This Thing Called Wellness
This Thing Called Wellness Podcast: Inspiring Wellness Journeys, One Conversation at a Time is an inspirational conversational series about Shannon Martin's 11-year journey navigating depression, anxiety, and panic disorders. Now in its second season, Shannon, a mental health advocate, candidly shares her personal stories and insights around living with mental illness. Through open discussions about her setbacks and triumphs over the past decade, she aims to reduce the stigma around mental health issues, foster understanding, and empower listeners on their own wellness paths.
Each new episode, released every Wednesday, explores practical self-care strategies and coping techniques for improved mental wellbeing. From mindfulness meditation exercises to boundary-setting tips, Shannon covers actionable mental health tools to build resilience, manage stress, and live more intentionally. Through her vulnerability in her struggles with depression and anxiety, she hopes to inspire others to prioritize their mental health, understand it's a lifelong process, and realize they're not alone in this journey.
Welcome to the next phase of "This Thing Called Wellness Podcast: Inspiring Wellness Journeys, One Conversation at a Time" for an authentic take on mental illness recovery. Find new episodes every Wednesday on all major podcast streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.
This Thing Called Wellness
From Pain to Advocacy: Melissa's Wellness Transformation
Did you know that persistent back pain and vomiting can be symptoms of anxiety? Join us for an incredible episode featuring Melissa Flynt, who courageously shares her journey from debilitating health issues to becoming a passionate wellness advocate. Melissa's story reveals how a holistic approach to health not only uncovered the hidden dangers of everyday toxins but also highlighted the critical connection between gut health and overall well-being. You'll also hear how a general doctor, along with a supportive team including a holistic nutritionist and physical therapist, helped Melissa uncover the root of her ailments.
With the encouragement of a dear friend, she overcame her initial resistance to medication due to spiritual and holistic concerns. This episode delves into the powerful role faith and friendship played in her healing journey, the impact of xenoestrogens, and the benefits of thermograms for early health detection. Melissa's transformation was not instantaneous; it involved gradual, mindful changes that significantly improved her overall well-being.
We also explore the profound importance of rest, community, and spiritual rejuvenation. Listen as we uncover how activities like spending time outdoors, Christian yoga, and maintaining a continuous dialogue with God can replenish the spirit. Vulnerability and community support are highlighted as essential when facing life's challenges. Don’t miss Shannon Martin's heartfelt conclusion, where she invites you to join the wellness community and provides a sneak peek into the next episode featuring special guest Shana Scott Lee.
Melissa's Resources:
Books:
- Keeton, Alisa (2023): The Body Revelation
- https://a.co/d/fCjfMi1
- Dr. Campbell, Natasha (2010): Gut and Psychology Syndrome
- https://a.co/d/4ogxhBA
Behind Her Brand Community: behindherbrand.net
Connect with Melissa: https://form.jotform.com/233450861520046
Thank you for listening to today’s episode! If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to share it with a friend, rate, or review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, or wherever you tune in. Your support helps others discover our community and keeps us inspired to bring you more empowering content.
Stay Connected & Join the Conversation:
📸 Instagram: @thisthingcalledwellness_
📘 Facebook: @shannondmartin
📧 Email: shannon@thisthingcalledwellness.com
🌐 Podcast Website: podcast.thisthingcalledwellness.com
Want to go deeper on your wellness journey? Be sure to follow us on social media for updates, inspiration, and resources that help you heal, empower, and connect.
We appreciate you – let’s keep growing together!
Hello, beautiful, welcome to today's conversation where we're going to talk about anxiety, toxins and gut health with our guest, Melissa Flynt. Let's talk about it. I'm your host, Shannon Martin, and welcome to today's episode of this Thing Called Wellness. Today, on this Thing Called Wellness, we're joined by my very first guest, melissa Flint. She is a wife, mother of three and former educator whose personal health scare revealed the hidden dangers of toxins in everyday household products. After discovering her pain was linked to anxiety and harmful xenoestrogen's, Melissa dove into wellness research. Now, with a degree in psychology, she educates others about safer, natural alternatives, including non-toxic cleaning products, healthier foods and supplements, while raising awareness of the vital role gut health plays in our overall well-being. Listen in as Melissa shares her journey and simple solutions for living a healthier, toxin-free life. How are you doing?
Melissa Flynt:Hello, I'm doing good. I'm just so honored to be your guest, and your first guest at that.
Shannon D Martin:Yes, yay, my first guest at first, so this is exciting for both of us, is exciting for both of us, and so we just wanted to talk about your wellness journey and how you got started in your business with wellness and how you started with your going into healthy products, and how did that all get started? I know that you mentioned that you started with some pretty intense symptoms. Can you tell us more about when you realized that something was wrong and what led you to seek help?
Melissa Flynt:Yeah. So yeah, I had a long health journey, different issues, but I think what we're here to talk about mostly is anxiety. And so my story started when I started having severe stabbing back pain I say back, it was kind of on my left flank and then I would just start to vomit and that's no fun, no fun at all, and it just wouldn't stop. And you know, talk about not wanting to be out in public because you don't know when that's going to happen and nobody wants to be like embarrassed in front of everybody.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:So, yeah, I thankfully had a good support system already and a good nutritionist that I saw she was also my chiropractor, so you know, she's my first line of defense. I went to her because, you know, I was struggling, thinking maybe it was spine related, Right, and so that led to a long series of testing. We were thorough in our research. I, you know, let's just say, every specialist from top to bottom. I had everything checked out. You know two different urologists. My dad has a history of kidney stones. Was it a kidney stone? You know. But it finally culminated just again, you know, in the ER with pain, just needing pain management and then with no one able to give me any answers. Everybody, you're fine, you're fine, you're healthy.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:And my husband going no, you're not crazy. I see this, you know, because you do, you think am I crazy?
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:I was listening to the radio one day and they gave an explanation, and I can't tell you who the speaker was, but their example they gave was every year, during a cardiologist convention, all of the heart doctors that would normally perform surgery are involved in a conference and they're busy. So when someone presents with symptoms to the ER they're met with a generalist doctor who looks, you know, from top to bottom to find the issue.
Melissa Flynt:So I just took that as like a whisper from the Lord that maybe I just needed to see a general doctor from the Lord that maybe I just needed to see a general doctor, Right that instead of all these specialists that looked at their specialty, I needed to look at someone that would look at me as a whole. And so then I went to my general doctor that I hadn't been to in years because I normally saw my holistic nutritionist Right, and he said it's anxiety. And I said what?
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:What Anxiety can make you have that kind of pain and vomit?
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:And he said yes, ma'am. He said he hospitalizes people weekly for stress related illnesses and that was really surprising to me.
Shannon D Martin:That's really surprising to me too, because mine came in like it wasn't vomiting so per se. It was like a stinging in my shoulder. I had a pain in my shoulder that just wouldn't go away and I had it for like a year and I kept going to like I said specialists as well trying to say what is going on with my shoulder. That just wouldn't go away and I had it for like a year and I kept going to like I said specialists as well trying to say what is going on with my shoulder. And finally, when I ended up in the emergency room, the doctor said no, it was your body saying it was your pinched nerves letting you know that something was wrong and it eventually it turned into this and so it was a general doctor. It was another general doctor I had to end up seeing to get seen. So that's amazing.
Melissa Flynt:There was some other supports there. I would say I had great care, you know, no complaint about them. One was a physical therapist. I had been to a spine pain management doctor thinking okay, maybe it was something related to that and they're all trying to help me right. So, physical therapy and after a long series of you know all the stretching, all the things, you know that you get there in the sweetest way because she also is a believer. She said you know, have you thought about counseling? Have you thought about, you know, anxiety medication?
Melissa Flynt:And that was really like oh that's. That's a hard one, so so it kind of leads me into that, if you want to go there and talk about medication.
Shannon D Martin:Right, Because I was going to ask what you know. What changes did you start having to think about? How were you processing it?
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, so you know, I know you don't have all day. No, that's okay, go ahead. I had issues before in the past with gut health. I had a bacterial infection called H pylori years prior, and so that really already opened my eyes to again why I had sought out more doctors with holistic mindsets because I don't have things against Western medicine but for that condition it did not go well. It actually made me more physically ill.
Melissa Flynt:And that was how I got on the path to, you know, looking more in the other direction. And so when you know, I'm told that I need anxiety medication, that was a struggle because I was trying to heal myself already, you know, through diet and through supplementation, through healthy choices, and so I felt like a failure. You know, trying and really trying and this isn't working. And then, as a believer, we'll add a piece on there where I was like God, I don't get it. Like why can't you just, you know, snap and fix this?
Shannon D Martin:He didn't even have to snap Right, just heal me.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, and if I'm real transparent. This is so vain and so prideful of me, but I'm like you know, god, I am leading worship. I'm like you know God, I am leading worship. How? How? You know I felt like such a hypocrite to go up there in front of you know other people in the congregation to help lead them to the throne and behind that, you know, if they knew that I was struggling with anxiety does that? Disqualify me from a leadership role.
Shannon D Martin:So yeah Right, because we all have that, because you're sitting here saying, you know, now I have to take this medication. I've done all the right things and now I'm still having to lean on something else other than my faith. And because we all struggle with that as believers and I struggled with that as well and it took me years to say I had to go back and say Lord, help me, because I know that I need it. But also with your gut health. You were kind of saying I don't want to put that into my body now because I have to. It may disrupt what I was doing before.
Melissa Flynt:Absolutely yeah, and so I ugly cried yeah let's be honest, I ugly cried and I talked to my sister-in-law. She's a nerd. She was trying to encourage me and I don't know if she was the one that said this to me, but somewhere in that timeframe it was said like if I needed glasses, I would put on a prescription to see better. Right, right and so this is a chemical imbalance that's going on in my brain and it was something that they were saying you need this.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:So it was hard. It was hard to acquiesce, I guess.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:I'll tell you pretty quickly. My family noticed a difference my husband, really, you know, and my children just really you know. I guess what's the word? Just confirming that that was something that I needed, because it really what happens is there's the physical pain that I was something that I needed, cause it really what happens is there's the physical pain that I was dealing with.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:But there was also fear. So such fear, it was so ramped up. You know, I don't know if this is what you went through, but you know, even to talk about it, it's like shortness of breath. Just you know it, just so, absolutely. Look over of breath, just you know it, just so, absolutely, took over all of me and it was just a block to functioning in society.
Shannon D Martin:It was. Yeah, it's almost crippling to a point to where you know that I have to. Now I have to depend on this medication to function, almost. And then you know, and then, like you're sitting there, almost it was crippling to me at one point. So is that what you were feeling?
Melissa Flynt:Oh yeah, just totally incapacitated. I thankfully had another friend at church that I knew had dealt with postpartum depression and she's a, you know, bivocational minister at our church, and so I don't know. I mean, it was God, I'm sure, just leading me to go to her. I still remember where we were sitting in a restaurant and I could hardly get the words out, you know, over ugly crying again. I made it such a spiritual crisis as well, when really I feel like now, looking back, god was saying you know, if I asked you to see all the specialists in the world, you said yes, but if I'm asking you just to take a simple medication, you're fine.
Melissa Flynt:And it was you know, at the least temporarily, something that he was saying. This is a help right and I was fighting him on it right, but it was a legitimate.
Shannon D Martin:It was a legitimate fight because you were being holistic about everything and it was also to come into. Was it with you like coming to grips with saying now I have anxiety, I have this other ailment that I have to deal with, and you're already battling so many other issues, so now I have to deal with this as well. So now you're saying, am I really being a true faithful servant, so to speak? Am I living up to that? So now this is another thing I have to deal with when I'm being so faithful? I think I went through that as well.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, and I think I have a history of what do you want to call it, Perfectionism or performantism, type A firstborn. But I think you know I'd already been in the mode of, like trying to be my own physician, trying to. You know, it's just like, oh, just saying that the enemy wants to whisper the word failure. And so that that friend, she helped me to see that that, yes, the medication she too had, you know, and I respect her as another, you know, strong Christian believer, that she had been on it as well, that I'm not the only one, that many people you know it's not something we commonly talk about, but it is common that a lot of people are on it. But she, let me see that it was also spiritual warfare.
Shannon D Martin:Yes, yes, I believe that.
Melissa Flynt:I do. I think there's we're all encompassing, like there's so many different parts of the human body. Yes, yes I believe that. But the spiritual warfare part of it it started to play out in that I didn't want to lead worship because I was dealing with these anxiety, and so one thing that she kind of helped me in transitioning was that I needed something to where I would not focus on myself so much.
Shannon D Martin:So you needed to have an outlet. Okay, so when you were discovering also, too, I know that we were talking about when you were going through all of your testing you also learned that something else was affecting your health. What was that?
Melissa Flynt:Oh goodness, yeah, I'm going to keep you on here for hours, that's all the dirt on me.
Melissa Flynt:So back to the holistic route. My nutritionist she advised me to stop getting mammograms, not as a whole, but just that there's a different route to take, called a thermogram, and the reason she recommended it is because it is supposed to have earlier detection than a mammogram and then you don't have the radiation exposure that you would, you know, with the mammogram. So I'm not saying don't, don't be healthy and don't check anything. I'm saying this was an alternative, right, and so when I have that done I don't know if your listeners are familiar with that, but you they do temperature readings and then they chill you and then they repeat those readings again and they compare them, kind of like a thermal scope that you may have seen.
Melissa Flynt:You can detect heat when you look through that kind of camera. It gives you a report that comes back and shows you hot spots in your body that are of concern. You know your body's showing something's going on, and so when I received my report back, it showed that I had hot spots. Report back it showed that I had hot spots in my left breast. So something was going on and she said you need to get the xenoestrogens out of your house and I said the what?
Melissa Flynt:Because you know here I've been on this, you know very extensive journey for health issues and I did not know what that was Right. So again for your listeners that may not know what that is, it is chemicals that we're exposed to in our environment and what we breathe in or what absorbs through our bloodstream. Just 26 seconds is all it takes for something to absorb. You know, your skin being your largest organ, so I was instructed to get those chemicals out of my home.
Shannon D Martin:Wow. So how did you adjust to all of this information that you're receiving at one time? How did you adjust to all of that and make those changes in your daily life?
Melissa Flynt:Well, I wouldn't say all of this hit me at once you know it's kind of unfolded little by little. But yeah, so that one when initially I thought, okay, let me try to make homemade cleaners, you know things like that that that they were warning me against. Let me try. But, girl, when you don't feel good and you don't have energy, it's like no, I don't need one more thing to do.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:So yeah, fast forward. I had a girlfriend from college and we would just, you know, exchange the Christmas card. One memory is she wouldn't always be a real rat on time, so I might get it at Valentine's and make me love it. It was that kind of friend, you know, you just we didn't we didn't talk, you know, all the time. Well, she reached out. She wanted to show me a store and I was like, what is this?
Shannon D Martin:I love you, but what? And so you?
Melissa Flynt:know what I was dealing with all the different health things and she was not aware. So she just would follow up with me occasionally and it took about a year before I'm going to be totally honest and she knows this. I was like, if you will shut up, I will hear what you're selling, you know whatever. And so now I know she wasn't selling anything. She, she just wanted to show me a store that does offer healthier, cleaner, uh, products, like from head to toe, like so all the cleaners, as well as all the the things that we ladies are exposed to every day, all the makeup and skincare and shampoos and body washes and everything that are non-toxic, and so it was the answer to prayer.
Melissa Flynt:I just was again sticking my feet in the sand. I guess prideful thinking. I already knew it all.
Shannon D Martin:Right, but that's you know. You had a great circle around you, so that's a good thing.
Melissa Flynt:That's a God thing? Yes, it is. Wouldn't you say I'm putting it back on you, but wouldn't you say that that has been a blessing, that we're not suffering alone, that he does?
Shannon D Martin:bring people Absolutely Because, like when I was in my darkest times and when I didn't know that I needed him, a girlfriend would pop up all of a sudden and just say, hey, I'm just checking in on you, what are you doing, what's going on with you, are you on track, or something like that. So I've been so blessed to have that. I call it my sisterhood circle of prayer because I always have someone that's always checking on me and always praying for me. So they've always kept me going, even when they didn't know I was going through things, like you said, they just pop in. And I was like God just aligned them, just set them up, so that from time to time they just pop in and say, hey, girl, what you doing, I'm like oh.
Shannon D Martin:I needed you today, and so they'll say I haven't heard from you. You know you're not acting the same, or something like that. So they're always just checking in on me and I've just been so blessed to have that circle.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah. My dad taught me when I was a girl that if someone comes to your mind, you're supposed to pray for them. Man, that has rang true over the course of my life. But I want to be that person for other people too, and I think sometimes it really it's not about us but to say hey, god brought you to mind today. He's thinking about you.
Shannon D Martin:Right, oh, that's good.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, don't you think that that, uh, we just that is cause things just make us feel distant from him. Um, again, spiritual warfare wants us to say you know he's not on our side, but or he is distant and removed and it's not true.
Shannon D Martin:Right. And then your your circle. Your your circle of trust, your circle of friendships. They are the ones that keep you going, and so when she came to you at that time, you didn't realize that she was coming to you to help you out with what you needed for your yes, To get that the xenoestrogens out of your house. So it was just a time that you needed that the xenoestrogens out of your house. So it was just a time that you needed that. So, now that, you're, you're knowing what you need and you're on your own mission to help others do the same thing. I know that gut health played a big role in your story. What steps have you taken to continue to improve that?
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, stay with that yeah, so you know I've learned a lot. Um, what I would tell your listeners is there is a book that I've gone back and reread recently and discovered over over this long journey of um of my holistic education you know, not my college one like the school of hard knocks education, right, it's called uh, gaps so gut and psychology syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell McBride. Uh, she's a doctor and has an autistic child. Um, I think that crossed my path, because not that I had autistic children, but I have children that had just various allergies and skin conditions like eczema, and so just more part of our story and research and then my gut issues, and so she just really teaches how our gut is the hub of everything. I mean it's like most of where our immune system is headquartered. So I don't know if I'm getting way off the reservation here in your answer, but there's a gut brain connection.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:So when you're thinking about anxiety, you do have to look also at your gut health. I recommend everybody be on a really powerful probiotic, because we have so many things that come against us in our environment, in our food, in things that we we've just done, where we have the bad bacteria outweigh the good, so it's really important. The bad bacteria outweigh the good, so it's really important. And so one of the things that I do, I describe myself as a connector, so I want to. You know, it's just neat how God just takes hardships that we have and makes us who we are, and so I can't stand for people to feel left out based on, you know, past experience.
Melissa Flynt:So I want to connect people to those, those friends and that support system, whether that's, you know, in a networking group or in a church community. But I think we all need community. You touched on that. But if it's like this book I just recommended, because I found some wisdom that somebody else needs, or a product that I found that's amazing.
Melissa Flynt:I want to share that with information or just, you know, just an answer to prayer that has blessed me. And so, yes, I have found that through my friend, the online store, and the probiotic is just amazing and it's very helpful and I love to share it with other people?
Shannon D Martin:Yes, because I realized too that I'm starting to eat better and I had to start taking a lot of more supplements as well because my stomach really, with my anxiety, my stomach is upset a lot. I know I have that part. I'm just like, oh my gosh, what is going on, but it's my anxiety, it's really, it's just. I'm just like, oh my gosh, what is going on, but it's my anxiety, it really is just, I'm off balance a lot. So I've had to use a lot of supplements to kind of keep myself balanced and watch what I eat and also to try and exercise. But I realized I started to research it as well, noticing that it is important what we eat and how we really look at what we're putting into it the good bacteria, the bad bacteria and all the things, trying to just keep it balanced.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah and omegas is another great thing that people should be on because it fights inflammation. You know when it's inflamed, I think, yeah, I mean we could go on and on. I think what you said about exercise, man, we fight it right, I fight it to the nail. Kindergarten and kindergartners that don't want to take a nap, I'm like right. We fight it and I think the Lord calls us a way to rest, and it's not just physical rest like sleep but, there's other things that rest, that give us rest and reenergize us.
Melissa Flynt:I think there's something about, for me, being outside, especially, you know, if the temperatures are great and you can write in. Just there's something about my spirit that just needed it, you know.
Shannon D Martin:So yeah it's so serene because it's like when you're outside I hear the birds chirping in the morning. I'm like, oh, they're so happy outside, but it's hot yeah.
Melissa Flynt:And I think there's some controversial things. Like you know, yoga is a hot topic. I'll tell you, I attended a Christian yoga class and you know, some people think that that has eastern roots. But, um, you know, I think in the word of God it talks about, it really makes it about the heart behind something and the intentions. And so the class that I actually attended, uh, the lady, godly woman, but she led us in stretching. It was stretching and god made our bodies to stretch yes we listened.
Melissa Flynt:We listened to praise and worship um she. She did a bible study and I mean, it was just like while we were stretching, it was beautiful this sounds awesome yeah, and since then I mean there are some things.
Melissa Flynt:I'm not. We're no longer have that class available to us, but but there are things online that you can do in your own home. Again, you know, presenting it. God, I totally want to honor you. I don't want to get off the rails, that's not right, but I find some things some stretching. Other people might call it Pilates, whatever. But, I have found some of that just releases that pent up emotion that we're dealing with. I found some great podcasts. Thank you, thank you.
Melissa Flynt:That just lead us to you know healthy practices. There's a book that I had another friend recommend I'll mention, if that's okay. It's called " body revelation. It's by Alisa Keeton. Okay, and it's really wonderful because you know she's walking you through. She kind of brings us science into what's going on with our brain and you know physical conditions, but she's helping us metabolize those emotions. And one thing I enjoy about it is after you read the chapter she's also going to you can go on a walk and listen to her recorded you know segment that goes along with it and she prays with you through it, and so that's another thing that I might just add that your listeners would appreciate.
Shannon D Martin:Oh, that's awesome, I might look into that myself. Oh, that's awesome, I might look into that myself.
Melissa Flynt:I'm about halfway through finding value in it.
Shannon D Martin:That is awesome. I like that. I want to check that out, so okay. So what do you think when you just started out and you realize and all the things, what do you think you know telling someone who's just realizing all these? You know that you're just being diagnosed what would you tell someone Just starting out on their journey? What would you?
Melissa Flynt:what tips or advice would you give them?
Shannon D Martin:I would say even if you're mad at God for what you're going through.
Melissa Flynt:don't ever stop the conversation Like you can take it. I think you keep the conversation going and I would say don't isolate yourself from community, because he's given them to you.
Shannon D Martin:Absolutely.
Melissa Flynt:I feel like the Bible calls us sheep a lot. And if you think about the wolf and sheep. Like, when a sheep gets away from the flock, you know they're susceptible to attack.
Shannon D Martin:Right.
Melissa Flynt:And I think that's man, I think that's the enemy strategy and we're just built for sheep. So, you know, maybe it's Shannon and I, but let us help you connect to a community. Yes, you know, you're invited to our table because we need each other.
Shannon D Martin:We do, we do.
Melissa Flynt:No, that answered your question. Maybe that did. That was fantastic, maybe you need to ask me again.
Shannon D Martin:No, that was great because it's true. We all need each other, we all need a community, because this is a journey that we have to go. You know, it's great to have someone to go through the journey with you, because I try to do it alone and being alone I felt the reason why I did this, because I felt alone and I didn't want anyone else to feel alone like I did. And you can have people that may understand it, but they don't really understand it. So you have to have others who've been through it to really get it. You know to kind of say, okay, I've been through it to really get it. You know to kind of say, okay, I've been through that. This is what I can offer to you. Now, everyone's journey is different because, like, your symptoms were different than mine, but it's all the same. So I'm here for you if you need to talk. You know that type of thing, so you do need that.
Melissa Flynt:Yeah, I think it requires us being vulnerable because sometimes in my proud I didn't want to let that guard down for somebody to know I had a chink in my armor, you know right I think we want to be diyers do it yourself, you know but we do have to humble ourselves and and receive a form of help. And you know, looking back, I feel like when my kids were younger too, I didn't want to admit that I didn't already know how to be the perfect parent, like why do we? Why do we?
Shannon D Martin:expect ourselves to already know it. All you know Because you were used to doing it. We used to like, say, DIYing it, you know we're going to try to fix it ourselves. And then you know, you realize I can't do it, I have to have help.
Melissa Flynt:Right. And so, you know, looking back, I feel like God did give me mentors in the form of, back then short age. Maybe it's still a big thing, but bloggers yeah, you know books, man, there's so many, so some of that poured into my spirit. But I think there's a time for. You know a physical person too that God will use, and I've sought out counseling. You know my degree person too, that that God will use and I've sought out counseling. You know my degree is in psychology.
Shannon D Martin:My husband jokes that. I'm just, I know just enough to be psychotic. Isn't he helpful? He's very helpful.
Melissa Flynt:But you know he's got the gift of humor. That kind of helps me snap out of it sometimes. Right, I think there's a place for that. Somebody said that with our endorphins, there's a lot of things that help us release endorphins. You know exercise I think we all know that but prayer and praise and worship does too.
Shannon D Martin:It does, it really does. It keeps you going, it keeps me balanced. You know it keeps me balanced from going too far into that dark place, because you know they always ask you that. Too far into that dark place, because you know they always ask you that question. Do you ever feel like you want to harm yourself? I'm like no, and I know it's because I'm in prayer and because my belief, my faith, has kept me steady, you know, and I just have not tipped to that edge. So my, my faith has kept me there. It's kept me steady and faithful. So my faith has kept me there. It's kept me steady and faithful. So every day, I'm just thankful that I have that. That's my backbone. And I have those who are praying for me, and so my circle that God has perfectly placed around me has kept me whole. So I'm really thankful for that.
Melissa Flynt:So yeah, that community there Big thumbs.
Shannon D Martin:So is there anything else next for you, ma'am, that you want to talk about?
Melissa Flynt:Next for me again, just let's connect. I think you'll probably put a way to contact me in your show notes? I sure will, but it is like connecting to the community that I met Shannon in, which is a wonderful group of godly women that edify each other in their pursuits. Yes, it is. That's local to me, and may not be my church, but just other believers. You know, I'll help you find your people and if it's healthier products you know, from head to toe.
Melissa Flynt:I'll help you connect to those you know. Whatever it is that's, I want to be used by the Lord to help people. I heard a preacher yesterday said you know, God is in the people business, so we're in the people business.
Shannon D Martin:That is exactly right. Thank you, you're so welcome. Thank you so much.
Melissa Flynt:Melissa forissa for being that huh I said, for sharing the opportunity to share my story.
Shannon D Martin:Thank you, you're so welcome. Thank you for being my very first guest. I thank you so much. Thank you, melissa flint, and I will see you next time.
Shannon D Martin:Thank, you, Shannon Martin thank you, bye-bye, bye-bye. Thank you for joining me. I hope you found value in today's conversation. I'm your host, Shannon Martin. Be sure to join us on Wednesday, October 2nd, with our special guest, Shana Scott Lee. Love you, girl. If you enjoyed today's episode, let me know what you think by sending a text. There's a link in the show notes at the very top that you can click on and let me know what you think about today's episode so far. I'd love to hear from you. Also, please take a moment to rate and review the show on our podcast or wherever you listen. It really helps new listeners find us and join our wellness community. Disclaimer I am not a licensed mental health professional. The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional mental health advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you need help, please consult a qualified mental health professional.