Hey mama. Welcome to the Inside Out Mamas podcast. I'm Brittany Turley, mom of six, and I know what it's like to feel stuck and overwhelmed trying to be the perfect mom, but everything changed for me when I learned that small changes on the inside can bring big results on the outside. Each week I will share simple, yet powerful inside shifts or outside tips that can transform your approach to mothering, helping you thrive from the inside out. Ready to ditch the mom guilt and enjoy this season of life. You are in the right place. Today I wanna talk about the power of looking back. Now. Often people will say it's not helpful to be past focused and living from our past. And I agree with this wholeheartedly. I think the past is not a place that we need to go back and live in, nor is it a place that we should go vacation in. But I do think it is helpful to glance back at, our past, to give us better perspective of where we were and how far we've come to help remind us of the things that we have accomplished to help us see how we've gained strength, how we've gained skills, and to help motivate us forward more because we can see the growth. I find that this is usually the case with things that are frustrating me. For example, one of my current frustrations is not being able to go out and go for a full run. I see other runners out there and I just wish that I could go running. I, every time I see one, I think, oh, you don't even know how lucky you are. I wish I could be doing that. Because I am currently walking and sometimes adding in a running interval of one minute. So I'll walk for five, run for one, walk for five, run for one. And it is terribly frustrating for me because I want to run so badly. Running has always been something very therapeutic for me. I. Need it mentally. I love it physically. I love being outside. I love the rhythm of it. It's always something that has helped me stay grounded and giving me energy. I really miss some good cardio and I was in a space the other day when I was doing my walking, running intervals and I was just feeling really frustrated. And luckily I had the thought to look back and looking back at this time a year ago, I was in such. Bad back pain that even walking slowly hurt. In fact, I was always in pain unless I was sleeping. And being able to remember that, that now I'm in a space where my back doesn't hurt as often and I can walk actually at a pretty fast pace without pain and I can run a little bit and I'm working up very slowly to running more. It helped my mind refocus on my progress. Instead of just stewing in frustration and wishing things were different. I was able to see, wait a minute, things are different. I have forgotten how bad it was. It was really bad. I was in so much pain all the time. And slowly as I've been doing weightlifting and some physical therapy. I have been able to make slow progress on my pain and I'm to the point now where I can do these walk one minute run intervals without pain and remembering that helped me feel so much more peace. It's so easy to stay in frustration when we don't look back and gauge and see how things are different from where they were, and see our progress. This is also so helpful as we try to help our kids work to learn skills that they want or need. I was reminded of this the other day also, when I was able to look back and see how far one of our children had come and a skill they are working on. It was easy to get stuck in the fact that they're not where they wanna be or where we would like them to be. But when I look back and remember where we were and see the progress, it really just melts away the frustration because then I'm focused on the growth that has happened or the change that has been made instead of what is still lacking. Now because I believe small changes on the inside bring big results on the outside. Each week on my podcast, I'm going to give you a small change challenge, something small you could do throughout the week if you choose, that could end up bringing big results to your life. So the small change challenge for this week is to think of one thing that is frustrating you or weighing you down. Then take a glance back six months or a year and see what progress you have made in this area, or what progress your kids have made in this area. Refocus your mind on that growth and feel the frustration melt away as you give more perspective to how far you or your kids have come. And let that feeling motivate you forward as you continue to grow and work towards the thing you're working on. Remember, small changes on the inside. Bring big results on the outside. If you enjoyed this episode or any of my other ones, be sure to share it with a friend. We're all in this mothering together and it's best when we help each other out. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Inside Out Mamas. My hope is that our time together inspires more feelings of peace, confidence, and joy in your mama journey. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a show. And if you're ready to take these insights even deeper, head over to brittany turley coaching.com to check out my digital workshop. Designed to help you reduce daily mom overwhelm without adding to your to-do list. Thanks for listening. And remember, small changes on the inside, bring big results on the outside.