Latest / The Dr. Sarah Hensley Show / Episode 5, Season 1: Living in Victimhood
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome to the Love Doc podcast. I'm your co host
- 0:12Speaker 1: Raina Butcher here with your host, doctor Sarah Hinsley, the
- 0:16Speaker 1: owner and CEO of The Dating Decoder. Hi, Doctor Hensley. Hi,
- 0:22Speaker 1: all right, Doctor Hensley. So today episode five, Yes, we're
- 0:28Speaker 1: going to talk about something that again may or may
- 0:32Speaker 1: not be controversial, but we've already decided that we're here
- 0:36Speaker 1: because we want to be authentic, authentic, we want to
- 0:39Speaker 1: be our true selves. And the people who are here
- 0:42Speaker 1: for it will show up and the people who are
- 0:44Speaker 1: offended by it will go bye bye.
- 0:46Speaker 2: And haters drive traffic. So whatever, that's right, and haters
- 0:49Speaker 2: don't bother me.
- 0:49Speaker 3: That's right.
- 0:50Speaker 4: I know, And again I'm working on that.
- 0:54Speaker 3: You're like, they do a little bit.
- 0:55Speaker 4: I really I really like to be liked.
- 0:58Speaker 3: I've toltally.
- 0:59Speaker 2: You know what the crazy thing is, I have zero
- 1:03Speaker 2: fs to give about being like I know, like I
- 1:05Speaker 2: really it's gone.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I know from me, I know, and I'm sort of
- 1:09Speaker 1: envious of it. But at the same time, like I
- 1:12Speaker 1: I want to keep This isn't the subject of this episode,
- 1:16Speaker 1: but there's this part of me that I want to keep.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Part of it, I want to keep, part of wanting
- 1:19Speaker 1: to be liked because it's part of who I am.
- 1:22Speaker 1: So but that's not what this episode is about. This
- 1:25Speaker 1: episode I.
- 1:25Speaker 3: Really want to ask why, But well we shall move on.
- 1:29Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and you know you can coach me later
- 1:31Speaker 1: on that this episode is specifically about victimization. It is
- 1:38Speaker 1: living in victimhood, staying in victimhood, and how that really
- 1:43Speaker 1: really inhibits you from reaching your attachment security. Absolutely, so
- 1:51Speaker 1: we can. There's so many directions this could go in.
- 1:54Speaker 1: We both have, of course, tons of personal experience from
- 1:58Speaker 1: our own victimhood and the victimhood of our parents. Yep.
- 2:05Speaker 1: But specifically within your practice, what do you usually see
- 2:11Speaker 1: within the dynamic of partnerships when one partner is maybe
- 2:15Speaker 1: living in their victimization.
- 2:18Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's, you know, all my partner's fault. Our
- 2:24Speaker 2: relationship sucks because they're awful. I contribute nothing bad, I'm
- 2:29Speaker 2: perfect and they're the problem, and I'm just the victim
- 2:34Speaker 2: of their crappy behavior.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Yeah, and really just no self reflection, none and none.
- 2:42Speaker 1: And when we talk about victimhood is complex, and that's
- 2:47Speaker 1: why I said it can go in so many different
- 2:50Speaker 1: directions because a lot of times people don't realize they're
- 2:52Speaker 1: living there.
- 2:53Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the super glue to hell.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Doctor Henry Wright, who is a pastor and founded be
- 2:59Speaker 2: In Health Ministries, which was a ministry that changed my
- 3:01Speaker 2: life profoundly. A famous quote from him is like victimhood
- 3:06Speaker 2: and self pity is the super glue to hell. If
- 3:08Speaker 2: you want to stay stuck in hell, just be a victim.
- 3:13Speaker 2: And I don't want to offend people who have been
- 3:17Speaker 2: through trauma because I have had some trauma, sure, and
- 3:22Speaker 2: there's a time and a place to be a victim,
- 3:27Speaker 2: but you can't live there because you can't grow and
- 3:30Speaker 2: you can't move forward. And we've studied, for example, why
- 3:37Speaker 2: people can somehow experience trauma and move into what we
- 3:43Speaker 2: call post traumatic growth, where they integrate that trauma into
- 3:47Speaker 2: their nervous system in a way that allows them to
- 3:50Speaker 2: actually become more resilient over time and stronger. And then
- 3:56Speaker 2: the people that developed post traumatic stress disorder and complex
- 4:00Speaker 2: post traumatic stress disorder, where they are able to integrate
- 4:04Speaker 2: the trauma into the nervous system in a way that
- 4:07Speaker 2: promotes well being and functioning and growth, but instead inhibits
- 4:11Speaker 2: their growth and development and keeps them stuck in pathologies
- 4:15Speaker 2: of anxiety and depression and you know.
- 4:19Speaker 4: So what is that science? Do you know it?
- 4:22Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, I think that.
- 4:26Speaker 2: There's a huge component of how we both search for
- 4:33Speaker 2: meaning of what happened to us and how we solve
- 4:38Speaker 2: for solutions. Actually did my master's thesis partially on this topic.
- 4:44Speaker 2: So when we experience you definitely know, ok. Yeah, So
- 4:48Speaker 2: I know from personal experience of being a trauma survivor
- 4:52Speaker 2: and I've had some serious trauma. Yeah, there are times
- 4:57Speaker 2: when we spend our time after trauma searching for a meaning.
- 5:01Speaker 3: Why did this happen to me? What does this mean?
- 5:03Speaker 3: You know? Why me?
- 5:05Speaker 1: What?
- 5:06Speaker 3: You know?
- 5:06Speaker 2: What could I have done differently? And there's a lot
- 5:09Speaker 2: of like these hypothetical elements. It's very abstract, it's very
- 5:13Speaker 2: you know, there's no definite answer right to that question,
- 5:17Speaker 2: So you could ask it forever into eternity, right.
- 5:20Speaker 4: And maybe never get the answer.
- 5:21Speaker 2: And maybe never get a real answer that that fits
- 5:23Speaker 2: with you, right, And then there's Okay, I can't change this.
- 5:31Speaker 3: This is done. It's finalized.
- 5:35Speaker 2: And if I spend all of my time feeling sorry
- 5:38Speaker 2: for myself and blaming everybody else for what has happened,
- 5:45Speaker 2: I rob myself of the chance to grow to become stronger,
- 5:51Speaker 2: to learn from this, to help other people experience true
- 5:54Speaker 2: joy and experience true joy going forward. You're robbing yourself
- 5:59Speaker 2: of the opera tunity to experience joy in your life.
- 6:03Speaker 1: And I think it's I mean, if you really think again, physiologically,
- 6:08Speaker 1: it's the root of disease.
- 6:10Speaker 2: Oh, it's a big component of disease. And here's the thing.
- 6:14Speaker 2: Here's the thing about self pity, which is the main
- 6:16Speaker 2: component of the constructive victimization. It's an anesthetic. Self pity
- 6:23Speaker 2: is the best xan X out there, and so it's addicting. Sure,
- 6:26Speaker 2: right if you are, oh, poor pitiful me, I'm so
- 6:30Speaker 2: you know this happened to me and nobody understands. And
- 6:33Speaker 2: it's a form of self soothing and that it's why
- 6:37Speaker 2: it's hard to step away from it, right, because we
- 6:41Speaker 2: soothe ourselves and we don't have to confront the ugly
- 6:44Speaker 2: truth about ourselves, about why we're stuck or about. And
- 6:49Speaker 2: this is really hard. Even some of the things that
- 6:52Speaker 2: contributed to you being victimized. Now for some people there
- 6:57Speaker 2: was it was not one ounce their fault. They are
- 7:00Speaker 2: a true one percent victim.
- 7:02Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we want to clear that.
- 7:04Speaker 2: Let me be extremely clear. There are people that are assaulted,
- 7:09Speaker 2: that are physically harmed, that are emotionally harmed, and they
- 7:13Speaker 2: had absolutely no role in them, right, But there are
- 7:16Speaker 2: others who did play a role in their own victimization,
- 7:22Speaker 2: and that's hard to face, it is. And I will
- 7:25Speaker 2: say I played a role in my own victimization.
- 7:27Speaker 4: Same hands. I did both them.
- 7:30Speaker 3: One because I chose to stay.
- 7:34Speaker 4: Yeah, I kept making poor decisions on.
- 7:36Speaker 2: And on and on and on with someone who victimized
- 7:40Speaker 2: me over over and over again.
- 7:43Speaker 3: And I know all about battered woman syndrome. I know.
- 7:46Speaker 2: I used to work in the domestic violence field. I
- 7:49Speaker 2: am educated about why women's stay and abuse. I am
- 7:52Speaker 2: an expert on trauma bonding, and so I know why
- 7:56Speaker 2: I couldn't leave. But at the end of the day,
- 8:00Speaker 2: I eventually did so. And then when I did, and
- 8:06Speaker 2: there was the other side of that, there was this
- 8:10Speaker 2: one day that I realized, like my participation in that
- 8:14Speaker 2: was always voluntary.
- 8:15Speaker 4: Yeah, yep, you are not a.
- 8:18Speaker 2: Victim at certain point in time. You're a volunteer in
- 8:21Speaker 2: that situation. And that is an ugly hard truth not.
- 8:25Speaker 4: A lot of people.
- 8:26Speaker 3: That is so hard to take.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, and I know I mean, we were just
- 8:30Speaker 1: talking about this on the way here, because I think
- 8:34Speaker 1: it was it was episode three that I talked about.
- 8:38Speaker 1: I openly talked a little bit about my sexual permiscuity,
- 8:42Speaker 1: and then I actually went back and started thinking about, like, well,
- 8:46Speaker 1: was it permiscuity or was it really sexual trauma that
- 8:49Speaker 1: I experienced with my ex partner? And you know, I
- 8:53Speaker 1: even told you on the way here when I was
- 8:55Speaker 1: talking about it.
- 8:56Speaker 4: It's hard for.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Me to say that it was trauma even though it
- 8:59Speaker 1: was without getting too far into it. But I still
- 9:04Speaker 1: played a role, right, I still played a role in it,
- 9:08Speaker 1: and I can only take accountability for that portion of it.
- 9:11Speaker 1: I can't take I can't take what he did right,
- 9:16Speaker 1: as much as it was very manipulative, I can't do
- 9:22Speaker 1: anything about that part. All I can do is take
- 9:26Speaker 1: account accountability for my role in it, recognize it, try
- 9:31Speaker 1: to heal it. Most of all, try to release it.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Try to release the.
- 9:35Speaker 2: Shame around Absolutely, and deshaming is a huge part of
- 9:38Speaker 2: being able to let go of victimhood. Yeah, and shame
- 9:42Speaker 2: plays such a negative role in so many of our lives,
- 9:45Speaker 2: and it is the block that prevents people from moving
- 9:49Speaker 2: forward because there's there's shame when you're victimized.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Er.
- 9:56Speaker 2: Yeah, but even when if it's zero percent your fault,
- 9:58Speaker 2: even if you are one hundred percent of victim, they're
- 10:01Speaker 2: still shame that like like how did I end up here?
- 10:05Speaker 4: Sure?
- 10:06Speaker 2: Like you know, and people that are traumatized, like people
- 10:08Speaker 2: that have you know, have been raped, they constantly look
- 10:13Speaker 2: back and say, what could have I done different? Could
- 10:15Speaker 2: I have taken a left instead of a right? You know?
- 10:18Speaker 2: Should I have like remember to lock my door, Like
- 10:20Speaker 2: should I have not had that last drink? And that
- 10:23Speaker 2: shame is so unwarranted and it is so harmful and
- 10:28Speaker 2: it keeps people stuck, and I really want people to
- 10:32Speaker 2: be able to heal that shame.
- 10:34Speaker 1: Yeah, shame has been something that I feel like in
- 10:36Speaker 1: the past few years has really come to the surface
- 10:40Speaker 1: for me in terms of like facing my own shame
- 10:43Speaker 1: and really just trying to release it because as I
- 10:46Speaker 1: get older, I just recognize it so much more in
- 10:49Speaker 1: my body and how I like how my body feels
- 10:52Speaker 1: when it when it comes up. And so again, because
- 10:57Speaker 1: you're professional, we want to know, like we want to
- 11:00Speaker 1: know the secrets. I want to know the secret right
- 11:03Speaker 1: of really how you release that shame, how you let
- 11:06Speaker 1: it go once and for all, Like, because processing is
- 11:09Speaker 1: one thing.
- 11:09Speaker 4: I process your shame.
- 11:11Speaker 1: You think about, you know, the circumstance that maybe created
- 11:14Speaker 1: the shame and the map from that point to this point.
- 11:19Speaker 4: But how do you let it go?
- 11:20Speaker 1: Because I mean I was laying in bed thinking about
- 11:23Speaker 1: this last night. It still lives in my body.
- 11:25Speaker 2: Yeah, I've made incredible progress.
- 11:29Speaker 3: It is a journey. Yeah, I have not reached the
- 11:31Speaker 3: final destination.
- 11:33Speaker 2: Yeah, because my body will flare up under stressful conditions
- 11:39Speaker 2: that I don't see coming right where I feel cognitively okay,
- 11:43Speaker 2: like I'm not stressed in my mind, but my body
- 11:45Speaker 2: is experiencing the stress and the symptoms.
- 11:48Speaker 3: And here's the thing.
- 11:50Speaker 2: We have to start to meet our basic needs in
- 11:55Speaker 2: order to release shame. We have to stop having shame
- 11:59Speaker 2: around the idea that we have basic needs. And this
- 12:03Speaker 2: is gonna sound wild, but it starts at you know,
- 12:07Speaker 2: like Maslow's fundamental bottom rung hierarchy of needs, even things
- 12:13Speaker 2: like eating when you're hungry, sleeping when you need to sleep,
- 12:17Speaker 2: when you need to pee, Like that's how your body
- 12:19Speaker 2: starts to trust you. And it will when your body
- 12:23Speaker 2: starts to trust you, you do release some of that shame,
- 12:27Speaker 2: Like it's not shameful that I, you know, I need
- 12:31Speaker 2: to get up and use the bathroom, or I could
- 12:34Speaker 2: sit here and pound out thirty more minutes of whatever
- 12:36Speaker 2: I'm doing on my computer, right, because I'm really in
- 12:39Speaker 2: the flow. Right, It's like there's this subconscious sense of
- 12:44Speaker 2: shame that oh no, I'm stopping my productivity.
- 12:46Speaker 3: I'm gonna go use the restaurant.
- 12:48Speaker 2: So that's at a very fundamental level of how we
- 12:51Speaker 2: heal the shame in our body. Okay, when we've been
- 12:55Speaker 2: we've been victimized, or we've had trauma.
- 12:57Speaker 1: That's really beautiful too, because it seems like that's really
- 13:01Speaker 1: simple to grasp, right, and people don't acknowledge it. Yeah,
- 13:05Speaker 1: Oh well, I'll just pee when I need to pee,
- 13:07Speaker 1: and go to sleep when I need to sleep, and
- 13:09Speaker 1: eat when I need to eat, and then my body
- 13:10Speaker 1: will feel better.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Right. But even we have so much shame even around
- 13:14Speaker 2: just eating. I mean, as women, right, Like I mean,
- 13:17Speaker 2: find a woman that hasn't been on a diet, good luck?
- 13:20Speaker 1: Right?
- 13:20Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, so shame is just woven in so many
- 13:24Speaker 2: different aspects. But really, what I want people to understand
- 13:29Speaker 2: about healing from victimization because victimization is meant to be
- 13:34Speaker 2: a temporary state. It's meant to be a state where
- 13:38Speaker 2: you are processing shock and you are trying to find
- 13:43Speaker 2: your footing and you need love and support and tenderness,
- 13:48Speaker 2: and you know guidance and God and God, oh Gosh, yes,
- 13:54Speaker 2: God to do that. But once you've got your footing
- 13:59Speaker 2: a little bit, you are at a crossroads. And that
- 14:04Speaker 2: crossroads is am I going to continue to be angry, ashamed, doubtful, offended,
- 14:15Speaker 2: like all of these really negative emotions? Am I going
- 14:18Speaker 2: to live there and just continually try to seek some
- 14:23Speaker 2: sense of justice that I may never get because the
- 14:26Speaker 2: majority of traumatized people never get any justice. There's no
- 14:29Speaker 2: righting that wrong. I believe someday God does it for
- 14:32Speaker 2: us somehow, some way, because I believe we serve adjust God,
- 14:35Speaker 2: but most people never get any justice right And am
- 14:38Speaker 2: I going to seek something that I'm never really going
- 14:41Speaker 2: to get? Or am I going to make a conscious
- 14:44Speaker 2: decision to be an overcomer? I hate when people call
- 14:48Speaker 2: me a victim. It makes my skin crawl. I say, no,
- 14:53Speaker 2: I'm not a victim of trauma. I'm an overcomer of trauma.
- 14:57Speaker 2: I am an overcomer. I am always an active of
- 15:00Speaker 2: for comer well.
- 15:00Speaker 1: And that is justice, right, because if you really, if
- 15:04Speaker 1: you really think about justice and like the definition of it,
- 15:07Speaker 1: I mean you can go you know, the direction of
- 15:10Speaker 1: like civilly right, you know law.
- 15:15Speaker 4: But true justice is if you just overcome.
- 15:17Speaker 3: True justice is in her peace. Yeah, that's in her
- 15:19Speaker 3: peace man.
- 15:20Speaker 4: Yeah. And not being this.
- 15:23Speaker 1: You know, walking ball of resentment towards everyone. I mean again,
- 15:29Speaker 1: this was something we were talking about on the way
- 15:30Speaker 1: here with our parents specifically, because you know, I know,
- 15:34Speaker 1: my mother lived a life where she she felt life
- 15:39Speaker 1: had victimized her.
- 15:40Speaker 3: Yeah. That was my dad.
- 15:41Speaker 2: That was my dad too, And he was bitter and
- 15:43Speaker 2: he was angry, and he became a shell of a
- 15:46Speaker 2: human being and he died on that hill.
- 15:48Speaker 1: Yeah. Same your mom did too, Yeah, and and died
- 15:51Speaker 1: too soon as well. And and something that I mentioned
- 15:56Speaker 1: to you on the way here, she she grew to
- 15:59Speaker 1: resent her her own children.
- 16:01Speaker 4: Yeah, because of it, for sure.
- 16:02Speaker 1: The people that she loved like her children were her life.
- 16:05Speaker 4: The four of us were her life.
- 16:07Speaker 1: But she resented us, sure because in her mind she
- 16:10Speaker 1: couldn't see past the fact that when it came to
- 16:14Speaker 1: her and my dad's divorce. She couldn't see her role,
- 16:19Speaker 1: she could never acknowledge her role and take any accountability
- 16:22Speaker 1: for that. It was just that he had victimized her
- 16:25Speaker 1: that I mean seventeen, I mean four days before she died.
- 16:28Speaker 4: You know, she was talking about how you know it
- 16:31Speaker 4: was your father, did this? Your father?
- 16:35Speaker 3: Yeah, So there's some inter there's so many things. I
- 16:38Speaker 3: want to say.
- 16:38Speaker 2: My brain's gone ninety miles an hour here because I'm
- 16:40Speaker 2: so passionate about this topic. Yeah, there's something in psychology.
- 16:45Speaker 2: There's a psychological concept called locus of control, Okay, and
- 16:50Speaker 2: it's it's a it's a spectrum. And on one end
- 16:53Speaker 2: of the spectrum we have what's called internal locus of control.
- 16:56Speaker 2: And people who identify as having an internal locus of
- 16:59Speaker 2: control truly believe that their actions matter, that the decisions
- 17:04Speaker 2: they make and the actions they take produce the outcomes
- 17:07Speaker 2: in their life, right, that they are largely in control
- 17:11Speaker 2: of what happens to them in their lives and the
- 17:12Speaker 2: outcomes of their lives.
- 17:14Speaker 3: Right. And then we have on the other end of the.
- 17:16Speaker 2: Spectrum, external locus of control, and people who identify with
- 17:20Speaker 2: an external locus of control believe outside forces largely control
- 17:25Speaker 2: their life, like the government or more powerful people, or
- 17:29Speaker 2: luck or chance. Right, those are the factors that create
- 17:33Speaker 2: the majority of the outcomes of their life. And when
- 17:36Speaker 2: we look at their mental health, can you imagine who
- 17:39Speaker 2: has better mental health? H Right, Those with the and
- 17:42Speaker 2: who are ultimately on pretty much all measures of success
- 17:47Speaker 2: are more successful people that believe their actions matter, because
- 17:52Speaker 2: why would you try if you don't believe that you're
- 17:55Speaker 2: in control and that your actions actually create the outcomes
- 17:57Speaker 2: in your life.
- 17:59Speaker 1: Right.
- 18:00Speaker 2: And so people who have an external locus of control
- 18:03Speaker 2: really identify with victimhood. They score high end measures of
- 18:06Speaker 2: self pity and victimization and they're stuck. Yeah, they don't
- 18:12Speaker 2: make progress because if you don't believe that your actions matter,
- 18:17Speaker 2: that what has been done to you has ruined you
- 18:21Speaker 2: and there's no life after this, then I'm sorry, you know,
- 18:25Speaker 2: and you're not going to make much of your life.
- 18:27Speaker 4: Yeah, because it's the only thing you can control.
- 18:29Speaker 3: It is the one.
- 18:31Speaker 1: Thing you can control in your life or your is
- 18:33Speaker 1: one your your own actions into your your mindset, yeah,
- 18:38Speaker 1: your mental effort and your attitude. And I know that
- 18:40Speaker 1: sounds a little cliche, but it's true.
- 18:42Speaker 3: Gosh, it's so true. It's so true.
- 18:45Speaker 4: What did you say?
- 18:45Speaker 1: I can't remember a few episodes ago. Self reflection? Self
- 18:50Speaker 1: reflection was everything. It's everything, and it's I mean, it's
- 18:53Speaker 1: a huge component here too when when it comes to victimhood,
- 18:57Speaker 1: because I don't, I don't without throwing my mother completely
- 19:01Speaker 1: out under the bus because she loved beautiful, wonderful, loyal, gorgeous,
- 19:08Speaker 1: wonderful mother and maybe if you know she was still
- 19:13Speaker 1: living today, we would.
- 19:14Speaker 4: Have a different relationship.
- 19:17Speaker 1: But the reason why we were at odds when she died,
- 19:23Speaker 1: because this is something that I've had to process when
- 19:25Speaker 1: it comes to when it comes to my grief.
- 19:27Speaker 4: But the reason that we were at.
- 19:28Speaker 1: Odds is because I couldn't back down from her, or
- 19:34Speaker 1: I wouldn't back down from her when she would bring
- 19:38Speaker 1: up these points that she wanted me to agree with
- 19:42Speaker 1: and I couldn't because it was it was such a
- 19:46Speaker 1: victim mentality that I saw it right as her child,
- 19:52Speaker 1: and she couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand that I
- 19:55Speaker 1: would say things like, you can't stay here. If you
- 19:58Speaker 1: stay here, you're only hurting yourself.
- 20:01Speaker 3: You're only going to stay miserable.
- 20:02Speaker 1: Yes, and then you know she doesn't. She never really
- 20:05Speaker 1: got to fully enjoy these things. And it makes me
- 20:07Speaker 1: sad right again, processing some of this within my own grief.
- 20:11Speaker 1: It makes me so sad for her because she never
- 20:13Speaker 1: really got to enjoy her grandchildren, even because she even
- 20:17Speaker 1: resented them and she had no reason to. So it's
- 20:20Speaker 1: like there's this, there's all these things that come into
- 20:23Speaker 1: play when you live in that mentality, a victimhood, where
- 20:26Speaker 1: it just makes you this person that you can't see
- 20:31Speaker 1: or experience true happiness. And so it makes me really sad.
- 20:37Speaker 1: It makes me so sad for her, and I think
- 20:38Speaker 1: that ultimately it's what killed her.
- 20:42Speaker 3: Very likely, Yeah, very likely.
- 20:45Speaker 2: Yeah, Because when you're angry and you're bitter and you're anxious,
- 20:50Speaker 2: you produce stress hormones and chemicals that recavoc on your body.
- 20:54Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 20:54Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, I like, my mom
- 20:55Speaker 1: died of a broken heart, but she kept breaking her
- 20:59Speaker 1: own heart because.
- 21:00Speaker 2: She couldn't move past that she could And you know
- 21:03Speaker 2: what is intrical for stepping out of victimhood?
- 21:06Speaker 3: What forgiveness?
- 21:08Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 21:09Speaker 4: Yeah, that makes you want to cry.
- 21:12Speaker 2: And forgiveness is the most freeing, most beautiful, greatest gift
- 21:20Speaker 2: I ever gave to myself.
- 21:22Speaker 1: Yeah, because it was the one thing my mom couldn't do.
- 21:25Speaker 1: She could not forget my father. She couldn't and that's
- 21:28Speaker 1: why she was stuck. I'm sorry.
- 21:33Speaker 3: Sorry, that's okay. All emotions are welcome here.
- 21:36Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
- 21:38Speaker 2: Emotions make us human and we need to experience them
- 21:40Speaker 2: and we need to feel them.
- 21:42Speaker 3: It's okay to do that.
- 21:43Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're a human.
- 21:45Speaker 3: Don't you apologize for your tears?
- 21:49Speaker 2: And I mean, you know my story. Yeah, I'll kind
- 21:52Speaker 2: of recap it for people.
- 21:54Speaker 4: That's a beautiful.
- 21:56Speaker 2: But there's this fine line, right, there's this fine line
- 21:58Speaker 2: that I teet her. It's a tight that I walk.
- 22:02Speaker 2: The person that victimized me the most and hurt me
- 22:05Speaker 2: the most was my ex husband. He is also the
- 22:08Speaker 2: father of my children, and he's also dead. He's not
- 22:12Speaker 2: here to defend himself. There's always two sides to every story.
- 22:16Speaker 2: I'm not egotistical enough to believe that my side, in
- 22:20Speaker 2: my perspective, is the only reality here, okay. And what
- 22:26Speaker 2: he did to me as well as his death so
- 22:31Speaker 2: profoundly impacted me, first bringing me into the depths of hell,
- 22:37Speaker 2: but then ultimately leading to my comeback and my growth
- 22:42Speaker 2: and my amazing life, which I never would have found
- 22:47Speaker 2: without all of those experiences. And so I struggle to
- 22:51Speaker 2: talk about those experiences because I don't ever want my
- 22:56Speaker 2: children to ever hear me say a negative thing about
- 23:00Speaker 2: their father.
- 23:01Speaker 3: That is not okay, it is not what I want.
- 23:05Speaker 2: And how do I tell my truth and tell people
- 23:10Speaker 2: how those really awful things that happened shaped me and
- 23:14Speaker 2: helped me overcome and launched me into post traumatic growth,
- 23:19Speaker 2: which ultimately has led me to my best, happiest, most
- 23:23Speaker 2: joyous life that I could have ever imagined.
- 23:25Speaker 3: So how do I walk that tightrope? So I'm gonna
- 23:27Speaker 3: do my best.
- 23:28Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Well I'm gonna leave a lot of the
- 23:30Speaker 2: details out.
- 23:31Speaker 1: You'd lead with how grateful you are for Jared, you know,
- 23:38Speaker 1: oh God, we're both going to cry today, how grateful
- 23:42Speaker 1: you are for Jared, because you know, he is ultimately
- 23:47Speaker 1: the point of what catapulted you to where you are now.
- 23:52Speaker 1: And I think that you know, the people that victimize
- 23:54Speaker 1: us in our lives, you know, I mean, our own
- 23:56Speaker 1: parents do it. So you know, I mean, I love
- 23:59Speaker 1: my mother and my add so much, but I mean
- 24:01Speaker 1: there's a level of victimization even within my own childhood
- 24:05Speaker 1: and everyone's and you know, you do walk that fine
- 24:09Speaker 1: line of being able to tell these stories from a
- 24:13Speaker 1: place of love. So we'll just preface it with that.
- 24:17Speaker 1: And these come from a place of love.
- 24:18Speaker 2: And I'll preface it what there is not a single
- 24:21Speaker 2: ounce of bitterness toward him, not a single ounce of hatred,
- 24:27Speaker 2: of any negative emotion towards him at all. And it
- 24:33Speaker 2: is also true that some of the things that he
- 24:35Speaker 2: did were horrible, and that even after his death, the
- 24:43Speaker 2: aftermath of his death was horrible. You know, again, getting
- 24:50Speaker 2: into specifics would be would be really hard to do,
- 24:55Speaker 2: but it was really bad. And like a lot of
- 25:00Speaker 2: things came to light that were really really hard and
- 25:05Speaker 2: when I okay, so context really bad marriage, there was
- 25:13Speaker 2: some really awful dynamics that were very hurtful, really ugly divorce,
- 25:20Speaker 2: lots and lots of money and family court addictions on
- 25:26Speaker 2: his behalf, which ultimately killed him. And that's public record.
- 25:29Speaker 2: I mean, people can google it like it's not well.
- 25:32Speaker 4: Most people know that, Yeah it's from a small town.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Everybody, yes, right, And that ultimately took his life accidentally,
- 25:39Speaker 2: and he had just been married for six weeks right
- 25:44Speaker 2: after he died. That was a huge complicating factor in
- 25:47Speaker 2: a lot of the aftermath of his death. Mom diagnosed
- 25:53Speaker 2: pancreatic cancer right before that. You know, my dad was
- 25:56Speaker 2: severely disabled, had dementia, wheelchair bound. So of course, you
- 26:00Speaker 2: know who has to step in and care for both
- 26:02Speaker 2: of them.
- 26:03Speaker 1: That was me.
- 26:05Speaker 3: I was with a dismissive.
- 26:06Speaker 2: Avoidant who we all know broke up with me right
- 26:09Speaker 2: when my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Uh, you know,
- 26:14Speaker 2: I could be angry at him, but I'm not. I
- 26:18Speaker 2: became disabled with chronic bestibular migraine. That was it was
- 26:22Speaker 2: truly disabling, and it was truly disabling, and because my
- 26:26Speaker 2: nervous system just fell apart. You can only be you
- 26:29Speaker 2: can only have so many shock traumas in a row
- 26:33Speaker 2: where into and then your nervous system just says, and
- 26:36Speaker 2: there were so many shock traumas during our marriage, like yeah,
- 26:40Speaker 2: it was like for ten straight solid years, and then
- 26:45Speaker 2: my nervous system just went, you're done, you are absolutely done.
- 26:49Speaker 2: And I think it was one of those things where
- 26:52Speaker 2: my body just recognized, like, we have to give you
- 26:54Speaker 2: something so severe that you have to lay down in
- 26:57Speaker 2: the bed because you have used every resource we have
- 27:03Speaker 2: pulled from every last You have no serotonin left, it's gone. Ye,
- 27:07Speaker 2: there's not a single neurotransmitter that can help you left
- 27:10Speaker 2: in your body, right, Like we have to give you
- 27:13Speaker 2: something so disabling that it will force you to just rest,
- 27:16Speaker 2: to rest. But I had two young, grieving children and
- 27:20Speaker 2: a sick, dying mother and a disabled father and no one.
- 27:24Speaker 3: There was no one.
- 27:26Speaker 2: I mean you were there for sure, but you had
- 27:28Speaker 2: your own life and your own capacity. You know, you
- 27:31Speaker 2: couldn't be my twenty four hour caregiver either, right.
- 27:34Speaker 3: And I was broke. I was so broke.
- 27:39Speaker 2: I was living on credit cards. I was worried about
- 27:43Speaker 2: how it was going payment mortgage payment. I mean I
- 27:45Speaker 2: was no child sport, right, I mean, he's dead, it's
- 27:49Speaker 2: not coming. I mean, thank gosh for Social Security death
- 27:52Speaker 2: benefits when they kicked in. That was a saving, absolute
- 27:55Speaker 2: saving grace. And one thing that our ten year marriage
- 27:59Speaker 2: you know, gave to me was you know, that financial support,
- 28:03Speaker 2: and it was a lifesaver, you know.
- 28:10Speaker 3: Gosh.
- 28:10Speaker 2: I'm struggling to not give details. I'm really struggling to
- 28:13Speaker 2: not give details because it's hard to not give context.
- 28:15Speaker 2: But I wanted to die. I was this is so shameful.
- 28:21Speaker 2: But I've had to work through this shame because the
- 28:23Speaker 2: shame will kill you. But and this is like demonic level,
- 28:28Speaker 2: major demonic level. Okay, I wanted to commit suicide and
- 28:33Speaker 2: I was angry at my kids that I couldn't commit suicide.
- 28:36Speaker 1: I remember, yeah, I remember you calling me. I mean
- 28:39Speaker 1: I remember you called me one day and You're like,
- 28:41Speaker 1: I want I want to kill myself.
- 28:44Speaker 3: I'm so sorry, honey, And I'm crying because I'm sad
- 28:48Speaker 3: for that person.
- 28:50Speaker 4: Yeah, because it didn't need to be that way. Yeah,
- 28:57Speaker 4: but look at you now.
- 28:59Speaker 2: But then here comes the good part. Here comes the
- 29:02Speaker 2: good part. Now that we've depressed you, now that we've
- 29:06Speaker 2: made you in a terrible.
- 29:07Speaker 4: Mood, everybody's crime.
- 29:09Speaker 3: Let me tell you.
- 29:12Speaker 2: How I became an overcomer. Yeah, I had this chance
- 29:15Speaker 2: encounter with this. I just posted in Freaking lex Mom,
- 29:21Speaker 2: like the mom's group of Lexington, and was like, uh,
- 29:24Speaker 2: this is all the things that have happened to me.
- 29:25Speaker 2: And I'm in the pit of hell and I want
- 29:27Speaker 2: to die and I just need a mental health provider,
- 29:30Speaker 2: Like I need a therapist, I need somebody.
- 29:32Speaker 3: Yeah, like beyond desperate and Ashley my friend, Ashley. My
- 29:41Speaker 3: beautiful shout out to Ashley.
- 29:42Speaker 2: I love you so much, we love oh my gosh.
- 29:46Speaker 2: Talk about a believer, talk about a rock solid human being.
- 29:50Speaker 3: She took a chance, you know.
- 29:51Speaker 2: She reached out to me in a private message, and
- 29:53Speaker 2: she said, I have something for you. I don't know
- 29:55Speaker 2: if you'd be interested. She said, God put it on
- 29:57Speaker 2: my heart to tell you. I would just like to
- 30:00Speaker 2: talk to you about Jesus and no.
- 30:02Speaker 4: Lie.
- 30:03Speaker 2: My first reaction was like, irol, Yeah, how's that gonna
- 30:06Speaker 2: help me? Right?
- 30:08Speaker 3: What's he going to do? Come down from heaven and
- 30:09Speaker 3: save me from this? But then he literally did yeah.
- 30:13Speaker 2: And she gave me this challenge, and she said, this
- 30:17Speaker 2: is going to sound crazy, she said, but just take
- 30:21Speaker 2: ninety days.
- 30:23Speaker 3: And I want you to seek the answer to this question.
- 30:27Speaker 3: Who is God? She said, I don't care. She said,
- 30:30Speaker 3: definitely use the Bible for that.
- 30:31Speaker 2: Yeah, but look, go to sermons, like use people that
- 30:35Speaker 2: are knowledgeable about scripture, a look around, like just take
- 30:39Speaker 2: it from all angles. She's like, make scripture, you know,
- 30:42Speaker 2: take the Bible, make it your primary resource. But you know,
- 30:45Speaker 2: feel free to like browse around different ministries and what
- 30:49Speaker 2: people have to say.
- 30:51Speaker 3: And I want you to answer the question who is God?
- 30:55Speaker 3: And she helped me out.
- 30:56Speaker 2: She gave me some starting resources, and oh my gosh,
- 30:58Speaker 2: she was a lifeline. We Marco polo every day every
- 31:02Speaker 2: day and I would cry and she would lift me
- 31:05Speaker 2: up and she would speak the word of God and
- 31:07Speaker 2: to me over me, and I started getting better, I remember,
- 31:14Speaker 2: And then I was better enough to do the work.
- 31:16Speaker 2: I was better enough to do the work on my
- 31:18Speaker 2: attachment that I needed to do. But that was a
- 31:22Speaker 2: side by side journey of my faith, and so I
- 31:27Speaker 2: tried to answer the question who is God? So I
- 31:30Speaker 2: dug into the Old Testament. And there's a guy named
- 31:32Speaker 2: Tom Bradford who breaks down the Old Testament. He's an
- 31:35Speaker 2: amazing biblical scholar. Because I grew up Catholic and there
- 31:39Speaker 2: was so much guilt in that religion. No offense Catholics,
- 31:42Speaker 2: it's just it didn't sit well with me.
- 31:44Speaker 3: I know a lot of people.
- 31:45Speaker 2: My mom's a very devout Catholic and gets so much
- 31:47Speaker 2: out of it, and so, you know, it's we just
- 31:50Speaker 2: had a different experience, and.
- 31:53Speaker 3: You know, I missed. I did not understand the Old Testament.
- 31:57Speaker 2: My view of God was he was like this vengeful
- 31:59Speaker 2: punishing like God that just condemned you for not being
- 32:02Speaker 2: good enough and not being you know, and so I
- 32:05Speaker 2: just rejected that because I felt like, well, I'm never
- 32:06Speaker 2: going to be good enough for God, so why even
- 32:09Speaker 2: go there.
- 32:11Speaker 3: But the answer to that question who is God?
- 32:14Speaker 2: Is love. There's a one word answer to that question,
- 32:18Speaker 2: and it's love. And there's no other answer to that.
- 32:23Speaker 2: And once I truly understood the Bible, everything that God
- 32:29Speaker 2: does is loving. Everything he ever did for his people
- 32:32Speaker 2: was loving. Even the times where we hear about like
- 32:35Speaker 2: God's wrath that is completely misunderstood.
- 32:38Speaker 3: It's so misunderstood. And there's a lot of.
- 32:41Speaker 2: Translation and language barriers and things that play a role
- 32:44Speaker 2: in that. And that's why to seek somebody who's truly,
- 32:48Speaker 2: you know, an expert and have confidence that they are
- 32:51Speaker 2: a Biblical expert to help us understand a little bit
- 32:54Speaker 2: more because some.
- 32:55Speaker 4: Of it is complex.
- 32:57Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a New Living Translation Bible reader. Okay,
- 33:01Speaker 3: I need the New Living Translation, and I grow in.
- 33:03Speaker 1: Church, I'm a preacher's daughter, and I still don't fully understand.
- 33:06Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, and then you know, when I
- 33:12Speaker 2: got to know God, all it was was I will
- 33:14Speaker 2: never leave in forsake you.
- 33:16Speaker 3: I will always work things for your good. I will
- 33:19Speaker 3: care for you.
- 33:20Speaker 2: I will feed you, I'll clothe you, I will make
- 33:22Speaker 2: sure you're okay. Bottom line, I will give you strength
- 33:25Speaker 2: to put one foot in front of the other until
- 33:29Speaker 2: you are better and so you don't have to be
- 33:32Speaker 2: strong and you are not alone. I am here and
- 33:35Speaker 2: like I didn't understand that level of faith, like I
- 33:38Speaker 2: didn't ever have that connection with God, and for the
- 33:42Speaker 2: very first time in my life, I found it. And
- 33:46Speaker 2: the peace and the safety that's there cannot be replicated
- 33:52Speaker 2: anywhere else. It can't be replicated through a friend, it
- 33:58Speaker 2: can't be replicated through a spouse, it cannot be replicated
- 34:01Speaker 2: through your children. It can't be replicated anywhere else. And
- 34:05Speaker 2: you could not have convinced me of that, or you
- 34:08Speaker 2: could have not brought me to this level of understanding
- 34:11Speaker 2: by talking to me. I had to be in the
- 34:14Speaker 2: pit of hell. I had to be in the I
- 34:17Speaker 2: had to be overcome with the most demonic which I
- 34:21Speaker 2: think suicidal ideation is the pit of demonic hell. That's
- 34:26Speaker 2: the most oppression, right, And he taught me. God taught
- 34:33Speaker 2: me about gratitude, and he taught me about trust, and
- 34:36Speaker 2: he taught me about faith, and he taught me about
- 34:38Speaker 2: my own strength. That he gave me power love in
- 34:41Speaker 2: his sound mind, and the Word of God spoke into
- 34:45Speaker 2: me and into me and into me and over me
- 34:47Speaker 2: until where I believed it with my very core. And
- 34:52Speaker 2: then I no longer identified as a victim. And you
- 34:57Speaker 2: don't even know this, not sure if I ever mentioned
- 34:58Speaker 2: this to you, but you said something really powerful to
- 35:01Speaker 2: me during that time. And there was a period of
- 35:03Speaker 2: time where you had to come to me with some
- 35:05Speaker 2: tough love at a very tough time because you were
- 35:09Speaker 2: like the only semblance of support that I had, and
- 35:12Speaker 2: I was holding on so tight to you and you
- 35:14Speaker 2: only had so much to give. And you said this,
- 35:19Speaker 2: and I've never forgotten it, and it was the absolute
- 35:23Speaker 2: right thing to say, even though it was hard to hear.
- 35:26Speaker 2: But you looked at me and you said, life traumatizes
- 35:29Speaker 2: us all. And if you haven't been traumatized yet, it's
- 35:33Speaker 2: coming for you.
- 35:35Speaker 3: I hate to be Debbie Downer, but it's coming for you.
- 35:40Speaker 2: I mean, you're going to lose somebody that you love.
- 35:43Speaker 2: You're going to get sick maybe someday, or something's going
- 35:46Speaker 2: to happen that is a trauma in your life. If
- 35:48Speaker 2: you've escaped it thus far, I'm so glad, Praise Jesus.
- 35:51Speaker 2: But it's coming for you because we live in a
- 35:54Speaker 2: fallen world and it comes for us all at some point, right,
- 35:58Speaker 2: And so you have to learn resilience and resurrection.
- 36:05Speaker 4: Yes, I mean, that's really what it's about, you know.
- 36:08Speaker 1: I mean, because I think we've both had these wonderful,
- 36:11Speaker 1: beautiful experiences, and I think you when you sought God
- 36:15Speaker 1: in those moments, you probably started to see Him in people.
- 36:19Speaker 4: Because that's what Ashley was.
- 36:21Speaker 3: Oh she was a walking light.
- 36:24Speaker 2: Yeah, he was, absolutely And she tells me that she
- 36:28Speaker 2: when I say, oh my gosh, thank you, thank you
- 36:30Speaker 2: for coming into my life, thank you for having the
- 36:32Speaker 2: bravery to talk to me that day, Like you profoundly
- 36:35Speaker 2: changed the trajectory of my life and my children's lives.
- 36:38Speaker 2: And then here I am this business and I speak
- 36:40Speaker 2: to millions of people every day, I mean, get millions
- 36:42Speaker 2: of views on my videos all the time, and so
- 36:45Speaker 2: and I get to speak the word of God, and
- 36:47Speaker 2: and so like that one message has had the ripple
- 36:51Speaker 2: effect that is beyond what we can even imagine, even.
- 36:55Speaker 1: For me, because in that moment it was difficult for
- 36:58Speaker 1: me just based on what you just said, because I wanted.
- 37:00Speaker 1: I knew that you had you were capable to pull
- 37:04Speaker 1: yourself out. But I didn't have the tools like Ashley did, right,
- 37:09Speaker 1: Like I wasn't that far into my my spiritual journey
- 37:13Speaker 1: like she was. And so it was like God gave
- 37:15Speaker 1: you these stepping stones of circumstance and people, because I
- 37:21Speaker 1: think I'd probably said to you a few times, like
- 37:22Speaker 1: when you got nothing left, there was nothing, the only
- 37:27Speaker 1: thing to lean on is your face.
- 37:28Speaker 3: There was nothing left. There was no money, yeah, there
- 37:30Speaker 3: was enough people, Yeah, there was no anything.
- 37:35Speaker 4: Yeah, And so you only have God to turn to.
- 37:37Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 37:37Speaker 4: And we've you know, we've both been there.
- 37:40Speaker 1: I mean I've I've shared my experience when you know,
- 37:43Speaker 1: I went through a terribly terrible custody battle with my
- 37:45Speaker 1: X and in a place where I had no support system,
- 37:49Speaker 1: and it was awful, and I was basically fighting city
- 37:52Speaker 1: hall because we were in a small town and where
- 37:55Speaker 1: his family rules, yeah, where they had deep roots, you know,
- 37:57Speaker 1: And I mean it was it was terrible. Without getting
- 38:00Speaker 1: into all the details here, but I remember, you know,
- 38:03Speaker 1: I remember praying to God to save me because I
- 38:08Speaker 1: felt like there was nothing left. And I still get
- 38:11Speaker 1: goosebumps every time I tell the story. But I remember
- 38:14Speaker 1: I was sitting out on my roof, you know, kind
- 38:17Speaker 1: of with my knees up on, you know, to my chest,
- 38:20Speaker 1: just bawling, crying, praying, and I that day I felt
- 38:27Speaker 1: the arms of God around me. And people can, I mean,
- 38:30Speaker 1: they can think I'm crazy, or they can say what
- 38:32Speaker 1: they want, but I felt an actual embrace. I felt
- 38:39Speaker 1: arms around me, and it was like from that that
- 38:42Speaker 1: point on, things you know, started to get better. Right,
- 38:46Speaker 1: And it's this gradual process. But you know, I always say,
- 38:50Speaker 1: you know, asking you shall receive and do time because
- 38:54Speaker 1: God will always bring it to you.
- 38:55Speaker 2: Right. And here's the thing, here's what I want people
- 38:57Speaker 2: to know. The biggest question that people who don't have
- 39:01Speaker 2: strong faith, you know, usually ask as well, then why
- 39:04Speaker 2: is there so much evil in the world. And here's
- 39:06Speaker 2: what I will say about that. And I made a
- 39:08Speaker 2: TikTok video on this, and of course it went went
- 39:10Speaker 2: pretty viral and I think it resonated with a lot
- 39:12Speaker 2: of people.
- 39:12Speaker 3: So I'll repeat it here.
- 39:15Speaker 2: God is love and God is everything that is good.
- 39:19Speaker 2: God made the laws of the universe in a specific way.
- 39:23Speaker 2: We have a little law of opposites, and we have
- 39:26Speaker 2: free will, and free when I mean we have free will,
- 39:30Speaker 2: we have total and complete free will.
- 39:32Speaker 3: And so there's a law of opposites. So for the love,
- 39:34Speaker 3: there has to be the evil.
- 39:36Speaker 2: Right, there has to be an opposite entity to that,
- 39:38Speaker 2: because that law of the universe is peripherates throughout the
- 39:42Speaker 2: entire universe of all mankind. Right, there's an opposite to everything.
- 39:47Speaker 2: And and so for the good, there is the evil.
- 39:50Speaker 2: There is the fallen evil in the world. And evil
- 39:54Speaker 2: is just the absence of God. Right, It's just the
- 39:57Speaker 2: absence of God. And Satan chose to make himself absent
- 40:02Speaker 2: from God. So it was his choice. He used his
- 40:04Speaker 2: own free will to separate himself from God. Right, And
- 40:07Speaker 2: so all the evil in the world is from the enemy.
- 40:11Speaker 2: And people use their free will to align with God
- 40:14Speaker 2: or align with the enemy every moment of every day.
- 40:16Speaker 2: We make that choice a lot of times unknowingly, right,
- 40:19Speaker 2: because we're not aware. And so God doesn't make any
- 40:24Speaker 2: of these bad things happen. But he also doesn't interrupt
- 40:27Speaker 2: our free will when we choose the enemy. And that
- 40:30Speaker 2: has a big butterfly effect, right, a huge huge butterfly effect.
- 40:35Speaker 2: And so we even think about like, oh my mom,
- 40:39Speaker 2: you know, she's having a really hard time wrapping her
- 40:42Speaker 2: head around this, and she's like, well, what about little
- 40:44Speaker 2: kids that get sick and die? How is it? How's
- 40:46Speaker 2: that you know, their participation with evil? And I'm like,
- 40:50Speaker 2: it's not their participation with evil, somebody else's right. And
- 40:54Speaker 2: so we created a world full of toxins that have
- 40:57Speaker 2: altered our DNA. We have you know, generational trauma through
- 41:03Speaker 2: epigenetics that modifies our DNA that creates you know, birth
- 41:07Speaker 2: effects and chronic illness. So you have to see this
- 41:11Speaker 2: as a very far reaching ripple effect, right, And so no,
- 41:15Speaker 2: did that little child that got sick and died? Did they,
- 41:19Speaker 2: you know, participate in evil? Most likely not right now,
- 41:21Speaker 2: they're they're child. But mankind has participated in evil, and
- 41:28Speaker 2: that often affects innocent people. And because God can't interfere
- 41:34Speaker 2: with our free will and the effects of our free will,
- 41:36Speaker 2: he does not because if he did, then we would
- 41:41Speaker 2: just be robots that he controlled and made us like
- 41:44Speaker 2: love him? Right, I mean, God does, God don't play.
- 41:48Speaker 2: Free will is free will, right, and it is absolute free.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Will encircling that back to victimhood, you know. I mean,
- 41:55Speaker 1: victimhood is free will, right because you choose to live there.
- 41:58Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. And here's the thing about God.
- 42:02Speaker 2: God is soon as we sin and participate in evil
- 42:08Speaker 2: and screw things up, God loves us so much that
- 42:13Speaker 2: he jumps behind the scenes and starts trying to pull strings,
- 42:17Speaker 2: trying to speak to our spirit, trying to speak into
- 42:19Speaker 2: the spirit of other people. That is going to create
- 42:22Speaker 2: a butterfly effect that is going to work it for
- 42:24Speaker 2: our good. And if we turn to him and we
- 42:28Speaker 2: listen to his voice, I firmly believe God speaks to
- 42:31Speaker 2: our spirit. The enemy speaks to our spirit and manifests
- 42:33Speaker 2: in our thoughts. And I talk a lot about, you know,
- 42:37Speaker 2: metacognition and observing our thoughts, you know, in my coursework
- 42:41Speaker 2: and in my coaching. But we can choose to listen
- 42:45Speaker 2: to God's voice, and we can choose to step out
- 42:47Speaker 2: of victimhood and step into the power, love, and sound
- 42:50Speaker 2: mind that God gave us. And then we receive the
- 42:53Speaker 2: blessings because God's directing our steps to get there, to
- 42:55Speaker 2: get them to receive them.
- 42:56Speaker 3: Right, He's like, go here, do this, say this thing.
- 42:59Speaker 4: Do this and you're actually listening, and you're.
- 43:01Speaker 2: Listening, and you go do it, and then you win
- 43:02Speaker 2: the prize. Right, you get the blessing. It's like he's
- 43:05Speaker 2: like trying to bring us there, but we can intentionally
- 43:08Speaker 2: turn our back on that.
- 43:09Speaker 3: Listen to the enemy.
- 43:11Speaker 2: Stay in bitterness, stay in victimhood, stay in self pity,
- 43:14Speaker 2: stay in jealousy, stay in rejection, stay in all of
- 43:18Speaker 2: the evil things that Satan brings us, and we don't
- 43:20Speaker 2: hear the words to lead us to the blessing, and
- 43:24Speaker 2: then we get more bad stuff. Right, So, bad things
- 43:28Speaker 2: happen to good people because we live in a fallen
- 43:30Speaker 2: world and it's not just us that participates and evil directly,
- 43:33Speaker 2: but other people do as well, and that has a
- 43:35Speaker 2: gigantic ripple effect on our world. And so how do
- 43:39Speaker 2: we protect ourselves from that? As much as humanly possible.
- 43:43Speaker 2: We turn towards God, and we hear the voice of God,
- 43:45Speaker 2: and we obey the voice of God, and it does
- 43:48Speaker 2: not lead you astray. Right, it doesn't mean that we
- 43:50Speaker 2: won't fall victim to suffering from messing up and aligning
- 43:57Speaker 2: with the enemy on occasion or you know, somebody else
- 44:01Speaker 2: doing it. That comes back to us in a ripple effect.
- 44:05Speaker 2: But what it does mean is that you're going to
- 44:07Speaker 2: live an overall, peaceful, mostly joyous life right in whatever
- 44:12Speaker 2: circumstance you find yourself in that feels like the pit
- 44:15Speaker 2: of hell. He will pull you out and he will
- 44:17Speaker 2: help you put one foot in front of the other
- 44:19Speaker 2: until it gets better.
- 44:20Speaker 4: Yeah, and listen, A great place to start.
- 44:24Speaker 1: Is the Word, because I've learned that if I spend
- 44:27Speaker 1: time in the Word, then I can hear God's voice
- 44:31Speaker 1: more clearly.
- 44:32Speaker 4: Just so about my day to day life.
- 44:34Speaker 1: You know, if you're if you know and listen, I know,
- 44:36Speaker 1: when it comes to spirituality and faith, it's intimate, right,
- 44:41Speaker 1: It's very intimate. And everyone's journey is different and looks different.
- 44:47Speaker 1: And you know, again we're here as really doctor Hensley's here.
- 44:52Speaker 4: I'm just here.
- 44:53Speaker 3: You're here.
- 44:54Speaker 1: I'm just here to agree and not no, but you
- 44:58Speaker 1: say some really beautiful, profound things, but you know we're
- 45:01Speaker 1: here to guide you, you know, and and hopefully push
- 45:05Speaker 1: you in that direction. And and again you know, if
- 45:08Speaker 1: you if you want to learn more about doctor Hensley's services.
- 45:14Speaker 4: It's not all a spiritual stand secular.
- 45:18Speaker 2: Yeah, I always say all faiths are welcome in my practice,
- 45:21Speaker 2: except maybe Satanism, because.
- 45:23Speaker 3: That probably wouldn't it wouldn't.
- 45:25Speaker 4: Go over well.
- 45:27Speaker 3: And sorry, you know that's a tough thing. But it
- 45:32Speaker 3: wouldn't be any good. It wouldn't work, it wouldn't be
- 45:34Speaker 3: any good.
- 45:34Speaker 4: Okay.
- 45:35Speaker 2: But I give a purely psychological, secular perspective, and then
- 45:39Speaker 2: I give a spiritual perspective alongside of it, and I
- 45:42Speaker 2: tell people like and I make them, you know, all
- 45:44Speaker 2: very separate. So I sort of like even in my
- 45:47Speaker 2: courses that I do, my online courses, it's like, these
- 45:50Speaker 2: are if you don't want to watch these modules, you
- 45:51Speaker 2: don't have to. Right, here's the spiritual perspective. You can
- 45:53Speaker 2: skip right over those. If that doesn't that doesn't land
- 45:55Speaker 2: with you, Right, there's I have all the psychology in
- 45:58Speaker 2: the world.
- 45:59Speaker 1: Right.
- 45:59Speaker 4: I think it's really beautiful.
- 46:00Speaker 1: I think that that's wonderful that you give those options
- 46:02Speaker 1: so that everybody feels really welcome and comfortable. And so
- 46:06Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about doctor Hensley's services,
- 46:08Speaker 1: visit her website at the Dating dcoder dot com and listen, guys,
- 46:13Speaker 1: we get deep today.
- 46:14Speaker 4: We cried and you.
- 46:16Speaker 2: Know, I even thought, how can we make this a
- 46:20Speaker 2: little bit more lighthearted, but it just doesn't.
- 46:22Speaker 1: You know.
- 46:22Speaker 4: We just kind of go with the flow.
- 46:24Speaker 1: However it happens, happens, and that's really the beauty of it,
- 46:26Speaker 1: and that's really what we're here for. Again, we started
- 46:29Speaker 1: this out like we want to be as authentic as possible,
- 46:31Speaker 1: and you know what, right, the tears are as authentic
- 46:34Speaker 1: as joy. I always say, absolutely, feeling sorrow is as
- 46:37Speaker 1: normal as an emotion as joy and happiness, and we
- 46:40Speaker 1: should welcome it because it doesn't really helps us release things.
- 46:43Speaker 1: So we just are so honored and grateful for everybody
- 46:47Speaker 1: who's tuning in and listening, and please you, if you
- 46:50Speaker 1: like the content that you're hearing, continue to tune in
- 46:52Speaker 1: because we have so much more to come, and like, subscribe, follow,
- 46:57Speaker 1: share all the things, go follow doctor Henson on all
- 47:00Speaker 1: her social media platforms, and until next time, peace, love
- 47:04Speaker 1: and perspective.