Perfect Peace, Not Perfect Circumstances

Your brain can turn one stray thought into a “truth” that runs your whole life. If you’ve ever woken up already feeling behind, rushed through the day, then collapsed at night thinking “see, I knew I couldn’t keep up”, we’re pulling that pattern apart with a simple framework that makes the invisible visible.

We start with Isaiah 26:3 and the word “steadfast” and why perfect peace is not the same thing as perfect circumstances. Then we dig into mental clutter and the kind that doesn’t show up on a to-do list: the thoughts you repeat, the comparison you carry, and the quiet beliefs like “I have to hold it all together” or “I’ll rest when I’m finished”. I share the cycle I teach in Mental Declutter, how thoughts shape beliefs, beliefs drive actions, actions become habits, and habits shape life, which then feeds right back into your thoughts.

We also connect this to Romans 12:2 and the renewing of your mind, because lasting change rarely starts with another routine, planner, or burst of willpower. If you’re a woman juggling mental load, organisation, faith, and real life, this will help you find the deeper lever that leads to peace before productivity.

If you want to go deeper, you’re invited to join the She’s Organised Hub community. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels stretched thin, and leave a review so more women can find support.

Transcript

Welcome And What We Explore

Mel 0:18

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in.

Isaiah 26:3 And Steadfast Peace

Mel 1:00

I want to start today with a verse that I've been sitting with for a bit. We actually talked about this in our recent Bible study inside the Cheese Organized Hub, and there's one particular word in the verse that I've not been able to quite shake. I've just been thinking about it since, and it's from Isaiah 26, 3. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. And the word that stood out to me the most was steadfast. Steadfast means, well, a number of things, unchanging, unwavering. But the part that kind of stood out to me the most is not changing in purpose, loyalty, or belief. Now, when I think about that for a moment, not changing in purpose, loyalty, or belief. I don't know about you, but sometimes my mind can jump from one thing to another within the space of five seconds. So trying to understand what God is really trying to say in this, I've really had to dig deeper and understand the message He's trying to communicate in that, but also how to practically live that in my life. And I find that at times, like something happens and then we start to worry, or we're not doing enough, and we're comparing with other people in our lives, and we may have even been at peace with a decision we've made, but then we start thinking about it again and again and again, and suddenly we're questioning the whole thing. We know something to be true, but then our circumstances look completely different from what we expected, and we start questioning what we believed. Our minds can go everywhere, and yet Isaiah talks about this steadfast mind, a mind that is anchored, a mind that isn't being pulled in a million different directions, and the promise attached to that is really quite beautiful. Perfect peace. I can't even comprehend perfect peace, but I certainly would

Mental Clutter Beyond Mental Load

Mel 3:05

love to experience it. I've been thinking about this so much as well because I just finished creating a brand new course that I have up inside the She's Organized Hub called Mental Declutter. As I was creating this course, I kept coming back to the idea that mental clutter is so much bigger than having too much in your head, having too many things going on. When we think about mental load, especially as women and mums, we often think about everything we're trying to remember, like our appointments and school things, what's for dinner, bills to pay, all of that. But there's another type of noise that keeps happening in our minds, and it is our thoughts. The things we're telling ourselves all day long, and some of those thoughts have been there for so long that we don't even really notice them anymore. Like, I should be doing more, I'm falling behind. Look at everyone else in life, and I'm not even close to achieving what they've achieved. Everyone else seems to be doing better than me. All this comparison stuff. And just even comparison with yourself, that perhaps you're in a season now where you're just not performing at the level that you were before because seasons have changed. Maybe yours is completely different. I know that I've certainly thought all those things before. And here's what I really want you to hear today. Thoughts don't necessarily stay as thoughts. They can go so much further than that. And I want to break it down. So, this is one of the concepts that I teach inside the mental declutter course. And I want to give you a little glimpse of it today because I think that this alone can change the way you look at what's happening inside your mind. Now, I will preface this by saying I am not a psychologist, I am not a doctor, I am not anyone accredited in the field of the mind. I am literally just one woman with 37, nearly 38 years of life experience, a lot of counseling, a lot of other things going on to have put this together. Plus, I am an avid reader and I love to study and learn and continue

The Thoughts To Life Cycle

Mel 5:20

growing. So this is kind of what I've put together. Now, I imagine a circle, and at the top we have thoughts. Then we have belief, then action, then habit, then life, and then it feeds right back around to thoughts again. So thoughts, belief, action, habit, life, thoughts, belief, action, habit, life, thoughts, you know, and it just keeps going back around and around. So let me explain what I mean. A thought enters your mind. And sometimes it's just a thought. We have thousands of thoughts. But when certain thoughts keep coming back, when we keep entertaining them and repeating them, they can begin shaping what we believe to be true. And what we believe influences how we act. Repeated often enough becomes habits, and our habits influence the direction of our lives. And that's how we end up with this whole cycle. But here's the part I find really interesting: the cycle doesn't stop there. Because then we experience our life through the lens of everything that happened before it. And that experience can reinforce the very thought that started the cycle. Our life starts feeding our thoughts and around and around we go. Let's use a really simple example. You wake up in the morning and think, I'm already behind. I'm running late. Oh my goodness, my alarm didn't go off. Or maybe one of the kids can't find their shoes, or the kitchen is still a mess from last night. You just didn't get around to it. Maybe you've opened your phone and seen 12 things demanding your attention before you've even finished your coffee. I'm already behind. It's one thought. But imagine that's a thought you have regularly. Over time, that thought can start becoming part of what you believe. Maybe it becomes, I can never keep up. Now we're not just talking about this morning anymore. We're talking about something you believe about yourself and your life. I can never keep up. And if that's what you believe, think about how that might influence your actions. You start rushing. Try to multitask, which, let's face it, isn't the most effective way of getting things done. You say yes to something because you don't want to disappoint someone. You skip breaks. You feel guilty when you sit down. You spend the whole day just trying to catch up to this impossible goal that is only in your mind. You start living in this constant state of urgency and always rushing and doing and thinking about the next thing. Life becomes rushed. And then with that, it becomes overwhelming. And you just never quite feel caught up. And so you then stop and look at your life, and what do you think? See, I knew it. I'm always behind. And we're right back at the beginning. Thoughts, belief, action, habit, life, thought, and so on. The cycle just reinforces itself. And suddenly something that began as a thought,

Being Steadfast In Wrong Beliefs

Mel 8:45

it feels like a fact. And this is where I found myself coming back to Isaiah 26.3. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Steadfast, not changing in purpose, loyalty, or belief. And it made me wonder what have I become steadfast in without even realizing it? Because maybe some of us actually have incredibly steadfast minds. We've just become steadfast in the wrong things. Become steadfast in I have to hold everything together. I need to be productive to be worth something and valuable. I'm always behind. I have to do everything myself. I'll rest when I'm finished. I should be able to cope with this. We have repeated some of these things for so long that they feel completely normal. And yet scripture is inviting us into something completely different. A mind that is steadfast because it trusts God. This has probably been one of the biggest lessons I've learned this year. As someone that has struggled with control and trying to control so much of my life to realize that I'm not controlling much at all. To understanding and learning surrender and having that heart of surrender. This has been such a huge journey for me, even just this year. The mind that in is steadfast trusts in God. And that's the anchor. It's not our ability to control everything, whether the house is clean, whether everyone else is happy with us, even like people pleasing. Oh my goodness. I was probably the worst at it. Trust. And I think that's such an important distinction because peace isn't simply about having peaceful circumstances. In fact, it's usually having peace despite the circumstances. If peace required everything around us to be calm, most of us would be waiting a very long time. Especially if you've got kids. Life is going to keep happening. Plans will change. As much as I don't like it. Plans will change. Things will go wrong.

Renewing Your Mind Before Productivity

Mel 11:10

People will need us. There's going to be busy seasons and difficult seasons, but Uzia isn't describing perfect circumstances. He's describing a steadfast mind. And this is where it connects so deeply with everything I've been teaching around peace before productivity. And if you haven't heard that episode, I had it up a few weeks ago. It's not that far to scroll back and listen. And I feel like that is the core heart of what I'm trying to teach here. So definitely listen to that episode too. We spend so much time trying to change what's happening externally. Maybe it is needing a better routine or planner or waking up earlier, having better disciplines, organizing the house. Maybe it is all those things. And maybe I just need to get through this really busy month and then I can rest and feel at peace. But what if we're starting too far down the line? Because remember the cycle, there's thought, belief, action, habit, life. If we continually try to change the action or the habit without ever looking at what is happening further back in the cycle, it makes sense that we can find ourselves falling into the same patterns again. And I know I've experienced this in so many areas of my life, even with my health. I've tried through sheer determination and will to lose the weight. And I wasn't even dealing with this first. I wasn't even dealing with how I was speaking to myself first. All of this, this whole pattern works no matter what you're looking at in life. And I think scripture art gives us such a beautiful picture of this in Romans 12, too, as well. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformed, I mean, that is a huge word. Huge word. And how does that happen? By the renewing of your mind. Not your actions first or your habits or anything else. It's your mind. And there's something happening internally before we ever see the transformation externally. I think that's where I want to leave this today. Because I feel like it is just, I could go on forever and unpack this forever. Because I, the natural question now is probably, okay, Mal, how? How do I know which thoughts I've been believing? How do I recognize what actions influence me? And how do I stop going around and around in the cycle? All those things. And I'm not going to keep diving deeper into it now because I feel like I'm just going to open a can of worms. And

Join The She’s Organised Hub

Mel 14:00

this isn't the place for it. So I would like to invite you to join me inside the She's Organized Hub. And I recently made actually a pretty big decision around this because I've been tossing up this idea for a little while, and I've decided to open up the community level of the hub completely free. So if you've been listening to this podcast for the last year or so and you've heard me talk about the She's Organized Hub, up until now, it wasn't free. And I mean, it's not a huge cost, but there was still something involved. And so I don't know what the hub will look like forever. I can't promise that it will be free in the future if you're listening to these two, three, four years from now. But I have opened up the community for free. And, you know, things grow and change, and I'm always paying attention to where God is leading me with the community and with the business. But as of August 2026, you can come and join the She's Organized Hub community for free. And I genuinely welcome you in. We've had a lot more new ladies come in, and it's been lovely getting to know them. There's a lovely group of women already in there that have been faithful and there for six, 12 or more months. And there's some that are brand new, and I'm loving the conversations we're having in there. And if you want to go deeper with me, then the VIP level at $47 a month is where I have the brand new mental declutter course. But not just that, it's also got all the other courses I've got, all the past coaching calls. You get access to so much for just $47 a month. And honestly, this new course is something that I could easily charge two, $300 for. Easily. I go into so much detail, but I also keep it so simple and it's so profound that even as I've gone through it, I've had a whole lot of emotions. I it has taken me so much longer to get this course out than I originally anticipated, just because I started with one thing and God just breathed life into it and it became more and more and more. And not more in the fact that it's going to overwhelm you and shut you down, but more in the way that it is complete, that you have what you need to really help just clear your mind from a practical mum to another kind of way, without all the scientific jargon and stuff. I keep it really simple. And even the people that I've run it by already are just having their mind blown with how they're it's shifting their perspective just on their everyday life. And today I've shown you the cycle. And inside the course, I'm going to help you understand what to actually do with it, plus so much more to unpack. We go deeper in the mental decliner course and what's happening beneath the surface, renewing your mind and practically creating new patterns that lead towards greater peace. And so, as I mentioned, the VIP isn't just this course, it is everything else. So I would encourage you to join at that level if you are wanting the course. But if you're not quite ready for that just yet, and you just want to join in on the discussion and get to know the community, get to know me and the other people in there, you are more than welcome to join us for free. Just come in, meet everyone, say hello, mention what it is that you're wanting to get more organized in, what you're wanting more help with, even with your mind, and we can start doing this together. And the course will be there when you're ready. So I'll put the link to the She's Organized Hub in the show

The Anchoring Question And Goodbye

Mel 17:50

notes. And I want to leave you with this question from today. What is your mind steadfast in? Because God does tell us you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Maybe creating more peace in your life doesn't begin with getting everything under your control. Maybe it begins with where your mind is anchored. See you next week. If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram @shes.organised or for some free resources, head over to beyondorganised.com/toolkit. Remember, organising is a tool to live the purposeful life beyond it. See you next time.