"Unconditioning Love" invites you on an insightful expedition led by your host, Lydia, delving deep into the transformational journey of deconstruction, unraveling the conditions we often put on love. Journey alongside us as we uncover tales of resilience, featuring candid conversations with members of the LGBTQ community, individuals who have discovered love after navigating narcissistic relationships, and courageous souls who have left high control religions. Together, let's peel back the layers of conditional love and make the world a better place for everyone one person at a time as we lean more into love without conditions.
Hello and welcome to the podcast! In this episode I lead listeners through the creation story of "Unconditioning Love" and what to expect from this podcast. Enjoy!
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Hello and welcome to Unconditioning Love, where I, Lydia, your host, guide you through the profound journey of deconstructing love to rediscover its unconditional essence. Join me as we explore stories of resilience, speaking with individuals from the LGBTQ community, those who have found love post-narcistic relationships, and courageous souls breaking free from high control religions. Together, let's unravel the layers of conditional love and embrace the boundless beauty of love without conditions. I wanted to pop on and share a little bit about the upcoming podcast so that you know what is coming. This podcast idea came about because in 2020 my husband and I left our church. And after leaving, after a little bit of time out, we started seeing that we had been a part of a high control religion. And I will go even as far as saying that for some people this experience was like a cult, and for me, it was very much like a cult, just the way that I was raised. Now, I think that this depends on the family and how they interpreted the scripture of the preachers. Um, but in my particular family, the way that we were raised, um, there were a lot of cult-like similarities, right? And so when we left this church, it was devastating because our entire world had been within this, like our entire community, all of our friends in our family. I was homeschooled, so I didn't even have like you know that community outside of the church. All of my friends and all of my family, everything that I had ever invested in when it came to community was within the church. And the belief system within the church is that if you leave, then all of a sudden, once you leave, you are almost like the enemy, or like it's interesting because they treat other people who have never been a part of the church differently than they treat someone who has left, because it's like they believe that if you leave, you're leaving God, and so you are making this conscious decision to step away from the thing that is right, and also because of the belief system of what we're taught, um, in stepping away, the family within the church feels this responsibility to bring the person back. And so there's a lot that goes into leaving. There's so much that goes into leaving, and you end up being ostracized and separated from your family in a way that is hard to even put into words. And it's not all physical, it's not all like the person is saying, ah, we're so disappointed in you, which by the way, does happen often. Um, I've been really lucky with my family. They've been very like physically supportive in a lot of ways, um, but it's more the energy that you feel from them when you are talking with them, when you're interacting with them. It's almost like I I have a hard time articulating it, but it's like this pity, this like forlorn, like, oh, they're now on the path to hell, and like as you're talking, they're very careful about what they say to you, and sometimes they take things back if they're like about to tell you something personal about their life because they don't trust you anymore, they don't trust you with um information. It's just like a very interesting thing to go through with your family. And in this leaving process, for people who don't have community already created on the other side of that leaving, it can be really lonely and it can be really overwhelming. I'm gonna say, even for people who have started creating a community, like my husband and I, when we left, we already had started creating a community, but it just it creates such a void when you're so used to being such a part of your family, and then all of a sudden, like you're thrown out of this community that in the past has been like, although there are a lot of negative things, it has also been this place for you, right? And so all of a sudden you're no longer welcome there, and you're seen as almost like the enemy. It is hard, and so it was through this process of us leaving. Now it's been almost four years now that we left. Um, but I realized that I really want to create more spaces that allow people to be seen and be heard, and um, so that those who are in the process of leaving or maybe they haven't even taken that step out. And this, by the way, isn't just for people within my church, but just people who realize that the way that they need to live, their authentic self, their fullest expression goes so completely against what their family or people in their community are telling them to do, right? I wanted to create a space where people can hear about other people's successful journeys of leaving and stepping into who they are. And in this process, right, there is the realizing what was not for us, what did not work, and there's like that I'm gonna put quote unquote negative because I don't really think of anything as negative or positive anymore. Um, but we do, when we hear negative, we have a picture in our mind, right? So that's the reason I'm using this word, the quote unquote negative. And a lot of times we can get so caught up, especially in the beginning of leaving, we can get caught up in the negative, and that's normal and it's actually healthy to process through that, right? You don't live there, but you walk through there. It's a journey through that so that you are able to go to the other side because you have to look at what is not working in order to see what is working. But I wanted to create a place where we put more focus on the positive, on the journey to love, on the journey to community, on the journey to stepping into your true and authentic self and finding those relationships in your life who allow you to be you and to thrive. So I'm really, really, really looking forward to all of the beautiful things that are gonna come from this podcast and from creating this community for people to both listen and also to be heard. Um, and so I hope that you enjoy this upcoming podcast. I will see you next week. You have been listening to Unconditioning Love. I am Lydia, your host, and I ask that if you gained something from this podcast, even if it was just to help you to think a little bit more deeply about a concept, I ask that you would go on to iTunes and review this podcast. It's super, super helpful, guys, whenever you rate or review the podcast. Um, and another way that you can give back is through sharing this podcast. Share it with a friend, share it with someone who would also benefit from listening. You can also share it on your Instagram stories, and you can tag me at kini. And I'm gonna spell that out for you. It's K-E-E-N E Y dot L Y D I A. I'll see you next week.
