Faithful, Not Frantic: Stay Grounded as We Enter a New Year

Camille McDaniel (00:02.188)
Welcome back to Christ in Private Practice. It’s wonderful to have you here for another episode. And if you happen to be new here, then I’m glad that you decided to take a listen and I hope you stay for a while. So today’s episode, we’re going to be kind of reflecting on the fact that we are almost finished with this year. And in this time, I’ve really been hearing a similar theme from many Christian counselors.

Things feel heavy, they’re distracting, and it’s loud all around them and not necessarily loud in one specific way, but loud in a lot of areas all at one time because there’s just a lot of noise in the world. know, a lot of different opinions on how to do things, a lot of urgency that’s going on sometimes in our health or with our families or the world around us.

and in our businesses and a lot of pressure to react or to fix things, to respond or maybe even make a pivot at this time. And so for many of us, there’s kind of a concern underneath all of it. And it’s how do I stay grounded when everything around me feels unsettled? And how do I finish this year steady?

and steadfast in my work and present with my family and attentive to my health and staying rooted in my faith in Christ and you know not becoming overwhelmed or numb and I’m I feel like somebody just heard that and said whoop too late already happening it’s like well that’s what I want to talk about for this episode you know just with

being grounded in the midst of all of it. Not necessarily just one specific strategy or one particular prediction for what we need to do, but really just talking about being grounded and staying the course. Staying the course is a big one, really. If this year has felt heavier than expected, that is because you are sensing things correctly.

Camille McDaniel (02:29.73)
There has been nonstop trauma after trauma, chaos after chaos, a lot of different things, emergency after emergency. There’s a lot going on and many Christian counselors are ending this year carrying like emotional weight from clients and professional uncertainty with a lot of the different things that are going on in the business world.

family responsibilities and just other heaviness that’s going on. And it just adds to that constant pull that we feel like we have to keep up. You know, there’s a lot going on in social media. There’s a lot going on in our news cycles and a comparison pull to see who’s doing what and how well they’re doing and how they’re doing it.

it can feel like your mind never really gets to rest. And heaviness does not automatically necessarily mean burnout. You know, it could just mean that you are seeing things correctly. There’s a lot of distractions around us and distraction doesn’t automatically mean that we’re off track and we’re failing. But you know, we’re

we’re unsettled. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re missing the mark. Sometimes it means that you’re very human, you’re paying attention, you are discerning correctly the amount of heaviness and pain and chaos and uncertainty. But even with all of that, you still are showing up. And it is not very easy to show up in the midst of

everything that we are seeing and everything that the Holy Spirit is allowing us to discern. But you’re still doing it and sometimes there’s you know the temptation in seasons like this is to respond by doing more or changing more or questioning everything all at one time but not every season calls for action and movement.

Camille McDaniel (04:58.024)
Some seasons of life just call for us to just be, just stay firm and steady and keep moving forward one step at a time. There’s a passage in scripture that many of us may know well, but I wanna read it slowly and in totality because I think it gives us orientation for how to move through.

some of the things that we are experiencing versus maybe, you know, other times where we might kind of carve out a way of avoiding or escaping some of the difficulty and heaviness. This is Psalm 23, reading from the New King James Version. And it says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

You know what stands out in that passage is that when you look at it, this is that kind of valley that doesn’t necessarily indicate any kind of mistake was made and therefore I have to walk through the valley or there was a punishment that was earned or given and therefore I walked through the valley.

Camille McDaniel (07:07.21)
you know, or I stumbled and I fell and then I had this detour of walking through the valley. While all of that can happen and does happen in our life, but in this, it’s not really that part kind of identified specifically. It’s just that they’re on this path. The shepherd does not panic. The sheep

are not told to hurry up and rush along and hurry up and pivot. It’s just that in this, there is an understanding in the Valley that God’s presence is there. His guidance is there. His provision is there. And that matters, especially in the world that we are in today. As Christian counselors, it’s easy to feel

pressure to constantly evaluate whether we’re doing enough and how did we get into a place where now we are having to deal with so many things all at once, whether it be our health, the health of family members, if we’re in sandwich generation where we have children and we’re also taking care of parents, business, and are we getting enough calls into our business and referrals into our business and what do we do so that we don’t have too many

times where we don’t have enough numbers of individuals that we’re seeing. There’s just all this pressure to reach enough people, market correctly, make the right moves. But if we find ourselves in a space where we feel like we are walking through the valley, we want to make sure that we understand that in this valley, there might be things going on during this time, during this season.

in your life, in the world, in your business. But in the midst of all of that, he does what? He is with you. He does what? Prepares a table before you in the presence of who? Even your enemies. Even the people who aren’t rooting for you. Even the people who are doubting you. Even the people, and we don’t like to think about this, who hope you fail.

Camille McDaniel (09:31.926)
All right? And we know that in the end, we are prospering as we stand with the Lord and he walks with us no matter what the season is. And that’s the thing that we want to make sure that in this month, it’s not a time for us to make fear driven decisions. Matter of fact, there’s really no time.

No time where we should be making fear driven decisions. But instead, we are staying the course in our work and what we’re doing. you know, staying the course may look like holding firm to your ethical identity, knowing your code of ethics and operating in your faith integrated practice, knowing that you are still being ethical in all ways that you are practicing.

resisting the urge to kind of overhaul your entire practice out of anxiety, just deciding that, okay, I need to get new ways of operating new services. I’m going to have to revamp the way that we offer services and revamp the services that we offer and change out all the marketing material and overhaul the website. You might sometimes still have to take a look at your marketing material on your website to make sure it is actually doing what it’s supposed to do for you. But if you’ve already done that,

We don’t want to worry and then start to doubt ourselves and then start changing everything after we put so much time and research and effort into doing it correctly already. We have to trust that being consistent is faithful and that everything we do doesn’t have to be showy and loud and front and center, you know.

not in a prideful way, but I’m just saying you don’t have to always have all of the marketing material laid out to go on social media every single day, you know, perfectly. That’s not always what you have to do. You don’t have to worry about always having the exact right thing to say at the exact right time and going to all the networking and marketing events and making sure that you get all the calls and say this particular thing. Like you’re, you’ll run yourself ragged.

Camille McDaniel (11:54.57)
You really will. And that is fear driven. And we don’t want to do that. We want to do the proper work, yes, to investigate what we need to do in order to make genuine connections with referral sources. We want to make sure we’re offering the services that align with our gifts and talents and what the Father is calling us to do. We want to make sure that yes, our marketing and our advertising

properly explains the value of our services and how they can reach us. And if we are doing that, then we need to just relax in the steady, faithful flow that we have created. Because a faithful practice is not a frantic practice. So if your referrals are slower,

that does not automatically mean that something is broken. It actually could just mean that that is the very nature of the behavior pattern for the people and groups that you serve. It kind of reminds me a little bit of like chocolatiers and candy makers. There are certain times of the year where they see a big boom in business and they have a lot of revenue coming in.

to their businesses because of the nature of the service they provide, or the product they provide. But then other times of the year, the behavior pattern of the customer changes and they’re not seeing that big boom anymore. It’s not that they’ve done anything wrong. It’s just that there are certain times of the year where people specifically want a lot

candy, want a lot of chocolate, and then there’s other times of the year where that’s actually not front and center. And so instead of them thinking, my goodness, maybe something’s broken, maybe I’ve done something wrong, they recognize the pattern and they plan accordingly. So just because you’re noticing things are slowing down at this time of the year doesn’t necessarily mean that you have done anything wrong.

Camille McDaniel (14:21.794)
but are you recognizing the pattern? And if you’re new to private practice and you’re like, well, I haven’t been doing this long enough to establish a pattern, then reach out to individuals who are doing what you do in the area that you do it because again, it’s very important. Geographic location is important. Who you serve is important. There are different patterns with different populations. For example, people will sometimes, adults,

will sometimes, even if they are stressed out, but they can pull themselves through, even if it’s barely, they may go without a session or two, but oftentimes will try to stretch to make sure their children don’t miss sessions for some people. So sometimes you’ll notice that children,

won’t always necessarily miss as many, like they would get their kids help and sacrifice their own help. Some people, depending on the challenge that they happen to be having, they are not able to take off very long, even for holidays, even for summer breaks, because the nature of what they’re dealing with really overtakes a lot of their mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness and their

They’re not able to take a long break. And so you want to just look at the patterns. And if you’re right now, your energy levels are feeling low, that doesn’t mean automatically that you’ve lost your calling, that you’re probably not supposed to be doing this. It’s time to change. Sometimes the most faithful thing that you can do professionally

is to finish the year with rest and without panic. So take it a little slow. If you have a few numbers that in your clientele and it’s kind of dropping, go and take advantage of the rest. Do you oftentimes give yourself rest during busy seasons? If the answer is no, take this as a blessing. You’re not an energizer bunny.

Camille McDaniel (16:46.678)
Your body must have time to decompress. Your body must have some kind of rest. Otherwise, you start noticing that you have challenges in your overall health and wellness. For many counselors, like the end of the year comes with extra expectations as well. We want to show up well. We want for things to feel meaningful. We want to be present.

but we are tired and staying grounded with your family doesn’t require perfection and staying grounded in your business doesn’t require perfection, but it may look like fewer plans. So you have less things on the calendar to run around and do, but you’re more present in the things you do choose to do.

It might mean lower expectations of again, what has to happen during this time of the year to make it grand and instead replace that with deeper connection. So more presence, deeper connection. It may look like allowing yourself to be human at home. You don’t always have to have a plan. It doesn’t always have to, you know, be super organized.

And I understand there’s value in organization. Don’t get me wrong, right? But I’m just saying, sometimes just allow yourself to be human. You don’t have to manufacture the moment and you don’t have to make everything spectacular. Sometimes your presence is enough. But oftentimes we may not feel that way.

Remember, it’s been a long year, a long year. There has been so much going on in this year. It is, is insane. And your nervous system has been working really hard. So staying grounded doesn’t mean ignoring your limits. It means listening to them. And this may be a season to reduce how much you take in.

Camille McDaniel (19:08.3)
And that could be how much news you take in, how much social media you take in, you know, whatever things you notice are activating you in a way that has you wound up stressed out, feeling kind of low and heavy, a little bit too much. You may need to take in less of that. And you might need to increase moments of stillness, just being still, just be.

just be. Let rest be rest without explaining it away or justifying why you not need to take rest. Grounding, you know it’s not like motivation to go and then do more. Grounding yourself, taking care of yourself, it’s it’s about regulation. It’s regulation and it’s wisdom and so

We want to stay the course in our family, in our business, in our health, but we also want to stay the course and make sure that in staying the course, we are not necessarily forgetting because we’re not forgetting who we follow, we’re not forgetting our faith. That’s not what, that’s not what I want to say but I want to say that some seasons of faith are quiet.

and we want to take this time to connect. And so when I was saying before, like it’s not forgetting faith, it’s not saying if I’m not doing, I’m not really, am I really then exercising my faith because faith without works, the Bible says, is dead. But the Lord also talked about rest. We just had that talk in last episode when we talked to, you know,

Dr. Benjamin Long, right? Talking about rest, rest is biblical. And so we wanna make sure that some of the seasons that we experience are quiet and some seasons are marked by trusting that the Lord gives us times to rest so that we can rejuvenate, so that we can have clarity, so that we can build wisdom. And some seasons are gonna just

Camille McDaniel (21:36.278)
look like obeying that obedience to take rest. And if you’re, if you are noticing that right now you don’t seem to have a lot of energy for grand plans for your business, that’s okay. And you don’t have energy for grand plans for company and family during this holiday season, that’s okay.

It doesn’t always have to be lights and music all over and grand, you know, operations and all of that. It doesn’t always have to be. Now, obviously it can be something sparkly, a little bit of cheer here and there. But I mean, if what I think I’m saying is if the cheer, if the plans, if all of the wonder of the holidays causes you to feel

negative about the holidays because it’s running you into the ground and you’re not even appreciating everything you’re doing, then stop. Slow down. Scale back. Make it meaningful. Make it genuine from the heart so that you don’t find yourself resenting what really is not even about all the lights and all of the trim and all of that anyway.

It’s really about a deeper and closer connection to the one who gave his life for us. So as we are moving through this season and we’re closing out, we’re coming to the end of this year, I just want to offer some encouragement that you don’t have to resolve everything in your business and everything in your life. And you don’t have to fix, because you can’t.

the heaviness of the world. You don’t have to rush into what comes next. Sometimes staying the course is the bravest and most faithful thing you can do. So remain grounded and stay present and remain rooted and just trust that

Camille McDaniel (24:01.147)
even in the valley. Goodness and mercy are still following you.

Thank you so much for being here for this podcast episode and thank you for all of the hard work that you do. All of the hard work that you do. Until we meet again, God bless.