00:00:07 Nazish: Sometimes the most unsettling moments in life aren't when things fall apart. But when everything looks fine on the outside. Yet something inside keeps whispering. This isn't what we are meant for. So today we are exploring what it means to align with purpose. Not the kind defined by pressure or success, but the kind rooted in faith, clarity, and peace.

00:00:37 Nazish: Welcome to inner peace, BetterHelp, a space where we explore the connection between inner alignment, emotional well-being, and the deeper meaning behind the lives we live. I am your host, Nasir, and today I am joined by LaTonya Renee Flood, a Kingdom strategist, author, and a certified life coach who brings creative production, financial strategies, and faith centered leadership through her work and her Foundation, she helps entrepreneurs move from identity confusion to what she calls holy confidence. In this conversation, we are exploring the peace of purpose, aligning with God's call and what it really looks like to recognize a deeper calling and living it with practical, grounded ways. LaTonya, it is truly a pleasure to have you here.

00:01:36 LaTonya Renee Flood: It's completely an honor to be here. Um, when you were giving the introduction, I had no intentions of sharing the story, but I kept seeing something. I remember the night, uh, that actually shifted me to doing all the things that I'm doing now, and it helps keep me grounded. Um, I believe you mentioned, uh, the difference between what you feel on the inside and what's going on the outside. One night I just felt extremely overwhelmed because the life that I feel as though God has showed me I wasn't actively living, and I felt like at the time, I was doing everything within my power to see this vision. He showed me manifest in real time, but I wasn't getting anywhere. So one night I just lost it. Now in my head, it looked like I was tearing up my room. I was pushing down the TV. I was flipping over the bed. It wasn't in a fight because I wasn't doing those things. Thank God I was strong enough to to handle myself. But I, I literally texted my husband because he was downstairs and I was like, babe, you need to come upstairs ASAP. He came upstairs. We began to talk and I told him that I begged him not told him. I begged him to please take me to a mental a mental institution because I had convinced myself that I was crazy because once again, the vision. Um, the things that God had called me to do. I wasn't doing them. So that is the lead up to some of the things that I, I hope we get to discuss today because when you're not, um, if you don't understand your purpose and if you're not aligned with the person that God calls you to be, you could easily, easily, because it happened to me slip into, uh, depression leading to isolation, um, self doubt, self harm, even. So I, again, I'm just extremely honored that you are allowing me the privilege to share some of my story with others and hope that it will provide some type of insight to help them, um, understand their, their peace with their purpose.

00:03:59 Nazish: Thank you so much for sharing that story with us. And this is something that I believe a lot of our listeners are going to feel resonated with. And something I noticed is that many people think purpose arrives as a clear, dramatic moment, a sign, a breakthrough, something unmistakable. But real life often feels far more subtle than that. So from your experience guiding entrepreneurs and leaders, what do people usually misunderstand about discovering God's call on their life?

00:04:35 LaTonya Renee Flood: Oh. That's good. Um, I feel as though most people misunderstand that they have to do something to align themselves with God. But the truth is, everything that we need to be, uh, quote unquote successful or, or have that, that sense of peace is just settling our minds and taking the time just to get to know God, to understand that everything we need inside of us, we already have. There's nothing that you need to go out there and get credentialed like, am I? There's credentialing helps. Yes, I have plenty certification, but that's just more so to set yourself apart in the eyes of man, just to help them feel comfortable with with what God has given you. But if you're a leader, you're born a leader. That's not something you're you're not going to take a class to become a leader. That is something that is engrafted in you. And if you pay attention to your lifestyle, if you pay attention to the conversations that you have with people, you, what you have inside of you naturally will come out. So that's the one misunderstanding that people feel as though they have to go outside of themselves to be comfortable in who they are. But the truth is, it's a, it's an inner it's an inner thing.

00:06:06 Speaker 3: Absolutely.

00:06:07 Nazish: it is powerful because it shifts the idea of purpose from a single event into a relationship to something we grow into, rather than something we suddenly receive.

00:06:19 LaTonya Renee Flood: Yeah, most definitely something you grow into. One night I used to be a content creator for some of my clients, and one night I set aside time to just focus on one client in particular, and I was having a conversation with God asking him to help me. You know how how can I better serve her? And that night, believe it or not, was extremely helpful for me. Instead of God showing me the results for her, he started speaking to me and he began to show me me through his lens. because it's hard. It's hard out there for us to see ourselves. We got imposter syndrome. We got the world literally fighting against us. Everything that we see on TV is quite the opposite of reality. And we're battling with all these mental thoughts. But when you're able to see yourself through God's, when you understand that all the things that's been happening to your life for your life over a period of time all make sense. If you could just sit down and put it all together.

00:07:28 Nazish: Absolutely. You, you know, you speak about helping people move from identity crisis to holy to holy confidence. And that phrase really stands out. So what tends to create that identity confusion in the first place, especially for people who are capable, driven, and outwardly successful?

00:07:49 LaTonya Renee Flood: Well, I'll just speak, um, on my own experience. So I had a hard time saying no to people I know. I have known since the year twenty twelve that I was called to help and to serve others. I didn't know what it looked like. It took years to figure that out, but I knew that's what I was called to do. So every time someone was in my presence or every time, you know, I was in a meeting, I just felt obligated to to say yes to all of the the ask. But once I understood my true assignment, once I started aligning my aligning myself with God's purpose, it was so much easier to say no without the guilt. Um, to say no without the shame. So understanding my identity helped me to be completely more bold, and it gave me the ammunition to to fight against that self-doubt and that imposter syndrome, because this is a daily this is something that we have. Peace is something that we have to seek daily. It's not something that we get one time and then, oh, for the rest of our lives, we're just living in this blissful peace. So I'm just going to use this, for example, being invited to this podcast. I know what my calling is. I understand who I am in Christ, but yet I felt nervous. I was like, oh, am I worthy enough to be on this show? Would my story actually help someone else? And the enemy started putting all these things in my head. But because I know who I am, I was able to fight back in the spiritual realm and then come on here and and confidently speak with boldness. We, we are always going to have these negative emotions, um, attacking us. They're going to, they're going to be times when we're angry, there's going to be times when we're frustrated. There's going to be times where we're going to want to isolate ourselves from others. But like I said, it's a daily fight. We want to align yourself one time with God. And once you understand that peace that you get from being in your person purpose, it makes it so much easier to bounce back and snap back so that that holy confidence would show up. Whenever you walk through the room, you know who you are. You know that you were meant to be in the room because if you weren't meant to be in the room, God would never allow you to be in the room. So you. And if you understand what your gifts are, if you if you understand how you move, you'll be able to figure out why you're in the room, and then God can utilize you in that space.

00:10:39 Nazish: it sounds like a part of the part of this journey is learning to trust the process of becoming and not rushing it, but allowing identity to realign over time.

00:10:52 LaTonya Renee Flood: Oh absolutely. That is so well said. I was just helping my son the other day with his homework, and he got so frustrated because he was getting it wrong. And I asked him, I was like, son, why are you so frustrated? And he said, because I just want to get through it fast. And I was like, well, honestly, son, the fastest way to get through something is just to take your time and do it right the first time. And I love what you said about becoming is this again, we live in the now. We don't live in the past. We don't live in the future. We live in the now. So we are we are constantly evolving. So we're constantly becoming. So we should be constantly seeking, um, getting to know father, getting to know ourselves, staying in alignment with who we are so that we can have that peace of mind and with that peace of mind that also help you with health benefits. You won't be suffering from mental instabilities like depression and anxiety and isolation, as I mentioned before. And even those things could manifest in a physical way. You're thinking you're getting migraines and your stomach is hurting all the time because you have some type of physical ailment. But when you align yourself with your purpose, you'll you'll see quickly, like, oh, my stomach's not hurting as often as it used to hurt. Because once you have that sense of peace and that sense of purpose, your body literally responds to that.

00:12:23 Nazish: I it's, it's absolutely amazing, you know, everyday life moments are there. And when someone is living out of alignment with their purpose, what are some signs that begin to appear not just spiritually, but emotionally or even physically?

00:12:41 LaTonya Renee Flood: Oh, emotionally. Um, depression. Um, because you will think that you're not good enough. Um, you're not worthy. Um. Um, physically, you feel fatigued and tired. You don't want to get out of bed. Um, you'll start, um, isolating yourself from friends. Those are, those are definitely the signs that you are out of alignment. Um, saying yes to certain situations and immediately being unhappy with yourself or mad at your friend or whomever asks the, the request because you didn't feel confident saying, no, that thing right there, just mess anybody up. Because I've been in that situation. I have friends and family members who've been in the situation of feeling obligated to say yes because they're outside of alignment. Um, so yeah, those are the different ways how it definitely has showed up for me, even down to, uh, spiritually having suicidal thoughts, believing the lie that you aren't meant to be here, but the fact that you're here, the fact that you are alive just proves that you are meant to be here. So your everyone life has purpose. Everyone's life have purpose. I had to say that again, because there might be someone listening right now who feel that, uh, depression or that anxiety or that loss and the overwhelming and thinking about giving up. Hear me when I say you are here for a purpose. Your life have purpose. There is something inside of you that someone else or many other else other people are gleaning for. So you need to get outside of your mind and stop giving in to the lies that you aren't good enough or you aren't strong enough. And I talked about credentials earlier. If you naturally are a leader, but the enemy is tricking you and telling you you're shy, then maybe you could take some leadership classes to cultivate what's already inside. Um. Do what you gotta do. Fight for yourself. Because you matter.

00:15:02 Speaker 3: Absolutely.

00:15:04 Nazish: And, you know, the perspective is so reassuring because it reminds us that alignment doesn't necessarily mean abandoning everything. It often means recentering the way recentering the why behind what we do.

00:15:18 LaTonya Renee Flood: Oh yeah. Again, I used to be overwhelmed about saying yes when I should say no, but now I just set boundaries so I didn't abandon my friends. I didn't abandon my family. I didn't abandon anyone. I just understand who I am now, and I make sure that I am not. How do I say this, Holy Spirit? I make sure I don't come out of alignment by saying yes. So I start certain boundaries. So today's Wednesday, usually on Wednesdays, like if someone calls and need my help, I'm like, listen, I can do that Wednesday. If you can't wait till Wednesday, you might have to find someone else because I have to do other things first. Um, so when you understand your alignment, you can be able to place boundaries. You're not abandoning, you're just shifting things in a way that will keep you at peace.

00:16:24 Nazish: I absolutely, I couldn't agree more with you. And when someone begins sensing the deeper calls, the next question usually becomes very practical. Where do I start? So from your work as a strategist and a coach, what are some grounded steps people can take to begin aligning their life with purpose? They believe. They believe God has placed them with.

00:16:50 LaTonya Renee Flood: Oh that's good. Um, so about eight months or so ago, I ran into a, a childhood best friend of mine. We haven't spoke in decades. And my husband asked us, I tell a story all the time. My husband asked, hey, how come you lost, you know, touch with this friend. And I began to share him, share stories. And when I started sharing those stories, my mind was exploding because I just so many memories from my childhood years were coming up. So I started journaling them in my phone And as I was journaling, like I, I was literally being healed in real time. I was writing down my feelings. For example, when I was in fifth grade, uh, my, my friends wanted, some of my friends wanted to fight me because they said that, um, I thought I was all that now in that moment, I didn't agree with that statement that I thought I was all of that. Um, but the truth is, I believed in that moment that if I fully, you know, showed up as who I was or who God called me to be, some people will find themselves uneasy. So from that moment up until about eight months ago, I was never showing up in spaces truly as God had created me because I was believing lies. So what I did was I wrote down every single lie that was coming up in my mind as I was journaling and as I was writing down these lies, God was giving me scriptures that I didn't even know that I knew. And I was being healed in real time because I was understanding what God said about me versus the lies that I was telling myself. And as I was writing, I heard the Holy Spirit loud in my. It was loud and a whisper. I don't know how that's possible, but that's how it was for me that, um, what I was writing was a book. And immediately I was like, I don't know, Holy Spirit if this is going to be a book because some of these stories, um, my mom doesn't even know about. And I, I don't know if I, if I knew it was going to be a book, I would have kind of censored my truth. But God said that it had to be the raw, honest truth so that it could have some type of impact. So I, I wrote this book called I Found My Light. Now go Find yours a journal to heal and return to God's truth. So I would tell everybody, not necessarily to start with my book, that would be cool because I know that God told me to wrote it for a purpose, but at least sit down and genuinely think about why you do certain things and ask God to reveal the lies that you've been believing. Because once you can get over all these lies that you believe, and once you find out the truth from God of who he called you to be and who you are, you'll be able to see so much things clearly, and you'll begin to do things differently because you're no longer operating under the lie.

00:20:07 Nazish: I appreciate that that integration, because purpose becomes sustainable when it connects both spiritual foundation and practical structure around it.

00:20:19 LaTonya Renee Flood: Yeah, well, most definitely we are spiritual and natural beings, so we have to do them both for our bodies to fully understand. So not only thinking about it, just the idea of writing things down and seeing it together. It goes hand in hand.

00:20:40 Nazish: Yes, absolutely. And you know, if there is one insight that I am taking from this conversation with you, it is that purpose isn't something we chase. It is something we align with step by step as we learn to listen more deeply to the calling already with us.

00:20:58 LaTonya Renee Flood: I couldn't have said that better.

00:21:02 Nazish: Yes. So for our listeners who feel inspired by this conversation and want to learn more about your work, your mission, where can they find you and connect with you?

00:21:12 LaTonya Renee Flood: Yeah. The easiest way is my website w w w dot com. It has, um, if you just want to reach out or check out the book or join the waitlist to become one of the five thousand that's ready to show up and get into alignment, understand your purpose, understand your gifts and how you're called to serve, then that is where we should connect.

00:21:40 Nazish: thank you so much for joining us today on Inner Peace, Better health, and sharing your valuable insight with us. It was an absolutely beautiful conversation with you.

00:21:51 LaTonya Renee Flood: Thank you.

00:21:53 Nazish: And to everyone listening, if this conversation resonated with you, take a moment to pause and reflect one simple question in your life. Where in my life am I being invited to realign? Sometimes peace doesn't come from having all the answers. It comes from taking the next step. You've been listening to Inner peace, better health. So until next time, take care of your mind, your spirit, and the quiet calling within you.