For Thought's Sake

In this episode:  Going on an identity journey as you process trauma When a lightweight competes in the heavyweight championship Pros and cons of social media normalizing mental health issues Getting out of the mind and into the body through performing arts Physical armoring  If you feel so inclined please share, subscribe, rate and review For Thought's Sake! AJ and Alex thank you :-D

As part of her trauma healing journey, Alex tried EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). AJ breaks down what it is from a clinical standpoint and Alex shares what it was like to be in EMDR sessions. 

Alex continues telling the story of uncovering her trauma. AJ offers great insights and caveats on how people can process their trauma in a multitude of ways. Alex discusses her process of building a relationship with her therapist. 

Alex has been cocooning for the past six months and explains why. 

We took a month off to reconnect as friends.   Our visual interpretations of going into 2023: Gymnasts and Cat's Dont Dance   Looking forward to Season 4 of For Thought's Sake starting up in January!    

Is trick-or-treating a dying Halloween tradition?   Feeling yourself in the way you dress and curating your wardrobe accordingly.   I want to feel this way in the clothes I wear, but I don’t want to be perceived by others.    Region based wardrobe standards for the workplace and social events.   Validation when others witness your synchronistic, spiritual experiences.    Knowing when signs are specifically for you.   Mars retrograde and the Chani app.    Only took us 28 episodes, but we are finally realizing it might be cool to ask you all to write a review for us! If you feel so inclined, we’d appreciate your feedback about how you’re liking For Thought’s Sake!    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen 

Setting boundaries with spirits about when and how to communicate with you.    Hosting a dumb supper for deceased loved ones.   Grieving around the time of death anniversaries.     Samhain as a platform to use spiritual practices to navigate your grief as well as honor those who have passed.    How the deceased may try to get your attention through signs, synchronicities, and the five senses.   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective

Organized religion based trauma.   Guilt, shame, safety, trust.   The act of ritual in relation to compulsive personalities and addictive behavior.    Types of therapists and strategies used during therapy sessions.   Client led therapy. Trauma therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy.   Therapist as triage doctor vs. therapist as sounding board.    Ghostly interference in real time as we are recording this episode.    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow AJ: @wilidiriscollective Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen

Identity conundrums revealed through everyday tasks like cooking.     Denying yourself of what you naturally gravitate towards for fear of judgement.   Linking daily activities to spirituality, mysticism and intentionality.   Ceasing to do tasks and activities that previously were a part of your identity.    What happens to friendships when you no longer have similar interests or lifestyle choices?   Adaptability to change and expanding your bandwidth for accommodating change within yourself as well as those around you. 

Wanting to be acknowledged for previous trauma or challenges in life so that it validates why we are where we are in life.   Trauma as qualifiers for bad behavior vs. sharing lived experience in order to connect and inform.   Don’t Worry Darling and why Alex cried at the end.   Is being emotionally affected by a film indicative of a wound needing to be addressed and tended to? Or is it just an acknowledgement of relating to the film and therefore having an emotive response?   Hocus Pocus 2 dissection. The good, the bad, and the witchy.    “This is not stage ready.”   *So sorry about the sink noises in the beginning of the episode, we weren’t officially recording but what we talked about ended up being important enough to keep in the episode!   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex on Instagram: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ on Instagram: @wildiriscollective

Consciously embracing seasonal changes.    Parts of self that only emerge in certain seasons.    Hearthwitch vibes during Autumn.   Flowing with what you know is true for you or serves you best in each season.    Curating an aesthetic for spooky season.    What kinds of scary movies we like or don’t like and why.   Halloween happenings.    Wild Iris Collective candles in harvest aromas.   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen

Family gathering shenanigans.   Reverting to a childlike mindset when with family. Unhealed inner child issues?   Different dynamics with different families and different challenges to navigate.   How do you recharge your batteries as an introvert when you are with guests or family?    Harder to “escape” for some alone time when you’re with a smaller group of people.   The pressure of hosting or coordinating group activities or outings.   Stimulus control issues that become overgeneralized.   Observing maladaptive behaviors without doing anything about it in the moment.    The slow burn of mentally transitioning in and out of different environments. 

Alex’s complicated anniversary from her marriage that ended.    Being a “tapper outer” in relationships.    Sometimes it’s not the person/relationship that needs to change, but other variables that are shiftable or fixable.   How do you meet your own needs while being in a relationship? How do you find balance between the two?    Taking the time to invest in yourself so you don’t lose yourself in someone else and the chaos of day to day living.    What are you willing to endure or compromise on for the sake of a relationship?

Clit Talk podcast led to learning about Erotic Blueprints.    Erotic Blueprint quiz tells you which type is your primary erotic blueprint.    5 Types: Energetic, Sensual, Kinky, Sexual, Shapeshifter   These erotic blueprints have the potential to uncover information about how you live your life in general, not just how you express yourself sexually.    What it means for your primary type to be “starving.”   Kinky in terms of how you operate in the world, especially if it’s outside of societal norms.    Opportunities for uncovering shadows and doing healing work surrounding your erotic blueprint.    Finding out your partner’s erotic blueprint and learning to communicate what you each want in your sexual relationship.     Masturbating utilizing your superpowers from your erotic blueprint.    Take the free Erotic Blueprint test here.  Take the in depth test for $17 here.  Clit Talk Episodes: EP198, EP213, EP214   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollect

Learning your love style. To take the quiz do a google search for: NY Times what is your love style?   Possessive, unselfish, best friends. . . what’s your style?    Bonding styles: one to one, one to many, many to many, solo.   AJ explains her path to figuring out her sexual orientation and gender identity.    Communication with a partner in navigating a change in bonding style.   Bonding styles not just in sexual relationsips, but also friendships.    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow AJ on Instagram: @wildiriscollective Follow Alex on Instagram: @alexandrajthomsen  

Energetic, spiritual, & trickster magic.   Alex had magical, synchronistic experiences in relation to getting acupuncture.    Spirits contacting you through music.    AJ did an insane tarot card reading that blew her mind in accurate as well as unsettling ways.     “Oh this is so delicious I need a spoon.”    Doing readings for other people and watching out for trickster energy intervening.    Card readings as a self-teaching tool.   PS. Of course this episode would end up being 1 hour and 11 minutes long!   We want to hear about your magical experiences! Send us a message on Instagram or email us: forthoughtssake@gmail.com   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective   If you're loving the podcast, leave a review wherever you are tuning in! 

*This episode was recorded in June, but is just releasing now! We discuss the Summer Solstice for a minute, which already passed, but the information is still relevant.    Reflecting on the first half of the year and planning for the second half of the year.   The Power of Ritual by Casper de Kuile. Finding connection to yourself and to others through ritual building.    Cultivating consistency in your routines.   Mental and emotional resources going into stressing about doing something are a greater detriment than to just engage in the routine you’re stressing about.   The root problem of not creating consistency in routines may be mental health issues.    Accountability partners and interdependence to help motivate.    Being bold in reaching out to other people about staying connected or being accountability partners.    JK Rowling’s history of transphobic comments and supporting transphobic legislation.    When do we separate the art from the artist and when is it not okay to do that?   How do we let other

How to make decisions surrounding your pet’s end of life transition.   What vets do and don’t say when treating an animal that is reaching end of life.    Tracking your pet’s symptoms vs their behavior.   Scheduling out and picking a date for euthanasia.   What happens when the vet comes to your house to perform the procedure.    Trusting your intuition as you navigate the entire process.   Synchronicities that help validate that you’re doing the right thing.    How other pets handle the loss of their best friend.   What do you do with your pet’s preferred items, toys, beds, etc.?   We go through loss and yet we keep bringing pets into our lives to love. 

AJ has an epic story about trying to be social and meeting new people at a party.    Here’s the setup: AJ is rocking a coven look as if she just stepped out of the movie The Craft. People over 40 reliving their youth by day drinking and punk rock moshing. Hosted at a haunted house.    How do you determine whether a social event is worth it?    “Drinking culture is f***ing my social life.”   Why is it so hard to meet new friends once you've hit a certain age?   “I'm so grateful that we found each other at a time in my life where I had space for a new friend.”   Fostering connection with your remote friends.    How are friendships feeding or nourishing you differently at various times in your life?    Thoughts? Opinions? Similar experiences? We’d love to hear from you!    Message us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Email us: forthoughtssake@gmail.com Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective

Channeling rage into activism and community support.    Protesting - what is involved, how it happens.    Moving from a pro-life perspective to a pro-choice perspective.   Religious parroting. Adopting what religious leaders are saying in order to fit into the community.    Inquisition and critical thinking is not valued in religious spaces.    Holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously and seeing validity in both of them.    You can make choices that you want to live by while also recognizing the greater good for a community at large and that your particular belief should not dictate what everyone should do.    Documentary on Netflix - Keep Sweet Pray and Obey. Crossing the line into extremism is not as far off as one might think.   Tag team system in the fight. We all can help in the ways we can in the timelines we are able to.