Jumping off the Treadmill: Unshaming with Zelph on the Shelf!
Join host Megan Connor in a profound conversation with ex-Mormon content creators, Samantha and Tanner from Zelf on the Shelf, as they explore the transformative journey of midlife. This episode dives deep into their experiences of leaving the Mormon Church, confronting societal norms, and redefining personal meaning. They discuss pivotal "treadmill moments" that led to their personal revolutions, the therapeutic use of psychedelics, and the critical role of grief and community in healing. From battling cultural shame to embracing self-expression and growth, this dialogue is an enlightening look at how one can navigate life's halfway point with authenticity, courage, and a spirit of rebellion against outdated constructs. Tune in for insights on un-shaming personal desires, the importance of collective healing, and how to find joy and purpose in life's later chapters. Check out Zelph on the Shelf Patreon.
WEBVTT
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Hello, beautiful humans,
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and welcome to the Midlife Revolution.
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I'm your host, Megan Conner,
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and today I am joined by
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two incredibly wonderful
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human beings and
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revolutionaries in their own right,
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Samantha and Tanner.
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Welcome, Zelf on the Shelf.
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Yay!
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Hi.
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Hi.
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Would you say we're your
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favorite midlifers?
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You definitely are.
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Definitely my favorite.
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Revolutionizing the very
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concept of midlife.
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That's a big part of it.
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In fact, I always tell people that,
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you know,
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people think about midlife as a
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certain age,
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but I think of it as a stage
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in your life where you just
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sort of stop what you're
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doing and look around and say,
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wait a second, I've been on autopilot.
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Is this what I really want?
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Yeah,
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so good to have your midlife crisis
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as early as possible.
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So you can reevaluate sooner.
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I love that.
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Exactly, exactly.
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So that's why I wanted to
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have you guys on because I
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love your stories and your
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revolutions that you're creating.
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And I just want you guys to
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talk about yourselves for a little bit.
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Who wants to go first?
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I'd love to go first.
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Tanya, you go first.
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All right.
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We are two ex-Mormon content creators.
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We met in college at Brigham
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Young University, Idaho.
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We've been doing YouTube for
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about the better part of a decade,
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eight years,
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and talking a lot about religion,
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philosophy, ethics, culture,
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and whatever.
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Mindfulness, healing.
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Random things come into our mind.
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That's a very...
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um level-headed description
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of what we do sometimes
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it's a bit chaotic
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sometimes it's just
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claymation yep and it
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doesn't make sense yeah a
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little comedy sprinkled in
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there too um claymation is
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some of my favorite by the
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way i love it real one have
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we got a podcast for you
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We've had you on our show before,
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a great episode.
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I was just talking to my
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partner today about that
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episode and just how wise
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you are and not on the
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superficial level that
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sometimes these
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conversations take place at
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where it's like, oh yeah,
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saying the right therapy terms,
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but a deeply embodied wisdom.
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You can tell that this is
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something that you care deeply about and
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are both well-studied and
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well-experienced and just
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such a big heart.
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And so we're very happy to be on the show.
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Thank you so much.
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I will pay you later for that endorsement.
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That was wonderful.
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You know our rate.
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I always tell people I am
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not any kind of licensed
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professional of any kind.
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I don't know.
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I haven't studied mental health,
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but I am an expert in my own trauma.
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And so I hopefully can help that,
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use that to help other
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people to heal from their trauma,
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their experiences as well.
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And we talked a lot about
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body shame when I was on your show.
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mm-hmm
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i remember body
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shaming when you came on
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our youtube channel that
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was one of the
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conversations i wish we
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could have dug in a bit
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deeper but obviously
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there's so much to talk
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about in one episode
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Yeah.
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There always seems to be so
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much to talk about and so little time.
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And the two of you are so
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intelligent and well-spoken
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and I really appreciate our
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conversations together.
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And so who knows how long, you know,
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this will go on.
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At some point we're going to
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need to eat and sleep and everything,
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but we can talk for a really long time.
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Yay.
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Yay.
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So in your,
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what would you say would be
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sort of your turning point
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for each of you when we talk about,
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you know, on the midlife revolution,
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we talk about just sort of a time when,
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when you sort of wake up
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from the treadmill life and
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you start to sort of
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question whether or not the
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things in your life are
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what you really want for the longterm.
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And so maybe each of you
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could say what that moment was for you,
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or at least one of the moments.
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Well,
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I love that you called it the
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treadmill life because my
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treadmill moment was
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literally as I was working
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for a treadmill company
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selling treadmills.
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So true.
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And it just felt like such a
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perfect metaphor.
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That's amazing.
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Just being on this track to
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nowhere constantly and, you know, yeah,
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and no,
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nothing against the people I
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worked with or, you know.
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Or treadmills.
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Or treadmills, you know,
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home fitness is great.
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Yeah.
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But for me, I mean,
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this was all like the
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church stuff had all just
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happened prior where I
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realized through after a long,
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prolonged investigation
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into the truth claims of my
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religion after having
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graduated the church
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university and gone on a
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mission and the works and
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having had all that crumble,
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I found myself, you know,
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working in this office,
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looking up at the mountains
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and every day from, you know, the
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from the light of day to the dark,
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just being stuck in this building going,
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what am I doing here?
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And got to the point where I
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was actually like kind of being like,
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Hmm,
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I don't know that I want to
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be here at all.
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Like it, this just doesn't seem worth it.
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And you know,
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I've realized that a lot of
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people have jobs that they
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don't necessarily love and
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they have to work in an
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office all day and it's, you know,
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not the worst thing in the
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world for everybody.
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But for me,
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I just knew that there was something,
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well, I didn't know actually,
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I think I was just really,
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really scared and being like,
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I don't want to do this.
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And it was through,
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lots of conversations with lots of people,
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but I remember specifically with, um,
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a friend and kind of a
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mentor who I called just in
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a moment of deep panic.
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And, uh, he said to me, like,
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you're a maker.
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You need to be making things.
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You need to be self-expressing.
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You need to be around people
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who are creating things like do it,
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take the plunge.
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Like this is your escape out
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of the rat race and you
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just have to like do it.
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And that was definitely a
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turning point for me.
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Yeah, that's so excellent.
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And I think that when we're
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raised in the Mormon church,
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we're raised to search for
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meaning and purpose in our lives.
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And so when the church
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aspect or the religious
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aspect of it goes away,
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I think a lot of us are
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left wondering what is the
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meaning of life now?
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What is my purpose now?
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Who am I now?
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And we all have to ask
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ourselves those questions.
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yeah and and you know when
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for me like a lot of people
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you know they do mormonism
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and they do other things
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for me mormonism was like
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the only thing i had other
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interests technically but
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only in as much as they
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were useful to the church
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and all my creativity and
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self-expression was all
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you know, church oriented.
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So when that went away,
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I literally had nothing.
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And, you know,
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maybe I could go do a normal,
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I couldn't do a normal job today, but,
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you know,
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maybe if I had had a better
00:06:47.730 --> 00:06:48.550
established sense of
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purpose or was pursuing
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something more aligned with
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my creative interests,
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but I just didn't even care
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up until that point.
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And then I found myself like, oh,
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I built this whole life for
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myself that I don't like or
00:06:58.954 --> 00:07:00.234
enjoy or care about at all,
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simply because there was
00:07:01.475 --> 00:07:03.215
just this one thing that I was serving.
00:07:03.235 --> 00:07:05.076
And when that went away, I had nothing.
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Yeah, I feel like, I mean,
00:07:07.039 --> 00:07:08.220
despite its impact on our
00:07:08.260 --> 00:07:09.220
financial stability,
00:07:09.260 --> 00:07:10.380
like we did get lucky in
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the sense that our getting
00:07:11.821 --> 00:07:12.861
off the treadmill moment
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was while we were interns
00:07:14.482 --> 00:07:16.042
right after graduating college.
00:07:16.062 --> 00:07:18.043
So I feel like that sort of helped,
00:07:18.363 --> 00:07:18.863
you know what I mean?
00:07:18.983 --> 00:07:20.263
Well, I guess your next job,
00:07:20.323 --> 00:07:21.644
the treadmill job was right after that,
00:07:21.684 --> 00:07:23.604
but it does feel kind of
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like a blessing in some
00:07:25.945 --> 00:07:26.645
ways to have your whole
00:07:26.685 --> 00:07:27.785
worldview fall apart in
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your early twenties.
00:07:28.666 --> 00:07:30.066
Cause that's the time when like,
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you don't we didn't have
00:07:32.227 --> 00:07:33.407
responsibilities so we were
00:07:33.427 --> 00:07:34.748
like able to embrace a
00:07:34.788 --> 00:07:37.529
level of flexibility and uh
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at times poverty that you
00:07:38.630 --> 00:07:39.590
wouldn't be able to do if
00:07:39.610 --> 00:07:40.831
you like had a family or
00:07:41.011 --> 00:07:42.771
definitely yeah so that was
00:07:42.872 --> 00:07:43.512
kind of a gift
00:07:44.280 --> 00:07:44.540
Yeah.
00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:45.541
So you were still kind of
00:07:45.601 --> 00:07:47.902
establishing yourself as
00:07:47.982 --> 00:07:49.163
human beings anyway,
00:07:49.323 --> 00:07:50.123
and still kind of
00:07:50.183 --> 00:07:51.464
establishing your life and
00:07:51.484 --> 00:07:52.624
your goals and everything.
00:07:52.725 --> 00:07:54.786
So maybe it was a little bit
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of a blessing that it came
00:07:56.006 --> 00:07:58.067
so early because first of all,
00:07:58.107 --> 00:07:59.768
you had so much more time
00:07:59.968 --> 00:08:01.369
in the future to look forward to,
00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:03.610
but also you hadn't really
00:08:03.887 --> 00:08:05.192
put down roots that needed
00:08:05.212 --> 00:08:06.872
to be pulled up when you
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left the religion.
00:08:08.855 --> 00:08:10.377
Yeah, we both had, I mean,
00:08:10.838 --> 00:08:11.559
like well-paying
00:08:11.599 --> 00:08:12.921
copywriting jobs that we
00:08:12.961 --> 00:08:14.163
were quickly realizing we
00:08:14.183 --> 00:08:15.185
weren't going to be able to
00:08:15.345 --> 00:08:16.707
survive in for very long.
00:08:17.027 --> 00:08:18.356
That's kind of a, yeah,
00:08:18.396 --> 00:08:19.197
just an interesting note
00:08:19.217 --> 00:08:20.119
that we had the same job
00:08:20.159 --> 00:08:22.082
and we were both just dying in our jobs.
00:08:22.611 --> 00:08:23.792
Yeah, so Samantha,
00:08:23.812 --> 00:08:24.873
can you talk a little bit
00:08:24.993 --> 00:08:27.495
about your treadmill moment?
00:08:28.275 --> 00:08:28.555
Yeah.
00:08:28.575 --> 00:08:29.396
Although I'm sure it's not
00:08:29.416 --> 00:08:32.498
going to be as literal as Tanner's.
00:08:32.918 --> 00:08:33.739
I also worked for a
00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:35.040
treadmill company competing.
00:08:37.041 --> 00:08:39.103
Yeah, so I wasn't raised in Mormonism.
00:08:39.203 --> 00:08:41.024
I converted at sixteen.
00:08:42.205 --> 00:08:44.427
But all through growing up
00:08:44.467 --> 00:08:46.368
and then I suppose at BYU-Idaho,
00:08:46.448 --> 00:08:47.829
I was very committed to
00:08:47.969 --> 00:08:49.550
academic success as sort of
00:08:49.590 --> 00:08:51.112
like an anchor, you know, and a...
00:08:51.832 --> 00:08:53.073
Especially growing up in England,
00:08:53.113 --> 00:08:54.514
it was sort of like my
00:08:54.574 --> 00:08:55.634
whole sense of self and
00:08:55.674 --> 00:08:58.516
safety was found in academic success.
00:08:58.717 --> 00:08:59.838
And then, yeah,
00:08:59.898 --> 00:09:02.499
leaving the church and having your whole,
00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:04.460
our whole worldview pulled
00:09:04.500 --> 00:09:05.401
out from under us.
00:09:05.801 --> 00:09:06.001
I mean,
00:09:06.021 --> 00:09:07.923
it really did just make me evaluate
00:09:07.983 --> 00:09:08.963
everything and also
00:09:09.063 --> 00:09:10.164
starting to get a sense of
00:09:10.204 --> 00:09:11.305
like the world of work.
00:09:12.065 --> 00:09:14.527
And realizing, like, for whatever reason,
00:09:14.587 --> 00:09:14.827
like,
00:09:14.867 --> 00:09:17.509
the commitment I had to academic success,
00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:17.649
like,
00:09:17.669 --> 00:09:19.410
didn't transfer to the world of work
00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:20.390
where it just felt like so
00:09:20.430 --> 00:09:21.551
much of what I was doing
00:09:21.591 --> 00:09:24.693
was just kind of meaningless or busy work,
00:09:24.713 --> 00:09:25.374
which I know is something
00:09:25.394 --> 00:09:26.995
so many people struggle with, you know,
00:09:27.035 --> 00:09:28.856
just feeling like the work
00:09:28.896 --> 00:09:30.057
you're doing is a bit...
00:09:30.415 --> 00:09:30.715
I don't know,
00:09:30.735 --> 00:09:32.136
sort of abstract or you don't
00:09:32.196 --> 00:09:32.756
feel like you're
00:09:32.776 --> 00:09:34.176
meaningfully contributing
00:09:34.277 --> 00:09:35.357
to the world and that
00:09:35.397 --> 00:09:36.677
really can eat away at you.
00:09:36.916 --> 00:09:37.718
I feel like when you
00:09:37.778 --> 00:09:39.959
still have Mormonism in your life,
00:09:39.999 --> 00:09:40.459
you're like, well,
00:09:40.499 --> 00:09:42.700
this is just a job and my
00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:43.621
ultimate purpose is to
00:09:43.661 --> 00:09:45.581
serve God and to lift up
00:09:45.621 --> 00:09:47.022
the kingdom and all those things.
00:09:47.062 --> 00:09:49.343
But then when that was
00:09:49.403 --> 00:09:51.304
pulled out from under me, I was like,
00:09:51.404 --> 00:09:53.865
well, the work I choose to do is...
00:09:54.265 --> 00:09:55.305
kind of everything you know
00:09:55.325 --> 00:09:56.726
like the contribution I
00:09:56.786 --> 00:09:58.747
make to the world matters
00:09:58.787 --> 00:09:59.907
now or it matters way more
00:09:59.927 --> 00:10:01.628
than it did before um also
00:10:01.688 --> 00:10:02.929
I feel like my treadmill
00:10:02.949 --> 00:10:04.069
moment really if I'm being
00:10:04.109 --> 00:10:05.850
honest just came by virtue
00:10:05.870 --> 00:10:06.570
of the fact that I just
00:10:06.610 --> 00:10:08.111
like have never been able
00:10:08.131 --> 00:10:09.471
to thrive in like a
00:10:10.071 --> 00:10:11.232
structured working for
00:10:11.272 --> 00:10:12.472
someone else situation like
00:10:12.492 --> 00:10:13.473
I've had a million jobs
00:10:13.493 --> 00:10:14.593
throughout my life and have
00:10:14.753 --> 00:10:15.854
just struggled in all of
00:10:15.874 --> 00:10:16.954
them however much I like
00:10:17.494 --> 00:10:19.315
wanted to do well in them or was like
00:10:19.735 --> 00:10:20.676
technically good at the
00:10:20.756 --> 00:10:22.779
actual work I just found
00:10:22.839 --> 00:10:25.022
like the environments uh
00:10:25.022 --> 00:10:26.063
I'm just like having to
00:10:26.103 --> 00:10:27.144
like sit in a certain spot
00:10:27.164 --> 00:10:28.065
for eight hours a day and
00:10:28.125 --> 00:10:29.747
like I just found all of that like
00:10:30.290 --> 00:10:32.011
honestly impossible and I'm
00:10:32.051 --> 00:10:33.633
like I'm hearing myself and
00:10:33.653 --> 00:10:34.494
I'm imagining a lot of
00:10:34.534 --> 00:10:35.514
people being like okay you
00:10:35.534 --> 00:10:37.856
know lazy millennial thinks
00:10:38.076 --> 00:10:40.398
they have ADHD I am
00:10:40.418 --> 00:10:41.318
diagnosed with ADHD if
00:10:41.959 --> 00:10:43.900
that's worth anything but
00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.882
yeah I just I think again
00:10:47.102 --> 00:10:48.583
when I was younger with
00:10:49.123 --> 00:10:51.005
academics you know doing well in school
00:10:51.756 --> 00:10:52.697
I was still young enough to
00:10:52.717 --> 00:10:53.877
where my ego was so wrapped
00:10:53.917 --> 00:10:55.458
up in it that it had like this,
00:10:56.438 --> 00:10:58.399
it all felt naturally worth it to me.
00:10:58.420 --> 00:11:00.961
But then I just didn't get like the,
00:11:01.201 --> 00:11:02.942
the egoic boost out of a
00:11:02.982 --> 00:11:04.263
job that I got when I was
00:11:04.303 --> 00:11:06.004
younger and like trying to
00:11:06.024 --> 00:11:07.344
be the top of the class or whatever.
00:11:07.444 --> 00:11:09.265
So it just suddenly, yeah,
00:11:09.785 --> 00:11:11.106
I feel like I'm waffling a lot,
00:11:11.146 --> 00:11:12.647
but basically I've always
00:11:12.667 --> 00:11:14.188
been bad at jobs and I have
00:11:14.228 --> 00:11:16.169
to unshame that because I've tried,
00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:17.289
I always had jobs.
00:11:17.349 --> 00:11:17.690
I wasn't,
00:11:18.210 --> 00:11:19.851
someone who like you know
00:11:19.911 --> 00:11:20.791
always got a free ride or
00:11:20.811 --> 00:11:21.745
anything like that but
00:11:21.745 --> 00:11:22.896
just i also feel like it's
00:11:22.936 --> 00:11:24.636
really hard to go from like
00:11:24.656 --> 00:11:26.317
you were saying when you're
00:11:26.437 --> 00:11:27.997
in the church and you feel
00:11:28.017 --> 00:11:29.358
like your higher purpose is
00:11:29.398 --> 00:11:31.038
like preparing for the next
00:11:31.118 --> 00:11:32.799
life and you know you're
00:11:32.979 --> 00:11:34.399
you're literally getting
00:11:34.439 --> 00:11:35.820
ready to have your own planet
00:11:37.380 --> 00:11:38.781
It's kind of hard to go from
00:11:38.861 --> 00:11:40.761
that level of meaning to
00:11:40.781 --> 00:11:42.101
just working in a cubicle
00:11:42.141 --> 00:11:44.322
every day and possibly
00:11:44.362 --> 00:11:46.142
doing paperwork and things like that.
00:11:46.282 --> 00:11:48.123
And I totally identify with
00:11:48.163 --> 00:11:49.803
the ADHD aspect of it
00:11:49.843 --> 00:11:51.624
because if you're not
00:11:52.564 --> 00:11:54.184
motivated to do something,
00:11:54.325 --> 00:11:56.045
if it's not interesting to you,
00:11:56.605 --> 00:11:58.651
that's when the procrastination comes in.
00:11:59.311 --> 00:12:01.051
And then you just don't, you don't do it.
00:12:01.051 --> 00:12:01.541
you don't want to
00:12:01.694 --> 00:12:02.655
accomplish it.
00:12:02.775 --> 00:12:04.376
And I think honestly,
00:12:04.877 --> 00:12:06.959
it's really not the millennial thing.
00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:08.560
I think that millennials get
00:12:08.660 --> 00:12:10.362
such a bad rap for being
00:12:10.402 --> 00:12:11.723
quote unquote lazy or not
00:12:11.763 --> 00:12:13.565
wanting to do quote unquote real work,
00:12:13.605 --> 00:12:13.683
but
00:12:13.683 --> 00:12:13.725
for a
00:12:13.805 --> 00:12:14.840
lot of the time,
00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:16.393
if you're going into a corporate job,
00:12:16.633 --> 00:12:17.734
you're asking somebody to
00:12:17.774 --> 00:12:19.676
kind of push paper around and,
00:12:20.161 --> 00:12:21.462
report to someone else on
00:12:21.522 --> 00:12:23.223
kind of menial tasks,
00:12:23.763 --> 00:12:24.903
and you don't really feel
00:12:24.963 --> 00:12:25.944
like you're a part of
00:12:25.984 --> 00:12:27.024
something important.
00:12:27.685 --> 00:12:30.486
And there used to be this sort of notion,
00:12:30.526 --> 00:12:32.507
like back in my grandparents' day,
00:12:32.987 --> 00:12:35.088
where if you went to
00:12:35.128 --> 00:12:36.069
college and you got a
00:12:36.109 --> 00:12:37.850
degree and then you got a good job,
00:12:37.890 --> 00:12:38.710
you were with the same
00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:40.251
company for your whole career.
00:12:40.771 --> 00:12:41.752
And you felt like you were a part of it.
00:12:41.772 --> 00:12:42.492
And you could actually buy a
00:12:42.532 --> 00:12:43.166
house and...
00:12:43.251 --> 00:12:45.032
no yeah our generation is
00:12:45.072 --> 00:12:46.033
like the first generation
00:12:46.073 --> 00:12:47.014
just saying something about
00:12:47.034 --> 00:12:47.494
it because we're not
00:12:47.574 --> 00:12:48.415
getting the same
00:12:48.935 --> 00:12:50.436
consequences like we don't
00:12:50.936 --> 00:12:51.897
yeah we don't get to be
00:12:51.957 --> 00:12:53.198
homeowners we don't we can
00:12:53.518 --> 00:12:54.799
have great paying jobs and
00:12:54.839 --> 00:12:56.060
it's still like it's not
00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:57.260
yielding the fruits it used
00:12:57.280 --> 00:12:58.101
to for our parents or
00:12:58.121 --> 00:12:59.682
grandparents which
00:12:59.822 --> 00:13:00.463
definitely makes the
00:13:00.503 --> 00:13:01.763
difference also we'd both
00:13:01.803 --> 00:13:03.865
be like at our like you
00:13:03.885 --> 00:13:05.006
know professional writing
00:13:05.046 --> 00:13:06.987
jobs like secretly writing
00:13:07.007 --> 00:13:07.908
about the church on the
00:13:07.948 --> 00:13:09.489
side because it was like I
00:13:09.529 --> 00:13:10.269
suppose in that sense we
00:13:10.289 --> 00:13:11.150
weren't lazy we just
00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:12.591
weren't passionate about
00:13:12.932 --> 00:13:13.773
Corporate writing?
00:13:14.693 --> 00:13:15.274
Exactly.
00:13:15.434 --> 00:13:17.476
And when you're a writer and
00:13:17.516 --> 00:13:18.296
you're a creator,
00:13:18.336 --> 00:13:19.357
you want to write about
00:13:19.397 --> 00:13:20.658
things that interest you
00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:22.460
and that you're passionate about.
00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:24.542
And so writing from an
00:13:25.062 --> 00:13:26.083
assignment someone else is
00:13:26.663 --> 00:13:27.644
giving you that doesn't
00:13:27.684 --> 00:13:28.885
have a lot of meaning for you,
00:13:29.005 --> 00:13:30.327
I can imagine must have
00:13:30.347 --> 00:13:31.948
been pretty mind numbing as well.
00:13:32.249 --> 00:13:32.374
Well,
00:13:32.414 --> 00:13:34.316
when you've just felt that loss of
00:13:34.856 --> 00:13:37.158
your whole worldview and your faith,
00:13:37.238 --> 00:13:38.119
it's like suddenly the
00:13:38.199 --> 00:13:40.381
stakes of life just feel so high.
00:13:40.441 --> 00:13:41.202
And when you're trying to
00:13:41.903 --> 00:13:44.045
figure out like your reason
00:13:44.085 --> 00:13:45.186
for being or whether there
00:13:45.246 --> 00:13:47.248
even is a reason to continue being,
00:13:47.428 --> 00:13:48.929
which is something we both struggled with,
00:13:48.989 --> 00:13:51.131
it's very hard to put on the sort of
00:13:51.432 --> 00:13:52.673
corporate face they want you
00:13:53.134 --> 00:13:54.575
to put on and pretend like
00:13:54.655 --> 00:13:55.756
writing about treadmills is
00:13:55.796 --> 00:13:56.637
the thing you were put on
00:13:56.677 --> 00:13:57.638
God's earth to do.
00:13:57.698 --> 00:13:59.399
And it's your dream to be in
00:13:59.439 --> 00:14:00.961
this conference room at this moment.
00:14:01.061 --> 00:14:03.123
Hey, I could never take that seriously.
00:14:03.143 --> 00:14:03.803
You know, they're like,
00:14:04.104 --> 00:14:05.365
are we so excited for this
00:14:05.425 --> 00:14:06.145
upcoming thing?
00:14:06.165 --> 00:14:07.867
And I'm like, no, to be honest,
00:14:07.907 --> 00:14:08.708
not really.
00:14:08.728 --> 00:14:13.172
You guys pay me money.
00:14:13.192 --> 00:14:14.233
It's not like this is my
00:14:14.473 --> 00:14:16.895
heart's desire since I was a child.
00:14:18.156 --> 00:14:18.457
Tanner,
00:14:18.497 --> 00:14:19.978
we are so excited because we've
00:14:20.038 --> 00:14:21.059
totally rearranged the
00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:22.061
buttons on the treadmill
00:14:22.081 --> 00:14:23.542
and we want you to write all about it.
00:14:23.943 --> 00:14:24.844
That's literally it.
00:14:24.864 --> 00:14:25.404
That was it.
00:14:25.464 --> 00:14:27.627
That was the job.
00:14:29.709 --> 00:14:29.929
Yeah.
00:14:30.029 --> 00:14:31.010
One of the other things that
00:14:31.050 --> 00:14:32.172
I've been thinking about
00:14:32.252 --> 00:14:33.573
and talking a lot about
00:14:34.014 --> 00:14:37.497
also is that when you leave the church,
00:14:38.058 --> 00:14:39.659
and you sort of let go of
00:14:39.719 --> 00:14:43.040
this idea of preparing for the afterlife,
00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:44.961
suddenly this life becomes
00:14:45.001 --> 00:14:46.081
a lot more meaningful.
00:14:46.562 --> 00:14:47.622
And I think a lot of us in
00:14:47.662 --> 00:14:49.063
the church sort of give
00:14:49.103 --> 00:14:50.283
less importance and meaning
00:14:50.323 --> 00:14:51.083
to the life that we're
00:14:51.123 --> 00:14:52.404
having right now because
00:14:52.424 --> 00:14:54.125
we're looking so forward to
00:14:54.145 --> 00:14:55.765
things being better in the afterlife.
00:14:56.165 --> 00:14:57.446
So I don't know if you felt this,
00:14:57.486 --> 00:14:58.807
but when I left the church
00:14:58.887 --> 00:14:59.867
and there was no longer
00:14:59.907 --> 00:15:02.228
this belief in an afterlife, for me,
00:15:02.848 --> 00:15:04.409
it changed my entire
00:15:04.449 --> 00:15:05.469
perspective on what I'm
00:15:05.509 --> 00:15:07.010
doing in this life right now.
00:15:07.464 --> 00:15:08.800
it made me want to do
00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:10.061
things that were even more
00:15:10.081 --> 00:15:12.482
meaningful in this life, like my career,
00:15:12.883 --> 00:15:13.183
you know,
00:15:13.343 --> 00:15:14.303
doing something that was
00:15:14.343 --> 00:15:15.504
important or meaningful.
00:15:15.604 --> 00:15:15.951
Yeah,
00:15:16.449 --> 00:15:17.850
I sometimes get the hunch
00:15:17.870 --> 00:15:18.911
that the afterlife was
00:15:18.971 --> 00:15:20.713
invented for that purpose,
00:15:20.873 --> 00:15:23.135
to detach people from this life,
00:15:23.155 --> 00:15:24.536
to put less emphasis on it,
00:15:24.576 --> 00:15:25.697
to convince people to do
00:15:25.717 --> 00:15:26.558
things that they wouldn't
00:15:26.658 --> 00:15:28.620
otherwise do if they felt
00:15:28.660 --> 00:15:30.282
that this life was it.
00:15:30.802 --> 00:15:32.544
Yeah, I agree with you on that.
00:15:33.225 --> 00:15:35.527
And also to sort of diminish the pain,
00:15:36.048 --> 00:15:36.368
you know,
00:15:36.428 --> 00:15:37.909
it's sort of like that opiate of
00:15:37.950 --> 00:15:40.232
the masses idea where if
00:15:40.272 --> 00:15:41.493
what we're going through in
00:15:41.533 --> 00:15:43.575
this life is unpleasant or difficult,
00:15:43.615 --> 00:15:45.517
we can just dismiss it away
00:15:45.938 --> 00:15:48.240
by taking the drug of, well,
00:15:48.300 --> 00:15:49.722
things will be better in the next world.
00:15:50.606 --> 00:15:50.906
Yeah,
00:15:51.587 --> 00:15:55.049
which I do understand the appeal of
00:15:55.069 --> 00:15:57.291
that because this world is
00:15:57.371 --> 00:15:58.712
so full of suffering and
00:15:58.772 --> 00:16:00.854
just dealing with mortality
00:16:01.074 --> 00:16:02.015
is really hard.
00:16:02.635 --> 00:16:05.477
And so I understand the
00:16:05.517 --> 00:16:06.618
impulse to want to believe
00:16:06.658 --> 00:16:07.339
that there's more,
00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:08.199
that there's some kind of
00:16:08.599 --> 00:16:10.741
divine justice that will play out.
00:16:11.522 --> 00:16:14.324
But I think what that ends up doing is...
00:16:15.195 --> 00:16:15.355
You know,
00:16:15.415 --> 00:16:17.817
procrastinating the day of our living,
00:16:17.957 --> 00:16:19.098
as it were, like, you know,
00:16:19.178 --> 00:16:22.760
we rather than fully grieving, you know,
00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:24.901
the pain and the suffering and the loss,
00:16:25.202 --> 00:16:26.242
we just put it off and then
00:16:26.262 --> 00:16:27.883
we never actually confront life.
00:16:27.903 --> 00:16:28.604
And because we're not
00:16:28.644 --> 00:16:29.825
confronted with our own grief,
00:16:30.105 --> 00:16:32.326
we also miss out on the joy.
00:16:32.366 --> 00:16:33.527
That's the flip side of that,
00:16:33.547 --> 00:16:34.468
because if you live.
00:16:35.088 --> 00:16:37.168
in the awareness of grief of
00:16:37.228 --> 00:16:39.369
mortality of loss then all
00:16:39.389 --> 00:16:41.089
your joy is like through
00:16:41.109 --> 00:16:41.889
the roof every minute
00:16:41.909 --> 00:16:42.990
you're well you know not
00:16:43.050 --> 00:16:45.170
all the time but it's uh
00:16:45.190 --> 00:16:45.910
you know it's it sucks a
00:16:45.950 --> 00:16:48.031
lot of it but also you are
00:16:48.251 --> 00:16:49.491
it informs that so you know
00:16:49.511 --> 00:16:50.731
when i'm spending time with
00:16:50.751 --> 00:16:52.652
a loved one i'm really
00:16:52.692 --> 00:16:53.912
trying to spend time with a
00:16:53.952 --> 00:16:55.832
loved one because i know
00:16:56.212 --> 00:16:58.393
how precious that moment really is
00:16:59.073 --> 00:17:00.716
And knowing that I'll have
00:17:00.736 --> 00:17:02.998
to grieve the death of my friends,
00:17:03.038 --> 00:17:03.899
of my family,
00:17:04.801 --> 00:17:06.283
informs the way that I
00:17:06.323 --> 00:17:06.963
interact with them.
00:17:07.004 --> 00:17:08.245
Rather than being like, oh, well, you know,
00:17:08.265 --> 00:17:09.206
I'll see him when I see him.
00:17:09.286 --> 00:17:11.008
We'll have eternity to hang out.
00:17:11.028 --> 00:17:11.808
Or like,
00:17:11.849 --> 00:17:12.950
how can I earn spiritual brownie
00:17:12.970 --> 00:17:14.211
points from this interaction?
00:17:14.271 --> 00:17:15.572
How can this secure me up a
00:17:15.592 --> 00:17:16.633
bigger mansion in heaven?
00:17:17.154 --> 00:17:17.534
Right.
00:17:18.531 --> 00:17:19.412
Yeah, exactly.
00:17:19.452 --> 00:17:20.773
I think it does help me to
00:17:20.893 --> 00:17:22.215
savor the relationships
00:17:22.235 --> 00:17:24.077
that I have and prioritize
00:17:24.137 --> 00:17:27.401
time with quality people and to not,
00:17:27.461 --> 00:17:27.701
you know,
00:17:27.761 --> 00:17:30.143
not put things off for later and say, oh,
00:17:30.343 --> 00:17:31.585
yeah, we'll connect later.
00:17:31.845 --> 00:17:33.687
I have forever to deal with that.
00:17:34.207 --> 00:17:36.109
So it does change your perspective.
00:17:36.315 --> 00:17:37.596
Can you each talk a little
00:17:37.616 --> 00:17:39.559
bit about some of the small
00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.181
changes that you began to
00:17:41.221 --> 00:17:44.365
make after your transition out of faith?
00:17:44.645 --> 00:17:46.547
And what were some of the
00:17:46.848 --> 00:17:48.369
small changes that you made
00:17:48.430 --> 00:17:50.892
that ended up being really important?
00:17:51.313 --> 00:17:53.876
I have a treadmill related story.
00:17:53.956 --> 00:17:56.378
Way to keep us on track.
00:17:58.961 --> 00:18:00.642
So we, I mean,
00:18:01.183 --> 00:18:02.164
we both went through like a
00:18:02.224 --> 00:18:03.725
very depressed,
00:18:03.865 --> 00:18:05.026
nihilistic phase after
00:18:05.046 --> 00:18:05.807
leaving the church.
00:18:05.847 --> 00:18:07.589
And I can't remember how
00:18:07.649 --> 00:18:09.170
long I'd been in that phase for,
00:18:09.210 --> 00:18:10.472
maybe about a year of just
00:18:10.552 --> 00:18:12.493
feeling like life had no meaning.
00:18:12.754 --> 00:18:15.217
And yeah, I just couldn't find...
00:18:15.916 --> 00:18:17.757
any joy in life,
00:18:17.817 --> 00:18:19.138
except for I did get a cat
00:18:19.178 --> 00:18:20.499
called Clickbait and he
00:18:20.539 --> 00:18:21.600
kind of brought me back to life,
00:18:21.620 --> 00:18:23.461
having another living thing to care for.
00:18:24.181 --> 00:18:25.502
That started a snowball
00:18:25.542 --> 00:18:27.504
effect of imbuing my life
00:18:27.524 --> 00:18:28.145
with meaning again.
00:18:28.245 --> 00:18:32.327
But I remember about a year to two years,
00:18:32.447 --> 00:18:33.128
probably a year and a half
00:18:33.968 --> 00:18:35.770
after the complete collapse of our faith,
00:18:35.970 --> 00:18:37.531
I started listening to this
00:18:37.571 --> 00:18:39.272
podcast called My Dad Wrote a Porno,
00:18:39.332 --> 00:18:40.012
which is just like this
00:18:40.032 --> 00:18:41.673
comedy podcast in the UK.
00:18:42.874 --> 00:18:45.437
And the podcast was so good
00:18:45.477 --> 00:18:47.099
and so funny that I just
00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:48.160
remember thinking in my mind,
00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:49.261
I'm going to want to binge
00:18:49.281 --> 00:18:50.002
this constantly.
00:18:50.042 --> 00:18:51.964
So I might as well like move
00:18:52.024 --> 00:18:53.005
my body while I do it
00:18:53.065 --> 00:18:54.566
because I can't sit still anyway.
00:18:54.586 --> 00:18:55.207
So I was like,
00:18:55.227 --> 00:18:55.908
I'm going to listen to an
00:18:55.948 --> 00:18:58.210
episode a day and go to my
00:18:58.250 --> 00:18:59.231
apartment gym and walk on
00:18:59.271 --> 00:19:00.072
the treadmill for the
00:19:00.112 --> 00:19:00.913
length of that episode,
00:19:00.933 --> 00:19:01.734
like thirty minutes.
00:19:02.234 --> 00:19:03.956
And prior to this, for like a year,
00:19:04.036 --> 00:19:05.657
I just like, I hadn't been moving.
00:19:05.737 --> 00:19:08.240
I hadn't been like treating my body right.
00:19:08.280 --> 00:19:10.482
I just wasn't motivated to
00:19:10.502 --> 00:19:13.484
like live a healthy life
00:19:13.504 --> 00:19:15.026
physically or spiritually
00:19:15.046 --> 00:19:17.208
or emotionally or anything.
00:19:17.748 --> 00:19:20.230
And just starting to do this
00:19:20.571 --> 00:19:21.592
one half an hour thing
00:19:21.632 --> 00:19:23.473
every single day was like
00:19:23.954 --> 00:19:26.436
my entry point back into
00:19:26.876 --> 00:19:27.977
life again as physically,
00:19:28.818 --> 00:19:30.158
silly or not silly as it
00:19:30.198 --> 00:19:32.019
might sound at number one
00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:33.660
obviously like the benefits
00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:34.940
of moving for half an hour
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:36.140
a day can't be overstated
00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:38.041
but it was like I had this
00:19:38.181 --> 00:19:39.141
anchor you know I had this
00:19:39.281 --> 00:19:40.262
promise I would keep to
00:19:40.302 --> 00:19:42.282
myself every single day and
00:19:42.302 --> 00:19:43.222
I didn't just immediately
00:19:43.242 --> 00:19:44.463
make you know everything
00:19:44.543 --> 00:19:46.884
wonderful but it it's like
00:19:46.924 --> 00:19:48.084
if you can just start with
00:19:48.184 --> 00:19:49.424
one thing then you you
00:19:49.564 --> 00:19:51.165
naturally usually do build
00:19:51.205 --> 00:19:52.065
on top of that because you
00:19:52.105 --> 00:19:52.905
start like believing
00:19:53.145 --> 00:19:54.406
yourself to be capable and
00:19:55.186 --> 00:19:55.366
you know,
00:19:55.406 --> 00:19:56.527
even just getting some good
00:19:56.607 --> 00:19:57.607
endorphins every day,
00:19:57.647 --> 00:19:59.728
I'm sure was lending itself
00:19:59.768 --> 00:20:00.748
to me then having other
00:20:00.828 --> 00:20:02.489
ideas about how I can
00:20:02.689 --> 00:20:04.050
enhance my the quality of
00:20:04.090 --> 00:20:04.930
my day to day life.
00:20:05.390 --> 00:20:06.531
And I was lucky enough to be
00:20:06.731 --> 00:20:08.011
freelance writing at this
00:20:08.051 --> 00:20:10.592
time I was doing SEO blogging,
00:20:10.632 --> 00:20:11.873
which was also soul destroying,
00:20:11.893 --> 00:20:12.573
but in a different way
00:20:12.593 --> 00:20:13.894
where I could keep my own schedule.
00:20:13.994 --> 00:20:15.834
So I was kind of able to
00:20:15.874 --> 00:20:17.395
like build my life brick by
00:20:17.415 --> 00:20:18.255
brick at that time,
00:20:18.315 --> 00:20:19.476
which I feel grateful for.
00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:20.200
Yeah,
00:20:20.220 --> 00:20:22.182
I'm definitely a fan of the just
00:20:22.222 --> 00:20:24.345
change one thing instead of
00:20:24.385 --> 00:20:25.546
trying to get overwhelmed
00:20:25.566 --> 00:20:26.727
with a list of things that
00:20:26.747 --> 00:20:28.189
you want to be different in your life.
00:20:28.229 --> 00:20:30.051
So I love that you just did
00:20:30.091 --> 00:20:32.294
that thing and that led to other things.
00:20:32.914 --> 00:20:35.437
And also, I liked your comment about,
00:20:35.677 --> 00:20:35.938
you know,
00:20:35.978 --> 00:20:38.180
the the SEO being freelance
00:20:38.561 --> 00:20:40.042
while the work itself maybe
00:20:40.062 --> 00:20:40.963
was a little numbing.
00:20:41.744 --> 00:20:43.505
at least you had some time freedom.
00:20:44.085 --> 00:20:45.825
And I think that not enough
00:20:45.885 --> 00:20:47.386
people appreciate how much
00:20:47.446 --> 00:20:49.306
time freedom has a huge
00:20:49.386 --> 00:20:51.327
impact on your life because
00:20:51.347 --> 00:20:52.607
then you have the ability
00:20:53.187 --> 00:20:54.448
to sort of work on other
00:20:54.488 --> 00:20:56.428
projects or to at least
00:20:56.488 --> 00:20:57.849
have some differentiation
00:20:57.909 --> 00:20:59.749
in your day so that you're
00:20:59.789 --> 00:21:01.110
not constantly on the same
00:21:01.170 --> 00:21:02.430
exact schedule every day.
00:21:02.850 --> 00:21:04.751
So if you have a job that you hate,
00:21:04.771 --> 00:21:06.391
but at least you have time freedom,
00:21:06.892 --> 00:21:07.952
that's a lot better than
00:21:08.272 --> 00:21:09.672
just a job that you hate at
00:21:09.712 --> 00:21:10.873
a location that you hate.
00:21:11.673 --> 00:21:13.195
Yeah, so true.
00:21:13.235 --> 00:21:14.557
Time freedom is everything.
00:21:14.637 --> 00:21:16.539
And it is stressful and
00:21:16.579 --> 00:21:18.681
frustrating the way our
00:21:18.721 --> 00:21:20.924
current systems are keeping people just,
00:21:21.505 --> 00:21:21.765
I mean,
00:21:21.825 --> 00:21:23.847
they're giving all of their life
00:21:23.887 --> 00:21:25.189
force to companies,
00:21:25.529 --> 00:21:27.011
their precious life energy,
00:21:27.051 --> 00:21:28.212
and then people are so
00:21:28.293 --> 00:21:30.355
drained after that.
00:21:30.895 --> 00:21:32.336
I did end up like going back
00:21:32.396 --> 00:21:34.037
to an in-office job for
00:21:34.057 --> 00:21:34.657
like four more years.
00:21:34.697 --> 00:21:37.018
But that feeling of like
00:21:37.038 --> 00:21:39.319
you've technically done a four days work,
00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:40.179
but really you've kind of
00:21:40.239 --> 00:21:41.400
just like mindlessly sat in
00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:42.300
an office for eight hours,
00:21:42.360 --> 00:21:43.361
even if you've done some
00:21:43.401 --> 00:21:44.001
work in that time.
00:21:44.401 --> 00:21:45.002
And then you just have
00:21:45.162 --> 00:21:46.322
nothing left to give at the
00:21:46.362 --> 00:21:46.882
end of the day.
00:21:46.922 --> 00:21:48.683
So you don't have the
00:21:48.723 --> 00:21:50.804
ability to like turn things around.
00:21:50.844 --> 00:21:51.845
It feels like a lot of times
00:21:51.885 --> 00:21:52.985
because it's you're
00:21:53.085 --> 00:21:54.946
understandably just completely sapped.
00:21:55.326 --> 00:21:56.427
That's a hard situation to be in.
00:21:57.150 --> 00:21:57.450
Yeah.
00:21:57.770 --> 00:22:00.031
And I think that the remote situation,
00:22:00.091 --> 00:22:01.252
if you're lucky enough to
00:22:01.292 --> 00:22:02.392
have a job that's remote,
00:22:02.493 --> 00:22:04.593
even a couple of days a week,
00:22:05.134 --> 00:22:06.614
it gives you the ability to like,
00:22:06.875 --> 00:22:08.015
I can be at home and
00:22:08.075 --> 00:22:10.156
tidying while I'm listening
00:22:10.196 --> 00:22:11.136
to a conference call.
00:22:11.216 --> 00:22:12.577
I don't have to be just in
00:22:12.617 --> 00:22:14.578
my cubicle focused on something.
00:22:15.178 --> 00:22:16.799
And I've had a couple of
00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:18.840
jobs where there wasn't
00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:19.820
enough work to do.
00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:20.581
And that's one of the
00:22:20.601 --> 00:22:22.202
situations that I'm in right now.
00:22:22.422 --> 00:22:22.882
And that
00:22:23.402 --> 00:22:25.503
in itself also is equally
00:22:25.704 --> 00:22:27.685
terrible and mind numbing.
00:22:28.285 --> 00:22:29.646
But at least I can work
00:22:29.706 --> 00:22:31.107
remote a lot of the time.
00:22:31.307 --> 00:22:32.648
And then I can be working on
00:22:32.708 --> 00:22:33.789
other projects like this,
00:22:34.249 --> 00:22:35.770
instead of sitting at a
00:22:35.810 --> 00:22:37.131
desk waiting for something
00:22:37.171 --> 00:22:38.132
to happen so that I can
00:22:38.172 --> 00:22:38.952
have something to do.
00:22:38.972 --> 00:22:42.915
So I appreciate your standpoint on that.
00:22:42.935 --> 00:22:43.856
What about you, Tanner?
00:22:43.916 --> 00:22:45.417
What was something that was
00:22:45.437 --> 00:22:46.518
a small change you made
00:22:46.558 --> 00:22:48.099
that maybe later led to
00:22:48.159 --> 00:22:50.120
other things that were super important?
00:22:50.555 --> 00:22:50.877
Um,
00:22:51.017 --> 00:22:53.118
I probably similar to Samantha's I'd
00:22:53.178 --> 00:22:53.658
say the,
00:22:53.698 --> 00:22:55.619
like one of the biggest shifts of
00:22:55.879 --> 00:22:58.161
coming out of Mormonism and
00:22:59.181 --> 00:23:00.082
into the direction that my
00:23:00.122 --> 00:23:01.863
life has taken now is just
00:23:01.903 --> 00:23:03.664
becoming more in touch with my body.
00:23:04.344 --> 00:23:06.566
And like in Mormonism,
00:23:06.887 --> 00:23:10.008
my body was always my enemy at worst,
00:23:10.268 --> 00:23:11.149
or just like
00:23:11.655 --> 00:23:12.035
I don't know,
00:23:12.155 --> 00:23:15.418
sort of an inconvenience at best.
00:23:15.778 --> 00:23:16.838
It was like this thing I had
00:23:16.879 --> 00:23:18.760
to deal with until I get back to heaven.
00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:20.221
And in the meantime,
00:23:20.281 --> 00:23:22.663
just try to punch in the
00:23:22.703 --> 00:23:24.044
clock and do the things and
00:23:24.084 --> 00:23:25.025
make God happy.
00:23:25.625 --> 00:23:28.508
But realizing that my body,
00:23:28.528 --> 00:23:32.991
my experience in this flesh vessel is it.
00:23:33.291 --> 00:23:35.412
For me, it's always going to be this.
00:23:36.053 --> 00:23:37.994
And the way that I feel about it,
00:23:38.054 --> 00:23:39.155
the way that I treat it,
00:23:39.915 --> 00:23:41.356
is going to affect me for
00:23:41.376 --> 00:23:42.297
the rest of my life.
00:23:42.337 --> 00:23:43.938
So it's an ongoing journey
00:23:44.578 --> 00:23:46.760
of like really learning to
00:23:46.800 --> 00:23:49.601
love and listen to myself
00:23:49.661 --> 00:23:51.763
to like understand my
00:23:52.223 --> 00:23:54.825
internal feelings and sensations.
00:23:55.405 --> 00:23:57.006
and to honor my needs and
00:23:57.046 --> 00:24:00.447
desires and to create space
00:24:00.767 --> 00:24:03.908
to express those and to
00:24:04.088 --> 00:24:05.849
seek out the things that are good for me,
00:24:05.889 --> 00:24:07.570
whether that's exercise,
00:24:07.870 --> 00:24:09.330
whether that's making sure
00:24:09.390 --> 00:24:11.171
I'm spending quality time in nature,
00:24:11.551 --> 00:24:13.592
whether that's eating properly, which,
00:24:14.072 --> 00:24:15.813
you know, still an ongoing thing,
00:24:15.853 --> 00:24:17.313
but better than it's been.
00:24:18.053 --> 00:24:19.974
And so, yeah,
00:24:20.074 --> 00:24:22.275
I'd say like embodiment is
00:24:22.375 --> 00:24:24.696
the word of the day for me on that one.
00:24:25.544 --> 00:24:25.704
Yeah,
00:24:25.764 --> 00:24:27.606
I feel like we get taught so much in
00:24:27.646 --> 00:24:29.568
Mormonism to dissociate
00:24:29.588 --> 00:24:31.709
from our bodies and to be
00:24:31.769 --> 00:24:33.071
ashamed of our bodies
00:24:33.131 --> 00:24:33.971
because they're just
00:24:34.031 --> 00:24:35.593
basically a sin factory.
00:24:36.574 --> 00:24:37.314
Whether, you know,
00:24:37.354 --> 00:24:38.756
whether showing my corn
00:24:38.776 --> 00:24:40.997
shoulder over here or, you know,
00:24:41.218 --> 00:24:42.459
or whether trying to deny
00:24:42.499 --> 00:24:43.480
ourselves of basic,
00:24:43.580 --> 00:24:45.822
normal human developmental needs.
00:24:46.203 --> 00:24:47.784
And then also we get taught
00:24:47.824 --> 00:24:49.766
to dissociate from our own feelings.
00:24:50.561 --> 00:24:52.884
And to basically reassign
00:24:53.044 --> 00:24:54.626
our feelings to be some
00:24:54.666 --> 00:24:56.008
kind of a spiritual meaning
00:24:56.068 --> 00:24:57.670
or a connection to the Holy Ghost.
00:24:58.451 --> 00:24:59.673
And I don't know if you guys
00:24:59.693 --> 00:25:00.494
have read this,
00:25:00.594 --> 00:25:01.956
but I just finished reading
00:25:01.996 --> 00:25:03.738
Jeanette McCurdy's I'm Glad
00:25:03.798 --> 00:25:05.561
My Mom's Dead book.
00:25:06.121 --> 00:25:07.022
So amazing.
00:25:07.222 --> 00:25:08.663
And she talks about that,
00:25:08.743 --> 00:25:11.825
how like she was as an eight year old,
00:25:12.045 --> 00:25:13.246
so looking forward to
00:25:13.306 --> 00:25:14.207
hearing the voice of the
00:25:14.247 --> 00:25:16.968
Holy Ghost and praying for it actively.
00:25:17.048 --> 00:25:18.670
And I want to hear it and I
00:25:18.710 --> 00:25:19.630
can't wait to hear it.
00:25:19.710 --> 00:25:21.131
And then when she did hear it,
00:25:21.692 --> 00:25:23.313
what she was attributing to
00:25:23.373 --> 00:25:26.094
be the Holy Ghost was actually OCD.
00:25:26.735 --> 00:25:29.237
And it was it turned into these behaviors,
00:25:29.277 --> 00:25:30.738
these obsessive behaviors.
00:25:30.798 --> 00:25:32.719
But she was glad for them
00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:33.760
because she thought that
00:25:33.780 --> 00:25:34.780
was the Holy Ghost telling
00:25:34.820 --> 00:25:35.381
her what to do.
00:25:36.221 --> 00:25:38.244
And so in Mormonism,
00:25:38.384 --> 00:25:40.106
we get taught that there's
00:25:40.146 --> 00:25:41.448
so much importance on this
00:25:41.588 --> 00:25:44.011
other voice that's coming from God.
00:25:44.172 --> 00:25:45.613
And we stop listening to our
00:25:45.774 --> 00:25:47.336
own instincts and following
00:25:47.396 --> 00:25:49.719
our own instincts about what we need.
00:25:50.239 --> 00:25:51.962
And it sounds like you guys
00:25:52.002 --> 00:25:53.684
can identify with that at least a little.
00:25:55.314 --> 00:25:57.015
Yeah, it definitely has been, I mean,
00:25:57.495 --> 00:25:59.737
a decade long process to
00:25:59.777 --> 00:26:01.858
get more in touch with my
00:26:01.898 --> 00:26:02.919
body and feelings.
00:26:02.979 --> 00:26:05.441
And because I feel like one
00:26:05.461 --> 00:26:06.041
thing we've been talking
00:26:06.061 --> 00:26:06.922
about a lot lately on our
00:26:06.962 --> 00:26:08.443
channel is unshaming work.
00:26:08.523 --> 00:26:11.565
And I feel like you can't deeply,
00:26:11.905 --> 00:26:12.665
you can't connect with
00:26:12.685 --> 00:26:13.546
yourself at the deepest
00:26:13.586 --> 00:26:16.008
level if you won't like
00:26:16.288 --> 00:26:17.669
allow yourself to remove
00:26:18.069 --> 00:26:20.170
the shame that covers a lot
00:26:20.210 --> 00:26:21.872
of the feelings and desires
00:26:21.912 --> 00:26:23.613
and thoughts and stuff that you have.
00:26:23.913 --> 00:26:24.854
Cause you can't bring like
00:26:24.934 --> 00:26:26.575
the level of curiosity you
00:26:26.615 --> 00:26:27.835
need to understand yourself
00:26:27.895 --> 00:26:29.292
if shame is in the way.
00:26:29.457 --> 00:26:29.857
Yeah.
00:26:30.017 --> 00:26:31.297
I think it's such a big part
00:26:31.337 --> 00:26:33.158
of the gospel of, you know,
00:26:33.198 --> 00:26:34.559
the LDS gospel is,
00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:36.480
is like being ashamed of
00:26:36.500 --> 00:26:39.162
who you are because we,
00:26:39.442 --> 00:26:42.083
even though the LDS church talks about,
00:26:42.283 --> 00:26:42.524
you know,
00:26:42.544 --> 00:26:44.585
you're pure until you're eight years old,
00:26:45.085 --> 00:26:45.145
um,
00:26:45.625 --> 00:26:46.927
I feel like there's still a
00:26:46.967 --> 00:26:48.650
lot of shame attached to
00:26:48.690 --> 00:26:51.033
behaviors before you even get baptized.
00:26:51.754 --> 00:26:53.757
And it's like you have to be
00:26:53.797 --> 00:26:55.700
clean in order to get baptized.
00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:57.002
You have to pass that interview.
00:26:57.042 --> 00:26:57.763
So you have to tell the
00:26:57.803 --> 00:26:59.286
bishop that you're already, you know,
00:26:59.306 --> 00:27:00.587
that you're doing everything right.
00:27:01.368 --> 00:27:02.069
And if you're not,
00:27:02.489 --> 00:27:04.690
there is just basically that shame.
00:27:05.050 --> 00:27:07.152
The whole thing is shame based, you know,
00:27:07.252 --> 00:27:09.113
so we have to go repent
00:27:09.153 --> 00:27:10.694
because we're inherently
00:27:10.734 --> 00:27:12.795
bad and we're never going
00:27:12.815 --> 00:27:13.996
to be as clean as we were
00:27:14.036 --> 00:27:15.397
on the day we were baptized.
00:27:15.497 --> 00:27:16.838
And so then we get to be
00:27:16.918 --> 00:27:18.939
ashamed of ourselves and
00:27:18.979 --> 00:27:20.160
our actions and our bodies
00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:21.881
and everything for the rest of eternity.
00:27:22.521 --> 00:27:24.663
and have this constant need to repent.
00:27:25.183 --> 00:27:28.146
So I don't know what your experience was,
00:27:28.246 --> 00:27:31.208
but when I finally signed
00:27:31.268 --> 00:27:33.350
the paper to resign from
00:27:33.390 --> 00:27:35.832
the church and sent it off,
00:27:36.252 --> 00:27:37.853
I literally did feel shame
00:27:37.913 --> 00:27:38.814
leaving my body.
00:27:39.575 --> 00:27:41.436
I felt like this huge relief
00:27:41.856 --> 00:27:44.619
and release also of all of
00:27:44.739 --> 00:27:46.660
the parts of myself that I
00:27:46.760 --> 00:27:50.723
had repressed or been ashamed of,
00:27:51.724 --> 00:27:53.387
that now I could finally
00:27:53.527 --> 00:27:55.510
allow an equal seat at the table.
00:27:55.751 --> 00:27:56.893
I could finally welcome
00:27:56.913 --> 00:27:58.816
those parts of myself and
00:27:58.876 --> 00:28:00.759
not feel ashamed of them anymore.
00:28:00.779 --> 00:28:02.182
I don't know if you had
00:28:02.242 --> 00:28:03.905
something similar like that.
00:28:04.409 --> 00:28:05.509
I got chills when you said
00:28:05.529 --> 00:28:07.510
that just because it was so relatable.
00:28:07.710 --> 00:28:08.870
I always say that I felt
00:28:08.910 --> 00:28:10.550
like there was this tight
00:28:10.771 --> 00:28:12.851
rope just knotted in my
00:28:12.891 --> 00:28:14.811
stomach for years that I
00:28:14.851 --> 00:28:16.472
had just gotten to the
00:28:16.512 --> 00:28:17.512
point where I didn't even notice.
00:28:17.552 --> 00:28:21.193
It was just a regular aspect of me.
00:28:21.933 --> 00:28:24.474
And then when I left the church,
00:28:24.614 --> 00:28:26.894
I felt it just release and
00:28:26.954 --> 00:28:29.555
I felt relaxed for the first time ever.
00:28:30.116 --> 00:28:31.377
in as long as i could
00:28:31.437 --> 00:28:33.559
remember it was a huge
00:28:33.619 --> 00:28:34.860
weight that was lifted and
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:35.701
not just because like oh
00:28:35.741 --> 00:28:37.002
now i can do any bad thing
00:28:37.062 --> 00:28:38.704
i want it was just like i'm
00:28:38.884 --> 00:28:40.746
okay like they've been
00:28:40.786 --> 00:28:42.128
telling me i've been sick
00:28:42.168 --> 00:28:43.149
and they've been you know
00:28:43.189 --> 00:28:44.510
you're horrible you're sick
00:28:44.530 --> 00:28:45.491
you got it you need us so
00:28:45.511 --> 00:28:46.412
that you can be worthy
00:28:46.452 --> 00:28:47.173
again so that you can be
00:28:47.213 --> 00:28:49.695
pure and that was all just malarkey
00:28:52.578 --> 00:28:52.838
Yeah,
00:28:52.858 --> 00:28:55.319
it's like they say that people leave
00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:57.020
the church because they want to sin.
00:28:57.701 --> 00:29:00.182
And if I had to like reframe that,
00:29:00.222 --> 00:29:01.363
it would be like, no,
00:29:01.663 --> 00:29:02.844
I left the church so that I
00:29:02.864 --> 00:29:04.185
could love myself.
00:29:04.205 --> 00:29:04.466
Yep.
00:29:06.378 --> 00:29:08.280
Yeah, I truly love myself, others.
00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:09.120
It was like, oh,
00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:11.122
I don't have to shame myself.
00:29:11.162 --> 00:29:12.463
I don't have to shame other people.
00:29:12.583 --> 00:29:13.944
I don't have to force people
00:29:13.984 --> 00:29:15.085
to try to live the
00:29:15.105 --> 00:29:16.326
standards that I'm trying to force.
00:29:16.366 --> 00:29:17.787
We don't have to do any of this.
00:29:18.688 --> 00:29:19.028
Right.
00:29:19.266 --> 00:29:19.662
benefiting a few
00:29:19.722 --> 00:29:21.643
guys over in Salt Lake, but not me.
00:29:21.684 --> 00:29:23.565
This isn't making me a happier, healthier,
00:29:23.625 --> 00:29:24.486
more loving person.
00:29:24.875 --> 00:29:25.155
Right.
00:29:25.375 --> 00:29:25.936
Exactly.
00:29:26.536 --> 00:29:27.437
And for me, too,
00:29:28.017 --> 00:29:29.198
it was an opportunity to
00:29:29.278 --> 00:29:30.999
finally listen to the ideas
00:29:31.019 --> 00:29:32.180
and experiences of other
00:29:32.220 --> 00:29:33.820
people authentically and
00:29:33.820 --> 00:29:34.758
give their ideas
00:29:34.778 --> 00:29:36.839
and experiences validity
00:29:36.999 --> 00:29:38.160
and meaning rather than
00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:39.821
dismissing it and saying, well,
00:29:40.161 --> 00:29:40.882
aren't you cute?
00:29:40.902 --> 00:29:42.383
You just don't know the whole truth.
00:29:42.603 --> 00:29:44.524
You know, so condescending.
00:29:46.125 --> 00:29:47.326
Such a treat to be able to
00:29:47.386 --> 00:29:48.487
listen to the experiences
00:29:48.547 --> 00:29:50.288
of others for the first time.
00:29:50.298 --> 00:29:51.130
to accept
00:29:51.230 --> 00:29:53.352
other philosophical ideals
00:29:53.412 --> 00:29:55.033
and other religious ideas
00:29:55.213 --> 00:29:57.094
and other tools from other
00:29:57.155 --> 00:30:00.097
spiritual modalities to be
00:30:00.137 --> 00:30:01.317
able to look at them and say, oh,
00:30:01.357 --> 00:30:02.398
there's some value in that.
00:30:02.438 --> 00:30:03.739
There's something important there.
00:30:03.859 --> 00:30:04.760
I like that idea.
00:30:04.860 --> 00:30:06.041
I think, you know,
00:30:06.101 --> 00:30:08.362
that's valid rather than to
00:30:08.402 --> 00:30:09.343
just dismiss it because
00:30:09.383 --> 00:30:12.005
it's not the ideal that we got taught.
00:30:12.025 --> 00:30:12.105
Yeah.
00:30:13.194 --> 00:30:13.634
Mm-hmm.
00:30:13.674 --> 00:30:17.037
Didn't come from Salt Lake City, Utah,
00:30:17.077 --> 00:30:19.378
so therefore can't possibly be true.
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:19.999
Yeah,
00:30:20.019 --> 00:30:21.460
if an old white dude didn't say it
00:30:21.500 --> 00:30:24.422
from the pulpit, then it's not valid.
00:30:24.442 --> 00:30:24.863
Doesn't count.
00:30:24.883 --> 00:30:26.324
Doesn't count.
00:30:27.205 --> 00:30:29.246
I had this one really powerful moment,
00:30:29.406 --> 00:30:29.947
actually,
00:30:30.707 --> 00:30:33.229
when I was sort of reviewing
00:30:33.309 --> 00:30:34.951
some of my shelf items,
00:30:35.291 --> 00:30:36.492
kind of going back and thinking,
00:30:36.852 --> 00:30:38.253
what were some of the things that...
00:30:38.594 --> 00:30:40.435
Made me start questioning my faith.
00:30:40.695 --> 00:30:42.056
And I think the biggest one
00:30:42.116 --> 00:30:44.037
for me or the first big one
00:30:44.077 --> 00:30:46.058
for me was the November,
00:30:46.098 --> 00:30:49.219
twenty fifteen policy when that came out.
00:30:49.539 --> 00:30:51.280
And I remember having this
00:30:51.340 --> 00:30:52.881
really emotional experience
00:30:53.441 --> 00:30:55.722
when the policy was read from the pulpit.
00:30:56.511 --> 00:30:57.612
Because at the time I was a
00:30:57.652 --> 00:30:58.914
choir teacher and I had
00:30:58.934 --> 00:31:00.175
been bringing my students
00:31:00.275 --> 00:31:01.696
to church to sing on
00:31:01.737 --> 00:31:02.738
Christmas and Easter.
00:31:03.458 --> 00:31:06.241
And I taught a lot of LGBTQ students.
00:31:06.522 --> 00:31:09.104
And I was thinking to myself, you know,
00:31:09.204 --> 00:31:11.046
how can I now invite them
00:31:11.347 --> 00:31:14.109
into the church knowing how harmful,
00:31:14.190 --> 00:31:15.671
how openly harmful the
00:31:15.711 --> 00:31:18.434
church is towards the LGBTQ population?
00:31:19.095 --> 00:31:21.717
And I just kept thinking to myself, like,
00:31:21.837 --> 00:31:23.398
if I identify myself with
00:31:23.438 --> 00:31:24.538
this organization,
00:31:24.918 --> 00:31:26.119
my students are not dumb.
00:31:26.139 --> 00:31:26.799
They're going to look at
00:31:26.819 --> 00:31:28.921
that and they're going to say, okay, well,
00:31:28.961 --> 00:31:30.101
she's a part of this church
00:31:30.121 --> 00:31:31.322
that doesn't like us.
00:31:31.762 --> 00:31:33.123
So maybe she doesn't like us
00:31:33.163 --> 00:31:34.504
and we can't trust her either.
00:31:35.184 --> 00:31:37.145
That was one of my really big things.
00:31:37.305 --> 00:31:38.306
And when I was going back
00:31:38.346 --> 00:31:39.468
through it in therapy,
00:31:39.862 --> 00:31:42.384
sorry to be self-referential right now,
00:31:42.404 --> 00:31:45.566
but I'm just like having this mind block.
00:31:45.626 --> 00:31:46.586
I need to talk about it.
00:31:47.427 --> 00:31:47.787
When I,
00:31:48.007 --> 00:31:50.349
when I was going through processing
00:31:50.389 --> 00:31:51.249
that in therapy,
00:31:51.289 --> 00:31:52.350
why I was feeling so
00:31:52.390 --> 00:31:53.891
terrible about that policy,
00:31:54.691 --> 00:31:56.532
it was because I had this,
00:31:57.033 --> 00:31:58.714
this vision when I was processing it,
00:31:58.774 --> 00:32:00.095
I had this vision of all my
00:32:00.155 --> 00:32:01.015
parts at the table.
00:32:01.055 --> 00:32:01.856
This is kind of how I
00:32:01.896 --> 00:32:03.877
envisioned myself is like this,
00:32:04.137 --> 00:32:06.339
We all have a seat at this oval table.
00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:08.440
And when the twenty fifteen
00:32:08.461 --> 00:32:09.561
policy was announced,
00:32:09.802 --> 00:32:11.503
it was like the bisexual
00:32:11.523 --> 00:32:12.564
part of me stood up.
00:32:13.145 --> 00:32:14.526
And wanted to say something,
00:32:14.886 --> 00:32:16.107
but even at that time,
00:32:16.287 --> 00:32:17.448
I still could not admit
00:32:17.488 --> 00:32:19.551
that I was bisexual and she
00:32:19.591 --> 00:32:20.892
still didn't get to have a voice.
00:32:21.452 --> 00:32:22.453
She was just standing there
00:32:22.493 --> 00:32:24.114
waiting for me to acknowledge her.
00:32:24.775 --> 00:32:25.676
And I still couldn't.
00:32:26.456 --> 00:32:27.837
And so when I finally did
00:32:27.877 --> 00:32:30.699
leave the church and that shame left,
00:32:31.580 --> 00:32:32.840
it was like she was finally
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.601
allowed to speak and she
00:32:34.641 --> 00:32:35.481
had a lot to say.
00:32:36.461 --> 00:32:38.902
And she was finally able to
00:32:38.922 --> 00:32:39.802
like release all the
00:32:39.842 --> 00:32:41.182
emotions that she'd been
00:32:41.632 --> 00:32:42.783
repressing that whole time.
00:32:42.803 --> 00:32:43.803
And she finally felt like
00:32:43.823 --> 00:32:44.643
she had a voice and an
00:32:44.763 --> 00:32:45.764
equal seat at the table.
00:32:45.904 --> 00:32:46.824
And so for me,
00:32:46.904 --> 00:32:48.464
definitely leaving the
00:32:48.504 --> 00:32:49.665
church was about loving and
00:32:49.705 --> 00:32:50.725
accepting all those parts
00:32:50.765 --> 00:32:52.906
of myself and being able to
00:32:52.946 --> 00:32:54.126
let go of the shame that
00:32:54.206 --> 00:32:56.226
was placed upon me because
00:32:56.266 --> 00:32:57.907
I didn't fit into that Mormon box.
00:32:58.437 --> 00:33:00.438
Did you ever,
00:33:00.458 --> 00:33:01.939
did you have that shame
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:04.161
return at any later point?
00:33:04.481 --> 00:33:06.142
Like, it sounds like once you resigned,
00:33:06.162 --> 00:33:07.963
there was a shedding, but did you,
00:33:08.164 --> 00:33:09.424
have you had to like battle
00:33:09.504 --> 00:33:11.546
it popping back up and like
00:33:11.906 --> 00:33:13.547
driving the car again at times?
00:33:15.148 --> 00:33:15.768
Not really,
00:33:16.588 --> 00:33:19.289
because along with releasing
00:33:19.329 --> 00:33:21.850
the shame that I felt for
00:33:22.730 --> 00:33:23.630
all the parts of me that
00:33:23.650 --> 00:33:25.391
were not acceptable in Mormonism,
00:33:25.571 --> 00:33:27.811
I also released the
00:33:28.072 --> 00:33:29.712
importance of anyone else's
00:33:29.772 --> 00:33:31.192
opinion about who I am.
00:33:31.933 --> 00:33:33.353
No longer having to report
00:33:33.373 --> 00:33:35.474
to a bishop to be declared
00:33:35.514 --> 00:33:37.874
worthy to go to the temple
00:33:38.194 --> 00:33:40.055
and no longer having to
00:33:40.730 --> 00:33:42.431
talk about my experiences in
00:33:42.471 --> 00:33:44.393
an edited way in church.
00:33:45.313 --> 00:33:46.434
Now I can talk about my
00:33:46.474 --> 00:33:47.795
experiences in a completely
00:33:47.896 --> 00:33:49.717
unedited way with a brand
00:33:49.777 --> 00:33:51.939
new lens of there was never
00:33:51.979 --> 00:33:52.860
anything wrong with me.
00:33:54.580 --> 00:33:54.860
You know,
00:33:55.180 --> 00:33:56.521
what was wrong was the culture
00:33:56.541 --> 00:33:57.241
that I was in.
00:33:57.321 --> 00:33:59.422
So the shame that I felt in
00:33:59.442 --> 00:34:01.523
the past came a lot from, you know,
00:34:01.584 --> 00:34:03.244
me shaming myself for not fitting in,
00:34:03.284 --> 00:34:04.265
but it also came from
00:34:04.385 --> 00:34:05.465
having to report to other
00:34:05.485 --> 00:34:06.386
authority figures,
00:34:06.946 --> 00:34:08.047
knowing that I would be
00:34:08.107 --> 00:34:10.128
unacceptable to them and to
00:34:10.168 --> 00:34:11.348
certain family members and
00:34:11.388 --> 00:34:12.009
things like that.
00:34:12.089 --> 00:34:15.170
So I wonder that for you guys too,
00:34:15.230 --> 00:34:17.312
about not having to feel
00:34:17.372 --> 00:34:20.153
like you had to ask someone
00:34:20.233 --> 00:34:21.414
else for your worthiness
00:34:22.154 --> 00:34:23.374
Did you feel a level of
00:34:23.454 --> 00:34:25.715
personal worthiness return
00:34:25.735 --> 00:34:27.586
when you finally left?
00:34:27.606 --> 00:34:28.466
I feel like that had to have
00:34:28.486 --> 00:34:29.906
been more of an intense
00:34:29.926 --> 00:34:30.666
phenomenon for you because
00:34:30.706 --> 00:34:31.486
you were raised in it.
00:34:32.387 --> 00:34:32.707
Yeah.
00:34:33.347 --> 00:34:36.047
And, you know, I, in the church,
00:34:36.207 --> 00:34:38.148
had strived really hard to
00:34:38.188 --> 00:34:40.828
be worthy in all aspects.
00:34:40.848 --> 00:34:42.508
Like, I always had a temple recommend,
00:34:42.588 --> 00:34:43.749
always took the sacrament.
00:34:44.182 --> 00:34:45.443
But even so,
00:34:45.583 --> 00:34:48.265
it was to stay out of trouble
00:34:48.325 --> 00:34:49.766
and I was always hyper
00:34:49.806 --> 00:34:51.127
vigilant about everything I
00:34:51.147 --> 00:34:52.087
was doing and everything
00:34:52.127 --> 00:34:53.808
that I was watching and
00:34:53.969 --> 00:34:55.250
everything happening in my
00:34:55.290 --> 00:34:56.610
body because at any moment
00:34:56.671 --> 00:34:57.531
I could be betrayed by
00:34:57.571 --> 00:34:59.953
myself and be on the devil's path.
00:35:00.694 --> 00:35:01.134
Like I said,
00:35:01.174 --> 00:35:02.215
letting go of all of that was
00:35:02.235 --> 00:35:03.976
just this great release.
00:35:05.058 --> 00:35:07.300
easing back into just being
00:35:07.881 --> 00:35:08.762
and I love that you brought
00:35:08.802 --> 00:35:11.024
up the November policy that
00:35:11.064 --> 00:35:13.106
was the reason we had like
00:35:13.867 --> 00:35:15.128
left the church stopped
00:35:15.168 --> 00:35:16.149
attending the church and
00:35:16.169 --> 00:35:17.110
we're speaking out about it
00:35:17.130 --> 00:35:18.571
but it wasn't until that
00:35:18.611 --> 00:35:19.692
policy that I was like I
00:35:19.712 --> 00:35:21.214
don't even want my name
00:35:21.374 --> 00:35:23.396
associated with this organization
00:35:24.296 --> 00:35:26.016
And a lot of the commentary
00:35:26.577 --> 00:35:30.257
that we see now against LGBTQ plus people,
00:35:30.437 --> 00:35:31.778
against trans people, you know,
00:35:32.398 --> 00:35:34.118
they frame it as like the
00:35:34.198 --> 00:35:36.479
gender ideology movement
00:35:36.539 --> 00:35:37.379
that's taking in.
00:35:37.399 --> 00:35:38.879
And it's not really about gender.
00:35:38.899 --> 00:35:40.786
It's not really about orientation.
00:35:41.086 --> 00:35:42.586
It really is about shame,
00:35:42.946 --> 00:35:44.607
about you are supposed to
00:35:44.627 --> 00:35:46.527
be this specific ideal
00:35:46.547 --> 00:35:48.767
thing that most people aren't, right?
00:35:48.807 --> 00:35:50.788
Like most men aren't the...
00:35:51.348 --> 00:35:55.071
six-foot-five, fully jacked, and, you know,
00:35:55.531 --> 00:35:58.273
like, massive chin and delts, like,
00:35:58.293 --> 00:35:58.594
you know.
00:35:58.654 --> 00:35:59.614
Mewing every moment.
00:35:59.634 --> 00:36:00.315
Mewing, yeah, exactly.
00:36:01.276 --> 00:36:02.617
It's like most people just aren't that.
00:36:02.897 --> 00:36:04.078
But there's this idea that
00:36:04.098 --> 00:36:04.738
that's what you are
00:36:04.798 --> 00:36:05.699
supposed to be and that
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:06.580
you're supposed to go off
00:36:06.600 --> 00:36:08.141
to war and fight the
00:36:08.201 --> 00:36:10.223
terrorists and work in the
00:36:10.263 --> 00:36:11.383
factory and do all these
00:36:11.444 --> 00:36:12.484
old-timey things that help
00:36:12.584 --> 00:36:14.086
the shame economy function.
00:36:14.146 --> 00:36:14.186
Mm.
00:36:14.866 --> 00:36:16.167
And everybody for
00:36:16.227 --> 00:36:18.388
generations has carried the
00:36:18.408 --> 00:36:19.688
shame that they're not
00:36:19.748 --> 00:36:20.549
living up to that thing,
00:36:20.569 --> 00:36:21.549
that they're supposed to be
00:36:21.589 --> 00:36:21.989
something else,
00:36:22.009 --> 00:36:22.790
that they're supposed to
00:36:22.830 --> 00:36:25.211
fall in line with these traditional,
00:36:25.491 --> 00:36:27.112
that is to say, like, uh,
00:36:27.132 --> 00:36:27.972
they're not traditional at
00:36:28.032 --> 00:36:29.033
all is what I'm saying,
00:36:29.113 --> 00:36:31.014
but these relatively recent
00:36:31.254 --> 00:36:34.135
and Western American white
00:36:34.335 --> 00:36:35.475
Anglo-Saxon Protestant
00:36:35.596 --> 00:36:38.357
ideas about gender and orientation and,
00:36:38.657 --> 00:36:38.917
uh,
00:36:39.157 --> 00:36:40.298
self presentation and
00:36:40.359 --> 00:36:41.440
expression and all that.
00:36:42.020 --> 00:36:43.081
And it's just this thing
00:36:43.102 --> 00:36:44.023
that gets passed on from
00:36:44.083 --> 00:36:45.144
generation to generation
00:36:45.164 --> 00:36:46.065
that you're supposed to be
00:36:46.105 --> 00:36:47.006
this thing and you're not.
00:36:47.346 --> 00:36:48.788
And you just have to live with the weight,
00:36:48.928 --> 00:36:51.391
the crushing weight of that at all times.
00:36:51.531 --> 00:36:53.152
And I personally think that
00:36:53.172 --> 00:36:54.754
that just has horrible,
00:36:54.794 --> 00:36:56.056
horrible ramifications,
00:36:56.156 --> 00:36:56.977
even in our bodies,
00:36:57.017 --> 00:36:59.159
like on a cellular level, it is not good.
00:36:59.219 --> 00:37:01.182
good for us to experience
00:37:01.202 --> 00:37:02.224
that and to carry that.
00:37:02.584 --> 00:37:05.208
And when we say, hey, I'm bisexual.
00:37:05.288 --> 00:37:06.310
Hey, I'm trans.
00:37:06.630 --> 00:37:08.273
Hey, I'm going to wear a dress.
00:37:08.333 --> 00:37:08.573
Hey,
00:37:08.633 --> 00:37:10.977
I'm going to wear makeup or whatever
00:37:11.017 --> 00:37:11.398
it is.
00:37:11.959 --> 00:37:12.940
It's not about this
00:37:13.596 --> 00:37:15.078
ideology that seeped into
00:37:15.098 --> 00:37:16.039
the mind of the generation.
00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:16.881
It's really just saying,
00:37:17.081 --> 00:37:19.224
I refuse to be ashamed of
00:37:19.264 --> 00:37:21.166
who I am and what I'm doing
00:37:21.447 --> 00:37:23.069
based on some arbitrary
00:37:23.109 --> 00:37:26.213
measure that you inherited.
00:37:26.394 --> 00:37:27.555
I release myself from the
00:37:27.575 --> 00:37:29.177
shame that you are putting onto me.
00:37:29.658 --> 00:37:30.999
I love how Alok,
00:37:31.019 --> 00:37:32.960
who's a trans poet and
00:37:33.060 --> 00:37:36.023
artist and commentator, talks about this,
00:37:36.063 --> 00:37:38.444
that it's this wound that
00:37:38.504 --> 00:37:39.945
people aren't even allowed
00:37:39.965 --> 00:37:41.406
to express when someone
00:37:41.446 --> 00:37:44.709
sees an AMAB person walking
00:37:44.749 --> 00:37:46.070
in a dress and they feel like, oh,
00:37:46.090 --> 00:37:47.571
I'm just so rage.
00:37:47.611 --> 00:37:49.012
Well, they're not mad at the dress.
00:37:49.032 --> 00:37:49.973
They're not mad at that person.
00:37:50.353 --> 00:37:51.974
They're mad because at some
00:37:52.014 --> 00:37:53.235
point in their life,
00:37:53.575 --> 00:37:55.015
Somebody else cut them off
00:37:55.056 --> 00:37:56.436
from their joy and their
00:37:56.476 --> 00:37:58.136
ability to express outside
00:37:58.156 --> 00:37:59.417
of this very rigid,
00:37:59.477 --> 00:38:02.258
fabricated boundary of what's acceptable.
00:38:02.778 --> 00:38:04.018
And they're not even allowed
00:38:04.059 --> 00:38:04.819
to talk about it.
00:38:04.859 --> 00:38:06.019
It's this grief that can't
00:38:06.139 --> 00:38:07.440
even be expressed.
00:38:07.940 --> 00:38:10.000
And so this work that we're all doing,
00:38:10.040 --> 00:38:12.041
I think, is expressing that.
00:38:13.342 --> 00:38:13.462
that.
00:38:13.482 --> 00:38:13.562
Yeah,
00:38:13.582 --> 00:38:14.924
nothing triggers people more than
00:38:14.944 --> 00:38:16.645
when you defy the rules,
00:38:16.845 --> 00:38:18.087
the made up arbitrary rules
00:38:18.107 --> 00:38:20.829
that they think are fixed reality.
00:38:21.370 --> 00:38:22.491
So triggering for people.
00:38:23.027 --> 00:38:23.287
Yeah.
00:38:23.387 --> 00:38:24.028
So excellent.
00:38:24.048 --> 00:38:24.228
Thank you.
00:38:24.248 --> 00:38:25.949
Thank you.
00:38:26.269 --> 00:38:28.951
And even people that do embody, you know,
00:38:28.991 --> 00:38:30.452
for example, the gender ideals,
00:38:30.532 --> 00:38:31.613
even people that present in
00:38:31.633 --> 00:38:32.533
a way that is like they're
00:38:32.573 --> 00:38:33.594
living up to the ideals,
00:38:33.994 --> 00:38:35.896
they can still feel on some
00:38:35.936 --> 00:38:36.636
subconscious level.
00:38:36.696 --> 00:38:37.577
I think a lot of the time
00:38:37.617 --> 00:38:38.657
how like fundamentally
00:38:38.698 --> 00:38:40.038
fragile that is as a thing
00:38:40.078 --> 00:38:41.259
to sort of like rest your
00:38:41.319 --> 00:38:42.680
worth and identity on.
00:38:42.700 --> 00:38:43.341
Yeah.
00:38:43.361 --> 00:38:44.762
Because you could one day be
00:38:44.822 --> 00:38:47.563
the six foot five masculine man.
00:38:47.663 --> 00:38:49.164
And the next day you could
00:38:49.185 --> 00:38:50.966
become paraplegic in a car accident.
00:38:51.006 --> 00:38:52.487
Like everything is like, so,
00:38:53.327 --> 00:38:54.748
temporary in this world and
00:38:54.788 --> 00:38:56.749
so to to teach people that
00:38:56.769 --> 00:38:57.810
like adhering to these
00:38:57.850 --> 00:38:59.411
gender ideals is what's
00:38:59.451 --> 00:39:01.712
gonna like anchor them it's
00:39:01.752 --> 00:39:03.793
just like a stupidly flawed
00:39:03.873 --> 00:39:04.974
premise and like people can
00:39:05.014 --> 00:39:05.754
sense that so then they
00:39:05.794 --> 00:39:06.815
constantly have to like go
00:39:06.855 --> 00:39:08.596
to bat for it it's weird
00:39:09.886 --> 00:39:11.947
It disconnects people from their power.
00:39:12.007 --> 00:39:13.689
It's supposed to do that so
00:39:13.869 --> 00:39:16.992
that when we feel ashamed, we feel weak,
00:39:17.032 --> 00:39:17.832
we feel helpless,
00:39:17.872 --> 00:39:19.414
we feel like we have to
00:39:19.894 --> 00:39:20.955
turn to someone who's
00:39:21.015 --> 00:39:23.277
stronger and more powerful
00:39:23.297 --> 00:39:25.439
who can just tell us what to do.
00:39:25.719 --> 00:39:27.661
I think that's why shame was invented,
00:39:27.721 --> 00:39:28.722
just like the afterlife.
00:39:28.782 --> 00:39:31.044
Yeah, to silence us.
00:39:31.535 --> 00:39:33.576
Yeah, to disconnect us from ourselves,
00:39:33.596 --> 00:39:35.256
to make us an enemy to ourselves.
00:39:35.276 --> 00:39:36.677
So we're more easily controllable.
00:39:37.037 --> 00:39:37.497
Yeah.
00:39:37.557 --> 00:39:38.557
And then we're genuinely
00:39:38.617 --> 00:39:39.877
scared of freedom because
00:39:39.917 --> 00:39:42.658
like arbitrary rules give us an illusion.
00:39:43.719 --> 00:39:45.339
Yeah, like the illusion of safety.
00:39:45.419 --> 00:39:47.580
And like we love having a
00:39:47.620 --> 00:39:48.820
blueprint and it's scary to
00:39:48.860 --> 00:39:50.481
imagine that other people
00:39:50.501 --> 00:39:51.661
are defying the blueprint
00:39:51.681 --> 00:39:53.141
that you think is the blueprint.
00:39:53.161 --> 00:39:53.801
Because then you're like, well,
00:39:53.821 --> 00:39:54.882
then I have no blueprint.
00:39:54.922 --> 00:39:56.042
So I have to attack them
00:39:56.502 --> 00:39:58.103
because I can't be without my blueprint.
00:39:58.383 --> 00:39:58.663
Right.
00:39:59.203 --> 00:39:59.423
Yeah,
00:39:59.483 --> 00:40:02.045
it's that definitely existential fear
00:40:02.185 --> 00:40:03.926
of freedom that we all have,
00:40:04.046 --> 00:40:05.828
where we would much rather be given,
00:40:05.868 --> 00:40:06.348
like you say,
00:40:06.368 --> 00:40:07.809
a blueprint because it
00:40:07.909 --> 00:40:08.709
answers all of those
00:40:08.750 --> 00:40:09.910
questions and we don't have
00:40:09.950 --> 00:40:11.051
to think for ourselves.
00:40:11.111 --> 00:40:12.152
It's so much easier.
00:40:13.012 --> 00:40:13.493
But Tanner,
00:40:13.513 --> 00:40:15.434
you touched on something that I
00:40:15.494 --> 00:40:17.515
have been thinking a lot about lately too,
00:40:17.535 --> 00:40:18.676
which is this connection
00:40:18.716 --> 00:40:20.297
between shame and anger,
00:40:20.978 --> 00:40:24.060
where when people who have
00:40:24.120 --> 00:40:25.361
been in this repressed
00:40:25.421 --> 00:40:26.982
system that was handed to them
00:40:27.877 --> 00:40:30.039
don't feel safe to express themselves.
00:40:30.239 --> 00:40:31.480
When they see other people
00:40:31.540 --> 00:40:33.142
expressing themselves freely,
00:40:33.902 --> 00:40:35.163
it's like a mirror gets
00:40:35.203 --> 00:40:37.225
held up to them and they
00:40:37.265 --> 00:40:38.086
see those parts of
00:40:38.106 --> 00:40:40.228
themselves that they're ashamed of.
00:40:40.788 --> 00:40:42.289
And that shame creates this
00:40:42.489 --> 00:40:43.630
anger and they have to
00:40:43.670 --> 00:40:44.851
direct the anger towards
00:40:44.872 --> 00:40:46.113
the person who's expressing
00:40:46.153 --> 00:40:47.053
themselves freely.
00:40:47.994 --> 00:40:49.075
And I feel like that's what
00:40:49.115 --> 00:40:52.036
happens to Mormons and ex-Mormons.
00:40:52.176 --> 00:40:52.977
I feel like that's what
00:40:53.017 --> 00:40:55.177
happens to people who
00:40:55.237 --> 00:40:56.177
haven't expressed their
00:40:56.237 --> 00:40:57.718
sexuality but have sort of
00:40:57.778 --> 00:40:59.259
put it into a box because
00:40:59.299 --> 00:41:00.980
it's more socially acceptable.
00:41:01.740 --> 00:41:02.841
I feel like that's happened
00:41:02.881 --> 00:41:05.022
to so many groups of people.
00:41:05.602 --> 00:41:06.542
And I was reading a really
00:41:06.622 --> 00:41:07.963
interesting story, actually,
00:41:08.103 --> 00:41:10.304
about a man who is in the
00:41:10.324 --> 00:41:11.245
boomer generation.
00:41:12.105 --> 00:41:14.626
And he had these desires to
00:41:14.726 --> 00:41:16.107
just express himself with
00:41:16.127 --> 00:41:17.208
the way that he dressed.
00:41:17.988 --> 00:41:19.989
And he was curious about
00:41:20.049 --> 00:41:20.910
dressing in women's
00:41:20.930 --> 00:41:22.310
clothing and things like that.
00:41:22.790 --> 00:41:24.151
But it was definitely not
00:41:24.191 --> 00:41:25.872
acceptable in his family.
00:41:25.972 --> 00:41:27.733
It wasn't acceptable in his religion.
00:41:28.233 --> 00:41:29.454
And so he sort of repressed
00:41:29.514 --> 00:41:30.514
all of those feelings.
00:41:30.614 --> 00:41:31.815
And then he talked about
00:41:32.435 --> 00:41:34.256
being an angry father and
00:41:34.316 --> 00:41:37.078
how he was just angry all the time.
00:41:38.058 --> 00:41:40.659
and never really had a
00:41:40.699 --> 00:41:42.819
realization when his kids
00:41:42.839 --> 00:41:44.440
were younger that the anger
00:41:44.480 --> 00:41:46.040
was coming from that shame
00:41:46.780 --> 00:41:48.221
and how many regrets he had
00:41:48.261 --> 00:41:49.341
about those kinds of things.
00:41:49.361 --> 00:41:51.002
And that really resonated with me.
00:41:51.042 --> 00:41:52.442
It's kind of close to home for me,
00:41:52.522 --> 00:41:55.183
admittedly, but I wonder how many people
00:41:56.083 --> 00:41:58.385
are vehemently opposed to
00:41:58.905 --> 00:42:00.687
the openness of LGBTQ
00:42:00.707 --> 00:42:01.788
people expressing
00:42:01.828 --> 00:42:03.329
themselves and Pride Month
00:42:03.369 --> 00:42:04.190
and all those kinds of
00:42:04.230 --> 00:42:05.691
things because they
00:42:05.731 --> 00:42:07.232
themselves didn't ever have
00:42:07.252 --> 00:42:09.494
the opportunity to be that
00:42:09.994 --> 00:42:11.696
open about their expressions.
00:42:12.575 --> 00:42:13.977
Oh, I mean, look right now,
00:42:14.017 --> 00:42:16.259
here's a little microcosm
00:42:16.820 --> 00:42:18.261
of the fact that, you know,
00:42:18.501 --> 00:42:22.105
a part of the Republican platform,
00:42:22.606 --> 00:42:24.768
whether officially or unofficially,
00:42:25.349 --> 00:42:27.811
is to end gay marriage and
00:42:27.931 --> 00:42:30.955
to strip away the one
00:42:30.995 --> 00:42:33.197
rights of the LGBTQ plus community.
00:42:34.418 --> 00:42:36.239
And then you look at how
00:42:37.060 --> 00:42:39.081
Grindr is crashing in
00:42:39.141 --> 00:42:45.566
Milwaukee due to the huge surge of people,
00:42:45.726 --> 00:42:46.146
men,
00:42:46.826 --> 00:42:49.608
Republicans in Milwaukee for the RNC
00:42:49.648 --> 00:42:50.369
convention,
00:42:50.789 --> 00:42:51.670
that there's so many that it's
00:42:51.710 --> 00:42:53.051
crashing the platform.
00:42:53.071 --> 00:42:53.771
So you're like,
00:42:53.791 --> 00:42:55.152
what is it that you have
00:42:55.172 --> 00:42:56.133
this big group of people
00:42:56.173 --> 00:42:57.374
who's focused on
00:42:57.414 --> 00:42:58.514
eliminating rights for this
00:42:58.554 --> 00:42:59.875
community while they are
00:43:00.035 --> 00:43:02.217
secretly and ashamedly
00:43:02.617 --> 00:43:04.718
trying to live out those experiences.
00:43:05.479 --> 00:43:07.140
So are you saying that the
00:43:07.180 --> 00:43:08.620
platform is crashing in
00:43:08.660 --> 00:43:10.782
Milwaukee just because the
00:43:10.802 --> 00:43:12.182
convention is in Milwaukee?
00:43:12.242 --> 00:43:13.283
That's so crazy.
00:43:13.383 --> 00:43:16.685
Yeah, there were so many gay Republicans.
00:43:16.745 --> 00:43:17.165
But of course,
00:43:17.185 --> 00:43:18.466
it's because Antifa was
00:43:18.526 --> 00:43:20.087
sneaking into Milwaukee and
00:43:20.287 --> 00:43:21.487
starting up Grindr accounts
00:43:21.507 --> 00:43:22.808
to make it look like Republicans.
00:43:22.828 --> 00:43:25.790
I haven't heard about Antifa in a while.
00:43:26.430 --> 00:43:27.591
I have to say, too,
00:43:28.231 --> 00:43:30.693
it's always stunning and shocking to me,
00:43:30.733 --> 00:43:31.533
and it shouldn't be because
00:43:31.573 --> 00:43:32.514
it happens all the time.
00:43:32.954 --> 00:43:34.835
But it seems like the politicians,
00:43:34.895 --> 00:43:37.056
whether they're Democratic or Republican,
00:43:37.096 --> 00:43:38.177
who are so vehemently
00:43:38.237 --> 00:43:41.959
opposed to LGBTQ rights or
00:43:41.999 --> 00:43:42.640
whatever it is,
00:43:43.925 --> 00:43:45.006
that it then comes out that
00:43:45.026 --> 00:43:46.706
they're actually gay, you know,
00:43:46.846 --> 00:43:48.027
or they get caught doing
00:43:48.107 --> 00:43:49.968
something inappropriate or
00:43:50.008 --> 00:43:50.969
whatever the case is.
00:43:51.489 --> 00:43:52.930
In democratic circles,
00:43:52.990 --> 00:43:54.390
I think it's more often the
00:43:54.450 --> 00:43:55.671
affairs that come out and
00:43:55.711 --> 00:43:56.351
things like that.
00:43:56.391 --> 00:43:57.892
But they're just so
00:43:58.372 --> 00:43:59.913
vehemently for like
00:43:59.973 --> 00:44:01.654
traditional family values.
00:44:01.754 --> 00:44:03.235
And then it comes out that they're just,
00:44:03.915 --> 00:44:04.135
you know,
00:44:04.355 --> 00:44:05.796
they're just like the rest of us,
00:44:05.856 --> 00:44:06.456
you know,
00:44:06.596 --> 00:44:08.437
they're not to be held up on a pedestal.
00:44:08.935 --> 00:44:09.916
I'm always surprised that
00:44:09.956 --> 00:44:12.258
I'm shocked by it because
00:44:12.278 --> 00:44:13.139
it keeps happening over and
00:44:13.199 --> 00:44:14.921
over and over.
00:44:15.001 --> 00:44:15.942
I also really like the
00:44:16.002 --> 00:44:17.984
example you just gave of
00:44:18.264 --> 00:44:19.305
the story of the dad who
00:44:19.445 --> 00:44:20.786
wanted to wear women's
00:44:20.806 --> 00:44:21.887
clothes because I feel like
00:44:21.907 --> 00:44:22.988
that's an example of how
00:44:23.969 --> 00:44:25.470
like it's a relatively small thing,
00:44:26.231 --> 00:44:27.252
him wearing women's clothes.
00:44:27.272 --> 00:44:28.153
Like the clothes we wear,
00:44:28.273 --> 00:44:29.214
relatively unimportant,
00:44:29.254 --> 00:44:30.335
though they do carry social
00:44:30.375 --> 00:44:31.056
weight and stuff.
00:44:31.516 --> 00:44:34.579
But just because he wasn't able to allow,
00:44:34.659 --> 00:44:35.660
give himself permission to
00:44:35.700 --> 00:44:37.221
do that small thing,
00:44:37.642 --> 00:44:38.823
it like turns into this
00:44:39.003 --> 00:44:40.204
massive festering wound
00:44:40.224 --> 00:44:40.865
that has all these
00:44:40.945 --> 00:44:42.906
unintended consequences
00:44:44.426 --> 00:44:44.987
You know what I mean?
00:44:45.007 --> 00:44:46.528
Like it's something that could,
00:44:47.268 --> 00:44:48.569
if we just unshame everything,
00:44:48.609 --> 00:44:49.450
something that could just
00:44:49.470 --> 00:44:51.932
be so relatively small
00:44:52.632 --> 00:44:54.594
turns into a way bigger beast.
00:44:54.654 --> 00:44:56.775
But we think that by shaming ourselves,
00:44:56.795 --> 00:44:58.136
we're like containing the beast,
00:44:58.176 --> 00:44:59.177
but really we're just like
00:44:59.197 --> 00:45:01.279
giving it more life and
00:45:01.359 --> 00:45:03.540
more power over our lives
00:45:03.600 --> 00:45:04.181
and other people.
00:45:04.771 --> 00:45:05.752
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:05.832 --> 00:45:07.154
The message that I took away
00:45:07.174 --> 00:45:08.836
from that is how
00:45:08.896 --> 00:45:10.698
dysfunctional we can become
00:45:11.158 --> 00:45:12.460
when we don't address
00:45:12.780 --> 00:45:14.542
whatever it is that we're struggling with,
00:45:14.682 --> 00:45:16.044
when we repress it or when
00:45:16.084 --> 00:45:17.165
we try to push it away or
00:45:17.185 --> 00:45:18.306
dissociate from it.
00:45:18.807 --> 00:45:20.449
And it's exactly as you say,
00:45:20.529 --> 00:45:22.091
we're not we're not taming the beast,
00:45:22.131 --> 00:45:22.792
we're feeding it.
00:45:23.252 --> 00:45:24.833
And we're also locking it in a cage.
00:45:24.873 --> 00:45:26.154
So that whole time it's
00:45:26.194 --> 00:45:27.174
getting bigger and bigger
00:45:27.695 --> 00:45:29.195
and fiercer and fiercer.
00:45:29.556 --> 00:45:31.036
And eventually it takes over
00:45:31.557 --> 00:45:32.597
our entire psyche.
00:45:32.637 --> 00:45:33.478
It's sort of like that
00:45:33.538 --> 00:45:35.779
Jungian concept of the fact
00:45:35.799 --> 00:45:37.840
that if we don't look at the shadow,
00:45:37.960 --> 00:45:39.461
if we don't address the shadow,
00:45:39.501 --> 00:45:41.142
if we don't accept the shadow,
00:45:41.522 --> 00:45:43.644
then the shadow becomes our psyche.
00:45:44.184 --> 00:45:45.225
It becomes who we are.
00:45:46.165 --> 00:45:47.086
It's like you always hear
00:45:47.226 --> 00:45:50.027
Mormons talk about how, you know,
00:45:50.047 --> 00:45:52.349
if they didn't have the
00:45:52.409 --> 00:45:53.910
rules of Mormonism containing them,
00:45:53.930 --> 00:45:55.070
let's say the law of chastity,
00:45:55.110 --> 00:45:56.631
they would just be crazy.
00:45:56.751 --> 00:45:58.332
I don't know where I'd be without this.
00:45:58.352 --> 00:45:58.632
Yeah,
00:45:58.793 --> 00:46:00.434
they just think they'd be... Because
00:46:01.494 --> 00:46:02.495
it's kind of like the same
00:46:02.535 --> 00:46:03.836
principle as intuitive eating,
00:46:03.856 --> 00:46:04.536
where it's like if you're
00:46:04.936 --> 00:46:06.837
restricting your food for
00:46:06.897 --> 00:46:07.758
long periods of time,
00:46:07.798 --> 00:46:09.079
then you feel like if you
00:46:09.159 --> 00:46:10.700
ever let yourself just like...
00:46:11.640 --> 00:46:13.022
eat whatever you wanted you
00:46:13.042 --> 00:46:14.444
would just binge forever
00:46:14.484 --> 00:46:15.346
and ever and ever and like
00:46:15.386 --> 00:46:16.287
in most cases that's not
00:46:16.327 --> 00:46:17.108
true you would just like
00:46:17.148 --> 00:46:19.211
restore balance within
00:46:19.251 --> 00:46:20.213
yourself and learn to
00:46:20.253 --> 00:46:21.454
listen to yourself better
00:46:21.615 --> 00:46:23.137
and like things would be
00:46:23.678 --> 00:46:24.278
healthier and you'd
00:46:24.319 --> 00:46:26.061
actually think about that thing less like
00:46:27.142 --> 00:46:29.143
Nobody thinks more about sex
00:46:29.183 --> 00:46:31.184
than people in purity culture, you know,
00:46:31.884 --> 00:46:33.485
but their false concept
00:46:33.505 --> 00:46:35.106
while they're in it is just
00:46:35.126 --> 00:46:36.706
like it's this damn waiting to burst.
00:46:36.726 --> 00:46:37.327
And if it bursts,
00:46:37.367 --> 00:46:38.327
it's just going to get so
00:46:38.387 --> 00:46:39.428
nuts when actually if you
00:46:39.448 --> 00:46:40.048
just give yourself
00:46:40.088 --> 00:46:41.729
permission to do things
00:46:41.769 --> 00:46:43.409
that are not harmful and
00:46:43.429 --> 00:46:44.130
perfectly healthy.
00:46:45.403 --> 00:46:45.823
That's it.
00:46:45.843 --> 00:46:46.724
And then you have more
00:46:46.764 --> 00:46:47.845
bandwidth for other things
00:46:47.885 --> 00:46:50.526
like your work or whatever that may be.
00:46:50.686 --> 00:46:51.227
Exactly.
00:46:51.847 --> 00:46:53.788
And that makes me think of
00:46:54.289 --> 00:46:55.889
these word of wisdom issues
00:46:55.950 --> 00:46:56.810
and how physically
00:46:56.890 --> 00:46:58.171
unhealthy a large
00:46:58.211 --> 00:46:59.832
population of Mormonism is.
00:47:00.077 --> 00:47:01.233
I always used to joke
00:47:01.653 --> 00:47:03.174
that sugar is the alcohol
00:47:03.214 --> 00:47:04.114
of the Mormon world,
00:47:04.574 --> 00:47:05.835
because whenever I come to
00:47:05.955 --> 00:47:08.096
Utah and there's like a
00:47:08.136 --> 00:47:09.597
bakery on every corner and
00:47:09.697 --> 00:47:11.558
soda shops popping up everywhere.
00:47:11.758 --> 00:47:14.099
And when you even go into a restaurant,
00:47:14.139 --> 00:47:15.860
they have a huge bakery counter,
00:47:15.900 --> 00:47:17.481
a dessert counter or whatever it is.
00:47:18.081 --> 00:47:19.642
And it just feels like this
00:47:19.722 --> 00:47:21.924
substitution of like, oh,
00:47:21.944 --> 00:47:22.904
we're not allowed to do all
00:47:22.924 --> 00:47:23.845
these other vices,
00:47:23.905 --> 00:47:25.526
but we can have as much sugar as we want.
00:47:25.566 --> 00:47:26.967
We can become addicted to it
00:47:27.127 --> 00:47:28.648
and we can be overweight
00:47:28.728 --> 00:47:29.869
and that's just fine.
00:47:30.510 --> 00:47:31.991
I always found that to be so
00:47:32.051 --> 00:47:34.032
troubling because if you
00:47:34.092 --> 00:47:35.353
really did follow the word
00:47:35.373 --> 00:47:37.274
of wisdom with eating meat
00:47:37.314 --> 00:47:39.636
sparingly and fruits only in their season,
00:47:39.656 --> 00:47:40.977
but nobody talks about that.
00:47:41.457 --> 00:47:42.578
I can't imagine somebody
00:47:42.638 --> 00:47:43.679
going into a bishop's
00:47:43.719 --> 00:47:44.639
interview for a temple
00:47:44.679 --> 00:47:45.420
recommend and saying,
00:47:45.860 --> 00:47:46.581
you know what Bishop I've
00:47:46.601 --> 00:47:48.342
been doing really well but
00:47:48.682 --> 00:47:49.383
the other day I was in the
00:47:49.423 --> 00:47:51.564
grocery store and those
00:47:51.604 --> 00:47:53.506
tangerines were so good I
00:47:53.546 --> 00:47:54.807
just couldn't and they're
00:47:54.847 --> 00:47:59.010
not in season I love how
00:47:59.030 --> 00:48:00.191
Mormons now will be like no
00:48:00.251 --> 00:48:01.432
God just like didn't mean
00:48:01.472 --> 00:48:02.473
that about the meat thing
00:48:02.493 --> 00:48:03.733
that just wasn't real and
00:48:03.774 --> 00:48:04.754
it's like that's like a
00:48:05.074 --> 00:48:06.275
part of the word of wisdom
00:48:06.315 --> 00:48:09.258
that now there's good scientific health
00:48:09.958 --> 00:48:11.518
uh like animal sentience
00:48:11.538 --> 00:48:12.979
data to support that that's
00:48:13.019 --> 00:48:14.219
actually a really smart
00:48:14.839 --> 00:48:15.939
guideline like eat meat
00:48:15.959 --> 00:48:17.100
sparingly only when you
00:48:17.160 --> 00:48:18.699
absolutely must but that
00:48:18.739 --> 00:48:19.820
just doesn't get any air
00:48:19.860 --> 00:48:20.840
time because like they just
00:48:20.860 --> 00:48:21.920
don't like doing it that
00:48:21.940 --> 00:48:23.220
one's too hard they're like
00:48:23.340 --> 00:48:24.421
how could he have known
00:48:24.441 --> 00:48:26.001
about the harmful causes of
00:48:26.081 --> 00:48:27.101
cigarettes it's like well
00:48:27.121 --> 00:48:28.221
cigarettes have always made
00:48:28.241 --> 00:48:29.302
people cough and have lung
00:48:29.322 --> 00:48:29.882
issues like it's not like
00:48:30.882 --> 00:48:31.742
people suddenly started
00:48:31.782 --> 00:48:32.743
doing that and a lot like
00:48:32.863 --> 00:48:33.923
yeah people have always been like
00:48:34.843 --> 00:48:36.084
Doesn't seem to be helping
00:48:36.544 --> 00:48:37.985
the respiratory process.
00:48:38.085 --> 00:48:38.826
Tea and coffee,
00:48:38.886 --> 00:48:39.867
objectively great for
00:48:39.887 --> 00:48:41.548
lowering your all-cause mortality rate.
00:48:41.568 --> 00:48:44.370
Didn't know about that one.
00:48:44.390 --> 00:48:45.410
And not even to mention all
00:48:45.450 --> 00:48:47.232
the temperance movement and
00:48:47.292 --> 00:48:48.412
anti-smoking movements that
00:48:48.432 --> 00:48:49.393
were popular at the time,
00:48:49.513 --> 00:48:51.775
and also vegetarian movements.
00:48:52.335 --> 00:48:53.056
and others like none of
00:48:53.096 --> 00:48:54.077
these were original
00:48:54.117 --> 00:48:55.740
thoughts and yet as you
00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:56.741
said there's such a
00:48:56.761 --> 00:48:57.882
disparity between what
00:48:58.102 --> 00:48:59.745
mormons choose to enforce
00:49:00.285 --> 00:49:01.327
and what they choose to
00:49:01.367 --> 00:49:02.628
turn a blind eye toward
00:49:03.029 --> 00:49:04.250
while still maintaining
00:49:04.370 --> 00:49:05.432
absolute religious
00:49:05.612 --> 00:49:07.054
supremacy in their minds
00:49:07.696 --> 00:49:07.936
Yeah,
00:49:08.016 --> 00:49:09.677
it's just another testament to me
00:49:09.717 --> 00:49:11.458
that a lot of Mormonism is
00:49:11.538 --> 00:49:13.459
cultural and not literal,
00:49:13.519 --> 00:49:16.381
because if we did take the
00:49:16.401 --> 00:49:17.861
Mormon scriptures literally,
00:49:18.077 --> 00:49:18.737
life would be a lot
00:49:18.797 --> 00:49:19.858
different for Mormons.
00:49:19.858 --> 00:49:20.742
always shocked me, too,
00:49:20.782 --> 00:49:21.963
as a gospel doctrine teacher,
00:49:22.003 --> 00:49:22.923
whenever we would talk
00:49:22.943 --> 00:49:23.984
about the Word of Wisdom.
00:49:24.764 --> 00:49:26.266
And people would bring up caffeine.
00:49:26.426 --> 00:49:27.547
And I'm like, no,
00:49:27.987 --> 00:49:29.268
it's perfectly okay for you
00:49:29.288 --> 00:49:30.830
to consume caffeine.
00:49:31.310 --> 00:49:32.832
But they assume that because
00:49:33.192 --> 00:49:34.393
tea and coffee are
00:49:34.433 --> 00:49:35.694
mentioned in the Word of Wisdom,
00:49:35.775 --> 00:49:37.857
that we shouldn't be consuming caffeine.
00:49:38.337 --> 00:49:38.657
And really,
00:49:38.697 --> 00:49:40.159
the spirit of the law is not to
00:49:40.199 --> 00:49:42.401
consume anything in unhealthy amounts.
00:49:42.441 --> 00:49:43.202
And that's when I always
00:49:43.242 --> 00:49:44.082
talked about sugar.
00:49:44.563 --> 00:49:45.344
And I was like...
00:49:46.344 --> 00:49:47.624
We just cherry pick the
00:49:47.664 --> 00:49:49.585
things that are convenient
00:49:49.605 --> 00:49:51.185
for us or more convenient
00:49:51.205 --> 00:49:52.866
for us or culturally acceptable.
00:49:53.426 --> 00:49:54.566
Whether we're in Mormonism
00:49:54.626 --> 00:49:55.786
or any other system,
00:49:56.286 --> 00:49:57.667
it's like if you have a set
00:49:57.707 --> 00:49:59.247
of rules that you're going to live by,
00:49:59.307 --> 00:50:00.867
the integrity is in
00:50:01.287 --> 00:50:02.528
adhering to those rules.
00:50:02.948 --> 00:50:03.928
And if you're not going to
00:50:03.988 --> 00:50:05.628
adhere to all of the rules,
00:50:05.708 --> 00:50:07.229
then don't pretend that
00:50:07.269 --> 00:50:08.609
you're better than someone else.
00:50:09.229 --> 00:50:10.810
because you have rules and
00:50:11.130 --> 00:50:12.931
the other community doesn't have rules.
00:50:13.311 --> 00:50:14.252
And I think that goes back
00:50:14.272 --> 00:50:15.652
to what you were saying, Samantha,
00:50:15.672 --> 00:50:17.673
where so many people say, oh,
00:50:17.733 --> 00:50:19.954
if I didn't have Mormonism, I would just,
00:50:20.195 --> 00:50:21.335
I don't know where I would be.
00:50:21.435 --> 00:50:22.516
And it's this crazy
00:50:22.576 --> 00:50:24.137
implication that you need
00:50:24.857 --> 00:50:26.057
laws or rules or
00:50:26.097 --> 00:50:27.498
commandments to tell you
00:50:28.159 --> 00:50:29.099
not to harm people
00:50:29.139 --> 00:50:30.520
physically or not to
00:50:30.580 --> 00:50:32.141
assault people or not to
00:50:32.181 --> 00:50:34.502
have affairs or whatever the case is.
00:50:35.242 --> 00:50:36.222
Like if that morality
00:50:36.263 --> 00:50:37.903
doesn't already exist within you,
00:50:38.463 --> 00:50:39.404
Mormonism is not going to
00:50:39.424 --> 00:50:41.185
help you either.
00:50:41.225 --> 00:50:42.205
I also feel like someone in
00:50:42.225 --> 00:50:42.925
the comments is going to
00:50:42.985 --> 00:50:44.086
point out me drinking this
00:50:44.186 --> 00:50:45.527
aspartame lace fruit punch
00:50:45.607 --> 00:50:46.047
as we have this
00:50:46.067 --> 00:50:47.187
conversation about the Buddhism,
00:50:47.247 --> 00:50:48.788
but unshamed drinking
00:50:48.868 --> 00:50:50.529
aspartame lace fruit punch sometimes.
00:50:50.978 --> 00:50:51.418
You know what?
00:50:51.558 --> 00:50:53.079
Unshame just doing whatever
00:50:53.119 --> 00:50:54.380
it is that you need to do
00:50:54.580 --> 00:50:56.061
to get yourself out of bed
00:50:56.101 --> 00:50:57.162
every day and be a
00:50:57.242 --> 00:50:58.282
productive member of the
00:50:58.322 --> 00:51:00.364
human family and just
00:51:00.664 --> 00:51:03.045
unshame everything that we
00:51:03.085 --> 00:51:05.026
do that we have to do in
00:51:05.086 --> 00:51:06.107
order to be who we are,
00:51:06.127 --> 00:51:07.528
because life is difficult.
00:51:08.448 --> 00:51:10.869
And all of us have things
00:51:10.909 --> 00:51:12.669
that we are working on and
00:51:12.709 --> 00:51:14.289
hopefully all of us are
00:51:14.329 --> 00:51:15.370
trying to progress to a
00:51:15.410 --> 00:51:16.790
better version of ourselves.
00:51:17.270 --> 00:51:18.770
Although I do have to say my
00:51:18.810 --> 00:51:19.831
comment section is one of
00:51:19.851 --> 00:51:21.371
the kindest places on the internet.
00:51:21.411 --> 00:51:22.591
So probably nobody's going
00:51:22.611 --> 00:51:23.131
to shame me for that.
00:51:23.151 --> 00:51:25.572
It's a good merging then
00:51:25.612 --> 00:51:27.152
because I feel like ours is
00:51:27.172 --> 00:51:28.973
really nice as
00:51:28.973 --> 00:51:30.561
based on the comment you just said,
00:51:31.702 --> 00:51:32.663
I think another good thing
00:51:32.683 --> 00:51:33.924
is just unshaming.
00:51:35.245 --> 00:51:37.808
The fact that perfection is
00:51:38.008 --> 00:51:39.229
not real and is not
00:51:39.489 --> 00:51:41.631
something we should be aspiring to.
00:51:41.691 --> 00:51:42.412
I think it's good to have a
00:51:42.472 --> 00:51:43.953
growth mindset in life and to
00:51:44.954 --> 00:51:47.155
have goals and to you know
00:51:47.215 --> 00:51:48.856
want to be healthy and
00:51:48.896 --> 00:51:49.897
successful and all those
00:51:49.937 --> 00:51:51.978
things but not not if we're
00:51:51.998 --> 00:51:53.038
just seeing ourselves as
00:51:53.058 --> 00:51:54.479
this like continuous
00:51:55.219 --> 00:51:56.660
project that needs to be
00:51:56.780 --> 00:51:58.721
fixed and fine-tuned like I
00:51:58.781 --> 00:52:01.202
feel like pursuing growth
00:52:01.242 --> 00:52:02.443
and change like should come
00:52:02.463 --> 00:52:03.743
from this place of like I
00:52:03.824 --> 00:52:05.965
am like deeply enough as I am
00:52:06.885 --> 00:52:08.366
And like the goal isn't to
00:52:08.406 --> 00:52:10.366
just like reach this moral
00:52:10.426 --> 00:52:11.907
purity or any kind of like
00:52:11.967 --> 00:52:13.468
perceived purity.
00:52:14.128 --> 00:52:14.808
It's really,
00:52:14.908 --> 00:52:15.849
I feel like that's like comes
00:52:15.889 --> 00:52:17.129
back to embodiment, you know,
00:52:17.189 --> 00:52:19.590
and just like to,
00:52:19.650 --> 00:52:21.191
to like pursue perfection
00:52:21.271 --> 00:52:23.371
is like denying the reality
00:52:23.391 --> 00:52:24.292
of the human condition.
00:52:24.312 --> 00:52:25.332
And the fact that we all
00:52:25.792 --> 00:52:26.833
speaking of parts work
00:52:26.873 --> 00:52:28.393
contain contradictory parts.
00:52:28.453 --> 00:52:29.314
And, you know,
00:52:29.354 --> 00:52:30.854
we always hear this idea that like, well,
00:52:30.894 --> 00:52:32.095
integrity is like,
00:52:32.695 --> 00:52:34.636
your actions and thoughts
00:52:34.696 --> 00:52:36.116
and being in alignment with
00:52:36.136 --> 00:52:37.176
your beliefs and it's like
00:52:37.236 --> 00:52:39.037
it's just not like that
00:52:39.077 --> 00:52:40.317
realistic to think that we
00:52:40.357 --> 00:52:41.317
can have like that perfect
00:52:41.337 --> 00:52:42.378
alignment because we don't
00:52:42.958 --> 00:52:43.938
we all contain
00:52:44.158 --> 00:52:45.539
contradictory parts at any
00:52:45.579 --> 00:52:47.259
given moment and i feel
00:52:47.279 --> 00:52:49.680
like through unshaming we
00:52:49.700 --> 00:52:50.720
can look at all those parts
00:52:50.740 --> 00:52:51.820
and then decide which ones
00:52:51.860 --> 00:52:53.281
we want to like lead the meeting
00:52:54.061 --> 00:52:55.683
versus like sometimes we're
00:52:55.703 --> 00:52:57.045
like giving voice to some
00:52:57.105 --> 00:52:58.227
random niche part of us
00:52:58.267 --> 00:52:59.168
that probably shouldn't be
00:52:59.208 --> 00:53:00.149
like leading the meeting or
00:53:00.189 --> 00:53:01.511
driving the car because
00:53:01.531 --> 00:53:02.312
we're like that's the thing
00:53:02.332 --> 00:53:03.193
that needs to be fixed but
00:53:03.213 --> 00:53:04.335
then in like zeroing on
00:53:04.355 --> 00:53:05.877
that too much we're like
00:53:05.937 --> 00:53:07.298
sacrificing these other
00:53:07.399 --> 00:53:08.961
like more important parts
00:53:09.001 --> 00:53:11.864
of us potentially yeah i guess my rant
00:53:12.605 --> 00:53:13.746
No, I agree with you.
00:53:13.846 --> 00:53:15.087
And I struggled a lot with
00:53:15.127 --> 00:53:16.488
perfectionism coming out of
00:53:16.508 --> 00:53:18.809
the church throughout my entire life.
00:53:19.010 --> 00:53:21.952
And so I love the idea of
00:53:22.032 --> 00:53:23.833
having your work and your
00:53:23.873 --> 00:53:25.694
growth come from a place of
00:53:25.754 --> 00:53:26.935
just wanting to be better,
00:53:26.975 --> 00:53:28.876
but not trying to be
00:53:28.936 --> 00:53:30.177
perfect because
00:53:30.217 --> 00:53:31.878
perfectionism doesn't exist.
00:53:32.459 --> 00:53:35.261
And when we're working on
00:53:35.301 --> 00:53:37.803
ourselves like we're a constant project,
00:53:38.743 --> 00:53:41.346
That is almost a shaming mindset as well.
00:53:41.626 --> 00:53:42.868
It's like, I'm not good enough yet.
00:53:42.888 --> 00:53:43.729
I'm not good enough yet.
00:53:43.789 --> 00:53:44.790
I have to keep working
00:53:44.850 --> 00:53:46.051
rather than just to say,
00:53:46.692 --> 00:53:49.355
I love myself exactly how I am right now.
00:53:49.995 --> 00:53:51.597
I love myself exactly where
00:53:51.717 --> 00:53:52.618
I am right now.
00:53:53.279 --> 00:53:56.022
And all of the behaviors that I have are,
00:53:56.356 --> 00:53:57.696
make up who I am.
00:53:58.336 --> 00:54:00.117
And they're all positive
00:54:00.577 --> 00:54:01.837
because they're helping me
00:54:01.877 --> 00:54:03.377
to exist and persist in
00:54:03.397 --> 00:54:04.718
this space that I'm at.
00:54:05.258 --> 00:54:06.698
And we all have parts of
00:54:06.738 --> 00:54:09.619
ourselves that maybe are, like you say,
00:54:09.979 --> 00:54:11.019
they're in contradiction
00:54:11.039 --> 00:54:12.539
because we're so complicated,
00:54:13.720 --> 00:54:15.800
not only socially, but psychologically.
00:54:16.320 --> 00:54:17.800
And being able to just
00:54:18.060 --> 00:54:20.821
accept those parts and
00:54:21.324 --> 00:54:24.787
is so freeing and it's okay
00:54:24.827 --> 00:54:26.409
to say you know it's not my
00:54:26.449 --> 00:54:27.630
favorite part i don't like
00:54:27.670 --> 00:54:28.611
it the best sometimes it
00:54:28.651 --> 00:54:29.912
comes out at the wrong time
00:54:30.773 --> 00:54:33.035
but it still is acceptable
00:54:33.055 --> 00:54:34.337
to me it's still part of me
00:54:34.457 --> 00:54:35.638
i still love that part
00:54:36.098 --> 00:54:36.939
we're going to figure out
00:54:37.019 --> 00:54:37.920
how to make that part
00:54:37.960 --> 00:54:38.821
healthier and happier
00:54:39.633 --> 00:54:40.834
yeah because that's the
00:54:40.874 --> 00:54:41.614
thing i feel like you have
00:54:41.694 --> 00:54:44.475
more ability to like make
00:54:44.575 --> 00:54:45.395
certain potentially
00:54:45.435 --> 00:54:46.696
dysfunctional parts of you
00:54:46.736 --> 00:54:48.157
or like you know parts for
00:54:48.177 --> 00:54:48.637
you that have more
00:54:48.677 --> 00:54:49.477
maladaptive behavior
00:54:49.517 --> 00:54:51.558
mechanisms healthy if you
00:54:51.578 --> 00:54:52.959
can love them which is kind
00:54:52.979 --> 00:54:54.259
of like like we've been
00:54:54.279 --> 00:54:55.060
talking about this a lot
00:54:55.100 --> 00:54:56.160
lately like people think
00:54:56.200 --> 00:54:57.140
that shame is the thing
00:54:57.180 --> 00:54:58.201
holding everything together
00:54:58.661 --> 00:55:00.322
and maybe it is in some
00:55:00.622 --> 00:55:02.603
like messed up way but it's
00:55:02.623 --> 00:55:03.663
like shame shouldn't be the
00:55:03.703 --> 00:55:05.624
thing holding you together
00:55:06.332 --> 00:55:06.452
Yeah,
00:55:06.492 --> 00:55:08.074
I feel like that goes along with that
00:55:08.114 --> 00:55:09.476
comment of, you know,
00:55:09.516 --> 00:55:11.117
if I didn't have rules and commandments,
00:55:11.177 --> 00:55:12.118
I would act out in these
00:55:12.138 --> 00:55:13.180
dysfunctional ways.
00:55:13.680 --> 00:55:15.022
That's because you're ashamed.
00:55:15.462 --> 00:55:15.762
You know,
00:55:15.963 --> 00:55:19.286
if you could be accepting instead,
00:55:19.807 --> 00:55:21.128
then it would be easier for
00:55:21.168 --> 00:55:22.710
you to manage.
00:55:22.790 --> 00:55:24.292
I don't know, manage those parts.
00:55:25.133 --> 00:55:26.274
I had something better to say,
00:55:26.314 --> 00:55:26.934
but I forgot it.
00:55:27.815 --> 00:55:28.995
That was really good, too.
00:55:29.015 --> 00:55:30.657
It's funny to hear that
00:55:30.737 --> 00:55:32.458
expressed when people are like,
00:55:32.538 --> 00:55:33.178
I don't know where I'd be
00:55:33.198 --> 00:55:33.959
without the gospel.
00:55:33.999 --> 00:55:35.059
I would just be dead in a
00:55:35.079 --> 00:55:37.440
ditch or running around crazy.
00:55:37.460 --> 00:55:39.802
And it's like, you're telling us.
00:55:41.022 --> 00:55:42.483
When you hear that,
00:55:42.523 --> 00:55:45.225
it's such a sad representation,
00:55:45.265 --> 00:55:46.285
a script that somebody's
00:55:46.325 --> 00:55:48.146
been handed about themselves.
00:55:48.467 --> 00:55:48.547
Yeah.
00:55:48.567 --> 00:55:48.807
Yeah.
00:55:49.229 --> 00:55:49.670
It's like, oh,
00:55:49.690 --> 00:55:51.151
do you really think that
00:55:51.212 --> 00:55:52.073
little of yourself?
00:55:52.093 --> 00:55:52.813
Do you really think?
00:55:52.834 --> 00:55:53.775
That natural man is an enemy to God.
00:55:53.835 --> 00:55:54.315
Yeah, and it's like,
00:55:54.335 --> 00:55:55.617
do you look around the world?
00:55:55.677 --> 00:55:56.598
Is that what you see?
00:55:56.618 --> 00:55:57.720
Is it you just see like
00:55:57.740 --> 00:55:58.681
people outside the church
00:55:58.721 --> 00:56:01.084
just killing everyone and, you know,
00:56:01.184 --> 00:56:02.285
running rampant in the street?
00:56:02.305 --> 00:56:02.746
It's like, no,
00:56:02.786 --> 00:56:03.987
that's not what's happening.
00:56:04.808 --> 00:56:05.830
Why would you assume that
00:56:05.850 --> 00:56:06.550
would be you too?
00:56:07.543 --> 00:56:08.424
Because you have a two
00:56:08.464 --> 00:56:09.265
hundred billion dollar
00:56:09.305 --> 00:56:10.566
corporation whispering it
00:56:10.606 --> 00:56:12.187
in your ear at all times of the day,
00:56:12.247 --> 00:56:13.808
every day since childhood.
00:56:13.989 --> 00:56:14.889
For a lot of us.
00:56:14.909 --> 00:56:16.431
It's way easier to find
00:56:16.491 --> 00:56:17.331
someone helping their
00:56:17.371 --> 00:56:18.352
neighbor than it is to find
00:56:18.392 --> 00:56:19.854
someone who goes out and kills people.
00:56:19.874 --> 00:56:21.915
That's so true.
00:56:22.436 --> 00:56:22.996
They exist.
00:56:23.196 --> 00:56:24.237
Tens of thousands of
00:56:24.277 --> 00:56:26.359
friendly neighbors for every one murder.
00:56:26.379 --> 00:56:27.480
I don't know what the ratio is.
00:56:27.680 --> 00:56:28.121
Yeah.
00:56:28.321 --> 00:56:28.461
Yeah.
00:56:29.113 --> 00:56:29.333
Yeah,
00:56:29.453 --> 00:56:31.135
I also feel like the church is the
00:56:31.215 --> 00:56:32.237
one that told us that we
00:56:32.277 --> 00:56:34.339
were sick and broken and shameful.
00:56:34.799 --> 00:56:35.800
And then they're also the
00:56:35.901 --> 00:56:37.142
ones who provide the cure
00:56:37.162 --> 00:56:38.043
for that as well.
00:56:38.123 --> 00:56:38.363
Right.
00:56:38.423 --> 00:56:40.406
And so it keeps us stuck in
00:56:40.446 --> 00:56:41.987
this perpetual cycle of not
00:56:42.027 --> 00:56:42.728
being good enough,
00:56:43.068 --> 00:56:44.890
but needing the church to be good enough,
00:56:45.051 --> 00:56:46.933
needing a bishop to tell us
00:56:46.973 --> 00:56:48.054
that we're worthy enough.
00:56:48.274 --> 00:56:51.136
in order to accept who we are.
00:56:51.616 --> 00:56:52.697
And so I feel like it's this
00:56:52.757 --> 00:56:55.059
very paradoxical thing that
00:56:55.279 --> 00:56:56.099
if the church wasn't
00:56:56.139 --> 00:56:58.001
telling us we were bad in the first place,
00:56:58.501 --> 00:56:59.782
then we wouldn't really
00:57:00.162 --> 00:57:01.683
have that shame and we
00:57:01.703 --> 00:57:03.164
wouldn't need the church to
00:57:03.204 --> 00:57:04.225
validate us and tell us
00:57:04.265 --> 00:57:04.965
that we're worthy.
00:57:05.446 --> 00:57:07.487
And that goes for any church
00:57:07.527 --> 00:57:09.128
because I feel like every religion,
00:57:09.768 --> 00:57:11.009
at least the Christian ones,
00:57:11.610 --> 00:57:12.590
are the ones that tell you
00:57:12.650 --> 00:57:13.851
how sick you are and then
00:57:13.891 --> 00:57:16.233
tell you that you need Jesus to heal you.
00:57:16.893 --> 00:57:18.075
Yeah.
00:57:18.095 --> 00:57:19.176
Today I was listening to an
00:57:19.317 --> 00:57:21.780
interesting TikTok from Gabor Maté,
00:57:22.080 --> 00:57:23.442
who does a lot of trauma
00:57:23.462 --> 00:57:25.365
work and that kind of stuff.
00:57:25.926 --> 00:57:27.388
And he was talking about how
00:57:28.068 --> 00:57:31.153
human nature is often the
00:57:31.673 --> 00:57:32.675
dialogue is around
00:57:33.456 --> 00:57:34.617
human beings and our nature,
00:57:34.657 --> 00:57:37.040
we're greedy and we're violent.
00:57:37.281 --> 00:57:38.402
And that's why we have to
00:57:38.442 --> 00:57:41.206
have systems that allow for
00:57:41.246 --> 00:57:42.488
greed and violence and why
00:57:42.508 --> 00:57:43.869
we can't just take care of
00:57:43.889 --> 00:57:46.112
each other because this is human nature.
00:57:46.773 --> 00:57:47.374
And he was like,
00:57:47.414 --> 00:57:48.796
I don't believe in human nature.
00:57:48.836 --> 00:57:50.198
I believe in human potential.
00:57:50.598 --> 00:57:52.239
that when people have their
00:57:52.319 --> 00:57:54.100
needs met and can be just
00:57:54.160 --> 00:57:57.462
seen in love by loving
00:57:57.522 --> 00:57:58.803
witness that can help them
00:57:58.843 --> 00:57:59.663
meet their needs,
00:58:00.044 --> 00:58:01.044
then their potential is
00:58:01.104 --> 00:58:02.525
actually really high to do good.
00:58:02.885 --> 00:58:04.226
But when you have these very
00:58:04.286 --> 00:58:06.167
powerful social structures
00:58:06.527 --> 00:58:07.968
that are always telling you
00:58:08.328 --> 00:58:10.590
that what your nature is is
00:58:10.690 --> 00:58:12.211
fundamentally flawed,
00:58:12.751 --> 00:58:13.753
then of course it's going to
00:58:13.793 --> 00:58:15.896
lead to fundamentally flawed actions.
00:58:16.617 --> 00:58:17.518
But it's not at all
00:58:17.738 --> 00:58:20.242
representational of a
00:58:20.282 --> 00:58:21.203
person's actual nature,
00:58:21.383 --> 00:58:22.926
only their potential being
00:58:22.986 --> 00:58:27.552
deprived of genuine love and safety,
00:58:27.672 --> 00:58:28.734
belonging, and all that.
00:58:29.014 --> 00:58:29.715
Yeah.
00:58:29.775 --> 00:58:31.496
I saw a TikTok yesterday that said,
00:58:32.496 --> 00:58:33.237
if you want to know if
00:58:33.277 --> 00:58:34.598
someone's evil or like a
00:58:34.678 --> 00:58:36.479
good test of evil is like
00:58:36.619 --> 00:58:38.601
whether people see evil everywhere.
00:58:38.941 --> 00:58:39.581
And I don't mean that in
00:58:39.601 --> 00:58:40.282
terms of like obviously
00:58:40.322 --> 00:58:41.522
recognizing injustice is
00:58:41.542 --> 00:58:42.883
like an important part, I think,
00:58:42.943 --> 00:58:44.925
of being like a conscious good human.
00:58:44.985 --> 00:58:47.546
But it is sad how the church
00:58:47.567 --> 00:58:50.849
has trained people.
00:58:50.969 --> 00:58:52.750
It's the church and then it's the world.
00:58:52.770 --> 00:58:55.392
And as we just watched in a
00:58:55.412 --> 00:58:56.452
lot of those Mormon TikToks
00:58:56.512 --> 00:58:58.053
we watched on our channel last week,
00:59:00.819 --> 00:59:01.601
they're like lumping the
00:59:01.621 --> 00:59:02.724
world as this like one,
00:59:02.885 --> 00:59:03.867
there's just one way people
00:59:03.908 --> 00:59:04.409
are in the world.
00:59:04.429 --> 00:59:05.311
And then there's the Mormon way,
00:59:05.351 --> 00:59:06.174
which is superior.
00:59:06.735 --> 00:59:07.377
But it's like,
00:59:08.251 --> 00:59:09.192
But really all that's
00:59:09.232 --> 00:59:10.833
happening is like those
00:59:10.853 --> 00:59:11.253
people have been
00:59:11.273 --> 00:59:12.254
conditioned to look at
00:59:12.274 --> 00:59:14.315
things through a lens of
00:59:14.355 --> 00:59:15.416
everyone else being bad and
00:59:15.456 --> 00:59:15.976
then being good,
00:59:15.996 --> 00:59:17.057
which is blinding them to
00:59:17.317 --> 00:59:18.898
their own badness or, you know,
00:59:18.938 --> 00:59:19.558
to like their own
00:59:19.758 --> 00:59:20.739
dysfunctions and way that
00:59:20.779 --> 00:59:21.640
they're harming others.
00:59:22.360 --> 00:59:23.301
And then it's also just like
00:59:23.321 --> 00:59:24.742
binding them to the beauty
00:59:24.782 --> 00:59:25.902
of people and to life.
00:59:25.962 --> 00:59:26.963
And obviously, right,
00:59:26.983 --> 00:59:27.503
because like the
00:59:27.543 --> 00:59:28.584
corporation has to be the
00:59:28.684 --> 00:59:30.025
one in charge of beauty and
00:59:30.485 --> 00:59:31.206
doling it out.
00:59:32.318 --> 00:59:33.439
But it's sad because there are,
00:59:34.220 --> 00:59:35.422
I feel like we do need like
00:59:35.482 --> 00:59:36.403
more voices in the world
00:59:36.443 --> 00:59:37.464
right now talking about how
00:59:37.484 --> 00:59:38.726
many people are doing good things,
00:59:38.746 --> 00:59:39.627
how many people are in the
00:59:39.667 --> 00:59:40.588
arena and making a
00:59:40.628 --> 00:59:42.450
difference rather than just
00:59:42.770 --> 00:59:45.614
the focus on like everyone sucks,
00:59:45.794 --> 00:59:46.254
you know?
00:59:46.435 --> 00:59:47.115
Yeah.
00:59:47.216 --> 00:59:48.757
Another contemporary example,
00:59:48.817 --> 00:59:50.119
sorry to get political again,
00:59:50.199 --> 00:59:52.342
but it's the world we live in today.
00:59:53.582 --> 00:59:55.923
watching the RNC convention again,
00:59:56.604 --> 00:59:58.725
vice presidential nominee J.D.
00:59:58.745 --> 01:00:02.767
Vance talking about his
01:00:02.887 --> 01:00:04.527
mother's drug addiction,
01:00:04.968 --> 01:00:06.388
which she was a nurse who
01:00:06.408 --> 01:00:09.009
was stealing drugs from her patients,
01:00:09.570 --> 01:00:11.010
using that to say,
01:00:11.090 --> 01:00:12.271
this is why we need to get
01:00:12.451 --> 01:00:13.752
immigrants out of here
01:00:13.792 --> 01:00:14.712
because they're bringing in
01:00:14.732 --> 01:00:15.673
the types of drugs that was
01:00:15.693 --> 01:00:16.133
hurting my mom.
01:00:16.153 --> 01:00:16.493
And it's like,
01:00:16.893 --> 01:00:18.494
They didn't do anything to your mom.
01:00:18.774 --> 01:00:20.275
Your mom made her own decisions.
01:00:20.675 --> 01:00:21.616
And then he's also praising
01:00:21.656 --> 01:00:22.436
her for talking about how
01:00:22.476 --> 01:00:24.277
she would literally hit with her car,
01:00:24.658 --> 01:00:25.598
a kid he was hanging out
01:00:25.618 --> 01:00:26.719
with because he did drugs.
01:00:27.379 --> 01:00:28.660
And then how she lived her
01:00:28.700 --> 01:00:30.561
life with like dozens of
01:00:30.621 --> 01:00:33.182
loaded handguns all around her house.
01:00:33.583 --> 01:00:33.943
And I'm like,
01:00:34.952 --> 01:00:38.335
What kind of vision is this for human life,
01:00:38.795 --> 01:00:40.257
for modern society,
01:00:40.637 --> 01:00:42.659
that we have to shift the
01:00:42.699 --> 01:00:45.121
blame for our troubles?
01:00:45.141 --> 01:00:45.982
And I'm not saying that
01:00:46.042 --> 01:00:49.124
she's like a perfect agitator that,
01:00:49.284 --> 01:00:49.525
you know,
01:00:49.825 --> 01:00:51.266
drug addiction is entirely her fault.
01:00:51.326 --> 01:00:51.706
Obviously,
01:00:51.747 --> 01:00:53.648
this is a systemic issue that's
01:00:53.708 --> 01:00:54.829
affecting a lot of people.
01:00:55.149 --> 01:00:56.391
But then to instantly...
01:00:57.071 --> 01:00:58.192
Recognize that shadow and
01:00:58.212 --> 01:00:59.372
project it outward to this
01:00:59.412 --> 01:01:01.313
is the fault of immigrants is like,
01:01:02.574 --> 01:01:05.536
you don't pass the Carl Jung's evil test.
01:01:05.556 --> 01:01:07.537
I feel like that's a stretch.
01:01:07.717 --> 01:01:09.038
I really feel that's that's
01:01:09.198 --> 01:01:11.639
grasping to try and go from
01:01:11.699 --> 01:01:12.900
drug addiction to immigrants.
01:01:13.440 --> 01:01:13.660
Right.
01:01:13.720 --> 01:01:14.541
And then to be like,
01:01:14.901 --> 01:01:15.761
and then she lived the
01:01:15.802 --> 01:01:17.062
American spirit by being
01:01:17.262 --> 01:01:18.983
absolutely so paranoid
01:01:19.023 --> 01:01:20.484
about the outside world
01:01:20.524 --> 01:01:21.325
that she kept loaded
01:01:21.365 --> 01:01:24.086
handguns around her house at all times.
01:01:24.146 --> 01:01:24.426
I'm like,
01:01:24.646 --> 01:01:26.507
that's not an inspiring view of a
01:01:26.588 --> 01:01:26.928
country.
01:01:26.968 --> 01:01:28.449
That's not like the world I
01:01:28.469 --> 01:01:29.789
want to live in that I'm so
01:01:29.929 --> 01:01:31.090
scared of my neighbor that
01:01:31.130 --> 01:01:32.411
I have to have guns hidden
01:01:32.491 --> 01:01:34.272
all around my house just in
01:01:34.332 --> 01:01:35.452
case somebody could come
01:01:35.472 --> 01:01:36.233
knocking on my door.
01:01:36.513 --> 01:01:37.514
And he's just airing out
01:01:37.554 --> 01:01:39.195
this unhealed mother wound
01:01:39.235 --> 01:01:43.538
of his as if it's some inspiring story.
01:01:43.978 --> 01:01:47.660
It's basically telling us
01:01:47.741 --> 01:01:49.262
that he has some unhealed
01:01:49.302 --> 01:01:51.363
emotional trauma due to his
01:01:51.663 --> 01:01:52.964
upbringing from a drug
01:01:53.004 --> 01:01:55.085
addicted mother who was also paranoid.
01:01:55.746 --> 01:01:56.947
And I feel like he's telling
01:01:57.007 --> 01:01:58.608
us that he hasn't worked on it at all.
01:01:59.168 --> 01:01:59.408
I know,
01:01:59.488 --> 01:02:01.510
very comforting to hear that from a
01:02:01.570 --> 01:02:02.911
vice presidential candidate.
01:02:02.991 --> 01:02:04.332
I'm completely unconscious
01:02:04.352 --> 01:02:05.552
about my own trauma and how
01:02:05.592 --> 01:02:06.673
it's driving my entire
01:02:06.713 --> 01:02:07.554
worldview and everything
01:02:07.574 --> 01:02:08.614
I'm going to do for this country.
01:02:09.115 --> 01:02:09.295
Yeah,
01:02:09.335 --> 01:02:11.156
the thing that I find scary in the
01:02:11.216 --> 01:02:13.097
political world today, and this again,
01:02:13.378 --> 01:02:14.759
it's a nonpartisan issue.
01:02:15.119 --> 01:02:17.601
It's both parties, all parties,
01:02:17.741 --> 01:02:19.202
all political ideologies.
01:02:19.782 --> 01:02:20.823
I feel like the people who
01:02:20.883 --> 01:02:23.184
want to be in power will
01:02:23.464 --> 01:02:24.345
make you afraid of
01:02:24.405 --> 01:02:26.086
something and then tell you
01:02:26.106 --> 01:02:27.127
who's to blame for it.
01:02:27.647 --> 01:02:30.908
And when they do that, it others, you know,
01:02:31.428 --> 01:02:34.289
everyone into this group
01:02:34.409 --> 01:02:35.150
where we can get
01:02:35.190 --> 01:02:36.790
tribalistic and we can say, oh,
01:02:36.850 --> 01:02:38.891
if I align with this side,
01:02:39.271 --> 01:02:40.411
then this fear that they
01:02:40.451 --> 01:02:42.072
created in me is going to
01:02:42.092 --> 01:02:44.012
be allayed because I'm not
01:02:44.052 --> 01:02:44.873
on the other side.
01:02:45.373 --> 01:02:46.373
And I feel like it's this
01:02:46.433 --> 01:02:48.554
very disingenuous sort of
01:02:49.114 --> 01:02:51.916
worldview where we need to
01:02:51.936 --> 01:02:53.377
be afraid of something in
01:02:53.457 --> 01:02:54.998
order to have an agenda.
01:02:55.439 --> 01:02:55.759
And it's like,
01:02:55.779 --> 01:02:56.920
we've got enough problems
01:02:56.960 --> 01:02:58.101
already that are actual
01:02:58.141 --> 01:02:59.702
problems that we need to
01:02:59.742 --> 01:03:01.283
look at through a healthy
01:03:01.343 --> 01:03:02.684
lens rather than trying to
01:03:02.724 --> 01:03:03.684
blame someone for it.
01:03:03.725 --> 01:03:04.665
How about we just come up
01:03:04.685 --> 01:03:05.706
with some ideas of how to
01:03:05.766 --> 01:03:07.067
solve it or how to make it better?
01:03:07.589 --> 01:03:07.769
Yeah,
01:03:07.849 --> 01:03:10.492
I feel like even though holding certain,
01:03:10.552 --> 01:03:11.693
especially powerful people
01:03:11.733 --> 01:03:13.816
and systems accountable is important.
01:03:13.876 --> 01:03:15.798
I feel like blame generally
01:03:15.838 --> 01:03:17.219
as a thing in life is like
01:03:17.339 --> 01:03:20.322
never the core truth of any issue.
01:03:21.043 --> 01:03:22.725
Cause it's always like that
01:03:22.765 --> 01:03:23.826
blame is kind of like shame
01:03:23.846 --> 01:03:24.267
where it's just like
01:03:24.327 --> 01:03:26.589
blocking curiosity at a certain point.
01:03:26.609 --> 01:03:27.790
Cause it's like, even if someone is,
01:03:28.511 --> 01:03:29.752
perpetuating a harm like
01:03:29.772 --> 01:03:31.454
let's let's ask why like
01:03:31.514 --> 01:03:32.915
why why do why are they
01:03:32.975 --> 01:03:33.936
acting out like that like
01:03:33.956 --> 01:03:35.277
what's the root is always
01:03:35.317 --> 01:03:36.378
deeper than blame if that
01:03:36.398 --> 01:03:37.639
makes sense like everyone's
01:03:37.659 --> 01:03:38.560
just acting out their own
01:03:38.600 --> 01:03:40.382
conditioning blaming other
01:03:40.422 --> 01:03:43.505
people sort of absolves us
01:03:43.545 --> 01:03:44.105
of having to be
01:03:44.185 --> 01:03:45.387
introspective about our own
01:03:45.427 --> 01:03:46.968
responsibility taking
01:03:47.028 --> 01:03:48.229
responsibility for our own
01:03:48.309 --> 01:03:49.751
actions and I think that
01:03:51.091 --> 01:03:52.912
I have to say maybe even the
01:03:52.972 --> 01:03:54.213
number one problem of
01:03:54.333 --> 01:03:55.634
almost everything right now
01:03:55.794 --> 01:03:57.435
is people blaming other
01:03:57.475 --> 01:03:58.455
people rather than looking
01:03:58.495 --> 01:04:00.837
at themselves and healing
01:04:00.857 --> 01:04:02.578
their own wounds in an
01:04:02.678 --> 01:04:04.118
effort to just be a better
01:04:04.158 --> 01:04:05.419
human being rather than
01:04:05.459 --> 01:04:06.720
just going around saying
01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:09.061
it's someone else's fault, it's not mine.
01:04:10.372 --> 01:04:11.693
yeah and there is you know
01:04:12.373 --> 01:04:13.514
there's i hear it a lot
01:04:13.554 --> 01:04:14.916
from sorry to be so
01:04:14.956 --> 01:04:16.037
political i'm not saying
01:04:16.057 --> 01:04:17.738
that like the democrats are
01:04:17.778 --> 01:04:19.340
the ideal party or anything
01:04:19.360 --> 01:04:20.681
it's just as a former
01:04:20.761 --> 01:04:22.102
diehard conservative
01:04:22.642 --> 01:04:23.483
activist for young
01:04:23.523 --> 01:04:24.604
americans for liberty and
01:04:24.624 --> 01:04:25.705
the college republicans and
01:04:26.025 --> 01:04:26.806
you know going through all
01:04:26.826 --> 01:04:27.727
that and becoming very
01:04:27.767 --> 01:04:28.848
disillusioned with it now
01:04:28.868 --> 01:04:30.790
watching the scene unfold
01:04:30.950 --> 01:04:33.512
as it has it's just very uh
01:04:33.672 --> 01:04:35.254
present in my mind but you
01:04:35.274 --> 01:04:36.355
know i hear a lot of people
01:04:36.375 --> 01:04:36.895
who are like are you
01:04:37.075 --> 01:04:38.417
just acting like a victim.
01:04:38.457 --> 01:04:40.118
You need to get out of the victim complex.
01:04:40.138 --> 01:04:41.620
And it's not really that at all.
01:04:42.261 --> 01:04:43.782
Um, it is a matter of,
01:04:44.683 --> 01:04:47.253
of holistically unshaming, both,
01:04:47.466 --> 01:04:48.627
unshaming what has been
01:04:48.667 --> 01:04:50.409
handed me and also refusing
01:04:50.449 --> 01:04:51.270
to shame others that
01:04:51.310 --> 01:04:53.072
realizing that people act
01:04:53.152 --> 01:04:54.854
the way that they do for reasons,
01:04:55.214 --> 01:04:56.535
even bad people, or, you
01:04:59.158 --> 01:05:01.520
didn't do that in a vacuum.
01:05:03.021 --> 01:05:03.962
Everything that's happened
01:05:04.002 --> 01:05:04.843
in their life has
01:05:04.883 --> 01:05:06.364
contributed to them being
01:05:06.404 --> 01:05:07.144
the way they are.
01:05:07.585 --> 01:05:09.807
And me removing the shame
01:05:09.927 --> 01:05:12.168
from that allows me to see
01:05:12.309 --> 01:05:14.190
that natural functioning.
01:05:14.310 --> 01:05:15.651
And then exactly as you said,
01:05:16.052 --> 01:05:18.253
decide what I can do for
01:05:18.333 --> 01:05:19.314
myself to move through it.
01:05:19.334 --> 01:05:19.955
It's not being like,
01:05:21.195 --> 01:05:22.456
you know, it's all my fault.
01:05:22.636 --> 01:05:24.516
I asked for these bad things
01:05:24.536 --> 01:05:24.956
to happen to me.
01:05:24.976 --> 01:05:25.576
It's not that at all.
01:05:25.596 --> 01:05:26.797
It's just being like, well,
01:05:26.897 --> 01:05:29.157
if I am going to heal and
01:05:29.257 --> 01:05:31.398
become like grow past this,
01:05:31.898 --> 01:05:33.018
what do I need to do?
01:05:33.599 --> 01:05:35.219
And in all like unshaming,
01:05:35.279 --> 01:05:36.479
I think that's what it allows us to do.
01:05:36.519 --> 01:05:37.760
It just allows us to take
01:05:37.840 --> 01:05:39.980
honest inventory of what's
01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:41.201
going on in our life and
01:05:41.241 --> 01:05:43.041
create plans for dealing
01:05:43.081 --> 01:05:44.582
with it rather than just
01:05:44.862 --> 01:05:46.042
being in an endless cycle
01:05:46.102 --> 01:05:47.382
of pointing fingers and
01:05:47.422 --> 01:05:48.643
spreading the shame around.
01:05:49.070 --> 01:05:50.351
Yeah, I feel like that's so true.
01:05:50.391 --> 01:05:52.493
And I feel like we make so
01:05:52.533 --> 01:05:54.815
little progress when all
01:05:54.855 --> 01:05:56.376
we're trying to do is
01:05:56.516 --> 01:05:57.978
absolve our guilty feelings
01:05:58.018 --> 01:05:59.419
by blaming someone else.
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:02.701
And I really resonated with
01:06:02.742 --> 01:06:04.463
what you said about people
01:06:04.483 --> 01:06:05.844
who do bad things don't do
01:06:05.884 --> 01:06:07.566
it in a vacuum.
01:06:08.046 --> 01:06:09.167
They are part of a system.
01:06:09.187 --> 01:06:10.368
They're part of a society.
01:06:10.768 --> 01:06:11.689
They're part of a group.
01:06:11.789 --> 01:06:13.330
They're also part of a family.
01:06:14.051 --> 01:06:15.893
All of these different things contribute
01:06:16.533 --> 01:06:18.336
to the wrongdoing.
01:06:19.097 --> 01:06:20.499
And I feel like it's that
01:06:20.599 --> 01:06:22.502
lack of introspection that
01:06:22.682 --> 01:06:23.904
leads people to act out in
01:06:23.964 --> 01:06:24.945
dysfunctional ways.
01:06:25.286 --> 01:06:27.429
If we don't take care of the
01:06:27.469 --> 01:06:29.532
things that are on our side of the street,
01:06:29.572 --> 01:06:30.613
if we don't accept
01:06:30.673 --> 01:06:32.857
responsibility for our actions,
01:06:33.237 --> 01:06:35.339
then we end up acting out in
01:06:35.359 --> 01:06:37.000
dysfunctionality because
01:06:37.520 --> 01:06:38.660
we're trying to heal a wound.
01:06:38.681 --> 01:06:40.121
We're trying to heal a wound
01:06:40.301 --> 01:06:41.462
in a dysfunctional way
01:06:41.582 --> 01:06:43.203
rather than trying to get
01:06:43.223 --> 01:06:45.364
our needs met holistically
01:06:45.784 --> 01:06:46.545
and authentically.
01:06:47.389 --> 01:06:48.510
I also feel like it's so
01:06:48.550 --> 01:06:50.572
hard because it's so
01:06:50.672 --> 01:06:52.013
obvious to many of us that
01:06:52.173 --> 01:06:55.015
healing needs to happen on a mass scale.
01:06:55.055 --> 01:06:57.937
But I have a lot of empathy for,
01:06:58.458 --> 01:06:59.238
for example,
01:06:59.619 --> 01:07:01.420
older people who just didn't
01:07:01.440 --> 01:07:02.801
have access to any mental
01:07:02.841 --> 01:07:03.682
health resources,
01:07:04.102 --> 01:07:08.425
have no faith in any healing modality,
01:07:08.485 --> 01:07:10.307
maybe outside of religion in some cases.
01:07:11.147 --> 01:07:11.888
A lot of people don't know
01:07:11.908 --> 01:07:13.029
where to turn for healing
01:07:13.129 --> 01:07:14.390
or a lot of people haven't even been
01:07:15.470 --> 01:07:17.312
like convinced that healing
01:07:17.372 --> 01:07:18.253
is possible for them.
01:07:18.293 --> 01:07:19.254
Like they're not even turned
01:07:19.354 --> 01:07:20.455
on to the idea enough.
01:07:20.555 --> 01:07:20.715
Yeah.
01:07:20.816 --> 01:07:21.716
It's not even like, Oh,
01:07:21.777 --> 01:07:23.698
I'm carrying this wound and
01:07:23.819 --> 01:07:24.900
I can either do something
01:07:25.020 --> 01:07:26.261
about it or I could take it
01:07:26.321 --> 01:07:27.042
out on my neighbor.
01:07:27.062 --> 01:07:27.342
Yeah.
01:07:27.643 --> 01:07:28.724
Like never that conscious.
01:07:28.744 --> 01:07:29.024
Right.
01:07:29.044 --> 01:07:30.245
Like for a lot of people,
01:07:30.726 --> 01:07:31.887
it understandably,
01:07:31.907 --> 01:07:33.028
they just feel like if I
01:07:33.088 --> 01:07:34.209
turn towards that really
01:07:34.229 --> 01:07:36.492
scary part or parts of myself, um,
01:07:37.012 --> 01:07:38.153
everything will unravel and
01:07:38.213 --> 01:07:38.933
I'll fall apart.
01:07:39.013 --> 01:07:40.894
And like, that's not necessarily untrue.
01:07:40.934 --> 01:07:41.094
I mean,
01:07:41.114 --> 01:07:42.395
there is like a falling apart that
01:07:42.415 --> 01:07:44.076
has to happen to like effectively heal.
01:07:44.116 --> 01:07:45.397
And that is scary for people.
01:07:45.877 --> 01:07:46.617
So it's a tough one.
01:07:46.657 --> 01:07:46.957
Cause we,
01:07:47.077 --> 01:07:48.178
I feel like you see a lot of
01:07:48.198 --> 01:07:50.639
people these days being like, you know,
01:07:50.759 --> 01:07:51.700
we refer to certain people
01:07:51.740 --> 01:07:52.821
as toxic and we're like,
01:07:52.861 --> 01:07:53.781
they refuse to do their
01:07:53.821 --> 01:07:56.182
healing work or to look at themselves.
01:07:56.202 --> 01:07:56.523
And it's like,
01:07:56.603 --> 01:07:58.043
people genuinely like aren't
01:07:58.123 --> 01:07:59.564
educated on how to be
01:08:00.044 --> 01:08:01.225
effectively introspective.
01:08:01.265 --> 01:08:02.306
Like studies show that we
01:08:02.346 --> 01:08:04.167
all like think we're really
01:08:04.207 --> 01:08:05.227
self-aware and like
01:08:05.327 --> 01:08:06.428
overwhelmingly we're not.
01:08:07.611 --> 01:08:09.273
it's just like a whole like new
01:08:09.333 --> 01:08:10.215
language I feel like we
01:08:10.235 --> 01:08:10.936
will have to learn as a
01:08:11.016 --> 01:08:12.177
society and we're just like
01:08:12.297 --> 01:08:13.559
starting to learn it.
01:08:14.664 --> 01:08:16.025
So it makes it tough because
01:08:16.065 --> 01:08:19.548
it's like you can't impose
01:08:19.588 --> 01:08:20.849
any shoulds on anyone else
01:08:20.869 --> 01:08:21.509
because it's like if
01:08:21.549 --> 01:08:22.910
someone literally doesn't
01:08:23.711 --> 01:08:25.272
even believe that healing
01:08:25.492 --> 01:08:26.954
is a thing that's possible
01:08:26.974 --> 01:08:29.616
for them and can enhance their life,
01:08:29.636 --> 01:08:30.736
how can we blame them for that?
01:08:30.837 --> 01:08:31.777
I feel like I just sort of
01:08:31.797 --> 01:08:33.499
like stumbled my way into
01:08:33.539 --> 01:08:35.160
healing through taking drugs,
01:08:35.200 --> 01:08:35.981
which like lucky,
01:08:36.041 --> 01:08:38.983
but everyone's not going to get that.
01:08:39.303 --> 01:08:40.024
They never talk about the
01:08:40.044 --> 01:08:41.145
people who got into drugs
01:08:41.165 --> 01:08:42.026
and got their life together.
01:08:42.066 --> 01:08:43.167
I know, seriously.
01:08:44.208 --> 01:08:44.749
That's right.
01:08:44.789 --> 01:08:45.770
We only talk about the
01:08:45.830 --> 01:08:47.632
people whose lives ended or
01:08:47.672 --> 01:08:49.974
were horribly damaged by drugs.
01:08:50.014 --> 01:08:50.835
We don't talk about the
01:08:50.875 --> 01:08:52.478
people whose lives changed
01:08:52.518 --> 01:08:53.539
for the better for decades.
01:08:53.579 --> 01:08:54.780
Created entire claymation
01:08:54.820 --> 01:08:56.101
podcasts because of them.
01:08:56.642 --> 01:08:57.263
Really important to
01:08:57.303 --> 01:08:58.464
distinguish which drugs
01:08:58.484 --> 01:08:59.825
we're talking about, I suppose.
01:09:00.386 --> 01:09:01.226
I suppose that's true.
01:09:02.167 --> 01:09:03.389
I do like what you said, though,
01:09:03.429 --> 01:09:06.371
because I do think that your generation,
01:09:06.492 --> 01:09:07.893
and the only reason that I
01:09:07.993 --> 01:09:09.034
refer to you as a different
01:09:09.074 --> 01:09:10.516
generation than mine is because I have a
01:09:17.422 --> 01:09:19.285
I feel like my children's
01:09:19.325 --> 01:09:20.947
generation and you guys are
01:09:20.967 --> 01:09:22.328
the first ones who really
01:09:22.389 --> 01:09:23.610
have healing as part of
01:09:23.650 --> 01:09:26.274
your vocabulary organically.
01:09:26.995 --> 01:09:28.857
I feel like even my generation,
01:09:29.899 --> 01:09:31.140
my parents' generation,
01:09:32.458 --> 01:09:33.679
were maybe some of the first
01:09:33.719 --> 01:09:35.120
people that started to
01:09:35.160 --> 01:09:37.121
break cycles of generational trauma,
01:09:37.201 --> 01:09:38.983
because up until this point,
01:09:39.003 --> 01:09:41.364
we didn't have really good,
01:09:41.564 --> 01:09:44.327
safe mental health modalities.
01:09:44.367 --> 01:09:46.148
We didn't have effective
01:09:46.188 --> 01:09:47.109
drugs that could help
01:09:47.149 --> 01:09:48.830
people with depression and anxiety.
01:09:49.290 --> 01:09:51.292
It wasn't a conversation to be had.
01:09:51.792 --> 01:09:52.112
In fact,
01:09:52.132 --> 01:09:53.273
a lot of the treatments in my
01:09:53.433 --> 01:09:54.734
grandparents' generation
01:09:54.814 --> 01:09:58.496
were harmful and set mental health back,
01:09:58.956 --> 01:10:00.958
you know, probably decades.
01:10:01.498 --> 01:10:02.959
And so I get to therapy.
01:10:02.979 --> 01:10:05.320
Yeah,
01:10:05.340 --> 01:10:07.662
there was this huge stigma about therapy.
01:10:07.682 --> 01:10:08.982
And I remember as a teenager
01:10:09.142 --> 01:10:09.943
asking my parents,
01:10:09.963 --> 01:10:11.264
can I please go to therapy?
01:10:12.104 --> 01:10:14.385
And they didn't want me to be, you know,
01:10:14.425 --> 01:10:15.766
a lot of it was societal
01:10:16.006 --> 01:10:17.647
systemic and their lack of
01:10:17.707 --> 01:10:19.388
understanding about what that meant.
01:10:19.568 --> 01:10:22.429
And, you know, so I agree with you.
01:10:22.469 --> 01:10:23.750
We can't really blame the
01:10:23.790 --> 01:10:25.231
past generations for not
01:10:25.391 --> 01:10:26.851
having healed or not being
01:10:26.911 --> 01:10:28.212
able to be introspective
01:10:28.252 --> 01:10:29.173
because they didn't have
01:10:29.193 --> 01:10:31.054
the kind of tools that we have now.
01:10:31.714 --> 01:10:33.215
My hope is that.
01:10:34.075 --> 01:10:35.677
people in my generation and
01:10:35.717 --> 01:10:37.438
generations prior don't
01:10:37.538 --> 01:10:38.619
look at their lives and say,
01:10:38.679 --> 01:10:39.880
I'm too old to start that
01:10:39.920 --> 01:10:40.901
process right now,
01:10:41.001 --> 01:10:41.962
or I don't know how to
01:10:41.982 --> 01:10:43.023
start that process.
01:10:43.644 --> 01:10:45.225
I talk a lot on my channel
01:10:45.325 --> 01:10:46.366
about how to heal.
01:10:46.526 --> 01:10:48.148
I talk a lot about how to
01:10:48.208 --> 01:10:49.169
start the process,
01:10:49.229 --> 01:10:51.010
how to hire a competent therapist.
01:10:52.011 --> 01:10:53.052
All of those kinds of things.
01:10:53.112 --> 01:10:55.453
And I feel like it's not a
01:10:55.493 --> 01:10:57.173
conversation that's unique
01:10:57.233 --> 01:10:58.334
to older people.
01:10:58.434 --> 01:11:00.075
I feel like younger people, too,
01:11:00.695 --> 01:11:03.456
have a fear of telling their deepest,
01:11:03.496 --> 01:11:06.277
darkest secrets to a stranger, you know,
01:11:06.417 --> 01:11:07.498
and trying to connect with
01:11:07.518 --> 01:11:09.299
someone and be that
01:11:09.359 --> 01:11:10.559
vulnerable in front of
01:11:10.599 --> 01:11:11.700
somebody that they don't know.
01:11:12.960 --> 01:11:14.622
How can you guys talk about
01:11:15.183 --> 01:11:16.825
how you started the process
01:11:16.865 --> 01:11:18.146
of healing for yourselves
01:11:18.206 --> 01:11:19.287
and what that looked like?
01:11:19.328 --> 01:11:21.150
Because there's more than one way to do it,
01:11:21.190 --> 01:11:22.486
obviously.
01:11:22.546 --> 01:11:26.230
I think psychedelics was the gate to that.
01:11:26.310 --> 01:11:28.392
And then I feel like through psychedelics,
01:11:28.833 --> 01:11:31.136
we sort of naturally gravitated towards
01:11:32.014 --> 01:11:34.497
more toward like spiritual
01:11:34.537 --> 01:11:37.480
teachers or I suppose just
01:11:37.600 --> 01:11:38.721
mindfulness teachers that
01:11:38.961 --> 01:11:40.082
advocate for stuff like
01:11:40.122 --> 01:11:42.465
meditation and healthy movement,
01:11:42.505 --> 01:11:43.366
healthy nutrition.
01:11:43.446 --> 01:11:46.469
It all kind of came together in a nice way,
01:11:46.609 --> 01:11:47.890
like finding good
01:11:48.871 --> 01:11:50.392
media that you can consume
01:11:50.432 --> 01:11:52.213
with with experts is so
01:11:52.253 --> 01:11:53.154
helpful i love the ten
01:11:53.174 --> 01:11:54.514
percent happier podcast he
01:11:54.535 --> 01:11:55.275
brings on a lot of
01:11:55.975 --> 01:11:57.036
spiritual and just like
01:11:57.076 --> 01:11:59.317
wellness experts of all
01:11:59.457 --> 01:12:00.438
disciplines
01:12:00.785 --> 01:12:01.305
Yeah.
01:12:01.325 --> 01:12:02.686
I feel like psychedelics are
01:12:02.746 --> 01:12:04.967
stigmatized by older
01:12:05.007 --> 01:12:06.348
generations a little bit
01:12:06.528 --> 01:12:07.268
because of what
01:12:07.328 --> 01:12:08.489
psychedelics were like when
01:12:08.549 --> 01:12:09.369
they were younger.
01:12:09.990 --> 01:12:11.991
And so maybe you can talk a
01:12:12.031 --> 01:12:13.812
little bit about the
01:12:13.872 --> 01:12:16.233
process of coming to that.
01:12:16.373 --> 01:12:16.954
And I,
01:12:17.074 --> 01:12:18.695
what I think it's important to know
01:12:18.835 --> 01:12:20.055
is that a lot of people say
01:12:20.095 --> 01:12:22.036
that the psychedelics that
01:12:22.056 --> 01:12:23.949
are available to us now
01:12:24.601 --> 01:12:26.062
there's a possibility to do
01:12:26.122 --> 01:12:27.762
it in a healthy way where
01:12:27.862 --> 01:12:29.363
it can be as effective or
01:12:29.403 --> 01:12:32.753
more effective as years of therapy.
01:12:32.773 --> 01:12:34.294
That was definitely true for me.
01:12:34.774 --> 01:12:36.154
Yeah.
01:12:36.214 --> 01:12:36.675
Oh, same.
01:12:36.995 --> 01:12:39.196
And a lot of people I know
01:12:39.416 --> 01:12:40.936
who have spent years in
01:12:40.976 --> 01:12:45.018
therapy after one session on LSD or, uh,
01:12:45.058 --> 01:12:47.219
with psilocybin were like, well,
01:12:47.259 --> 01:12:48.339
that was better than ten
01:12:48.379 --> 01:12:49.892
years of therapy because,
01:12:50.273 --> 01:12:51.274
You need to be given like
01:12:51.334 --> 01:12:54.338
a... It's like even with therapy,
01:12:54.378 --> 01:12:57.061
it's just so hard to step
01:12:57.121 --> 01:12:59.283
outside of your normal way of thinking.
01:12:59.323 --> 01:13:00.164
You can kind of have new
01:13:00.244 --> 01:13:02.066
ideas introduced to you and
01:13:02.827 --> 01:13:04.589
you can tweak your lenses
01:13:04.629 --> 01:13:05.671
you look through over time.
01:13:05.711 --> 01:13:07.252
But I feel like with psychedelics,
01:13:07.292 --> 01:13:08.954
you have the opportunity to just...
01:13:09.715 --> 01:13:10.875
be in a completely different
01:13:10.915 --> 01:13:11.655
headspace that is
01:13:11.695 --> 01:13:12.456
potentially a bit more
01:13:12.496 --> 01:13:13.916
depersonalized so you can
01:13:13.956 --> 01:13:15.116
look at things with less of
01:13:15.136 --> 01:13:16.256
your ego stories coming
01:13:16.296 --> 01:13:17.257
into play or your like
01:13:17.297 --> 01:13:18.797
wounds or your trauma or
01:13:18.837 --> 01:13:19.977
you can like recognize how
01:13:20.317 --> 01:13:21.858
big your wounds and trauma
01:13:21.898 --> 01:13:22.758
are and how they're like
01:13:22.838 --> 01:13:25.118
coming into play it's just
01:13:25.619 --> 01:13:26.919
it's it's not like it
01:13:26.939 --> 01:13:27.679
doesn't have to be either
01:13:27.759 --> 01:13:28.639
or like psychedelics or
01:13:28.659 --> 01:13:29.319
therapy I think they're
01:13:29.339 --> 01:13:30.700
both fantastic tools and
01:13:30.740 --> 01:13:31.880
can be used in tandem but
01:13:32.048 --> 01:13:32.361
it
01:13:32.381 --> 01:13:33.102
can be so much more
01:13:33.122 --> 01:13:34.122
effective than therapy
01:13:34.163 --> 01:13:35.784
because when else do we
01:13:35.884 --> 01:13:37.305
really get the opportunity
01:13:37.946 --> 01:13:39.287
to almost have like a
01:13:39.347 --> 01:13:42.069
period of respite from like
01:13:42.129 --> 01:13:43.310
inhabiting our own minds,
01:13:43.350 --> 01:13:44.171
even though you are still
01:13:44.791 --> 01:13:45.452
in your own mind.
01:13:45.932 --> 01:13:46.132
Yeah.
01:13:46.193 --> 01:13:48.936
And I think there are
01:13:49.196 --> 01:13:51.619
systems informed therapies
01:13:51.799 --> 01:13:53.741
more and more so all the time,
01:13:53.801 --> 01:13:54.482
which is great.
01:13:54.923 --> 01:13:57.105
But I feel like sometimes
01:13:57.546 --> 01:13:59.027
the therapy process can
01:13:59.068 --> 01:14:00.749
feel so individual.
01:14:01.410 --> 01:14:03.151
and it's like my trauma my
01:14:03.231 --> 01:14:05.251
issues the things i'm doing
01:14:05.411 --> 01:14:06.412
and how i'm functioning in
01:14:06.472 --> 01:14:08.512
this world without any
01:14:08.993 --> 01:14:10.933
insight into is the world
01:14:11.033 --> 01:14:13.454
i'm in helping me at all is
01:14:13.554 --> 01:14:15.715
it creating any of my issues how are
01:14:16.086 --> 01:14:16.636
You know,
01:14:16.656 --> 01:14:17.496
I didn't just fall out of the
01:14:17.516 --> 01:14:18.356
coconut tree.
01:14:18.496 --> 01:14:19.757
I exist in the context of
01:14:19.817 --> 01:14:21.218
everything that's come before.
01:14:21.918 --> 01:14:23.299
And I think psychedelics
01:14:23.319 --> 01:14:25.020
were really big in that, realizing like,
01:14:25.120 --> 01:14:25.180
oh,
01:14:25.200 --> 01:14:27.381
I'm not just this island existing in a
01:14:27.421 --> 01:14:27.981
vacuum,
01:14:28.441 --> 01:14:31.563
that I am like a sequence of DNA
01:14:31.583 --> 01:14:33.404
that's existed for millions
01:14:33.444 --> 01:14:34.464
and millions and millions
01:14:34.504 --> 01:14:35.825
of years and traces back to
01:14:35.845 --> 01:14:37.766
the original protozoa that
01:14:37.786 --> 01:14:39.126
climbed out of the sludge, you know?
01:14:39.646 --> 01:14:42.208
And each experience of each
01:14:42.288 --> 01:14:44.649
being in that genetic chain
01:14:45.209 --> 01:14:46.989
has implications for the way
01:14:47.029 --> 01:14:49.250
that i am the society that
01:14:49.390 --> 01:14:50.710
i've grown up in that's
01:14:50.750 --> 01:14:52.531
given me my language that's
01:14:52.551 --> 01:14:54.131
given me my constructs for
01:14:54.171 --> 01:14:56.011
the world informs what's
01:14:56.031 --> 01:14:57.872
happening in my body and in
01:14:57.932 --> 01:14:58.892
my brain in the way that
01:14:58.932 --> 01:15:00.186
i'm acting um you know it
01:15:00.206 --> 01:15:01.567
goes on and on the end to
01:15:01.587 --> 01:15:02.587
the things that i'm eating
01:15:02.627 --> 01:15:04.167
the things that i'm the way
01:15:04.187 --> 01:15:05.107
that i'm moving in the
01:15:05.127 --> 01:15:07.228
world the jobs that i am working you know
01:15:08.148 --> 01:15:09.789
All of these things,
01:15:10.249 --> 01:15:12.770
I'm connected to everything.
01:15:13.591 --> 01:15:15.852
So I can't change everything in the world.
01:15:15.892 --> 01:15:18.054
I can't go back and edit my DNA.
01:15:18.114 --> 01:15:20.495
I can't change the systems
01:15:20.515 --> 01:15:22.095
of Western empire for the
01:15:22.135 --> 01:15:24.537
last thousands of years or whatever.
01:15:25.317 --> 01:15:26.998
But understanding all of
01:15:27.018 --> 01:15:28.239
that has given me more
01:15:28.279 --> 01:15:29.880
grace for myself and more
01:15:29.920 --> 01:15:32.782
appreciation for the things
01:15:32.843 --> 01:15:34.364
that this genetic chain has
01:15:34.404 --> 01:15:36.966
been through and honoring
01:15:37.626 --> 01:15:38.987
the incarnation that I
01:15:39.528 --> 01:15:41.069
currently find myself in.
01:15:41.089 --> 01:15:42.230
Not that I believe in
01:15:42.431 --> 01:15:43.731
reincarnation in maybe the
01:15:44.052 --> 01:15:45.713
normal colloquial sense, but.
01:15:46.172 --> 01:15:46.432
Yeah.
01:15:46.933 --> 01:15:48.742
So it sounds like you're
01:15:48.762 --> 01:15:49.663
saying that it helped you
01:15:49.703 --> 01:15:51.164
have a better perspective.
01:15:51.344 --> 01:15:52.344
And for you, Samantha,
01:15:52.384 --> 01:15:55.967
saying that it helps you to
01:15:56.087 --> 01:15:57.448
have thoughts without
01:15:57.488 --> 01:15:58.808
judging them or analyzing
01:15:58.828 --> 01:16:00.890
them from your current state of mind.
01:16:01.750 --> 01:16:04.451
And the way that I had it described to me,
01:16:05.212 --> 01:16:07.032
taking psychedelics in a
01:16:07.072 --> 01:16:08.643
healthy way is that kind of
01:16:08.663 --> 01:16:09.524
you've got if you've got
01:16:09.564 --> 01:16:10.644
this ski mountain and
01:16:10.664 --> 01:16:11.584
you've been kind of skiing
01:16:11.624 --> 01:16:12.725
down the slopes the same
01:16:12.765 --> 01:16:13.645
way and you're carving
01:16:13.685 --> 01:16:14.706
these paths and you've got
01:16:14.826 --> 01:16:16.727
moguls and then taking
01:16:16.767 --> 01:16:19.208
psychedelics is like having it snow.
01:16:20.228 --> 01:16:21.229
And being able to find a
01:16:21.269 --> 01:16:22.649
different path down the mountain.
01:16:23.450 --> 01:16:24.871
So like you're still you,
01:16:25.451 --> 01:16:26.411
but you just think about
01:16:26.451 --> 01:16:27.672
things in a different way.
01:16:28.172 --> 01:16:29.653
And it gives you the ability
01:16:29.693 --> 01:16:31.034
to get out of those ruts
01:16:31.074 --> 01:16:32.255
that you've kind of been in.
01:16:32.652 --> 01:16:33.093
Yeah.
01:16:33.333 --> 01:16:35.034
And also teaches you the
01:16:35.074 --> 01:16:37.355
importance of being able to surrender.
01:16:37.435 --> 01:16:39.136
Like we kind of move through
01:16:39.176 --> 01:16:40.517
life convinced that we can
01:16:40.537 --> 01:16:41.597
sort of control everything.
01:16:41.617 --> 01:16:43.718
And especially in Mormonism,
01:16:43.778 --> 01:16:44.759
you're trying to almost
01:16:44.779 --> 01:16:46.269
like control your
01:16:46.301 --> 01:16:47.242
what's going to happen to you for
01:16:47.302 --> 01:16:48.583
eternity and every single
01:16:48.623 --> 01:16:49.864
decision you ever make it,
01:16:49.884 --> 01:16:50.745
there is just like that
01:16:50.785 --> 01:16:52.447
obsessive focus on control
01:16:52.487 --> 01:16:52.988
and obviously like
01:16:53.028 --> 01:16:54.189
controlling your body and
01:16:54.569 --> 01:16:55.310
your appetites and your
01:16:55.330 --> 01:16:56.371
thoughts and your beliefs and all that.
01:16:56.391 --> 01:16:57.552
Other people's behaviors.
01:16:57.752 --> 01:16:58.233
Yeah.
01:16:58.293 --> 01:16:59.774
And with psychedelics,
01:16:59.895 --> 01:17:00.836
it's like a chance to just
01:17:00.856 --> 01:17:02.337
like get outside of all of
01:17:02.878 --> 01:17:04.559
your own stuff and,
01:17:04.740 --> 01:17:06.145
and just realize that,
01:17:06.625 --> 01:17:08.086
how many perspectives can
01:17:08.146 --> 01:17:10.548
exist and like how
01:17:10.608 --> 01:17:12.689
connected we all are to everybody else.
01:17:12.850 --> 01:17:14.651
And I feel like coming out of Mormonism,
01:17:14.711 --> 01:17:15.231
a lot of people
01:17:15.331 --> 01:17:16.212
understandably are like
01:17:16.272 --> 01:17:18.954
quite risk averse or still have that like,
01:17:19.139 --> 01:17:19.848
know,
01:17:19.948 --> 01:17:21.249
they want to be able to control
01:17:21.309 --> 01:17:23.030
everything really tightly to feel safe,
01:17:23.350 --> 01:17:24.231
which I totally get.
01:17:24.331 --> 01:17:25.492
And like psychedelics can
01:17:26.172 --> 01:17:27.333
maybe feel scary because
01:17:27.733 --> 01:17:29.975
they're not necessarily like predictable.
01:17:30.015 --> 01:17:30.155
I mean,
01:17:30.175 --> 01:17:31.796
there are things you can obviously...
01:17:32.914 --> 01:17:34.036
like learn about with them
01:17:34.096 --> 01:17:35.437
but but they are like an
01:17:35.498 --> 01:17:36.819
experience in learning to
01:17:36.879 --> 01:17:38.081
surrender a lot of the time
01:17:38.121 --> 01:17:38.702
which I think is their
01:17:38.762 --> 01:17:40.584
utility but then it's like
01:17:40.604 --> 01:17:42.607
forcing you to be willing
01:17:42.647 --> 01:17:44.209
to put aside the masks
01:17:44.229 --> 01:17:45.391
you've worn for safety your
01:17:45.431 --> 01:17:47.493
whole life or like the rules you've
01:17:48.294 --> 01:17:49.375
arbitrary rules potentially
01:17:49.395 --> 01:17:50.977
that you've like upheld to
01:17:51.017 --> 01:17:52.859
try and feel safe and like
01:17:52.899 --> 01:17:54.500
all those sort of like
01:17:55.141 --> 01:17:56.402
false ways that you've
01:17:56.442 --> 01:17:57.823
tried to keep yourself safe
01:17:57.863 --> 01:17:59.885
can kind of fall away and I
01:17:59.905 --> 01:18:00.826
think like just having an
01:18:00.886 --> 01:18:01.647
experience where you can
01:18:01.807 --> 01:18:03.569
see that which is like very
01:18:03.609 --> 01:18:05.410
hard to do I feel like outside of
01:18:06.111 --> 01:18:07.292
having a substance literally
01:18:07.412 --> 01:18:09.112
alter your perspective.
01:18:09.132 --> 01:18:10.193
Neurochemistry, yeah.
01:18:10.293 --> 01:18:12.914
Yeah, that can be so valuable.
01:18:13.314 --> 01:18:14.095
I love the ski route
01:18:14.135 --> 01:18:15.255
metaphor because you
01:18:15.295 --> 01:18:16.636
literally are creating new
01:18:16.676 --> 01:18:20.158
neural pathways in a way that just,
01:18:20.578 --> 01:18:21.118
like you said,
01:18:21.218 --> 01:18:23.259
seems very difficult to do
01:18:23.599 --> 01:18:24.100
outside of that.
01:18:24.140 --> 01:18:25.020
It's like literally a
01:18:25.080 --> 01:18:26.721
chemical intervention to
01:18:26.761 --> 01:18:28.962
create better neural pathways.
01:18:29.482 --> 01:18:31.324
And, you know, there's other ways to,
01:18:31.704 --> 01:18:33.894
you know, rewire things like EMDR,
01:18:34.175 --> 01:18:35.756
where you're going back to
01:18:35.976 --> 01:18:36.857
the initial traumas.
01:18:36.997 --> 01:18:38.779
And I think psychedelics is
01:18:38.799 --> 01:18:40.741
a version of that where you realize like,
01:18:41.401 --> 01:18:41.481
oh,
01:18:41.621 --> 01:18:45.425
I've adopted these like pillars of my
01:18:45.545 --> 01:18:47.987
identity based on little
01:18:48.028 --> 01:18:49.189
interactions that I had as
01:18:49.229 --> 01:18:50.850
a kid that maybe didn't
01:18:50.990 --> 01:18:52.171
even like maybe the person
01:18:52.191 --> 01:18:53.413
who said a comment to me
01:18:53.933 --> 01:18:55.474
they didn't even mean it in
01:18:55.494 --> 01:18:57.015
the way that I took it.
01:18:57.715 --> 01:18:59.016
They never would have said like,
01:18:59.036 --> 01:19:00.117
you need to be this way.
01:19:00.157 --> 01:19:01.218
But because of the way they
01:19:01.238 --> 01:19:02.098
said and the way that I was
01:19:02.118 --> 01:19:04.180
just a kid interpreting that was like, oh,
01:19:04.440 --> 01:19:05.620
I'm bad.
01:19:05.660 --> 01:19:06.301
Yeah, exactly.
01:19:06.581 --> 01:19:07.462
I'm bad at this.
01:19:07.482 --> 01:19:09.423
Therefore, I won't do bad at that.
01:19:09.463 --> 01:19:09.563
Oh,
01:19:09.623 --> 01:19:11.904
I got positive reinforcement for this
01:19:11.964 --> 01:19:12.145
thing.
01:19:12.165 --> 01:19:13.305
So I'm going to keep doing this.
01:19:13.585 --> 01:19:14.366
And then it becomes these
01:19:14.426 --> 01:19:16.247
like pillars of our
01:19:16.307 --> 01:19:18.008
identity and character that
01:19:18.048 --> 01:19:21.731
we end up like defending to our own death
01:19:22.551 --> 01:19:23.992
And to our own detriment,
01:19:24.513 --> 01:19:26.655
when they didn't need to be there at all.
01:19:26.755 --> 01:19:27.716
And it's really,
01:19:27.756 --> 01:19:29.137
really hard to step out of it.
01:19:29.157 --> 01:19:31.059
It's almost impossible to see it because,
01:19:31.079 --> 01:19:31.279
you know,
01:19:31.299 --> 01:19:33.161
your mind is like a flashlight
01:19:33.241 --> 01:19:34.622
and you can point and see it,
01:19:34.662 --> 01:19:36.103
but you can like never
01:19:36.163 --> 01:19:37.344
point it back at yourself
01:19:37.465 --> 01:19:38.726
and see the flashlight
01:19:38.786 --> 01:19:39.687
itself through the light of
01:19:39.707 --> 01:19:40.327
the flashlight.
01:19:40.728 --> 01:19:42.669
Unless you have some kind of
01:19:42.729 --> 01:19:44.571
method like psychedelics or EMDR.
01:19:44.651 --> 01:19:46.653
I keep adding an extra M in there, but...
01:19:48.394 --> 01:19:51.515
Yeah, I'm definitely a fan.
01:19:51.575 --> 01:19:52.035
Obviously,
01:19:52.535 --> 01:19:54.536
exercise caution and do your homework.
01:19:54.756 --> 01:19:55.916
And if possible,
01:19:56.296 --> 01:19:57.776
do it in a clinical setting
01:19:57.816 --> 01:19:58.997
where someone who's trained
01:19:59.037 --> 01:20:00.577
in it can be there to assist.
01:20:01.357 --> 01:20:02.597
But I mean, like, you know,
01:20:02.617 --> 01:20:03.697
we talked about the older
01:20:03.717 --> 01:20:04.938
generation and maybe some
01:20:04.958 --> 01:20:06.918
of the stigma that came out
01:20:06.958 --> 01:20:08.558
about psychedelics back in the day.
01:20:09.139 --> 01:20:10.899
I've been reflecting on that because,
01:20:11.159 --> 01:20:11.419
you know,
01:20:11.439 --> 01:20:13.080
it was weird politics and all
01:20:13.100 --> 01:20:14.120
that and shame.
01:20:15.480 --> 01:20:16.562
I had a conversation with my
01:20:16.622 --> 01:20:17.762
partner's dad recently,
01:20:17.802 --> 01:20:19.323
and he mentioned that his
01:20:19.363 --> 01:20:20.723
generation was the first
01:20:21.223 --> 01:20:22.464
that didn't get drafted.
01:20:23.284 --> 01:20:25.045
And I guess it really hit me
01:20:25.305 --> 01:20:26.465
how recent that was,
01:20:27.005 --> 01:20:28.426
that people were like, okay,
01:20:28.886 --> 01:20:29.946
you're twenty years old,
01:20:30.206 --> 01:20:31.166
you gotta go across the
01:20:31.186 --> 01:20:33.047
world and kill people on
01:20:33.067 --> 01:20:33.867
the other side of the world
01:20:33.907 --> 01:20:35.268
for the interests of these
01:20:35.528 --> 01:20:36.648
megacorporations.
01:20:37.248 --> 01:20:38.369
And then you've got to come
01:20:38.409 --> 01:20:39.489
home with trauma,
01:20:39.810 --> 01:20:41.291
having seen your friends killed,
01:20:41.331 --> 01:20:42.011
having killed people,
01:20:42.031 --> 01:20:43.612
having committed atrocities.
01:20:44.032 --> 01:20:44.853
And you're just going to be
01:20:44.913 --> 01:20:46.293
left alone to deal with that,
01:20:46.694 --> 01:20:47.554
which is why we see so many
01:20:47.594 --> 01:20:49.956
veterans struggling with homelessness,
01:20:49.976 --> 01:20:51.496
struggling with mental health issues.
01:20:52.197 --> 01:20:54.820
And psychedelics were definitely
01:20:55.246 --> 01:20:58.068
a huge part of uh the public
01:20:58.149 --> 01:20:59.489
opposition to vietnam which
01:20:59.529 --> 01:21:00.910
was the first public
01:21:00.970 --> 01:21:02.671
opposition of a war in the
01:21:02.711 --> 01:21:03.792
united states history on
01:21:03.872 --> 01:21:05.453
such a massive scale women
01:21:05.493 --> 01:21:07.635
have been protesting wars
01:21:08.055 --> 01:21:10.857
all along but um but on the
01:21:10.937 --> 01:21:12.798
scale that the vietnam war
01:21:12.818 --> 01:21:14.059
was protested was the first
01:21:14.079 --> 01:21:15.500
time and largely due
01:21:16.120 --> 01:21:18.562
to psychedelics and people realizing like,
01:21:19.243 --> 01:21:21.505
oh, I'm not an American,
01:21:22.125 --> 01:21:23.246
I'm a human being.
01:21:23.406 --> 01:21:24.507
Like first and foremost,
01:21:24.547 --> 01:21:26.329
the idea of America is
01:21:26.369 --> 01:21:27.330
something that's been given
01:21:27.370 --> 01:21:29.131
me and what I should do
01:21:29.271 --> 01:21:30.713
about my Americanness is a
01:21:30.733 --> 01:21:32.114
whole different conversation
01:21:32.754 --> 01:21:33.134
even.
01:21:33.495 --> 01:21:34.575
But at my core,
01:21:34.976 --> 01:21:36.016
I'm a human being
01:21:36.256 --> 01:21:37.577
interacting in a natural
01:21:37.597 --> 01:21:39.178
world from whence I came
01:21:39.498 --> 01:21:40.819
with other human beings who
01:21:40.859 --> 01:21:42.700
are just as apart and just
01:21:42.780 --> 01:21:44.662
as belonging to this world
01:21:44.682 --> 01:21:46.563
and network of beings as I am.
01:21:46.863 --> 01:21:47.704
And it doesn't make sense
01:21:47.744 --> 01:21:48.684
for me to go across the
01:21:48.724 --> 01:21:50.125
world to commit violence
01:21:50.145 --> 01:21:50.926
against those people.
01:21:51.212 --> 01:21:52.923
we do have to be very
01:21:52.963 --> 01:21:55.505
appreciative of how far
01:21:55.525 --> 01:21:57.046
we've come in such a short time.
01:21:57.206 --> 01:21:58.627
The role that psychedelics have played,
01:21:59.294 --> 01:22:00.474
I go back and forth on how
01:22:00.514 --> 01:22:01.835
appropriate the backlash
01:22:01.855 --> 01:22:02.713
has been
01:22:02.958 --> 01:22:04.719
a strong faction trying to
01:22:04.759 --> 01:22:05.699
squash out seeing
01:22:05.779 --> 01:22:07.880
psychedelics as a healing
01:22:08.200 --> 01:22:09.440
modality and being like oh
01:22:09.480 --> 01:22:10.761
we can't have this this is
01:22:10.801 --> 01:22:11.781
not good for our
01:22:11.841 --> 01:22:12.901
investments and our
01:22:13.341 --> 01:22:14.802
interests and our ideology
01:22:15.004 --> 01:22:16.642
but also realizing that
01:22:16.702 --> 01:22:20.003
there was um maybe too much
01:22:20.043 --> 01:22:21.143
of a libertine approach i
01:22:21.163 --> 01:22:23.344
don't i don't know um but
01:22:23.444 --> 01:22:24.984
now it was i mean they were
01:22:25.024 --> 01:22:26.165
peddling misinformation
01:22:26.185 --> 01:22:27.185
about psychedelics and
01:22:28.986 --> 01:22:29.286
Yeah,
01:22:29.366 --> 01:22:31.126
and safety was definitely not a
01:22:31.186 --> 01:22:32.467
primary concern.
01:22:33.369 --> 01:22:35.210
But now I think we're very
01:22:35.250 --> 01:22:36.731
fortunate to be in an age
01:22:36.811 --> 01:22:38.371
where there's a lot more
01:22:38.731 --> 01:22:43.113
scientific data to back up the usage,
01:22:43.133 --> 01:22:43.793
that there's more
01:22:43.873 --> 01:22:46.694
opportunities for clinical settings,
01:22:46.974 --> 01:22:48.134
for people to receive
01:22:48.154 --> 01:22:49.315
psychedelic treatment.
01:22:50.155 --> 01:22:50.876
I'm really,
01:22:50.916 --> 01:22:52.317
really optimistic about the
01:22:52.357 --> 01:22:53.818
role that psychedelics will
01:22:53.858 --> 01:22:55.140
continue playing in
01:22:56.341 --> 01:22:57.602
personal and collective healing.
01:22:58.262 --> 01:23:00.725
Did we start talking about grief?
01:23:00.765 --> 01:23:03.287
We started talking about
01:23:03.367 --> 01:23:05.349
shame and grief and anger
01:23:05.449 --> 01:23:06.850
and all of those things, yeah.
01:23:07.393 --> 01:23:09.874
Well, I'd say with psychedelics, you know,
01:23:11.334 --> 01:23:12.375
for the uninitiated,
01:23:12.415 --> 01:23:14.035
they kind of have this idea of like, oh,
01:23:14.075 --> 01:23:15.056
it's this escapist thing
01:23:15.076 --> 01:23:16.356
where you go and you ha ha
01:23:16.396 --> 01:23:17.176
ha at all the pink
01:23:17.236 --> 01:23:18.757
elephants dancing around in the room.
01:23:19.477 --> 01:23:20.017
And, you know,
01:23:20.037 --> 01:23:22.658
there is like a funness to them,
01:23:22.698 --> 01:23:23.378
like there's something
01:23:23.718 --> 01:23:25.479
delightful and joyful of like,
01:23:25.859 --> 01:23:27.240
that new fallen snow where
01:23:27.260 --> 01:23:28.461
you're seeing the world
01:23:28.501 --> 01:23:29.602
kind of like as a child
01:23:29.622 --> 01:23:30.643
would see it with fresh
01:23:30.823 --> 01:23:32.044
eyes where it's brand new
01:23:32.124 --> 01:23:33.324
i've come out of trips like
01:23:33.585 --> 01:23:35.846
having to relearn who i am
01:23:35.966 --> 01:23:37.287
what it means like what
01:23:37.527 --> 01:23:38.488
having a body as being a
01:23:38.528 --> 01:23:39.989
human being an amap person
01:23:40.009 --> 01:23:41.210
having a name having
01:23:41.290 --> 01:23:42.351
roommates and being like
01:23:42.511 --> 01:23:43.952
all of it being like brand
01:23:44.012 --> 01:23:47.014
new for the first time and it is like
01:23:47.900 --> 01:23:49.402
That is just a perspective
01:23:49.422 --> 01:23:50.263
that you don't get every
01:23:50.304 --> 01:23:51.826
day and it does radically
01:23:51.846 --> 01:23:54.890
shift the way that I saw the world,
01:23:54.910 --> 01:23:56.292
the way that I interact with the world.
01:23:56.895 --> 01:23:58.156
But on the other side,
01:23:58.568 --> 01:24:00.029
psychedelics helped me
01:24:00.129 --> 01:24:01.809
identify these deeply,
01:24:01.909 --> 01:24:04.871
deeply embedded wounds.
01:24:06.625 --> 01:24:07.825
They felt like shrapnel
01:24:07.865 --> 01:24:08.646
pieces that were just
01:24:08.786 --> 01:24:10.466
buried in me since childhood,
01:24:10.566 --> 01:24:11.507
since teenagehood,
01:24:11.527 --> 01:24:12.947
since young adulthood that
01:24:12.967 --> 01:24:15.208
I didn't even know were like festering.
01:24:15.809 --> 01:24:18.330
And psychedelics helped me
01:24:18.710 --> 01:24:21.031
identify and remove those things
01:24:21.911 --> 01:24:23.913
And with that came a lot of
01:24:23.973 --> 01:24:26.556
grief and a lot of tears,
01:24:26.596 --> 01:24:28.177
a lot of screaming and
01:24:28.257 --> 01:24:30.079
moaning and crying and
01:24:30.159 --> 01:24:32.161
weeping because I was
01:24:32.661 --> 01:24:33.923
addressing something that I
01:24:33.963 --> 01:24:36.305
had never even known existed in me.
01:24:37.666 --> 01:24:39.868
Stuff from my own life, cultural grief,
01:24:40.008 --> 01:24:40.529
mourning grief.
01:24:41.189 --> 01:24:42.430
Again, realizing like, oh,
01:24:42.590 --> 01:24:43.611
I'm not just a person
01:24:43.651 --> 01:24:44.591
existing in a vacuum.
01:24:44.911 --> 01:24:46.932
I am an animal living in an
01:24:47.012 --> 01:24:48.633
environment that sustains me.
01:24:49.013 --> 01:24:50.594
And that environment is
01:24:50.634 --> 01:24:52.816
being destroyed at rates
01:24:53.616 --> 01:24:54.837
never before seen in the
01:24:54.857 --> 01:24:56.077
history of humankind.
01:24:56.478 --> 01:24:57.998
So there is a deep mourning
01:24:59.079 --> 01:25:00.840
that I have to experience.
01:25:01.503 --> 01:25:04.845
as part of this waking up process.
01:25:05.646 --> 01:25:07.686
And so it isn't all just
01:25:07.866 --> 01:25:10.648
love and light and ha, ha, ha.
01:25:10.908 --> 01:25:15.511
It opened the valve for me to really,
01:25:15.591 --> 01:25:16.831
really grieve and to
01:25:16.932 --> 01:25:20.114
integrate grieving as a regular part
01:25:20.954 --> 01:25:22.714
of my human existence.
01:25:23.115 --> 01:25:24.095
Because I think a lot of our
01:25:24.135 --> 01:25:25.535
culture is set up to
01:25:25.575 --> 01:25:26.775
disconnect us from our grief,
01:25:26.815 --> 01:25:28.296
to numb us to our pain,
01:25:28.316 --> 01:25:29.296
to help us avoid pain,
01:25:29.576 --> 01:25:30.876
to avoid our mortality,
01:25:31.197 --> 01:25:34.077
to avoid the sense of loss,
01:25:34.117 --> 01:25:36.038
to give us this flimsy
01:25:36.078 --> 01:25:37.918
sense of control over the world,
01:25:38.378 --> 01:25:40.059
when in fact we have to
01:25:40.099 --> 01:25:42.139
become more acquainted with
01:25:42.179 --> 01:25:43.720
grief if we want to be
01:25:43.880 --> 01:25:45.280
mature adults in this world
01:25:45.600 --> 01:25:47.720
who are maturely addressing
01:25:48.021 --> 01:25:49.781
the issues that are causing grief.
01:25:50.301 --> 01:25:52.106
Thank you so much.
01:25:52.606 --> 01:25:56.648
I think we could just cut it off there.
01:25:56.688 --> 01:25:57.368
Make that a short.
01:25:57.388 --> 01:26:00.189
Yes, absolutely.
01:26:01.169 --> 01:26:03.370
I think that we do have a
01:26:03.410 --> 01:26:06.071
failure to recognize the role of grief.
01:26:07.071 --> 01:26:08.392
in our lives and how
01:26:08.452 --> 01:26:10.013
necessary it is for us to
01:26:10.073 --> 01:26:11.594
grieve authentically to
01:26:11.634 --> 01:26:13.075
allow ourselves to scream
01:26:13.095 --> 01:26:15.236
and cry and to allow
01:26:15.296 --> 01:26:16.917
ourselves to feel all of
01:26:16.957 --> 01:26:19.018
the pain that comes with
01:26:19.138 --> 01:26:20.259
healing these wounds
01:26:20.939 --> 01:26:22.380
because all of the wounds
01:26:22.420 --> 01:26:23.861
that we have are
01:26:23.901 --> 01:26:25.322
accompanied by grief in
01:26:25.382 --> 01:26:27.343
some form it's either a
01:26:27.383 --> 01:26:29.104
loss of time or a loss of
01:26:29.144 --> 01:26:30.645
childhood or a loss of
01:26:30.765 --> 01:26:32.186
actual relationships or
01:26:32.206 --> 01:26:33.507
things like that and i think
01:26:34.167 --> 01:26:37.388
we fail to recognize what an
01:26:37.428 --> 01:26:39.689
important role grief plays
01:26:39.989 --> 01:26:41.230
in our everyday
01:26:41.390 --> 01:26:44.391
interactions and our desire
01:26:44.431 --> 01:26:45.571
to make life easy and
01:26:45.631 --> 01:26:47.272
smooth and to numb from
01:26:47.312 --> 01:26:48.533
things prevents us from
01:26:48.673 --> 01:26:51.014
actually grieving and even
01:26:51.074 --> 01:26:52.294
if even if we get right
01:26:52.334 --> 01:26:54.595
down to it our funeral ceremonies
01:26:55.333 --> 01:26:57.014
postpone grieving because we
01:26:57.455 --> 01:26:58.575
focus so much on the
01:26:58.675 --> 01:27:00.757
afterlife and seeing that person again.
01:27:01.197 --> 01:27:03.139
We fail to ask ourselves the question,
01:27:03.179 --> 01:27:04.419
what if we don't ever see
01:27:04.439 --> 01:27:05.360
that person again?
01:27:05.740 --> 01:27:06.601
How would we grieve
01:27:06.641 --> 01:27:08.262
differently if that were the case?
01:27:08.703 --> 01:27:09.543
And I think it's such an
01:27:09.563 --> 01:27:11.044
important thing to address.
01:27:11.064 --> 01:27:12.445
So I'm really grateful that
01:27:12.485 --> 01:27:13.666
you brought that into this
01:27:13.706 --> 01:27:15.507
conversation because we
01:27:15.527 --> 01:27:16.568
don't talk about grief
01:27:16.608 --> 01:27:17.909
enough and I think it's
01:27:18.109 --> 01:27:20.511
just so crucial to address it.
01:27:21.209 --> 01:27:21.890
Oh, for sure.
01:27:22.030 --> 01:27:25.012
And I think a huge part of
01:27:25.332 --> 01:27:28.214
the revolution going on,
01:27:28.374 --> 01:27:29.655
which is just a total
01:27:30.256 --> 01:27:32.137
reassessment of our
01:27:32.217 --> 01:27:33.758
individual and collective
01:27:34.199 --> 01:27:37.501
goals and purpose and functioning,
01:27:38.282 --> 01:27:41.024
is developing networks and
01:27:41.084 --> 01:27:43.566
relationships of people who
01:27:43.766 --> 01:27:45.127
are acquainted with grief,
01:27:45.347 --> 01:27:47.448
who can witness us in grief
01:27:47.809 --> 01:27:48.910
and share the grief together.
01:27:49.750 --> 01:27:51.352
Even grieving itself,
01:27:51.653 --> 01:27:53.535
we inherit so much shame about that.
01:27:53.555 --> 01:27:54.597
You should just be tough and
01:27:54.737 --> 01:27:56.739
swallow it and, you know, be a man.
01:27:56.779 --> 01:27:57.560
Don't cry.
01:27:57.861 --> 01:27:59.203
Don't show them, you know,
01:27:59.263 --> 01:28:01.025
what you're feeling, you know, be tough.
01:28:01.405 --> 01:28:02.767
All of that is so toxic.
01:28:03.288 --> 01:28:05.471
And so many of us aren't
01:28:05.511 --> 01:28:07.153
even allowed to express that.
01:28:07.553 --> 01:28:09.054
let alone, you know,
01:28:09.134 --> 01:28:10.235
express that to ourselves,
01:28:10.535 --> 01:28:12.116
let alone to another person.
01:28:12.676 --> 01:28:13.977
And so I think a huge part
01:28:14.097 --> 01:28:15.838
is going to be learning to
01:28:15.898 --> 01:28:17.259
grieve together.
01:28:17.919 --> 01:28:20.000
And that's something I've been able to,
01:28:20.020 --> 01:28:21.121
both of us have been able
01:28:21.141 --> 01:28:22.662
to experience in different
01:28:22.682 --> 01:28:25.304
ways since leaving the church,
01:28:25.444 --> 01:28:25.984
which was such a
01:28:26.144 --> 01:28:29.706
superficial sense of community and grief,
01:28:29.746 --> 01:28:30.867
the surface level.
01:28:31.347 --> 01:28:32.608
Oh, we all belong to the same club.
01:28:32.628 --> 01:28:33.709
We wear the same uniform.
01:28:33.749 --> 01:28:34.409
Therefore we're,
01:28:34.529 --> 01:28:35.570
We're all together and maybe
01:28:35.590 --> 01:28:36.731
we can cry a little bit on
01:28:36.771 --> 01:28:37.672
Fast and Testimony meeting.
01:28:37.972 --> 01:28:38.753
Not about our personal
01:28:38.793 --> 01:28:39.694
issues because we can only
01:28:40.014 --> 01:28:40.795
speak the script and say
01:28:40.835 --> 01:28:41.696
the things you know are true.
01:28:42.036 --> 01:28:43.137
But we get little,
01:28:43.177 --> 01:28:45.079
little releases of that grief valve.
01:28:45.639 --> 01:28:47.261
But actually stepping into a
01:28:47.341 --> 01:28:49.182
conscious space where we're
01:28:49.222 --> 01:28:50.484
holding our grief together
01:28:50.584 --> 01:28:51.765
and witnessing each other
01:28:51.805 --> 01:28:56.189
in our grief and expressing grief fully.
01:28:56.725 --> 01:28:57.625
is so healing.
01:28:57.705 --> 01:28:59.846
It's hard to grieve alone.
01:29:00.327 --> 01:29:04.909
It's not just easier, but empowering.
01:29:07.054 --> 01:29:08.875
I struggle to find the words
01:29:08.915 --> 01:29:09.736
to say what it is.
01:29:09.776 --> 01:29:11.336
It's almost like there is a
01:29:11.396 --> 01:29:12.337
dimension of human
01:29:12.397 --> 01:29:14.598
existence that we access,
01:29:14.938 --> 01:29:16.619
almost like a psychic level
01:29:16.739 --> 01:29:19.260
of power that we access in sharing grief
01:29:20.190 --> 01:29:21.511
were totally cut off of in
01:29:21.551 --> 01:29:23.172
our normal you know white
01:29:23.212 --> 01:29:25.654
bread american life and so
01:29:25.714 --> 01:29:26.855
learning how to grieve
01:29:26.875 --> 01:29:28.095
together to intentionally
01:29:28.155 --> 01:29:29.917
create spaces where we can
01:29:29.977 --> 01:29:32.098
hold our grief and then act
01:29:32.218 --> 01:29:33.879
from that empowered grief
01:29:34.259 --> 01:29:36.061
and embodied grief uh is
01:29:36.121 --> 01:29:39.044
going to be genuinely revolutionary
01:29:40.115 --> 01:29:41.837
Yeah, I agree so much with that.
01:29:42.317 --> 01:29:43.398
And that's one of the things
01:29:43.438 --> 01:29:44.559
I'm trying to do with this
01:29:44.599 --> 01:29:47.381
community on YouTube is to
01:29:47.421 --> 01:29:49.143
create a place where we can
01:29:49.243 --> 01:29:51.045
share our struggles together,
01:29:51.085 --> 01:29:52.446
where we can grieve together,
01:29:52.466 --> 01:29:53.547
where we can support each
01:29:53.607 --> 01:29:56.149
other in these revolutions
01:29:56.209 --> 01:29:58.331
that are exciting but also
01:29:58.391 --> 01:30:00.913
painful and making these
01:30:00.953 --> 01:30:02.995
changes that are scary and
01:30:03.315 --> 01:30:04.375
And, you know,
01:30:04.455 --> 01:30:06.276
confronting the things that
01:30:06.696 --> 01:30:08.730
we feel that are scary and,
01:30:08.757 --> 01:30:09.617
confronting the
01:30:09.677 --> 01:30:11.297
dysfunctional relationships
01:30:11.317 --> 01:30:13.658
that we have and having the
01:30:13.698 --> 01:30:15.038
courage to step into a
01:30:15.098 --> 01:30:17.199
space of being alone rather
01:30:17.219 --> 01:30:18.719
than accepting bad
01:30:18.759 --> 01:30:19.920
treatment from other people,
01:30:20.060 --> 01:30:20.900
all of these things.
01:30:21.520 --> 01:30:22.781
We need to do them together.
01:30:22.881 --> 01:30:23.921
And thank you so much for
01:30:23.941 --> 01:30:25.282
saying that because we don't,
01:30:26.243 --> 01:30:27.303
I think sometimes we
01:30:27.343 --> 01:30:28.784
believe that our mental
01:30:28.824 --> 01:30:30.185
health is only our
01:30:30.245 --> 01:30:31.566
responsibility and that we
01:30:31.586 --> 01:30:32.486
should fix all of our
01:30:32.586 --> 01:30:33.787
issues before we talk to
01:30:33.827 --> 01:30:36.809
other people or interact in spaces.
01:30:36.869 --> 01:30:38.610
But you're so spot on when
01:30:38.630 --> 01:30:39.550
you say that we need to do
01:30:39.610 --> 01:30:40.391
it collectively.
01:30:40.691 --> 01:30:42.193
I agree with that so much.
01:30:42.213 --> 01:30:42.673
Samantha,
01:30:42.853 --> 01:30:44.234
I'm going to give you the last word.
01:30:44.820 --> 01:30:46.401
Oh God, what am I going to use it on?
01:30:47.943 --> 01:30:48.883
Give me a word.
01:30:49.544 --> 01:30:51.045
Please plug all the things
01:30:51.605 --> 01:30:52.686
that you guys are doing and
01:30:52.726 --> 01:30:53.347
let us know what's
01:30:53.387 --> 01:30:54.708
happening on your channel right now.
01:30:55.660 --> 01:30:56.160
Yeah.
01:30:56.180 --> 01:30:56.801
So, I mean,
01:30:56.821 --> 01:30:58.141
if you're interested in psychedelics,
01:30:58.181 --> 01:30:59.582
we just tried gas station
01:30:59.622 --> 01:31:01.143
mushrooms and that's one of
01:31:01.203 --> 01:31:02.904
our new videos on our channel.
01:31:02.944 --> 01:31:04.084
You can find us everywhere
01:31:04.324 --> 01:31:05.565
at Zelf on the Shelf.
01:31:06.525 --> 01:31:07.726
We're also on Patreon.
01:31:07.786 --> 01:31:08.666
We're about to go read an
01:31:08.706 --> 01:31:09.567
episode of Tennis Shoes
01:31:09.607 --> 01:31:10.407
Among the Nephites.
01:31:10.427 --> 01:31:11.948
That's something we do on our Patreon.
01:31:12.949 --> 01:31:13.989
Anything else we need to
01:31:14.029 --> 01:31:16.231
mention in terms of orders of business?
01:31:16.251 --> 01:31:17.491
I think that's it.
01:31:17.511 --> 01:31:18.352
We've got our personal
01:31:18.432 --> 01:31:20.113
Instagrams you can follow us on.
01:31:21.079 --> 01:31:21.960
I had to delete all my
01:31:22.020 --> 01:31:23.581
socials yesterday just to
01:31:23.601 --> 01:31:25.102
get out of the fray for a minute,
01:31:25.342 --> 01:31:27.384
but will be back eventually, I'm sure,
01:31:27.444 --> 01:31:28.624
like a dog to its vomit.
01:31:30.766 --> 01:31:31.646
I feel that too.
01:31:32.207 --> 01:31:32.367
Well,
01:31:32.407 --> 01:31:34.448
I feel like we never have enough time
01:31:34.468 --> 01:31:35.649
to discuss all the things,
01:31:35.709 --> 01:31:37.770
so we will have to get together again.
01:31:39.400 --> 01:31:39.500
Yeah.
01:31:39.540 --> 01:31:39.800
Yes, please.
01:31:39.820 --> 01:31:40.700
We love talking to you
01:31:40.760 --> 01:31:41.881
anytime you want to come.
01:31:41.901 --> 01:31:42.401
Oh, I will.
01:31:42.481 --> 01:31:42.584
Yeah.
01:31:42.805 --> 01:31:43.145
Yeah.
01:31:43.165 --> 01:31:45.266
Like the level at which you
01:31:45.306 --> 01:31:46.667
talk about healing is like
01:31:46.747 --> 01:31:49.849
so soothing to my soul personally.
01:31:49.869 --> 01:31:51.390
Thanks.
01:31:51.870 --> 01:31:53.090
Well, thanks so much for being here,
01:31:53.110 --> 01:31:53.551
you guys.
01:31:53.591 --> 01:31:54.712
This is going to be wonderful.
01:31:55.193 --> 01:31:56.656
Can't wait to talk to you again.
01:31:56.676 --> 01:31:57.498
Thank you.
01:31:57.719 --> 01:31:58.600
I love what you're doing
01:31:58.640 --> 01:31:59.382
with this channel.
01:31:59.663 --> 01:32:00.364
It's exciting.
01:32:00.765 --> 01:32:01.106
Yeah.
01:32:01.146 --> 01:32:02.468
Love to everyone watching.
01:32:02.789 --> 01:32:03.871
Happy healing.
01:32:03.951 --> 01:32:05.114
Thanks for being here, everyone.