Anxiety is one of the biggest struggles Catholic moms face — and most of us don’t even realize how much it’s running our lives.

In this best-of interview, I sit down with Coach Christina Brown to dive deep into practical strategies for managing anxiety as a Catholic mom.

We talk about:
* How anxiety actually works in your brain (and why knowing this helps)
* Why moms are especially vulnerable to anxiety
* Specific tools you can use today to find relief
* The intersection of faith, brain science, and emotional health

Christina brings both professional expertise and personal experience as a Catholic mom, making this episode informative, practical, and deeply relatable. If anxiety has been stealing your peace, start here.

If you liked this episode, you’ll also enjoy:
 Managing Fear as a Catholic Mom with Lorissa Horn (Pt 1)
 Managing Fear as a Catholic Mom: Practical Tools (Pt 2)
 Tired from Overthinking? Mental Rest for Catholic Moms
         
And if you’re ready for ongoing support — the kind where you’re coached, seen, and held — Mary’s Heart Martha’s Order is where we do this work together. Join us at catholicmomcalm.com/marysheart

Larissa: Yes. If you guys have been listening to our podcast for a while, Christina has been a guest a couple of times and now she is one of our coaches and, doing great work in our program, working and helping us serve. Our members on group coaching calls and as one-on-one clients.

And we are about to launch an intensive coming up in May and June. So an intensive is like an eight week small group experience where we deep dive into a topic, with our members, with a small groups, a small group of women, and just go a little bit deeper into a topic that’s maybe. Impacting or affecting their lives. 

And so we’re really excited because Christina is going to be launching an intensive around the topic of anxiety. So that’s gonna be kicking off in May. We’re gonna talk more about specifically the intensive, here, just a little bit. But, Christina, I just wanted to kind of talk to you because this is a topic. This is an issue that’s very close to you and you know a lot about it. 

And so let’s just kind of talk a little bit about anxiety. Anxiety is something that so many of us deal with. We’re trying to manage it in our own lives, and I think you have some perspectives that can be very beneficial. 

Christina: Yeah, anxiety is something that I think I didn’t realize until I was a bit older that I had dealt with in so many different capacities. I think I knew when I was younger, like the first real bout that I was like, what is going on was probably like when I hit adolescence and puberty and you know, as a woman, you know, starting cycling and all of those type of things and having this kind of Panic and uneasiness. 

And I mean, I have some very distinct memories as probably, you know, 13, 14-year-old young girl of what is this and why is this? I mean, it was like, I didn’t wanna go anywhere. I didn’t wanna do anything. I wanted to just like almost hide, stay in my room. Like I felt like I couldn’t be out and about, and it wasn’t until a lot. Later in my life that I realized, oh, that’s what it was. 

And of course there were tons of hormonal changes going on. and the thing I’ve come to notice, now as an adult woman, and not only working through many different forms of my own anxiety. but working, through with one of my child who’s had severe, social anxiety and, helping my husband with different types of anxiety and dealing, you know, just supporting and walking that journey with other people.

That anxiety can rear its head and look different at multiple, like within the same person as at multiple different stages in life. And so, looking back on that and learning what I have, I was like, oh. What we see on the outside is only one thing, and what is raising, especially within adolescents and all those hormonal changes. 

And we think of our kids, if you have an adolescent child or a high schooler or college kid, and we see them grow from these little, you know, boys and girls that are 8, 9, 10, and then, oh, they shot up, you know, six inches in a year and you know your hemming pants or you’re taking out hems or you’re buying new clothes or you know.

Hips are growing, you know, busts are changing. all of you know, voices are deepening all of those adolescent puberty things. And it was really insightful for me when someone, a therapist that was working with our family at the time said all of those outward changes you’re seeing your son or your kids. Think of how much more is going on the inside, and that can be anxiety producing and we’re trying to keep up with those changes. 

So learning that about my own family, then I could relate back into my life of the different changes that were going on with me, but I didn’t recognize till much later and probably could have used some help and some tools that I’m so grateful to have now in dealing with that during that time.

Larissa: Yes, I think that is the reality of it. I mean, we live in a broken world. We live, we’re dealing with our human. Like our human experience, our humanity, and there’s just a lot going on in our lives and I can’t even, you know, imagine the lives of teenagers today and all that they’re dealing with. 

But I think that’s a good example or a good way to understand it is, yes, we see all of these physical changes, but they are, they’re going through so much. Internally and externally. 

Christina: Yeah. 

Larissa: And dealing with the pressures of school and expectations and a lot of, you know, sports or whatever they’re, passionate about. And that can take its toll. And I think you kind of nailed it when you said, you know, it just, it’s nice to have tools. Because in a lot of ways we don’t learn tools until we’re at a point where we really are. It’s hard to function almost. 

And we’re like, okay, how do we, what do we need to do now? And I think that’s been one of the main reasons that we wanted to create Made for Greatness and Masters is to equip women, Catholic moms with tools that they can use in their day-to-day lives to help manage their mind, manage their thoughts, but then also to be able to help their children.

And so. Can you kind of share a little bit about your journey? I mean, you kind of mentioned like you’ve learned these things about yourself. What have been some tools that have been helpful for you? 

Christina: Yeah, I think a lot of just our life coaching tools and coming into working with a one-on-one coach and then going into being trained as a life coach myself has been so life changing and so helpful.

And I know I’ve shared that on, you know, my own podcast as well as podcasts and interviews with you and other people as well, that gaining those tools from understanding. How the Lord has created our mind and that we are actually in charge of our mind and not a victim to our thoughts, gave me so much encouragement and empowerment of going.

Oh. These thoughts are actually mine and I can take responsibility to them. And the Lord has a process of what St. Paul says of taking all thoughts captive to Christ. And so there is a measuring stick that’s out there of how, what thoughts we enter into allowed to enter into our mind as well as allow to be there and think about.

And you know, you might recall like your parents saying, I remember my dad always saying well, garbage in, garbage out. And I kind of was like, what? You know, we can filter that, whatever, and we can. If we’re aware of it. 

And, but then we also take the responsibility of what we do let in and how we speak to ourselves, how we allow ourselves to think gaining those tools through learning the model of what we teach in Masters. 

And what I was trained in, as a life coach at the Life coaching school just really showed me how this aligns with what the Lord. Calls us to do and how he wants us to teach, that and teach our own brain, and train our own brain into that by taking our thoughts captive. 

So, and there’s tools on how to take our thoughts captive and a lot of great ways Yes. Does start in scripture. I really love scripture of finding the command that the Lord gives us. if it’s about our thinking, of holding our thoughts captive to Christ and then questioning, okay, if there. If he’s giving us a command, there’s usually a how to moment within scripture, and then a promise that’s made in that way.

So I like using scripture as a tool. I like just using the model in general as a tool of, you know, what am I thinking? And that thoughts gonna produce in emotion. That’s gonna drive an action and have results. And then do I like those results? Is that the way, the result that the Lord wants me to have in my life?

And if not, I need to go back again and reexamine my thinking. And it’s not that we think all of our anxiety away, but we start to recognize. Maybe where that’s coming from, because usually anxiety is a type of feeling and then it can resonate in a lot of different types of feeling of either, you know, panic or fear or stress or overwhelm.

And if we can take those different times and start to slow down and desire to recognize when those feelings come up. Okay, what am I. Thinking at this time, where was I peaceful and last and now I’m not. So what was I thinking when I was peaceful versus what I’m thinking now? 

Can start to bring awareness to either our actions or our different thoughts that are going on to be able to, in the end, hold that thought to cap to Christ. Would Christ want be speaking to me that way? I like to ask myself, would I speak to my daughters that way? And if I wouldn’t, why am I allowing that thought or that speech to myself to happen that way? 

And it can kind of calm down to go. Okay. I’m allowing some of this to happen. So some of this anxiety I’m allowing to come in and how now can I recognize that? And then move into other tools we talk a lot about, you’ve talked to Larissa on some of yours about recognizing fear and how to like just really name fear. And how to calm our brains down when we’re scared. 

So I like losing a lot of those techniques too, of just recognize, okay, I’m fearful here, but this fear can’t hurt me. And recognizing our fight or flight symptoms in that way of do I wanna run away right now? Am I just freezing right now? What is my body wanting to do? 

And usually that’s calming down, like the lizard part of our brain, the brain stem part that. Every, you know, creature has, but then they don’t have more of that, us as humans. Then we have a mid brain and we have a front of prefrontal cortex and all of those things. 

But first we have to start at that primitive level of recognizing, okay, I’m starting to have anxiety. I’m panicking here, or I’m feeling really overwhelmed and stressed and then just naming it and not trying to avoid that, but naming that, recognizing that’s how our brain was created, was to keep us safe.

And we’re probably in a safe situation. We’re not like on a brink of death, but we have to tell ourself that Okay, I’m safe. There’s nothing here that can hurt me. These are just thoughts that I’m having. And when we can recognize those thoughts, then we can move up into something that I like to practice of like just connecting.

If it’s, you know, touching my hands, if it’s putting my hand on my chest, if it’s, something tangible, picturing a peaceful place and doing some breathing with that, because we’ve recognized the fear. We’re trying to calm down, recognize we’re not in danger, and find something tangible either, you know, touching ourselves in a calming manner.

Maybe it’s a cozy blanket. Maybe it’s picturing that, you know, for me it’s the beach and the ocean is just very calming, like lapsing waves, or like rainstorms, things like that. So now we can move up into that midbrain part where okay, alright. I can feel where I’m at. I’m calling myself down. I usually bring some breathing in. Where we’re inhaling like to account in our head. Like maybe four and then holding it for a second, then exhaling to a count of five. 

And we do that maybe for 30 seconds, you know, over and over. So now that we have done that, we can move into our prefrontal cortex, and we’re in the process now of being able to make decisions again and respond.

So we’ve gone through all of those different steps, to move into that decision making process and hopefully calm out of that anxiety or out of that panic. So I like to incorporate a lot of those are tools that have helped me and I’ve learned over the years, and they do take time to practice and learn and bring awareness to put into practice in the times that you might be going through bouts of anxiety.

Larissa: Yeah. I think, I mean that’s a great glimpse at kind of what you’re gonna be taking these women who are in the, kinda on that journey of really, I think so much of it is self-awareness. Recognizing the thoughts and, then bringing in some different techniques that. You know, a, toolbox approach of what can we do to, you know, I like to think of anxiety in a way as almost like the way I describe it for myself is kind of this tornado of negative thoughts.

All happening at once is swirling so fast inside of me, and it creates this kind of firestorm of emotions because, you know, as we know, every time we have a thought, we have an emotion. And so it has a physical reaction inside our bodies. And so if you’re having a lot like boom boom boom, really fast, this firestorm of thought of negative thoughts, of course it makes sense that your entire nervous system is gonna get over.

It’s like again, it’s like this tornado in your nervous system all going off at once and it’s a terrible experience, particularly if you have an anxiety attack or something like that. My, I think I have always as well, I mean, when you’re kind of talking about your story, I can look back in my own past and see how anxiety has affected me, even though I didn’t have, I didn’t know it was anxiety that time.

But I ended up having, what I thought was, I thought I was having a heart attack with my fifth child. And I went to the hospital. I was convinced I was having a heart attack, had all the symptoms of a heart attack, and they ran a bunch of tests and everything was fine. Thank goodness, but my doctor said, Larissa, I think what you experienced was an anxiety attack.

And he said the anxiety attacks very much mirror the symptoms of a heart attack and you know, difficulty breathing, intense. Weight on your chest, your limbs go numb, everything, all of that. And so it was at that point that I started to really start to be more aware of anxiety. 

I also remember for years,  my husband telling me, like my mind would just race, especially at night, just race through all like the worst case scenarios and worrying about the kids and worrying about what might happen and kind of being plagued in fear. But I could feel like I would have a hard time sleeping a lot because my mind would just be racing. From one negative thought to another. 

And it would make me so frustrated because he would tell me, he would say, Larissa. Just shut your brain off, shut it off. And I was like, because he just had this wave of oh, I’m gonna just go to sleep and not even worry about a thing while I was like laying awake till three in the morning.

Christina: Sure. 

Larissa: Night after night. And I took, I mean, I would get frustrated. I would be like, oh, I would give anything to just shut my brain off. I would give anything to be able to just do that. If there was a switch or something. 

But it wasn’t until I learned the model and learned these tools that became the answer to my prayer because I took that to God and to our blessed mother like so many times. Day after day, week after week. Please help me. I’m spinning in these negative thoughts. I would take it to confession. Why can I not stop this? 

Christina: Right? 

Larissa:  And I would write that scripture passage, take captive your thoughts. And I would be like, How do I do this? And then finally the answer came in these tools.

Christina:  Yes. 

Larissa: Slowing down the thoughts. You know, stepping back, looking at ’em, plugging them into the model, processing through them. And that was really the, I mean, it was so life changing for me. ’cause I was like, oh my gosh, Now I feel like I have control over them. And now, you know, my husband, he’s every night, how do you fall asleep so fast?

I’m like out. I do not. It is a very rare that I ever stay awake for some reason. Do I walk myself through a model, but I have so much more peace, and this is the peace that I believe our Lord wants to give to us. And there are tools and our faith is so rich. If we just kind of tap into scripture, to the sacraments and to utilizing the tools that God has shared with us, that we’ve learned, at least in life coaching to start applying this all. So. 

Christina: Yeah, I think it’s so great and I love how even you say to give us peace and what does the scripture say that he was, he wants this to give us the peace that will guard our heart and mind in Christ Jesus. But before that, in the scripture, it talks about not being anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything.

But through prayer and petition with Thanksgiving. So see, we’re told not to be anxious. We’re told we’re supposed to pray, we’re supposed to ask the Lord, we’re supposed to give thanks. And then he promises the peace. And I was just coaching with somebody on that earlier, Is peace always available?

Yes. ’cause peace is a gift of the spirit. And we can go there, we can choose peace. It’s something we can actually choose. It’s not just happiness. that’s fleeting, you know? And. It’s here because that’s what the Lord wants to offer us. And our God is not somebody who’s trying to hide himself from us.

Our God isn’t somebody who’s trying to dupe us. You know, our God wants us to be confident and he wants us to be peaceful. He’s not trying to confuse us. And so I think a lot of this too comes to how do I? How do I know the Lord’s voice? How do I learn about how God speaks to me? 

And I love how Sterling speaks a lot here on Master two when she talks about discerning the voice of the Lord is that we didn’t have to know if it’s our voice. We don’t have to know if it’s the world’s voice. We don’t know if the know if it’s the devil’s voice. We just need to know if it’s God’s voice or not. 

And I think that comes to anxiety because when we can use that tool of holding our thoughts captive. Sitting and bringing awareness to that, then we can understand, okay. The Lord tells me not to be anxious. The Lord says we shouldn’t worry that everything’s being taken care of like that. He cares for us if he takes care of the birds of the air. If he knows all the hairs on our head, if he knows all that, then. We need to go to how we should be thinking. 

And then once we can recognize how we should be thinking, we can utilize those tools of the how to do it part, because right, we can know all these scripture and like you were saying, but like then how, and that’s where we can delve in and what we’re gonna do in this tense to delve into that.

But if we haven’t trained our brain even to what the Lord’s commanding, that’s where we have to start and to know how we’re, what we’re being told to do by our Heavenly Father and how he wants to take care of us. We have to start at that basis and then be able to move forward, if that makes sense.

Larissa: It does. I mean, he is, he has to be at the heart and the center and the forefront of all of it. and when we put him in that place and we really dive into his commands and what he’s telling us and why he wants to give us this piece, I mean, it has to start there, and then he kind of opens the door for all the other. 

Christina: Right

Larissa: Other things. So I love it. I love it. So let’s talk a little bit about this intensive. If anyone’s listening and thinks, you know, gosh, either I struggle with anxiety, I wish I could have this kind of peace. I wish I had the tools to take captive my thoughts for Christ and really feel equipped to do this. or maybe it’s and or I have somebody in my family, my husband, my children. That are really struggling with anxiety. 

I think, you know, I don’t wanna make this total generalization, but I just know that our kids pick up so much from us. So if we’re anxious, they’re, it’s probably, they’re gonna maybe pick up on some of that if we’re able to do this work and be calm. That’ll probably have a big impact on them.

And of course every child is different and kids struggle with different things. But if we’re able to model for our children what it looks like to be able to do this work and to take captive our thoughts, and then to be able to help them with the tools as well, what a gift and what an amazing set our children up for how to manage their thoughts. 

Christina: Yeah. I think that’s the hardest thing in some ways is what, when, if we haven’t experienced it, it is a challenge and it’s a challenge to be sensitive on and I can get very, Almost soapboxy with people who haven’t gone through, you know, anxiety or haven’t, you know, and then they’re trying to support or something else.

And we have to be very careful there because. Anxiety, like I said in the beginning, looks different for everyone and, but if you’re, you know, I think for me, I started recognizing it more as I got older, like as I entered into married life or was dealing with starting to have kids at a young age. I was a young mom, like we had kids right away, and not a lot of my friends had that.

And so I didn’t feel like that lot of support. And so it, I’d wake up with that like trepidation of I. Ugh, what’s gonna happen today? Or, ugh, can I get through this? And then as my kids got older, and I was just talking with one of our group coaching calls today and about going into spring.

And I just, I remember just a few years ago before learning this, like going into spring, going, oh my gosh. And feel like I’m white knuckling through my life of I have to take, you know, Joey to soccer and I gotta take Ava to dance and I gotta take, you know, I have to get them there. And then where are we going to eat and what are we gonna do? And like you’re talking about your mind spinning. 

And I just felt like it was like, okay, here we go. And it was like jump and almost like this drowning where your head’s like barely above the surface and starting to recognize like, that was anxiety and I didn’t wanna be living my life that way on this gerbil wheel of going all the time. And then you know, moving into learning tools like we’ve talked about, of controlling our thoughts.

But then as my oldest son started having. Severe bouts of anxiety and coming to us with depression and then seeing, like you talked about your panic attack, seeing his full blown panic attacks where he was a six foot boy and couldn’t get him off the floor, or could him get him out of bed or couldn’t like I couldn’t, physically couldn’t and he was missing lots of school and he was.

Couldn’t process and get things done. Like that’s when it was like, okay, now it went from this anxiety that I’ve dealt with that I could deal with. I didn’t like how I was dealing with now. I need to, we need to get help for him, plus we need help and we need tools. And then, and seeing how with his therapist and him becoming. More emotionally regulated than he was.

And learning those tools and moving into life coaching of how to recognize when somebody else isn’t going through that, like I think the biggest thing we do is you know, man up or put your big girl pants on and just go do it. And they really can’t. 

And when our, when we’re like, when I talked about like the different levels of your lower brain, your midbrain, your upper brain, and when we’re not in that prefrontal cortex part of our brain, we can’t process. And that person you’re trying to support and help, can’t either. 

So no matter what we’re saying or doing, and we think it makes sense to just snap out of it. You can’t until we calm and go through all those levels to get to the point of processing. So, and it’s, I think there’s also a sense of we can cope with anxiety, but when we’re working with that person in our life too, that in some ways that anxiety, if it’s a diagnosed disorder. May never go away. 

That person will know how to function and can get the tools they need to function either, you know, with a therapist and different tool helps maybe through coaching like we’re doing here, we’re helping people at, you know, different levels of anxiety. But if these are big blown anxiety issues like. That’s when we need some professional help there. Of course. Like we’re not equipped in that way to deal with those big ones. 

But also having that expectation, on that other person that it’s just gonna go away with time is kind of like telling somebody with a wheelchair that. You won’t need that wrapped ramp to the front door. After a while, you’ll just figure out how to kind of maneuver it. 

And so that’s where that sensitivity comes in and we, being the support people need to learn those tools of how to sit with that person, how to talk to that person, how to maybe kind of distract and get that person in the midst of an anxiety or panic.

So a lot of these different types of tools, we’ll be going in more in depthly, in the intensive. We’ll be, you know, working through where we can, give each other support. We can coach one-on-one. We can dig into is it you dealing with anxiety? Is it your kids or your husband? You know, what techniques have you tried?

What are some things that we can try and do? in a different way to bring some different perspectives. I loved this. Like I love the idea of coaching of someone else outside of it, having a look at it. Where, ’cause when we’re in it, it’s like the horse with the blinders on, right? We have this just like pinpoint. This is the only trajectory it can do.

And the beautiful thing. Coaching in general is just somebody you know is up in your press box and they can see the whole field or they’re in, you know, different corners of the ball diamond or, you know, if you’re a dancer, you know, you can only see the mirror, but your instructor can see behind you to the side of you all over.

And that’s kind of coaching. And so when we can apply that to the diamond, to the, sorry, to anxiety, I think of it like a diamond. Somebody gave me this other idea. It’s okay, a diamond has all these different facets on it. And if we turn it just a little bit, like the light hits it differently, it shines in from a different way, you know, it gleams in a different way.

We see something that we haven’t seen before. I’m like, I’m gonna so use that. That’s such a great example of a diamond with all these different things. And when you look at it from a different angle, you see some beauty or something’s exposed that hasn’t been exposed. 

So with this intensive. We’re gonna meet weekly. We’re gonna have some instructions on what the theme is. What, go over questions. There’s a workbook that’s involved. Then do one-on-one coaching on with these group calls of what’s affecting you? What are you bringing? Why are you here? And how we can then do some teaching and toolbox and dive into all these things by applying scripture, applying toolbox.

Is it ourself? Where, what level are we at? Who is it that we’re trying to support? You know, what works for kids? Very different, like we said, with all the changes versus what’s working for adults. So that is what I think this intensive is gonna be and really just learning how, like we titled it from fear to faith and anxiety Intensive for Catholic moms, just because we are all dealing with anxiety at a certain point.

But our Lord doesn’t call us to be. Fear, right? Our Lord calls us to faith, to hope, to trust, to love in him and his promises, and to hopefully then be able to cultivate peace in our own mind and in our own home and our own relationships. 

Larrisa: Awesome. Awesome. I love it. I mean, I think that’s perfect and this was really kind of our hope and our desire for wanting to put this anxiety intensive together. We’ve heard from a lot of our members in Masters that. You know, anxiety is a topic that comes up in group coaching quite a bit. 

And so we wanted to create an opportunity for women to come together to be part of this small group experience. And again, to dive into these tools and to these resources and get specific coaching on this.

With the hope that. At the end of the eight weeks, that  women are really feeling like they are more equipped to manage their anxiety and to help those in their lives that might be struggling with it as well, and to really feel like, gosh, okay, I’m walking away from this knowing that. 

I know what to do when I start to feel the panic start to rise or I start to feel overcome with fear or I notice my, you know, teenage daughter or son doesn’t wanna go somewhere because of some social anxiety or whatever it happens to be. And how can I walk them through that a little bit? 

Because really, when we learn these tools, it’s about freedom. We get freedom, we get to, do more of the things we wanna do. We get to enjoy life more and not be so constricted to the thoughts that are swirling. Yeah. And I think that’s what God wants for us.

So, if this is resonating with you at all, to our listeners that might be listening right now. We wanna invite you to come and be a part of the intensive. And you’ll be journeying with Christina and. Working with her, getting coached with her. We’re gonna have a private Slack channel. 

So not only do you get the weekly calls, but you’ll have extra support in the Slack channel for questions and building community with a small group that’s going through this together. And Christina will be popping in there. And, answering questions and stuff like that. Anything else you can think of, Christina? 

Christina: Yeah, I think. I just wanna speak to the communal aspect of it and the building, the community. ’cause I know anxiety can be a very sensitive topic, which can make it also very lonely and very isolating and. I don’t think I know we will be just like unfolding that, especially in our children.

And especially in our, I know a lot of women, a lot of stay at home moms, like all of a sudden these things come up. Right. but there’s something about. Being in community and sharing, like we see this, Larissa and I, Sterling, we all see this. When we coach like that, even if you’re not the one sharing at the time, there’s so much to be gained from those who are being coached. 

And just like in anxiety, I think in building community even more so when you hear other people are struggling with similar things. It takes, it breaks down those walls of loneliness and there becomes a system of support and encouragement. And I think that’s what I’m really excited to foster within our master’s community, within this intensive of creating this small group of environments that we’re not alone. 

We’re here to pray for one another. We’re here to journey together. We’re here to support one another because we need that. Because even though our situation might not be exactly like somebody else’s. There’s so much to learn from them and us also sharing is helping others learn from us too. And yes, there’s a level of vulnerability, but there is a safety in that.

And, knowing that you’re with like-minded people that are praying for you and wanting to be with you. So I’m excited to be in the Slack group. I’m excited to be, you know, leading this intensive and walking with these women. I’m excited the community that will come from it. 

And the faith that will come and can overcome that fear as we, you know, grow personally in our own journey with anxiety, but also in the support of others. And the tools that we can bring is just gonna, I mean, it’s just gonna have such a huge impact on our families and then on the world as we equip ourselves and our family members with this of ugh. It just gets me really excited in that way. 

Larissa: I know. I can tell. And it makes me excited too to think about. of course. I mean, that was the whole reason we wanted to create Masters to begin with, is to help women walk closer with the Lord, to be guided by the Holy Spirit and to, again, to feel equipped that they can do this. 

And of course, the community is so important. We were made for community. God made us to walk together. And as women a lot of times as busy Catholic moms, it’s very easy to get just pulled into day-to-day life. And we, unless we’re intentional about. Getting connected. Sometimes we lose track of the community.

I mean, we might go to mass on Sundays, which is of course great and maybe we’re involved in the church to some degree, depending on kind of how old our kids are and what they’re doing. But gosh, this is an incredible opportunity to journey with other like-minded Catholic moms. Who are saying, yes, I’m ready to dive into this.

And I want some freedom around anxiety. I want to feel like I’m supported, that I’m learning tools and resources and that I’m not alone. So is there anything else, Christina, you wanna add to that? 

Christina: No, just come join us. You can tell how excited Larissa are, and I’m excited to meet you and to walk this journey with you and know that I’m just praying for you. I’ve been praying, I’ve been creating this workbook for the last few months, and as I do it, as I’m on here for this interview now, as I prepare in the next few weeks to start that, we’re praying for you.

We’re praying for the women that the Lord’s just putting on your heart to come join the intensive. Because God has great things in store and I don’t think things are done by chance. God puts things in our lives for a purpose. 

And so I encourage you if you feel that tug in your pole and nudge it, take that to prayer and know maybe this is the Holy Spirit working in your life and that we’re excited. I’m excited to journey with you and I just personally invite you to come and be part of this ’cause there’s just freedom, like Larissa said, that’s in store for this.

Larissa: Right. And I would also, if you do, if you’re starting to feel a little bit of a nudging, gosh, maybe I need that. I also want you to pray because one of the things that I’ve experienced particularly about being involved in a small group experience is so often we go in it with what am I gonna get out of it? Without even realizing how maybe God might also want to use you as an instrument. as well. 

And so I just know right now that God is in the process of strain on some hearts, and he’s gonna invite an amazing group of women to participate in this. And each one of them, by participating, they’re gonna get, everybody’s gonna get so much out of it, but they’re also going to give to the group in such a way that they’re necessary, like they’re gonna be a necessary. Part of this group experience and they’re gonna be a blessing to the other women in it. 

And so I just want you to be thinking too, because maybe God might be inviting you to be a part of this. Not only for what you can get, but what he might be inviting you to give. yourself to others and, to also just be that support and an instrument of him in this. Because that’s what happens when we as women come together. 

Like you just said, Christina, you know, it’s really powerful to watch another woman get coached. You learn so much from it. But then even just when we’re, when we come together as women and we share what’s on our hearts, when we share our struggles, when we share experiences that we’ve had to walk through, that can just be so life-giving and healing.

As we open up and we share that with each other, and then we all of a sudden realize, oh gosh, I’m not the only one. I am not. I’ve had a similar experience, or I’m so glad this woman said that or shared that, because that’s a nugget that I’m gonna walk away with. And, maybe apply to my own life. So really, this whole intensive experience is meant to be interactive. And a gift and a blessing to everyone.

Christina: So yes, anything at all, I’m just excited to see all of you there. Thank you so much for having me, Larissa. 

Larissa: Thank you, Christina. We’re praying, right now for this intensive in this group and we know that it’s gonna be life giving and that God is already blessing it. So that’s all we have for you today. Remember, mamas, you are not made for comfort. You were made for greatness, and we can’t wait to talk to you again soon. God bless.