UNFeigned

www.tinyurl.com/unfeignedpodcast [email protected] When life gets hard, how do you deal? How do you deal with really stressful times, or really difficult emotions? We all have coping mechanisms, and they will either be healthy or unhealthy. Do you know what your coping mechanisms are? Are they promoting healing or enabling brokenness?

What does it mean to be healed? Healing is misunderstood far too often. It's as though if even the slightest glimpse of who we used to be, or what we used to do, creeps up, then it's assumed that we're not actually healed. It's almost as though the moment we claim to be healed, we're expected to be "perfect". That's not what healing is. Being healed does not mean that the former things don't exist. Being healed means, that even though those things do still exist, that we may still get tempted, we understand that we are no longer a slave to those things. Being healed means, we no longer resort to those toxic coping mechanisms, and behaviors, but instead choose to live free from the former things, and run towards healthy coping mechanisms and behaviors.

There's a common pitfall shared by broken relationships. It's the idea of "growing apart". When asked why relationships took a turn for the worse, or ended, the reason most commonly given is, "we grew apart". What if you could guarantee that you would never grow apart again? Do this one thing, and you will never grow apart!

The idea of mental health is far too often used as a buzzword, thrown around so carelessly. I think it's great that it seems like it's being talked about more today than it ever has been, but I also still believe it's not talked about enough. There is an aspect of mental health that especially gets overlooked, and that's the "functional" side of mental health. So how does this affect us individually, and how does this affect our relationships?

We all have an "inner critic" that, all too often, speaks to us out of our insecurities. As we give more of our attention to that, it's inevitable that we become attracted to it, and then we begin pursuing that. Unfortunately, once that process starts, we give power to our inner critic. Eventually, our inner critic has so much power over our lives that now, we believe it. Our "Attention" contains so much power. It has the power to bless or to curse. It has the power to strengthen addictions or to break them. It has the power to heal or to destroy. Healing begins with our choice of where we will put our "Attention".

Part 3

Part 2

This "season", Surrender to Jail, is probably the most crucial aspect of my 9-year journey. In this episode, I talk about how I got my life back on track but then how it all came crashing back down when I got arrested. Surrender to Jail will be a multi-episode series. Thank y'all for listening. I really appreciate all of you. Share this podcast, and remember to follow it on Spotify. Also, I'd love to connect with you so don't hesitate to email me at [email protected].

My whole world was turned upside down, and I just wanted to give up. It was during that darkest time of my life, when God came and got me. I was a Christian, but I never surrendered...until that day.

My 9-year journey has happened in four "seasons", with the first one being from the affair to when I got kicked out of the house. This episode gives an overview of this first "season" of the journey.