Episode 284: Stop Chasing Spiritual Highs: Why Real Healing Happens in the Ordinary
Being Human
Your prayer life can be how you avoid healing. In this final episode of the antisocial series, Dr. Greg unpacks why a retreat high or a powerful devotional moment can convince you the healing is done — when the actual work hasn't started yet, and why that work happens in the small, unglamorous moments nobody puts on a holy card. Key Topics: * Why the most moving retreat of your life can leave you exactly the same — and what actually changes you * What "magical penance" reveals about the parts of us that prefer grand gestures to real repair * Why healing happens in what you do on an ordinary Tuesday, not in the moments when everything breaks open * How a soft heart and a defenseless heart are not the same thing — and why that distinction changes everything * Why the urge to be "healed already" is itself a form of the pattern you're trying to change * Why re-hardening after you've opened up isn't failure — it's part of doing the reps Learn More: * Earlier in this series on the Antisocial Defense Patterns: * Antisocial Part 1 — Ep. #281: Control or Be Controlled: The Devastating Wounds Behind Antisocial Behavioral Patterns * Antisocial Part 2 — Ep. #282: You're (Probably) Not a Serial Killer—But You May Share Some of Their Antisocial Traits * Antisocial Part 3 — Ep. #283: "I Will Never Be Hurt Again": How Jesus' Sacred Heart Breaks the Cycle * The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen — the book Dr. Greg references on accompaniment and the standard of showing up, not being healed * Person and Act by Karol Wojtyła (Pope St. John Paul II) * Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyła (Pope St. John Paul II) * Previous episode on boundaries: * Ep. #254: Navigating "Toxic" Relationships: Setting Boundaries Without Losing Charity * Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns: * Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation * Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns: * Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation * Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns: * Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing * Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns: * Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary * Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation * Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment Follow Us on Socials: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter (X) | LinkedIn