Spiritual Disciplines Can Heal and Transform, with Healey Ikerd

Finding God in Our Pain

Lately I’ve taken a keen interest in finding ways, methods, tools for my listeners to not only pursue peace in their life but I also want to connect them with actual people who can make a difference in their pursuit for freedom in the mind/mental health, heart/emotional health and body/physical health. With that in mind, my guest today is Psychotherapist Healey Ikerd. As you listen in you’ll hear that she can definitely make a difference in those areas of your life.

Together she and I want you to know, to have, to experience freedom in all the ways God meant for you to be free so that you can walk in your true identity in Christ and know the fullness of His plans for your life.

God is the only deity that I’m aware of who never asks you to act like something didn’t happen or to accept what happened or to distance yourself from your traumas. The God of the Holy Bible says give me your hand, I’m going to guide you through this valley and into healing. So God boldly walks us right through the middle of our personal valley of death. He takes pain and gives it purpose, redeems what we’ve lost and replaces it with better and He restores us to our right mind where fear does not reign.

The more I talk about the transforming power of God’s word the more I realize that change starts with a simple decision that we want peace more than we want to live with what fear cultivates in our life. That decision is not enough though because we must take action with some discipline and intention. Among many things that Healey talked about she gave us a super simple way to start the process of changing the way we think and therefore changing the way we live.

Healey suggests that we take a situation or a lie based thought, such as I don’t like my smile, no one loves me, I can never do anything right,(fill in the blank with your personal fear or negative self-talk). Then find a scripture to replace the destructive nature of the words and beliefs you are currently using/thinking. Using scripture to replace destructive self-talk will begin to feed the creation of new neuropathways in the brain and starve the life based neuropathways that you previously created and used. lie. By not focusing on our lack but by speaking God’s truth into life starves the lie we believed.

Scriptures such as Psalm 139:14, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Or if fear is overwhelming, then turn to a full scripture such as Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

In short, every time your negative thought comes into your head, interrupt it with your phrase or wash your thoughts with scripture and rewrite the lies with God’s truth. I’d suggests you practice this discipline with intention for a minimum of 21 days because that’s the time it takes to rewrite a neuro pathway in your brain. Thirty days is even better!

Something else that Healey shared that was super simple and yet oh so powerful with regard to changing our language is to rephrase your I am statements and to I feel.

She made the distinction that speaking I am statements over ourselves such as I am scared, I am lonely, I am weary, are statements of identity and yet we are not our emotions or our fears. So when we’re talking about emotions use the phase I feel scared, I feel lonely, I feel weary.

I’d even suggest you include self defeating statements such as I am ugly, I am fat because there is an emotion/a fear behind these words and change them to I feel ugly, I feel fat.

When we intentionally change the wording to I feel, this gives us control over our emotions and we move from labeling ourself as less than, to healing; in other words, restored to who God says we are. We’re no longer a victim of an emotion. We have emotions but it’s not who we are.

That is just a few of the simple actions that we can take that will change the direction of our life!

Alright, let’s get into this informative and potentially life changing conversation with Healey Ikerd.

Live Loved and Thrive! @alifeofthrive.com

Connect with Healey:
Website: https://writtenbyhealey.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writtenbyhealey/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/WrittenbyHealey
Face your Fears Freebie - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fu_CGjKaGWXO3QapzQtyxV62EuTwIrfe2b2Br3Ii2zk/edit?usp=sharing

Bio:
Healey Ikerd is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Arkansas and a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor.

She has also earned a Certificate in Ministry from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is a U.S. Army Veteran and has worked in the mental health field for over 17 years.

She owns her own private practice in Fayetteville, Arkansas called HopeLife Counseling and is the author of Changing Your Feeling – A Workbook for Anxiety and Worry From a Christian Perspective and a newly released children’s book called The Red Ball – A Story of Friendship and Forgiveness.

Her passion is to help others excel in life and relationships through biblical principles. Healey is a mom and a new “Grammie”. She and her husband live on a small farm in Northwest Arkansas.

Additional Podcasts on Various Other Healing Ministries:
Theophostic Healing w/Frank Meadows: https://alifeofthrive.com/2024/04/10/theophostic-healing-prayer-with-frank-meadows/
Deliverance Ministry w/Karen King: https://alifeofthrive.com/2023/09/13/finding-freedom-through-the-deliverance-ministry/
Emotion Code w/Eileen Love: Part 1 - https://alifeofthrive.com/2023/06/07/emotion-code-therapy-part-1-with-eileen-love/ & Part 2 - https://alifeofthrive.com/2023/06/22/emotion-code-therapy-with-eileen-love-part-2/