How to Stay Present in the Here & Now with Jeanne Stevens

Hello and welcome! Today I am joined by the amazing speaker, leader, and writer, Jeanne Stevens. Let me just say that I waste no time at all in this episode by asking her all of my many questions about her trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro, You heard that right… Mt. Kilimanjaro! That’s so amazing!

I asked the questions, and she delivered my friends… from hilarious to deeply personal thoughts; she shared all the details with us about what God was doing in her in the midst of this life-changing experience. And interestingly enough, Jeanne shares how she wonders if her book didn’t actually start to take shape during her experiences on Mt. Kilimanjaro. 

Her soon-to-release book is called What’s Here Now?, and I just love the subtitle - How to stop rehashing the past, rehearsing the future, and start receiving the present. So good.

I promise you don’t want to miss listening in to hear Jeanne teach us how to embrace the present moment and all that God has for us here, now.

Jeanne Stevens is also the founding and co-lead pastor of Soul City Church in Chicago, one of America's fastest-growing urban churches. Prior to starting Soul City Church, Stevens was on the pastoral staff at Willow Creek Community Church and North Point Community Church. Jeanne's passion is to help people wake up to their purpose as they pursue a life of wholehearted freedom. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Jarrett, and their two children. What’s Here Now will be available nationwide on May 17, 2022. 

Listen in to learn more about:

• Valuable questions to ask ourselves as a way to come into our “now” moments often throughout the day, 
• How the present is where God lives, and it is where God invites us to live with Him.
• The differences between our automatic self and our authentic self. 

Favorite quotes:

~ When things don’t go the way you believe they should go, it is packed with all the very best learning. 

~ It was such a great inner teacher for me to not make it to the top and to unwind all of what that meant in my life.

~We are so inclined to think about what happened, to go to the ‘what was, the what ifs and all I had was what IS’ ,this present moment - here on the mountain. And the thing to do each day was to put one foot in front of the other and to be present with that.

~I was doing the work of God but the work of God was deteriorating in me.

~What I began to realize and recognize in my own life  was that the places  where I was most hanging out were in the past and in my future. I was all about rehashing things that already happened or rehearsing things that had not yet happened and I wasn't allowing myself to be present to this NOW moment. 

~I need to locate myself to this location and check into this present moment.

In this episode I answered this question:

1. How can I calm myself down when I am feeling stressed so often? (44:17)

Links to great things we discussed: 

• Mindjogger - App
• Jeanne Stevens - Website
• Jeanne Stevens - Instagram
•  Holy Spirit Come Song - Patrick Mayberry
• Inventing Anna - TV Series
• The Dropout - TV Series
•  I guess I haven't learnt that yet - Shauna Niequist Book 
• Amazon - Ziploc bag organizer
• Amazon - Milk Frother
• Confident Motherhood Community

Hope you loved this episode! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and slap some stars on a review! :)

xo,

Alli