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 in our summer series, part two, we are gonna talk about how emotions happen. We often hear people say things like, my son made me mad today, or my husband made me so sad, or my daughter made me happy yesterday, or my neighbor made me so frustrated last week. If we stick with those statements, it would seem that our emotions are given to us from other people. But that really gives other people a lot of power and leaves us pretty helpless, like we have no control. And others get to decide what emotion we will be feeling at any given time. But if we look a little deeper at these statements, we will usually discover that the other person did something like, my son made me so mad because he wrote with crayon on the wall, or my daughter made me so happy because she gave me a big hug and told me she loved me. So then does that mean it's not the person that gives us the emotion, but what they do or don't do that gives us the emotion? There again, that gives other people all the power and leaves us helpless because we can't control what other people do. If we go even one layer deeper and look at what is going on in these situations, we will discover the key that puts the power back with us. When the son wrote on the wall before the mom felt anger, something else happened. She had a thought about the crayon writing on the wall. It might be something like. He shouldn't have written on the wall because I told him, crayons are for paper only he disobeyed me. That kind of a thought would probably create an angry response. Now, what if the mom's thought when she saw the crayon on the wall was, oh goodness. Well, he'll have to learn how to wash it off. Her emotion then probably wouldn't be anger. It would probably be something more like empathy. Same situation, different thoughts, different emotions. That means emotions are created inside of us from things that we create, from our thoughts. This gives us the power. Emotions are created by thoughts. It's not always a thought we are aware of, and it's certainly not always a deliberate thought, but we created them, which is great news because we can learn how to become more aware of them and also how to create them on purpose. Now, this may have been something you've heard before or it may be totally new, and you may be feeling skeptical. The first time I heard this, it was really hard for me to wrap my mind around and I had to spend time thinking about it and looking at my emotions and noticing what was going on in my brain. 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 notice when you are having an emotion. Or think back on when you had recently follow the trail back in your mind to see if you can discover what you were thinking before you had that emotion. Begin to become aware of the thoughts that you are having and the emotions associated with them. When I first heard that emotions were created by my thoughts it was a struggle for my brain. We live in a society that mostly gives other people the power over our emotions and leaves us helpless. But once I was able to wrap my mind around it and see the thoughts that I was having and the emotions that they were giving me, it was so empowering. So, even though this may seem hard at first or not true, give it a chance and you will discover that you have the power over the emotions in your life. If you enjoyed this little episode or any of my other ones, be sure to share it with another mama and be sure to come back next week where we will talk about what is the purpose of emotions. 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.