical and doable, and it kind of feels like you're going on a journey. So I have the book broken up into four parts based on an acronym, because I am a teacher. Former teacher, live. And L stands for learn to address stress. I stands for identify root issues. V stands for add variety to your diet.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:17]:
And that means a lot more than just what you're eating. Just spoiler. E stands for exercise your body and brain. And that's a lot more than just exercise. It's about exercising emotional regulation, exercising good sleep practices. So just so you know, this is not like a how to book, but it is structured in a way that it's giving you a chance to examine some things that are happening in your life. Every single chapter ends with a mind, body, activity, activity that can be helpful for the overthinkers in the room. And I'm raising my hand here, but it's a.

Heather Creekmore [00:41:49]:
It's just a way to integrate your brain and your body with what you're learning. So you're not just given all this information and then it's like, oh, my gosh, I'm doing everything wrong. That was a big, big concern of mine. Writing it is. I wanted my compassion to flow through on the page. My. My number one spiritual gift because of everything I've been through is mercy. And that's hard sometimes to show up in a book where you're.

Heather Creekmore [00:42:11]:
You're putting down so much science and you're Laying down the scripture at the same time. And you're talking about people's mental health and their habits. And it's like, I don't want anyone to think that I'm telling them, you're doing this wrong. So I integrate a lot of my own stories of this is just real life. This is what I've experienced. I have a lot of client composites. I'll say because of hipaa, I, you know, I have had to mix some things up a little bit, but there's a lot of storytelling in there. So that, I mean, my biggest thing is, what am I? My labels.

Heather Creekmore [00:42:38]:
Growing up, I'm alone. That was my label. That became my core belief, that became my identity. I'm just alone. And so for anybody with that label, I'm hoping that this book shows you that you are absolutely not alone. Those crazy thoughts you thought you were thinking are like regular thoughts that we all think and that there's nothing wrong with you in the way you're responding to stress, but there are some ways to shift your body and brain's response to stress and to help support you a little bit. It's not a magic fix. I have a whole chapter on magic fixes because that's, again, another overthinking response is trying to find that one thing that's gonna work.

Heather Creekmore [00:43:15]:
And that's, that's not what I'm. I've seen so much in my. Not have not been in the health coaching world that long compared to a lot of people, but, whew. I've heard some stories. I've seen so many things with different people that I really tried to cover all the bases to help support you exactly where you are.

Erin Kerry [00:43:31]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's a great book. And I mean, this is way back when was that like 2019, 2020, when we had our refocus groups back in the day. But one of the angles that we took then, and this is what you do in the book, and I just want to emphasize it like it's safe for those of you that are weary of books that are just going to tell you to change your diet and then everything else in your whole life is going to change. Now. Erin has great information around nutrition. Right.

Erin Kerry [00:44:02]:
We do have to nourish our bodies well. And there are ways that we can add nutrients that are going to help us. Right. So that's, that's wisdom. But we're not just what we eat. We're also our stress, our sleep, and all of these other things. So we are holistic beings. And, and so I really appreciate that as well.

Erin Kerry [00:44:26]:
It's. It's not if I just cut out gluten than everything else, because I've lived that way. I did just cut out gluten and ran on stress and gluten free foods and it didn't work.

Heather Creekmore [00:44:39]:
Yeah, no, I know. I mean, I have a whole chapter called A Body and Stress Won't Digest, and then another one on body image issues and body piece. Because I think one of the biggest struggles that I see with people I work with and with my own story is that that weight gain that comes from medications, that weight gain that comes from hormonal fluctuations or just. Just from stress and trauma, the body will store to protect you. And I want to be sensitive to that. Your. Your fat tissue is incredible for storing toxins and stress and to help keep you alive. So you have a backup, so you have resources.

Heather Creekmore [00:45:13]:
And I, I just. I think that the conversation needs to just go in a different direction right now. We've heard all that we need to hear about what, what you should be doing and yeah, nutrients. Nutrients matter a lot. I hopefully put a spin on the nutrient conversation that's helpful. I'm working right now on my next book that will be about nutrition for mental health and again, really trying hard to integrate compassion because I think that so many of us are running on empty all the time because of the stress depletes us of nutrients completely. And then we're limiting our calories because we're still being told that that's the best. Like, still in 2025, we're being told that calorie reduction is going to be the best recipe for getting the body that you want.

Heather Creekmore [00:46:00]:
And I'm just. It's very exhausting. And so, yeah, yeah, I hope that I. I explain things in a way that is helpful.

Erin Kerry [00:46:09]:
You do, you do. I was happy to endorse this book. So, Erin, it was good to get.

Heather Creekmore [00:46:13]:
Your words on it. Like, what's Heather gonna say?

Erin Kerry [00:46:17]:
No, I loved it. Okay, friends, go grab this book live beyond your label. Erin Carey. Available everywhere books are sold. Grab it on Amazon, read it, leave her a review. Aaron, where can everyone connect with you? Is there anything, like, going, like, downloads or anything like that that they get if they order now or what's. What's your dealio?

Heather Creekmore [00:46:37]:
Yeah, as of right now, I mean, I have tons of free resources available on. I mean, on Instagram, I'm Sparking Wholeness and I have a podcast called Sparking Wholeness too. So there's a lot there. But if you go to my website erinbcarry.com I have a Food is Mood guide that's really fun. It's about increasing your nutrients to help support your mood. It's not a defi, you know, decreasing thing or taking away thing. It's addition over restriction. As I talk about in the book.

Heather Creekmore [00:47:02]:
I also have and I could send that to you, Heather too, a Mood Reset Assessment and Guide. It's a little quiz that you can take to see what your body needs. I mean it's not again, not a magic fix, but depending on where you are, what you experiencing, it might just give you some more tools in the toolkit.

Erin Kerry [00:47:16]:
Awesome. Well, Erin, thanks so much for being on the podcast today.

Heather Creekmore [00:47:19]:
Yeah, thanks for having me. Fun as always.

Erin Kerry [00:47:21]:
And thank you for watching or listening today. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye Bye. Hey, have you left a review yet? That's the kindest thing you could do for us. If this show blessed you, go to whatever platform you listen to your podcast on and leave us a review today. Compare to you Podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. More great Christian podcasts go to lifeaudio.

Heather Creekmore [00:47:42]:
Com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.