Nadine (00:01)
Welcome back sister. This is Nadine Dyer with Linking Arms and I am joined today by one of my best friends in the entire world, Lindsay Schloss. Lindsay is the owner and founder and CEO of HopeAnchor & Crew which is an amazing organization and nonprofit here locally in Indiana. And I'm so excited about the topic for today. It's busyness to fullness and the difference and just how do we live full

healthy whole lives. And there's nobody better, in my opinion, to talk about this than this woman. So yay, Lindsay, welcome. Thank you for having me. Yay. It's fun to be in person too, because usually we do it virtually. So yay, we're together. And so we decided to record today. We had a little work time, a little chatting time, a little friend time, a little Bible time. It's been really good. A great lunch. You fed me.

So I'm super happy and full, like my belly's full. Physical fullness, right? Yes, it's great. So ⁓ as you all know, the way we've been doing, for those of you who've joined us in the past, the way that we do this ⁓ is we record kind of the story of the woman based on the topic. I think Lindsay has so many aspects of her story, like we all do, right? But today she's gonna talk about that busyness, that...

in her life where she was busy and how and why she's so passionate about the full life and what that means to her and just walking us kind of through her journey from busyness to fullness. So, Lindsay, take it away. Just tell us whatever it is that you want to share about that. All right. ⁓ man. Where do we start? Pull up a chair, grab some coffee. Like Nadine said, I could share so much of my story. It's hard pulling out like what pieces and what seasons of my life do I want to share from?

I will say that I am a work in progress. My 20 year old story, I have had hills and valleys and ups and downs and blessings and burdens and challenges like anyone. Mhmm. But it is, when I think of my life, in the context of busyness and fullness, I think of the seasons where I felt most full or most depleted. I think about...

when I was a single mom 15 years ago and I had a baby and a toddler and I was working in social work full time, 50 to 60 hours a week and ⁓ newly divorced and financially trying to survive on my own. I really truly was in survival versus any type of thriving. Like even the thought probably of a full balanced life or the thought of.

being full, filled up. I don't even know if I even thought about it. I don't even think I had capacity. So I think about that season and I think about other seasons since. I mean, that was 15 years ago and there's been seasons that I've struggled and I always tell people like, I am a work in progress. We created our curriculum called the Full Balance Life Curriculum with HopeAnchor & Crew. We do our community fellowships there at the studio and it has, I created this content because I knew the content. And I was like, how do I make sense of my life?

and how do I make sense of this wheel of life? Like, so many, I looked at so many different wheels of life and I was like, this misses this big component like this, like my spiritual walk is so important. that can't, you can't just leave it out of the wheel or your mental and emotional health. Like that's so critical. And we can't have a wheel without that. And so I really, we looked at, why do we need this? And at that time I needed it and I was coming out of the season.

For those of you who don't know my full story, I got divorced. I was a single mom for about two years. And it was probably the single most challenging season of my life where I was nearly surviving. And then fast forward a couple years or a year later, I meet my husband. Now we have a big crazy blended family of five and we've been married for 10 years.

In the seasons of the last 10 years, think even in those seasons, like there's been times where I felt more empty or less full, right? And I've lived, yeah, just different seasons where I'm struggling in certain areas, but it's always a work in progress. I always like want to be the best version of who I am and who God created me to be. And that like full, and we were talking in John 10:10 about that full abundant life. I kept thinking about that.

Because I was like, for the first time in my life, I had capacity to think about it. I was a stay at home mom. I had worked my entire life. It was for the first time I was staying home. had four young kids, but I wasn't working. And so I had all this time to invest in my babies and cook and clean and do all the things that I just didn't have capacity to do. But I was left with like space to really reflect like, what is fullness versus busyness? And I want an abundant life,

not just a busy life, a full life, because you can be, have a full life and not run around like a crazy lady with your head cut off. And it can be both. And it's always a work in progress. There's always, it's funny, we assess today, our wheels. And I was like, it's crazy. It changed so much from 10 years ago when we first met, you know, we met 10 years ago and how different they looked then versus how they looked six months ago versus how they look today. And it's

that's why I think it's so important, just that constant reassessment of where am I at? Where am I today? And what do I need to work on so I can be the best version? That full, abundant life, you said it's there. But I think people often, I don't know about you, but I always hear a woman saying, I need to find balance, or I need to find my purpose, or need to find fullness, and find these things. And it's like...

I don't think balance and fullness is something we find. I think we have to create it with intentionality. And that takes work. It doesn't happen on accident, right? Like it's, it doesn't happen. And so that intentional living, like I remember learning that word and it's funny cause my son Jackson, I was like his word of the week at school or something. And we were talking about it and he was like, mom, what's the word intentional mean? I was like, great question. This was before HopeAnchor & Crew. And I was like, let's look it up, buddy. And I was looking it up.

in the dictionary, looking at different versions, looking at the Bible, like same concepts. And was so cool because it was on purpose. And I remember him, like he still now it's one of his favorite words. He's like, mom, I'm very intentional about this. And I love it because it's like, is, intentionality is so important because we can live life on autopilot. Where we're just going through the motions and we're not stopping and pausing and resting and reflecting.

and being intentional about this one wild and precious life we have to live and I want to steward my life well. I always talk about like start with the end in mind to our ladies and our staff and I'm like look at the end of your life. Think about that. What do want people to say it at your eulogy? What do you want God to say? I want God to say well done, well you know good and faithful. You stewarded your life well.

Yeah. And I want, I desire that. Like I want nothing more than that. And I want my kids and my friends and my family to see she lived a life abundant, full, purposeful, right? Intentional, on purpose. she did work for the kingdom and work for our family, that's, I want to live my life like that. And it doesn't happen just by accident. Because we get stuck on autopilot and

there's some days that it's like, intentionality is very difficult. For me, it's getting up in the morning, starting with intentionality before anyone else wakes up to get with God before, okay, God, what is my day gonna look like? What do you want my day to look like? It's that intentionality and those little small daily disciplines and practices. So that season of my life was really tough and it really birthed the passion in my heart for women to learn, okay, what is a full balanced life?

Because it means different things to different people. And so I think that intentional living and just being mindful, because we can't deeply pour into others from the empty cup, right? Like if I am empty, I cannot pour Nadine any coffee, right? I can't. But if I am overflowing and I am living a full abundant life in my soul, I can pour deeply

into you. Yeah, so good. And so, but it's my job to fill my cup and no one else because no one's going to say, Lindsay, have you had your coffee today? Right. Have you filled your cup today? Yeah. Have you gotten with God today? Have you done the soul care, the soul work today? It's my job to do it's an inside job. And so often we are so busy filling everyone else's cups that we find ourselves with empty cups. Depleted. Yeah. Depleted. What's opposite of full?

Empty, yeah, depleted, right? Abundant life, ⁓ dying life. We're not growing, we're dying. It's that growth mindset that I want to be better than I was yesterday, just a little bit in those small daily disciplines. Now there are seasons that I have killed it with my life. And the curriculum's evolved too, right? The six year ago, me was like, let's do action steps.

And there is daily action steps in each of the 10 areas of our wheel. And we're going to kill it. And we're going to just own these action steps. And now I'm like a little softer. I've learned some things and gone through some things in last 10 years. And I'm like, how about like rhythms? Daily, monthly, weekly rhythms. Like that feels less harsh,

less less pressure, intense So I literally just changed that in the curriculum. I was like, love the word rhythms. And it actually came from, I have so many good books that I love to talk about, but Ruthless Elimination of Hurry talks about the gentle rhythms, that Jesus' yoke is easy and his burden is light. And we don't very often live our day-to-day life like that. And so those gentle rhythms and that soul work,

like the work of our souls. And so many people are like, what is a soul? And I remember hearing it defined once is it's your mind, your will and your emotions. So it's your emotions, your heart, your head, your thoughts, it's who you are at the core of your being. And that soul is eternal. That was where we will live with Jesus. Our soul will never die. And it's those, our memories may, we don't know what God has for us, but like our souls, that's our job to care for,

and steward well. And I think when we partner, because I also think our curriculum is great, but if you're not partnering with God for your life, seek Him. He has been so faithful in my life and HopeAnchor & Crew, to be so clear on the next steps and where I need to be and where I need to go. And we were sitting here doing this evaluation, and I was like, OK, Lord, I see the things that I need to do. I know the next right thing. I know the next steps. Because it's, you've made it clear, right?

So it's just cool seeing all that God has done through HopeAnchor and through our curriculum and through ⁓ just in my life, like God's faithfulness in my life and where the passion came from brokenness and I wanted to use my pain for purpose. Yeah. Right? And allowing God to show me the difference between living life and survival. And when I say survival, I mean like I was married and I'm super open book, married for four years. We were separated for two of the four years in and out of

recovery in and out of living in different homes like it was very tumultuous for four years and I can honestly say I was surviving for four years and I don't ever want to live like that again.

I didn't have capacity. You know, and there's gonna be seasons of life where you are surviving. But I think if I would have had someone in my life to say, pause, stop. Take a step back out of the chaos, right? You can have clarity when you step out of the chaos. Pause, reset. What do you need to do to get full and filled, to live that abundant life? And I just,

I didn't have a lot of close friends to tell me that that season I was very isolated. So that is definitely where our curriculum like birthed from that passion. And I'm still so passionate about just women living life to the fullest and living all that God has for them. Because at the end of my life, I want to look back and be proud. Yeah. Oh God, be proud. Yeah. Right. Well done. Good and faithful servant. Yeah. I want that.

It's so good. Yeah, it's interesting because we do we live in a world of busyness, right? Like that's what we live in and if we're just on autopilot, we'll just keep being busy but being busy and being healthy and full and like full enough to pour into others like those are different I almost like saw them when we were prepping for this I was like, oh my gosh, I need to hear this because I'm in a busy season and it really does take Intentionality to pause and go. Okay. I'm busy,

but am I being intentional? Is this the best use of my time, my energy, my ⁓ gifts, my resources? Am I stewarding my life well? And a full life doesn't mean it's like there's tons of margin. It's still full, right? So it's still busy because it's full, but it's full with the healthy things, with the right things. It's full to where I have enough to pour out. Because I know when I'm busy, I'm snappy.

moody and I'm like, I'm not the best version of myself, but when I'm full, I can respond versus react to situations. So I love that. And I love this concept of like, we have one life to live. You know, we have one life to live and it's our responsibility to steward it well. We can be on autopilot and let the world dictate and let our circumstances dictate. Because it will. Because it will. Or, we can be intentional. I love that you that,

you define that word, right? And I love that you were intentional about the word intentional. What does this even mean? Yes, yes. And I love ⁓ this concept of it's about habits and consistency. So ⁓ thank you, Lindsay, for sharing your story, at least a piece of your story. Is there anything else that you want to wrap up with as it pertains to this? I don't know. I like what you said about we can still be busy,

but be full, right? Like balance isn't like doing everything for the same amount of time, right? It's about doing the right things at the right times. That intentional living. And sometimes that takes really strong boundaries and sometimes that takes really strong disciplines and a schedule. If you're like me, you're kind of a creative person that like knows you need schedules, but does not love schedules. So I...

know I need to schedule it because if I don't schedule it, it's not on my calendar. I promise it will never happen. But I also like the rhythm, the feel of rhythms because it feels more freeing to me. And like I have a choice. I get to choose to do these disciplines. Right. Yeah. I'm even wondering if we like change the topic of this to intentional living because that's really what it is. Right. It's still we still are full. We have a lot going on, but it's like, am I living intentionally or am I living on autopilot?

Am I just reacting to what's happening around me or am I the steward of my life and my circumstances? You know, like it really is intentional living. okay ladies, next episode we're gonna talk about like practical applications to intentional living and to being full versus just busy. And so join us for the next episode and I just want to remind you sister, you are so loved and right where you are is exactly part of your journey of where you're supposed to be,

and God will make all things work together for good. And we will catch you at the next episode. Talk soon. Bye.