Conversations with Cinthia

Take Good Care of You -- You‘re the Only You We Have! 10-3-21

Today’s episode begins with why self-care is important and then branches into the territory of ritual.  What are your self-care rituals, positive or negative?  How do your daily rituals reflect and reinforce your values?  Our rituals take our habits to another level, and they can help us or hurt us, as well as others.  What rituals will you add, subtract, or continue, and how will it impact your ability to be who you were created to be?

Be Your Own Best Version (9-26-21)

You were uniquely created for a specific purpose.  You can (and do, for good or for ill) make a difference in yourself and the world around you.  To fulfill this purpose and effect this change well, you are going to have to figure out how to deal with pain; pain is going to be part of your experience on earth.  Do these concepts sound simple?  Profound?  Too easy?  Too hard?  Helping people understand and apply them has been foundational to Cinthia's work for three decades, but they continue to be fresh and to find new applications.  Join her today for a new take on the classic teachings that have helped so many clients, listeners, and readers move toward being the best versions of themselves.

Free to Thrive, Pt. 2: Interview with Ben Bennett

As if we weren't excited enough to interview Josh McDowell last week, this week Cinthia talks with Ben Bennett about Free to Thrive, the book he and Josh McDowell are releasing.  Having faced his own trauma and struggles with addiction, Mr. Bennett is now the director of Resolution Movement, helping others discover tools for addressing their own struggles.  Today he and Cinthia discuss the importance of recognizing and meeting emotional needs, reducing the status of asking for help with mental/emotional issues, and understanding how unmet emotional needs and unresolved emotional trauma can feed behaviors we want to resist but keep doing.

Free to Thrive, Pt. 1: Interview with Josh McDowell

Are your behaviors trying to tell you something about the hurts you haven’t fully addressed?  Have you been repeatedly disillusioned by the sins of others, especially those of Christian ministry leaders?  In their recently-released book Free to Thrive, Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett discuss the way our hurts, when not healed, tend to shape our behaviors, as well as our responsibility to find freedom and healing by addressing those hurts.  Today, Cinthia is again honored to interview Josh McDowell, who discusses his own realization at the height of his ministry that “something is wrong in Camelot.”  Mr. McDowell uses some of his own patterns and changes as examples of the way that re-learning who we are in Christ can change our ways of functioning in the world.  

To dive deeper into the message of each podcast, we've created a study guide for each episode. Download your FREE Study Guide here:  https://www.cinthiahiett.com/services-6.

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Take Good Care of You -- You‘re the Only You We Have!

Sometimes we dismiss self-care as unnecessary, inconvenient, selfish, or undeserved.  But if God chose to make you, He must have wanted one of you around.  In fact, one is exactly how many He made-- one YOU.  And, while He may not want you to confuse self-care with self-indulgence, He does want you to take care of the unique work of art He created.  Today Cinthia emphasizes that, when you don't take care of yourself, the rest of us lose access to what God designed you to give us.  Join Cinthia to look at why self-care is anything but selfish and what it means to preserve and maintain your ability to be what God made you to be.  After all, He wanted us to have you, and He didn't give us a back-up.

Types of Dependency

Sometimes we think of dependence on others as inherently unhealthy, but, in fact, we are meant to need each other.  To be human, says Cinthia, is to be in relationship with other people, and to be in relationship with other people, she continues, is to be dependent.  Not all dependencies, however, are created equal.  Do you tend toward codependency?  Counter-dependency?  Independence and interdependence?  Join Cinthia to consider how you can healthily depend on others and allow them to do the same with you.

The Repeat Offender

Forgiveness is hard enough when an offense is in the past.  What do we do when someone continues to cause us harm or offense?  Today Cinthia explores the complexity of forgiving in situations where the offender continues to deny or minimize the offense, to inflict more pain, or to be sheltered by a family or other group that expects the victim to “get over” what happened and participate as though the hurt no longer exists (or never really existed in the first place).  She also explores what forgiveness is and is not and the difference between forgiveness and restoring relationship.  Wherever you are on the journey of forgiveness, today’s episode offers hope to take another step.

What Are Your Props?

What makes you into YOU but isn't really you?  What contributes to your life, helps to fill the space in your head, impacts the style and mood of your daily existence, and generally makes your "show" work?  Props can be good, bad, or indifferent, depending on your level of dependence on them.  When our props change who we are or try to complete what God has already completed, they can become "leaven" and get in the way of sincerity and truth.  Join Cinthia to explore what is propping you up and whether your props are stealing the show.

Can Fairy Tales Be Real? (originally aired 2-1-15)

What story do you long to live?  Today Cinthia tells part of her own story and discusses the way three strands of story braid together in our lives; these are the stories God is writing, the stories we keep trying to write, and the fairy tales of which we dream.  Join Cinthia to learn about the ways God has continued to write her story even when everything (including heart) was set against it, as well as to look at how God is writing your story and how you can more effectively cooperate with Him as the Author of your life.

Why Did God Give Us Laughter?

Laughter is seriously good for human beings -- and maybe for rats, chimpanzees, dolphins, camels, owls, dogs, and penguins.  When the Bible says that a merry heart does good like a medicine (Proverbs 17:22), it's not kidding.  Laughter itself elevates our pain thresholds, improves our short-term memories, enables us to deal better with life by changing our body chemistry, protects the health of our hearts (the physical organ, though it helps the figurative heart, as well), and helps us bond with one another.  We know "real life" involves sadness, stress, and tragedy, but humor-- really good humor-- is also a part of reality.  In fact, it can be a part that helps us deal with those other parts.  So when was the last time you laughed -- really, deeply, full-out laughed?  Join Cinthia to explore whether you might benefit from developing your sense of humor or just enjoying some light-hearted funniness when life gets heavy.