anything goes with emma chamberlain - my spiritual journey

Episode Date: July 1, 2021

This week Emma is talking through her journey of religion and spirituality. While often it’s something that isn’t addressed, it can have a major impact on how we shape our lives. She chats through growing up being exposed to different religions, her beliefs and what has shaped them, how religion and spirituality impacts all of us, where her journey has taken her today, and everything in between. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody welcome back to anything goes. I'm Emma Chamberlain your host I just woke up 30 minutes ago, and I'm ready to fucking party You know how it is I'm trying to think if I have any life updates recently. I just haven't had any like nothing interesting has happened Yeah, I don't have anything. I don't have any life updates. Let's just get straight into the episode I don't have anything. I don't have any life updates. Let's just get straight into the episode. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking about religion and spirituality. Now, I was a little bit nervous to make this episode because I feel like this topic is so controversial

and kind of touchy. But I wanted to talk about my own spiritual journey in a sense and just kind of talk about my opinion on religion as a whole and how it's evolved over time. And just overall have an open conversation about religion and spirituality because it's something that really interests me and I don't know I just I want to talk about it so we're gonna talk about it today so I think for some context I should give you my religious background. I grew up with no religion. So my parents did not practice any religion when I was growing up. And so, of course, I didn't, which meant that, you know, I didn't go to church. I didn't have some sort of religious book to refer to for moral dilemmas.

I celebrated Catholic holidays because that's just kind of the norm in America. You know what I mean? A lot of people celebrate the Catholic holidays, like Christmas, Easter, stuff like that, even though they may not be a part of the Catholic church, a lot of people celebrate them anyway. So I grew up celebrating those holidays,

but not religiously as much. Mort just says, and excuse to spend time with my family and whatever. It was funny though, because even though I did not grow up religious, and even though my parents never introduced me to religion, I still had experiences with religion throughout my childhood. So when I was a toddler, slash young child, I went to a Jewish preschool, which was actually really cool for me at the time, because even though I was not Jewish,

it was cool to be a part of that community and to experience their traditions. And even though I was a very young child, I still remember a lot of the Jewish holidays that we would celebrate and all of the, and all of the kind of rituals that we would do and stuff like that. That was actually really cool for me, and obviously I was really young.

Like I barely remember it, but I do remember it, and I remember it being a great experience, but I didn't really understand the concept of religion, and so it was kind of pointless in a sense. Then I also went to a Catholic high school, which is also interesting because again, I am not religious. So it was very interesting that I went to two religious schools throughout my life as somebody who didn't necessarily believe in any one religion. So that was, I think that's kind of interesting,

but I think it kind of gave me a perspective about religion that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I don't think I would have understood religion at all, whatsoever, if I would not have gone to these religious schools. But going to Catholic school was to these religious schools, but going to Catholic school was a less enjoyable experience than going to Jewish preschool because I was a little bit older and learning about religion became a part of my school life, whereas like in preschool you're not learning anything, you know what I mean?

Or if you are you don't fucking remember it because you're literally a toddler so whatever, but being forced in a sense to learn about the Catholic church for school was a little bit less enjoyable because number one, I had no prior experience, so it was like learning a full new thing, right? But then also I was learning about it,

even though I wasn't a part of it, which kind of felt wrong in a sense, but I wanted to go to this Catholic school because the education was really good and that was that. I didn't go to this school for the religious element. That was just something that came with it. So I felt like I was kind of learning about the Catholic Church even though I didn't really want to and it wasn't optional. And even though I made the decision to go to the school, it still felt forced, which kind of made

me resent religion in a sense as a high schooler. Also, I was a young teen and that's a very rebellious stage of life. And so having teachers, you know, tell me how I'm supposed to look at the world was kind of frustrating in a sense. I did find the history of the Catholic church very interesting and I really enjoyed learning about that. But when it came to, you know, the more lifestyle learning

when it came to like religion at this Catholic school, that was when I would get kind of frustrated because I was like, I don't know, this is not for me, whatever. But alas, I pushed through, I didn't love the experience, but I pushed through. And I learned a lot about religion in general

from going to that Catholic high school because we did learn a lot about religion in general from going to that Catholic high school because we did learn a lot about history with religions and specifically the Catholic Church. But I remember we also learned about other religions as well. And that was really interesting for me because it taught me more about religion throughout history and how religion is more than just a belief system, but it's a way to build a community. It is a way to find comfort in moments of chaos. It is something to lean on in a way. And as much as I kind of rejected

the ideas of the Catholic church, in some ways, I also saw how valuable the Catholic church is to people, for some people, you know what I mean? Specifically, the Catholic Church because that was the high school. I went to a Catholic high school. So that's why I'm only talking about that right now. But I also realized how within religion, there are some things that you can align with so strongly, and then some things that you can align with so strongly. And then some things that you can oppose so strongly. Like, when I went to this Catholic school and I was learning about Catholicism,

there were some morals within the Catholic church that I truly aligned with. And I was like, wow, this is really true and this is really great. But then there were other parts where I was like, this I don't align with and this I don't necessarily believe in. And I realized that you can take what you want.

You know what I mean? Going to this Catholic school made me realize that I may not agree with everything, but I can also take what I want and integrate that into my own spirituality and benefit from it, even if I don't necessarily agree with the religion as a whole, or not agree with it. Just for my own personal beliefs, I just don't necessarily wanna believe certain things

that that church believes, right? Very much all personal for me, not at all judging anybody else, not at all, even disagreeing with anybody else. It's all a personal thing for me, you know what I'm saying? I don't think that anybody's right or wrong. It's more like, I don't wanna believe that for me. That doesn't work for me, you know what I'm saying? That doesn't make me

feel good. So I don't want to believe that, right? Growing up, I never was actually interested in joining religion because it felt really unnatural to me. I grew up with no religion around me. My parents I grew up with no religion around me. My parents never talked about religion or God or anything like that around me. And so it just felt very unnatural for me to say, join a church or join a religion because I felt like I had matured to a point where I don't think that I could alter my view on the world enough to allow me to fully align with a religion if that makes sense. My belief system

had subconsciously already formed without a religion to form it for me. So I kind of already had my own belief system, kind of subconsciously in a sense. And so joining a church just didn't feel necessary to me throughout my childhood. I also had a phase where I was atheist actually. I did not believe in any God or any higher power. And that was when I was probably in middle school, like end of middle school and like beginning of high school, I just didn't believe in any God.

I just kind of thought of everything as just happening as it does in that there's no higher power and that everything is just the way that it is. And that's the way I looked at life for a while during those years. And the moral of the story is, I just never wanted to be a part of a religion.

It just never felt right. The only reason why I would have wanted to join a religion during my younger years would be because there were moments when I felt kind of left out. You know what I mean? Whether it was people going to church camps during the summer or people talking about God or religion around me and me not necessarily being able to understand or connect to that.

People going to church with their families on Sundays and having a community at church, you know, at their church. And all of that was kind of appealing to me. You know, the community element was kind of appealing. And just overall being able to connect with other people about a religion, that was the only thing I felt kind of left out of because I was like, damn, I really am not. I feel like an outsider here because I don't even know

if I believe in God. I don't think I even believe in God or any kind of God and So like fuck I'm really on my own here, you know, that was only tough part So I'm gonna tell you what it was really like growing up with no religion Growing up with no religion. I felt like my moral compass was based on my parents' opinions and my opinions and not a religion. Obviously, because I didn't have a religious background. But my moral compass was strictly based on my parents' opinions and my opinions.

And that was it. based on my parents' opinions and my opinions, and that was it. So like, I know with religion, there can be some rules. You know, some religions are against caffeine. Some religions are against having sex before marriage. Some religions are against eating certain types of foods or whatever it may be, right? I didn't have any of those kinds of restrictions in my life.

That sucks, that sucks, that just went off, that really pissed me the fuck off from being honest. I'm like, I've already been awake for a half hour, we don't need to wake me up again. Anyway, I would say that it was kind of nice that I didn't grow up with certain restrictions due to a religion. You know, I felt like my parents were so open-minded about me just experimenting in life in all different ways. And there were kind of no restrictions besides obvious things that are right and wrong.

You know, I felt this free-ness to be able to try and experience whatever I wanted without you know, a fear of going to hell or something like that, or my parents, you know, deeming that I was gonna go to hell. I don't know, it was just, it was nice that I had this sort of freedom. And a lot of people, you know, wonder about people who don't have a religion, like me. How do you stay in line, you know? How do you stay in line? How do you behave properly if you don't have the threat

of going to hell or the threat of bad karma or the threat of whatever it may be? How do you behave? And luckily for me, I have a really strong conscience, naturally. I've always had a really, really strong conscience to a fault. If I do somebody wrong in some way or if I talk badly about somebody, you know, in a way that's just nasty and not constructive, if I stole something, if I did anything wrong, right, I didn't need the thought of going to hell to get me to stop doing bad shit. My conscience was my own living hell because if I would do something wrong, I would just ruminate about it and torture myself about it and make myself feel guilty and terrible and small and awful. And that was enough of a punishment.

I would punish myself naturally. Like that's just was my natural response to doing something wrong. And so I never had a problem with behaving properly or behaving morally correct because my conscience took care of that. That's not to say that I didn't fuck up and I didn't make mistakes here and there. I definitely did, but my conscience would punish me for them and force me to apologize and make things right again. And that would be the end of it. This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

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Like you good neighbor, State Farm is there. Call or go to StateFarm.com for a quote today. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is more than a website builder. It's an all-in-one place to make an online space that's entirely your own. Their all-in-one platform allows you to customize everything from the fonts and color scheme to your domain name. All you have to do is choose from one of their beautifully designed templates as a starting off point. Then add whatever you need to show off your ideas to get your side hustle on.

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once I moved to LA at 17, I can't remember. It was around that time. So at some point between the age of 16 and 17, I think I started to become more spiritual. And I don't think that it's a coincidence that at the age of 15, I had one of my worst depressive episodes that I've ever had, ever. That was like life shatteringly terrible. And I was like beside myself, I couldn't go to school. I couldn't get out of bed like the whole nine yards. I was having like these super aggressive

and loud depressive episodes where I was like freaking out and shit like that, the whole nine yards, okay. That happened at around 15. And I would say after that depressive episode ended when I was around 16, that might have been when my kind of spiritual journey started. Because I was always really confused about what my opinion was on a God, right?

I definitely didn't know what I was supposed to believe, and so my stance was always simply that I just didn't know with a slight hint of atheism. Is that a word, atheism? I don't know. The topic of God is so complicated and had always been so complicated that I would always just say that I didn't know or that I just didn't believe. Like that was it. And I never judged anybody who did believe in God and I didn't think that they were necessarily wrong. But because I didn't know, and because I had an experienced a God in any way, I just deemed it not real in my own mind.

That didn't mean that there was no possibility of it. That didn't mean that anybody believed it was wrong. It was just for me in my universe, God didn't exist. Simple as that. But as somebody who struggled with my mental health, not having a God or an obvious deeper meaning during moments of pain was so fucking difficult for me, that's why I think that my depressive episode at age 15 made me want to search for a deeper meaning and for something kind of like a god almost, because I was in the trenches of depression and I had nothing to live for, right? Because I didn't know what my purpose was.

I didn't have a religion to tell me what my purpose was. I didn't have anything to pray to. I was just fucking in the deep depths of my depression with nothing to help me get out of it. You know what I mean? I had no religion to help me get out of it. You know what I mean? I had no religion to help me get through it. And I think that's something I didn't realize before dealing with that severe of depression

was that religion, whether it's real, whether it's not, whether it's kind of real and kind of not. Having a strong belief system, having a strong community, having something to believe in helps you get out of those tough moments because it gives you something to grab onto. And that's powerful, whether or not it's real. Who cares if it's real? And I started to realize that. And so I remember after I got through my depressive episode,

I kind of started to kind of pray in a way. And I wasn't like praying to anything in particular or even praying in a way that was a ritual, I would just kinda close my eyes sometimes and just sit there and pray. And I didn't know what I was praying to, but I just started doing it naturally

after my depressive episode ended. Like it was just weirdly like a natural response. And over time, as I continued to kind of do this, it started to become more of a manifestation tactic. You know, instead of praying, I would say to a God, I was kind of manifesting to the universe. And that's when my belief of the universe kind of blossomed. That became my higher power. Rather than a God necessarily or a group of gods or anything of that sort, I started to

believe in the universe as a whole. And it was something I kind of just came up with on my own over time. Like it just started, it just made sense to me. It made sense to me that the universe itself is the highest power. To me, for my own personal belief system. Again, this is only for me. I'm not like there's no right answer. So I'm not shitting on any other belief system at all. This is just me, okay, and I have to like nail that into everybody's head, because this is completely like non-judgmental. Okay. For me, what made the most sense

was believing in the universe as a whole. Now, what that means to me is kind of vague actually, but I think of the universe as almost like a force like God, but it doesn't have a face, it doesn't have any kind of features that we as humans could understand. It's a force in a sense. And that's what I started to believe in. And it was interesting because I think a big reason why I started to believe in the universe was because I started to see through patterns throughout my life how everything happens for a reason, you know. Every terrible struggle that I had ever dealt with had built me into who I was.

Every decision that I had made, every move that I've ever made, you know, had led me to where I was, and there was something magical about that. I'll give you an example. When I was in elementary school, my parents were divorced and my dad lived in one town and my mom lived in another town. About 20 minutes away from each other. And I was at the end of elementary school and I was about to go to middle school and I was planning on going to middle school with all of my friends from elementary school

so that I could just stay, you know, in that community and whatever. And that was like my initial plan, right, was to just go to the middle school that's close to my elementary school and that be that. But one time I was on summer on vacation with my family. And I had a dream that I transferred to the middle school that was in my mom's town, which seems random, right? But it was such a vivid dream. And I felt like in the dream that something was telling me that I needed

To go to that middle school the middle school that was closer to my mom's home, which was just so fucking random, right? but I told my mom and I was like I need to transfer to we need to transfer me to the school. I need to go to the school and so I did, I ended up going to that middle school instead, which meant I had to make all new friends and do the whole thing, you know what I mean, because I was in a new community or whatever. But the reason why this all connects is that I went to this middle school, which then made me go to the high school that I went to,

because a lot of people from this middle school ended up going to the high school that I went to, and it was just the one that I ended up choosing and whatever, me going to that high school made me so fucking depressed that I started my YouTube channel. And I don't think I would have started my YouTube channel if I wouldn't have gone to that all-girls school and been fucking depressed out of my mind. If I would have went to the middle school in my dad's town, I would have ended up going to middle school and going to high school and I don't think I

would have been as depressed. I think going to an all-girls Catholic school really took it out of me in a way that a public school wouldn't have. I don't know. It's hard to know, but I just, there was something about that high school experience that made me so depressed and so eager to like break free that I weirdly connect that dream I had about transferring to a different middle school to the fact that I started my YouTube channel because even though that's kind of a fucking stretch, I really don't think I would have started it

if I wouldn't have gone to that high school and been as depressed as I was and it was all a chain reaction, right? Now that might seem kind of far out, but it doesn't fucking matter because it's Chain reactions like that that make me believe that the universe is real. Why did I have that dream about transferring schools so randomly?

You know in retrospect, I feel like that was a sign from the universe. I really do. And it changed the trajectory of my whole life, that one dream. In a weird way, I look at that dream as like the universe telling me what to do. And that's kind of how I live my life now. I feel like I get signs from the universe in a way and whether or not they're actually real, I don't know, right? But I can give you more examples of ways that I feel like the universe speaks to me, even if it's just a fucking coincidence, who knows. But it's my own spirituality. It's what makes sense to me. So bear with me here.

For example, one time I was trying to book a flight somewhere and it wasn't working. Like the website kept crashing, kept crashing, kept crashing, kept crashing. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, I'm trying to book a flight. Like I need to be able to book this flight right now. It wasn't working. And so I ended up literally just giving up and not booking the trip that I was going to go on as a whole. I was like, well, I can't book this trip

because the website keeps crashing. So I'm just going to like not book it. And I didn't end up booking it. And I was like, you know, I'll go on this trip another time. A few weeks later when I was supposed to be on the trip but I was still in LA, I ended up having the best weekend I've ever had in LA. One of the best weekends I've ever had in LA. I remember I did so many fun things, I went and got food at a bunch of different fun places with my friends. You know, I think there was like a fun party or social event that weekend, I remember I met new friends that weekend, which like never happens,

it was like this incredible weekend, right? And I never have weekends like that in LA. That to me was a sign from the universe, you know? The universe didn't let me book that flight because the universe wanted me to experience this fun weekend in Los Angeles. That's the way, so I'm explaining all of this and I'm giving you all these scenarios, and I'm giving you all these scenarios to help give you a gauge as to what my spirituality kind of became, right? And what it's become, where I kind of believe in the universe as a whole,

rather than some sort of God or something like that. And I like to put things out into the universe, in a sense, when it comes to like manifesting things or whatever. I like to put them out into the universe and hope that they come back to me, in a sense when it comes to like manifesting things or whatever. I like to put them out into the universe and hope that they come back to me in a sense. And that's kind of the way that I look at it. And that really just formed within me over time, naturally, after looking at patterns in my own life, seeing how things happen for a reason, seeing how misfortunes or unfortunate events

or mishaps can lead to amazing things and also how putting out your intentions and manifesting things in a sense can help things come true, you know. Just by putting out that positive energy into the universe, it helps get you closer to whatever you want your dreams to be, you know what I mean? And taking a minute to close your eyes and pray or manifest to the universe. Not only helps you gather yourself, but again, it helps you put things out into the universe. And all of that kind of formed

naturally over time. Like, I don't really know how it formed. It just kind of formed within within my own brain. And I became a spiritual person, but on my own grounds, you know, with my own rulebook, because it was something that I had created on my own, in a sense. And I mean, you know, believing in the universe is not something I came up with. You know, there's other religions and stuff that look at the universe like that, right? Well, the world like that. I don't know, the existence like that, they look at existence like that. But I wasn't necessarily taking that from a religion.

I was just kind of like forming it as I went along and just kind of letting forming it as I went along and just kind of letting it weirdly build subconsciously, I guess. But what I've also done is I've researched a lot of religions and a lot of their belief systems and a lot of their core morals. And I kind of decided to take what I wanted from different religions and help that reinforce my own moral compass. I already have morals, you know what I'm saying?

That came from my parents and came from my own life experience. My morals being very personal to me, like, and being kind of specific, you know what I mean like to me, but I Also have taken things from religion that I Maybe wouldn't have thought of otherwise, you know like I have read some different excerpts from religious scriptures and stuff about things like forgiveness and about things like doing things for others that I maybe wouldn't have thought about as heavily if I would not have read those excerpts from those religious books,

right? I may not identify fully with said religion, but it's safe to say that every religion has at least one good thing to say. You could look at any religion and they probably have some good advice. And so that's kind of what I've done is taken what I like from each religion and made it my own in addition to my overall belief in the universe as a force. You know what I mean? This episode is brought to you by Liquid I. LiquidIV believes everybody needs hydration every day. It's not just for athletes or that one time you try to hot yoga class. Staying hydrated is essential, whether you're just taking a stroll through your neighborhood,

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Buy a stick of liquid IV at a store near you or head to liquidiv.com and use the code Anything for 20% off your order. That's liquidiv.com with the code Anything. Tap the banner or visit this episode's page to learn more. One thing I really took was karma from Buddhism. Before I talk about karma, I want to tell you what it is by definition. Karma means action, work, or deed. The term also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called

the principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein intent in actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent and good deeds contribute to a good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths. Now, I know with the Buddhist religion, they believe that karma not only affects your life in your present life, but it also affects, it also carries over to after you die and when you're reincarnated or rebirthed,

it also carries on to your next life. I'm pretty sure. So it's kind of complicated, but I mainly look at it in a sense of cause and effect. I really connected with the idea of karma because it really aligned with the way that I view the universe in a sense where everything happens for a reason, but also what you put out into

the universe comes back to you. So if you're a fucking asshole, that's going to bite you in the ass later. And what's crazy about it is that I feel like I've witnessed karma in real life, whether it be with myself or with others. For example, I've had people who have wronged me. You know, like have been an asshole to me, have done things to me that have really hurt me. And in the moment I felt like there was no justice. I'm like, this person fucked me over and they're just doing great in their life.

Their life seems so easy. You know, they have a bunch of friends or they have a bunch of money, they have a rich family, or they are really pretty, and everybody has a crush on them, or whatever it may be. Like somebody would treat me badly, and I would just feel like, God, there's no justice. They're just floating through life so comfortably,

and yet they get to be an asshole with no punishment. Like, how is that fair? But then over time, what's been really interesting is that I've seen how karma comes around later. Like, for example, I had friends in my life that were really toxic to me. They were super not understanding of my mental health struggles. Really, um, judgmental

of the way that I lived my life, super non empathetic, really just kind of evil, right? And non nurturing and just not good people and made me feel like shit about myself. And in the moment, I felt like it was so unfair because I was like, why do they get to be assholes and get to live a perfect life? How is that fair? And eventually, you know, I stopped being friends with them and I got over it and I forgot about them and didn't care anymore. And then I remember I checked in on them on social media later. And I heard about them and about how they were doing later. And you know, they had no friends anymore. And a lot of things went really badly for them. And I felt terrible, right?

Because I was like, fuck, that's like, I was like, I don't want anybody to suffer. You know what I'm saying? I do not, I do not ever want anybody to suffer, ever, I don't. But it was interesting to see how it seemed that karma had no mercy with these people. Like, them being assholes for years and years

and getting away with it, it didn't work forever. It came back to bite them. And I've noticed patterns like that throughout my life. And that's why I've kind of started to believe in karma. And I've even noticed it with me. Like, you know, I remember even recently, I was fighting with my mom and not like in a crazy bad way, but like, you know, as mother as in daughters do,

we were arguing and, you know, we were kind of both hitting each other with these low blows, you know what I mean? Like we were both being kind of an asshole to each other. We're all good now of course, but, you know, we were fighting like whatever, okay, what do you do? Okay. And, like later that day, I kept having these unfortunate things happen to me. Like I went in the fridge to go get food out of the fridge

and everything that I wanted to eat was moldy. And, you know, I was looking for something in my closet and like, the cats had chewed it up. It almost felt like me being an asshole to my mom immediately made everything else go wrong. It was like I got a little slice of karma. That's what it felt like. And now I don't know if this shit's real.

Hell, I have no fucking idea. But looking at life in a way of karma, right? Like looking at life and believing in karma has worked for me because it helps me remain the bigger person. Because I know that anything that I put out into the universe will come back to me. If I put out bad energy, if I am a bad person, that shit will come to bite me in the ass. And whether or not that's true because of karma or just because it's a coincidence,

there's no harm in believing in karma for me. And so I do believe in it. And as I said earlier, I gladly take any advice that aligns with me from any religion, it could be Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever it may be. Like I'm very open-minded. If something, if I hear something from a religion that I deemed to be true and I connect with, I will not reject it just because it's from a religion. Like, I will

take whatever advice, whatever way to look at things, whatever perspective, I will take anything from any religion as long as it feels right to me and it Helps me be a better person When it comes to what happens after you die, which I know is a big topic within religion I I Decided to look at death in a way where I don't know I Do not know Instead of coming up with some sort of definitive answer of what happens after death, I've decided

to just accept the fact that I don't know, but to also reassure myself that it will be OK regardless. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what it's going to be like. I don't know. I don't know. It's as simple as I don't know what it's going to be like. I don't know. I don't know. It's as simple as I don't know. And that's kind of the conclusion I've come to, you know, is

that not knowing is okay. And that's kind of an overarching theme with my whole religious belief in general. Yes, I believe in karma. Yes, I believe in the power of the universe and stuff like that. And yes, that's my spiritual kind of belief system in a sense. But I also am aware that I don't know anything for sure. I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. And that's okay.

I don't know if karma is real. I don't know if my belief in the universe is real. And to be honest, I don't care because it makes me a better person. It gives me comfort and moments of discomfort. And it gives me something to believe in. And so whether or not it's real doesn't matter to me because it's real to me. And I think that that's something that we overlook is the fact that

we kind of decide what's real and what's not within our own imagination. And if you believe in something hard enough, it becomes powerful enough that it is real. You know? And so even though we as humans have no idea if there is something larger than ourselves, it's not harmful to have our own speculations in our own belief systems, because if we believe in them hard enough, they kind of become real, regardless of the bigger picture. Now, my overall opinion on religion specifically and people who are religious, my opinion is that I have no opinion and that it's none of my fucking business.

I do not care about other people's religions. I don't care about what people decide to believe in because as a human being on this planet, we all have the freedom and prerogative, not necessarily freedom in some places, which is fucked up, but we should all have the freedom, I should say, to believe in whatever we want to believe in, as long as it's not harming others, because then there's a problem there. But to believe what we believe in, have the freedom to do that, have the freedom to share it, and that be that.

Like I just don't think that it's anybody else's business, how somebody views religion or spirituality in general. Like, I've always just felt like that is so personal to everybody that it's not anybody else's place to judge a religion, you know? I may not agree with some stuff, but it's absolutely not my place to be like, you shouldn't believe in that. That's just not fair.

It's just simply not fair and it's simply not my place. Similarly to how I would hope that other people wouldn't look at me and say, you need to you need to be a part of a church because, you know, you're going to have no structure in your life without it. You know what I'm saying? I think that it's in everybody's best interest to focus on themselves, focus on their own religion and their own religious journey and not Pay attention to what everybody else is doing when it comes to religion. It's so personal that it's just a waste of

fucking time to try to force somebody else to believe in what you believe in or to dislike somebody because I don't know. It's just it's like we all just need to love one another regardless of things like that and we all need to be nonjudgmental and empathetic and understanding that. And we all need to be nonjudgmental and empathetic and understanding that we're not all going to have the same opinions always. And that's okay. As long as the person that, as long as, okay, this is all within, you know, reasonable terms here because like if, if there's like a religious belief, you know, or something within a religion that's genuinely harmful to people, that's not included in

this. Like I totally understand how that is difficult, that's a little bit more difficult and a little bit more complicated. I'm talking about, you know, the more innocent religious beliefs. For example, how many gods a religion believes in? One or 10, or whether or not Jesus died on the cross, or whether or not Jesus existed and stuff like that. That's harmless because that's not harming it. That isn't causing

Emotional violence or physical violence or anything like that like that's not Causing any kind of hatred in the world, you know That's just like an opinion so and it's not harming anybody so that's more when I'm referring to here. Obviously, there's some extreme, like, I'm not talking about things that are beyond that, okay? So for context. But anyway, the moral story is there's no right or wrong religion. There's no right or wrong way to be spiritual. And as I've grown up, I've realized that it's ignorant to act like you have it all figured out. It's ignorant to act like your way is the best way, because at the end of the day, none of us fucking know the real truth about

what happens after you die. If there is a higher power, etc. None of us know, for sure. So what's best is to love and accept everybody for what they believe in, to learn and grow through maybe disagreements when it comes to religion and spirituality, and to focus on whatever makes you feel good and safe and whatever makes you the best person you can possibly be. All right, now I'm going to go on the Twitter at AG Podcast and answer some questions about religion that you guys asked me.

Somebody said, what do you do when somebody forces their religion on you and makes you feel uncomfortable. I definitely experienced this a little bit in high school because obviously I went to a Catholic high school, so I definitely had a little bit of that where people would, you know, kind of try to force me in a sense to lean into the Catholic religion a little more. But what I've always done is I've always just kind of taken it with a grain of salt, right? When somebody is trying to tell you how to be religious or how to be spiritual, it's because they have your best interests at heart most of the time. They just want you to experience what they're experiencing. And if they're having a great experience with a religion, they want everybody to feel

the same way. What they may not understand is that that's just not how it works. You know what I mean? It's so individual that it's just simply not how it works. And so I always just kind of, in a sense, humor people that are trying to say convert me to their religion or whatever it may be. And I just say, you know, wow, that's really, I thank you for sharing that with me

and I'm gonna definitely consider it, you know? But I don't know right now, like I'm on my own journey and we'll see where I end up, but thank you for sharing this with me and I will consider it. And then what you do from there is up to you. At the end of the day, like in moments like that, when somebody's trying to force you

to believe in what they believe in or to look at life in the way that they look at life, the best that you can do is just say, thank you for sharing that perspective. I appreciate it, you know. I don't know. I can't say that I'm going to. But actually, that's all you have to say. That's all you really have to say is, wow, that's really interesting. Thank you for sharing that perspective with me. That's it. And then if they're like, oh, well, do you believe that now too?

You can say, I don't know yet. I need to digest whatever. And then you can go from there. It's like you just have to be in situations that are uncomfortable like that. You just have to be patient and just be as unbiased and neutral as possible. Somebody said, what are your views on how people try to impose their religion on others?

Slash just the general idea of trying to preach, preach views. You know, I made an episode kind of about this, about this kind of topic. I think it was called, how to mind your own business or something like that. But so go listen to that if you'd like. But to briefly sum it up, I just feel like as long as somebody else's views or opinions are not harming people actively,

I don't feel the need to interject or to try to change people's opinions. Because what I've found is that it's okay to have different views to other people. It is okay. It's okay to view things differently. And it's impossible to expect all humans to look at life the same way, believe in the same things, and agree on everything. It's just fucking impossible. And so the more that you can learn to understand that differing opinions actually make

for more interesting conversation and make for a better and more interesting life, the more that you can realize that, the less that you wanna impose your opinions on others. You know what I mean? Like there's peace in just being content with your own belief system and your own morals and just focusing on that.

There's so much calmness that comes with that. It's very stressful and upsetting to try to force somebody to believe in what you believe in. And it never ends well. It rarely ends well. You know what I mean? Obviously sharing your belief system and sharing your views on things is not a bad thing.

That's a good thing. But trying to push it onto other people is just not gonna get you anywhere. You can share things and you can share your views the way you view things, but it's pushing it onto others that's harmful. So I think it's about finding a balance between sharing

what you believe in and sharing things that you're passionate about and sharing your view on life without forcing anybody else to agree with you. Because if somebody wants to agree with you, they'll come to that conclusion on your own. You don't need to preach it and shove it down their throats. If anything, that's actually going to make them reject it. Because when people feel forced to do something, most of the time, makes them not want to do it. So you're better off just sharing your opinion and hoping that they take something from it

and maybe they'll pick it up on their own. You know? You can plant seeds in people, but you cannot grow the plant. They are responsible for growing the plant. I don't know if that makes sense, but somebody said, what do you think about crystals? I actually don't know much about crystals at all, so I have no idea.

I know a lot of people are really into crystals and they're healing benefits and stuff like that. That's not a part of my own, you know, spiritual structure, but I think stones are very beautiful and I like having them around my house and I don't know what they do, but I know my mom's really into crystals and stuff like that. And maybe at some point I will read up on them and read into the... I don't know, I mean I'd be very curious to learn more about crystals, but I don't know anything right now, so I have no idea, but that's something I definitely want to do research on. Somebody said, would you force religion on your children?

And do you think it's right to do that? Well, I think that as a parent, you know, it's up to you how you decide to raise your child. I don't think it's wrong to force a religion upon a child because, you know, you are their parent. And so you can kind of shape their moral compass and their spiritual compass and their religious compass, as much as you want until they're 18, you know what I mean? And as long as you're doing it with love and grace in your heart, you know,

I don't think that that's a bad thing. Like as long as your intentions as a parent are good with introducing religion to your kid, I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. And I think that it's fine. But for me personally, I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. And I think that it's fine. But for me personally, I do not think that I will. I mean, because I'm, again, I'm not religious and you know, who knows?

If I, I don't think, I mean, I kind of don't think I'm gonna, I mean, who knows? But I, it would depend on also my spouse, my husband, when you have a child, it's not just you who makes a decision, it's an agreement between you and whoever you marry, but I have a feeling that, let's put it this way.

If I were to marry somebody who was really religious and they really, really wanted to raise the kids in a way that was religious, I would try to find a compromise with them and be like, listen, there are certain elements of this religion that I want to teach the kids, but there are some that I do not. And so can we compromise and kind of, you know, handle this a little differently, you know what I mean? If I were to marry somebody who also is not really strictly religious, then obviously

like definitely not. But I definitely am not opposed to introducing my view of karma and the universe to my child. I don't think that's a bad thing, but I'm also not gonna force anything on them. They can believe whatever they want. And as long as they're being a good person and not harming other people, I'm gonna be a happy parent.

You know what I mean? Somebody said, what's your perception between religion versus spirituality? Here's the way I differentiate religion and spirituality. I look at religion as something that is pre-existing, right? It's pre-existing. All of the rules, all of the morals, all of the beliefs are all fully formed already. And they have been formed for sometimes thousands of years. So you as an individual are walking into something when you're joining a religion that is pre-existing. So you are joining this religion and you're to take all of these pre-existing beliefs to be your own and it's a little bit less of maybe individual thought, right? Like it's not something that you came up with. It's

something that pre-existed and you are joining it. Whereas with spirituality, I think spirituality is more of something that you create yourself in a way. And it's more malleable to, you know, what maybe you want to pull from different religions or what you have decided to believe in that might be completely unique to you. It's something that's more individualized. And I think that they both have their strengths, you know what I'm saying? Because coming up with your own individual spirituality can be super random and confusing. You're like, I don't know what the fuck to do here.

I don't know how to create my own kind of weird religion in my own head. I don't know what the fuck to do here. Like, I don't know how to like create my own kind of weird religion in my own head. Like, I don't know how the fuck to do that. Whereas like with a church, you know, there's a solid set of beliefs that you can go to whenever you're confused. And it's already there right in front of you. Whereas when you're spiritual finding guidance might be a little bit more complicated because you are creating almost your own rules and moral compass and spiritual guide. You know what I'm saying?

That's why it's more complicated. So but I think that they're both great in their own way. Anyway, y'all, that was a really fun episode. I thought it was so interesting. I like talking about these types of things. So I really enjoyed recording this episode. And again, if we maybe don't see eye to eye on certain things or whatever it may be, I encourage you to,

you know, have an open heart and mind about me, maybe having a different opinion to you and not be judgmental, you know? I encourage you to try that if you maybe are somebody who's like kind of rigid about your beliefs, I encourage you to be open-minded with me right now. And on that note, thank you guys for listening. I really, really enjoyed this episode.

I hope you guys enjoyed it as well. Follow anything goes on Twitter at AG Podcast. Follow anything goes on any of the platforms that you stream podcasts. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, you know, the drill. And last but not least, if you'd like to leave anything goes a review, I really appreciate it. I always read them. I literally read them every time before I record a podcast and it makes me feel so warm

inside. So please feel free to do that. And I love you guys. Thank you for listening. Have an amazing rest of your week and we will talk soon. Love you. Bye.