Leaving Religion: a Guide

Holly shares her powerful story through religion, connections with Jesus and her experience being broken wide open. 

So many of us on our spiritual journeys wish we could just have all of our spiritual abilities to turn off overnight. Well this essentially happened to Holly and as you will hear from her, this was not easy. Holly shares her experience of feeling & experiencing everyone's pain created a dark night of the soul moment for her where she didn't know what her life was, if she was married, had kids, etc. Holly started seeing energy, feeling and experiencing things she had never experienced up to this point.

Growing up in Orem, Ut and still living there Holly shares her experience through leaning into all that she was and embodying what that meant in her community. 

This is a very unique story and one that I am sure you will deeply enjoy.

Connect with Holly at:
www.bodyoflight.com
@holly_semanoff

Get registered for our heart opening retreat:
www.amandajoyloveland.com/heartopening
@amanda.joy.loveland

Also, for those interested in one of the spots for the private leaving religion program email me at [email protected]

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Whatever your child's journey is, go together. This one one of the most beautiful statements Jacob made on his episode. 

How many of us need to expand our awareness and understanding of the LGTBQ+ community and show more love to these members that are around us? Do we need to expand our personal social circles to have more diversity?

I got the wonderful pleasure of sitting down with Jacob Dunford who shares his story of being Gay and navigating being Mormon. 

One of my favorite parts about Jacob's story was his parents absolute support and love for their son. They are truly a beautiful example to us all.

Jacob works at Encirle which has a beautiful slogan, "no sides, only love.' They embody a culture and an environment that there is a place for everyone at the dinner table. Jacob shares, "What does that really break down to? Mormon or atheist, or anything in that spectrum? gay or straight? Male or female, Republican or Democrat. There's a place for you at the dinner table. That's our motto. That's our methodology. That is how we go about everything. "

Jacob also shares that he feels that a lot of people within religion and outside of religion are looking for a way to show up for the LGBTQ community in the way they know how. "So often what happens is we sort out people of religion and people who have left religion into  two groups that can't communicate." Jacobs feels strongly about being someone that wants to be that person who reaches accross the isle and bridged the divide and he's doing damn good job at it. 

There were several beautiful pieces of this interview that I was so honored to listen to and now share with you. Let's assist the world in building bridges, of holding and giving unconditional love for everyone. 

To learn more about encircle go here:
https://encircletogether.org/

Follow Jacob on IG @jacobdunford

Get signed up for my Leaving Religion Course here:
https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/leavingreligioncourse

Ready to reignite your heart with your souls purpose? 
https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/leavingreligioncourse

@amanda.joy.loveland 

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Even before her birth, Audrey’s family system was quite unique and somewhat divided.  One side of her family being very orthodox Mormon and the other side being less traditional, her Grandmother a feminists in nature, and then later having her father and mother divorced as her father came out as being gay.

Having her family be so secretive about her youth, Audrey was forced to really do her own diving into her healing & her personal work to find true peace. 

Her story is both heartfelt and painful to listen to as she went through some pretty difficult and challenging circumstances through her youth. Being sexually abused by her step-uncle, then being taken to the bishop instead of counseling as she needed to repent for her sins to becoming pregnant at 16 years old and being kicked out and many other things that pull at your heart. Audrey shares her beautiful story of a emancipation from her religion and her family of origin. 

Find Audrey at  https://www.thebreathingco.com or her Instagram @thebreathingco

Join my heart opening retreat! https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/heartopening

Leaving religion and looking for some help? My 13 week Leaving Religion course launches Nov. 9th. Reserve your spot at https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/leavingreligioncourse

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Let's stay in touch!

IG: @amanda.joy.loveland
FB Amanda Joy Loveland
www.amandajoyloveland.com
YouTube: Amanda Joy Loveland

Are you a victim to the culture of Mormonism? Have you experienced being shamed for who you were or what you were choosing because your loved ones chose the Mormon culture over you? Well you are not alone! My guest today is the amazing Jessie Funk. You may have heard about her, @dearauntjessie, from her singing and sharing her talent with EFY. Maybe  you have seen her speak, or seen her work with the youth, her books that she's published or more recently her events and retreats that she is facilitating. Jessie is a power house and I was thrilled to have her on the show today!

Jessie shares that for years she clung onto the phrase, "a testimony is found by the bearing of it".  She felt that if she did all the little things, held onto faith, tried to do her very best to be as sincere as possible, as loving as possible, you name it that it would help her with her testimony in the Mormon church. But, it never worked.

She shares that her transition out of Mormonism could be described as 'death by 1,000 paper cuts'. 

You can be happy and free. You can and will be blessed, even when you leave religion.

See the magnificence of who you are. 

For more about Jessie's retreats go here: www.Especiallyfortruth.com 
Find her on IG & TickTock: @especiallyfortruth

For my 13 week leaving religion course go to: https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/leavingreligioncourse

For our Heart Opening Retreat go: https://www.amandajoyloveland.com/upcoming

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After leaving religion, alcohol was his coping mechanism.

Sitting down with Trevor Winn today. Trevor shares that he felt he left over his ego and egotistical values. Where his mind and heart were going were not in alignment with the church, Trevor felt he was living in hypocrisy.  Having some interactions with the Mormon leaders over some disciplinary council that his wife was going through, Trevor went to his wife's defense. He was told that this wasn't okay by the mormon authorities which seemed contrary to the family values that the church seemed to hold.

Trevor shares that he wishes that he would have given people more credit. He made per-determined decision that certain relationships die and he burned bridges that he wishes he didn't.

Leaving religion Trevor shares that he consciously let the pendulum swing and he became and alcoholic. Trevor had resentment towards the church, towards the members and he felt that he went from the addiction of Mormonism, of religion, to an addiction of alcoholism.  Connection and addiction are opposite of each other, so the cure for addiction is connections.

Life is like a ball of yarn and religion is just one thread in that yarn. Sometimes we have fear about what else will be untangled if I pull this one string but it should not stop you from moving forward.

When you can accept where you are at in your life, where you have been, you are now able to accept others on their path.

Books Referenced:

The New Earth - Eckart Tolle
Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
The Surrender Experiment - Michael Singer

The Four Agreements are:

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

Join us in Springdale, UT for our upcoming heart opening retreat. Details here: www.amandajoyloveland.com/upcoming

Ready to lean in to your healing and dive into my 13 week leaving religion course? Details here: www.amandajoyloveland.com/leavingreligioncourse

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Sitting down with Adam Nugent today was an absolute pleasure!

Adam questioned if his spiritual experiences were because of ‘the church’ or if it was because they were just spiritual experiences because he was serving and helping people.

Talking about the culture, his mission, marriage, divorce you name it.

Everyone has access to a higher power, spiritual experiences, without religion.

You can find more about Adam here:
https://nugentgoodnews.com/
http://www.foresightmgt.com/

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Today I am talking to Chris Shurian who was an absolute pleasure! His way of story telling captures your heart and engages your mind. 

Come join us as Chris shares about his journey through joining the church, he was not raised in the LDS church, to going on a mission, getting married  in the temple to later on leaving the mormon religion because he started asking questions within himself. Questions like, why am I going to church today? Why am I putting on a suit?

As Chris trained for an iron man he tells about how the time he had to himself really started allowing space to start asking the questions within himself. 

This is another beautiful episode and I am honored to be sharing Chris' story with you all. 

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Today I am talking with the truly gifted Christy Foster. Christy is someone I met through doing personal session of Psychosomatic's and she is the only teacher licensed in the USA! She is an amazing women who has so much wisdom.  

Come join us as Christy shares her journey.  At a very young age Christy moved with her family to Montana to be a part of a Polygamist community that her Father was one of the founders of. She knew in her teens that this was not what she ultimately wanted. At 18 she moves from Montana to Utah to live with her sister and has a clear answer that she is done with that religion. As she steps out of her faith, she shares the challenges and the growth that came with what she went through. 

Christy also shares some amazing tips with the body and how to help yourself when you are going through the process of leaving. 

This is truly another beautiful episode!

You can find more about Christy here: https://christyfoster.co/

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I got to sit down with my first guy! I was thrilled to have Tony Gerber on my podcast and to have him share his journey and his perspective from the masculine.  Side note, he's quite funny and easy to listen to!

Born and raised in Mormon religion it was Tony's language. It wasn't something he bought into, it was just his reality. 

Going to Rick's college, serving a Mormon mission, all provided experiences where Tony started question what spirituality really meant to him. He started finding that he struggled with the idea of anyone telling him what his relationship with God should be. 

Sharing his thoughts and wisdom on moral superiority, the patriarchy,  family experiences including a bit of his wife's challenges with religion. 

Tony supported a lot of the core beliefs associated with the Mormon religion but he didn't align with the organizational government of the church. 

Sharing nuggets like, "Every time we are not being authentic with yourself it's nature pushing us to examine something within ourselves." or "A negative expression of masculinity is when a man tries to dominate and control.  Men & women should council together." 

You will love this episode! I know I did. 

Find more about Tony and his upcoming men's retreats at: www.tribeofpassage.com

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