Episode 65: Room to Receive

Making room changes everything. From clearing physical spaces to letting go of old emotions and beliefs, this episode shows you how to create space for love, confidence, and new possibilities to flow into your life.  You’ll hear practical strategies and inspiring examples to help you welcome what you truly want.

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But only if you want to invite new thoughts, new emotions, new ideas, new relationships, new habits, and new accomplishments into your 2026. ;)

Full Transcript:

You're listening to the Think New Thoughts Podcast with Emily Ricks, episode number 65, Room to Receive.

I'm Emily Ricks, and this is Think New Thoughts, a life coaching podcast to help you find more joy in your relationships. In each episode, I'll share a simple idea that will help you see things in a new way so you can love God, your neighbor, and yourself more deeply than you ever have before. If you're ready to literally change your mind, I think you'll like it here.

I read a statistic this week that said only 8 to 10% of people who begin a podcast ever make it through the first year or to episode 52. And I was feeling pretty pumped about that because here we are at episode 65.

So I just wanted to say thank you for continuing to listen and especially thank you for when you reach out to me telling me about a particular episode that you really liked or that was inspiring to you. I want you to know that that means the world to me and I appreciate it so much. Thanks for being with me on this journey and let's keep going.

Today, I want to talk about the idea of making room. And this has been on my mind a lot because my oldest son, Ethan, recently returned home from serving a two-year mission for our church. And so two years is a long time to be gone.

And we were really excited and anticipating him coming home. And so there were lots of things that we did to prepare for him to be here. And, you know, physical things like we made room in our home.

We cleaned up the basement in his bedroom. I put clean sheets on the bed. I also made room in my schedule during the, the weeks, right? As he was coming home, I scaled down work projects and other commitments.

I worked ahead. I coordinated details so that I would have as little as possible to do when he was actually coming home. I wanted to be able to really savor that time and be totally present.

I also practiced songs on the piano that are his favorite to sing. He loves to sing. I love to play for him.

It's just something that we really enjoy. And so that was one way that I made room for him to come home. I got a list of the foods that he wanted me to have on hand.

And we stocked the refrigerator in the pantry with those things. We bought welcome home signs and banners to be able to put up in our home. So there's some of the things that we did to make room for him to come.

And I found myself during the weeks preceding his homecoming, I found myself singing joy to the world, you know, like let every heart prepare him room. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm preparing him room.

And it was really, really joyful to make these preparations to receive him into our home. And I've been thinking about this concept and how it applies to so many areas of our lives. So I wanted to share a few thoughts today that hopefully will help you make room in your life for what you want to welcome and receive.

And of course this applies to hosting company, but it extends to an infinite number of other possibilities too. So let's talk about it. The first idea I want to share is making room for physical things in our physical space.

So if you think about, you know, if you're pregnant and you're going to welcome a baby, then there are physical things that you do to prepare. Like you want to have a crib for this baby to sleep in. You're going to want to have a diaper changing table.

You're going to want to have diapers and wipes and clothes and blankets, maybe pacifiers, right? Like all sorts of physical things that you do to prepare for this baby to come. And a lot of women experience the feeling of nesting in the last several weeks of the pregnancy. You have a very strong desire to get all of these physical things in place.

And we can also prepare for, you know, other physical things that we want to receive. Like over the summer, we got our carpets replaced. And so we had to make room for that.

We had to clear out everything out of all of the rooms. And so we put a bunch of it in the basement. Some of it, we transferred onto where we have wood floor, but we made room.

We created space in those places for the installers to come. And then they ripped out the old carpet and then they put in the new same thing, like getting our basement finished. We put everything that was in the basement into the garage and we had to create space.

We had to prepare room for us to receive the electrical wiring, the framing, the installation, the drywall, the flooring, the paint, the carpet, the trim. Those were blessings. Those were things we wanted to welcome.

Those were beautiful updates that we wanted to have, but in order to make room for them, we had to clear out what was there to make room for something new. And I love, actually, it's a lot of work sometimes, but it's also really joyful to make room to receive new things. So I want to just think about that.

What do you want to invite into your life physically speaking, and how could you clear physical space to be able to receive that? There's a really cool book by Catherine Thomas. It's called calling in the one. And she talks about making space to attract the kind of relationship you've been longing for, like for people who want to have a committed relationship or want to be married.

And this is a book that kind of shows them how to create space for that. She recommends, if you're wanting to find a person to marry, that you physically clear out half of your closet, that you empty drawers in your nightstand, that you make actual physical space in your home, as if you already had a partner living with you. And that that is an amazing way to invite that kind of a relationship into your life.

And I just think that's so cool. She also explores letting go of beliefs, patterns, and emotions that are taking up space and that aren't inviting the relationship that you're seeking and how to let go of those so that you can welcome in new things. And this is just such a powerful concept to make room in your life for whatever it is you want to receive.

So in addition to physical space, we can also make room in our minds. So if we go back to the idea of a baby being born, you also not just the crib and the diapers and the clothes and the physical space, but most moms like in ideal circumstances, right? You also clear your schedule so that you're going to be able to take care of this baby. Maybe you take maternity leave, or maybe you clear other responsibilities, or you let people know, Hey, I'm not going to be available for a couple of weeks because I'm going to be having this baby.

And you also clear space in your mind for new routines or new ways of doing things. Maybe you learn, read books about how to take care of the baby. And you think through what is this going to impact and how are the siblings going to be impacted or different things like that you think about and imagine how life is going to be.

So there are a lot of ways that we make space in our minds for the things that we want to receive. So what do you want to invite into your mind? How can you make room in your schedule room in your mind room in your life to receive that thing that you want? Here's an example. I want God to give me ideas and impressions.

And I know he's not just going to shout above the busyness of life to try to get my attention. So I scheduled time in my morning to clear my mind and I invite God to speak to me so I can receive those impressions. But what is it for you? What do you want to receive? And what would it look like for you to make room in your mind or in your schedule to receive those things? You can make room in your physical space for things or people or other blessings you want to invite into your life.

You can make room in your mind and you can also make room in your heart. You think about that part of joy to the world, right? Let every heart prepare him room. And I've been thinking a lot about what that means.

So I've been kind of picturing like imagine your heart as a room. Maybe you haven't walked into it for a while. I want you to just think about what would it look like to walk into your heart and see what's there.

Is it crowded with old crates of disappointment? Stacks of fear pushed up against the walls or half opened dusty boxes of unmet expectations spilling onto the floor. We talk about wanting more connection, more ease, more possibility. But if those gifts showed up at your doorstep today, would they even be able to get through the doorway? Or would they find every surface of your heart already taken by emotions you never really meant to keep? I think it's so easy to just shove shame and self-pity and resentment into a pile inside your heart and try to pretend that they're not there.

But the cost of doing that is that you use up the space that could be occupied by love and peace and gratitude. My training and my experience as a coach is that if we want to feel more love, we first let go of frustration and then love naturally flows in. If we want to feel more understanding, we first let go of judgment and then understanding naturally begins to fill its place.

If you want to feel more peace, you can start with letting go of control and peace slips right into the space that you free up. If you want to feel more confident, you can begin by releasing comparison and confidence will rise to meet the room that is now open. So just something to think about.

What can you let go of in your physical space, in your mind, or in your heart? So you can let something in that's even better. I want to encourage you to give this some thought and choose something you want to invite into your life. What is it for you and how can you create space to receive it? How can you prepare room for what it is you really want? Here's another invitation for you.

I've created space in my schedule starting in January for a few new private one-on-one coaching clients. I'm offering a 12-week coaching program called Renew Your Mind and it will help you let go of things that are cluttering up your life and your mind and your heart and make it possible for you to invite new things, new relationships, new thoughts, new emotions, new patterns, new habits, and new accomplishments into your life. In each coaching session, we'll explore what currently is in your space or your heart or your mind and then I'll help you decide what you want to make room to receive and how you can invite it into your life.

This isn't going to be a fit for everyone. You might not have the interest, you might not have the desire or the time or the budget to invest in one-on-one coaching and that's totally fine. But what if this is for you? What would you be willing to let go of in order to invite dramatic positive changes into your life? If you're thinking that maybe this is what you want for Christmas to do 12 weeks of private coaching with me starting in January, your next step is to apply for the program.

Go to emilyrickscoaching.com forward slash apply. You'll answer a couple of quick questions and then book a free no obligation call with me. This work is life-giving, it's confidence boosting, and honestly, it's really fun.

You're going to love the way things start opening up for you when you take the next step. Don't wait until January though or the spots will get filled up. I only take a few private clients at a time, so you're going to want to act on that now.

Go to emilyrickscoaching.com/apply to schedule your call with me. We'll get everything queued up to start in January. I can't wait to help you clear out the old and make room for the new in 2026.