The things I have experienced and learned since coming out of that mind fog called mormonism!!

Absolutely amazing.

I've learned that I don't need a make believe sky daddy to feel special.

I've learned that wine is fantastic. I've also learned that puking up Guinness is enough to never let me go near that stuff again..

I've experienced that I don't like being addicted to cigarrettes, so I quit.


I figured out that I am capable of so much more than I ever dreamed possible.

I am experiencing awareness, and I'm learning not to believe everything I think.

I discovered that lots of people actually really like me! For me!!
and that lots of people don't. And that that is okay too.

I'm experiencing that life is sometimes great and joyful, and sometimes just awful and rotten and full of pain. But that it's all just part of life and not due to something I did or didn't do.

I can love unconditionally.
and I've learned that I am worthy of love. On good days, and on bad days. Whether or not I lose weight, or look pretty enough.
I have become my own best friend.

I could go on.. but please share,
what is fantastic about your life since mormonism?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2017 02:02PM by Becca.

It would be hard to make a different list than this because it matches my experience nearly exactly!

Well said!

I really like being in charge of my life, to the degree I can. It's empowering.

And the longer you're out Becca, the better things get.

MOst of all you have the freedom to express yourself in any

way you want. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.... its so wonderful to be

out from under the mind control. Life is a banquet table,

try out things , learn new things. I've been out for a while

now, and I still smile when I think of being out.

I've been out a while as well. I am a completely different person now. And it's fabulous!

I think that maybe sharing some thoughts and examples may give hope and support to those newly out and maybe struggling.

:-)

Becca Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been out a while as well. I am a completely
> different person now. And it's fabulous!
>
> I think that maybe sharing some thoughts and
> examples may give hope and support to those newly
> out and maybe struggling.
>
> :-)

I think you are absolutely right Becca...

Same for me. I have been out for eons but even as an old dinosaur I still remember how wonderful I felt, the extreme elation, to be out of that mind control mess of Mormonism.

After all the time I spent trying to be what Mormons wanted me to be gave me a deep connection to this song many years later --"I Am What I Am" from La Cage au Folles. Here are a couple of the lines:


I am what I am
I am my own special creation
So come take a look
Give me the hook or the ovation

It's my world that I want to take a little pride in
My world and it's not a place I have to hide in
Life's not worth a damn
Till you can say, "Hey world, I am what I am"



To any lurkers---I had a really hard time finding my own personality after being raised extreme Mormon. But the real me finally clawed its way to the surface. And it lead to a wonderful life with great friends and honest interactions. It is so hard to listen now to Mormons who claim their lives are so much happier than any one else's. I know differently.

Saving that 10% has been a big lift for me. And the joy of coffee! Sure beats a groggy brain.

Oh, I loved being out from day one!! It's a big, wonderful world to explore! Now and then something triggers me, but I work through it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2017 05:16PM by Aquarius123.

Anywhere else from there has been a better "there" for me than there was.

You wonder at first if you're on your way to Outer Darkness for exercising your conscience, free agency to choose what to believe.

It isn't all gravy, but like any reality check, you deal with it and move on.

Life isn't meant to be "easy." It's meant to be lived. Having been a Mormon was a part of my life journey. It however doesn't define who I am now, only a place in my life where I once was.

The release from guilt was amazing!! It's ok if I'm just me.

Loud, raucous prolonged laughter.

Becca, thank you for this thread!

When I walked out of that bishop's office and out of the ward house for the last time, I looked back, and thought, "God is not there. He never was there." I felt a flood of joy and relief! I was so happy, that I thought it couldn't last very long--but it has! Every day, I am grateful to be out of that cult. Being in Utah, I get a lot of reminders, and with each reminder comes that feeling of gratitude and joy! It's been that way for 9 years, now!

You expressed it very well, what it is like to regain your self-esteem:

"I can love unconditionally.
and I've learned that I am worthy of love. On good days, and on bad days. Whether or not I lose weight, or look pretty enough.
I have become my own best friend."

That is everything, right there!

A few months after leaving the cult, I started therapy with a psychiatrist. One of the first things he told me was, "You must stop being a victim." I had fled my abusers 15 years before that, but Mormonism is a very abusive religion, and I had been kept in that victim role by the cult. Religion was the most negative thing in my life, and in my children's lives. It was the only thing we argued about, too. The Mormons were abusing my children, physically, as well as with the usual threats. The bishop's son had tried to molest my little girl, and no one did anything about it. When we resigned, we stopped being victims!

I still am sometimes temporarily unhappy, for legitimate reasons, such as pain, illness, the death of loved ones, everyday worries, and natural things that "just happen" that are horrible but that are no one's fault. But, after resigning, I'm happier than I ever thought possible!

Not only that, I'm a better mother, a better person, a better friend to others and to myself. Becca mentioned unconditional love, and that is the key.