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[Begin Transcript of 18:27 length video]
Morning Introduction
Good morning. It is Saturday, May 17th, and I'm Sherry Pevey. In my online ministry and writing, I go by Sherry Elaine. I just want to do a quick video.
You can hear the dog barking in the background. You can see my little Willa here in the background. I have just woken up a short while ago—just going to be real here.
No time—I've got—we've got dog training class later today and no time to really get fixed up for this video, but I wanted to share with you about the Faith and Soul Care Retreat.
The Origin of the Faith & Soul Care Teachings
The teachings that I'm going to be doing over the five weeks are something that have just been on my heart for a long time.
At least two years is when it actually started forming and coming together, but even before that, really just having a need and almost even a compulsion to share. Because over the course of the past five to ten years, I have been updating my skills.
I graduated with my master's in psychology back in 2000. Since that time, there’s this whole third wave psychology that’s really, really focused on prevention and well-being. So I’ve been updating my skills in that area.
I have been sharing things that I’ve learned with my students and their parents - and they are the simplest, easiest strategies—and we’re seeing total transformations.
Why I’m Starting With Moms and Women
My first thoughts were, I’m going to take this to kids and teens somehow. Because if we can get this information out there to them, there would just be so much change for them.
But I do have a mentor who’s helping me get my online ministry more known - helping me expand the reach of it - I guess you could say. She helped me see that I need to start with the moms and the grandmas and the aunts and adult women.
Because if I can help you all learn these things, you all can do them for yourself, and then you can teach your kids and grandkids—and that’s a better way and makes more sense.
So that’s how I kind of shifted from my school psychology work, which is focused on the well-being of children in their mental health, to kind of pulling this into my already existent writing ministry for women.
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Preview of Week One Strategy: Systematic Relaxation
I wanted to give you a little preview for those of you who are already in the group or who are already connected with me and aren’t in the Facebook group yet, where I will be doing the teachings.
I wanted to give you just a little preview of some strategies that we’ll be learning in the first week.
For those of you who are familiar with counseling strategies and things like that, this is going to be as old as time. It’s called systematic relaxation. I learned this in my old-school 1990s psychology program.
Now, for the longest time, we used it to help people with pretty significant anxiety—people who could not fall asleep easily at night, people who maybe were having panic-level anxiety—to help them calm down, you know, and help them calm and relax their body.
The New Understanding of Midlife Stress and Fatigue
But what we know now is that by the time we're in midlife—and I'm going to be fully transparent here, this is theory.
If you go to the peer-reviewed literature, there will be back and forth—how can we prove this is true? These things that you're saying aren’t proven from a biophysiological level.
But what the theory is now is that over time, all the little negative experiences that we have—our emotions that we don’t deal with—just like if I were to go running into the woods and see a bear, there would be physical effects.
Even after a car wreck—I know once I had a car wreck and I was just like, uh... afterwards—even smaller levels of "trauma," there is a physiological response in the body that doesn’t necessarily dissipate completely on its own.
And it remains. That’s why we have tense muscles. That’s why we hold our tension in our back. And over time, as we get more and more of these adverse experiences, we are exhausted.
Why You Might Feel Drained in Your 50s
That’s why we hit my age—I’m in my early 50s—and we’re thinking, “Oh, empty nest, I’m going to do so much!” And then we get there and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t want to leave the house.”
Hopefully not all of you are there, but I have been there.
What we now know is, if you continue using these systematic de-anxiety skills even when you’re not feeling anxious—and you will, in a fairly quick time (for me it was only about three weeks), you will start feeling your energy come back.
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How to Practice Systematic Relaxation
The main systematic—we’re just going to call it systematic “anxiety-get-it-out.” I’m going to come up with another name for it—systematic desensitization.
But all it is—and I do it in bed because I get the most relaxation there. We just got a new mattress. It’s very comfortable.
You start with your feet. You squeeze your feet. Think about your feet—do this with your eyes closed so you can really... You squeeze your feet as hard as comfortable—as hard as you can, that’s also not painful—and you just feel the tension release.
Then you go up to your calves and you do it there. Same thing—squeeze them, let it release.
Go up to your thighs, your lower back area, abdomen, your arms, back of your shoulders—you know, and release.
The only thing different—that helps after an anxiety attack or after a really stressful day—it also helps with not being able to fall asleep readily at night. You’ll feel like, after you do it, you’ll feel like just butter on a biscuit—melting into your mattress.
But keep doing it every day until you start getting your energy back.
Encouragement to Start Now – Especially for Educators
Go ahead and start that now. I’m going to teach that again on the first week of our Faith and Soul Care Retreat, but go ahead.
I want you all, since you’ve already been here, already said, “Yeah, I want to hear about this”—you get to start early!
So two weeks from now, you may already be ready to go.
Teachers—y’all know I work in the school system—teachers and educators, are you like me? Where I used to be like - summer comes and the first two weeks I just can’t even do anything because I’m trying to detox or whatever from all the stress at the end of the school year?
Well, start doing this now and you’ll have two additional functional weeks in your summer.
If you’re like me and that’s how you get—it’s like you can’t even enjoy your breaks off during the year because all you’re doing is just coming down from being with 20-some kids all day long, every day, in these current days and times.
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Extra Insight for Those Already Familiar with Relaxation Techniques
So that’s one exercise. And then—I was just going to tell you that one—but for those of you who already know about systematic relaxation, let me give you a little something too.
This is also—I’m not going to go into the theory why this is helpful as well.
(Making sure my dog isn’t trying to go underneath the fence—you might see her running back there. She’s a little Yorkie. She’s 14 years old and she’s my baby. My always baby.)
Sounds like a swarm of cicadas or something... oh no!
But anyway...
Releasing Tension Through Shoulder Openers
This also releases a lot of tension from along this area (upper back and neck and shoulders.) You can do it sitting or standing. I also do it in bed—because I like to be able to take my elbows all the way back. I don’t want to go too far, so when I do it in bed—or I guess you could do it lying down on a mat—I know to stop my elbows where the ground is.
Let me scoot back here. You do this: you start down low, and then here, you bring it up a little bit. You know, bring it parallel with the floor, and then bring it up. That will pull out a lot of stored tension right along your upper back, spinal cord, and the nerves—there's a really big nerve there.
Simple Practices for Mental and Emotional Reset
Go ahead and start doing that for the next two weeks. That’s not all we’re going to learn the first week—we’re also going to learn some very, very simple daily practices that literally take 10 seconds. Maybe 20 if you're a little slow—20 seconds max.
These are evidence-based. If you tend to get the blues or go into depression or negative thinking cycles, these are shown to actually have a preventative effect. So when you feel that spiral coming on, you can do these exercises. I forget to do them most days, but I definitely do them when I start feeling the “uh-oh, I don't know if I can make it” coming on.
It just takes 10 to 20 seconds, and supposedly—it’s not totally proven, but I feel the difference—it gives your brain just a little shot of dopamine. It can help you from sinking further into that place where you're just not feeling well and not feeling happy.
Week One Focus: Energy and Stress Relief
So do those two things. The first week, we’re really going to be talking about getting our energy back—and ways to deal with this negative physical stress positively.
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Week Two Preview: A Simple, Effective Method of Prayer
Then the practices that we’ll be adding in Week Two—we’ll be looking at a method of prayer. I’m not saying it’s the only method of prayer, but it’s a method that I teach and have found to be very effective and very doable.
Simple. You all know I work in an elementary school—my strategies are simple. I completely believe Jesus when He says, “Be like a child and you’ll enter heaven.” We receive more of Jesus when we just take Him like a child. We receive more.
Why This Teaching is Only in the Private Facebook Group
I’m only doing the teachings in my private Facebook group, and that’s because—as we get further into, like, Week Three—I’ll be sharing some areas of my life that I’m just not ready to fully put out there publicly.
Even though my group is open to the public, there are some basic questions you have to answer to be approved—one, that you’re going to be respectful, and two, you’re going to have to give me your email address.
Protecting the Group and Keeping You Connected
That’s really just in case—because you know how Facebook and Meta are. Just in case we get shut down for some reason, or someone takes over the group and posts inappropriate things and we get shut down—that does happen. It happened to me on Twitter (X) a couple of years ago, which is why I’m no longer on Twitter. Someone took over my account, posted inappropriate stuff, and it got shut down. So it’s a real thing.
That’s all you’ll have to say: “I promise to be respectful,” and then give your email. That’s really for you—because if something happens and we get shut down, I can email you and let you know where we’ll be next.
Not a Sales Funnel—This is Ministry
I’m so excited. There are some upgrade options, but let me tell you: this is not a funnel. This is not a sales funnel. This is ministry. Everything that I do and know, I will be teaching you in the free teachings.
So you can come take part in the free teachings. If you can’t be there live when they’re released, there will be a replay that will remain up through mid-July. You can get caught up.
Everyone who knows me knows I am short and to the point—you’re not going to be sitting there for an hour and 20 minutes just trying to get to the meat. Well, I’m not being short and to the point right now, but you know what I mean. You’re going to get what you need to know so you can implement it immediately and start seeing great transformation in your day-to-day.
Join us for Free in my private Facebook Group HERE
Optional Upgrades for Deeper Support
Yes, there are some upgrade options. Those are completely optional. You will not be missing out on any of the teachings if you don’t do the upgrades.
The upgrades are for if you’re looking for a group that’s going to go a little deeper. Maybe you have a very stressful situation going on right now—something that’s a little higher on the “little t / big T” trauma scale. You’ve lost a job, gotten a diagnosis, or you’re really struggling in your relationship—with an adult child, a teenage child, or even a six-year-old. It’s challenging at all stages.
If you’re having something big, and you’d like to just have an opportunity to bounce some things off Sherry and get some feedback and a little bit of coaching or counseling within a small group—there’s an option for that.
Small Group & Private Coaching Offer Details
That’s $65 for all five sessions. This is my launch offer, because I’m launching this new "off-the-page" ministry. So there is an upgrade offer for $65 if you want to be a part of the small group that’s going to meet the following night.
And please reach out to me—message me—if you have any questions or concerns.
There’s also another upgrade option if you’d like the group plus a one-on-one session—like a 45-minute one-on-one. That’s only $30 more, so $95 total.
Those very, very low prices end this weekend—on the 18th at midnight (so technically Monday at midnight). After that, the $65 and $30 add-on will change. It’ll still be a great deal, but it’s going up to $85 for all five sessions. I can’t remember the exact price of the private add-on after that, but yeah—so go take a look at it!
Join us for Free in my private Facebook Group HERE
Upgrade to Small Group Christian Counseling/Coaching or Group + Private Coaching Option
Launch Date and Access Details
I am so excited! Oh my gosh! I can’t wait. May 28th is when we start at 7:00 p.m. There will be a replay, so you’ll have plenty of time to catch up on everything.
It’s going to be a great, great summer, and I hope to see you all soon!
Can Men Join? Clarifying Group Access
Oh yes—men can be in the Facebook group. I know it says it’s for Christian women, but if your husband wants to join, or you know someone who could benefit from these de-stressing and spiritual formation strategies, they can join the Facebook group—as long as they are respectful.
My husband is in the group. I’ve invited my father—but he’s not really on Facebook, so I may have to get him set up.
Men can join the group, but I will not take men in the small groups. That part of my ministry is, for now, for women. But I may be able to refer you to someone or offer other suggestions.
Wrapping Up
So, we will see you soon. I’m going to go get my day started, get this puppy fed—did I feed you yet?—get her fed, and we will see you all soon.
Bye for now!
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Upgrade to Small Group Christian Counseling/Coaching or Group + Private Coaching Option
Gratefully,
Sherry