62. From Panic to Peace: How to Make Room for What Matters with Rachel Earp

You're listening to the podcast where we ask, how's all that working for you?

Because sometimes all you need to change your life is a moment of reflection.

In this space, we are done with sugarcoating and we embrace keeping it real.

I'm your host, Rachel D.

Baker, guiding you on this journey to create some breathing room, set healthy boundaries, and reclaim your time guilt free.

This is real talk with a bit of sass, and we are always seeking the truth in God's word.

Today is going to be an awesome conversation.

I cannot wait for you to meet my dear friend, Rachel Earp.

That's right, double Rachel today.

And you're welcome.

Let me tell you a little bit about Rachel, in case you don't know her already.

Rachel Earp is a beloved author, podcaster, and an inspiring voice for those seeking to live boldly in their faith and purpose.

But through her podcast, she's got a couple.

One is Heels, Handbags and Hustle.

And she speaks directly to women in that one who are in business, entrepreneurs, those balancing work, life and their calling, and with a heart for encouraging others to find true contentment.

Rachel shares wisdom on deepening faith, living courageously, and following God's calling with purpose and joy.

Her conversations are designed to uplift and empower, drawing her listeners into a journey of self discovery and spiritual growth.

Rachel's mission is clear, to inspire others and to shine brightly for God.

And she does that.

We're gonna talk about that.

I wanna talk about her other podcast that she's got going now as well, the Sacred Hustle.

I wanna talk about all of it.

She's got so much going on and that's a big part of today's conversation.

So listen in to my conversation with Rachel Earp.

Hello, Rachel.

Hello, Rachel.

I'm so excited to talk with you.

You are one of my favorite people.

I do need to say Rachel is someone that I met just this last fall.

We met at Camp for Creatives is what they're calling it now.

It's a little retreat in the hills of East Tennessee.

And it was so amazing the way we connected, the things we connected over.

I just.

Listen, I'm gonna let you talk about it for a minute.

Tell me what you thought of that experience before we dive into everything else.

Oh, my gosh.

It was.

It was so special.

And to think of, like, our conversation that we had over, like, marshmallows and bonfire.

Yeah.

And here I.

The opportunity to be on your podcast is so special.

I absolutely love the.

The space that you've created and helping, encouraging Women to create more of that breathing room, I think is such a important message.

So I am a huge fan, but the Camp for Creatives was a unique experience because I came into it not.

I've never done anything like that before, and I was very stressed going into it.

I was.

I didn't really know anybody except the host, so I felt awkward.

I'm like, this is a lot of women in a cabin.

Are we really camp, like, do camping very well?

Yep.

It was beautiful, and it was a great time to connect with other creatives.

And when you're in a room of other women that are just there to collaborate, to encourage, to inspire and create, it really just catapulted so many things that I think I had put on the back burner for a long time, and it was just.

It was wonderful.

I absolutely loved the experience, and I especially loved getting to connect with you, Rachel, because I felt like we were these kindred spirits, in a sense, that just happened to be next to each other towards the end of the.

Actually, I think it was the night before the last day or something.

Yeah, it was the last night, you're right.

And I was like, oh, my gosh, I should have done this so much sooner.

But, you know, the beauty of conversation is if you really think about all of the different types of people that God created in the world, and randomly out of nowhere, all of a sudden, you know, worlds just collide and God orchestrates our paths to cross for a reason.

And so I'm just.

I feel like I've known you so much longer, but I'm just so grateful for our friendship and, you know, just being able to continue growing that.

And that's the beauty of people coming together to just encourage and inspire each other.

Yes, 100%, I agree with all of those things.

And this is not like an ad for Camp for Creatives.

That wasn't the point of, like, starting out with this conversation, but just I wanted to bring it up because that is absolutely something for both of us, that it's not the typical routine.

It's not something we're doing as we run on our hamster wheel and do the daily grind.

And it's something we had to intentionally say.

I'm stepping away for this retreat, for this.

I need this breathing room.

I need to connect with other people, other women.

I need this time away to reset, to dig into that creative piece of who I am and collaborate with others.

And we talk about it a lot here.

Like you've said, you know, we're talking about creating that Breathing room.

And how are we living in our purpose and on purpose?

Those are both things that I'm very passionate about.

And we would not have had.

Several of the very dear friendships that I have now have come from times like that.

And I know the ladies who have come to my retreats.

It's the same thing.

You know, there's maybe one in Indiana and one in Texas, and they're still keeping in touch with each other online through messaging, whatever.

Because when you have that time together, you find there's a lot more we have in common than you might have otherwise thought.

And I just think that's such a special thing.

So, yeah, again, we've known each other a few months.

I love coming and being on your podcast.

Yes, girl, that was so good.

And at the time, we were talking about, you know, you talk about the sacred hustle, and we were talking about how I was in a season of hustling to heal, which is not the type of hustle you think of.

And now I'm, you know, the other side of that, getting back into things.

And so it's good to connect again.

It sure is.

What a treat.

Yeah.

So, okay, the actual real first question I'm supposed to ask that everyone gets is, what does breathing room look or feel like for you, Girl?

I'm just gonna be honest.

I am the worst at breathing.

It's.

It's kind of important, Rachel.

I know.

I hyperventilate all the time.

Oh, no.

So it's actually so bad that when I was in labor with my first baby, they actually had to put an oxygen mask on me because I would hold my breath and literally hyperventilate.

Bless you.

How you're supposed to take, like, breathe through the pain.

I would hold my breath and not breathe.

And I look back, I had, like, one of those weird moments where I would catch myself even at night, I'd just be laying there, ready to fall asleep, tense and holding my breath for no reason.

But I look back at so many different times in my life, and I think for me, I would just always hold my breath, because for me, it was a fear thing, not knowing what was going to happen next, you know?

So it's almost like in the movies where you're just like, I'm just going to hold my breath and hope this all comes out okay, you know?

So breathing room.

I'm.

I'm just.

Once again, I'm truly from a deep place in my heart grateful that you talk about this.

Because for me, creating breathing room is always been hard for me.

And I honestly call, like different times throughout my day where I'm just like, I need a peace break.

Like, I'm just, okay, Mommy's gonna take a peace break.

Guys, like, I don't even like to use the word.

I'm gonna go, you know, breathing or whatever, because it's just stressful for me.

Isn't that sad?

But I had this moment, this major, even more than a moment, but about four, four or five years ago, all of these non breathing moments in my life continued to escalate.

And I was actually walking in Sam's Club with my husband.

And it was a weird day because we had gone out to dinner.

We were able to sneak in like a little date before while the kids were in school.

This was being up in New York.

So we were having a great day.

We had had lunch in our favorite little restaurant on Market Street.

And what married couples do when you have kids, let's go to Sam's club.

Let's grab some groceries while we're here.

So we're strolling through Sam's Club and all of a sudden everything in this store started.

It was like a movie scene for me.

I.

All of the noise, I didn't hear anything.

I couldn't talk, I couldn't breathe.

And I thought I was going to collapse right there in the middle of the store.

When I couldn't talk, I was actually paralyzed.

So my husband, he turned at me and he saw and he rushed me to the hospital.

And I remember being in his truck and on the way to the hospital room, I legit thought I was gonna die.

Like, it was very scary.

And you know how those cartoons where they say your life flashes before your eyes?

Yeah.

I just kept thinking in my head, all that mattered in that moment was my husband and my kids.

And nothing.

All the things, the stupid things that I stress over and that I thought were important in my life, none of it mattered at all.

So we get up to the hospital, to the front, the er, and a nurse comes out and I couldn't walk, I couldn't move my body.

So they put me in a wheelchair and they had to put me onto the hospital bed.

Thought I had had a series of mini strokes and couldn't really confirm.

And they came in about, I don't know, a couple hours later.

They were taking needles to my legs.

Can you feel this?

You know, all the things.

I was numb and I couldn't speak.

But they told me that I had had a panic attack, like a massive panic attack.

And I thought it was such a Joke.

I'm standing there.

No, like, that's ridiculous.

Like, can't you see I'm dying?

I'm dying.

Exactly.

And I went back home and my.

I changed my life a lot.

And, you know, I think breathing room for me, I thought it had to be this big elaborate thing in the day to create breathing room.

And I.

I have come to since then, realized that when you create space for breathing room, it is extremely important, even if it's just scheduling in, if you must, a few moments throughout the day to recognize, hey, I can see I'm getting wound up.

Or I have a piled up high to do list.

I have heaps and heaps on my plate, which I have a tendency to do all the time.

And when you're in that space, it is more essential than ever to stop and create breathing room.

So for me, I take little peace breaks and I really have to go somewhere where there's no noise and it's just quiet and I just still.

And I found that the quiet that used to be.

I hated quiet.

And I always wanted music playing or, you know, sounds and noises or TV running or whatever.

But I've come to really appreciate quiet.

So for me, that helps.

I love that you.

Not that you were.

You had to go through that experience, but I love that you've been able to come on the other side and say, this is what matters.

This is what I actually need.

And there's so much like.

I feel like we could dive down so many different rabbit holes with everything that you just said.

And so I'm gonna.

I'm gonna try to really focus in.

But I do think it's a big deal to see all these things that you think are the things, right?

All this matters so much.

I've got to do A, B, C, D.

It's not even X, Y, Z.

It's like the whole frigging Alphabet, and it's all mine, and I have to do all of it, right?

And so to be able to say, I need a moment, I need to get quiet.

Still your mind.

Proud of you, girl.

I think that's a.

That's a huge deal to end, to set that example for your kids too, to say, peace break, peace out, Mommy's stepping out.

That's so good.

So that is one of your, I guess, how's all that working for you?

Moments, right?

You had a pretty big one.

It wasn't working.

Wasn't like, how's it working, girl?

It's not.

Which.

That's why we ask the question, you know, we don't ask the question outright in every episode we have here.

But that's always kind of the back of mind thing that I want us to come back to because it the answer could be things are working great.

I'm doing good, I'm doing what I need to be.

But more often than not, when I ask women that question, when they've sharing with me about life and I will, how's all that working?

It's not.

It's, you know, that's typically the answer.

So there's that moment.

I know you've had others in the past few years and I'd love to talk through those a little bit because you've got a lot, you've got a lot going on.

Not it.

This is not just like Rachel Earp takes on everything in her life as her personal mission to do for every single person ever.

You have a lot genuinely, which is the case for a lot of ladies listening too.

You are a wife.

You are a business owner and multiple business owner.

Right.

Podcaster, writer, mom.

You're a special needs mom.

Which we found we have in common in different ways.

Yeah, but it's only been more recently that you've been able to pause sometimes refill your own cup.

So I would love to hear just kind of not the balance of all of that, because we know that balance is a lie, right?

Oh, so true.

The balance is a lie.

I know.

But a little bit of the harmony.

And I'd love just a little more of what all that entails for you, the businesses, the special needs mom, what does all that look like?

And then I've got a couple questions from there.

Yes?

Well, you know, sometimes we look at our life and we think, well, other people ask, well, how are you?

How do you do it all?

And a lot of times our reply is, I don't know, I just do it.

I think a lot of things that come into us in life, a lot are chosen and a lot are given.

And for me, like you mentioned, you know, as far as owning companies and businesses, we chose that path and I'm grateful for it.

And God knew in the long run that the ability to, for my husband and I to have our own companies would allow us to have flexibility in our schedule for having two boys and one with special needs and a host of health issues and, you know, things challenges that we never of course, perceived that we would have, you know, in the future that just came into our world and changed our lives completely.

So, you know, you take it on.

And I think the biggest thing that I'M learning on this journey is to take it literally one day at a time.

Yeah.

And that's hard when you are in a mode of planning out your entire year with, you know, everything in the calendar from trips and, you know, businesses and conferences and, you know, scheduling everything for your kids and doctor appointments and whatever it is.

Our calendars are like booked out.

So it feels weird to actually get to a place mentally where we are just in the moment for stay.

And that literally is moment by moment.

And we don't know what tomorrow holds.

We might think we know what we're doing tomorrow.

I have it all planned out hour by hour.

Right.

It's color coded from the moment I.

Wake up till the moment I fall into bed exhausted.

But God says we don't know, we're not promised tomorrow.

And I know that it's always, you know, a sobering thought to think about me not being promised tomorrow.

But there's a gift in that thought because we are more present and we cherish the moments that we have as they're happening.

And I actually had a conversation with my husband about this the other night and I said, I wish I could go back and really have been in so many moments that I wasted worrying and stress and frantic and, you know, rat racing my way through life thinking that that's just how I needed to do life.

And it really isn't.

In fact, God commands us in His Word to Sabbath and to take time.

If he did it, he said to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy.

It's actually a holy thing to rest.

And we don't think of it that way.

We think of rest as like, you know, oh, rest is for lazy people.

Like, resting is for people that just want to take naps.

And it's actually not true.

Rest is something that God calls us into, for coming into a place of communion with him to realign our life, to enjoy our life and find more of that.

If you want to think of the word balanced, that is where we can find more of that type of balance in figuring out, okay, well, what am I taking on today that I really don't need to?

Am I having conversations with people that are idle and going nowhere?

What am I filling my headspace with?

Am I aligning my yeses to what God has called me to do?

And when we get, we start to get into this mode of constant re evaluation and repurposing, we will find that our life will start to feel more balanced and it's not going to be perfect.

You, you can't Go out and say, well, I'm going to balance it all, because we just can't do that in ourself.

But when we're in a place where we can learn to rest and we can learn to yield and we can learn to listen and be still, then we have the space to actually see the bigger picture and see what God is trying to do through our lives.

And even if it feels like our lives are an absolute mess and basket case and chaos, you know.

Yep.

Sometimes we, we get into that and we're used to functioning in chaos.

So, you know, when you're in that mode all the time, rest feels like an elusive thing that's just not possible.

Mm.

I think there's also a sense.

I've talked with so many women and I raising my hand, I've been this woman and I will fall back into this habit of feeling like we have to earn it.

You have to do enough to earn the rest.

And that's.

I don't find that anywhere in the Bible either.

That's not a thing.

That's right.

You and I have talked about that some of doing enough and then like, it's okay, you can rest when you're dead.

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Like that.

That's not how that works.

I know.

Like, I, I really, I, I'm not fond of that, that concept.

Yeah, no, I, I do not co sign that statement.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And so.

Okay.

And on that.

When we were at that retreat in Gatlinburg last fall, we had a pretty big conversation about pouring into others.

And this is something I think you and I really connected on.

Pouring into others while also feeling like we are bone dry, we are unappreciated or underappreciated.

And I think a lot of women listening either have been there or are there right now.

So can you share a little bit about how you were feeling then?

Like when we had that conversation and what kind of shifted as we were talking about it.

I'm so glad that we had that conversation because I, I had really buried a lot of those feelings really deep and I didn't is how much they were affecting my life.

And when, when you're that type of person that's a giver and a doer and your heart is whether it's ministry that can be that thing or it can be just on the daily.

The people that are in your life when you want to continuously pour into people.

Oftentimes we think we just magically have an ever, never ending supply to poor you know, I don't know what makes us think that, but it just, we do.

It's delusion.

We're delusional.

Delusional thing.

I know it's not real, guys, but it feels that way until it comes to that point where you're just, like we said, bone dry.

And then all of a sudden the pouring feels so much heavier and harder and so much work and you feel like you're losing yourself in that.

And I, I didn't realize that in me not refilling my own vessel and how we do that first and foremost comes through that communion with God.

And he.

He's the one that refills us when we're not making time though, for that filling and that reading in his word and getting to know him and talking to him and inviting him into every day and the day to day things that we're doing, it's just not going to work anymore.

And then you become resentful because you're not, you're not going to get that from people all the time.

I thought, oh, you know, if I pour into this friend and, and keep doing things for her and showing her how much I care about her and she's going to do that back.

Right?

Isn't that how it works?

Yeah.

Like, you know, then it's.

We're pouring into each other and we're just pouring cups back and back and forth.

Right.

And I found that, you know, and I don't mean this in, in a sad, like to make this a whole sad thing, but I found that I'm going to say at least 90% of the cups I was pouring into wasn't pouring back into mine.

And it hurt.

Yeah, it started to hurt and I started to become aware, but I didn't know what to do about it.

And I kept thinking, well, the only fix is to just keep pouring more and more and more.

At some point they're going to be like, oh, you know, I'm so, I'm so glad, you know, that we have this friendship.

And I'm so thankful that Rachel's here and I want to like, let's just do this pouring together.

And I started to notice that a lot of relationships that I had in my life that I thought, you know, I needed to pursue were not actually ones that God wanted me to.

That was me.

That was me thinking I needed to do this.

And it wasn't necessarily God telling me, now I'm not going to say that we're not going to go through life and everything's going to be Reciprocated, because it's just not.

And that's okay.

But, you know, there's going to be a lot of cups that we're going to pour into that.

That's what we were supposed to do.

Right.

It doesn't mean that we have to tirelessly and relentlessly keep pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring if we're not going back to the source and filling our own cup.

And that is the type of filling that is always fulfilling, is always satisfying.

We don't need to find that validation or any of that comfort or love or whatever it is that we're looking for from any person on this earth because we're all humans and humans and people fail.

You know, I fail people.

I'm sure I've.

There's been times that I have failed, failed and done that very same thing, not even realizing that I was doing it.

So I think it's important to evaluate.

And that helps when you can talk to someone about it.

And when I were able to talk and we both identified with, hey, I know how you feel, that filled my cup because I felt like I'm not the only one, and it actually helped me.

So there's ways that you can fill someone's cup if you feel like you're busy and your life just.

Well, I can't maybe plan a big, you know, birthday surprise like she planned for me.

I don't have time for that.

But you could just, you know, acknowledge and send a message and say, hey, I'm just so grateful for your life.

Your life is a gift, and you have been such an encouragement to me.

And I just want you to know that I love you.

That takes two minutes.

You could maybe Uber a Starbucks, her favorite coffee or whatever, to her front door.

And it takes.

You didn't have to go and pick it up and deliver it.

Like, we ain't got.

Always got time for that.

You know, there's just little ways that you can look to be thoughtful.

And sometimes, you know, we need to.

To.

To talk about it more because those little things go a long way.

And it's little things in life.

It does not mean you have to make this big, extravagant.

Now, I am extravagant, and I will make a big deal out of everything.

Listen, Rachel Earp is like the bougiest extravagant.

She's going above.

I'm so extra.

Yeah, she's so extra.

But I love it so much.

It's never too much.

It's exactly as you need to be.

She is that friend who's gonna, like, love you like Nobody else.

And I adore that.

Aw.

I think that is such a spiritual gifting.

So a couple of things as you're saying all of this, girl, I'm just like so many previous episodes that we've had here are coming to mind.

I think of the power there is in finding your people.

We had an episode about that, about being brave to get out there if you don't already have your people to connect.

Going to something like a retreat or a church, if you don't have a church, family, something like that, and connecting with people to find those who are like minded or who do have the similar struggles and working through things together, I think that's so powerful.

And then also the power of knowing your strengths and your skills and your passions and what you have to offer versus somebody else.

I am not the bougie, extravagant plan and do all the things that is not my spiritual gifting.

I actually was just talking with another friend recently.

She was getting so excited about friends coming to visit.

She was like gonna get balloons and streamers and a banner.

I mean, there was a big life event happening, but she was planning to make it look inviting and exciting and all of these things, girl, none of that would have even crossed my mind.

That's okay.

It is okay.

And.

And so I am more going to be focused on like the time together and celebrating who they are with words and with meals together and let's go get a coffee.

And I want the experience, the relationship to grow.

And that's my thing.

And so knowing what you have to bring to the table and that it doesn't have to look like somebody else's, I think is beautiful.

It's a beautiful gift that we give each other.

Knowing that about yourself is powerful.

Connecting with your other people is powerful.

And there ain't nothing like the power of refilling with the Holy Spirit.

Like, can I just.

I'm gonna preach on it.

Amen.

All day, every day.

I'm gonna preach on that.

Because when we talk about refilling your cup, we.

We did two whole episodes on this podcast about self care.

If you haven't listened all this stuff, we're gonna link in the show notes.

So go binge some episodes.

But bottom line is there's nothing selfish about caring for yourself, but the beauty of caring for yourself so that you can glorify God and care for others, that's the beauty of self care.

I care for myself.

So that.

That was.

I feel like the moment you and I had in that conversation was, you know, I'm doing All these things and nobody even cares.

And why am I even doing anything for anybody?

And it does become this resentful, gross feeling.

And I've.

I have wallowed in it.

Oh, I've wallowed in it.

And it's gross.

And to have that moment of, oh, my needs do matter.

And it's not up to any of these other people to fill them.

And it's not actually that anybody else is even capable of filling them.

People can kind of chip in and help out and take the edge off, right?

But the ultimate source of that care and that love and acceptance and being wanted and all the things that we want in this life, it's only found in God.

And so having that moment, that realization, I think is huge.

So I would love to hear from ladies listening.

Hit me up on Instagram, send me an email.

Where are you at in all this?

Is this like, oh, my gosh, they're speaking my language or duh.

I realized that a hundred years ago.

Where have you ladies been?

Like, either one, I want to hear about it.

Here for it.

I'm here for it.

I want to know.

And these are the kind of conversations we have at my renewal retreat as well.

I love my renewal retreats because the ladies that come, it is that longing for connection, community, quiet time, you know, peace time, moments with God that are hard to find in the day to day.

And I think it's so y' all, we need it.

I wish I could have one every month.

I wish I could host a retreat every single, maybe one day.

And you know, the, the word retreat has the word treat in it because it is such a treat to retreat.

Listen.

So do give yourself a treat, people.

That's so good.

That's so good.

Okay, all right.

We could talk about these things all day long.

So we're going to wind it down.

I need to know, other than like, peace out, kids.

I'm taking peace time.

Are there any tools or strategies that you have found that do help you manage your time better or allow for some of that breathing room?

So I definitely have found that when I am able to put time into my day to do things that I really love and enjoy.

For me, I'm a very creative person.

That could be either creating music or writing.

It could be sourdough, like in my kitchen.

If you are not already following Rachel on Instagram, we're going to talk about that at the very end.

But this girl can make some sourdough bread and it's the most beautiful thing, thing I've ever seen.

Okay.

Sorry.

Keep going.

It's so fun, you know, just being able to take something for me that feels very mundane and tedious, but making it more fun and putting a little sparkle to it is very natural for me.

And I found that I wasn't doing that for a really long time.

So when I'm able to take something like as an ordinary.

As eating dinner or making breakfast and just making it feel more special, that is a way that I am able to find joy.

And when we find joy, we do find rest.

And in that joy, because we're not thinking about the things that are stressing us out and freaking us out and the worries and the woes and all of the things that we're trying to do.

We're just literally having fun.

I think it's important and I think God wants us to have fun in life.

I don't think that life is meant to be this tragic.

You know, it's the end of the world mentality as Christians especially.

And a lot of Christians fall into that trap, you know, and it could be because of something we're suffering through.

And God doesn't promise we're going to have, you know, a tiptoe through the tulip patch walk.

In our walk with him, however, he talks about, if you read the Psalms, he talks about the still waters.

He talks about the valley of the shadow of death, he talks about the mountains and all the things.

There's beauty and there's times of hardship, but he says he'll walk with us through all of it.

We can find rest in that.

We can find comfort in that.

And for me, when I'm able to sneak away and just kind of do something creative, I like to.

One of my favorite things to do is just go for a little drive and blare my music and be by myself in the car.

Love it.

Joy.

Like, hey, I need to.

I don't really need to make a trip to Kohl's or wherever, but I'm just gonna.

Because it's a 15 minute drive there.

I can walk around and just kind of look at things and then come home.

Or maybe it's to get groceries.

I enjoy little walks and in times of just singing or reflecting, I find that when I look at that as such a gift now, instead of feeling like a tedious additional thing, I'm actually not putting more on my plate.

I'm just rearranging my plate a little bit.

Fill some of those spaces with something intentional.

And you know, you have to say no sometimes to things to protect your.

Yes.

So I know.

I wanted, I loved an episode that you did where you talked about really trying not to like, say yes to all the things and asking God, like, is this mine?

Yes.

And sometimes you do have to say no to certain things and keep that appointment with yourself.

And I know you mentioned like, you wouldn't sit there and break that appointment, you know, with yourself.

Like, you're.

We would do that easier than if it were someone else.

Right, Right.

You're not going to break it with anybody else.

Right.

But.

And it comes down to respecting yourself enough like you would respect someone else.

That really hit me hard and impacted me.

That's what I'm here.

I'm just here dropping truth bombs on you, girl.

Like, wow, this is so heavy.

And I loved it though.

It really hearing those things is so freeing when we have those aha moments.

And that's why it's so important.

Going back to what you said about connecting, you have to be intentional about connecting with people and finding people.

They don't always land at your doorstep.

They don't always get deposited right in the middle of our path, you know, where you happen to bump into your bestie at the grocery store for the rest of your life.

Like never.

Like, like, okay, it never.

That never happened.

It's like this life is not a movie.

But you would be surprised that when you are intentionally focused on okay, God, and this even comes into your prayer.

Lord, I am craving a friend.

Or maybe I'm craving someone who is creative like me or maybe who identifies with my work or maybe has been through some of the things that I've suffered through and it can walk with me in my pain.

Maybe it's someone who has gone, has gone through sickness or experienced the loss of a loved one, whatever that is.

And you, if you start to ask God, he will bring those people into your life.

May not be on our timing, but here's the thing.

It's almost like creating this magnetic type field around you where you know that saying your vibe draws your tribe like you're vibing and like lord it actually you'll find your tribe and it might, you know, be over the most random way that you'll connect like we did, you know, we just happened to, to be at the same retreat.

The odds of that There were what, 25 maybe?

Yeah.

Out of all of the hundreds of billions of people in the world here we were right, you know, but it was an intentional.

I'm going to schedule this retreat.

It feels like, you know, a lot of work to go and travel and Fly and drive and all the things.

Right.

The riches that you gain from those types of situations are so, so worth it.

It's so worth it.

So I just want to encourage, you know, if you're listening and, you know, you're just feeling, like, alone or you longing for that, then go.

Go get it.

Go out and get it, girl.

Go find your peeps.

You're so cute.

I love that so much.

And the main thing, like, one main thing I really want to pull out of all that, that you said.

We talk about breathing room, and a lot of times it is like this quiet, this space, this be by yourself.

And you did mention that, but you also mentioned the intentional moments of joy, and that's not always solo.

And I think being able to intentionally have those moments of joy, delight, a specialness that gives you that ability to breathe as well, that lack of stress, that lack of drive, anxiety, whatever, you know, as I'm saying these words, I know everybody's like, oh, you just gotta clench up, you know?

Cause you know how that feels.

And that the ability to feel like you can breathe does come in those moments of joy, of living in the present.

And so I hear that from you as well, that, yes, there is breathing room in literally walking out and taking breaths and being quiet and being with God, but there's also breathing room with your people in moments that are intentionally joyful and enjoyable and, you know, a.

Hundred percent like, I mean, when you're sitting there having a good belly laugh to the point where you almost can't breathe, like, gasping for air because you're laughing so hard.

Like, those are.

They're just actually, it's a chemical release that happens in your brain when you.

And when you find things that make you happy.

Yeah.

And it can be as little as savoring.

And I love your little.

Your spot coffee sponsorship, little plugins to your podcast episode.

You describe it and like, I need to order me some.

Sounds good.

You do.

It is so good.

People who know me and who've been around long enough, you know, I only promote the things that I myself love.

I love that coffee.

And you do need to order some awesome things that bring you joy you should have in your life.

I agree.

All right, we gotta wrap it up.

Obviously, we are gonna link to your podcasts in the show notes, but I would love to hear if there's a book or a podcast that you feel like our ladies today would enjoy or you wanna recommend.

So I.

One of the devotionals that I was.

I had just gone through, it came out Actually, last year.

But I really enjoy Christine Caine.

Yeah.

And I've had the privilege of being in her presence before, and she has extremely.

She's just on fire for God.

Her teachings are so biblically sound.

And she created a devotional and it's called you'd're not finished yet.

And it's just a beautiful devotional to just kind of.

I.

I'm a huge bookworm.

Same.

I.

My.

My dream is to have a Beauty and the Beast library one day.

Yes, please, Lord May.

That is just.

That fills my cup.

I love books and I love to hold books and feel books and smell books.

Like, okay, I'm going too far with this.

I love it.

I really love the books that.

Where you can just.

Sometimes we don't always have time to sit and read an epic novel, but we have time for something that feels.

I can just sneak in some devotionals throughout the day, but there are ones that are going to, once again fill your cup.

And I found that a really good devotional will fill my cup.

So recommend all of her books.

But that's one that just came out this past year that I've really enjoyed.

Nice.

All right, we're gonna have a link for that in the show notes and it's going on my list.

So the last question today, super easy.

Where can people find you and connect with you?

I just wanna say it makes me so like a little girl excited when people reach out and connect with me.

So please follow me.

Like you said over on Instagram, it's I am Rachel Earp.

E, A R, P and R A C H E, L for Rachel.

Yes, the correct spelling of Rachel.

Get it right.

The Bible way of spelling Rachel.

No, it's scriptural.

Okay.

That was so bad.

But yes, if you just follow me over on there.

And then I have a lot of different resources and a whole blog on my website, rachelherb.com, where you can find all of the different things that come from my heart.

You can find both of my podcasts on there.

You can find the episode that we did together on there.

In fact, I have a whole page called Rachel D.

Baker.

So I think y' all should just go listen to that conversation too, because it was so much fun.

It was a lot of fun.

It was good.

And I know you told me.

And I think I've got the link for this.

This resource uniquely called embracing your God given gifts and letting go of comparison.

Yes, that is a devotional that I wrote to encourage women to just let go of the comparison because that truly robs us of our joy.

That takes up way more space in our heads than we really need to.

And it's something that I personally walked through for so many years of my life.

That is just a free download that you can grab, and I hope if that's something that you can identify with or have ever struggled with, it's just a great little devotion for you.

Yes.

All right.

Linking it all, everything you can find in the show notes.

Rachel, you're just a joy.

I love every time we get to talk and be together.

And I know there are ladies listening who have connected and benefited with the topics of today's conversation.

So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

It was a really an honor and a privilege.

And thank you for being who you are and encouraging and inspiring.

Inspiring so many people.

You're touching a lot of lives.

I am just cheering you on.

Friends, you are so kind.

All right, everybody, go find Rachel Earp, and we'll see you here next time.