Ep 029 From Fitness to Wholeness With Revelation Wellness Founder Alisa Keeton
We’re thrilled to welcome Alisa Keeton, founder and CEO of Revelation Wellness, to episode 029. Alisa shares her incredible journey from fitness enthusiast to a pioneering leader in faith-based wellness.
Discover how integrating spirit, soul, and body can transform your health and life. Alisa's unique approach goes beyond traditional fitness and diet plans, emphasizing the importance of spiritual well-being and being healthy body, soul, and spirit.
Tune in to learn practical tips and be inspired by Alisa’s passion for making healthy disciples who make healthy disciples. Plus, tackling challenging issues in today's world like graceful aging and dealing with overwhelming stress.
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Connect with Alisa & Revelation Wellness:
Alisa Keeton is a wholehearted pursuer of God’s love. She is also an author, speaker, and the founder and CEO of Revelation Wellness. As a health and wellness professional for nearly 30 years, Alisa carries a deep passion for bringing fresh meaning to the world of health and fitness.
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Stephanie’s Blog & Coaching
Show Transcript
Note: Podcast transcripts are automatically generated and may contain some errors. The transcript below has been lightly edited for grammar and readability, so may not match the podcast audio verbatim.
029 Alisa Keeton and Revelation Wellness
[00:00:00] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: I think it's come back to become the community you want, become the community you crave. I had to become the person that I wanted, that I wanted others to be for me in light of who God has been. And that multiplies, that's healthy disciples making healthy disciples and you can't stop that thing.
Welcome to the Wholly Well Journey podcast. I'm your host, Stephanie Hodges. Join us for weekly faith based conversations on holistic health to uncover practical tips for how to thrive and apply biblical wisdom to our busy modern lives. From fitness to food to fasting, we're here to discover what it means to have a healthy spirit, soul, and body.
Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
[00:00:41] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Welcome everybody. I am so excited to introduce someone who I have been a huge fan of and following on social media for many, many years. And this is Alisa Keeton of Revelation Wellness and Alisa Keeton, just to tell you a little bit about her. She's a wholehearted pursuer of God's love. She's an author, a speaker.
founder and CEO of revelation wellness. And she's been a professional in the health and wellness arena for over 30 years. Elisa also carries a deep passion for bringing fresh meaning to the world of health and fitness. And I have to say that is what I love about you the most. I feel like. What you're doing is unique from what everyone else is doing that I've seen you are carrying something truly unique and it's really Developed over the years and so can you tell us a little bit more about the revelation wellness story and why it started?
Where it is today?
[00:01:36] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Thank you for that. I'm so happy to be here. I'm really, really excited. With revelation wellness. Oh, I'm not weird. I'm just early. We were early to something, but 14 years ago as when revelation wellness became a nonprofit.
that was 2011, this is the fire for which I burned for, and this is the battle for which I was born. I've always loved health and wellness. I took my first aerobics class when we called it aerobics back in 1985 with. Jane Fonda herself, we're all doing all the things of the 1980s and leotards and scrunchie socks.
And I took my first class at 14 years old and it met me in a way that I needed to be met. , now I didn't, I would have called myself a Christian at that time. I believe there was a God, but I didn't know more than that. And something happened to me when I, took that class. Like I remember laying in the cool down and tears kind of coming to my 14 year old eyes. I was wrestling out a lot of stuff in my own life my family, my upbringing, a lot of dysfunction in my home, some addiction and health and fitness moving my body always. did something, but it was in that organized way of moving bodies that I really came alive.
And so I just fell in love with health and fitness at the time. A lot of people were falling in love with it. And after the races I went and I kind of made it my career early on, went to school and, did a lot in that sphere. And after I graduated college, I went into it full time because I really love helping people.
I love helping people. That change is possible. Nothing is stuck. Everything is possible. And I would help clients, but I noticed two things would happen when I would help clients who wanted to feel better, improve their health. They would start out on the right foot, do all the investment, money, time, set everything aside to like make this change happen. And they would get going and something would happen. Setbacks would happen and they would fall off and kind of fall back into old patterns. So I call that the neglect pattern. They would just go back into neglect and with shame because they felt bad because they couldn't do the thing. or I could help a client get better and they would like lock down and do the thing. It's weight loss and health improvement generally is not that hard. If you follow the formula, it works, but we all know that 97 percent of diets fail. That's what research shows. 90 percent of them are going to fail.
Cause you can't do something that's outward imposed for a little time. You can, but it's hard to sustain. And so those clients would do it, but they would become obsessive about it. There was like more, you had to give them more to do and they needed every rule, needed another rule. And then for every part of their body, they would lose fat.
They'd find another part of their body that needed to lose. It was never enough. And I call that the obsessed pattern. So those two patterns started showing up over and over. And I thought there has to be a way through this. That is really about more than just weight loss.
Cause I knew that would fluctuate. I knew these women are going to go have babies. I knew they would be 50 years old one day. And I think it is demonic to think our bodies have to stay exactly the same. Like we should. Freeze them at some moment in time. It's not what the body's for. So I always had this greater vision for it, but I didn't know how to explain it. And then my own life collided with my faith, the journey. I would have called myself a Christian, but I didn't know what that meant. And I needed Jesus in my life. I had everything on the outside fitness competitions, trophies, clients, waiting lists could help people transform. If they followed my rules, they couldn't keep it off though.
And they'd be back again. And my life was needing more personally. inside I was, my soul was dying. My marriage was on the rocks like year one, because I needed my husband to fulfill me. I needed something to fulfill that hole in my soul. And that was where a coworker at the gym invited me to church. And I heard the gospel. I'd heard the gospel before. Like I knew Jesus and I knew some of these stories in the Bible. But when I went that day to church, my number was up. The pastor read from John four, the woman at the well. And I knew that's me. I'm that woman at the well, I'm the one who's always thirsty. I didn't have many husbands, but I had many boyfriends. I had all that. That was my story. So I really surrendered my life that day to Jesus. Like, okay, I'm kind of, I want my faith to be a part of my life. And from there, Jesus, when you invite God into your life, he is. It's such goodness that he comes in and makes himself at home and puts his foot up and starts kind of talking to you about all things.
You start seeing things differently. And I could no longer see my clients the same way. And that desire of like, there has to be a way through this, that it has to be more. I started to see it in scripture. I started to see it. And what I would read and hear it in the voice of the Holy Spirit has just started teaching me like more and more.
And there was finally just this invitation of, do you want to do this my way? Do you want to do health and wholeness and physicality and the body my way? And. I was honestly, Stephanie, I was like, Oh, that sounds strange. I don't know, like, what are people going to think if I do that? But he marked me like my, my heart was just marked for this.
There's more here. It almost felt like, you know what it felt like, Stephanie? It felt like the gold rush, like. There's gold in the hills that were unmined. And if nobody goes there, it's just going to stay hidden. Do you want to go there? But you use that word pioneer. That was very kind of you.
Cause I haven't heard that word used in a while, but that was spoken over me. Initially it's like, you're a pioneer. and so I said yes to. Doing it his way. And so scripture, everything changed this book right here, when your heart is ready, and the desires of your heart are for him, he'll give you a heart of flesh and you start seeing things differently.
And I started writing and that was my first book, the wellness revelation. And then I started revelation wellness because I'm only one. Health coach, one fitness instructor. There needed to be more and I can only help so many. And so that's what Revelation Wellness does. We raise up health and fitness coaches to go out with physical and spiritual practices to spread the love of Jesus around the world.
[00:08:00] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Amazing and I can so relate I also just, I remember my first group fitness class experience and how much I loved it.
And when I became an instructor in college, I started with a step and sculpt class. That jam. Like
Yes. Repeater knee around the world. U turn. Yes.
I don't understand where it went, but it needs to come back.
[00:08:24] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: I've seen some spaces. I've seen some places.
[00:08:26] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: That's really exciting. But I, you know, I found, okay. So just workouts alone, following the program was not helping people to transform, tried adding nutrition to that. Well, it's not just the exercise. Maybe it's also the diet.
And yet that was also so limited. And you've said your call. One way you describe it is to make healthy disciples, to make healthy disciples. What does that process look like for
[00:08:53] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Yeah, well the process of that is when we realize that we're not just we don't have a body We we are bodies and we're souls and we're not And we're spirits. It's when you realize you're a triune being created by a triune God, there's more to you than just treating your body like a donkey that needs to submit and behave.
Like it is actually, it's who you are. it's a whole package. You cannot train your body without training your soul and your spirit. They're all interconnected unless you want them to be, compartmentalized, which is what, the diet world does, the fitness world does. they try to mash it together to make it work together, food and exercise and mindset. But until you deal with the soul, you have a soul. It makes you, you. So maybe for a second, if I could talk about who we are as trying people, because I think people don't stop to have wonder the spirit side of you, you're spiritual because we put faith in a lot of things.
Why do we put faith in things like driving down the road and expecting the other car not to hit us head on? Like we put faith in everything. We are spiritual beings. That's the part of us that wants to trust and believe and hope for something. It says in Ecclesiastes that God puts eternity in every man's heart.
Heart, meaning every person that breathes at some point thinks to themself, is this all there is? is? there a life beyond that? And that's the spirit. That's a little spirit of us that we are made by God with the fingerprint to know him and our spirit is the place to know him and we can know him in what we believe and trust and put value in. The soul is who we are, all are uniquely ourselves. The soul is your will, your mind, your emotions. It's the part of you that, you know, you might like country music. I don't really like country music. You might like ice cream, chocolate. I might like vanilla. It's this part that makes me, me. Stephanie's soul is completely different than my soul, but we both have a spirit that is seeking to know God that unifies us.
And then because we seek Jesus, we have a Holy spirit. This means God lives in us to unify us, even though we're very different people in soul. And what we love, what we'd like, what we don't like, then the body is the part of us that helps us to live out whatever our soul desires
What are my core values of belief from my spiritual set of being? So when we start to think of the body as incorporated in all those parts, you can't look at a diet as just, It's counting your macros or your CrossFit gym is just your calorie burn. It's connected to who you are. How is this forming me into more of who I want to be on the earth as I move into eternity of who I will forever be and know and reign with God.
So it's a more beautiful story, isn't it?
[00:11:53] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: So much. So absolutely. And it's so challenging. I think when we start the new year and we have all these resolutions, it's like, we want to have all these buckets, like a bucket for my spiritual health, a bucket for my physical health. And then people so often get overwhelmed by trying to fill up all those buckets and so many different things.
So do you have any words on how do we go from separating things into those buckets or into sacred and secular practices
and bring it together?
[00:12:28] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Well, again, the word, first of all, I will assume, you know, everyone here, spirit, soul, body, spirit back goes back to what are you putting faith in? if it's not Jesus, oh my gosh, he's the best of the best to put faith and everyone, you know, again, everyone's believing in something. Christianity is the best faith because we have Jesus who says you cannot save yourself. Every other faith system in the world, based on what you're believing, they make you, you have to ascend to God. Every other faith system, you ascend, you do this and you get closer to God. Christianity, belief, your spiritual belief in who Jesus is, is the only faith in the entire world. Where God put on flesh and dwelt among us. And he's true. You can look them up in history. We know that there was a man named Jesus who was killed and crucified, died three days, resurrected 500 people, saw him walking around, showing his scars, eating fish on a beach, and he resurrected and overcame all sickness, death, everything so that we could be reconciled to know God.
the Yahweh, the God, and so to do your faith and start anything new without the foundation of that being in the God who made you, who knows you, who formed you, who has purpose for your life and your body is how you live out that purpose and unifies you to your desires, likings, and what you believe without having that. It is climbing a hill of sand. It is building a house It will not last. But when you build on something that is eternal, cause you're building on, Oh, I'm steward my body and I am a body because I'm here for a purpose and that becomes all integrated. But if you don't have it with your foundation being on your core value of what you believe and for us, the belief in who Jesus is, God who put on flesh says in Matthew 6 33 to seek first the kingdom. And His righteousness, His being Jesus, righteousness being His right way of thinking, His right way of feeling, His right way of choosing. I don't have that right way. I think I do. Sometimes I'm pretty good, but I need God's spirit to teach my soul so that my body is in cooperation with what God wants. So seek first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will be given to you.
Everything gets in alignment. Everything will get in alignment. You will begin to understand your food choices, although they're good to know about, you know, we want to eat some lean protein and we know added sugars are everywhere. Probably best to avoid those. Like we know some practical truths, but they just remain earthly kind of truths.
But when you see them in light of the, the gospel, the God loves you has a call for your life and that those foods affect your ability. To hear from God, literally to think clearly, to think optimistically, to think kindly, to think compassionately. And when you understand that, then you're incorporating that and it's a wholeness program.
You're now showing up and not siloing this thing off into, this is what I do for the new year, for my body, for my health, for my mind. It's all one thing. And as much as that might sound overwhelming, it's actually really simple. to just be a whole person who presents your whole self. Romans 12 says to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, because this is spiritual act of worship. And back to when we seek first God, worship God first, all the other things line up. And it keeps us free.
[00:16:15] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Such a good word. Absolutely. And, you know, from a practical standpoint, We are seeing a lot of struggles in society overall. Like you brought up the added sugar is just in our food supply, just statistically speaking, seeing, you know, rates of type two diabetes, chronic conditions, autoimmune conditions. It seems like the trends are going in the wrong direction, but what is it that you see as you talk to these women, both
On their own health journeys and also serving others in the arena of health. What do you think the biggest challenges are for, for modern women when it comes to health and wellness?
[00:16:56] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Oh gosh. Wow. The biggest challenges are. All right. I'll see the big, the big, big one. And this is a tough one. Cause people go, how do I put my hands around that? We're stressed. We are stressed out. We are over informed. We're overwhelmed. We're over tasked. we are more, we're humming at a vibration of stress like we never have before. Did you know we receive more information in one day than someone did in their entire lifetime who lived like in the 1700s? In one day, you are receiving more information than someone did in the previous centuries. That's crazy. Our bodies weren't made for that. that ultimately we were never made to, to, run at this pace and to live at such a level of, of busy. I would say that's number one. And there's so much research out there that if we can mitigate stress, that health, cellular health, I get the cell starts to show up. a little bit more in a repaired state. So that's why, I mean, Jesus says, do not be anxious about what you will eat or drink.
Don't be stressed about what you will eat or drink or what you will wear. look at the birds of the air. I care for them. Will I not care more for you? Are you not of more value? And I think Stephanie, that's where we get stressed out is because we're looking for value. We're like, do you love me?
Am I valuable? Do I have the right look? Do I have the right bag? Do I have the right body? I'm stressed out. And that is a spiritual issue. It's not, I mean, yes, it's a mental health issue, so we can think about the things we're thinking about and work on our mindset. But ultimately, where am I setting my mind, right?
I can have a mindset of thinking positively, but where am I going to set my mind? Where do I rest myself? Because the opposite of a stressed person is a rested person. when we eat our food, we know that studies show people who eat food in a stressful state do not metabolize the food. Like it was meant to, they will have more gastrointestinal issues, storage of fat, blood sugar stays high. You got to find a place inside you, a garden of rest. So what are your practices of rest? What are your practices of mitigating stress, breath work, meditation, going for walks, getting sunlight. It's not having too much of this all day long, especially at night. there are some practical practices to mitigate stress. stress is an internal environment. It's like, what's going on inside of me? How stressed am I? And if I am stressed out, you know what? When I'm stressed out, Stephanie, I do not want a salad.
That's not going to hit it. It's sugar. Candy, some type of candy, something sweet. And that is wired in me for dopamine. When you're stressed, dopamine is like, we got to feel good. We got to do something to feel good. We are flooded with options. Too many, too many toxic options to just hit the easy button and reduce that stress. And so added sugar, sugar, processed foods, things. I mean, my gosh, there's so many food options. the book by Dr. Casey means I've read, It's a great book called good energy. It just came out.
She talks about cellular health and how. we are, overfed. We just have too much food. We're eating so much food that crushes the cell. The cell never gets a chance to rest and digest and have a space to breathe and then feed it and let it rest. So what we can have, what's called autophagy, which removes old cells and brings in new cells. So our environment is set up for us to have the easy button and we reach for those foods that feel good in the moment. And then that only creates that habit loop of, I need more of it. I need more of it. And that's where we're seeing metabolic syndrome rise up. Metabolic syndrome is if, we got 60 percent of people now have metabolic syndrome, which sets you up for chronic illness and disease and the top chronic ones, heart disease, cancer, type two diabetes, now type three diabetes, which is also Alzheimer's strokes. Like those are the big killers. And if you have those. Foods that you're eating that just kind of keep you overfed. Metabolic syndrome will give you, visceral fat. So if you have visceral fat higher than 35 inches for women, 40 inches for men, that means around your waist circumference. if you have visceral fat, if you have, high triglycerides, low HDL, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure, if you can say yes to two or more of those five measure markers right there, Any checkup at your doctor will tell you those five basic markers. If you can say yes to two or more of those, you have what's called metabolic syndrome, which is set up. Your cells are dying right now. And that's, again, the environment around us is set up to get us to almost kill ourselves in a way. We have an enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy. But Jesus came so we would have life and life abundant. So, those would probably be the big ones. Stress here, the things I turn to in the external environment that now isn't really food. It's just fake food. It's food to just take my money and my mind. and now I have this condition of my body that I don't know how to get out of this. And we have to begin with kindness and compassion towards ourselves. .
[00:22:36] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Yeah. And I'd love to insert a little side note here, because as you're talking about all those things, I think of the natural antidote of exercise
[00:22:46] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Yes, ma'am.
[00:22:48] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: decreasing stress, to giving you those feel good hormones, and at the same time, boosting the HDL lowering, affecting all of those markers. And can you share just real quickly about your podcast and the revving the words that you do?
[00:23:03] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Oh, I love that. You're one of the first, you know, I've been on a lot of podcast interviews. You're the first one to ever ask me about revving the word. I love that. revving the word. Wow. That was birthed out of, I broke my foot about nine years ago. Maybe I broke my foot. just a fluke little accident in the gym.
Wasn't even doing anything fancy. I just, it was, One of those moments. And, I remember as I was healing, I'm like, gosh, I would go to the gym. I would be on the recumbent bike and I wanted to read the word of God and listen to my music. Like I wanted my own little uplifting sweaty Bible study
And I thought, what if I could combine music, kind of like going to a fitness class, you have music going, and then the instructor telling you what to do. But I will also read some scripture over people like, it's a sweaty Bible study. It's a sweaty sermon. So revving the words, you're meant to listen to them, put your shoes on, or, you know, if you're in a recumbent bike, whatever you can do, move your body.
You're meant to move your body. While listening to the teaching, listening to the word of God. And here's, what's really cool about it. There's neuroscience behind that. I didn't know it at the time, but I knew when I was doing it, I'm like, this is changing me. this is like more than me just hearing some information on a Sunday morning.
I'm wrestling with the word. I'm embodying the word. The word's becoming flesh in me now. Well, when we exercise, when you move your body, it's bilateral stimulation for the brain. So right, left, right, left. If you just kind of move rhythmically in any way, that is a bilateral stimulation for the brain, which is calming for the limbic brain, which is our emotional brain. our brain in a very generic way breaks down into three parts. the stem being kind of like our body brain. It's the part of you that just makes you a body. Like a baby is a body in the womb. That's a brainstem. Then there's the midbrain, which is more emotional. The limbic, the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, emotional things happen there.
Fight, fight, freeze. Your amygdala is right there in the midbrain. And then up top at the high point is your reasoning brain, your rational brain, your prefrontal medial cortex, why you can problem solve and think optimistically and think lovingly and compassionately. That's why kids don't have that close until they're like 25 years old.
It takes them a while to get reasoning and compassion. But when you exercise, you are engaging the body brain, the part of you that's a body and your emotions. You are rocking that brain, the emotional part of your brain, that if you're a stressed out person and everything feels anxious, It starts to release and then those chemicals come out like you talked about those neurotransmitters Serotonin dopamine norepinephrine there's dopamine remember we talked about dopamine you want something good Okay, get moving and it your body will go.
Oh this this is good. Yeah, which is the serotonin? Oh, this feels good So when you're doing that And you occupy the body in that kind of stress capacity. Literally when we exercise, people who exercise produce more new brain cells, neurons than those who don't. The hippocampus starts squirting out new brain cells. And what do new brain cells need? Give them a new thought. So as we're reading the word of God, And I'll be reading over like right now, Proverbs 24, seven says, wisdom is too high for a fool in the gate. He does not open his mouth. We can work through that and kind of reason it out.
So it's not just a slogan or a bumper sticker. You start actually processing that and your neurons collapse or latch onto that thought and that teaching in a way that you can't sitting in a chair. So that's what we do. Grabbing the word every Monday, there's one released and you hear the word of God.
There's a teaching while there's some music going and I'll engage your body, encourage you to maybe interval a little bit, pull back, rest, breathe. and it's kind of a holistic approach to knowing who God is in the word.
[00:26:57] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Best way to work out. And we'll be sure to leave a link to that podcast. So you guys can check that out. You will love it. It is good for the body, soul, and spirit a hundred percent.
[00:27:07] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Love
that.
[00:27:08] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: I know that there are many who have a dream in their heart.
They have that stirring that God is calling them to something else. They may not be in the fitness realm. It may be something else. And the other thing I've loved so much about what you have done is that the goal has not been for Elisa to become number one influencer, that it's all about building a platform for yourself.
What you have done is about multiplying. It's about building up other people. And so that calls on leadership. And so what has the Lord taught you in that process? it's not like you have done a franchise or something where somebody gave you a roadmap, you've had to build a roadmap for something new.
And I believe God is calling women to do that in this day in different arenas to lead well, and to build a roadmap to something that hasn't been done before. How do you do that?
[00:28:09] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Oh gosh, Stephanie. it's been 14 years and like I said, this is what I was born for. So I wouldn't know what else to do, but kind of. Forge down this road of health and wholeness and freedom for people and life abundant for people. But it has been a lot of bushwhacking, a lot of getting cut and trying to forge a way through what is overgrown, fallow ground, We, I believe in revelation wellness and I think God's doing it through all our instructors and you yourself. Like people are doing this now on the earth.
They're going, we're going to talk about this whole package. The body matters to the, gospel body matters to who we are as spiritual beings, but it's been messy. honestly, I am, I've always said I'm not qualified for this. I don't have an MBA. I don't even have a business degree from school. I mean, I have a education, art education degree from, Arizona state university. I have a lot of credentials in fitness. So I know some stuff, read some things. I'm fascinated by it, but to get to where we are as A nonprofit ministry, coming in, I think, you know, a 3 million that we've grown to over the last 14 years. I can only tell you I got here by being on my face before the Lord and saying, you have to do this.
I need to know the next step. I kept kind of following my gut. Honestly, Stephanie, the Lord would just put the need in front of me and then I'm like, okay, all right. I know what I need to do. I know what I need to create, or I know what I need to say. I know what I need to communicate because the need would just come.
He would bring the obstacle, what looked like, or maybe the inconvenience that that's the thing, the thing that goes, Oh, it's kind of in the way that's actually the thing that God's going. Here's your opportunity. I like to say there are no problems in the kingdom, only possibilities. So when it looks like this is a roadblock, I can't go further, there's actually an invitation to faith, belief, patience, and the thing will, will provide and move. I do think the most beautiful thing about Revelation Wellness has been because I want it to be about the Lord. I don't want it to be about Elisa Keaton. It has to go on beyond me. It has to. My gosh, it would break my heart to know. All this blood, sweat, tears, gray hair, wrinkles, you know, all of it was just for a blink of an eye and I'm gone.
And then it dies. Like it has to go on beyond me. Our daughters and our granddaughters and sons need to know something better about their body. About food about the things we do with our bodies and that are done to our bodies and a story for our body. It's integrated to the gospel. So I think the kindest thing God's done is I've wanted it to be for him.
He has brought people who sense that it's not about being a follower or a fan of Elisa. She's worshiping God. And when you just want to work, like really make it about God, glorify God and make him offer him something that like is, looks like the kingdom. You know, because one day this earth is going to fade away. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and we will have bodies. We will be given back bodies. That's why the body matters to the gospel. Jesus is a body right now in heaven. I would hope to get to heaven and be like, Oh, that's exactly like we thought our bodies would be.
This is exactly like rev on the road. This is what our bodies were made for in light of eternity. So it has to go on. I think because of that, God's brought a team of people. Who just follow and that's been part of the success. It's not been built on me.
There's been amazing people who also lead and go out in their communities and collectively help make a way, prepare a way. so.
So, you know, there's some other things practically be patient. Don't do bad hires. My biggest mistake I did was I was so tired in the beginning of anyone would help me. I would take anyone to help me, but they weren't the right person for the right role.
my other practical tip would be have good processes in place. I'm a really good idea girl. You got to understand the process, the impact. Is this worth it? It's not the best. Yes. I'll say yes to everything. So I've had to learn how to bring other people in and get the nose from people.
And that's hard to do sometimes.
[00:32:44] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Oh, good advice. Absolutely. And what you're talking about is legacy, right? It's about what am I doing? The impacts around me and what for the generations to come. You mentioned that. and one other thing I really wanted to get your take on as a mother and In your phase of life is how do we take back graceful aging, because we are in a society that holds up, you know, the decades of the twenties as the ideal perfection when it's not even realistic for people in their twenties often.
And then we can spend so much time and money and effort trying to fight aging instead of embracing a season.
And by saying that, I'm not saying we don't, you know, invest in steward our health. There's that side, but then there is this pursuit of an ideal that doesn't match our season.
I think that we see women in our culture standing up and saying, Hey, I'm going to embrace every season and show you what that looks like.
[00:33:51] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Yeah. It's a swirly one to talk about, because there's so much, whenever we start to expect a way our body should look or how even we expect other people should look, we start wherever we hear the word should. Just put shame in there. If we start shitting on people, then there's yokes of shame we can throw around on each other. it is demonic to expect our bodies to freeze at some perfect moment in time, and then we never age, and we never get another wrinkle, you know, like as if we are gonna just hold It's just something we can't, you will spend the rest of your life and all your money investing, trying to preserve your body rather than persevere for the goodness.
Like the goal is God. The goal is goodness on the earth. The goal is multiple, multiplying good. I think a lot of people now, you know, there's a lot of ways, listen, I love good skincare, love to get a facial. and some could say, Oh, you're, you know, you're that's so vain. Well, I like to have clean face and I like the way it feels. I think what it always comes down to is truly, truly our hearts. We say that the body is for ability, not vanity. Vanity is defined by an over consumed obsession about how I look. If anyone gets in that, they will never age. You'll never allow yourself to age, but real beauty of aging is to be able to allow yourself to age. Take care, do whatever it is that feels like good care for you and allow yourself to be a 50 year old woman. Who's got whatever, look, but I will say it's getting, it's going to get crazier, like to allow a woman who just decides to, you know, Do not like absolutely tend to just feel like freedom for them is to do nothing.
They're going to look different and that's amazing. Let them, let's look different. No shame on them and no shame on you. I just want to be real careful with how we can start to shame women I want to look like that at 60. How about just be you and worship and like be of good joy to the world and people. The more we're obsessed about how we look and what's going on with us, we will not, we will not age. We will not become of good use to the world when we're older. We have so much to offer in our wisdom, in our love, in our care, in our mentorship, be about that. That's what aging is for. Then do all the things, whatever to feel good, feel energy energized, but let's keep our yokes off of each other. grace is the power to live by the spirit, not the permission to live by our flesh. my flesh accuses me all the time of being old and blah, blah, blah. And like, no, that's that's a lie. We have to partner with the spirit, which grace is you have the freedom to do whatever you want. Just don't let that thing control you. It cannot own you. You're on mission for the Lord.
[00:37:08] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: I like that because it is so easy to point the finger in every direction.
[00:37:13] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Every direction.
[00:37:15] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: direction, whatever it is, but a thing that I'm really passionate about is the connecting of women of different generations. And when I talk to younger girls often, they will say, you know, I really want a mentor, but I don't know how
and so I just want to encourage listeners that there are women who are waiting to be asked. And there are so many women out there putting out extremely positive. Messages, sound biblical wisdom, like you do to just seek out reach out and be willing to take that first step. because sometimes we haven't had that mentor for ourself, that's been a gap in our life.
But to be a generation of people who are healthy disciples, making healthy disciples. Requires that reaching out. So don't be afraid to do that.
[00:38:06] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Yeah. And if I could also say, if you are of the mentoring age, don't be afraid to put yourself out there too. Don't be afraid to say, Hey, if you're a younger and you're looking to go to coffee, I'd love to share. Sometimes we think we got to wait for them to climb up to us. How about we come down to them too and say, I would love to meet. They just need a little open door sometime.
[00:38:27] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: I think that's so true.
Yeah. Well, how can people connect with you and can you tell us about your most recent book?
[00:38:34] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: Yeah. well, my most recent book is called the body revelation, physical and spiritual practices for banishing shame, healing from pain and loving God with your whole self. it's basically the story of when I talked about. the stress that we have inside of us. I mean, that's key until we cool that down.
And a lot of times the troubles we've lived through, the traumas, the adversity, the challenges we've lived through, those affect our body. We know that the book, the body keeps the score. Everyone's heard that book title by now. it's my take on the body gives a score, but for those who want some practices and want to put God at the center, cause he is the center holding your body together. so that book walks people through a healing journey to come out the other side with their own full revelation of God. Oh, this is, this body's good and this is what my body's for. And this is how I will steward and care for the body. so yes, that's my latest book. You can get it on Amazon or alisakeen.
com. And then to connect more with all the things, Revelation Wellness. revelation, wellness. org. Go to the website. We have a membership, where for 25 a month you get ongoing coaching in all these ways. All the health coaching's there. I'm back there to teams back there. You need community. You need people that are going to keep you from gimmicks, shortcuts, And falling back into those 97 percent of diets that do not work, we would love to be a partner with you and to see you stop obsessing about your body, stop neglecting your body and live free in your body. So that's what we do. Revelation wellness. org would be the best place to find all the things that we're doing.
[00:40:19] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: We'll be sure to put that link in the show notes and just to close this out, would you send these listeners off with the prayer?
[00:40:27] alisa-keeton_1_06-26-2024_140506: I'd love to. I love that. Stephanie. Thank you. This has been delightful to Stephanie. Thank you so much. Great questions. All right, everyone. I would love if we could all take a four count breath together. So inhale for four, three, two, one, exhale for four. Good. Just inhale with the word, Holy Spirit, exhale.
Make yourself at home in me. Thank you God that right there. That was a prayer. Our breath is a prayer. Thank you, God, that you saw these bodies before they took form in our mother's womb. There is not a part of us, an inch of us, a cell of us that is a mystery to you, God. Thank you that nothing is hidden from you. Our frames are not hidden from you and we thank you that you are the God who is acquainted with all our sufferings. Emotionally, physically, mentally, all of it, God. And for the joy set before you, you endured the cross and the joy is us being free. Sons and daughters who live free in body, soul and spirit. So God, I pray for everyone who hears my voice right now that a revival would awaken in their soul, in their bodies.
God, there'd be healing. There would be a renewing of their mind for the wholeness of their life. God, I ask that you would bind up sickness and disease and make them people, who are of discomfort. They walk the narrow road, which leads to life that the stress inside of them right now in Jesus name would diminish God, we ask that there would be a cooling and a calming and that as they look around their environment, that they look for goodness. They look for things that are eternal, things that will give added value to their life, God. Thank you that they are not men or women of shortcuts. They are men or women of endurance and perseverance over preservation. We thank you God. Thank you for the courage that you give us and the Holy Spirit that backs up this prayer. Thank you for Stephanie. I bless her God in her mission in the mantle and the people that she reaches Lord multiply it so all know about wholeness and health that goes beyond the scale. Thank you, God, that you do not measure our outward appearance, but you see our hearts.
And that's what you came for. We love you, Jesus. And we give you this time. Jesus name. Amen.
[00:42:56] stephanie-hodges_1_06-26-2024_160506: Amen.
[00:42:57] Hey, did you enjoy this podcast and this conversation with Alisa today? Well, if you did, please take a minute to go to the show and leave a review and rating just a real quick review would mean a ton for this podcast and for us to be able to continue to reach more people with our ministry and our message about the journey to becoming holy well. Thanks for listening to have a great week.
