Wrestling With Life

TRAILER: Wrestling With Life

We are all wrestling with something – especially us twenty and thirty somethings who are navigating the most transitional, confusing, overwhelming times of our lives thus far. We’re doing so many things for the first time: getting started in our careers, living on our own, moving to new places, dating (or marrying) new people, making new friends, and asking the big life questions like “What is the point of all of this?”
And on top of all that, our generation is up against something none of our ancestors before us have ever navigated: growing up in a tech savvy world full of constant distractions. We’re more connected than ever before – yet we’re largely lacking purpose, in-person community, and faith in anything besides “quick fixes” to give us relief. Instead we’re overwhelmed with information, addicted to our phones, and desperate for a more meaningful existence.
Whether you’re wrestling with your self-image, your faith in God, or your entire life’s purpose – I’m here to tell you that you are not alone and to encourage you to find both beauty and purpose in the midst of your struggle.
My name is EmLed and this is the Wrestling With Life podcast :)
I’m in my late twenties and spent the last few years in my “healing era” – going to therapy, reading tons of self-help books, and pouring myself into my career ambitions. This is what the modern mental health movement tells us will fix our problems, right? But my obsession with self-improvement slowly morphed into a pursuit of perfection, outperforming my competition, and total self-absorption. Funny enough, all the time I spent “finding myself” left me feeling more isolated, more insecure, and more sad than ever before. Then God brought me to my knees and opened my eyes – I can’t do life without Him.
Wrestling With Life is for anyone like me who is tired of trying to play God and rely on themselves to find peace. Together, we’re gonna look to Jesus for inspiration on how to live and love and give and feel. We’ll kick perfection and control and pride to the curb and intentionally seek how God may use our pain for good. We’ll explore how we can build community and lift others up and embrace humility. And above all else, we will strive to accept our beautifully messy, limited human nature and remember that the point of life is learning to unconditionally love one another – not rise above each other.
And real quick, before you dive in, let me be very clear on what this podcast is NOT. Wrestling With Life does not exist to judge you or replace the voice of God. I am absolutely NOT a preacher, life coach, or therapist – nor will I ever pretend to be. I am simply a deeply flawed human on a mission to eliminate the messages of perfection, self-reliance, and materialism that the world worships. Because sometimes I can forget the truth – and when I buy those lies, my world never feels darker. And if you’re here, I’m willing to bet you can relate.
Whatever you’re wrestling with, you are not alone – let’s Wrestle With Life together. Follow @em_led11 on Instagram for more <3
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(Re)Introducing Wrestling With Life

We're back baby!! :)
In this episode, I cover:
Why I took a break from the podcast for a few months
How my heart has shifted during this time
Why my old episodes are no longer available
What you can expect from the pod moving forward & who it's for!
A lot has changed, but one thing is always gonna be the same around here: whatever you're wrestling with, you are not alone <3
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S1 E1: Our obsession with ourselves is making us miserable

What's up y'all! I've been talking to God a lot about what our generation needs to hear from Him. I've also been posting a ton of polls on my Instagram (@em_led11) to get an idea of what we're all struggling with. And PHEW.
There's a lot to unpack and talk about, but I've boiled it down to one main issue that keeps coming up again and again in all my research: our obsession with ourselves is what's making us all so miserable. Our first series on the podcast is gonna be allll about this!
 
This series is for you if you are:
- Between the ages of 22-35, working full time, and don't have kids
- Feeling a lack of purpose, peace, and community in your life
- Questioning God, faith, and this whole Jesus thing
 
We're keeping it real, honest, and vulnerable as always baby. Let's go!
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S1 E2: Why you should seek community instead of "focusing on yourself"

Episode two of our first series is still all about how our self-obsession is making us miserable, but now we're talking how we can find purpose and community outside of ourselves.
How many times have you heard...
"Focus on yourself!"
"You HAVE to put yourself first."
"Pour all of your energy into your career right now and worry about the rest later."
These sound like innocent messages and good ideas, right? But they're actually a sneaky way the enemy isolates and distracts us from attaining our full potential.
Let's talk through how we can fight back against these messages from the world and find a deeper purpose in our relationships with others.
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S1 E3: How forgiving others and choosing love leads to peace

Let's be honest: we all wanna win, right? The argument, the competition, the promotion, you name it -- we wanna be on top.
The hardest thing to do is to choose loving someone else (especially someone you don't vibe with) over our pride. ESPECIALLY when that person is belittling you, insulting you, or straight up attacking you.
Sometimes we don't even want to love other people and would rather see them lose more than anything else. But when this is our heart posture and mindset, we actually end up hurting ourselves more than anyone else.
In this episode, we're talking how we can shift our heart posture to one of love instead of our default posture -- pride -- and how that helps us to find more peace, purpose, and community in life.
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S1 E4: How to use social media for connection instead of validation

The title honestly says it all. If you struggle to stay off your phone in general, you use social media WAY too much, or you constantly feel down after scrolling online -- this episode is for you.
We talk about:
How we become what we consume
How Satan uses social media to foster pride, comparison, and normalize things that are not normal
How we can set healthy boundaries with social media
How we can use social media to spread love and positivity instead of glorifying ourselves
This is something those of us who grew up with technology & social media ESPECIALLY need to hear. TUNE IN!
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S1 E5: When self-improvement leads to self-glorification

We're ending S1 with a bang and keeping it so forreal about how self-improvement and self-help start out as innocent tools to help us get out of low places, but how slowly over time these things can actually end up hurting us more than they help us.
We cover:
What self-help is
When it starts to get dangerous
How these tools can hurt us more than they help
How we can bridge the gap between self-help and looking to the Lord for help
Some amazing book recommendations to help you get started!!
Books mentioned in this episode:
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson
Humility by Andrew Murray
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S2 E1: Overthinking it all? This series is for you :)

This series is all about overthinking: where it comes from, why we do it, how to know if you're overthinking, and most importantly -- how to stop.
Spoiler alert: it has a lot to do with us not trusting ourselves or God.
I polled 22-35 year olds on Instagram (follow @em_led11) about their own overthinking patterns and...
81% say they are overthinkers
48% say they overthink their relationships the most
71% say they don't always pray before making a big decision
77% say they prefer to be in control most of the time
If you fall into these statistics, this episode is absolutely for you baby. Tune in!
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
Joe Rogan podcast episode on therapy and Gen Z

S2 E2: Feeling stuck? Just take the next right step

One of the biggest reasons we overthink is because we're waaaaay too focused on the final destination rather than just taking the next right step.
This episode is all about learning how to let go of control, trust yourself and your daily choices, and most importantly -- trust God in the unknown.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer

S2 E3: Why we overthink other people's perception of us and how to stop

48% of you guys told me via Instagram (@em_led11) that the thing you overthink more than anything else is your personal relationships. And boy do I fall into this category!
But what many of us don't realize is that the way we show up in our relationships is often a reflection of our own inner world and how we see ourselves. When we overthink our own pain, mistakes, or past trauma, we project our perceptions and judgements onto others and start believing that they see us the same way we see ourselves. But this is the work of the devil and is simply NOT true.
This episode talks about the psychology behind why we do this. We also discuss how we can stop caring so much about what EVERYONE thinks of us and instead put more weight on how WE see ourselves and how God sees us :)
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