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If you have been listening to my recent podcasts you know that I have been talking about the natural man and how we all experience it. Today I want to talk more about how emotions can trigger the natural man state and cause you to be blocked from the revelation you need to spiritually survive in this world.

I want you to think for a bit about what your perspective of life is like when you are in the natural man state. You probably experience a lot of deception, overwhelm, not measuring up to perceived standards, silent suffering, despair, irrationality, and abandonment from God.

This is because the job description of the natural man is to make you feel the exact opposite of what God would want you to feel. When you have painful or disappointing experiences in your life the natural man inside of you will tempt you to build barricades around your heart and not return back to your true divine self. I believe these are your mental roadblocks that keep you from receiving revelation and feeling God in your life daily.

As we go through life, our natural man oftentimes builds roadblocks between ourselves and heaven. Creating feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, fear, guilt, inadequacy, lack of trust and insecurities. The key is to recognize what is happening with your thoughts and mind and receive tools to return back to your true divine self where you have access to God’s will for you, the Savior’s power to heal, forgive and strengthen and the Holy Ghost's ability to convey messages to you from the Savior.

 “Challenges often indicate a need for additional tools and support and are not a character defect. We will experience stress and turmoil because we live in a fallen world with a fallen body. These all-too-often invisible challenges can affect anyone, and when we are facing them, they appear insurmountable. Regardless of our mental and emotional well-being, focusing on growth is healthier than obsessing about our shortcomings." ~ Elder Kopischke

 I love what he says about this not being a character defect, it’s just what we experience from being in a fallen world with fallen bodies, we just need mental health tools to deal with them right? Staying in the perspective of the natural man state is what keeps you in the obsessing thoughts of your short comings. Repenting and returning to your true divine self is what shifts your perspective to growth.

Well that is the exact reason I felt God pulling me to this work to teach women these mental health skills through a spiritual lens. Those skills are what I teach in my Removing Roadblocks to Revelation Group Coaching program. I teach you how to use mental health tools to put the natural man to sleep in order to experience you're true divine self, how to recognize what triggers your natural man in the first place, and what continues to fuel it. The following are the 4 tools I teach women to use.

 1. Calm Cluttered and Chaotic Thoughts

When you can calm your cluttered thoughts, you can hear Him and know where you’re time is best spent have discernment, focus and energy. If you don’t calm your cluttered and chaotic thoughts then you will be a natural man doer and you will feel constantly exhausted, confused about what decisions to make, scattered and disorganized. President Eyring says,

“The still, small voice—which is real—is clear and discernible in my mind when I feel an internal quiet.”

How else are you going to hear that still small voice if you don’t learn the mental health skills that create an internal peace and quiet? Operating in the natural man state is like driving a manual car in first gear going 60 MPH. You are burning out your engine. 

You have a resource at your finger tips that can help you know which daily decisions will save you the most time so you can stop wasting your energy and begin to focus on things that matter most. Learning to calm your thoughts and remove all the chaotic clutter leaves space for the still small voice and personal revelation. Cluttered thoughts are a roadblock that you will learn to remove in the first two weeks of group coaching.

 2. Defuse Triggering Thoughts

What do you think will happen if you don’t learn to defuse triggering thoughts? You will continually feel like you are failing, falling behind and defeated. Triggering thoughts cause internal contention that is unhealthy for us. Learning to defuse those thoughts allows you to feel peace joy and rest. Elder Renlund has said,

“Contention is spiritually unhealthy for us as individuals. We are robbed of peace, joy, and rest, and our ability to feel the Spirit is compromised."

Those triggering thoughts rob us of the peace joy and rest that help us feel the spirit because those triggering thoughts wake up the natural man inside of us. The natural man is the opposite of God and when you live in that state you will never feel satisfied. You will never feel caught up. You will feel like there’s always more to be done. The more you do the worse things get. When you have triggering thoughts you begin to rev your engine and begin to drive too fast a low gear. Once again burning out your engine.

Inside of Removing Roadblocks to Revelation program, you will learn to defuse these triggering thoughts so you can stop them before you enter the natural man state. Defusing them will help you stay in a space where you can receive personal revelation, guide your family, and feel inspiration to help others.

3. Interrupt Your Inner Critic

The natural man’s job is to make you feel the opposite of what God wants you to feel. Being in the natural man state creates a space where your inner critic can lie to you. The exact opposite of what God wants you to feel and know about yourself will feel like truth. You inner critic will convince you that you are not enough, that you will never be enough and because you aren’t enough bad things will happen to you and your loved ones.

That is the exact opposite of what God wants you to feel and know about yourself. If you continue to operate from the natural man then you will feel inadequate, fearful and consumed with guilt. Can you relate to that feeling? Then you might be operating out of the natural man state. Elder Rasband taught,

“When we are heavy laden with mistakes, heartaches, feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, anger, or sin, the power of the Savior’s Atonement is, by divine design, one of the things that lifts the soul.”

When you interrupt the inner critic you are able to yoke to and connect with the Savior. When you do that He can help you pass through the effects of living in a fallen world. That enabling power is how you are able to survive spiritually in this fallen world because this allows you to access Christ’s power for your day. You can then feel courage, confidence and efficiency. Inside of the Removing Roadblocks to Revelation program you will learn to interrupt the natural phenomenon of the inner critic.

4. Remove The Mental Roadblock of Always Doing Things Alone

This allows you to confidently move forward with God, trust in His answers and timing, feel strength beyond your own and stay centered on Christ and His gospel daily. I work with so many women who simply try to do too many things alone when they have a resource of strength beyond their own at their fingertips. 

When women try to do this life on their own, they will feel inadequate to the task because we live in a fallen world where we will never master the ability to remove all opposition. Then they start blaming others or their situation, feel overwhelmed and get discouraged. Though we cannot remove opposition we can remove the roadblocks that keep us from receiving the revelation we need to thrive when opposition occurs in our life.

It is important to remember that your job is not to do as many things as you can on your own THEN ask for Christ’s help. Your job is to master the ability to do life WITH Christ. ALL of it! Learning to do things WITH Christ will help you develop a relationship of trust, strength beyond your own and a centeredness with Christ. Centeredness allows you to have that belief and obedience to feel that strength beyond your own. Inside of Removing Roadblocks to Revelation you will learn to confidently move forward with God’s answers and timing. 

"The Spirit plays a pivotal role in communicating God’s love to us. Yet the influence of the Holy Ghost can be obscured 'by strong emotions, such as anger, hate, … [or] fear, … like trying to savor the delicate flavor of a grape while eating a jalapeño pepper. … [One flavor] completely overpowers the other.' So too, behaviors that distance us from the Holy Ghost, including sin, make it difficult for us to perceive God’s love for us. Similarly, our sense of God’s love may be blunted by challenging circumstances and physical or mental illness, among other things. In all these cases, the counsel of trusted leaders or professionals can often be beneficial."

- Elder Renlund

Calming your mind, defusing your triggers, interrupting your inner critic and moving forward with God are skills I teach in the Removing Roadblocks to Revelation Group Coaching Program. Are you to take these 4 strategies and unlock the power to know God’s direction at all times in your life and hear him?

The program registration is only open until Thursday September 1 and then I won’t open it up again until 2023. Please check out the website for a full video and an entire page giving you all the details of exactly what’s included so you will know if you’re a right fit for the program and if the program is a right fit for you.