About a month or so ago, a friend, a former Jehovah Witness, asked me a really great question, Is Healing An Illusion? I loved this questioning so much that I created a podcast around it. Let's dive into when healing does feel like an illusion and why and what you can do about it so you do not get stuck in the pain of reliving your pain/trauma again and again and again. If you feel like you are on an emotional roller coaster of emotions all the time or that your healing is taking way too long, then this episode of Exmormonology is a very important one for you to listen to Wildflower.

This is part 2 of my conversation with Emily Robinette! Enjoy the rest of our convo as we talk about all things post mormon related and how life coaching has helped speed up some of Emily's healing, not just with mormon related topics but also all of LIFE. Tune in as we talk about how unraveling your mormon brain takes time, years actually. What is the strangest place your mormon brain has shown up on this side of life? Seriously post mormon humor is one of my most favorite things. Laughter is really the key piece to your healing. When you get to the place of laughter, you know you are on the right track. You got this wildflower!

This week in Exmormonology Land I invited Emily Robinette over for a conversation and to be on the podcast. We talk about all things faith crisis; the freedom we feel post faith crisis and also the rocky road we navigate after we leave the church, ie. high demand religion. You know that Exmormonology is all about helping you heal and work through religious trauma. Healing is not linear. It has ups and downs and joy and pain. Come be a fly on the wall while we discuss it all. Emily had her initial faith crisis in 2019 and has spent the last several years working through the tough issues that we all have to work through in finding our way back to ourselves, after the world as we knew it comes crashing down around us. I think you will really relate to what Emily has gone through on her personal faith crisis journey.

Last December I created a podcast 12 days in a row and called it The 12 Days of Post Mormon Christmas. The goal? To help you this time of year. This year, I pulled out the best snippets and put them all in one podcast episode. So, if you are working through a lot of thoughts and feelings about Christmas and Family right now along your own personal post mormonism journey, tune in. I give you specific tools and helps for you so you do not feel consumed with guilt or frustration or anger as you celebrate a holiday that may leave you with a bunch of confusion. You may be in the "The holidays ain't what they used to be" frame of mind, I hear you 100%. Nothing like seeing baby Jesus to bring up your religious trauma. Let's dive in and reclaim a holiday in a way that feels better now that you are on this side of the fence.

I am excited to share with all y'all wildflowers a conversation I have with my friend and fellow life coach Allison Crow. Allison just released her new book Unarmored: Finding Home in the Wild Edges of Being Human. Allison was raised a devout Christian in the south, Texas. Although not raised mormon, Allison has experienced her own faith crisis. I know you will love our discussion and we ebb and flow about life and heartbreak and healing and busting out of the "being a made up woman my religion taught me to be," type of thinking. 

The title of this Exmormonology Episode sums up this week's episode, it is a little bit all over the place, but as you listen I have a feeling you will understand. I tap into some pretty tender emotions and I want to share them with you in hopes that you can relate and see and hear what healing sounds like. Healing does not mean you have landed at the top of healing mountain where rainbows and butterflies live forever and ever and you dance around in gleeful joy and you no longer feel grief, pain or heartache. It means that you learn to hold the space for the tender side of healing and you do not make it mean that anything has gone wrong or that you are not healing. Healing ebbs and flows. Healing takes time. Remember wildflower, there is no rush and no race to this process. Just you and all the time you need. Thank you for letting me walk this path with you. Grab a cup a something and a blanket and maybe even a tissue and let's talk, you and me. Exmormon / Post Mormon / Life beyond mormonism.

Do you ever take the time to celebrate yourself and your amazingness? I am going to guess that you do not do this enough. This week I want to talk about why this is important and how easy it is to overlook it. You have experienced a faith crisis, paradigm shift and you are rethinking most everything in your life. Let's work on shaking it up a bit. Life is good.

This week's episode is a twofer, maybe a threefer! A few topics blended together as we head into the holidays. Family. The void. Faith crisis v. awakening. Thoughts and feelings oh my! You have some decisions to make this time of year.

Hey all of you faith transition/faith crisis wildflower...has this happened to you?

You have been through, what you thought was the worst of your faith crisis and then one day something happens and it brings it all back. You breakdown. All the work you thought you had done feels like it is erased and you find yourself in a heap of tears, yet again. Faith crisis, faith transition, and moving on is a life long process. Learning how to let those days of breakdown be a part of life and not take over is a key to healing. Nothing has gone wrong if you have a breakdown. Tune in this week as I take you through one of my many breakdowns post faith crisis.

Continuting our conversation about money with Money Mindset Coach Natasha Tekeste.

Natasha Tekeste is a money mindset coach for women and people socialized as women who want to earn more money. She works with women who want to shift their beliefs around money and wealth so they can leave the drama behind and focus on actually doing the work that they love to do. She teaches people how to love the money they have, while also loving the process of earning and creating more – because it is possible for money to be easy & fun!

Natasha is an Advanced Certified Life Coach. She has a buiness degree from the University of Alberta, a master's degree in Adult Education from the University of Calgary, and a certificate in mediation & negotiation from York University. She is a Chartered Professional in Human Resources with over 10 years of HR work experience.

Instagram @natashatekeste

natashatekeste.com

Leaving mormonism creates and an opportunity to rewrite every area of your life, your money story included. Have you spent anytime exploring why you think the way you do about money? Or do you just accept the fact (not fact) that you are doomed and it is what it is? One area of your life you may not have connected the dots with, post faith transition, is how your brain thinks about money because of your religious and social conditioning.

When your thoughts get on the loose, what do you do? Do you believe those thoughts and go down the self loathing rabbit hole? Grounding tools help you get present and not stuck in the past or future. Here is a little tool to help pull you out of that stuck frame of mind. Also, Wildflower Weekend! We had amazing weekend and I want you there next year. When you plan your life out, do you schedule time for your healing and growth? If not, why? Change that up wildflower. Let's go!

Do not underestimate the power of your brain. All healing starts with you, your brain and your emotions. One of meanest things we can do to ourselves is be our own bully. This week I want to talk to you about actual bullying and self bullying. The thoughts going through your brain are optional. What thoughts take center stage of your own brain? Do you speak kind words to yourself or words you would never say to a friend? Do you even notice? I want you to start paying attention. We cannot change anything in our lives if we are completely unaware. Pay attention to your thought soundtrack wildflower.

Do you trust yourself? I know that can be a loaded question, but when one grows up in a high demand religion and has been taught to put their trust in a curated higher/church authority, it can be a tricky question to answer.

This year at Wildflower Weekend we will be slowing down time and focusing on you and a few of your biggest struggles. I imagine, if you feel stuck in any area of your life, it is because you are not trusting your ability to have your own back, no matter what. You are letting the fear of a projected future feeling keep you frozen. After this weekend you will feel more confident to make needed changes in your life and take the steps required to get unstuck with any struggle you find yourself in.

Set aside September 30th-Oct. 2nd in SLC, Utah. Wildflowers are flying in from around the states and even Canada. Come join us! Let's have a groovy healing and productive time together.

It is my 100th Exmormonology Episode! I am excited to share this particular episode with you. I decided to write an essay and read it to you this time around. As exmembers of the church we often hear the same responses to our faith crisis and leaving the church, over and over again. I have seen patterns in the way members of the church respond to us. I will be addressing these repeated responses in this essay. I poised it as a an essay to members of the church, but it is really for you and all the things we want to say when we hear the same rhetoric over and over.

A quote from my essay…“The conversation stops when the scripted responses begin, because critical thinking has ended.”

When is your brain ready to go down the rabbit hole? We each have our own experience and come to our awakening in our own time. I had signs along the way, relating to the church, but my brain was not ready to see it. Much like marketing and needing to see/hear something 7 times or more before we start making connections about certain issues or products or ? I want you to start looking for other areas of your life where you can maybe short cut this process. What are you not believing about yourself that you need a few nudges to see yourself in a different light, just like seeing the church in a different light? What areas of your life can you make similar paradigm shifts? Let’s talk about it this week on Exmormonology.

Pick your favorite musician and think about how many times they have performed the same songs over and over and over. Do you think they want to show up and sing each and every night, EVEN THO they love being in a band? My guess is no, not every time. However, they do it, night after night. What areas in your life are you not showing up, even tho you signed up for it? Let's dig into this topic. Also discussed in this episode...2nd Annual Wildflower Weekend, Airborne Toxic Event, Stake Dances, P!nk, and all things Exmormonology.

I hope you will tune in to Exmormonology this week. This is one of my favorite episodes of thus far. I hope it is helpful for you as you work through all the feelings coming up for you.

Please share with anyone, exmo or not, that is struggling with the mountain of feelings that have come up from the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

This week on Exmormonology I dive into the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how we desperately need thought work to help us through what will be quite the fight.

You will need time to process your emotions and then you will need to figure out how to create new thoughts that help you out of hopelessness. New thoughts that keep you out of stuckville. You are capable of doing this, it is possible.

It is okay if right now you are in shock and feel overwhelming depressed and angry. I understand these emotions, we dance together often. I am doing this work too, wildflower.

Do you find yourself saying....I need to hurry. I gotta get it done. I am so busy. I never have enough time. I wish there was more time in the day. Wildflower, if you find yourself saying these words, this episode is for you. Our experience growing up in a culture focused on forever and the next life may be playing a bigger part in your life than you know. Let's explore the construct of time and you can slow down and enjoy more moments in THIS life.

We do not back away from hard conversations here on Exmormonology and with the pending reversal of Roe V. Wade, I wanted to talk about Abortion. I have invited Amanda Kingsley to be a guest today. Amanda Kingsley is a Certified Feminist Life Coach and Doula. She is the host of the Speaking Light Into Abortion podcast. And the Author of ‘What I Wish: 100 love notes to help you survive, come alive, and thrive after abortion.’ After her own unanticipated abortion as a mother of three, she recognized the need for a wider conversation around the complex emotional landscape of life after abortion. She reminds her audience that it’s okay to feel all the feelings after abortion, and that we can honor our decisions by living the life we made our choice for. You can learn more and connect with her at www.amandastarkingsley.com