In Part 1 we identified three reasons why implementing an effective self-care routine is so difficult for former JWs: So where to now? We will now explore three corresponding ways to address these challenges, to help us make self-care a priority in our lives. 1. Back to basics: Identify what you need, and learn…
Well, it’s the start of a new year and as a good a time as any to tackle a subject that is foreign to many JWs and former JWs: Self-care. While we have all likely heard about it, particularly given how much attention it gets these days, knowing what it is, and doing it,…
So, you are out and about in what feels like June but is really October or November, and you spot it for the first time that year: Christmas decorations. If you are like me, you check the date and go, ‘Already?! Seriously?!’ While many people love it (and I’m talking, ‘Let’s wear Christmas themed…
While we all judge and compare ourselves to others from time to time, for Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s a way of life. Members of the JW religion experience a strange dichotomy where they mean nothing as individuals, but as one of the only group on earth with God’s approval, they are superior to all other…
Following on from the earlier post covering numbers one to five, this post covers the remaining six to ten essential life skills that you will never learn as a JW. As a quick re-cap, the first five are: And now for essential life skills six to ten: 6. Knowing who you are and where…
Being manipulated and coerced into living a life ruled by fear and devoid of the full range of human experience means there are essential life skills that JWs simply never learn. Previous posts have covered how the JW organisation controls its members and the harmful impacts this can have. In this post, we are…
Whether you see work as a job, a career, or a calling (as covered in Part 4), no one is ever truly happy doing work that they don’t like, or just isn’t the right fit for their skills and interests. In the final article of this ‘Finding your passion’ series, we are going to…
Work. Some of us love it and some of us hate it, but either way, we all spend a lot of time doing it. While it’s normal to have the odd bad day at work, no one enjoys doing work they genuinely dislike, day, after day, after day. As JWs, our work simply HAD…
Developing interests and hobbies can really improve the quality of our lives after leaving the JWs. There is so much literature and even medical science which shows that hobbies can bring so many benefits, from stress reduction and increased life satisfaction, right through to improving cognitive function and heart health.[1] While we may recognise…
This post explores how the meaning of death is distorted in Jehovah’s Witness teachings and culture, and three ways that rethinking everything we formerly believed about death can help us learn to be truly alive. Reassessing JW beliefs about death Many of us struggle to figure out what we want after leaving the Witnesses….