Category: Deconstronstruction

  • A Table for My Enemies

    “I have spent so much of my life closing and barring the door to the parts of myself I find unacceptable. I’m realizing as I get older how much energy it requires to continue to push on this door to prevent it from breaking open. Sitting on my desk is a little golden table—a sacred…

  • The Ground Beneath My Feet

    All I’d ever done was pretend—first in the family that raised me, then in the church. I didn’t even know I was pretending. Then I finally faced the truth, and people were talking about me. What followed was almost a decade of wandering. But what I’ve found in peer support groups isn’t another savior—it’s shared…

  • Finding Joy and Hope Beyond the Emotional Highs: A Journey from Manufactured to Authentic

    After losing the intoxicating emotional highs of church community, I discovered that true joy and hope aren’t dramatic peaks to chase, but subtle moments that accumulate like stalactites—building lasting strength one drop at a time in the darkness.

  • When the Shell Cracks: Finding Truth Beyond Religious Performance

    Truth always finds a way to surface. Our ego tries to keep everything together, but eventually the shell cracks and what’s inside starts leaking out. If we’re brave enough to look at what seeps out instead of frantically patching the holes, we might find what we’ve been searching for all along.

  • Walking in Shadows: A Journey from Darkness to Light

    The toxic faith I grew up with convinced me that looking inward was dangerous—that if I dug beneath the surface, I’d discover nothing but the rot of an irredeemably sinful heart. But what happens when someone already drowning in that internal darkness looks outward and sees nothing but more of the same? When it finally…

  • You’re Not Crazy: Psychology Finally Recognizes Religious Trauma

    “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson For years, those of us who walked away from toxic religion were told we just had a ‘bad church experience’—but a groundbreaking American Psychological Association article is finally validating what we’ve known…

  • What Remains

    This weathered church down the road speaks to me in ways I never expected. Its broken windows and peeling paint tell the story of my own spiritual evolution—how I had to step away from rigid doctrine to find something more authentic. What looks like decay from the outside is actually transformation. The hollow sanctuary isn’t…

  • Finding My Way Back to Myself

    Why did I so readily follow a dangerous man wherever he went? Why did it all feel like the right thing to do? Looking back on my time in church, I’m still trying to understand what made me believe a rigid belief system and a broken pastor could fill the gaps in my life. The…

  • Breaking Free from Sexual Shame: A Journey of Ancestral Healing

    A personal story of healing from sexual addiction, religious trauma, and generational shame through ancestral wisdom and authentic spirituality.

  • When Breaking Apart Sets You Free

    Autonomy isn’t selfish—it’s about staying true to yourself, no matter what others say you “should” be. How often do people tell you who to be or what to believe? Sometimes they push so hard because they’re unsure of themselves and need you to mirror their choices to feel comfortable. When we abandon ourselves to become…