Episode 85 | Healing Spiritual Wounds with Carol Howard Merritt

Explicit content warning

08/13/18 • 60 min

Reframe Your Life

In this interview we talk about faith and church and how to heal from painful wounds.

In this interview we talk about faith and church and how to heal from painful wounds.

Previous Episode

Episode 84 | Do you feel good about your clothing purchases? Interview with influencer Leah Wise

Do you like clothes? Do you love fashion? Do you enjoy putting together outfits? Or are clothes more utilitatrian for you? My mother has told me I've always loved fashion. I remember riding my bike to a casket factory and dumpster diving for silk remants to make my Barbie doll clothes when I was a kid. (Clearly that was back in the day when ten year olds were out exploring the neighbourhood on their bikes without parental supervision.) My friends and I would go find all kinds of beautiful fabrics and come home and hand sew outfits. And it wasn't just my dolls that were well dressed. I started carrying a purse when I was 5. I worked in retail stores throughout high school so I could buy clothes with an employee discount. I can tell you what I was wearing in all of the significant memories of my life.

So when I started looking at the bigger impact of my clothing purchases it was disturbing. Was I supporting garment factories? I had no idea how much water it took to make one T-Shirt. (It takes 2700 litres of water to make one T-Shirt.) This awareness that my choices were actually hurting people and our planet created a crisis for me. Then to top it off the first time I went to Cambodia I saw first hand the living conditions of garment workers. It was deeply disturbing.

When I returned to Canada I decided to start being more thoughtful about my purchases. And I took to social media to find out more. On Instagram I discovered this week's guest, Leah Wise. She is a writer and blogger based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her expertise in the fields of sustainable fashion and social justice have afforded her the opportunity to write for publications such as Elephant Journal, Mind Body Green, Relevant Magazine, and Christianity Today, as well as on her own blog, stylewise-blog.com. Over the past five years, Leah has created successful influencer marketing campaigns with dozens of ethical brands on her blog platform. Leah has been named a top sustainable blogger by Bustle, ORIGIN Magazine, AGAATI, FeedSpot, and Moon Cloth, and has received various write-ups on ethical lifestyle blogs and brand websites.

Here are some of the highlights of what we talked about and links to some of her articles for more on those topics.

Capsule Wardrobes: If you love expressing yourself through fashion and the idea of limiting yourself to 33 items makes you feel stifled creatively check out Leah’s take on capsule wardrobes. Read her blog post here: Why I Quit My Capsule Wardrobe Leah also talks about the Wonder Wardrobe Capsule Closet Course - read her blog post about it here and if it appeals to you there is a discount code at the end of her post if you decide to sign up.

Are you wondering about sustainable/ethical/fair trade and other terms? When you start to think about your purchases including clothing you begin to encounter a lot of new terms. Leah defines them in this episode and in more detail on her website. This resource is very helpful as you start to navigate this new world in your clothing shopping.

We discussed Leah's blog post:

Next Episode

Episode 86 | What are the desires of your heart?

What are your heart's desires? And how do the choices that you are making support the desires and dreams you have in becoming a reality? I explore the topic of desires in this week's episode of Reframe Your Life.

A very basic definition of desire is a strong feeling to want or have something. We have lots of desires. I desire to be healthy. I desire to have good friends. I desire a good night’s sleep - especially after a restless night of sleep. You may have some beliefs about desires that make it difficult for you to trust them.

Here are some beliefs I have heard about desires:

You can't trust your feelings or desires.
Following your desires will lead you to destruction or harm.
The heart is wicked and not to be trusted.
Feelings are not scientific or factual
You shouldn’t make decisions based on feelings or emotions

What messages have you heard around desires?

I remember the mixed messages I received over the years around desires, emotions, feelings, faith and spirituality. One day I read, “God gives you the desires of your heart” and I started thinking about things differently. If my very desires were given to me by the Creator then how could they be bad?

This week I was reading a book a friend gave me by Sage Levine about developing your business. It’s called Women Rocking Business and although I find the title a bit hokey I’ve been surprised to find the content so focused on the spiritual side of business.

She talks about our desires as being our Yellow Brick Road. They are the stepping stones that lead us to our destiny. When we start to pay attention to what we desire we start to make decisions that are aligned with our truest self.

And here’s a fascinating thought she shares. The word desire comes from a Latin root (sidus) meaning star or heavenly body. De-sire can be broken down to ‘of the sire’ which translates to ‘Of the Kingdom of God.” When I read that I immediately thought of the spiritual teaching, “Seek first the Kingdom of God."

What if following your desires is actually seeking first the kingdom of God? What if all the other stuff we take on, all the shoulds and oughts are really creating a barrier to being who we are designed to be?

“We are desire. It is the essence of the human Soul, the secret of our existence. Absolutely nothing of human greatness is ever accomplished without it. Not a symphony has been written, a mountain climbed, an injustice fought, or a love sustained apart from desire. Desire fuels our search for the life we prize. ” — John Elderidge

I've been using Danielle Laporte's Desire Mapping Process for the past 5 years to help me explore my feelings and desires. I am an affiliate and you can click on the photo to find out more. The workbooks are inexpensive and are helpful anytime you want to do a deep dive into what's next.

Getting clear on your desires is the first step in reclaiming a healthy and vibrant spiritual life. Of course, desires need to be balanced with