I’ve been no-contact with my parents for a just over a year. In this week’s episode, we talk about what led me to make that decision along with some of the things I’ve learned since having the freedom to get to know myself. 

0:38 What Led Me To Going No Contact

10:22 I Wrote My Parents A Letter

13:37 “But They’re Your Parents”

18:50 Embarrassment

25:08 Expecting Empathy

28:10 I Can Say ‘No’

31:00 Growth Is Possible

32:21 Trust and Change

35:59 A Few More Lessons

38:44 Some Things I’m Still Working On

Am I enough? Am I doing the right thing? Self-doubt is something that everyone experiences. Embracing self-awareness can challenge the toxic productivity mindset and allow us to act from a place of self-acceptance. 

0:00 Self-Awareness for Others

5:25 Manipulating My Experience

13:02 Smear Campaigns

18:06 Social Media

22:26 People-Pleasing

24:47 Toxic Productivity

27:20 It’s A Bedtime Not A Deadline

29:30 A Balanced Life

Navigating friendships can be challenging, especially when our foundation for connection has been conditional. Being raised by an emotionally immature parent and the resulting trauma can make developing and maintaining friendships difficult. 

0:00 Childhood Friendships

4:46 Isolation and Enmeshment

7:32 Separation Anxiety

12:17 Friendship Breakups

20:18 No Boundaries

22:25 Be Patient With Yourself

Discovering a work-life balance can be challenging, especially if throughout childhood you were never taught to prioritize yourself or how to set boundaries. In this week’s episode, we talk about how behaviors and trauma responses we picked up throughout childhood can manifest themselves in the workplace.

0:00 Intro

1:16 Path Design

5:18 Ralph Waldo Emerson

5:55 College Drop-Out

8:40 The Studio

16:18 Self-Neglect

23:58 Boundaries

25:52 Burnout

32: 21 My Question to You

I’m answering your questions! In this week’s episode, we address the importance of learning to acknowledge your emotions, guilt, and generational trauma. We also take steps in understanding how to reclaim our identity and sense of self.

0:39 Q1 - Learning to Acknowledge Your Emotions

3:52 Q2 - Sending A Letter

9:40 Q3 - Guilt

14:15 Q4 - Identity

19:30 Q5 - Anger and Resentment

29:20 Q6 - Generational Trauma

Change can be scary. Learning to welcome change can be a challenge, especially for those of us who lacked stability throughout childhood, and subsequently gravitate towards stability and predicatbility in adulthood. In this week’s episode, we start to understand why we sometimes resist change and how we can learn to let go.

0:00 Why is Change Scary?

5:11 Permanance of Opinions

6:49 Life Changes

15:07 Turning Your Power Inward

20:06 Radical Self-Acceptance

23:47 Welcoming Change

26:09 What if it Turns Out Better?

Breaking the cycle of generational trauma and abuse is no small task, and can be made even more difficult with the loss of your support system, intentional efforts to isolate you, smear campaigns and love-bombing. We get into all of it in this week’s episode of It’s Not Normal.

0:00 The Journey of Getting There

3:29 Perspective Outside of the Closed Family System

12:14 Stepping Into the Unknown

14:55 Losing Your Support System

17:56 Smear Campaign and Love-Bombing

27:38 Family Functions

33:34 Learning to Sit with Discomfort

In this week’s episode, we talk about how, as you get older and start to tap into your individuality, your parents’ unhealthy behavior might intensify as you become harder to manipulate. These behaviors can be dehumanizing and challenging to navigate as we start to recognize them.

0:00 Intro

1:11 Intensifying Behavior As You Get Older

17:28 Dehumanizing

18:27 Learning From Our Mistakes

21:18 Craving Closure

25:01 Uncomfortable Conversations

27:48 My Feelings Matter

33:25 Weaponizing Vulnerabilities