Day One of Sobriety | Christian Recovery, Emotional Healing, Overcoming Shame, Spiritual Coaching

36. Saved But Still Stuck? Identifying the Mindset Lens You’ve Been Living Through

In this Application Episode, we move from understanding to practice. Many believers begin to notice unhelpful thought patterns after learning about mind renewal — but then feel unsure what to do next. This episode gently guides you through the how of awareness, helping you identify the mindset lenses that have been shaping your thoughts, emotions, and reactions, often without conscious awareness.
Rather than rushing to fix or change anything, this episode slows the process down. Through nervous system regulation, intentional pauses, and a Positive and Negative Mindset Inventory, you are invited to observe your patterns with curiosity and compassion. This approach honors how God designed both the brain and the soul to heal — through safety, awareness, and truth.
Blending neuroscience and Scripture, this episode reinforces that mind renewal is not about effort or performance, but about partnership with the Holy Spirit as He brings clarity, conviction, and transformation over time.
 
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Awareness is the foundation of lasting transformation
Mindsets are learned patterns, not character flaws
Multiple mindsets often operate at the same time, creating an overall lens
What you notice most often reveals where renewal is needed most
God invites observation before correction
 
🧠 Why This Matters
Many believers feel discouraged when they understand truth intellectually but still struggle emotionally or behaviorally. This gap is not a spiritual failure — it is often the result of automatic thought patterns that have not yet been brought into the light.
Learning how to identify your dominant mindset lens removes shame and restores hope. When awareness increases, choice expands — and transformation becomes possible.
🛠️ Practical Mind Renewal Tool
In this Application Episode, listeners are invited to actively engage with the Positive and Negative Mindset Inventory introduced in this episode.
This guide is designed to help you:
Notice which mindset patterns show up most frequently
Begin to see whether your overall lens tends to lean positive or negative
Observe which mindsets are situational and which feel more familiar or automatic
Practice awareness with curiosity, grace, and no pressure to change
The inventory is not meant to label or diagnose you. It is a tool to help you see clearly — so renewal can happen gently and intentionally.  DOWNLOAD ➡️ Mindset Inventory
 
🔗 Related Resources & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
💰eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
📝 Explore the Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
👥 Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
 
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.
 

35. Saved But Still Stuck: How Mindsets Shape Identity and Transformation

Many believers love God deeply — yet still feel stuck in old patterns of thinking, reacting, and coping. In this Core Episode, we explore a disconnect many believers experience but rarely talk about: salvation is complete, yet transformation often feels slow.
Scripture tells us that in Christ we are a new creation — our spirit is made new in a moment. But our soul — our mind, will, and emotions — must be renewed over time. That renewal process is where many of us get stuck, not because we lack faith, but because of the mindsets we’ve learned and carried with us.
Blending Scripture and neuroscience, this teaching reframes renewal as a grace‑filled process rather than a performance‑based one and invites you to begin noticing the lens you’ve been living through.
 
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Salvation makes you new instantly, but mind renewal is a process that unfolds over time
Mindsets are learned patterns — not moral failures — and they quietly shape identity and behavior
Knowing truth is not the same as living free when mindsets remain unexamined
Limiting mindsets can block our ability to receive what God has already given us at salvation
Awareness, not willpower, is the starting point for lasting transformation
 
🧠 Why This Matters
When salvation and lived experience feel disconnected, many believers assume something is wrong with them. In reality, the issue is often unrenewed thinking — not lack of faith.
Understanding how mindsets form and how God designed the brain to change removes shame and restores hope. Mind renewal allows us to align our thoughts with truth so we can walk in peace, freedom, healing, and wholeness.
 
📘 Episode Reflection Guide
Because this is a Core Episode, listeners are provided with a Reflection Guide, designed to help you review and digest the content of this episode and prepare your heart and mind for application in the next episode.
The Reflection Guide is not meant to fix or diagnose you. It is designed to help you slow down, become familiar with mindset language, and gently notice the lens you may have been living through.
Inside the Reflection Guide, you’ll find:
Clear references to the biblical and neuroscience principles taught in this episode
A simple rhythm of pause, prayer, and awareness to support safe reflection
Mindset language lists to help you notice patterns without judgment
Reflection questions that prepare you for deeper application in the next episode
DOWNLOAD ➡️ Reflection Guide
 
🔗 Related Resources & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
💰eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
📝 Explore the Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
👥 Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
 
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
 
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

34. Sweet Repeat: Your Failures Aren’t Flaws–Stop Reliving the Past and Start Receiving Grace

This episode closes our Sweet Repeat journey in the Reset Your Mind for 2026 series. We address a struggle many believers carry quietly — not whether they are forgiven, but whether they can truly receive grace after failure.
Blending Scripture and neuroscience, this teaching reframes mistakes as feedback rather than identity and invites you to move forward without rehearsing the past. If you’ve done the work, learned the tools, and still feel stuck in self‑judgment, this episode will help you release shame and walk renewed — one thought at a time.
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Failure is feedback, not a flaw — your brain and spirit are designed to learn and grow through mistakes
Salvation settled your past; shame has no legal authority to reopen what Jesus finished
Repentance and mind renewal work together to realign thoughts with God’s truth
Perseverance strengthens emotional regulation and spiritual maturity
Grace fuels forward movement, not perfection
🧠 Why This Matters
When failure defines your self‑perception, it quietly stalls growth and keeps you stuck reliving the past. Understanding how God designed the brain to learn — and how grace rewires thought patterns — restores peace and momentum.
Mind renewal isn’t about trying harder; it’s about responding differently. When grace replaces guilt, healing becomes sustainable and progress becomes possible.
🛠 Practical Mind Renewal Tools
In this episode, Brenda teaches the 4R’s of Redemption alongside the S.T.R.E.T.C.H. Forward Visual Tool — two complementary frameworks that help you respond to mistakes with truth, grace, and forward movement.
For this episode, listeners are given direct access to the visual tool below so you can return to these steps whenever you need support.
Download  ➡️ 4R’s & S.T.R.E.T.C.H. Tool & Guide
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
🎯 Coaching Specials: Reset Your Mind 2026
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
👣 Your Next Steps
eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.
 
 
 
 

33. Sweet Repeat: Relationship Over Religion – Why Surrender, Not Control, Is the Key to Renewing Your Mind

This week’s episode is a Sweet Repeat, but not a rewind. It’s a revisit with fresh revelation as we continue the Renew Your Mind in 2026 series.
In Episode 33, we explore how fear, doubt, and worry often signal self-reliance rather than trust—and how choosing a relationship with the Holy Spirit over religion opens the door to peace. This teaching brings together Scripture, neuroscience, and real-life application to help you move from control to surrender and from striving to Spirit-led renewal.
If worry has been running the show, this episode will help you understand what’s happening in your brain, why surrender matters spiritually, and how to partner with the Holy Spirit in practical, everyday ways.
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Worry thrives when we try to control outcomes instead of trusting God
Fear, doubt, and worry work together to pull us into self-reliance
The brain can be retrained when we practice deliberate, faith-filled thought actions
Peace is not produced by effort but received through surrender
Partnership with the Holy Spirit is essential for lasting mind renewal
 
🧠 Why This Matters
When fear and worry dominate our thinking, they don’t just affect our emotions—they shape our decisions, our relationships, and our spiritual growth. Understanding the connection between the brain, belief, and trust helps remove shame and empowers you to respond differently.
This episode reminds us that mind renewal isn’t about trying harder. It’s about learning how to release control and allow God’s truth and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to lead us into peace.
 
🛠 Practical Mind Renewal Tools
This episode highlights the Catch–Shift–Thank–Release strategy—a simple, brain-based and Scripture-aligned process that helps interrupt worry loops and retrain your mind toward peace.  This strategy is extensively explained with practical examples in the Tools for Mind Renewal eBook.
 
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
🎯 Coaching Specials: Reset Your Mind 2026
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
 
👣 Your Next Steps
eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
 
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
 
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.
 
 
 

32. Sweet Repeat: Facts, Faith, and Feelings - Partnering with the Holy Spirit to Renew Your Mind

Not feeling the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean you don’t have Him. Many believers struggle because their feelings don’t line up with their faith — and they assume something is wrong with them. In this Sweet Repeat episode, Brenda revisits a foundational teaching on Facts, Faith, and Feelings and explains why partnering with the Holy Spirit is the key to renewing your mind and breaking destructive patterns.
You’ll discover what truly happens at salvation, why your soul still needs renewal, and how to move from soul-led living to Spirit-led transformation. Scripture and neuroscience come together to show that change is possible when truth leads, faith chooses, and feelings follow.
 
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Salvation gives you a new REBORN spirit, but your soul still needs renewal
Feelings are real, but they are not reliable leaders
Faith is a choice to align with God’s facts — not an emotional experience
Toxic habits and thought patterns cannot be dismantled through willpower alone
The Holy Spirit partners with us in mind renewal and transformation
 
🧠 Why This Matters
When feelings lead, faith becomes unstable. This episode restores order by anchoring listeners in truth, empowering them to choose faith intentionally, and allowing emotions to follow. Spirit-led renewal brings peace, clarity, and lasting freedom.
 
🛠 Practical Mind Renewal Tools
A simple, repeatable framework that helps you align your thoughts with truth, partner with the Holy Spirit, and renew your mind daily.
Download ➡️ The Facts, Faith, Feelings Framework
 
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
🎯 Coaching Specials: Reset Your Mind 2026
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
👣 Your Next Steps
eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

31. Sweet Repeat: The Story That Started It All (What God Did for Me, He Can Do for You)

In this special Sweet Repeat episode, Brenda revisits the powerful testimony that launched the Day One of Sobriety podcast and ministry. She shares how God intervened at her lowest point and began a journey of healing, mind renewal, and lasting freedom. This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and remember that no past is beyond redemption — your brain can be renewed, and your future can look radically different than your history.
 
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Addiction isn’t just about substances — it’s about what we turn to for comfort, control, or escape when life feels painful.
Sobriety is not merely abstaining from behaviors, but developing a sound and disciplined mind rooted in self-control.
God designed the brain to change; through mind renewal, old patterns can be rewired and replaced with truth.
Generational curses can be broken, and generational blessings can begin with one surrendered life.
What God did in one life as a testimony, He can do again — including in yours.
 
🧠 Why This Matters
Many people step into a new year hoping for change but carrying deep shame, fear, or exhaustion from past failures. This episode reminds listeners that lasting transformation doesn’t come from trying harder — it comes from renewing the mind and choosing God as the true source of peace. Understanding the spiritual and neurological roots of addiction and coping patterns helps remove condemnation and replace it with hope, clarity, and direction.
 
🛠 Practical Mind Renewal Tools
This episode points listeners toward foundational mind renewal tools that blend Scripture and neuroscience to help identify unhealthy coping patterns, interrupt toxic thinking, and build new, life-giving habits. These tools are designed to support real-life application — not just inspiration — and help listeners walk out lasting change one renewed thought at a time.
All access details for the tools and coaching options are linked below.
 
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
📘 Tools for Mind Renewal eBook, 2025 Edition -- Book Excerpt 
🎯 January Coaching Specials: Reset Your Mind 2026
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
 
👣 Your Next Steps
eBook discount when you leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).  Send Brenda a copy or pic of the review to info@day1ofsobriety.org. As a special thank you gift, she’ll send you a Coupon Code to purchase the 80+ Tools for Mind Renewal eBook for only $20 (save $17!)
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
 
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
 
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.
 

30. How to Renew Your Mind in 2026: A Proven, Science-Backed, Faith-Filled Blueprint

As we close out the Reset Your Mind for 2026 series, this capstone episode brings everything together into a clear, calm, and actionable blueprint for lasting mind renewal.
In Episode 30, Brenda walks you through a Spirit-led, neuroscience-aligned framework designed to help you stop striving, stop starting over, and finally begin renewing your mind on purpose. You’ll learn how God designed your brain to change, why habits don’t shift overnight, and how consistency — not willpower — is the key to lasting transformation.
This episode is not about pressure or New Year’s resolutions. It’s about moving into 2026 grounded, equipped, and confident, with a process that aligns Scripture, brain science, and real-life application.
 
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Why trying harder doesn’t lead to lasting change — and what actually does
How God designed your brain with the ability to heal, renew, and grow
What neuroplasticity is and why it matters for mind renewal
Why consistency matters more than perfection
How the Awareness → Action → Accountability framework supports real change
Why the 63-day neuroplasticity cycle removes pressure and confusion
 
🧠 Why This Matters
Many believers feel stuck — not because they lack faith, but because they were never taught how the brain changes. Scripture tells us to renew our minds, and modern neuroscience confirms that this renewal is possible when we work with God’s design.
When you understand how habits actually form and how neural pathways are strengthened over time, shame loses its grip. You stop blaming yourself and start partnering with God intentionally. This episode helps you reframe mind renewal as a grace-filled process, not a performance-driven goal.
 
🛠 Practical Tool
In this episode, Brenda introduces a Spirit-Led, Neuroscience-Aligned Mind Renewal Blueprint built around three essential steps:
Awareness – noticing thoughts and patterns without judgment
Action – practicing truth and building new, life-giving neural pathways
Accountability – support and follow-through that protect progress
To support this process, starting on January 1, listeners have access to:
📘 Mind Renewal Tools eBook – a downloadable resource compiling all 20 mind-renewal tools from the 2025 season, with expanded explanations and real-life examples
🤝 January Coaching Specials – guided support and Neurocycle coaching options to help apply the blueprint over the 63-day process
All access details for the tools and coaching options are linked below.
 
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
🎯 CLICK TO ACCESS --> Coaching Resources available January 1, 2026:
CLICK FOR --> Mind Renewal Tools eBook (2025 Edition) 
CLICK FOR --> January Coaching Specials: Reset Your Mind 2026
Listen to the MIRACLE that started it all: EP 1 — The Story Behind Day One of Sobriety
📬 Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
💬 Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community–Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources.
 
👣 Your Next Steps
Leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
 
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
 
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

29. Breaking Self-Sabotage–Why We Undo Our Own Progress & How to Stop the Cycle

Have you ever been doing well — emotionally, spiritually, or habitually — only to suddenly undo your own progress? In this episode of the Day One of Sobriety podcast, Brenda breaks down why self-sabotage shows up right when growth begins and why it’s not a personal failure, but protective brain wiring.
Blending faith-based neuroscience and Scripture, this episode reveals how the brain’s survival system, identity wounds, and fear-based loops can quietly pull you back into familiar patterns. You’ll learn how to interrupt self-sabotage in real time using simple, Spirit-led tools that help regulate emotions, renew your mind, and realign your identity — without shame.
This teaching is a critical foundation as we continue the Reset Your Mind for 2026 series, equipping you to build change that actually lasts.
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Self-sabotage is protective wiring, not personal failure
The amygdala acts as an emotional library, storing past experiences of safety and threat
Growth can feel unsafe to the brain when it’s unfamiliar
Shame and fear loops often activate during moments of progress
Identity wounds can drive behavior faster than willpower
Awareness paired with action is how patterns are interrupted
Scripture calls us to take thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5)
Transformation happens through renewing the mind (Romans 12:2)
🧠 Why This Matters
Understanding self-sabotage removes shame and restores hope. When you realize your brain learned patterns to survive—not to sabotage your future—you gain compassion for yourself and clarity for change. God designed your brain for renewal, not stagnation, and Scripture calls us to take thoughts captive, guard our hearts, and steward a sound mind. Neuroscience confirms what Scripture has always taught: the brain can be rewired through intentional, repeated practice. You were never created to be a passive Christian. Mind renewal is an active partnership with God that allows you to walk in the victory Jesus already secured.
🛠 Practical Tools
In this episode, Brenda introduces three complementary mind-renewal tools to help you interrupt self-sabotage in real time:
CSTR (Catch–Shift–Thank–Release) — for rewiring conscious thought and habit patterns
P.U.R.R. — for regulating emotional spikes before processing
R.I.S.E. — for strengthening identity when worth or value feels threatened
A Self-Sabotage Tools Handout is included in the Show Notes below to help you discern which tool to use and when as you apply what you learned.
📝 Podcast resources are exclusively available to members of the private Facebook Community or the Day One of Sobriety Insider group. If you enjoy this resource, consider joining others on the journey so you can access more of these free tools weekly.
To help you Reset Your Mind for 2026, I'm making sure you have direct access to the Self-Sabotage Tools Handout 👉 HERE!   ~Brenda ❤️
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
Learn more about the R.I.S.E. Tool in EP18–Rise Above Lies: Discover Your Value and Identity in Christ
Listen to the MIRACLE that started it all: EP 1 — The Story Behind Day One of Sobriety
Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources at the Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community.
👣 Your Next Steps
Leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

28. How Real Habits Form–Why Trying Harder Fails & How to Build Habits That Actually Stick

If you’ve ever promised yourself “this time will be different,” only to fall back into the same habits days later, this episode is for you. In this faith-based neuroscience podcast episode, you’ll learn how mind renewal—not willpower—is the key to breaking destructive habits and creating lasting change. In Part 3 of the Reset Your Mind for 2026 series, Brenda explains why habits don’t change through willpower alone — and how Scripture and neuroscience work together to help you rewire patterns that no longer serve you.
This episode shifts the focus from trying harder to renewing your mind, showing you how habits form on autopilot and how the Catch–Shift–Thank–Release (CSTR) tool helps you interrupt and rebuild those loops with the Holy Spirit’s help.
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Habits are not a character issue — they are neurological patterns stored in the brain (neuroplasticity)
The brain prefers familiar patterns, even when they are unhealthy
Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex, but habits live in the basal ganglia
The habit loop follows a predictable sequence: Cue → Craving → Response → Reward
Mind renewal is the process of taking habits off autopilot and rewiring them with truth
CSTR aligns perfectly with the habit loop to create lasting change
🧠 Why This Matters
If you’ve been stuck in cycles of stress eating, people-pleasing, emotional reactions, or other unwanted habits, understanding how habits form removes shame and restores hope. When you see that habits are learned — not who you are — you gain the confidence to change them.
God designed your brain for renewal. Scripture and neuroscience agree that lasting emotional healing and habit change happen through renewing the mind, not relying on motivation or self-control alone. Scripture calls us to renew our minds, and neuroscience confirms that the brain can be rewired through repeated, intentional practice. This episode equips you to partner with God in that process instead of relying on short-lived motivation or resolutions.
🛠 Practical Tool: Catch–Shift–Thank–Release (CSTR)
CSTR is a simple, powerful mind renewal tool that helps rewire habits by aligning biblical truth with the brain’s natural habit loop:
Catch the cue instead of reacting automatically
Shift the craving by replacing lies with truth
Thank God to change your emotional state and reward pathway
Release the old response and receive peace instead of regret
In this episode, Brenda walks through a real-life example of emotional eating and explains how the CSTR tool rewires habits in real time.
👉 Bonus Resource: Download the free handout–Using the Catch-Shift-Thank-Release ToolTM to Rewire Habits.  It has additional faith-based mind renewal examples, including patience under stress and breaking people-pleasing patterns.
📝 Podcast resources are exclusively available to members of the private Facebook Community or the Day One of Sobriety Insider group. If you enjoy this resource, consider joining others on the journey so you can access more of these free tools weekly.
To help you Reset Your Mind for 2026, I'm making sure you have direct access to Using the Catch-Shift-Thank-Release ToolTM to Rewire Habits HERE!   ~Brenda ❤️
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
Click to download → Using the Catch-Shift-Thank-Release ToolTM to Rewire Habits
Listen to the MIRACLE that started it all: EP 1 — The Story Behind Day One of Sobriety.
Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources at the Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community.
👣 Your Next Steps
Leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.

27. Identity Drives Habits, Not Willpower: The Mindset Shift You Need Before 2026

In this second installment of the Reset Your Mind for 2026 series, Brenda unpacks the powerful connection between identity, belief, and lasting transformation. You’ll learn why you can’t outperform the identity you’ve accepted, how your brain wires itself around what you believe, and why mind renewal must begin with uncovering the identity you’ve been living from. Brenda shares part of her personal sobriety story, the Greek meaning of the word “sobriety,” and how Scripture + neuroscience work together to rewrite the identity that drives your habits. You’ll also be introduced to this week’s tool—The Identity InventoryTM, a guided reflection that helps you recognize what you believe about yourself, where those beliefs came from, and how to align them with who God says you are.
🔑 Key Episode Insights
Identity always comes before outcome—you cannot rise higher than what you believe about yourself.
Your brain wires habits, emotions, and reactions around the identity you’ve accepted.
Sobriety is more than abstaining from a behavior—it means having a sound, well-balanced mind.
Old identity patterns are often rooted in wounds, labels, or survival strategies—not truth.
Lasting transformation requires replacing your “wired identity” with your God-given identity.
Scripture reveals who you are; neuroscience explains how your brain learns to believe it.
🧠 Why This Matters
Everything you do flows from what you believe about who you are. If you see yourself as unworthy, unsafe, unwanted, or not enough, your brain will keep recreating patterns that match that identity. But when you begin aligning your beliefs with God’s truth, your brain starts rewiring toward wholeness, resilience, and peace. This episode helps you identify the hidden identity narratives driving your emotional warning signals so you can renew your mind from the inside out and build habits that last.
🛠 Practical Tool
This week you’ll use the Identity Inventory, a guided reflection that helps you:
Identify the identity your brain has been operating from.
Compare it with who Scripture says you are.
Recognize the lies driving your emotional patterns.
Begin identifying the truths God is inviting you to anchor your mind in.
📝 Podcast resources are exclusively available to members of the private Facebook Community or the Day One of Sobriety Insider group. If you enjoy this resource, consider joining others on the journey so you can access these free tools weekly.
To help you Reset Your Mind for 2026, I'm making sure you have direct access to The Identity InventoryTM HERE!   ~Brenda ❤️
🔗 Related Episodes & Links
Click to download → The Identity InventoryTM
Listen to the MIRACLE that started it all: EP 1 — The Story Behind Day One of Sobriety.
Join the Day One of Sobriety Insiders to receive the weekly email newsletter!
Engage with other Overcomers and access all episode resources at the Mind Renewal Solutions Made Simple Facebook Community.
👣 Your Next Steps
Leave a podcast review! It helps others find the podcast and join us on the healing journey (Romans 12:2).
Explore this week’s Day One of Sobriety Blog for more encouragement.
Go Deeper with 1:1 coaching support! Get the details ▶️ Mind Renewal Coaching.
📩 Connect with Me
📧 Email: brenda@day1ofsobriety.org
🎙 Podcast: Day One of Sobriety Podcast
📝 Blog: Day One of Sobriety Blog
📘 Facebook: @day1ofsobriety
📷 Instagram: @day1ofsobriety
⚠️ Disclaimer
The Day One of Sobriety podcast is for educational and spiritual growth purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical treatment. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, please seek help from a licensed mental health professional.