S8.Bonus 9 | Establishing Your Identity in Christ: Overcoming Mental Illness and Trauma Beliefs
In this bonus episode of Affirming Truths, host Carla Arges dives into the crucial topic of not identifying with mental illness, trauma, or any negative aspects of one's life. Carla provides actionable insights on how to root your identity in Christ and resist the negative influences attempting to define who you are.
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Key Takeaways
Rooting Your Identity in Christ:
Carla emphasizes the importance of grounding one's identity in the truth of God's word. By building a deep understanding of who God is and what He says about you, you can resist the messages of the world and stand firm in your identity.God's Provision:
Seeking Evidence of God's Character:
Similar to building trust in human relationships, Carla highlights the importance of getting to know God's character. By spending time with God, reading His word, and witnessing the evidence of who He is, you can learn to trust His declarations about your identity.
Treating Mental Illness and Trauma as Data Points:
Carla encourages the audience to view mental illness and trauma as mere data points that inform certain decisions, rather than constituting their entire identity. By recognizing these aspects as factors that influence behavior, individuals can make informed decisions without letting them define who they are.
Consistent Affirmation of God's Truth:
Carla emphasizes the need for daily affirmation of one's identity in Christ. Just as one needs to nourish the body with regular meals, it is essential to consistently affirm the truth of God's word to avoid identifying with anything else.
Connect With Carla:
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Renewing Hope Course —-> https://www.carlaarges.com/renewing-hope
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
Resources:
5 Steps to Building Resiliency
Affirming Truths Facebook Community
5 Tips for Overcoming a Negative Body Image
Who You Say I Am Biblical Affirmation Cards
TRANSCRIPT
Carla Arges [00:00:02]:
Hey, friends. Welcome to another bonus episode of Affirming truth. I am your host. I am your friend. I am your cheerleader. I am just here for you. And it's Carla. This week, another bonus episode.
Carla Arges [00:00:18]:
We are answering another listener question. So if you ever want to ask me something or have me address something on the podcast, come find me on Instagram, Carla Arges, and just send me a DM or follow along. I will often post question requests and go off of that, but I love seeing what's on your mind. I love seeing what you're struggling with so that I can come alongside you, build you up, maybe challenge you to see things a little bit differently. And as always, point you back to Jesus, because he is our source. Amen. Amen. So I had a listener question asked, how do you not identify with your mental illness? And this could also be phrased with, how do I not identify with my trauma? How do I not identify with my past? How do I not identify? Insert any negative thing that you identify with.
Carla Arges [00:01:23]:
Right. Because the solution and the answer is going to be the same. And the answer is both simple and hard. The answer is straightforward. Implementing the answer, though, does take hard work and intention and answering. Implementing the answer does take hard work and intention and consistency and all of that. So how do you not identify as your mental illness or your trauma or your past? And this is really crucial, because how you see yourself, what you believe to be true about yourself, impacts your entire life. How you identify really goes down to your core beliefs.
Carla Arges [00:02:32]:
And I talk about core beliefs, there's a whole module on it in the renewing hope course. What you believe about yourself, how you identify, goes down to your core beliefs, and not even those beliefs that we think about in our conscious mind. But it's those visceral beliefs that are implanted in our subconscious mind that work on autopilot, that inform what we think and how we feel and how we behave. You see, what we believe to be true about ourselves impacts how we show up in life, how we relate to others, how we relate to the world, and it impacts our habits, which form our life. So if you are living a life that is not in alignment with the life that you desire to be living, there's a good chance that your identity is skewed. If you are not living the life where you are showing up as the mom or the wife or the woman or the friend that you want to be, there is a good chance that your core beliefs are based off of lies. This is why it is so important to tackle core beliefs. It's why it's module one in renewing hope.
Carla Arges [00:03:58]:
We get to it right away because everything else is foundational on that. So how do you not identify as your illness? How do you not identify as your past or your trauma? When there's voices always going after your mind and trying to form your beliefs? The enemy is trying to accuse you with your past and with your illness and with your trauma. Your own human nature that is biased to see the negative is trying to shape you into the negative. Maybe things that people have spoken over you or how you have interpreted the media. Like all around us, there's things that are trying to form our identity. So how do you not identify? You root your identity in Christ. You root your identity in Christ so that you will not be swayed when the enemy comes to accuse you. So that you will not be confused by the messages of the world.
Carla Arges [00:05:10]:
So that you can stand firm. You root your identity in Christ. That is the simple answer. You make your identity based off the truth of God's word. Simple, but not easy. Not easy for a few reasons. Not easy because the art of regular Bible study has gone away for a lot of women. A lot of women have turned to devotions as their morning time with God, which is great.
Carla Arges [00:05:47]:
Don't get me wrong, devotions are good. I've written a devotion. I write devotions for the Bible app like devotions are good, but they are not meant to be the source. They are meant to complement the source. And so many women have walked away from the source or haven't even started. Maybe you came to the Lord later in life and the Bible is intimidating and overwhelming and you don't know where to start. That is a very common fear. There's a fear around the Bible and intimidation and overwhelm.
Carla Arges [00:06:28]:
That's why I created Bible study 101 to take that away and get you comfortable in studying the Bible. So you can check that out@carlarges.com. But you have to root your identity in Christ. You have to know who God is so that you can trust what he says about you, right? Like, you have to be able to trust God at his word. How do we begin to trust people in our lives with any relationship we have? How do we trust people? We get to know them, right? We get to know their character. You don't just blanketly trust someone. There needs to be some sort of accreditation, right, for a doctor, you want to know that he went to medical school. If it's a person that you're going to confide in, you want to know that they are loyal and will keep your secrets.
Carla Arges [00:07:30]:
Trust is based on knowing someone, seeing their evidence of who they are. And all of that is also necessary for us to get to know God. We have to spend time with God. We have to read his word and see the evidence of who he says he is played out. So you have to get to know God so that you can trust him when he says to you, no, you are free from your past. You are my beloved, you are chosen, you are redeemed. You are a royal priesthood. You are a daughter of a king, joint heir with Christ like.
Carla Arges [00:08:11]:
In order to really believe those things are true, you have to fundamentally trust the person that's telling them to you. And this is where getting into the Bible starts. I also also created, even way before I had this podcast, a deck of affirmation cards called who you say I am and they are created. They were created out of my own discovery of my identity in Christ. I went through this identity crisis myself years ago where I had all this trauma and I had bipolar and borderline and all this thing. And Lord, who am I really? That can't be the sum of who I am. And I did a deep dive bible study on identity. And coming out of that study, coming out of really rooting myself in my identity in Christ, I created the who you say I am, biblical affirmations that confirm your identity.
Carla Arges [00:09:16]:
So, for example, I am chosen and grounds it with an anchoring verse. So you see God's spoken word about you. So those are always available to you as a resource@carlarges.com. And for my listeners, use code grace 20 to save 20% off. So carlaarges.com grace 20 for 20% off. Those are a resource that can help you with scripture memorization to really get it rooted, who you are. So when the enemy comes and tries to attack me with a lie about my identity, I have rooted, planted scriptures in my memory, in my heart, in my soul that I could say, I see you, father of lies, and I'm going to point to the father of truth, my good father, and this is what he has spoken over me. So you have to look at your trauma, your mental illness, your past, even your current struggles as just data points.
Carla Arges [00:10:25]:
It's just information. The fact that I have bipolar is not an identity. It's just a data point about me. Just like I'm italian, I'm half british, I have blue eyes. Blue eyes doesn't characterize my identity. It just is a data point about me that will inform some of my decisions right? So I have blue eyes. That's a data point. It will inform some of my decisions, like what color clothes I wear, because some of them look better with blue eyes, some look worse with blue eyes.
Carla Arges [00:11:02]:
Right? Bipolar is a data point. It's information about me that helps me make some decisions. Okay? I probably need to sleep more because people with mental illness require more sleep. I'm going to need to take some medication, watch what I eat, do some exercise. Okay? So when I have a choice of staying up late or going to bed on time, I'm going to use the fact that I'm bipolar as a data point to inform the decision that, hey, I should go to bed early or go to bed on time and not stay up late. Right? My trauma, my childhood trauma, those are just data points. Okay? So when I'm triggered, I can say, oh, this is making me feel this way because of this information I have in my past about my trauma. This is now going to inform my decision where I'm not going to react on the trigger, but I'm going to move through the trigger with appropriate coping skills, realizing it has nothing to do with the present moment.
Carla Arges [00:12:06]:
Right? Data points. Data point. My past data points. Data points that inform decisions that I make. They're not my identity. The only person who can define me is the one who created me, because he created me with my personality, my character, my future, all in mind. He calls me by my name. He gives me a new name as I'm born again.
Carla Arges [00:12:41]:
In him, the only one who can define the creation is the creator. Not the disease, not the pain, not even the mountaintops, right? Not even the mountaintop experiences are my identity, because those can be taken away. If you identify as anything other than who you are in Christ, you are on shaky grounds, because anything can be taken away. Even if you are so beloved to identify as a mom, you've got to be careful that your identity is not rooted in that role that you're playing. You have a role of mother, but your identity is in Christ. Because when your kids leave and go to start their own families and maybe move across the country or to another country, and you are not their sole source of dependency, and they're creating their own lives outside of you, if you have created your identity around motherhood, you are going to be very lost and very broken. It is great to find joy in that role. It is great to have purpose in the season of that role.
Carla Arges [00:14:05]:
It is great to do that role as a glorifies God. God has called you to that role. That's amazing. But your identity is in Christ, not the role that he's given you to play, right? So how do you not identify as anything Else is by rooting your identity in what your creator says about you. That means getting into the word. You have to know what he says about you. Get into the word. Use Bible study 101 or who you say I am.
Carla Arges [00:14:46]:
Cards. If you need to do a study on identity, memorize a few specific verses. You don't have to memorize every verse about identity, but where you are most targeted to believe something about yourself that's not true. Memorize scripture that counters that with truth. Your identity is in Christ, and it's up to you to root that in. It's up to you to plant that into your soul. It's up to you to nurture that God has given you your identity in his word and what he's spoken over you. But it's up to you to plant it into your soul and into your mind, to consistently affirm it.
Carla Arges [00:15:36]:
That's your job. And this is why so many people lack identity, because they don't do the work to plant it and nurture it. Every day I have to remind myself who I am in Christ, because every day there is a message going against my God given identity from the world or from the enemy. Sometimes even from people in your family who say things to you every day. You have to root your identity in Christ. It's not a one time thing. And this is why a lot of people suffer. They do something once and expect it to last.
Carla Arges [00:16:22]:
It's not like a deposit in the bank account where you do it once and it gains interest. It's not like that at all. It's more like eating a meal one day and you're going to be hungry the next day, and you got to feed yourself again. So you have to be intentional and consistent. It has to be a daily practice that you speak over yourself, the truth of God's word. That's how you avoid identifying as anything else. I'll talk to you later, friends. Remember, if you have a question, come find me on Instagram at Carla Arges.