Equipping Live | September 2026

That's Not What Happened

What to Do When Your Brain Tells the Wrong Story
Friday, September 11 • 10:00 AM ET • $10 • Zoom

You make hundreds of small interpretations every day.

A text goes unanswered. Someone's tone shifts. A conversation ends awkwardly. A week that was supposed to go one way goes another. Before you've even decided to think about it, you've already told yourself a story about what it means. They're pulling away. This is going to fall apart. You should have seen it coming. The story arrives fast. It feels like fact.

But that's not what happened. What happened is what a camera would record. Everything else is a story your brain wrote in the first thirty seconds, shaped by old fears, past experiences, and the worst case version of what might be true.

Here is what that costs you: an inaccurate read produces a wrong thought. A wrong thought produces an unhelpful emotion. An unhelpful emotion produces an unhealthy behavior. And by the time you get to the behavior, you have done damage that had nothing to do with what actually happened.

This session is about interrupting that chain. Early. Before the story sets.

"You don't need a new personality. You need one question, asked early enough to matter."

Chris, Equipping Live, September

If any of these land, this session is for you

The felt tension that brought you here:

• You tend to assume the worst when someone goes quiet, pulls back, or gives a short answer
• You have reacted to a situation and found out later you had the wrong read entirely
• You know something is off in a relationship but you're not sure if what you're seeing is real or a story you're telling
• You are tired of your emotions arriving before you've had a chance to think
• You've taken an Equipping class and want to keep the practice going between sessions

Not for: people looking for a therapy session or help processing a specific situation in real time. This is formation, not crisis support. If you are in the middle of something acute, reach out to chris@equippingministries.org and we will point you somewhere better.

What to Expect

An hour that changes how you see what is happening around you.

01 Teach

One concept, clearly explained. What is actually happening when we assign meaning too fast, what it costs us downstream, and what changes when we slow down and see accurately.

02 Practice

You won't just hear about it. We will work through it together live. You will leave with one specific practice you can use this week before the story has time to set.

03 Questions

Bring your real ones. The relationships where you keep getting the read wrong. The situations where you don't know what to trust. That is what the Q&A is for.

Equipping Live is a conversation with people working on the same things you are, led by someone who has gotten the read wrong more times than he can count.

You do not have to be in crisis for this to matter.

Your Host - Chris Conlin

Executive Director, Equipping Ministries International

Chris is the Executive Director of Equipping Ministries International, a 50 year old relational discipleship organization that has worked with over 750,000 people across 120+ countries. He has spent years studying what the Bible says about the mind, how we form beliefs, and why the gap between what happened and what we think happened is one of the most consequential spaces in a person's life.

He leads EMI's monthly class series in Cincinnati alongside his wife Victoria, hosts The Human Project podcast, and is working on a book about the relational practices that form real followers.

He will probably tell you about a time he got the read completely wrong before he tells you what to do instead.

Register above or email info@equippingministries.org with questions. The Zoom link will be sent after registration. Can't make it live? Register anyway. We'll send you the recording.