WHY INNER CHILD WORK IS IMPORTANT IN OVERCOMING DEPRESSION #Chapter2 #32

Shadow work and Inner child work is important work if you want to overcome depression! Discover how inner child work, spiritual healing, and emotional growth transform lives through faith and self-awareness. In this enlightening conversation, Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Ashley Romney explore the transformative power of inner child healing, the lasting influence of teachers on personal growth, and the ongoing relevance of the atonement in modern life. They unpack the neuroscience of emotional healing, the effects of shame and self-judgment on spiritual progress, and the surprising role of humor in overcoming adversity. This deep and heartfelt discussion highlights how desire becomes a catalyst for healing, and how developing spiritual awareness opens the door to resilience and renewal. Through personal stories and actionable insights, they offer a roadmap to emotional maturity, self-discovery, and a deeper connection with Christ.

View all LINKS and supporting content mentioned in this episode HERE:
https://imaquarius.com/depression-and-emotional-immaturity-use-inner-child-healing-to-break-the-cycle-chapter2-32/

This podcast is for you if:
•You're seeking inner child healing to overcome emotional wounds and childhood trauma.
•You're struggling with depression and want faith-based tools for emotional healing.
•You want to break cycles of emotional resistance, fear, and self-sabotage.
•You believe in the power of humor, compassion, and connection to support healing.
•You're looking for a Christian perspective on mental health, faith, and emotional maturity.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Embracing Christ’s Love: A Journey of Forgiveness and Faith
• 7:11 Inner Child Work: Healing Emotional Wounds Through Self-Understanding
• 15:38 Love, Resistance & Growth: What Blocks Healing and How to Move Forward
• 20:23 Shame, Guilt & the Atonement: Breaking Free Spiritually and Emotionally
• 23:26 Teachers, the Spirit, and Gut Health: Surprising Paths to Healing
• 27:05 Spiritual Warfare and the Body: How Food, Energy & Faith Interact
• 32:28 Visualization, Prayer & Spiritual Awareness: Tools for Deep Healing
• 35:20 The Power of Desire: Reclaiming Self-Respect and Purpose
• 39:01 Divine Accountability: Partnering with God in Your Healing Journey
• 42:08 Inner Child Nurturing & Humor: Faith, Connection, and Wholeness

Transcript

0:15

Most people are very resistant, stubborn, stuck in who they are and addicted to the things in their life right now to the point that they're afraid to let it go. And the hard part about choosing into God, God's will, allowing Him to use the atonement in our lives to change us is that we are who we are right now. And He's promising us all the things we will want when we are an entirely different person that we do not want right now. We don't want it. And so when He's trying to pull you in, pull me in a direction and I'm resisting, He's like, no, please trust me. Trust me; this way; this how; trust me. And I'm like, No but I don't want to do that. I don't feel comfortable over there. That's not my thing. And He's saying, Yes it is because the person you're going to become is going to want all of it, and you're going to be so much happier so much more joyful and so much more connected, so much more balanced. Trust me. But how many of us are like, No I can't see it. I can't see it. I don't want it right now. And because see or feel what our future self is yet, we just stay as we are, or we want to try to stay as we are. It's kind of impossible. We are going to develop into something different in 10 years. It's kind what is that going to be? Are we going to lean into God? and let Him mold us into that being, that amazing being full of light, or are we going to just kind of let chance play the game and whatever happens happens and fall to distractions or other powers that want different things for us than God does? Ashley Romney is our fabulous guest today. She does what's called inner child work with her clients, helping them to release and heal their inner child. This has had profound results for many of her clients, often resulting in significantly less chronic pain and mental stress. There are a lot of people who do quote unquote energy work, who talk about connection to a higher power and so forth, possibly in an effort to appeal to the masses, all faiths, no faiths, whatever. But what impresses me so much about Ashley is that she so shamelessly talks about Jesus Christ. He's all over your Instagram and you make him the center of your practice. do inner child work. Yeah; so I've worked with teens for 15 plus years. And then a few years ago, the spirit was like, add women in. And I'm like, OK, here we go. So it's still amazing. that kind of led you in that direction? Like psychology or anything like that? I never finished my psychology degree, but man, I've been passionate about it for a very long time. And the spirit has taught me, like not a lot of people agree with this, where are they getting these teachers, these certifications, where were they getting their stuff from the first place? Like it was all from the heavens. Mm-hmm. And so I trained through is Jamie Hepworth. I don't know if you're familiar with her. yeah, Her whole goal is to help people to be able to access healing through Jesus Christ alone. Like, especially when Zion comes, Mm-hmm. As we build it, kind of like how we're learning how to take care of our own holistic health. We're going to need to learn how to take care of our own mental health and healing too. And it starts from within. And so as I teach people how to truly, deeply hear from Jesus Christ himself, to hear from the Lord and God, that is where the answers and the downloads are going to come from. And certifications and teachings and universities, they're all beautiful. They all have a place and it's all from the spirit in the first place, right? It was all a divine download in some way, or form. So that's kind of my approach. I mean, The ancient tradition even, if you study that, where that came from, how all of the different religions seem to have similar core that stems from the same place. I love it. There's a podcast called The Ancient Tradition, and it's by a doctor, her JackLondon but it sounds like But she talks all about these ancient traditions and where they came from and how they all stem back to the same story, which is essentially the Garden of Eden where God was their teaching, Adamand Eve or whatever that tradition talks about it as, but that God was with them and that he later left and they kind of went off on their own but that there was that same core. So John, did you want to say something? No, I was going to say that's correct. God gives each one of us a job and you'll eventually find what that job is myself, I'm a teacher, but I didn't start as a teacher. First, I went on a corporate journey and I went all across the world and I eventually over time discovered that teaching was the true calling. But I had to go through all of these experiences, to learn about different people, different cultures, religions and everything before I was ready to move into that whole teaching degree. So that's why agree with you, you receive the calling to be a good teacher or to go down a certain path, then you should follow that voice, follow God's direction for your life and realize also it's not a straightforward journey. Hmm. A to E. It's A, B, C, D, E, and however in-betweens He wants to throw in there. some extra letters that we don't know about. Absolutely. And I also, I mean, I do not come from a psychology degree. I've always been interested in psychology and I'm self-taught in a lot of ways, and I have a degree in music, which, you know, they have music therapy and so forth. Music is one of the most powerful tools on the planet for healing, I believe. For good or for ill, in fact, it can be used either way, just like anything. But I, I feel like my best and most effective mentors did not have the kind of secular education that most people are grasping for or turning to. They were just people who had experiences and had turned to God for direction. How do I do this? And they allowed God to be their teacher. I think a lot of people forget that when they're diving into books, when they're trying to get their education, that degree, and they're taught by folks at universities or watered down versions of Christ's teachings, which in my opinion isn't necessarily going to harm a person if they're not ready to accept Christ, but if the mentor themselves is not willing to be that conduit because too afraid to represent Christ, that that can be rather detrimental. Completely agree with you there. Yeah, in fact So with that said, you'd mentioned a lot about, the children and parents being children. think that's Ashley Romney's specialty is inner child work, especially with teens and adults. Why were you drawn to this modality specifically? Is there science behind it or do you have experience that supports that what you do is as valuable as you believe it is. so What's really interesting is science they have found that by the age of seven the subconscious mind is nearly programmed with beliefs; like beliefs about self-worth, love, safety..... And so as you go in to really nurture and heal and reparent that inner child, you literally rewriting the script so that the subconscious mind doesn't have to stay stuck in whatever was happening prior to then. And then we know about neuroplasticity; that's often a common phrase thrown out right? Where you literally get to shift limiting beliefs and create new neural pathways so that whatever was holding you back prior, doesn't have to pushing forward. I actually heard that there's because that seven-year-old time frame or that childhood time frame was very neuroplastic, like you said; very movable, changeable. That happens again when you're a teenager. I've been reading a book about the science behind the teenage brain and how when they're kind of going crazy and making maybe not the best choices, all of these things where you're just pulling your hair out. Like, why, why, why? Like, That's when they're getting that neuroplasticity back and they're testing the waters and pushing things and why it's so important that the friends that they have, the choices they make, the big ones, can be life altering even at that age that can be kind of hard to undo sometimes if they go sprinting off in the wrong direction. Of course teens are going to do things, but it's just a very pivotal time. Those changes are taking place in the brain, very similar to childhood. I love that you're saying that because yeah, we also know the brain is still being molded up until possibly the age of 25, right? But I think it's so important for them to be able to practice their autonomy. And I have found that everything can be undone through Christ, like everything. And I think it's all just experience and learning and growth through the process. But man, do I have so much empathy for the parents on the other side of it too though. It's just an opportunity for us to all practice love and patience on the journey. I haven't met many people who don't have quote unquote bad mommy issues. they feel like their mother failed them somehow. I think daddy also, but especially mom. And I know that that was an issue for me up until my late 30's when I finally was able to forgive my mom. It took me that long. Realizing that she is a human being who's doing the best she could and seeing her through Christ's eyes, that's really what it took for me. Seeing her as an individual who is not me, who has a very different life experience than I do, who handles things different than I do because she's completely different. And when I finally was able to accept that and allow her to be who she was without resenting it, all of her beauty, I think we clashed because we just didn't understand each other. And it was very hard and we just kept injuring each other back and forth for years. Very, very difficult relationship. But the inner child in my mom. When I saw that, I just wanted to scoop her up as a, seven year old or a nine year old when she was going through what she was going through when she finally opened up to me what her childhood was like. And I just wanted to cry and hold her and say, everything's gonna be okay. You were beautiful. You don't deserve this. But how it impacts us. Godness, yeah, so much so. I love that you have a beautiful forgiveness story there. And I was going to say The way that I really saw my father's inner child was actually when got Alzheimer's and the more and more it progressed, the more and more childlike he became. In an unusual sort of way, I got to see the child because that inner child came out and that was what was really ruling his life at the end there. You know.... He was a construction worker from the age of 16. He worked a farm, did three jobs, hard worker, very stern and but to see his eyes light up when you gave him a toy truck and he would just sit there and play with it. Even at the end, he has such a childlike attitude and a smile on his face. It was, um, it was interesting to say the least. So what would you say is one of your biggest breakthroughs that you've either witnessed or been through yourself Ashley? It's so interesting. along with subconscious beliefs, they create... metaphysical roots, they manifest in the body. is, I remember one lady coming in severe gallbladder pain. And we just held space for the emotions and where that led in that moment. And she went from like a severe eight pain of full on attack to settling it down to like a three to a two. We made this session last for two hours. There was a lot to process here. but it's just amazing and miraculous to me that as we work through our emotions, we can heal our body too. Mine are all just small and simple layer by layer healing moments. I don't have a profound one cause it's been over a long period of time of doing the little work line up line. And I feel like I'm a completely different person than I was, but I can't say my goodness here was my breakthrough. Like I think there's times for the big moments and times that we get to experience the little line-up online ones too. Definitely. I've had a little of both. big ones were crash and burn style, a lot of them. It was hard, hard, hard, hard, and then major breakthrough. But that's just kind of how I've always rolled. I think that the slow and steady wins the race is a lot more doable for the majority of the population. I think most people who try to do the crash and burn style don't make it because it's just too hard. And so those small and simple incremental changes and noticing, noticing the difference. think a lot of people brush it off like they're not, choosing to notice those small changes. That's one of the biggest problems I see is that people stop trying to make progress or stop getting help or whatnot because they don't see the big, huge progress, those breakthroughs that they're wanting immediate progress. But that's something I kind of wanted to talk about in regards to the atonement specifically, is that I think that we can get those miraculous 100% changed, bada-bing done. Like those can happen. But I think Most people are very resistant, stubborn, stuck in who they are and addicted to the things in their life right now to the point that they're afraid to let it go. And my feeling on this is that Christ and God know who we were. They know what we're doing now and how we're living now, but they also know who we came here to become and the possibility just exponential, but it's dependent on our agency. And the hard part about choosing into God, choosing God's will, allowing Him to use the atonement in our lives to change us is that we are who we are right now. And He's promising us all the things that we will want when we are an entirely different person that we do not want right now. We don't want it. And so when He's trying to pull you in, pull me in a direction and I'm resisting, He's like, no, please trust me. Trust me; this way; this how; trust me. And I'm like, No but I don't want to do that. I don't feel comfortable over there. That's not my thing. And He's saying, Yes it is because the person you're going to become is going to want all of it, and you're going to be so much happier so much more joyful and so much more connected, so much more balanced. Trust me. But how many of us are like, No I can't see it. I can't see it. I don't want it right now. And because see or feel what our future self is yet, we just stay as we are, or we want to try to stay as we are. It's kind of impossible. We are going to develop into something different in 10 years. It's kind what is that going to be? Are we going to lean into God? and let Him mold us into that being, that amazing being full of light, or are we going to just kind of let chance play the game and whatever happens happens and fall to distractions or other powers that want different things for us than God does? Yeah. my goodness. So much wisdom there. I see this kind of in a, to add to it, another angle of we resist love. We resist being in the presence of love. I don't know if you've ever sat in love before, like full on just like this stillness, this peace, this comfort, this love. And when I do this, I try and see how long can I be here? And for some reason, we're just not comfortable there to last forever. And I think it's this learning and this process to just be able to not resist love. God is love and love is God. And while he's trying to do all these positive things for you, you got the other side going poke, poke, poke, trying to distract you. one of the best examples of that from the Bible is when Peter went out to meet Jesus and walked on the water. And then the next thing you know, when he realizes what he's doing, and he starts to sink. And Jesus was like, Why did you lose your faith? That's human nature Satan he takes advantage of that. he doesn't want you to be loving. doesn't want you to be close to God. he screwed up. So he wants you to follow his path. know, no. really sensitive to that kind of stuff, it can be very enticing and it can seem like, God wants me to do this. to me, I hear this all the time. And you can tell me what you think of this, Ashley and John too, but God just wants us to be happy. I hear that one a lot. I hear that one a lot. So what are your thoughts on that statement? I believe with my whole heart that is His goal. What are we confusing happiness? So someone that's just stuck in an addiction or just wants... let's say a drug in order for their happiness. Is that really happiness? What they really are after is peace and relief, which is what God wants for them too. And so when we dig deep and uncover what is the true desire here, we're on the same page. We really are. And it's Satan that will distract from the real purpose. Yeah, I totally agree. We were created to love God and to be loved by God. When we don't sense that love or when we reject that love because if you think about it, Satan rejected love So when we by our nature reject love we try to find what we're missing through other things, addictions of one sort or another. And it's just our desperate attempt from a human perspective of trying to reclaim what we lost. Whereas Once you discover love in your life and you embrace fully, the love of God, you begin to understand the addictions for what they actually are. Addictions, they're distractions. And very broad sense too. I think a lot of people think of addictions as drugs, alcohol, porn, and they have their list. But think about what are the addictions in your life right now? I have them. Every single person is carnal. The scriptures say we're carnal, natural man. we have a tendency to grasp onto these things that do not last. but we're holding on to them with this fist, like, no, I don't want to let this go. It's this most important, not that it's any of these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, but if it's so important to us that we're putting them ahead of things that are more important, it has become an addiction, not something that serves us, but that we have become a servant to it. When we talk about addiction on this podcast, it's very, very broad. Yes. the, think The only thing you should ever be addicted to is true love, cause you can never have enough of God in your life. I wouldn't even call it an addiction at that point. I would call that sensibility and wisdom. Hmm, I agree. I agree. So something else I wanted to ask is how do shame and judgment get in the way of our ability to access and utilize the atonement in our lives? Because I was taught growing up that shame and guilt were good. That these things, are what brought us closer to God because when we did something bad, we felt horrible and it would make us go away from it. I no longer feel that way. I think it's a natural result of sin, and again, sin being very broad here. Anything that brings misery to us because of a poor choice. Just Natural laws that are broken. But as soon as we make that choice and we start feeling shame and guilt, it's because we've cut God off and pushed him away. And the idea is to bring Him back as soon as possible, not just mulling it and feel like, I have to suffer because I've done something bad. And this makes me a good person by sitting here and suffering. And Literally, the scriptures say that we do not have to suffer if we repent. But how many of us suffer because we feel like guilt and shame is what we should be feeling and we want to stay until we've paid our dues in some respects. And then others who shun it completely. I will not feel shame and guilt. I will do whatever I want and as much as I please. But something else just really that came to me when you were talking, John, about Peter, is scripture in the Book of Mormon, the Tree of Life, in this dream, this vision that Lehi had, they were holding onto this iron rod and making their way towards this and the fruit that was on this tree represented the love of God. And people would eat of the fruit, but there were these people in this really big building making fun of them. And some of the people, after even eating the love of God and feeling that love were leaving because they were ashamed because of the people in the building. So there's some shame and guilt there even with, did something good but now I'm feeling worldly guilt because I'm not fitting in. okay. There's so much to unpack here; It's beautiful. First, I love that you're including guilt in with it because I've learned that guilt and godly sorrow are different. Guilt is coming from that shameful place of you'll never enough or just being harsh to yourself. But the godly sorrow is coming from a place of love where you truly love yourself so much, you love God so much, and you recognize wow, I really do want to step more into the celestial version of myself, right? you're sad. It's a sorrow. Like I'm sad that that happened. I'm sad that I did that rather than I'm a bad person and must suffer because I did that. gas. Right. Yeah, One of the most liberating moments I ever had was when talked to my fiance and I told her all the secrets. And I felt so relieved at that moment. The only time that I would say that I feel real sorrow for my actions is a realization of how I hurt Him. Or it hurts my guardian angel because our guardian angels are with us 24 seven. regard, because I don't want to hurt Him anymore. I also understand there are many people out there, especially those who don't have that love in their life; they mask what happens to them with guilt and shame and people shame others. And unfortunately I also see that all the time when as a teacher, there are key moments that I will remember forever. When I was in middle school, I actually had a teacher look at me and say, you will never amount to anything. You're nothing more than white trash. That came from a teacher in a middle school. And I remember that quote, to this day. also remember one of my teachers saying that a monkey was smarter than I was. And they genuinely believe that. Well too, if everybody is told to do one the same thing, but God is saying, well that's good for you and you, but I'm trying to get these ones to go that way and it's not college bound, then people aren't listening to the right sources. It's just people who follow and don't listen. I was talking to my son yesterday about this. He was saying that, it was something kind of silly, but he said, was watching this live game. And I knew something was going to happen and then it happened. And I knew it was going to happen, like 100% knew. And I'm like, that's the spirit. And he goes, What? That's silly. And I said, no. The spirit is that surety, that knowing; when you just know things. If you practice that enough, you can learn to know your spirit that's speaking to you and it just knows. OK. Because I think a lot of times we're taught that the spirit only something that we hear that godly or not an answer to a game question or that something's going to happen, like the spoon's gonna fall off the counter and the spirit told you that before it happened. It can be something that silly, but it's just that knowing and that surety and that love and light that just knows. And that's the best way that I know how to describe the spirit. So I think of, love... the Latin word or the Latin definition of desire is of the Father. And so when our heart telling us to do something, it truly is this guidepost of the Father speaking to us through the Spirit. And I also feel like that's why we have so, so many gut issues is also because we're not listening to our gut. We've stopped trusting our gut instincts, which is all because of the light of Christ, Spirit like it's embedded into us for so many reasons just to help us get this connection back with Him and yeah your son needed that in that simple little moment just for that practice that ping and the Spirit knew that. Yeah, I love what you said and to the, when I was so super depressed for years and years and people say eat what your body tells you you should eat. I don't think that's necessarily the case for most people who live in the Western world because we've shoved the spirit aside so many times in favor of addictive foods that it's the addiction talking now. I mean, to be honest, the tobacco companies once they realized they were gonna lose money because the funding that was going against tobacco companies to try to get people to quit smoking. It was working. And the tobacco companies were collaborating about how do we get people to buy our product. And they thought, well, maybe we need a new product. They went to the food industry. They hired chemists to figure out what they could put in foods to make them more addictive. and they bought out tons of the food industry; a lot of the processed foods, and they put all these addictive substances in these processed foods on purpose to make sure that people were buying their products. And so if we're addicted to these foods, we cannot trust carnal instincts of what we want to eat until, for me, it took a year of consistent cleansing before my body was in a different state of mind. Essentially, it started wanting different things. It took a lot of work. And it actually took me 10 years before I stopped craving sugar. And I don't crave sugar anymore. now, when my body says, I need this, I need meat, I know that it's speaking from the spirit, not from a source of an addiction. So I think it can be done if you're tuning into God and asking God, what do I need to eat today? but listening to your own body when it's a state of addiction is counterproductive. Yeah, full on agree. And a great book to go along with that would be Outwitting the Devil. Have you read that book? Okay, you have, yes. Tell us about it. Oh, you're going to have to help me, John. But it's by Napoleon Hill and it's ancient. And he talks about how it was literally the adversary's plan to put things in our food, put things in our school system, put things in all the places that the mainstream people are going as a way to numb out the mind that you don't have to think for yourself any longer. And you start just listening to. like being brainwashed in a way by the adversary in subtle ways where you don't realize you have power anymore. Or you think that you're in power, but it's actually someone else running the show. Right? running the show. And you know, Lucifer this world is his play thing Since he knows are all of the spirit of God and he can't attack the spirit directly. So he goes after the physical because our physical body and our spiritual body are linked. You can't separate really one from the other. We're always together. But that's where a lot of his attacks come from because if you weaken the physical, then you start to weaken the spiritual because it distracts the spirit. The spirit takes up so much effort just trying to keep the physical body working. that it's distracted and can't go to the heights that it would normally. do Fasting or be an intermediate fasting or the three day fasting or do some type of cleanse. Yeah. You have, to really literally purge yourself or stay focused. because when you deny the body, it forces you to look at the spirit, Hmm. Yeah, we were taught to fast once a month. I still try to do that, or as needed. But I was taught that creates an environment where the spirit is now stronger than the body, because the spirit is saying, No. No. your body's saying, But I want to eat. But I want to eat. But I want to eat. And the spirit's dominating and saying, nope; not until six o'clock. or whatever time it was. Good point too.... Exercise. Exercise in the body is good, but people forget to exercise their spirit. And the way that you do that is by denying the physical through like a fast or a cleanse of some type through prayer. reference is that This is a battlefield. A lot of people don't realize that the earth is a battlefield, but it is. It's a spiritual warfare nonstop and everybody's in it. No matter what you may think or what you may do, you are knee deep in the battlefield. God Not only want you to love Him and to be with Him, but He wants you to be the best possible self that you can be And so you spend your life here working out the quote spiritual battle. So that way, when it does come time to present yourself before our Lord, He's like, okay, you're fit. Good. Come in. Now I got another job for you. It doesn't stop at this world. That's the other thing. exercise can put the spirit above the body if you're forcing yourself to do things that are not comfortable presently that require that inner strength, right? I see that as well. Athetes who win are the ones who have the strongest spirits. I truly believe that. that. the spiritual strength. because lots of bodies can do lots of things. They can do the same workouts, but it's the ones who believe and push and know. Like They know they're going to win and their spirit can tell them they're going to and they believe it. Some people just said adrenaline, but my brother-in-law.... He was in the military and a Humvee rolled over and it caught fire. And he says he didn't understand why he ran over and he knew he had to get the people out. And he grabbed the door and he literally ripped the door off the hinges of the Humvee and threw it and pulled the person out. Years later, he doesn't know where that strength came from. He says it he should not have been able to. That was like a jaws of life situation. The door was caved in, but the Humvee was on fire; he just literally grabbed it and ripped the door off. So you can accomplish some really incredible feats. Not to say anyone should actively do that because I will say some of the greatest miracles that I've encountered in my own life are those that have happened. when I least suspected it every time. You notice when you're not expecting it that God will just go, oh, here we go. I'm going to have some fun with you today. But that's the thing you have to spiritually aware and awareness and become like a child. Trust in him like you trusted in your parents as a child. Love him. between being stuck as a child and being childlike. Because I think I was stuck as a child for long time. Some of the things I struggled with were, of course, the anger, the depression, which were greatly impacted by the things I was eating, but also things that had happened as well as a child. I was also way too trusting. Like childlike trusting as an adult, where I didn't. I didn't, I wasn't aware that people were trying to hurt me because I was so trusting. And I, had to kind of heal some of that and realized that every person out there is in a good place that you need to be hanging out with or around or trusting with your personal information and so forth. But that was something I feel like I grew out of. I actually prayed for a friend one time who was really struggling. I knew she was stuck at four. could see it. And I worked with a mentor of mine and we visualized this friend as a little seraph, like just this little tiny angel at four years old. But her wings kept getting cut off and we're like, who's cutting her wings off? And we asked the Lord who's cutting her wings off. And the answer we got was her mother. Her mother had died many years prior. And so we asked for healing for her mother and asked for protection for my friend so that her mother couldn't keep cutting her wings off. And so we asked for the Lord to give her wings and then we're like, well, these wings are really new. She's never really used them. So why don't we give her a little cloud? Imagine a little cloud so that when she falls, she'll fall on this little cloud. And we were just imagining this and we're looking at her and my mentor friend said, she's not going to know what to do with this. And sure enough, the way that she started treating others, treating me after that mental exercise, I kid you not, it was day and night different. Like my life changed because my friend's life changed because this friend had a big impact on my children. long story short, without going into detail of who this might've been, Even the intention of someone else, because I had had some resentment against this friend for a long time. And when I finally let go of that resentment and sincerely prayed for her and wanted her to heal, that's when everything changed. Goodness, that's so beautiful that you're using the visualization to transform it. Yeah, We can impact people around us in huge ways. she has no idea I did that. No idea. She just accepted it. She felt the energy and she's like, yeah, I'll take that. can't force people to change, but sometimes they're just stuck. They, don't know why. I know you see this on a regular basis, Ashley, with your clients, but that It's, some people don't know why they're doing what and they don't know how to change it. And it frustrates them to no end, and I know people who just accepted it, like, this is just how it is and how I am, because they're so tired of fighting. which is why grace is like the number one tool that any of us can use on each other, that we can use on ourselves. It's that grace and compassion that will then lead to the transformation, the desire to change, the desire to come into Christ's light. When we're harsh on ourselves, we're literally creating this wall between us and the Savior, when all he wants is for us to receive the grace that he's extended so compassionately. Will you speak more to desire? Because that seems to be a big theme in your posts, on social media. Yeah, like give us a soapbox all about desire. And how important it is, our desires. Or not important. yeah, like I think our desires are constantly shaping everything that we do and that we say and that we believe, but it's where is this desire coming from? If we have a desire to truly know Jesus Christ, but we fill this wall between him we... really seek to understand what's behind this block? The desire is the way. It's the path. Does that make sense? like if you see. wholeheartedly because that was me. There was a time when my desire was zero. Like zero zero zero point one. I wanted to desire, but I didn't. So the first thing I worked on was desire. Because I just need to desire to move forward at all. Yes, yes. And so that was, it's kind of like that wanna wanna. Like you have this desire, but you don't. Like it's this competing, right? And when you nurture. beat up and shut down that they've fought so long and they don't want to fight anymore. Yeah, yeah, so that kind of brings us back to what you were talking about before where you said people do whatever they want and they're not listening to the spirit but what I believe is that they are under shame without realizing they're under shame. If you truly respected yourself and your true heart's desires and believed in them with your entire heart, you would be living the higher law. So someone who, I don't know, give me an example of what a behavior is that you see often where they're not willing to change. What's... Okay, so let's use the... Yeah. consis- consistently. Yeah, so when you're not lying, you're in constant integrity, which is constant true to self, honoring self, right? Truly respecting self. It's not about the other person outside that you're lying to. You're not telling the truth because you're not respecting yourself. But when you truly start to see you are worthy of that respect and the other people are just a mirror; worthy of it, just as you, you start to step into that. You start to step into... the higher law, which is love. Like love is all that it is. Love is the higher law. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And right, because that's you receiving his love. When you love him, you're able and capable to receive and be in the presence of him. It's everything He asks of it isn't for Him and His.... His higher worship, it's really for us, everything that He does and asks of us, which is so beautiful and then brings us more humility of us wanting to do it for Him. Thank you. So had another thought that I wanted to run by you guys, something that someone said in sacrament meeting that made me really think, and I'm actually also reading a book called God of the Possible right now, and I can't remember who it's by, and I've always kind of felt this, but it was really validating to read this from someone else, was that some things are certain with God, and that others can be adjusted or altered. based on agency, that not everything is lined up, ready to go, he's not gonna, he's not, because some people see it as, well, he already knows what's gonna happen, so what's the point in changing? Because they kind of almost relinquish their responsibility. If it's already done, and I've already done it, and God knows what I'm gonna do, then whatever. And then there's biblical scriptures to support this, one of which is the flood, which, for example, God, started this planet. People are living for hundreds of years. It gets really bad and ugly and people are really wicked. And He's like, shoot, I think we need to start over. Was he hoping for better? And what's Even God in the scriptures is saying, you know, I was hoping this wouldn't happen we're gonna need to kind of a redo here. yeah, mean God was hoping Adam would listen and not eat from that tree. If you really want to go back, that's that's of it. Or even when God says, you're going to die, I think it was Hezekiah, and he's like, please, please, no, can I live a little longer? And He's like, I'll give you 15 more years. And that God generally knows what the population is going to do, but who's going to do it is another matter and how we're going to respond. So it gives us more of an accountability that we actually can change things for real. absolutely 100% know everything we're ever going to choose. That's just my feeling. But I think that also ties into what my friend said during church was that the atonement, he believes, is ongoing. That as we sin and repent, that we're still affecting the Savior. It wasn't just a one and done. God is outside of time. Time began with the first sin. It's a means to an end, a way to accomplish the overall goal. But God Himself is not confined to time. sacrifice himself, through the, crucifixion and That was literally for all sin from our perspective, past, present, future. That was all sin of all time. So, yeah, it is on, it is ongoing, which is like what Even though we are confined by time, our spirits are still eternal. wrangle I've, uh, I talked to a friend recently and she was having a hard time with the concept of, children being affected by Satan at a young age. Uh, because aren't they protected? She asked,, you from evil and darkness until the age of accountability? And I'm thinking, well, a lot of kids experience a lot of darkness in very physical and spiritual ways through all kinds of means. I don't necessarily. think they're protected from bad things happening to them or experiencing dark things. But the accountability is a different matter. something learned is that some adults who are stuck at the age before accountability are still, in some ways, not necessarily 100% accountable for the mistakes they're making because they're stuck as a child they haven't grown or developed past the age of four or five or six. And so that was an interesting idea to me as well that we cannot judge. We cannot judge people or say that they're a bad person if they kind of don't know any better because that's all they know or they got stuck somehow. Right. I know I could not have accessed the love of Christ without help. I too dark, too depressed, didn't feel like I deserved it, pushing him away. I didn't think I was, but I totally was. me too, yes, I've gone to the depths of shame. Which I think is why I see such things in such different light. I personally trade out the word sin in all circumstances now for the word wound. And it's simply just a wound. You're just hurting yourself because... you were taught that you don't deserve love, that you're not worthy of love, you believe that in some way, shape or form. And it's just you wounding yourself again and again. And I think of Christ in the story where this woman is caught in adultery and He says, Go and sin no more. And for the longest time, that was the hardest story for me. I'm like, she can't just snap out of it. Like, you don't know what she's been through and yet he's Jesus, right? And I believe He's so compassionately was just saying, stop wounding yourself. Like I don't want you to hurt your- anymore. This isn't about you're a bad person and you're unworthy of my love right now. This is a stop hurting yourself. You are worthy of so much more than what you're putting yourself through right now. Yes. he loves us and he doesn't want us to feel shame that he's doing it for us either. Like when we continue to wound ourselves and wound Him as well, He's saying, it's okay, try again. It's okay, try again. As many times; He did it because He wanted us to have this opportunity. Yeah, and so someone who's stuck in shame and you start to know that side of Jesus Christ, I think it's so much easier to come to be in His presence and to want to know Him and to want to stand by Him and want to follow Him because... It's this love, this unconditional love that we keep coming back to that is just so beautiful and pure. And as we stay in that and practice it longer and longer, it gets easier and easier to be in that presence, which is the greatest feeling that any of our body, hearts, minds or souls will ever know, will ever experience. How do you experience How do you experience that love, that pure love of Christ? for me, it's being able to do meditations with Jesus where I'm literally, I'm praying to Heavenly Father, then I ask Jesus Christ to come forward and I will ask him very specific questions. and I'll say what do want me to know about this? And I will hear of His voice. And it's funny, I know that he doesn't expect perfection out of us, but the other day I was asking Him something and He just laughed, like I could hear Him just laugh and he was like, oh, it's okay, go do it imperfectly. I love imperfection and I'm so sorry that you were never taught that. And I felt like He was talking to my seven-year-old self who was constantly in trouble by her dad, like you can never do anything right. be perfect already and it was just like He was reaching out to this seven-year-old me like, I'm so sorry you were never taught that; I'm here It's okay; do it imperfectly that's my favorite part of this journey so just yeah being able to just develop a very personal relationship with Him it can't be replicable like we were talking about earlier. like It is so individual Yes, the atonement is accessible, yes, but it took me so long to be able to understand that what you just described is what I needed. And again, it's going to be individual for everybody, but you can have this literal conversation with Christ. You can see Him; you can feel Him and talk to Him and ask Him questions. that's exactly what it took for me to finally get past that block of, use the atonement. Okay, whatever. Like it was kind of like whatever, this is stupid. Like that's kind of what was going through my mind. Like this never works. This is dumb. I don't understand it. But it really is that personal connection. Yeah, it's why do we always say I? Why don't we say we? Because if God is with you 24 seven, that means He's with you at every moment of your life, everything that you do. For me, when I sit down and do my crafts and think of something really neat and I said, Wow Jesus, I said, that's a neat idea. Thanks. you Even in the simplest of acts, like even sweeping your kitchen, it's not It's just you sweeping it. It's you and Jesus sweeping it. You're sharing that unique experience with Him. And then when you get done, you say, Oh, that was fun. Thanks. Next thing I know I hit my toe and I'll get all the pain in my toe and I'll be, Oh, thanks. Thanks for reminding me. You brought me back to my senses and then then I'll Whenever I stub my toe or hurt myself, I've gotten into the habit, and this didn't happen till probably my late early to mid 30s, when I would immediately ask the Lord to remove all of the whatever I'm feeling right now and close up that spiritual portal and seal it up and fill it with light. And if my kid gets hurt, I immediately say, Okay buddy, that hurt. I'm so sorry. Let's close the He's a God of healing. So he's there to heal those wounds, Going back to what Ashley said earlier, people are at different stages of learning and one of the keys as followers of Christ, we have to make ourselves available if you get rejected, say, fine, stand back, maybe now is not the time. I know so many people, they see people getting hurt and they just want to leap in there and say, no, I want to protect But sometimes that can be wrong too. I know. some people, you can tell them until your blue in the face, despite your best intentions, but unless they go through the actual experience firsthand, They're not going to have the understanding necessary to understand what you have to offer them, whatever that might be. sometimes you have to let people get hurt because that's the only way that they learn, but you always, remain there. I mean, there's, I have a Why would you cut off the lifeline? As long as they're still hanging on then you know there's always a chance because you never know what's is going to happen down the road. Well Ashley, is there anything else you want to share about, just thoughts you have that I just can't emphasize power of nurturing the inner child. How can we do that more? What are some examples of what that might look like? Yeah, Yeah; So one, I believe that our inner child, especially from the ages of seven to nine, had our greatest, once again, desires, desires at heart. And so whatever you loved to do during those times. is kind of a roadmap to your purpose here in some way, shape or form. So for me, I loved playing school. I would gather up my siblings, my siblings' friends, the neighborhood, like I kid you not, I was constantly teaching school. And I thought for sure, I'm gonna end up being a teacher, like that's all I wanna do. And up until I started college, going that route, I then pivoted and somehow was into psychology which was perfect and now I just love teaching from my heart. I thought I was gonna be a school teacher but now teaching just in general like concepts that I'm learning or holistic health or inner child like whatever it is I love doing webinars and I just love teaching but that truly is like our roadmap and sometimes whatever was going on we can block it off and we block our hearts off from believing it wasn't possible. Yeah! Yes! Yes, especially. Yeah. bringing up too of just how many people are trying to stop people from living their true hearts' desire and purpose and yet it truly is the roadmap God and His love and our purpose and our mission here on Earth. Another way that we can nurture our inner child is just by seeking to understand parts and pieces of ourselves. For instance, I have this self-critical voice and she still comes back and I just get to listen to her and I get to understand, Okay; why are you here? What do you want to express? And I just send love and compassion to her because sometimes we think that we need to hate the enemy, right? And the self-criticism would come across as the enemy, but really it's here just to protect me. And when I see all parts of myself as just something to love and respect, I'm able to love and respect everything outside of me too. So really just honoring that we're kind of all mirrors to one another in this beautiful way to learn love and to be in the practice and the presence of love. Wow, yes, yes, yes, yes. what also came to my mind is that think I struggled even looking back at seven to nine, I was very depressed. And so even then I'm like, what did I even like at seven to nine? I don't know, And so me studying my own natal chart actually helped me to connect the dots of what my desires were as a child and help me remember. and how I operate. I know, John, you did a session with me and I had a lot of fun looking at yours. Spirituality was like the main theme of yours is like really intense spiritual gifts here, John. But yeah, and so I would encourage anyone who's struggling to identify some of those things message me, email me, we can set something up and we can look at your chart. It's a lot of fun. Ashley, you're part of some astrology different groups. That's how we met. You saw a post of mine somewhere. yeah, and I just think it's so beautiful the way that you tie it back to spirituality so so perfectly and that's another thing the more that I get to know myself through astrology through human design through all these aspects the more than I'm able to just Step into a new confidence because I'm like, wow, I really am so unique. You're so unique You're so unique like and it's all just this beautiful big picture where we don't have to feel like we have to to fit in or be exactly like other person we are so perfectly ourselves on purpose. It's like God is weaving a giant tapestry and each one of us is a single thread in that tapestry. So beautiful. never seen a chart that wasn't phenomenal, not a single one. another sign to me that God cares and loves us individually. and knows us more than we know ourselves. It's just clues, like to help bring some things together. But one of the things you said about Christ and how you were laughing and you connect him. That is probably the way I feel Christ the most is when something happens and maybe at first I'm like, dang, and then I find that reason to find the humor in it. And it's like Christ is laughing with me and saying, we're going to get through this. You are hilarious and I love you. That's my favorite connection I get with him is that humorous side because he really does. He has a sense of humor. We see all these serious pictures of him, but He He's hilarious. He's so funny and He's so good and he's so kind. And it's never to make fun. It's just, you can feel the love behind it. So much. One time I was driving home and I was in an old Chevy Nova was one of the first cars I had there was a downpour Couldn't see and I kept trying to flip on the wipers and no matter what I did, they would not turn on So here I was on the highway in a downpour the wipers weren't turning on. And I praying. said, God, let them turn on, let them turn on. Come on, God, get these wipers on. I'm there flicking the switch. of course it doesn't happen. And then the downpour ends. And as soon as the downpour ends, I look up and whoomp, whoomp, there went the wipers. And I just cracked up laughing. He plays those types of jokes all the time. And so yeah, he is a very very loving and humorous God the more you realize that the better the life is it really is is huge. Well, thank you again Ashley for coming today and having this amazing conversation about the Atonement and her child work. Where can people reach you? Yeah, so You can find me at ashleyromney.com. You can find me on Instagram or Facebook @AshleyRomney. We do inner child sessions, little unfolding little parts and pieces of ourselves, little at a time, to heal layers. And it's just such beautiful work. You start to learn to love yourself more, approach Jesus Christ in a more... real and beautiful way that it literally comes to life and you literally can have any answer at the forefront. Mm-hmm. Absolutely agree. I love your social media posts. They're so uplifting and so, very thought provoking. So anyone who has not liked or subscribed to Ashley Romney, please do so and support her her business, but also just the Christlike work that she does. There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of distractions, and we need more Ashley Romneys. out there. So thank you for existing, for speaking so shamelessly of Christ and just being a light in this world. Thank you so much for all the work that you both are doing on this podcast and for having me on. I look forward to hearing more of your story as it evolves. This is the Overcome Depression Podcast. I am Jennifer. I'm John. and we'll see you next time.