Getting Geared Up!

Hello, hello, hello! I'm actually live from my car. So if you normally come on here, you know that the live actually isn't live until about 7, and it's not usually a live— it is a live release of something that's been pre-recorded. But I'm actually here right now. Um, y'all wouldn't believe what what was happening to me if I told you. Um, but it's okay, it's okay. I am actually jumping on here before the live release of the pre-recorded to come to you for reals, um, because I wanted to share something with you. The first thing you need to know right now is I'm I'm actually locked out of my house, but that's okay. It's a whole thing, and I'll fix it as soon as I finish with this. It wasn't— it was an accident, but this is totally reminiscent of how things go in my life. Have you ever locked yourself out of your house? Anyway, if you are here and you're in the inner circle um, drop your yellow circle for me because I'd love to know that you're here. It's always good to know that I'm not here by myself. Somebody said I'm frozen. Am I? Because if I am, y'all tell me now. I actually, um, am jumping in here because I have a couple things I want to make sure you know about. Um, the first one is, um, I am getting close to 75,000 subscriptions on, uh, YouTube, which is crazy. Um, she said you're not here. No, I'm not here. I'm not frozen. Okay, just making sure. Yeah, we have the thing, but the thing is out of batteries. So yeah, so anyway, so this is not as smooth or as beautiful as my lives are. As you can see, I keep moving the laptop. Um, okay, so the reason why I was here, first of all, is— first of all, there's going to be another video at 7 o'clock Central, so So that's the first thing. I am here doing extra, doing the most, okay? I am live normally every morning on Mondays with the Inner Circle, and then we share the buttoned-up version here. Y'all, it's almost November, like November of 2022. Like, if you were born in the early 2000s or the 1900s or, you know, like 1970-something, 1990-something. This was a date that seemed sci-fi, you know? It was like way out in the future. So here we are in the future, and the holidays are about to be here. Um, and then we just slip and slide till the end of the year. That's what happens. And if you've been around for any length of time, you know that the holidays are hard for me. I love them. But it's like special event times 17 because there's a million things happening in a span of 2 months. I'm looking at some things I'm going to do to shift that narrative in my life, but that's okay. Um, I am also thinking about, um, what we're going to be doing on the inside of the Inner Circle. We have, um, some of you already know there's a 28-day prayer challenge Bible study going on, and Faith Gateway is putting that on, and I'm happy that we're able to do that together. But also, um, I am getting to start up a 21-day, uh, gratitude journey inside of the Inner Circle. And you know, there's a lot happening, um, always, but I'm always trying to make sure that you have the option, the opportunity to focus your mind on living your life with intentionality, because there is so much in this world that will keep you focused on other things, other things that are good, other things that are important, but that might be distractions to what is the most important thing in your life. So, um, I wanted to tell you we're getting geared up for the holidays, but what does that look like? Um, it looks like I went to Costco today, y'all, loaded up, and I ended up buying a bunch of stuff I don't need. So you can see this box right here, right there, it's full of clothes. You know when you leave Costco and you're like, can you put all those little things in a box? Because, you know, you're glad for the prices, but then you have to load your car a million, in a million pieces, and then unload your car in a million pieces. It's like, can you give me a box? But I saw all this cheap, great clothing and I was like Do I need to get dressed at Costco? That might be it. You probably already know I have issues getting dressed. Um, when I do get dressed, I'm proud of myself. Um, here's a little photo I took of myself recently, and I thought I looked fairly decent, you know. Um, but I was in all black, all black, all the way down. And you know what? You know what? I was happy. I was happy to be in all black. So, uh, but I found some like cheap clothes at Costco, like some good pants, some pants, some joggers, some jackets, some pajamas. I bought some pants for the boys. They're probably going to be like, Mom, uh, Costco? Yes. What, you got a problem with that? So, um, but I was at Costco doing my darndest not to buy a bunch of stuff I don't need because I, you know, even though you need it for Thanksgiving, you have to store it until Thanksgiving, and then you have to store it until Christmas. And I was doing my best not to buy the whipped cream and doing my best not to buy the, um, the extra creamer and doing my best not to buy the brownie mix. I did walk away with some semi-sweet chocolate morsels because why not? Doing my best, you know, not to get the things that I have to store. I didn't need the 10-pound bag of rice just yet, you know. It's like, just hang in there, Chrystal Hurst. Hang in there. I didn't need the 5 flats of eggs just yet. I went in there for some things that we needed. It was time to restock some things. I defrosted my freezer, so it was time to put some things back in it. But I was resisting the urge to buy all the things because The holidays are coming, but they're not quite here yet. Does anybody else have to fight that urge of all the things you know you're gonna have to get? I remember my mother, when the holidays would approach, would do things little by little, you know, so she wouldn't have to do a big haul at the grocery store. She would just put a little extra on a grocery order here, a little extra on a grocery order there, and, um, yeah. And then that got her going. But I went today and had to resist the urge. Let me tell you what else I have to resist the urge to do. I have to resist the urge— let me see— to complain. I was at Target today. I saw this this book. This picture of me smiling in the aisle, and it was cute. It says, okay, fine, I'm grateful. It's like a gratitude journal. It's cute, pretty red, like, look, jumped out at me from the rack. I have to resist the urge to buy stuff out in these streets. You go to Target and Target tells you what to buy. I went to Target because somebody on Instagram in a story, in a reel, was talking about some pants some work sweatpants. So I went all the way to Target just to go look for these pants. And lo and behold, the pants were there in my size, so I bought them. I didn't get anything else, but I had not even planned to go to Target. And here I am watching somebody's reel telling me to go to Target and buy some pants. We're going to see if they fit and if they feel good, and then I'll decide if I take them back or not. But the reality is we are always having to resist the urge to do something. Maybe it's spend more money than we make. Maybe it's not to say what we really want to say, because if we say what we want to say, it might be damaging. Uh, we have to resist the urge to eat what we want to eat whenever we want to eat it. We have to resist the urge to sleep in when we need to get up and go to work. We have to resist the urge to do things that we might normally want to do that aren't actually really good for us. Right? It's true. Let me see, what else did I want to show you? Nope, I didn't want to show you that. Wrong photo, folks. Oh yes, here. Don't tell anybody I showed you myself in a bathing suit. So, um, this is me at a coffee shop yesterday. I stayed there a large portion of the day. I really enjoyed reading writing, eating, thinking, journaling, just being by myself. I was there, y'all. I was supposed to be out of town this week. I didn't go, so I had permission to still have a mini vacation. I was there from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and, um, it didn't feel like enough time. It didn't feel like enough time. You know, we have to resist the urge. I have to resist the urge to do what I feel like doing when there are people that depend on me, responsibilities that require something of me, um, goals that I have that require that I keep doing things I don't feel like so that I can reach them. Yesterday, I intentionally took some time to be by myself, and I'm— truth be told, I'm doing a little bit of that today too. But most of the time, I don't do that. I don't do that every day because I have children who need schooling. I have dishes that need doing. I have meals that need cooking. I have, um, bills that I need to take care of. I have work that needs to be done. And so we don't just do what we feel like doing. Because that wouldn't be very adultish, would it? We realize that there's something greater for showing up to the things that require us to do so than how we feel in a moment. So every now and then you let it out, but for the most part you hold it together because that's what we do. This has nothing to do with anything, but I just want to show you this beautifulness right here. This is stupid, isn't it? It's like stupid beautiful. Why is she stupid beautiful? Oh my gosh. If you don't know, that's grandbaby number 4. She's just a doll. What was I saying? I was saying Feelings don't dictate. So one of the things that I have been thinking about, um, as we roll into November is, um, gratitude. We decided earlier in this year to make gratitude our 21-day journey in the Inner Circle. Um, again, if you're here, when you comment, drop your yellow circle so I know it's you. But we're in there doing what we need to do. Gratitude, it used to be something that you just do, right? But let me tell you why so many of us don't do it. Because we are tempted based on our wiring to see what we don't have, then focus on what we do. We are tempted to want what has been withheld from us instead of being thankful for what we already have in our hand. We are wired to crave incessantly, and the world we're living in doesn't make that hard. We are constantly being bombarded by messages that tell us what we need to work to attain, how we can compare ourselves to the Joneses, who represents a family we don't even know. And all of these things, whether it's the things, whether it's relationships, whether it's our own achievements, we are encouraged everywhere we turn to want more. Gratitude is a practice that when you choose to do it, it puts things in correct perspective, but you may not always feel like it. Now we're gonna say on Thanksgiving Day what we're thankful for, right? You're gonna be bombarded with messages of Thanksgiving because it's part of the marketing scheme. But leading up to it, as we slide down the slippery slope to the holidays, even if you know you're supposed to be grateful, are you exercising the practice of it? So one of the things that's important to me to do is to encourage you to do stuff you kind of already know. Like, sometimes, y'all, I feel like a broken record because I'm saying things that I know you already know. I know you already know you're supposed to be grateful. I know this, I know this, but we know things that we don't do, right? And so the reason why I'm here every week, podcast, videos, all that, is um, because I want to remind you or encourage you in the things you already know, or share some things with you that you may not already. One of the reasons I do that is because I've been doing it a long time. I've always been trying to be here to remind you of things. So this is me reminding you, don't wait until Thanksgiving Day. Like, start now. Start now and decide for each day starting with November the 1st right up into Thanksgiving to find something to be grateful for. At least one thing, multiple things, because gratitude changes you. This is the thing, it changes your perspective. So the reason why I'm here, but also the reason why we have the Inner Circle, is because we know that life happens and you may or may not, you may or may not Remember to do the things that you're supposed to do. We just finished— we're not finished— we provided new courses, new pathways to prepare for the holidays. They were self-paced. They were for grief and loneliness or singleness or, you know, just what do you have to do to prepare for being with your family as those holidays come to a close or close in on us? Because we know We need to get our minds right for the holidays. And yet and still, we still seem to somehow get caught off guard, right? Well, the same can be true of gratitude. We know we're supposed to do it, but we don't always. And the reason why it's so important is because when you do it, it changes you. It creates a capacity in you for you to see what is good in your life. And when you see what is good in your life, you create a greater capacity to receive more of that because you're looking for it. Right? I am thinking about what car I may want to get when this car, my current car, goes away because I love it. But we are, we are pushing it. I'm so grateful not to have a car payment, so we gonna push it to the limit. But I am starting to think about when it's time for me to get a new car, what kind of car would I want? I've been driving a minivan for over 15 years. I went to go look at a couple of cars, and actually one car I found out about because I was traveling, and I drove it as a rental, and I really liked it. Then all of a sudden, after I drove it as a rental, y'all, I saw that car everywhere. Everywhere. I saw it everywhere when I was out of town. I saw it everywhere when I got back home. I see it everywhere on the internet. I see it everywhere. Did that car suddenly multiply and become more plentiful over all the earth? No. You wanna know what happened? I focused on it. And when I focused on it, I saw more of it. This is what happens with gratitude. When you focus on what's good in your life, what you need to be thankful for, you see more of what's good in your life. And when you see more of what's good in your life, it changes the capacity that you have to ponder what is wonderful and how more of that wonderfulness can be in your everyday. It's about your perspective. So many of us reap negativity because we sow negativity. So many of us are experiencing less than abundant life living because we are focused on what's wrong and we're not seeing what we have that is abundant life. We're so focused on what is not the way we want it that we don't see how many things actually are the way we want. Gratitude seems like such a basic thing. It seems like such a basic thing. But y'all, it's not. It changes your brain and the thoughts that you have change the way you move your feet. It's like, I always feel like this sounds so hocus pocus. And honestly, I feel like we get afraid of people who are not believers who will say stuff like this. You know, they'll talk about setting your intentions or they'll talk about, you know, what you focus on and, you know, manifesting. That sounds like such a scary word. Listen, everything that works in the natural, y'all, every single thing, every single thing that people who do not have a relationship with God come up with to tell you, they got it from God first. They got it from God first. They just say it differently, take him out of it, and then there's the problem. But 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says to give thanks in all circumstances. Why? Because this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Why are you supposed to give thanks? Because he knows it changes you. Why are you supposed to pray? So that your your will can align with God's will for you. Why are you supposed to be obedient and do what God wants you to do? Because his best is in your obedience. It's connected to your obedience. Why are you supposed to focus on gratitude? Because it changes what you see. What happens when you have a change in what you see? Your life experience changes. So what we do on these journeys in the Inner Circle is, um, well, it depends on which one it is, but this one, this is a 21-day of gratitude. And the good news is, is while there's a whole course and, you know, this is one course in an entire library of courses, a whole shigamoro— I just made that up— of courses, we do courses together. So we go through, we will be going through 20 Days of Gratitude together. And when we do these 21-day journeys, it's like a challenge. And while there is a course and while there are activities and while we give you questions to ponder, so that you can think about what you want to be grateful for and how this can change your life. I also, for 21 days, drop an audio to your inbox and you get to hear my voice for 21 days helping to keep you on track. You know, when I was training for a marathon, I, um, uh, would run with the Nike app and, um, there were multiple apps actually, but Nike was the one I probably use the most. And every now and then, if I hit a mile or if I hit 2 or I hit 5, the voice would come out and say, "You're doing great. Keep it up. Keep going." And I don't know whose voice that was. I don't know who said it. Sometimes it was a man, sometimes it was a woman. It didn't matter. Something in me was just glad to hear someone's voice with me. With me. This is why— I mean, I'm not the Holy Spirit, okay? I mean, just in case what I'm about to say sounds like that's what I'm saying. Let me tell you what, I'm so glad that God lives in me because sometimes you just need, you just need to know in your head or in your soul, that's all right, you're doing a good job. Some of you, like me, hear your mothers in your head whether she's living or not. Just her voice is a part of your psyche, right? Well, I'm not the Holy Spirit and I'm not your mother, but what I can do for this journey— and if you're in the Inner Circle, I'm so excited about what we're going to start— is be the voice in your head that helps to refocus you every day, that helps you to think about what you're doing with your time, how you are lending your mind and your mouth to your, uh, to the direction in your life. I get to do that. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, like if you've never been in the Inner Circle, heard me talk about it, um, I see my friends here that are putting the link in the description, in the chat for me, um, but I'll put it here back on the screen. Basically all it is um, is a community site. It's basically like we have our own Facebook and our own courses. Um, we go live. I go live every Monday. There's a lot of private things that happen in the Inner Circle. And basically all it is is a place for people who want to be intentional. That's the key word, intentional, about living your life and staying focused and doing that in community with other women who are committed to doing the same. It's a place for you to do that in. And basically where I create more room, more room for community, more room for encouragement, more room for coaching from me or for my friends, more mentoring from women who believe in serving, supporting, teaching, encouraging other women. It's a place for us to gather. That's really it. It's a place for us to gather. One of the things that we're working on in December, um, you know, it's always a hard month because we have less time and we also want to make sure our team gets a break and all these fun things, but we always want to make sure we're providing value in there as well. And, um, but one of the big things that happens during the holidays, as most of you already know, is it's a big month for grief. It's a big month for grief. So I've been talking to one of the women who actually used to be one of my interns, who is a writer. She's a speaker, but she also has gone the way of grief. She is a master at seeing the heart of people, and she's going to be offering coaching sessions in the Inner Circle holding space for those who were trying to walk through grief. So it's not enough, in my opinion, to love God. I mean, it is, but it's not. You have to actually walk it out. And sometimes that's where it gets a little muddy. You know, it's like, okay, I want to do this right. I am a woman of faith, but now how do I do this? You know, how do I not lose my mind when my children aren't listening? How do I make sure my finances are in order so that I'm a good steward of my resources? How do I actually take care of myself? Because I've been told that I'm supposed to serve others all my life, and so I want to serve others all my life, but I also am losing energy by the second. So how do I take care of myself as God's daughter? Okay, what does it mean to live with abundant life? How do I level up when I want to make sure that I'm using every resource that God has given to me? Like, that's where the rubber meets the road, and my goal If I could take every woman to coffee that said, Chrystal, would you mentor me? I would, because I love it. I love one-on-one looking other women in the eye and saying, hey, how can I help? How can I help? And in the Inner Circle, we just do that at varying levels. So we used to open and close the doors of the Inner Circle. We don't do that. And I honestly was like, oh, we forgot to tell them to come in. We forgot to tell them. So this is me reminding you that there are lots of things in life that seem small. There are lots of things in life that seem small, but they're so important when you do them, that you don't do what you feel like doing, that you do what's most important. And this season, one of the most important things you can do is to focus on being grateful. And you can do that on your own. But if you want to do that with me and inside of a community where women are sharing and you are a part of a bigger thing. You know, it's like Weight Watchers. You can lose weight on your, on your own, but something happens when you're a part of a bigger thing. You can run a race, you can run 26 miles on your own, but something happens when you show up for race day and you're doing it with other people, right? You can go shopping on your own, and most of, many people do. Something happens for many of you when you do that with your friends. You know, there's a friend of mine, we were gonna go out of town. We wanted to go by ourselves. But then she said, I just— it would be nice if there was somebody else with me, but not with me. So even though we still wanted to kind of do it on our own, we decided to get in the car, ride where we were going together, and then go our separate ways. And then when it was time to come back, we got back in the car and came back to each other. Even being alone, we wanted to be together. My girlfriend just bought an RV. She lives now in an RV. You've ever heard me talk about Shelley, you know who I'm talking about. I was in her RV the other night. She was watching a movie on her laptop. I was on a— watching something on my phone. I was in the front seat. She was back in the back in her bed. We were in there for 3 hours together and alone, doing our own thing, but doing it together. There's something about being together, and I believe that you do this in your sister circle, your own sister circle. That's why you have to be so intentional about your women friendships, because they matter. But when you need to work on you, right? And you want to do that in community, and maybe the community that you have at work or the girls that you run with or the women in your neighborhood or the women who are also on the PTA at school or the soccer moms on your team, maybe y'all know each other, but they're not doing what you need to be doing to focus in on your life and to move the needle forward. Well, the goal of the Inner Circle is to always help you move the needle forward. So here's the deal. We are starting our journey. We are always in there, always in there. But if you would like to check it out and join us, the doors are always open. I'd love to see you on the inside.. And, um, you can join me. You can go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle or thesistercircle.com/innercircle. Takes you to the same place. We'd love to have you. And it's a great time because there's lots of fun that'll be happening in December. And then we'll be getting geared up for 2023. And oh, am I excited about what's coming for you. So, because I kept forgetting to tell you, I was like, let me just come on here. Now you're going to see notifications in like 15 minutes for another video that's coming, and that one is a must-watch. Like, literally, it was one of those that gave me chills up my spine. It was one of those that I did not have to even have notes for. It was like rolling off my tongue. It was one of those that I hope goes very, very far and wide because to me it will make the difference for so many of you in your life. So that's the one that normally is here. But I decided to show up here because I wanted to give you a little extra something, remind you to be grateful going into November. It's not just about doing something that's good. It's about being grateful and that gratitude doing something good in you. And if you wanna join us for our gratitude journey, I would love to see you on the inside. Okay? So here's to November and December and the slippery slide towards all the holiday festivities. Here's to being grateful. Here's to being grateful for where you are, for who you are, and for who is around you, even if you wish they weren't. Guess what? You're not alone. And if you are alone, here's for the gratitude that you can have that being by yourself allows you the great opportunity to pour into your relationship with people that are meaningful to you and to make purposeful time to be connected with God. You get to control your time. Here's to knowing that you don't have to be alone if that's not how you want to be, because there are many things online like this that are available to you. So I wanted to just make sure you knew, because we haven't mentioned it in a while. And hopefully, hopefully what I've said tonight will remind you to be grateful. Okay? And then, y'all, when your phones go off, or if you're subscribed here, when you, um, see the notification that Chrystal Hurst is live— okay, it won't be me really live, it'll be what I did live last Monday minus all the fun and the foolery the jewelry, all the extras, but it'll be the main message. And this week's main message is worth you taking a potty break, going and getting some tea, and then getting ready for that next notification to show up, because I know, I'm absolutely positive, that message will be life-changing. All right, so for those of y'all who showed up late, now I gotta go get back in the house because I locked myself out. And it's all right. I know how to do it. But every now and then we don't use the yellow chair and I don't flip on the lights and I don't use my microphone. I just show up. And I hope me showing up tonight has reminded you, has reminded you to show up for yourself, to show up for your light, your life, and to remember that gratitude is one of the best ways to do that. Okay, Tasha T said, is this the 7 PM broadcast? No, this is Chrystal Hurst Hurst on live because blah blah blah. Mm-hmm. Jessica said, I met you two weeks ago. Where was I? Where were you? Hey, Yelitza! Yes, mm-hmm, I agree. Kathy Fox, you're right, you are right. As I try to balance the laptop on my steering wheel, these are all the things that happen Oh yeah, you said one thing you miss are my podcast. I still podcast every week. Yeah, I do. I'm looking back in the chat. I always like to get caught up on the chat. Let's see. I'm going back. I'm going back. Okay, hopefully, Amy, I answered your question. I will tell you that Melissa said adulting is exhausting. Yes, or maybe you were repeating me. It is totally exhausting. You know what? Oh, I see you asking questions about what's in here. Okay, so let me just show you. Let me see if I can show you. Okay, because I see y'all asking me questions. I get it. Okay, so this is the Inner Circle. This is me logged in, okay? See people. Oh, yay, you're enjoying that new homeschool forum. Yay! One step at a time. One step at a time. Okay. So basically, this is my dashboard, okay? So you can see the month's events. This is our team greeting everybody. It's like our own Facebook feed. This is our feature journey. These are the self-paced courses that were available in September. Then we have our store. What happens is it's a place to connect. Okay, so I'm going to click on groups right here. Okay, so we have a book club, there's a homeschool moms forum. We had a course, and so that was for people who were going through the course. We have now a prayer group, and we have regional groups so you can find people near you. Um, the communicators forum will be going live next week, and then we'll be adding more groups as we go. But here's the key thing. So here's the library, okay? We always have a course that we do as a live community, so What we'll be doing together soon is our live course in gratitude. But this is our library. I mean, like, there is tons of stuff in here. Click load more and then you just keep going. There's like tons of stuff in here. So there's bonus content from the podcast. You get special updates from me. You get sister sessions. We do those downloadable digital art. I mean, there's really— when people ask me, what is the Sister Circle? It's really, really hard to describe because there's so much there. But like, here's our 21 days. These are old ones. So in the past, we've done a habit journey together, simplified. We did, um, um, multiple different ones, so you can see those. Sometimes we do 90-day journeys together, so here are those. Thriving, Remembering Yourself— those are 3-month journeys. You can be in here and just say, okay, Chrystal Hurst, uh, what do you have in here that relates to relationships? And there you go. All the things. So this is like way more than just the one course. It's way more. Way more. There's video, sometimes our podcast right now, our interviews are, uh, mostly audios with guests, but the videos oftentimes the Inner Circle get those. So it's like, it's basically personal development from Chrystal Hurst and Friends. But because we know that just because it's there, you won't necessarily use it, we pull journeys together and say, all right, y'all, let's go together. Hey, yay! So I see some of you here. I'm glad you're here. Glad you're here. So anyway, All right, y'all, I'm gonna jump off because other things are going— they're starting at 7 PM, so let me stop. But I will see you when I see you, so stay on for 7, and then those of y'all who are in the Inner Circle, I'll see you in the morning. Okay, bye, y'all.