A Thinker's Guide To..‪.‬ Jenn Fredette

Welcome to the Thinker's Guide to the Apocalypse. At its literal Greek root, apocalypse means to uncover, to  reveal, or to unveil. Generally the shit we cover up is painful to reveal. AKA, an apocalypse is the means in which we unveil what we most want to hide, and what we most need to know if we're really going to live life.
 
This season is an invitation to wake the f**k up to your own apocalypse, the changes it will demand of you, and the potential to live life in a new way. Today, I'm giving you a map to the journey we'll be undertaking in this season.
 
So stop what you're doing, sit down, and listen. Listen to what the apocalypse has been saying to you ever since you entered the gate of existence.
 
Head to therapyforthinkers.com/readinghabit to learn how to enter for your chance to win my 7 favorite books for the existentially curious. Giveaway ends July 12th, 2020!
 
Resources for the deep thinker:
Therapyforthinkers.com Instagram Facebook A Thinker's Guide to Finding a Therapist

The late summer of the beginning of freshman year, I was still somewhere between admitting that I wasn't a fundamentalist anymore and becoming something entirely different than what I always thought I'd be. I looked innocent at this time. Things are rarely as they appear though.
 
For me, the past has folded and unfolded, showing me things I'd prefer not to see. It may be a kind of innocence to think that you know all there is to know; that you have simple answers for complex questions. The way we think of innocence is just a way to gloss over our own privilege and innocence. Which is really just yet another way to stay asleep to reality. 
 
This episode is really more about the shattering of ignorance than the loss of innocence. So today, you and I are going to explore what it means to shed the veil of not knowing.  Ignorance and innocence look so similar, but they're not. 
 
How do you distinguish ignorance from innocence? Head to therapyforthinkers.com or @therapyforthinkers on Instagram to connect. 

Who cares for distressing warnings, predicting discomfort when it's easier to just show up and pretend things aren't as bad as you've worried they'd be? The truth is, we ignore warnings that are often right in front of our face, myself included. Although, the warnings that you and I receive throughout our lives are really only clear in retrospect.
 
In episode 3 of A Thinker's Guide to the Apocalypse, we're contemplating the obvious clues that we miss that prevent us from being able to read the signs of the times and inhibit us from being able to navigate uncharted territory. 
 
Specifically, I'm wanting to talk to you about the seven warnings offered in the Book of Revelation.  These warnings have to do with all of us, as well as the seven churches in seven cities, which represent seven ways to defend against the dismantling of Apocalypse.  As you listen, consider which of these seven places you and your psyche reside. Which warning do you need to listen most carefully to? 
 
Head to therapyforthinkers.com for show notes and more resources.

I've been thinking about how to avoid Hell for over 30 years now. See, I have this painful memory when I first discovered the idea of Hell that still tears me apart.
 
You and I, we find a multitude of ways to avoid our memories. We speed through life, and focus on everything but our pain. Even when we sink into our memories, we have an interesting way of rewriting them. Anything to obscure both the ordinary and the horrific. 
 
When life comes to a standstill, and we're forced to slow down, our memories come to the surface. So today, in our fourth episode, we're paying attention to what happens when survival demands stillness; when our fears begin to make themselves known.
 
We're talking about the painful memories.  After much debate, I've mustered the courage to allow myself to be very vulnerable with you and share the edges of my own trauma. 
 
To dig deeper, head to therapyforthinkers.com

Death has a way of sharpening things, it makes everything come more alive...even as we approach the end. I think that panic can actually teach us a great deal about death.
 
Did you know that most people will experience 1-2 panic attacks in their lifetime? Panic attacks are signs of underlying issues that need to be resolved. Right now, our country is in the midst of a panic attack. This is why today, you and I will be exploring the psychological meaning of panic. Specifically, we're diving into how panic attacks us from both within and how it plays out in our life.
 
What is your panic? What is the World's panic? What does both have to teach us?
 
Head to therapyforthinkers.com for show notes and more resources.

"Go, go, go, said the bird: Human kind cannot bear very much reality. Time past and time future. What might have been and what has been. Point to one end, which is always present."
-T.S. Eliot
 
Whether we like to admit it or not, we have many ways of avoiding reality. We have intricate ways of shielding ourselves from what's real. We're getting to the heart of the matter in our sixth episode. It's the part of the Apocalypse that we fear the most...the horror.  We're exploring the horror we've experienced in our past, as well as the present, and how it can surface even on the most ordinary of days.
 
It can take awhile to notice the horrific in the familiar. Even today, I constantly look back at my childhood and uncover that something which passed as normal then, is actually far less usual that I'd realized. Today, I'm telling you about a specific moment in my childhood where I experienced seeing horror. It started as a seemingly normal day, and now it is a traumatic memory that will forever be ingrained in my mind. Perhaps it is a horrific memory that you have as well.
 
Join me as we dive into a psychological look at the four horses of the Apocalypse. They are familiar to me, as I've heard them in many sermons from my childhood. Yet again, they are signs of the times, even if we don't want to see them. Each horse in the Apocalypse carries a different disaster: conquest, war, famine, and death. We'll look at each in the face.  These are the horsemen of my childhood. These are the horsemen of our year. If you're like me, you've been running from them far longer than you can remember.
 
Head to therapyforthinkers.com or Instagram @therapyforthinkers to explore more resources for the curious.