For Thought's Sake

Alex’s complicated anniversary from her marriage that ended.    Being a “tapper outer” in relationships.    Sometimes it’s not the person/relationship that needs to change, but other variables that are shiftable or fixable.   How do you meet your own needs while being in a relationship? How do you find balance between the two?    Taking the time to invest in yourself so you don’t lose yourself in someone else and the chaos of day to day living.    What are you willing to endure or compromise on for the sake of a relationship?

Clit Talk podcast led to learning about Erotic Blueprints.    Erotic Blueprint quiz tells you which type is your primary erotic blueprint.    5 Types: Energetic, Sensual, Kinky, Sexual, Shapeshifter   These erotic blueprints have the potential to uncover information about how you live your life in general, not just how you express yourself sexually.    What it means for your primary type to be “starving.”   Kinky in terms of how you operate in the world, especially if it’s outside of societal norms.    Opportunities for uncovering shadows and doing healing work surrounding your erotic blueprint.    Finding out your partner’s erotic blueprint and learning to communicate what you each want in your sexual relationship.     Masturbating utilizing your superpowers from your erotic blueprint.    Take the free Erotic Blueprint test here.  Take the in depth test for $17 here.  Clit Talk Episodes: EP198, EP213, EP214   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollect

Learning your love style. To take the quiz do a google search for: NY Times what is your love style?   Possessive, unselfish, best friends. . . what’s your style?    Bonding styles: one to one, one to many, many to many, solo.   AJ explains her path to figuring out her sexual orientation and gender identity.    Communication with a partner in navigating a change in bonding style.   Bonding styles not just in sexual relationsips, but also friendships.    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow AJ on Instagram: @wildiriscollective Follow Alex on Instagram: @alexandrajthomsen  

Energetic, spiritual, & trickster magic.   Alex had magical, synchronistic experiences in relation to getting acupuncture.    Spirits contacting you through music.    AJ did an insane tarot card reading that blew her mind in accurate as well as unsettling ways.     “Oh this is so delicious I need a spoon.”    Doing readings for other people and watching out for trickster energy intervening.    Card readings as a self-teaching tool.   PS. Of course this episode would end up being 1 hour and 11 minutes long!   We want to hear about your magical experiences! Send us a message on Instagram or email us: forthoughtssake@gmail.com   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective   If you're loving the podcast, leave a review wherever you are tuning in! 

*This episode was recorded in June, but is just releasing now! We discuss the Summer Solstice for a minute, which already passed, but the information is still relevant.    Reflecting on the first half of the year and planning for the second half of the year.   The Power of Ritual by Casper de Kuile. Finding connection to yourself and to others through ritual building.    Cultivating consistency in your routines.   Mental and emotional resources going into stressing about doing something are a greater detriment than to just engage in the routine you’re stressing about.   The root problem of not creating consistency in routines may be mental health issues.    Accountability partners and interdependence to help motivate.    Being bold in reaching out to other people about staying connected or being accountability partners.    JK Rowling’s history of transphobic comments and supporting transphobic legislation.    When do we separate the art from the artist and when is it not okay to do that?   How do we let other

How to make decisions surrounding your pet’s end of life transition.   What vets do and don’t say when treating an animal that is reaching end of life.    Tracking your pet’s symptoms vs their behavior.   Scheduling out and picking a date for euthanasia.   What happens when the vet comes to your house to perform the procedure.    Trusting your intuition as you navigate the entire process.   Synchronicities that help validate that you’re doing the right thing.    How other pets handle the loss of their best friend.   What do you do with your pet’s preferred items, toys, beds, etc.?   We go through loss and yet we keep bringing pets into our lives to love. 

AJ has an epic story about trying to be social and meeting new people at a party.    Here’s the setup: AJ is rocking a coven look as if she just stepped out of the movie The Craft. People over 40 reliving their youth by day drinking and punk rock moshing. Hosted at a haunted house.    How do you determine whether a social event is worth it?    “Drinking culture is f***ing my social life.”   Why is it so hard to meet new friends once you've hit a certain age?   “I'm so grateful that we found each other at a time in my life where I had space for a new friend.”   Fostering connection with your remote friends.    How are friendships feeding or nourishing you differently at various times in your life?    Thoughts? Opinions? Similar experiences? We’d love to hear from you!    Message us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake Email us: forthoughtssake@gmail.com Follow Alex: @alexandrajthomsen Follow AJ: @wildiriscollective

Channeling rage into activism and community support.    Protesting - what is involved, how it happens.    Moving from a pro-life perspective to a pro-choice perspective.   Religious parroting. Adopting what religious leaders are saying in order to fit into the community.    Inquisition and critical thinking is not valued in religious spaces.    Holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously and seeing validity in both of them.    You can make choices that you want to live by while also recognizing the greater good for a community at large and that your particular belief should not dictate what everyone should do.    Documentary on Netflix - Keep Sweet Pray and Obey. Crossing the line into extremism is not as far off as one might think.   Tag team system in the fight. We all can help in the ways we can in the timelines we are able to.    

Final Maddie update.   Universe will give you reminders of how challenging something is to keep you from choosing it again or romanticizing it.    Problems with identity and whether you can identify as something when you no longer do it professionally.   Shame based narrative of feeling inadequate.   Not meeting your own expectations or living up to your potential. Wanting to be seen, but feeling small and playing it safe.    Questioning your own thought processes. Why do you think what you think? Poking the overthinking bear to get to the root.    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake

Somatics as an integration of what you’re experiencing and how it presents in the body.    Weird movements and positions we do with our body as we experience or try to process emotions.    Sometimes our body is yelling at us like an alarm saying, “Do you understand what is going on and how you are feeling right now?!”    Normalizing doing somatic practices in front of other people. Let the weird live!   Camaraderie in numbers. By moving yourself you create a safe space for others to also move their body.    Craving a sense of community with like-minded people who are all into the same hobby/interest/activity.    Wanting to be part of a community, but not be asked to lead that community. Just want to be a student of life. 

The Maddie Saga. It’s not good now, but it’s going to be good later.     How do you follow your moral compass when you are in a seemingly impossible situation where no option is a good option?   People and animals need help and there are not enough resources operating effectively enough to help them.   Trying to help stray animals is similar to trying to help children within various social systems.    Is the system broken? Or is it operating exactly as it was intended to?    Doing your research before adopting an animal: background info on the animal itself, on the rescue it’s coming from, budgeting for the adoption and future costs.    Your earth suit might see all data pointing to demise, but your soul suit knows better. When all seems losts, try to trust it’s going to work out. 

Maddie Update (Stray dog Alex is taking care of!)    When it comes to what our bodies need in order to function is it nature or nurture?    Sleep deprivation and how to handle the emotions that arise because of it.    When you’re not in a position to experience the emotions coming up in the moment, how do you acknowledge and move through it?    Utilizing your five senses to redirect your brain and calm yourself enough to move onto the next moment.    Thoughts on Bridgerton: You can be an elegant lady and still like sex.    Sex Positive Resources: The Principles of Pleasure series on Netflix. Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski Clit Talk Podcast   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake

Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio near the South Node. Basically experiencing a bunch of f*ckery. Could be catharsis or a mental break.    Lunar Eclipse brought AJ some intense oversharing moments.   Lunar Eclipse brought Alex a stray puppy.    PSA - when you buy a puppy from a pet store, you are supporting puppy mills and dog breeders who grossly mistreat and abuse animals.   Dogs with separation anxiety.   Social media break because it was becoming an addiction for Alex.   A lot of people are using social media for good: philanthropy, art, meaningful connection.   Yes, there’s an algorithm feeding you content, but there is also a certain degree of choice when it comes to social media that you can use to curate your experience. 

Our first guest of Season 3!    Kristin Collier has 20 years of experience working in the behavior science field and teaching nonviolent communication. Her book Housewife got international attention and won four awards including a Nautilus (silver), awarded in the past to Barbara Kingsolver, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama. She teaches a new course called Core Alignment with Joy that AJ has already taken and gives a million star rating!   Kristin experienced an awakening and healing three years ago that presented in the form of a crisis where her body completely gave out on her. She saw various healing practitioners and health professionals who diagnosed her with a variety of ailments, but ultimately she was able to find help through the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza and Dr. John Sarno. The things she learned helped her to heal herself and she now pairs those wholeness and health practices with nonviolent communication techniques in order to help others learn to reframe thought patterns and make empowered choi

We took a few weeks off due to unforeseen circumstances. We got too close to the veil. . . spiritual veil and zoom veil.    Light box. Helps with seasonal affective disorder, depression, anxiety.   Do you wear sunscreen on your face on a daily basis?     Concerned about skin cancer? Or aging of the skin and face? Bit of both?    Starting to notice the aging process in our 30’s.    Skincare from the perspective of prevention.    What tools are we using to care for our faces as they age?   Gua Sha. Facial cupping. Clarisonic. Nuface.    Adult acne and wrinkles simultaneously. Great.    What is up with Causebox? Yikes.    Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake

The Gilded Age vs. Brigerton vs. Downton Abbey   Personality tests: DiSC Type, Chronotype, and Enneagram   Are workplace personality assessments invasive or helpful?    Can personality tests be a tangible way to promote conscious communication about our strengths and weaknesses?    What are we projecting with who we are or who we think we should be when we take these tests? How does that skew the results?   Personality tests can be helpful in feeling validated or normalized, but it may also create a self fulfilling prophecy.   Do personality tests account for how we are able to evolve as people throughout our life?   Whatever anyone is into and wants to believe in order to help you evolve and think about yourself in new ways is valid.    Resources:   DiSC Type Personality Test: https://www.crystalknows.com/disc-personality-test   Chronotype Test: https://thepowerofwhenquiz.com/   The Power of Now by Michael Breus, PhD   Enneagram Test: https://www.crystalknows.com/enneagram-test   Alternative Enneagram Test:

Does your hair mean enough to you to want to spend money on it?    Are people spending money they don’t have on their aesthetic and appearance?    Are we trying to meet others' expectations of what our hair should look like?    If external expectations or standards were removed what would we choose for ourselves?    How do we figure out what we are doing and why when we are ingrained in capitalism and commercialism?    How do you express your identity through your physical appearance?   Is how we present ourselves correlated to the state we are experiencing internally?   *Note - this conversation explores the multitude of responses to these questions. No one answer, just thoughts. #forthoughtssake   Follow us on Instagram: @forthoughtssake   Have a question or topic you want us to discuss? Send Alex & AJ an email: forthoughtssake@gmail.com

Texting or emailing to help you get to the root of what you are intending before hitting send.   What response is actually true and what is just your ego being cranky?   People with a uterus problems.    PMDD - Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.   The intersection of mental illness, hormones, and behavior.   Period symptoms. We’re getting graphic folx.   The learning curve is unbelievable for our own physiology, especially in under researched communities.    Being curious and talking to others about their experiences helps you level set your own experiences and find connection and community.    Resources: The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk Moody Bitches by Julie Holland Clue Period and Ovulation Tracker App. helloclue.com Moody App. moodymonth.com @drjolenebrighton @berrionlberry @mareawellness   Find Alex & AJ on Instagram: @forthoughtssake https://www.instagram.com/forthoughtssake/   Have a question or something you want us to talk about in an episode? Email us: forthoughtssake@gmail.com  

Buckle up. Sharp turns lie ahead.   Alternative episode title: Witchcraft, Fear of Misrepresentation, and Eco-Friendly Consumerism.   How do we change patterns, habits, and behaviors to accommodate each season of the year?   “You look like the 4th of July. Makes me want a hotdog real bad.”   Spiritual practices can dwell in the land of witchcraft.    I don’t want to claim to be part of a community when I’m not.   I can’t control others' interpretation, but I want the interpretation to match the authenticity of my experience.   If eco-friendly products can’t do the job they’re intended to do, then I’m not motivated or incentivized as a consumer to purchase them.   How do you find ease in doing something you care about changing that actually is causing impact and not taxing your resources at a level where it doesn’t make sense?

Nocturnal orgasms. HBO is ripe with docuseries about cults. Cult leaders use behavioral science and human nature in order to pattern and retrain the brains of their recruits.  Less coffee = less anxiety and less boob bumpies. Aloe collagen oat milk latte with agave. Hypochondriac based pregnancy symptoms. How do we let our body have whatever hormonal experience it is having without feeling the need to act on the hormonal cues?