Hosted by Penelope Sampler

Becoming Natural Podcast

Natural Wellness • Chronic Illness Journey • Faith & Wellness

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📌 I share from personal experience, thoughtful research, and what I’ve learned through my own healing journey. This podcast is for education and encouragement, not individual medical guidance. Please work with a qualified professional you trust before making changes to your health routine, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, managing a condition, taking medication, or caring for a child.

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AI and Jesus

you’ve been wondering where I’ve been…I hinted at it last

episode, but I know I owe you an explanation, even if you haven

t noticed and its just me thats worried about my disappearance. I know

a lot of podcasters break for summer but that was never my intention

still isn’t

Three weeks without an episode isn’t like me. I thought

about quietly showing back up with a new episode and pretending

nothing happened, but that felt odd. So we are going behind

the scenes

So today isn’t our normal science deep dive

or natural health conversation as it typically goes. Its

more about life application with a sprinkle of science

or STEM

Because something im so excited about and something that is pretty

significant has been happening behind the scenes. Ive decided to name

my office. I know. Sometimes Becoming Natural sounds a little too

perfect for how I operate. Obvioulsy, the goal, but we are going behind

the scenes at The Podquarters: the office of unsolicited advice. Bc

really. It is

“I HIT A WALL”

A few months ago, I realized I couldn’t keep doing things at Becoming Natural the way I

had been. I am a one woman show and no plans to do it otherwise. If you’ve

been with me for any amount of time, you know I am not a fan of social media

pretty much gave it up entirely. Ironically, not your typical reasons, but bc I never scrolled that much

EXCEPT if a friend would send a dog video, which lead to more dog videos and before I

knew it an hour had passed. My Gosh I love dog videos. BUT….It was a time suck

for me and I had to let go….even of dog videos. So I took the social apps

off my phone. And its glorious. SO…. I only dipped my toe into podcasting with a little bit

of fear and a little excitement bc I heard a podcaster say once that with podcasting you didn

t have to use social media. Of course, That immediately caught my attention. I knew I had a

story to tell that could help other people and I had partially struck out with my dream of

writing a book. I had my eyes set on a book for awhile. That went south when I

started having a lot of anxiety and ultimately PTSD when I tried to get my story of sickness

even followed by survival and miracles on paper. I couldn’t write no matter how hard I tried

without extreme anxiety….see episode 3 I think about the amazing EMDR therapy I did. I still couldn

t bring myself to write and I love writing. I did check the writing goal off my list

when I ultimately was fortunate enough to write a chapter in an anthology. It was a God moment

how it all unfolded and I was invited to be a part of this book and all I

had to do was whittle down what I had already written. I survived. And that book was a

b and n best seller, might I add. Only a chapter, but it felt so good. I added

Amazon Author and B and N Best Selling Author to my list

So when I heard that podcaster say I could do a podcast and not have

to do any social media and it could be behind a mic without video with

no shower or make up I was intrigued. I knew I still had a story

in me mostly bc my hometown minister told me I really needed share it. His

voice motivated me. I just always assumed it was a book. But I still didn

t feel like I had totally accomplished the mission. When that vision changed to speaking

and not writing, I took a breath and threw my hat in the ring. I

didn’t have to show up in people’s feeds when they had no interest

in what I had to say. People would find me bc they were interested in

what I was babbling about. It was completely on a whim and I fell in

love with it almost instantly. And it was really fun to watch my followers and

listens grow if you want the brass tacks. My life and my story is not

singular. We are all in the trenches in one form or the other. If you

know me, I love to talk and I love science and Lord have mercy, I

have been thru it all. I am trained in the medical model as an OT

I am a past pharmaceutical rep, I experienced every kind of surgery, drug, test and

symptom surviving Crohns Disease. I LOVE to read. I LOVE to research how I can

help my body do better without the piles of medications and I have a strong

faith. And yet, I still love a Coke, and a good burger. Nothing in my life is

extreme. Nothing here is perfect nor do I ever want to portray that. I love

my family, but my husband and I still argue, I have 3 handsome boys that

I want to string by their toenails some day and others I just sneak into

their stinky dirty rooms and sit with them while they sleep and pray over their

lives and future. Initially, I thought I would talk about surviving Crohns….but found that

my true passion is sharing how I have grown over the years. As a mom

a wife, a Christian, How I learned to make better choices for my body. To share How CLUELESS I was to the things that were

potentially hurting my already broken body, but I was too overwhelmed to address them or

know where to start. I realized that Crohns was in my toolbelt, but it wasn

t exactly my passion to speak JUST to people with Crohns. Crohns is just a

battle and we all face battles. My target was coming into view. As I do

with most things, I dove in headfirst and I spent so much time reading and

writing and talking which I love all 3. But after awhile….the admin things, the

details that go along with producing a podcast were the menial things I was trying

to avoid and took away from time for my family. I procrastinated on tedious tasks

I had sticky notes by my bed, in my purse and car and at my

desk

I looked around my house—and the stacks of papers to read by my bed, at

my desk, in the den… studies I earmarked, books I started reading, notes I made in

one notebook after another. I made good attempts with a planner for about 3 pages and

then they were blank. One day it hit me that “I can’t keep living like

this.” I have all this great information and its not being used well. Its not helping

anyone. I have a passion for helping people coupled with a love for research and medicine

and overlaying all of that with a lifetime struggle with Crohns and a miraculous survival story

It was all parked in a brain that was overcrowded and stacks of papers I was

never going to have time to read

get me wrong, nothing was falling apart. I was in HEAVEN. I loved my

life. Wake up. Read, research, write, go down rabbit holes, record. Repeat. But I

realized with my wall of books pertaining to medicine, physiology and a growing category

of plants I was quickly turning into the old professor with a dusty library

and piles of GREAT information I would never find when I needed it. I

had to change

I had no system. I dove into this on a whim, never knowing what the long

term goal was and certainly not thinking I would still be here. I had no order

I am by nature an organized person. No one would believe it

now. I love filing….i just could never find the file. I

used to organize my sock drawer in ROY G BIV order. I

blame a little bit of it on splitting my brain 3 times

a house that will never be complete and I truly lost a

little bit of my sanity when I was dx with PTSD. I

have to tweak my brain every couple years now to not let

the anxiety creep in

I started 15 fabulous projects.

Projects I wanted to finish. Ideas I had for the website. A ministry I wanted to build

Things God had been teaching me.

Things I knew would help someone someday.

I wasn’t lacking ideas at all. I was exploding with

energy while drowing in my lack of systemizing my

flow

I already joke that I live in organized chaos with 3 boys and 2 dogs (one being a

new puppy) and a husband. I embrace the mess. I embrace that my house is lived in and

not perfect. But after awhile, when my house was a mess, my desk wasn’t organized and I

couldn’t find the phone I was talking on…. I knew I had to find a system bc

my brain can’t operate without order and I had been limping along for several years trying to

hold it all together

My life was making the same decision over and over because I couldn’t remember what I decided yesterday or an hour ago for that matter

I opened my laptop and spent twenty minutes trying to remember what I was working on

and then an email popped up and I started filtering thru the 10,000 emails. The

never ending 30 minutes of unsubscribing from emails that somehow subscribed you to 10 more lists

for every unsubscribe. Which led me to responding to school about a volunteer opportunity and then

balancing the budget bc I saw a bill come thru. Remember the book if you give

a mouse a cookie? I have a fat mouse that used to get lots and lots

of cookies

I always had unfinished thoughts in my head….to which my husband made fun of me when I couldn

t complete a sentence. I literally could not get the words out. Was I having a midlife crisis? Was

my brain broken? This could not be the rest of my life….I used to be so pulled together

I KNOW I am not alone.

We’re carrying grocery lists, appointments, recipes, medications, birthdays

including all your inlaws too!), bills, school schedules, work

responsibilities, church commitments… and then my husband would come

home and innocently ask me What I did today

Oh my hackles went up. Ummmm…..worked on my

computer. Because EVERYTHING is on the computer…and I was

distracted by merging personal and work on my computer

And I accomplished nothing

And I wondered why I was exhausted before lunch.

I really started to make major changes in my life to reduce the cognitive load and

decisions bc I was losing myself. . I turned off my notifications on my laptop at the

suggestion of my husband who is now the most irritated when I don’t know he

texted me. That might be one of the best tiny changes I made. I took social

media off my phone. I time blocked my days as best as I could until a child

called and needed something at school. I even created a cleaning schedule so I could clean

just a little at a time over the course of the week and always have a

clean house. That actually was amazing until 2 college boys came home for summer and dumped

their stuff all over my house. Not complaining bc I absolutely love it when there is

a fleet of vehicles in my driveway. It means my people are home. It’s all

comical. It’s all light hearted, but I was a little worried about my own sanity

and the fact that I got overwhelmed easily and could not knock out 100 things in

a day like I used to do. I REALLY prayed through all of this and I

kept coming back to my own advice

God is not the author of confusion. God does not create chaos

This was all my own doing. I had to pull it all

together

Now, that doesn’t mean life is always neat and tidy and I am OK with that. I really am

It doesn’t mean my home is spotless and my schedule still isn’t perfect. We

are all a work in progress and I am in a constant state of BECOMING Natural

But what I learned while creating podcasts for you (and we all

know they are as much or more for me!) that the Lord

really cares about peace and rest. Much more than I ever gave

It credit

And I was not practicing what I preached 50% of the time. The peace part was hard for me. The rest. Being Still

I was spending so much energy managing chaos that I had very little energy left

to enjoy the life or gifts God had given me and I was not prioritizing

my time to spend time IN the word. In prayer. In the quiet. Outside. Soaking

it up

One night a few months ago, My husband was building models for work with Chatgpt and I

flippantly asked if he could help me with my analytics. I manually tracked my podcast views and

followers by hand every single month. Of course, he said and he showed me basic use of

Chat. I knew nothing. I quickly found out as a newbie to ai that my limitation to

ai was not knowing what I could ask it to do. I didn’t know how to

talk to it and when I did ask it questions, I wasn’t that impressed with the responses. Why in the world

did people like Chatgpt

I very much take joy in writing my own episodes so that wasn’t

interesting to me. But after a weak attempt at analytics, I asked it if

it could write the podcast summary for my shownotes. Knowing that podcasts were found

based on SEO I bought a book (I know sounds funny now) about using

Chat for SEO so that my show notes summary would be a good summary

Slowly, I learned and asked questions and studied ultimately creating a system DESIGNED

to save me time in the long run. But I have had so

much fun learning what I can do with chat that my little write

my shownotes for my podcast from my weekly “research paper” become a robust

constantly expanding operating system with forks here and there and subsystems and automations

Because if I am building something to save time, I am going ALL

IN. So I started building something that I desperately needed. Typing in ideal

scenarios and creating a dream outcome. Automate this, post that. My husband actually gave

me a double take when I told him he really should be using

Codex for his algos. The next day he said the quants at work

used Codex and how did I know that? Because I became obsessed. And

it was fun

I was learning something new. I was not only learning how to help my

business move more efficiently (did you know you can tell it to remind you

to do things…and then I asked if it could send that to me

in email?), but I was building efficiency into my life. Now my analytics can auto

check on the right day and update my dashboard among 1000 other things that

I keep dreaming up. On the personal front, I even created a Monthly garden

calendar so I know when to cut what back in my yard at what

time of year. I am ALL

So I started building a better way to manage my own life and Becoming Natural and it

is so freaking exciting. I’m not done. Or close to done and I have logged hours

and hours and months of hours, learning the hard way a LOT of the time. but even

though chat is notoriously overly complimentary when you use it, it continues to tell me that the

system I am bringing to life is more impressive than just a little summary and analytics model

Its what professionals design for business clients. Ill take it. Even if its just stroking my ego

a little bit

Ive created a place where my research lives.

Where my episode ideas don’t disappear and I can save all

those sticky notes into organized files waiting for their turn to be

studied

A file to save the life lessons I jot down..

A place where I don’t have to rely on my brain to remember everything, because this brain was fried

But im telling you, I can see the light. I am reducing the cognitive load. And I am feeling freer

every day. And my brain is working better and better as I let go of all the crazy in my

head

It alk a lot around here about inflammation.

Inflammation in the body, from food, from stress.

But I am the first to admit that my schedule become inflamed.

My calendar, my home, my BRAIN with half thoughts and unfinished Todos on my list.

There’s a meme out there about your brain having fifty browser tabs open all at once.100% me

Eventually the whole system gets bogged down.

I don’t think we were created to carry that kind of mental weight

every day. None of us were. That’s why I hear from

so many of my friends their brains are firing like they used

to

As big as this system is becoming and so cool it really

is, I didn’t build it to do more, I started it so I

could carry less. To clear my head of mental clutter. Do less

searching, less remembering, and my word, to stop redoing the same thing

Because every minute I spend hunting for a note or a file is a

minute I’m not spending with my family or doing something FOR my family

Or growing in my faith…

Or sitting on my porch…

Or doing what I love by simply researching and writing for Becoming Natural.

I don’t want my life to be efficient as much as I want to be available.

Available for what actually matters. With my half a brain at times, I

wasn’t. I literally needed a control alt delete kind of a reset

A LITTLE GLIMPSE

All that to say. Soon.

Soon Pieces of what I’ve been building will become things I can share.

Maybe checklists or planners

Definitely automated systems that help another overwhelmed mom breathe a little easier

Perhaps tools that save someone hours every week.

But this started because I needed help. I needed to get my act

in gear and figure out how to pull myself up by the bootstraps

and not only live. But embrace the wonderful, healthy, second chance at life

I was

And I have a feeling I’m not the only one.

WHAT SCRIPTURE KEPT REMINDING ME

1 Corinthians 14:40 says

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”

This verse is often quoted when people are talking

about organization, but in its original context, Paul was

actually addressing something much deeper than keeping a tidy

church bulletin

The church in Corinth was passionate about spiritual gifts. People were speaking

in tongues, prophesying, praying, teaching—but everyone seemed to be doing it

at once. Instead of pointing people to Christ, their gatherings had become

chaotic

Earlier paul says: "For God is not a God

of confusion but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33

As I have been working thru the Bible in a year, I am learning to really go back to

the root of the work in Hebrew or Greek to understand what was truly being imparted with certain words

What does "in order" mean?

The Greek word (taxis) means:

• proper arrangement

• orderly sequence

• intentional structure

• appointed order

It's actually a military term in some settings—soldiers

lined up with purpose rather than scattered in confusion

Paul isn't saying:

"Everything has to be rigid."

He's saying:

"Everything should have purpose."

This verse reveals something important about God's nature.

God created:

• the seasons

• gravity

• the stars

• the human body

• ecosystems

None of these function through chaos.

Creation is breathtaking because there is incredible and intentional design

underneath massive work. Massive excellence that reveals itself with such

ease

I heard this illustration one time and I never forgot it: Think of an orchestra.

Before the performance it sounds chaotic.

Everyone is warming up.

Different instruments.

Different notes.

But when Then the conductor lifts the baton. It goes silent.

The same musicians don't become less

gifted—they become unified and orderly

Order doesn't remove creativity. It actually allows beauty to emerge

A symphony, the sunrise and sunset, spring always bringing new

life

So I had to ask.

• Does my life reflect God's peace or constant confusion?

• Am I making decisions intentionally or simply reacting?

• Are my words building people up?

• Do my gifts serve others or am I not using them purposefully.

Order isn't valuable because everything has to be perfect. It's valuable because

thoughtful structure can reduce confusion and make it easier for people to

flourish

God is remarkably creative, yet profoundly orderly.

When we bring order into our lives—not to control everything, but

to serve people well—we begin to reflect something of His character

23

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men."

Doing things "decently and in order" is one way our work, our

worship, and even our ordinary routines can become an act of honoring

God

It reveals something about God’s heart.

He’s a God of peace.

Of purpose.

Of order.

Not because He loves rules.

But because He loves people.

He knows what constant confusion does to our weary hearts. And oh how my heart

was weary. And look at how I tied AI into blessings in my life. Lol

If you can use it intentionally and carefully, it’s a great tool in in

our

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been…

I’ve been building breathing room and gaining margin in the

process. It has been so much fun. But man the hours

I am so excited about a foundation that is going to last and allows

me to show up here with more consistency, more creativity, and more peace and

Stepping away for a few weeks wasn’t intentional and it wasn’t about not having time or desire

I got carried away creating a healthier way to serve for years instead of burning out in

a few months over the tasks I don’t enjoy. And that is was excites me the

most

ENCOURAGEMENT

Maybe you don’t need to organize your whole life this week.

You might have it together way more than I do.

But I bet its safe to suggest to anyone to take One commitment off your plate.

One source of unnecessary stress.

Healing doesn’t always begin with adding something new.

Healing begins by creating space for more peace.

Thank you in advance for giving me the grace to step away for a little bit.

Thank you for coming back. Don’t give up on me or Becomign Natural

bc I have HUGE plans that are already in the process of coming to

life

I have missed these conversations more than you know.

Im thrilled bc I feel like I’m building from a healthier foundation. I am in it for the

long haul my friends! And im building this house out of bricks and prayer. The most solid of foundations