Emancipate Your Mind Archives - Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup

“I still feel like I’m not allowed to want anything. The voice in my head says I’m selfish, ridiculous, or dramatic whenever I try to access my needs.” “I feel like I’m at war with myself.” “Sometimes I think it was easier to convince myself I didn’t have any wants or needs because then I wasn’t disappointed when they weren’t met.” If last week’s episode on identifying your wants and needs left yo...

Transcript This year on the podcast, we’ll be talking about how to “fill the void” after deconstruction. But in order to do that in a healthy way that helps you operate as your own authority, recognize red flags, set boundaries, and avoid high demand relationships and groups, we have to spend some time building our relationship with ourselves. In today’s episode, we work wi...

Transcript In this Part 2 episode with Licensed Professional Counselor, Kevin Hales, we explore some of the first steps towards healing fragile masculinity. Kevin shares ideas about what men themselves can do to become aware of and heal subconscious programming about what it means to be a man. He also talks about how those of us in relationship with men who may feel insecure about others stepping...

Transcript Patriarchal systems don’t just attempt to put women in their place, but also men. The system constructs a “box” that men must stay in to be considered “real men”. In this episode, my husband and Licensed Professional Counselor, Kevin Hales and I explore how limiting our ability to express ourselves as humans into stereotypical boxes of what it means to be a...

Transcript Have you ever wanted to speak up and either found it difficult to open your mouth or felt horrible afterwards? Have your found yourself downplaying your authority or your experience to make others more comfortable? Does it feel like even when you do speak up, no one really hears you? In this episode, life coach and public speaking maven, Terina Maldonado, talks about how we take back ou...

Do you ever find yourself wanting to speak up, to change something about your life for the better, but find the words getting stuck in your throat? Do you ever notice yourself ignoring parts of yourself to make other people comfortable in an attempt to preserve a relationship? This episode focuses on some of the reasons we may have learned to silence our voice and some questions we can ask ourselv...

Transcript In this episode, Reiki master, podcaster and co-star of the recent Hulu documentary “Mormon No More”, Lena Osborne, talks about the importance of listening to the wisdom of your body that comes through emotions and physical sensations and how building a relationship with that feminine wisdom already inside of us can help us shed messages from patriarchy that aren’t serving us so that we...

There is a prevalent myth, particularly in high demand religion, that there exists such a thing as an “ideal woman”. In Christianity, she is described in Proverbs 31. But this idea that there is a feminine “ideal” that women should strive for exists across religions from Islam to Hinduism. You’ve likely encountered this idea out in the secular world too. This ideal says that there’s a certain acce...

Continuing the conversation from last week about Yahweh’s connection to a mother goddess, Asherah, we progress into how she was discredited and divorced in Genesis. We also talk about the cultural and societal context that may have prompted this divorce, codifying the patriarchy into religious text that was considered direct and irrefutable truth from God for the next 2600 years. _________________...

Christianity and Patriarchy have a long history together, starting with the creation mythology in the first chapter of Genesis. While the scriptural text itself, whether you read it in the original Hebrew or any other translation, has some obvious though brief patriarchal references, it’s been the 2000+ years of male, mostly European, commentary on the creation story that has cemented the deep mis...

In part 2 of our discussion on interdependency, Kevin and I talk about the ground rules needed to create safe space for both parties to feel seen, heard, and validated in a healthy relationship. Kevin talks particularly about how curiosity and the desire to understand matter more than the actual words we say. When we come to the table with the understanding that “all emotion makes sense” when we h...

Many times, those of us who are healing from relationships of codependence sometimes slingshot to the other side of the dependence spectrum into extreme independence. However, as Kevin mentions in this first part of our discussion, either extreme can be dangerous or hurtful to our sense of well being. In this first part of our discussion, Kevin and I talk about what interdependence is and how it b...

Do you have someone in your life that you love dearly that tends to drive you crazy with their lack of self awareness and emotional intelligence, their inability to empathize, or their inability to resolve or even approach conflict? You’re likely dealing with an emotionally immature person. In this episode, we explore why many of us who come from high demand religion struggle with emotional...

This month has been a dumpster fire in the LDS and ex-LDS communities as we’ve watched the Mormon church respond to allegations that they’ve been covering up child sexual abuse. Since the Associated Press investigation broke, my Licensed Professional Therapist husband and I haven’t been able to stop reading and researching and discussing what we’ve found. Watching the church respond to the allegat...

The final type of narcissism that you’re most likely to run into in high demand religion is the vulnerable narcissist. This type of narcissist will often seem like the perpetual victim of life circumstances. They’ve had a rough life and they need YOU to save them. Their narcissistic supply is the pity and sympathy of others. They want you to take away the burdens of adult life for them...

High demand religions often teach us to deny ourselves and spent our lives in the service of others. While service because we’re passionate about a cause and care about making the world a better place can be a beautiful part of expressing our humanity, when coupled with the idea that we’re not allowed to have our own needs and desires it can become something maladaptive. One of the mal...

If you were raised in a high demand religion that prized unquestioning obedience even if it harmed you or someone you cared about, believed that your faith was “the one truth”, and that taught you that your purpose was to convince or save others from the errors of their ways, you were likely groomed to embrace many self-righteous narcissistic traits. You were likely also surrounded by and even par...

Before we embark on a series exploring covert narcissism in high demand religion, I think it’s important we address one of our collective biggest fears: Are we all just a bunch of narcissists? In today’s episode, we discuss how you can recognize the basic traits that all clinical narcissists have and questions you can ask yourself to give yourself peace of mind. We’ll also talk about why some of t...

In this last installment of our 4 part discussion we explore one final possibility for why it can be so hard for us to rest and relax guilt and anxiety free: we’re trying to avoid our difficult emotions. In order to rest and recover, we have to put away our work and embrace the quiet. Many of us are deeply uncomfortable with the silence because when life is still our own thoughts and emotions are...

This week we dig further into why so many of us continue to work even when our bodies and minds are begging with us to rest. One possible reason may be a pattern called “Insecure Overachievement”. Insecure overachievement is a behavior pattern we use to get validation, approval, and to fill self-worth wounds. Because our self-worth wounds persist, no matter how much we achieve, this cycle becomes...

Over the past couple of years, we’ve collectively taken several hits to our nervous system. When that happens, sometimes we get stuck in a pattern of “fight or flight”, constantly on alert for the next threat. In this episode, we talk about how the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems operate and complement one another during stressful events in our lives and some exercises and tools we...

Have you ever felt guilt or anxiety when you try to rest, relax, or go on vacation? Do you sometimes feel driven to be productive, even when you’re exhausted mentally or physically? In this series we’ll explore some of the common reasons individuals find themselves unable to be fully present when resting. In this episode, we explore the unique American culture of internalized capitalism flavored w...

When we have a loud or persistent inner critical voice, it can sometimes feel like we’re at war with ourselves. What if we understood that that part of us isn’t trying to be an enemy, but our friend? What if we knew that this part, harsh and critical as it is, is trying to keep us safe? In this episode, we utilize the research of Internal Family Systems created by Richard Schwartz and the compassi...

In this episode, District 18 Candidate for Texas Senate, Josh Tutt, talks about how 3 of his guiding principles have helped him worry less about what people will think of him as an openly gay man running for office and be the change he wishes to see and he believes Texans deserve. To follow Josh on his campaign trail, to donate to his campaign, or to talk with him more about his Dungeons and Drago...

Have you ever tried to change a behavior or thought pattern but found yourself getting “blocked”, distracted, or feeling resistance to change? Do you feel recurring depressive thoughts or anxiety that you can’t explain? You’re likely encountering a protective part of you that is trying to shield a wounded childhood version of yourself from further pain or harm. In this episode, we talk about how w...