"Help! I ended up in a cult"
This is something that is never planned and it often happens in our day and age as spiritual communities grow and spread.
Cults, by definition, do not refer to religions. It is a social movement where people see themselves as believers, followers, or part of a community. There may or may not be a spiritual context, but often there is. Most likely there is a "leader" or "organizer" that set the rules, regulations and guides the others in the community.
Once we understand this, we have a very basic definition of what a cult is: a community where people feel they belong and a charismatic leader.
The charismatic leader often has knowledge, "revelations", and insights that others do not have access to themselves (or so the leaders say) therefor making the leader the only access point to this information and hence the following.
Another important aspect to point out are cults often have different ideologies than mainstream beliefs, ideas, and understandings.
From this understanding and definition above I was in a cult. And maybe some of you are stating to wonder if you have been too, or still are.
Honestly I would joke about being in a cult with my fellow community members and friends but we would laugh and then continue on, ignoring the red flags left and right.
Luckily my experience was nothing like you may have seen on the Nexium documentary but it did take a long time for me to find myself again. It took a long time to disentangle the enmeshment of what was MY TRUTH and what were the beliefs of the leaders that I made my own.
I have never met a person that said, "I am going to join a cult"
We go to yoga or seek out "spiritual practices" in the hopes it will help our mental health, build a community, learn something new. We want to make an impact, belong, and help others.
This was both the case for me, and my guest Alyssa.
Alyssa felt alone, isolated ,and depressed and yoga allowed her to release emotions, connect to her body, and feel good. She felt alive again which led her to her own yoga teacher training and eventual enmeshment into the yoga community.
In her story she shares how she got involved, the red flags she ignored, the "carrots" that were constantly dangled, why she chose to leave, the aftermath of healing, and why she feels she ended up there in the first place.
It's a deep conversation where she shares her story and discusses the desire to belong in a community and our own wounding that led us to be in that situation in the first place.
It's a conversation that I want everyone who has every been enmeshed into any community to hear and I am honored that Alyssa was willing to share her story on my podcast.
** Trigger Warning: In this episode we talk of both Sexual assault and suicide. If you are not in a place to listen to these topics please listen with caution.**
If you'd like to connect with Alyssa you can find her on IG https://www.instagram.com/sacredflow_collective/
You can find me at www.leshanelson.com
You can follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lesha__nelson/
And on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lesha.nelson11
I also just opened my Telegram chat where you have closer contact with me in a community where I share more on nervous system regulation, womb work, pre and perinatal imprints, and attachment styles: https://t.me/+wHFNZCIHxSI4ZjMx
