Speaker: Lorissa Horn

I know it’s a second. I pushed record on this. Like there was an airplane flying right over my house. So who knows? Chances are, nobody will be able to hear it, but we are just so excited to be on this podcast today. This is actually Christy. I want to tell you, this is a dream of mine that has come true because when we started this podcast, when we started masters, I remember thinking to myself someday, we’re going to have one of our masters members on this podcast. We hope to have, you know, more interviews like this. And I know that Sterling has done one with one of our other members. And so this is the first time I actually get to be on this podcast with one of our members. And it’s kind of like just this little, is this a gift and a blessing because it’s been something that I’ve wanted to do. And here we are. So. Yay. Thank you. So, first of all, tell me a little bit about yourself. Your you’re you’re married your family. Tell me, tell us about you.

Guest: Christy Brown

Well her name’s Christy, like you already introduced I’ve been married to my husband, Paul for about 21 and a half years. Now we have six beautiful children. Something really unique about us and our children is we have an 18 year gap between our oldest and our youngest. My oldest will be a junior at hope college here in Michigan. And she actually hopes to study in Poland next spring. So that’s really exciting, hopefully with all these lovely COVID restrictions loosening, some were praying that was supposed to hopefully happen this fall, but she’s gonna go study at the JP to Institute there. Wow. And yeah, so that’s really exciting. And then I have a couple school boys I’ll have a senior in high school this year and a sophomore, Ava is my lovely middle schooler who will be entering the seventh grade.

Guest: Christy Brown

So a big year, and then I have a six and a half year old who will be a first grader. So we have a large gap there. And then I have a two and a half year old who is home with me. Sophia is my baby. And so, yeah, so that brings a bit of different dynamic to our life. I guess I say that more because it’s different than what my husband Paul and I grew up with we’re children of four and Paul’s got like two older sisters a gap and then in him and it’s a younger brother and then my family was, we were like kind of stair-step every two ish years. I have three younger brothers. So yeah, we are both Paul and I are cradle Catholics. We are raising our children to hopefully reach heaven one day.

Guest: Christy Brown:

That’s our goal. Yeah. And that’s trying to be very intentional about that with the ups and downs of that and how dynamics and life can change because I have one basically at every point. And if you had asked me like 20 years ago when Paul and I were dating, if I saw this be my life, I would’ve been like, you’re crazy. You know, like we wanted to have kids, we wanted the family, but it’s amazing how, you know, you make plans and God laughs and things just developed to this. And yeah, and it’s, it’s a full life. I love how listening to the podcast earlier Sterling said that about summer. And I’m like, I’ve really embraced that too. Like crazy has just been this, I don’t know, not derogatory, but a word that just doesn’t sit well with me because it just seems negative.

Guest: Christy Brown:

So I was like, it’s been a full summer, it’s been a good summer and I’m just trying to embrace where that’s at with my kids and our family. And we have a dog and we are living in west Michigan and we love it here. We have a great community and trying just to build community and surround ourselves with like-minded people to raise our family. I’ve been a stay at home mom, our whole marriage, you know, give or take. I worked part time for a while, between my fifth and sixth child. And right now I’m back home since Sophia was born. Even though, you know, I went to college, my husband and I knew each other growing up that’s something that’s unique to. We grew up in the same parish and did a lot of the same youth group and youth ministry and to college together while we were dating and he went into med school. And so we did that journey together that kind of took us all over the state. We grew up in the center of the state and then threw up.

Guest: Christy Brown

Okay. So yeah, Paul went to med school and so we did that journey together. That was a pretty, obviously a big undertaking, but we grew up in the middle of the state kind of took us all around and that ended up back in west Michigan and just loved it here and have stayed here. And yeah, I think that it’s just been a great journey and I hope it’s one that will obviously bring more ups and downs, but just really be Christ centered and focused as our kids get older and learning to launch our kids. Like, that’s kind of like the new state of life that we’re at, you know, of like, what does it entail and mean? And I think that’s really what brought me to this point and connected with masters was just like, okay, where am I at? Where does where’s God, you know, what’s he asking of me now and where can this take me being in my mid forties and trying to raise six kids and having, you know, done that and, and Ben at home that whole time, I think I just got to a point of life where I was like, okay, God, where are you taking me?

Guest: Christy Brown

And looking for answers more in a practical sense and not just I don’t know, not, I don’t want to, like, I’m not trying to downgrade prayer and faith in that way, but it was like, I was getting to that point where I felt like something was missing and I needed to start looking into something where God was leading me. Okay.

Guest: Lorissa Horn

And so we, you know, we started Sterling and I started masters about, gosh, we’re like almost seven months ago. And how did you kind of stumble upon it or what, I mean, you just mentioned that you were kind of searching kind of looking for, okay, now, now what God like, recognizing that there was this maybe the strain in your heart to start, you know, kind of opening your heart to some, maybe some possibilities of what God was planting there.

Guest: Christy Brown

Yeah. And I think that like obviously hindsight is 2020 and we can see when we take a pause in our life to sit and reflect, which obviously we need to do a lot. But even just this past, I would say seven month journey of mine with masters, more or less, and, you know, working with you, Lorissa in coaching. And we’ve had a bit of a break on that for the summer and, and a good point to reflect, like where, where was I and what’s going on and what brought me here. And I think we all kind of joke don’t you about like midlife crisis sometimes. And we think of that even guys thing, you know, so I didn’t go out and buy a convertible. Let’s just say, I think, I think I was at this point, I think sometimes we freeze ourselves in time of saying that, well, we, we grew up, you know, I grew up Catholic.

Guest: Christy Brown

I, I was blessed to grow up in a great Catholic Christian. I actually grew up charismatic. That was a big part of my upbringing. And, you know, I was involved in, in my youth group. I went, you know, did some youth ministry service while I was in college while I was getting my degree. And then, you know, I fell in love and got married and we had kids and it’s happily ever after. Right. Right. And and I think, I really not believe that, but that was what it was. And so when I started coming to a point of feeling like almost unfulfilled, I really started to struggle with a lot of guilt and a lot of just, I, it didn’t, I don’t even think I registered that, like that that was happening. And then I started having a lot of negative self-talk and, you know, my husband’s wonderful.

Guest: Christy Brown

We have a good marriage and he, but he would just be like, you need to stop thinking that, like, you need to stop. You know, why you, why are you saying that to yourself? Why are you talking that way? And I, I literally didn’t even recognize it. And when he said that, I felt like, well fine, but how do I do it? It’s, it’s just, these are feelings I have, or these are thoughts in my head. Like, how do you just stop? And I kinda would just push it off because I didn’t understand it. And I didn’t understand what was going on. And my last two pregnancies were more challenging just in the emotional sense, as well as my last pregnancy was very hard physically cause I was older and just had a lot of migraines that were very intense. And so I think after Sophie was born, I was just tired of feeling tired.

Guest: Christy Brown:

I was tired of feeling just, you know, bogged down. And I, like I said, I worked between Peter and Sophie. And so there was an outlet, but it was still like, okay, now that’s gone again. And here comes these feelings again and isn’t there something else. And so, you know, fast forward to this past fall and I think I was really, I started reading this book called the mindful Catholic by Dr. Pitaro and it w it’s a lot on mindset, like what we work on in made for greatness and masters. And I think about the same time that I was going through a book study on that I stumbled on to you guys in made for greatness, started listening to those podcasts and started hearing about your launch for masters. And I know that this is looking back now, is this the holy spirit?

Guest: Christy Brown

Because I, I really believe that I thought I was just like, this is it. This is how it’s going to be. This is just going to be kind of my life. It’s been, you know, 20 years of marriage and we’ve had six children and you know, my daughter’s in her twenties now and I have going to have a senior in high school, you know, and there was just, there’s a been a lot of other ups and downs that have come and starting to branch into this. I think I probably wasn’t aware of it before, because either it wasn’t happening or I wasn’t in need of something like this. And so now I am, I’m at a different state of life, but I think looking back, I didn’t realize that I would be at another of life again. It was kind of like, no, this is the state of life I’m here.

Guest: Christy Brown

I’m married. I have six kids the end. So through the power of the holy spirit, I think I stumbled upon you guys. You guys were launching masters, Paula and I were able to get away for a long weekend. And I was like, something’s got to give, we did this beautiful, just reflection on our life and our marriage. And went through kind of every area from our, each of our kids, where do we want to be trying to dream? And I started realizing, I didn’t know how to do that for myself. And I really just was like, okay I think I need to do this. I know it costs some money, but I think I need to at least try it for a month or two. And and so that’s how it started. He came back, he says, yes, what’s this going to hurt?

Guest: Christy Brown

Cause you’re at a place that something’s got to give. And I’m like, yup. And maybe this is what it is. And that opened up a whole new world for me. And connecting with the master’s community, seeing what you and Sterling were, and Kara were like bringing about. And I was like, oh my gosh, there’s, there’s there’s help. Or there’s a community, you know, I’m not the only one. And there was practical things that I was like, I can learn something I can be like, not be taught. I knew I could be taught, but just like, there’s practical ways to deal with what I’m going through. And it was so refreshing in a lot of way. So that’s how I got to masters is, you know?

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yeah. And I think that’s so powerful. I know I had a very similar experience when I, you know, I was kind of going through life and trying to dealing with some struggles and feeling kind of alone. Like, am I the only one that’s doing this? And then, you know, I started learning like the life coaching skills that we teach in master’s and I remember feeling like, oh my gosh, like, I can just like what you said, I can actually learn this stuff and apply it to my life and see really practical results that are helping me. And, and it’s one of the reasons, you know, Sterling was kind of in the same boat. Kara was, that’s why we wanted to create this program that especially for Catholic moms where we could obviously bring the faith into it and yet, you know, it’s so funny. Sometimes we go through life and we struggle with these things, or we have these really strong emotions. I mean, just like you said with your husband, like, so it’s so easy for our husbands just to tell us like, Hey, stop thinking about that.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

I know my husband is telling me that so much in my life. And I remember like looking at him, going, I don’t know how to do that. Like how, like clearly you know how to do it, but I don’t. And I think that’s, you know, maybe the difference between men and women in our brains and all of the psychology behind that, but really like I needed to learn the, learn, all of these things so that I could actually kind of take a little bit more control over my emotions and my thoughts and all of that. So here you are in masters. Obviously you’ve, you’re we do know we have the coursework, different courses that are in there and the group coaching. What is some, what is something that you’ve enjoyed about being, and then we have the community part aspect too, but what do you, what do you enjoy about being in the masters Program?

Guest: Christy Brown

I think a lot of it comes down to the practical part of it on and like, I think, Hmm. I don’t remember what course I went through first. But then it was in the the overwhelmed course that you did that really just was like the stress and overwhelmed where I was like, I felt like you were talking to me, like, I was like, oh my gosh, I need to meet this woman. I need to get ahold of her. Like, you know, it was just, and then I know that’s the power of the holy spirit. So I, I think there was a lot of the practical aspect that there are steps that I can take that are very attainable to be able to use in my life practically to give me a sense of confidence, again, to be able to recognize the places that, like I said before were just negative, that I didn’t even recognize as negative and be able to make some changes and, and to be aware of the community aspect of other people, but that I love that it, it was on my own.

Guest: Christy Brown

I could do my own time. You know, it wasn’t like a course, like you’re signing up for school at all. It was just very doable. Like I do a lot of it where I I’m, you know, sitting and doing laundry or now I can plug it in, in my car and listen to different things I could get on different group coaching. Like that was a huge one in the beginning too. And I got, I think one of my first group coaching when I was just like, okay, here I am, I need to utilize this to get on with Sterling. And hadn’t been able to do that. And maybe it was with you or one or the other whom whatever it was just like, okay, there’s this is not it’s, you’re not, it’s very personable, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. You’re not in this big cloud or far or some distance across the world.

Guest: Christy Brown

You know, that way. I mean, the internet is, there’s the blessing of that of making it seem very close, but also just personal, like I’m talking with you right now. I’ve, I’ve talked on group coaching or I’ve listened to other women being coached that way. That’s been huge on being able to go, oh yeah, they’re going through something similar. And that can really benefit me right now or, or seeing how they’re working through it with you guys, coaching them, that I actually can work the process on the side of you talking to somebody else because I’ve been taught how to do this. And I’ve been able to take that and apply it, not just to my life, but now, especially to my older daughter’s life, to some things that are going on in our life with our other children, as well as like my husband and I looking through things and saying, Hey, this is the bottle you want to just look over this because this is how I I’m learning to retrain my brain to work this way.

Guest: Christy Brown

And then we can talk about it as a couple and apply different circumstances in our own lives to going through this, like, how does this work? How can we take a step back instead of being reactionary to be able to choose to become intentional. And that was huge for me and became very life-changing in the, in, in just the past six, seven months, like really turning my life a 180 to where I felt like I’m like at that drowning point, like head above the water barely and to where no, I am going to be this confident woman in this pillar of strength, this calm in my family. And being able to be taught those things, to be able to go, and now I can go out and help influence others. And that’s something that I’ve taken on me. Not that masters say, this is what you have to do at all. But that was something that I wanted to own and take on for me. Yeah. Yes.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yeah. I think that is, it is the power of it because once we, I, one of the things I love to say is a woman who knows how to manage her mind is unstoppable. Like we can, when we learn how to really manage our mind, manage our thoughts, we can manage our household better. We can manage our time, better, our emotions, our emotional state, how we show up a love, just hearing you say that, like, I want to be like, you know, being very intentional about, I want to be this competent woman. I want to be this calm in my family and in, in, in, in my daily life. And I want to show up in this way, and it’s been so fun working with you over these past several months because so I just want to let our listeners know Christy has not all, she’s a masters member.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

So she’s been in our master’s program really since the beginning, but then Christy and I have done some one-on-one coaching sessions together. We did a 12 week session together. So it’s been really fun. Christy, watching you learn these tools, apply them to your life. You’ve been one of like, I just love it because you’ve just, you completely have dove into this work and have gone all in on yourself. That’s what we, that’s what Sterling I talk about all the time. We love women that are willing to go all in knowing that they’re going to gain so much confidence and self-awareness and grow in their own lives and then be able to really show up in the ways they want for their family and their friends and everyone else. And you have done that. Like there’ve been so many times I was just spinning like, oh my gosh, like she’s doing this. Like, this is all you and your to, because like, you know, it’s not necessarily easy work. I mean, it takes like investing in ourselves and putting in the time and being willing to uncover the thoughts that maybe you’re kind of holding us back a little bit. And sometimes, you know, that can be a little uncomfortable or challenging, but I’ve just been really impressed with your willingness to

Guest: Christy Brown

Thank you. That’s so gracious of you. And it’s been such a joy to work with you Lorissa, and a lot of ways, because I think that’s just the amazing part of it, you know, taking the masters program and those first few months, and then what Lorissa was talking about. I went on retreat after I was listening to her one program of one of our courses of talking about the stress and overwhelm that we have in masters. And like I said, I was like, I just need to reach out. Like, it was just one of those moments where you feel like smacked on the head. Like, here’s your opportunity, Christy. You’re going away from this weekend. I used it. It was a girl’s weekend, but I use the beginning part as a silent retreat for myself. And I just, it was an opportunity fell in my lap.

Guest: Christy Brown

And my husband’s like, you just need to go and silence for me if you can’t tell is like always challenged. I’m very, you know, an extrovert and I could talk forever and, you know, but I was like, okay, there’s things. I was going through some like Jen full Weiler, your blue flame. I was going through that mindful Catholic book. And then just going through some of the excuse me, goal stuff that Sterling had set out and trying to go through these masters. And I did the whole, like, I finished the stress and overwhelm on my drive to this retreat. And then after that, I reached out to Lorissa and we had a conversation that weekend. And then excuse me we decided to move into some one-on-one coaching. And that was really great. We set up a 12 week program and meeting and just her taking me through that was just really what I needed.

Guest: Christy Brown

And I could see there was just some bigger issues that I wanted to dive into. I wanted to really work on. And because I wanted to see a difference in my life to a place where I kept hearing Lorissa and Sterling say through masters or podcasts, like you can love your life where it was. And it sounded like almost a billboard or like a cliche thing, but I’m like, these are solid Catholic women. Like they’re not trying to sell me something like, what is this? You know, I want that, you know, and trying to learn what that was. And for me, that, that did mean I wanted to work individually with a life coach and jump in deeper to, to be able to see where that would take me because I just felt I was in a place that I was just stuck and wanted a practical source of how to learn, to manage my mind to do.

Guest: Christy Brown

And that’s what that brought me to is coming to realize, no, I have control over my thoughts. Those, you know, give me my results when I can manage those when I can learn how those affect my feelings and emotions. When I can make choices about that, it was just empowering in the right sense. Like the Lord has made me this way. He’s made me this woman, you know, he’s given me my faith and I can tell like those thoughts and feelings where to go. This doesn’t have to be some new age-y thing. It is totally rooted in faith and our spirituality and the way we were made as women. And we do are different than men. And I think that’s why, what you guys are doing and made for greatness for masters through this process has given me such a desire and a longing to work with other women, especially moms in this area of managing our minds, because I think we get lost in, okay.

Guest: Christy Brown

I went to school, I get trained in this area and now I’ve been married with kids and maybe I’m still working and utilizing these gifts and stuff, but I think we get bogged down. And I don’t know, is that the day and age we live is that the stress of internet or whatever is that technology w you know, those are topics you could discuss to end end of all of that, but there’s something here that we can do something, and it can be rooted in faith to be able to, you know, give ourselves a breath of fresh air to say, no, I can do this. And I’m capable. I don’t have to just be reactionary. I can completely be intentional. And how do I want to show up? And how is this thought or these feelings serving meat, just be able to ask myself those questions in the morning is huge. It’s just been, so I’m grateful for that.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yeah. Thank you for, for sharing that. And I, and I think that is the most empowering part. It is very empowering when we learn these tools, which I keep telling. And I, I think this is where the passion I have from the, for masters comes in, because I keep thinking, like, why didn’t I learn this stuff years ago? It would have helped me so much, but we can’t go back in time. Right. But we’re here right now. And these tools are available and we just want as many Catholic moms to learn them, because now, like you said, we’re teaching them to our children. We’re remodeling this in our own lives. We can change the trajectory of our future, you know, with like staying, you know, obviously close to God, but like utilizing these tools to really become the women that he’s calling us to be, and living the life that he desires for us to live.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

But then also, like you said, being able to impact other people’s lives. And I know, I mean, you have so many gifts, you have gifts for speaking. You, you know, your whole background, your education and communications and all of that. And obviously just in talking to you, you’re such a gifted speaker, but then you also have this on your heart to help lead others in their, you know, closer to Christ to be a source of strength for other moms that maybe you’re struggling in different areas and stuff like that. So I’m just thankful that master’s has been part of your journey. And as you continue moving forward in your life and opening up the possibilities of what God might be calling you to it’s exciting that you have these tools now.

Guest: Christy Brown

Yep. Yeah. I’m really excited because you know, Lorissa you teaching me a lot of this and through master’s has just opened the gateway for me to be able to dream again. And and that was a real hard struggle. And I, I haven’t mastered that. That’s why I’m still here, you know, we’re all a work in progress. Right. And and I think, but learning how to start dreaming that way, and you really challenged me with how are you going to do this? And that was a holy spirit moment too of saying, oh, I, I, I have the freedom to do that. And through those process of working with you, my daughter, grace and I launched our own podcast in the last seven weeks it’s called the thanks mom podcast. And it’s really awesome because it was, it just took a lot.

Guest: Christy Brown

I mean, we, she was kind of, I think looking into some of that too, I really realized I have a deep desire to do public speaking. That’s something that’s always, I think Ben there, but got very buried. You know, cause I, I majored in communication. Like back in the day I was like, I’m going to be, you know, a news anchor and do this. And then that didn’t really mesh with, you know, my desire and my occasion to be a mom and a wife and I did and have wanted to stay home. But now it’s like, okay, well now this is like unfolding this new leaf in this new change. And so how can these two mesh together? And so grace and I have come up with this podcast and we’re just really trying to just share our stories. And I think that’s one of the great things you guys have taught in masters is that there’s always dreaming possible and you just challenged me with like, you have stories to share and you don’t have to just, you know, be versed in, you know, this or, you know, a strong trained in this area of, you know, journalism or this or that.

Guest: Christy Brown

And I do have training. I think, I didn’t think about that. And that was, I felt like I had to have credentials, I guess, is what I’m saying to be able to this. And so it kind of just threw it out there. We were sitting around the pool one day and I was like, so Lorissa thinks I should start a podcast. And grace, like, I do that. And I’m like, wait, what? Like, no, that’s too scary. You know? And then our brain goes in to everything you and Sterling talk about, like just goes into crazy mode. Like we can’t do that. And so finally we, you know, I talked to my husband who was hugely supportive. My kids thought it was the coolest idea. So we’ve been doing that for about seven weeks and and it’s more the banter back and forth of grace.

Guest: Christy Brown

And I heard, you know, we’re 20, some years apart and her perspective on different just things in life at mine. And basically how do you live out? The extraordinary within the ordinary life and from things from, you know, we’ve talked about exercise, we had a great mindset, one that really incorporated a lot, what we’re learning in masters and made for greatness. We talked about just stuff on reading and we just, our next episode comes, we drop our episodes on Sundays and we were talking about mental health and that’s been a huge area that, you know, Lorissa that we talked about a lot and just I think I kind of stayed away from the, the topic for a while. Cause I didn’t know how I wanted to tackle that. But that’s just been a huge desire. We just talk a lot about, there’s a need with moms to have a support system, especially with Catholic moms in a Christian setting that they’re not alone in this and it’s become kind of like my soap box thing.

Guest: Christy Brown

I think with mindset on that of how, how do we talk about this with still, without labeling either ourselves or the people we’re trying to support if that’d be our children or our spouse or whomever. And how do we bring light to the situation that just like we would have physical illness. Grace had a great point in this that she spoke about that you guys can listen to in our mental health segment, but about like when we look at a strained muscle or a broken leg, they’re both injuries, right? We treat both of them, but we treat them differently. And with mental health, I think a lot of the stigma out there is, oh, mental health equals you’re suicidal. But the thing is, we all have mental health either in a positive way, in a negative way. And you guys talk about this in masters a lot about how do we care for ourselves and how do we take that time to nurture our own needs?

Guest: Christy Brown

And that’s not a selfish thing. Right. And we need that in order to serve our families to live out our vocation. And so it shouldn’t just be like, Ooh, mental health, like that tab that we word that we don’t talk about because it should be just like our physical health. Like if our kid has a stomach flu, we talk about it with other people. Now we might not always give the nitty gritty of, you know, Susie was the one in the bathroom all night or whatever. Say the stomach flu is going through my family and oh my gosh, I have not slept in five days and I’m doing loads of laundry and we can share about that and have support with our friends and our, you know, in the way that we need like, wow, you know, can I make you a meal or do you just need to talk about it?

Guest: Christy Brown

Hi, I’m here. I know you’re dealing with this. Mental health needs will be looked about in the same way. Like, yeah, I got out, like I went with my girlfriend married today. We got our nails done. We had a cup of coffee. Like it was great to do that. That like really boosts me for me and her she’s one of my best friends. It was wonderful. But we have also dealt with mental health in our family. And that has been very taxing in the last few years. And to feel that lack of support, not because no one wants to support me, but not knowing how to talk about it or where to reach out where it’s not going to be this stigma or this labeling this thing, this taboo like, oh, mental health. And it’s like, no, why we should all talk about mental health.

Guest: Christy Brown

It totally, it’s positive. And there’s a good side to it. And there’s a bad side, just like our physical health. We need to exercise. It’s all powered about physical health and we have injuries, you know, like it’s all part of it, you know? And so so that was the big episode, but I think that’s leading into, I want to really connect with our thanks mom podcast. Like the things I’ve learned in masters with mindfulness and how that connects to every area, mental health exercise, reading our vocation gifts of the spirit, you know, where this goes and the opportunity is there endless. And, but I do get a lot of props to you guys because this is really what is moving this forward and who knows where that’s going to take me and what the Lord has in store and just, you know, using your phrase again, of like, we don’t know where God’s going to lead us, but we just have to be ready.

Guest: Christy Brown

And so that’s what I’m trying to do. And, you know, hopefully move forward with working with you again too. And wherever that goes with individual coaching in the fall here, as well as just whatever opens up in the future, it’s just very opening for me and very life-changing and, and, and it’s not just me, my kids see it, my husband and I were just talking about it because you and I have been talking again, like, how can we get some individual coaching and moving into the fall? And Paul’s like, you need this. I’ve seen the difference between when you’re going through it. When you know, summer’s different anyway, it’s not been bad, but like, how do we go back and make sure we’re still moving forward? And that’s all part of that same thing, mental health of how we, you know, helping ourselves. And I think that’s why masters is just so great. It’s giving us, you know, moms, the opportunity to care for ourselves and to better ourselves and not just be like complacent, like, okay, this is it. And this is where I’m at. No we’re made for greatness and there’s more here. And God has so many gifts in store for us. And we need the opportunity to be able to take a step aside and look at that and dream again, you know?

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yes, I completely agree. It is, like you said, it’s so easy to kind of just re go through life. We get into routines and habits and you just, you’re just going, going, right. We’re just trying to stay on for the ride. And then after at a certain point, we go, gosh, you kind of just feels like you’re in a rut, right? Like we’re just, and there’s gotta be more, right? Like, even though this is the life we wanted and this, you know, we’re living our vocations and doing the best we can, but I, that is really ultimately why we wanted to have this program is to help women dream again, know the God and that God places, dreams in our hearts. And we can honor those dreams while we still honor our vocations. And it doesn’t mean that we have to choose one or the other.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

We can open up to the possibility of all of it, like the fullness of it, right. Where we’re still, you know, our, our, our husbands, our marriages, our relationship with God and our children are definitely our most important priorities, but also taking care of ourselves and doing things for ourselves that are life-giving and, and being able to dream again, it is so funny. So often in our program, women are just like, I don’t know how to do this so long since I’ve drained, or even when he sometimes will have challenges within the masters where we’re like, do something fun this week. And women are like, oh gosh, what is, what does that look like?

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

It’s been 20 years since I did something fun for myself, right? Because I mean, obviously we have fun with our families, but to twos. So like, it’s kind of, you know, and then it is really working on our own mental health. That’s really the whole premise of masters because when we are in a good place we are in a, you know, we are better able to love and serve our, our families the way God is calling us to, to do so, Christy kind of, as we wrap things up, what would you say if there is a woman that’s listening and she’s like on the fence about masters or is thinking, gosh, I don’t know, is this really going to benefit me? Do you have any advice or anything you’d want to say to her? Or, you Know.

Guest: Christy Brown

I think what I would say is give it a try. What, what is there to lose? I mean, that’s kind of the place I was at was something needs to give, you know? And and I think even Sterling challenged at the beginning when you guys were first opening up your master’s program, like, can you give me a month or two, can you give me a year to change your life? You know? And like I said, that sounds like a billboard cliche. Right? But I’m like, these, these are awesome. Like Catholic Christian women, these are moms that are trying to like build community. This can’t just be like a used car salesman tagline, you know? And so I would say, come and see what it is like it, yeah, it costs a bit of money, but there’s a lot involved and it’s not exorbitant, you know?

Guest: Christy Brown

And if it’s here, like we were saying, we have to do things for ourselves to be able to live out our vocation as wives and mothers, we have to be taking care of ourselves. I was talking to a, another dear friend today about that same thing, like when we’re finding ourselves at the end and we have nothing left to give, usually it’s looking back. Cause we haven’t taken that time to really love on ourselves and do something fun for us so that we can be reinvigorated. And I love how Sterling just said that too. Like she found that, that thing like Sundays, I don’t know if she still does it cause she’s moved, but like you come home from mass, the kids get donuts, you know, dad’s in charge. And she goes to coffee shop to shop, to recharge. And those are her couple hours or her hour to if it’s writing or reading or whatever, whatever.

Guest: Christy Brown

And I’m, I’ve just really seen that in different areas where it might be something you’ve already built into your life. And, but masters can be that thing that you build into your life that gives you that time for yourself. And I would just challenge that woman to take a month or two and try it and see where that can lead. Because for me it’s been, life-changing, it really has, and it’s led me to a place that I thought I wouldn’t be able to be at this place unless everything in my life stopped. And you really challenged that, like what if your life is perfectly where it needs to be right now? And what if you can do both and doing both didn’t mean becoming busier or more frantic, it just meant really looking at it. And like you were just saying about our life gets going and going and going.

Guest: Christy Brown

And in my mind that image is like the journal wheel and you know, little hamster going round and round around. But how many times like that hamster can stop at any time. Right. And get off and look. And I don’t think we as moms, I think we get in that and feel like we have to run and run and run. And for me, like I said, I could talk and talk and talk forever. But when I started going, no, I want to be intentional. What that meant for Christy was I need to slow down. Like I need to get off the wheel and look at the whole wheel and go, why am I doing this? And what do I want to be doing to be income intentional? And I think masters has really taught me how to slow down in a way that everything does fit.

Guest: Christy Brown

Everything can be exactly as it’s supposed to be. What needs to change is my thought process on it and T on that, and yes, and that means tweaking. Like we aren’t perfect. Our husbands aren’t perfect. Our kids aren’t perfect, but God has put them in our lives intentionally in this point. And if we can take the time to slow down or to step back, however, that is for you, masters can help you see that and really help you to examine that in a way that is doable very much so. And, and there’s, you know, work involved, but if you’re at that place where you’re questioning, I don’t think there’s a question about it. Jump in and see where it’s at and see the life that it can give to you. I think it’s, it’s just been beautiful or message me or Lorissa. I did that with Sterling for like three weeks before I was like, I don’t know if I can do this. And she’s like, what are you waiting for? Just come and see what it’s about. If it doesn’t work, no nothing’s lost, you know, you can only gain in this situation. So

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yeah. Yes. I love that. I do. And I mean, and it isn’t, you know, for everyone there’s, you know, although I think everyone that’s joined has, has taken whether they’ve been in for a month or have been with us for six months, we’ve we, we do here. Like I have learned some tools that will now stay with me for the rest of my life. And so I’m glad. Thank you for saying that. And I just it is, again, it’s so exciting. It’s such an honor to be able to journey with women in their lives. And we do have this community within masters where we have a private Facebook group. So we CA we get to know each other through the group coaching calls and, you know, when women are willing to come on and be coached. So we kind of get to know each other through that.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

And then the Facebook and the mighty networks group. Sometimes we have within, you know, we’ll have some, you know, group gatherings, like a social gathering event where we get to know each other, but we’re just, we’re so blessed to have you Christy in our program. And I felt blessed to have been able to just build this, you know, friendship with you through coaching and getting to know you better. And I’m so excited for what God has in store for you and for your podcast. So I want to just mention again to the ladies that are listening to this, it’s called thanks mom. And it’s Christy and her daughter grace together. And I love it. I loved your episode on prayer. I would just like it really enjoyed listening to it and can’t wait to listen to more episodes and continuing to follow along.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

So it’s really, I mean, it’s a great podcast for all Catholic moms, but even if you have a daughter, like it’s great for teen daughters to listen to you. Great. I love grace, her perspective. I mean, she’s so for being a young woman, she has such wisdom about her and the beautiful gift of faith as well. But it’s just really beautiful because it’s, it’s so fun to listen to you guys talk as mother and daughter, but you can see a strong friendship. That’s there a strong respect that you have for each other. That’s so beautiful. And so when I listened to the podcast, I, it makes me smile because I have, my oldest daughter is 11. And I just, I look forward to the kind of conversations that you guys are having right now. I mean, her and I have really special conversations, but not quite as in depth in depth as you’re having right now, but I look forward to that. And so I think it’s really beautiful. So where can there is just on all like Spotify and iTunes,

Guest: Christy Brown

We’re on, we’re on apple podcasts, Google podcasts Spotify, basically any main podcast platform that you like to enjoy to listen to. I think my husband even listens to us on overcast. And so we, it, you will, you would have to look up, I believe. Thanks mom podcast. So all one word. We also have an Instagram and a Facebook page that we just lost, launched. So come join us there and, or trying to create some more social networking presence and conversations there about things. We’re yeah, we’re learning as we go, obviously, cause we’re not grace is 20, so it helps that she’s a little more tech savvy and my husband does a lot of the editing and, you know, entro an extra. So it’s become this family process and I’m glad to do that with Ulyssa because it’ll teach when she goes back to college and like a few weeks, like how to do this.

Guest: Christy Brown

So we can, cause we’ve been using garage band and different things like that right now. So yeah, the thanks mom podcast. And yeah, and hopefully that’ll move into some public speaking for me and move forward in that. And just wherever, you know, being ready for where God takes us and being here with you and and you moms out there listening now, like yeah. Tune in with your younger daughters too. Cause there was a lot on there. Grace is 20 and she we’ve got a good, you know, teen audience and those early twenties. It’s not just for us old ladies here.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yeah. Well I love it. And I do, I do believe that God is going to use your, I mean, he already is using your gifts. But your gifts for speaking, and I know that you know that your desire to speak to maybe moms groups, I know you teach on NFP. So I just want to say this, if anyone’s in the Michigan area or anywhere like I know that you have a desire to really speak to the hearts of moms to let moms know women know Catholic moms know, especially they’re not alone, especially around like what we were talking about around the issues of mental illness or just, you know, anything struggling in, in, in our faith lives. You have a lot of wisdom as a mother. You’ve got children at all these different ages and so you bring forth the great wisdom of parenting and all of that. So I just have no doubt that God is going to be opening up these doors for you to use your gifts, to impact the lives of others. You already are doing that. And we’re just blessed to have you in masters. So

Guest: Christy Brown

Thank you. I do appreciate it. That was lovely shout outs. Cause I’d love to come speak wherever you’re at and travel to you or even in Michigan or this or that. And it’s just, I’m just grateful for what masters has done and what made for greatness has done and, and being able to help me see where my gifts and talents are and however God wants to use those. And yes, it has been great. I have just a heart for this work that you guys are doing, which has been so encouraging and yeah, just for other yeah. Moms and family and yeah. Cause I, I don’t, I, you don’t always see it in yourself that you have all this wisdom. And I wouldn’t call myself always really wise, but I do have a lot of experience, a lot of things.

Guest: Christy Brown

And I think that’s really what wisdom is. It’s like, you know, having life experience, you know, struggling through figuring things out, trying things, some things work, some things don’t

Guest: Christy Brown

Exactly. So then all

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Of a sudden you’re like, oh, okay, I have some, I have some experience in this area. So

Guest: Christy Brown

I’m gonna share here. Yeah, exactly. The stories, the experiences, the lived experiences and, and just the encouragement we, women, we need encouragement us moms, we need each other. And yeah. So I just, I’m just a point where I’m like, I want to encourage you. I want to share with you, I want to, you know, live alongside you and just whatever you know, that is. And however I can help in that way. So I’m excited to see where this takes us. And so I’m so grateful for this experience. So thank you.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

Yes. So if so hopefully we can put all the links somewhere in, you know, the links to your podcast and Instagram page. So somebody could, you know, direct message you through that. If they wanted to.

Guest: Christy Brown

Definitely. You can definitely do that. Yeah. I’ll get those to Lorissa. And our Instagram page has a link tree on there with all of our platforms for our podcast. And you can direct messages there or on Facebook’s through thanks Mon podcast. Yep.

Speaker: Lorissa Horn

So good. Like that first time I talked to you when you were on that retreat, that silent retreat that we would be here today. Right? Talking about all this, goodness.

Guest: Christy Brown

I feel blessed that this did lead to here. So God is good all the time and he does amazing things. So when we just let him and step back and say, okay, Lord, here I am just take it go. And it’s been a ride for sure. So yes. Yeah. So yeah. Thank you.

Guest: Lorissa Horn

Awesome. Well, thank you, Christy. It’s been wonderful talking to you ladies. Thank you for listening. And just remember like we hope you have an incredible week. You are made for greatness. God loves you. He has big dreams in store for you and we can’t wait to journey with you as we continue moving forward. Thank you, Christy. And we will see you all soon. God bless.