Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / What Happens When You Start a Faith Podcast While Questioning Everything: One Year of Middle Ground
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (01:07) February is a special month because it was when I conceived the idea for the Middle Ground podcast. And I didn't launch until June because after doing some research, I learned that the algorithm pushes your podcast more the first 30 days that it's out. So I made an effort to get at least six episodes ready to put out into the universe. so that when I launched, people could have some episodes to listen to if they wanted to binge a little bit. So it was a process. I do all of my editing, my recording, my research of who I should interview, who I could interview. I pray about it. I ⁓ schedule all of the interviews. I'm a podcaster by night and nap times. And it has been the coolest ride ever. If you've been here for a minute, you know that I have no fear of starting things and finishing them. I don't ever feel like a failure. Once upon a time I did, and then I realized that I didn't need that in my life. That's silly. I've learned so much from everything that I have ever tried and finished and finishing it in my own timing and in my own way. And I just felt so strongly about starting this podcast. In fact, I am a certified life coach and I thought I was going more down that path at the time. So I had signed up for a start your own life coaching business course. And a part of it was to start your own podcast. And I had never even dreamed of podcasting. I am a huge podcast listener and lover since about 2018. and has helped me so much in my life and in my journey of faith and grappling with all that. But when I took this course and it was first thing you do is launch a podcast, I was like, okay, what would I even podcast about? So I really thought about it. And I felt really driven to Start a spirituality podcast with very candid, honest conversations about journeys of faith and my own journey. Because the more I have opened up about my journey and the questions and concerns that I have and my current beliefs, the more people I have found that have a similar view or are in a similar place and on a journey. And yeah, you feel very alone there. And I was fine collecting all these new friends, but I was the only friend that I could talk to, that they could, or that they could talk to me. so I decided to bring these women together. In fact, it was a very interesting progression. I was part of a beautiful group called Inklings. It's ⁓ an Latter-day Saint initiative for women where there's a... weekly talk from our general conference. General conference happens twice a year where it's a Saturday, Sunday event and we listen to church leaders give talks and we listen to music from the choir that's singing. It happens in Salt Lake City at Temple Square. It's beautiful. It's really cool. It brings the world, all the members in the world together. And so this inklings group I'd done for three years and it was really helpful. You meet with other ladies once a month and you talk about the talks that you read and the insight that you got. kind of a little study group. And I loved that. And I did that again for three years. And then it came to an abrupt, abrupt halt for me. It was very evident that my time in inklings had come to an end. and I wasn't expecting that. It was very interesting. I'm getting really good at listening to spiritual promptings. I don't understand the logistics of the spirit versus the Holy Ghost versus your own thoughts versus outside influences like Satan. I don't know. I'm sorting that out, but I'm not even so much that I'm sorting it out, but I'm just, every thought that I have, I think about it. I take it to heart. I take it to prayer, to journaling, and I sort it out. So I had this thought that inklings was over. I was like, interesting. And so I talked it out. I usually talk it out with my husband or my mom or my friend, Sandra. She's basically the therapist I don't pay. And I just knew it was over. And I was thinking of these friends that I've collected that are in the same place as me with big questions and concerns and not quite sure where they fit in in the Latter-day Saint community. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to start my own little group with these ladies and we're going to meet up and we're going to talk gospel topics and bring all the thoughts and all the questions and we're going to hold space for each other and sit with each other. And it's going to be awesome. And it has been, I've almost been doing this for a year now and it's been incredibly helpful. And a lot of fun just to meet up. We'll spend like the first hour talking about our kids and what's happened in that month. And then we transition into a more spiritual topic. But the one of the big reasons I started this podcast was for that community of Latter Day Saints. But as I've been podcasting for almost a year now, I've really been evaluating like what's my aim here? What am I going for? And as I looked back at what I have recorded, because I tend to record when I feel that I have something to share, and I've noticed some common trends that I like to model my own. thoughts and emotions and how I work through them and what they are, what's helping me, and also giving some tips, some life coaching tips. So I practice my own life coaching techniques with you and just sharing my honest, authentic self and allowing other people to come in and share their stories as well. So I like to share everything. and bring in other voices to support the experience of life. Talking about the things that maybe don't get talked about as much in a normal conversation and ⁓ also people's journeys of spirituality and religion. That's important to me is that I, when people ask me what is middle ground, I tell them it's a spirituality and personal growth podcast. And middle ground is becoming the space between who you were and who you're becoming. And in this space, we honor where you've been while embracing where you're headed and intentionally choosing who you want to be. what I want to do, my job, is to cheer you on and help you decide who you want to be and what matters to you. And making sense of your inner voice. and the outside voices because there's a lot of outside voices and too often we listen more to those than going inside and honoring and listening to what would be best for us. And it's a lot of trial and error. It's definitely a journey of exploration and that's part of the fun. It can be part of the fun. But ultimately I want to just help as many people as I can live the lives that they truly want to live. and be authentically who they want to be and giving ourselves permission to evolve and change. Because that is a huge part of this life process that I am learning. And middle ground is that space where you bring all that information, all the outside information and your heart and you make sense of it and you move forward. And also middle ground ⁓ by definition is more of a place of compromise, where you come to the middle ground and you see each other's perspectives. And I think that this space is a lot of that too. It's a place to foster curiosity and see some different perspectives. Obviously the world and all the other podcasts and voices out there are going to offer lots of different perspectives. But I'm trying to create a space where we can talk about Maybe some more intimate and vulnerable things. ⁓ Spirituality and where I bring in people to share their journeys of faith and how they have grappled with doubt and big hard questions and where they have found truth and what they believe now, what the journeys look like for them. And I don't want it to always just be the Latter-day Saint faith, but that is where I am. That is my home and My community, I have a lot more people that I can pull from in the Latter Day Saint community and people with beautiful stories to share, but my hope is truly to collect as many friends as I can from other faiths and other walks of life ⁓ that have also had to grapple and have had doubts. and walked their path of faith and seeking and talking about where they are today and what has helped them and served them. It's going to be an interesting and beautiful journey for this podcast. And I'm really excited about it. So truly from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you being here for your support. I hope that people come to your mind that you can share these messages with and these experiences with. And if anything, know that you are not alone. And the more of us that intentionally... take ownership of our lives and allow others to do the same, the more unity we can create in this world. As we lift and we love, we walk with each other no matter where we are, no matter what we believe or how we see this world and this life experience and we make sense of it, we can hold space for one another and curiosity. and ultimately create more loving spaces. I think a lot about all the perspectives out there, all the opinions. And I'm just like, how is the point that we're all supposed to come to the same conclusion about whatever, about politics, about abortion, about sexuality? Are we supposed to all come to the same conclusion? And it just isn't even possible. So I'm realizing the whole point is to be different, is to have different opinions. Like that's the beauty of it. But how do we create? love and compassion and help each other when we don't agree and when we have different opinions and see the world through a different lens. And that is the work to be done. I honestly don't have a cohesive answer or solution to that question, but I... I'm trying to figure it out. But I have no doubt that starting with love is the good, it's a great framework. And giving people grace and the benefit of the doubt when they don't show up in very kind ways. And when we don't show up in very kind ways too. All right, there's my spiel. Another year of middle ground moving forward, getting a little bit more direction, more clarity. Hope you like my new intro. If not, well, I really like it. That's what matters most to me. And this is gonna be great. Make it a great one. You're awesome.