Alchemize Your Darkness
What we dive into in this episode:
- Haley and Noel’s intimate experiences with depression and suicidal thoughts
- How faith became a beacon of hope during their darkest moments
- Postpartum depression & the challenges of new motherhood
- The transformative power of vulnerability and creating your own narrative
- Seeking support and the role of community in healing
- Meditate on Psalm 23:4 for strength and solace
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Stories About Overcoming Challenges
It can be stressful to go through life and feel hopeless in how you view the situation. Haley and Noel give you biblical ways of creating your own narrative and overcoming challenges by sharing their experiences in the first episode of Revive Her. Through their testimonies ranging from suicide and postpartum depression to sexual abuse, the two share how they’ve overcome it, beyond just overcoming their challenges, Haley and Noel express how to truly “Alchemize Your Darkness” through faith.
Haley and Noel have not always been fierce entrepreneurs with great confidence in themselves. They have both gone through intense seasons of darkness. From the outside, their narratives were perfect– perfect life, perfect marriage, perfect family. But on the inside, they were beaten and broken. They talk about how they flipped the narrative of living a perfect life with seemingly perfect faith to attending therapy and reaching out to others because they needed to change from within. Haley explains how the pain can just build and erupt into a depression and sense of hopelessness with her testimony.
As a teenager, Haley grew up an anxious child with attention-seeking behaviors who often felt rejected and abandoned, as so many do. Fast forward to her late teens, Haley was sexually assaulted by a leader within her church. She goes into detail and explains how after time has passed she wished she could’ve been in the mindset of, “it’s not my fault”. This is relatable, unfortunately, for so many people who have been through the same struggle. These feelings of overwhelming hopelessness and anxiety then led to the depression that came with thoughts of suicide. She believed that she had no purpose and through that, God reassured her that He was still there, still loved her, and did not leave her. It is common to think that having these thoughts is biblically wrong or sinful. Before God’s reassurance, Haley had made the plan to end her life when by His grace a friend came to her home and was able to stop her from committing suicide. The next morning Haley decided to find a therapist and start going to therapy which is the beginning point of growth for her.
Noel had those same worthless feelings that nobody knew about after she had her son, Oakley. Oakley was an infertility baby, which was a struggle for Noel, but she knew God called her to be a mom. She immediately noticed she was not herself after having him. She was in church, serving God, but it wasn’t the same for 9 months. She recalls hearing the enemy say “The baby you have prayed for, this baby that God knew the desires of your heart, the baby you tried so hard for, he is going to be the one thing that destroys you. The one thing that kills you.” She was so lost in that feeling of having no purpose that she started to believe the enemy, believing that her husband and son would be so much better without her. She did not care if she lived or died so she planned her suicide, but the next day she was invited to a small group at church. She went and talked about her battle with postpartum depression and suicide, which led to prayers that broke the chain.
Mental Health Matters
Creating your own narrative can be hard when you’ve lived experiences no woman should ever live. There’s a sense of embarrassment when you have depression keeping you from reaching out and telling people. Logically, many people are going through the same thing, but at the moment you feel you’re not alone and it’s endless. Because they grew up in the “Bible Belt,” Haley and Noel understand how the idea that “being a Christian” means you shouldn’t be battling these things because you should “pray or read your bible” and that will be the answer to everything.
No medicine and definitely no therapy. That mindset makes you think that you can’t let other Christians find out– because then you aren’t a “good enough Christian.” These lies from the enemy make you feel embarrassed. He knows the moment we reach out for help is the moment we overcome him and the challenges he gives us. The moment we talk about it is the moment we change the narrative, taking the enemy out of it and putting God into it. Both women took “creating your own narrative” seriously and transformed their pain from the enemy into power from God. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”- Romans 15:13.
In vulnerability with God, He can help you overcome what you are facing. None of us are fully exempt from painful feelings so you are not alone, you are never alone. Haley and Noel invite you to meditate on bible verses about mental health, focusing on Psalm 23:4 for strength and solace.
“Even 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”- Psalm 23:4
