As Real As Possible: Recent Episodes
Christina Barry
The courage to be your truest self can be hard to come by, but being YOU is what fills life with experiences--difficult, hopeful, heartbreaking, rejuvenating--that grow us into wholeness. Join Christina Barry, theology teacher, life coach, mom, friend, and spiritual guide, as she seeks each week to live her most authentic self and reflects honestly on the ups and downs of being as real as possible. Each episode will share with you real stories from Christina's life and then prompt you to reflect on your own life: how are you living authentically in your relationships, your work, your self, your goals, and your soul? As she shares and prompts you to personal reflection and growth, Christina has two goals for her podcast: to inspire you to be as real as possible, because the world needs who you really are, and to reassure you that who you are is deeply good and worthy of love. Pay attention to the inner workings of your soul. Begin to notice what is life-giving to you and what is life-draining to you. Attend to the goodness inherent in your deepest self, and start to LIVE it. Live as real as possible. The world needs who you really are. #personalgrowth #selfhelp #family #parenting #God #growth #prayer #lifechanges #gratitude #joy #lifecoaching #youngadults
I hate that when I fight with my kids or my husband, we hurt each other and that, often, there is still debris around from the last hurricane before we work through the next one. I hate that, in the midst of an argument, I can feel it revving up and even sometimes do lots of healthy things to diffuse it but we so often end up in the same place, feeling terrible and surveying the detritus around us. I want to move beyond this. I firmly believe in the “slow work of God”, as de Chardin **calls it, and I trust the ideas of growth mindset, that I am growing and improving little by little and I just can’t do this YET. But I just want YET to be NOW.
For reflection:**
- What cracks in yourself do you hide away from the people you love?
- Do you notice yourself self-protecting in ways that hurt others, especially those you love most?
- Think of one of your dearest loved ones. What would happen if you let that person see your cracks more clearly, without you protecting your weak spots? What might happen in that relationship, at first and over time?
- How might you invite God into this?
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#mistakes #temper #lettinggoofanger #anger #parenthood #marriage #mom #motherhood #kids #teenagers #lifecoaching #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #lent #change #personalgrowth #reflection #meditation #christianity #reconciliation #repentance #family #health #relationships #children #love #christinabarry #christinarombachbarry #raisingchildren #keepcalm
**Give with a full heart all of the little you have. 💙
I once heard a priest at a retreat ask this question of us: "How many loaves have you?" What gifts do you have to offer? Do you offer them freely? How do you love others through the gifts you have been given?
How does God take what you have and make it enough?
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible**
#enough #gifts #jesus #christianity #offering #servantleader #God #spirituality #meditation #reflection #prayer #innerself #trueself #selfworth #loavesandfishes #feedingofthe5000 #giving #ignatianspirituality #retreat #meaningoflife #relationships #humility #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #christinabarry #christinarombachbarry #dailyprayer #dailyoffering #parenthood #love
Count your blessings, even--especially--when things are hard.
Notice the good things around you, regardless of circumstances. It is possible to have joy, and cultivate it, in all circumstances. My story and a practical spirituality exercise to help you live in gratitude, steeped in joy, regardless of what's going on around you. This practice helped me out of depression, helps my kids and family love our life, has been researched by psychologists, and has been an exhortation in all the world's major religions for thousands of years.
Something we might all want to check out. :)
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
gratitude #blessings #mentalhealth #spirituality #practice #try #thankful #religion #psychology #research #podcast #christinabarry #christinarombachbarry #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #centraloregon #parenting #growingup #adolescents #youngadults #healthyhabit #lybl #bestlife #joy #motherhood #hard #god #phillipians #fatherhood #relationships
Having goals is great, but we need to examine them occasionally to see how they--and we--are going. This is a guided prayer that is also a goal-evaluating exercise. It will help you see more clearly where you are living in a life-giving way and where you are living in a life-draining way.
You will need your list of goals (please start by writing that; my blog/podcast “Goals” guides you through that process), your journal, a writing utensil, and maybe a Christ candle (which is any candle that you like).
God be with you in this process. Peace and love and insight to you. ♥️
Please get in touch with me if you would like a free coaching session, to see if we would be a good fit to work together as you get into the deep stuff in your life.
solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
goals #examinedlife #examinationofconscience #guidance #reflection #christianity #ignatianspirituality #magis #interiorlife #livingyourbestlife #meditation #breathing #practicalspirituality #spirituality #examen #prayer #evaluation #selfhelp #lifecoach #relationships #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #christinarombachbarry #christinabarry
Be brave enough to suck at something.
Yoda was right about a lot of things, but he got this one wrong.
Despite what Yoda says to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, trying matters. Trying matters because WE LEARN THROUGH FAILURE. That is psychologically how humans are built. We have to fail over and over and over again, just like Michael Jordan in that amazing commercial from the 90s…so that we can succeed. It is a trap for highly capable people that they expect to succeed easily all the time, and if they do not, they read it as a failure on their part instead of simply the way that human beings learn.
A personal reflection on my own life and my son's experience with the danger of thinking that someone who has to try is a failure.
solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#growthmindset #failure #relationships #parenting #trying #doordonot #starwars #yoga #yoda #learning #psychology #perfectionism #progress #growingup #motherhood #momlife #growthhurts #fixedmindset#humandevelopment #patience #spirituality #prayer #christianity #selftalk #poweryoga #meditation #reflection #christinarombachbarry #christinabarry #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #overacheiver #pressure #thereisnotry #tryhard
Being the best, constantly achieving, rising above...pressure is continually defining our lives. I would like to change that. A personal reflection on how the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Excerpt: From my childhood, I started to feel and rise to the pressure of being top in everything, and that grew in me through high school, into college, and into adulthood. It has affected every part of my life, from my work to my motherhood to my friendships to my relationship with my husband and my relationship with my body. It is everywhere and I have lived my life always under the influence of it. As the song says:
“Watch as she buckles and bends but never breaks
No mistakes, just
PRESSURE”
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#pressure #success #children #perfectionism #bodyimage #selfesteem #selfimage #overwhelmed #overscheduled #pressured #overachiever #excellence #personalgrowth #gentleness #strength #goodnotperfect #goals #surfacepressure #standards #expectations #allthethings #parenting #motherhood #dianekeaton #babyboom #encanto #mom #postpartum #family #teaching #reflection #guidance #peace #hardonyourself #meditation #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #christinabarry #christinarombachbarry
**A guided reflective process of evaluating where you're at as you end one year and start a new one. A grounded goal-setting process incorporating psychology and spirituality to help you live your best life.
solacecoachingcompany.com**
@asrealaspossible
#goalsetting #goals #newyearsresolutions #personalgrowth #christianity #newyear #reflection #meditation #ignatianspirituality #prayer #God #beloved #examen #trueself #becoming #peace #love #everydayholiness #selfcare #healthy #practicalspirituality #spirituality #innerself #innercritic #listen #solacecoachingcompany #lifecoach #asrealaspossible #christinarombachbarry #christinabarry
Seek genuineness; try to live my best, most authentic self. But how do I find my real self amid all the interruptions in life? My deepest desire is to live as authentically as possible, yet the distractions of daily life threaten to throw me off track...until I realize and accept that the distractions are perhaps the point, are perhaps the means to deepening me into my most authentic self.
solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#interrupted #becoming #growingup #relationship #itsawonderfullife #comingofage #lonely #emptiness #parenthood #selfless #trueself #love #family #marriage #dog #calling #pray #God #spirituality #ignatianspirituality #reflection #meditation #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #christinabarry #christinarombachbarry
A meditation focused on breath and gentleness. The light in me sees the light in you. May Light and Love bless you today.
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@asrealaspossible
meditation #christianity #love #gentleness #reflection #personalgrowth #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #christinarombachbarry #christinabarry #breath #breathing
Pride, shame, and remaining myself: A reflection on Joseph. That is my subtitle to this episode. In it, I talk about the journey toward realizing that pride and shame are two sides of the same coin, and that letting that coin rule your life doesn't lead to anywhere good.
There's a danger in being ruled by success. How do we notice and adjust course when we're doing that; how do we get back to what's important? And how do we become truly content with remaining ourselves, without striving and pushing to be noticed?
A reflection on perhaps the most important place of growth in my life: learning to be content with being behind the scenes.
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#vocation #calling #insecurity #shame #confidence #authenticity #god #christianity #podcast #asrealaspossible #solacecoachingcompany #joseph #christmas #mary #jesus #scripture #growth #reflection #meditation #personalgrowth #joy #peace #solace #consolation #ignatianspirituality #spirituality #humility #lordoftherings #tolkien #amdg #success #presence #guidance #prayer #relationship #learning #patience
A reflection about having a hard time that life and love are not about me. I don't get to be the center of things, I don't get to do whatever I want to do, and a tantrum and forgiveness surrounding that lead me to growth.
Love (God) leads me to where I need to be, sometimes in spite of how I try to misdirect things. Thank you, God, for NOT letting me get my way.
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
#itsnotaboutyou #humility #servantleader #youareenough #strength #faith #God #Christmas #Jesus #wisemen #Ignatianspirituality #spirituality #christianity #youngadults #courage #parenting #mothers #motherhood #forgiveness #resilience #grit #failure #growthmindset #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #lifecoach #reflection #meditation #advent #prayer #marriage #mistakes
We are called to do some things in life that are much bigger than us, much harder than we can handle. What does it mean to be able to handle them, to be enough? What does it mean to be brave in the face of them...to have the courage to walk on, to move forward, knowing that we do not always have what it takes, that we are not always enough?
And then, in the courageous walking on, moving forward, crawling as needed, we find something that makes us enough. And we find we do not have to be afraid.
If you are a parent, especially a new parent, or if you are going through something hard, or if you are starting something new and you feel your inadequacy, this might be worth a listen. If you are just a human being, who in the very act of living notices that you don't always measure up, this might be worth your time, too.
solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible
youarenotalone #youareenough #strength #faith #God #Christmas #Jesus #Mary #Ignatianspirituality #spirituality #christianity #youngadults #courage #parenting #mothers #motherhood #learningdifferences #resilience #grit #failure #growthmindset #solacecoachingcompany #asrealaspossible #lifecoach #reflection #meditation #advent #pray
Our lives go so fast that we sometimes don't notice what we really need to see. And even though we might not want it, a slow down comes our way--when, by choice or not, our life slows enough for us to see what we've become so practiced at overlooking.
We also tend to miss the good that comes out of the bad, relationship patterns that we have the opportunity to change, and where God is working through all of this.
This episode is about just such a time in my life, about the habits of rushing through what matters. And how I'm seeking to change that through acceptance and forgiveness.
Solacecoachingcompany.com
@asrealaspossible @solacecoachingcompany
#learningdifference #learningdisability #parenting #marriage #relationship #calling #vocation #forgiveness #slow #meditation #reflection #prayer #personalgrowth #innerself #asrealaspossible #solacecoachingcompany #workingmom #guidance #spirituality #ignatianspirituality #presence
Sometimes slow and patient is the only way to move forward well. Life wants to sweep us along faster and faster and tells us that only a life with immediate results is worthwhile, but that's not the way of things. Most often, things take a long time. Especially things that matter.
In this episode, I share a little of my life and my favorite prayer. It encourages living slowly, deliberately, and humbly, knowing that we cannot force things into being. It encourages trust in God, even when things don't move at our pace.
If we can lean into the busyness of the holidays with a sense of grounding, with calm, presence, and gentleness, how might that change our growth during this season? That is my prayer for you. And for me too.
solace #solacecoachingcompany #personalgrowth #youngadults #adulthood #patience #trust #prayer #God #Christianity #slow #meditation #reflection #jesuit #mentalhealth #calm #positivity
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For a more centered, purposeful, authentic, joyful life, daily reflection is one of the best things you can add into your everyday routine. Some of my podcast episodes will be guided reflections: a way for you to reconnect with yourself and with God on a daily basis, as a small, doable break in the busyness of regular life. Over time, they will help your life feel more on-track; somehow, the simple act of reflecting regularly draws us closer to God and ourselves, and our lives go better because of it.
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Contact Christina and see more at solacecoachingcompany.com.
personalgrowth #selfhelp #family #reflection #God #growth #prayer #lifechanges #gratitude #joy #lifecoaching #youngadults
Sometimes hard things happen to us. We don't always realize at the time that although they are hard, they are also GOOD. And they are forming us into who we are becoming. They are helping us be more ourselves.
In this first podcast episode I've ever done, I tell a story that changed my life. While it was hard, it proved to be incredibly life-giving. The longer I live, the more I believe that hard things have the capability of deepening us in ways that the comfortable stuff just can't.
At the end of my story, I prompt you to reflect on your own life. I nudge you to also live deep and as real as possible.
In this episode, I am grateful for the difficult that led me to the light. It led me home. And I am forever thankful.
Contact Christina at solacecoachingcompany.com.