Hello hello, creative humans, I am writing today’s episode from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. I’ve been planted here for a solid two hours, and I will likely remain planted here for at least another 3 hours due to snowstorm delays. For some, this may sound like a bit of a nightmare, but oddly I have always gotten incredible work done in Airports. Perhaps it’s because of the shifting energy around me, maybe it’s because I’m in “travel” mode, or it could be because I don’t schedule any meetings or calls on travel days. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful, because I have been putting off writing this first episode, and the halting of my schedule is forcing me to recognize there is nothing except my own fears between me and a finalized first episode. 

So, here we go!

Today, our focus is defining Dominant Dogma and outlining how it is wreaking havoc on our lives, our communities, and our planet.

Getting more specific, it has likely impacted YOUR life by causing you to feel:

• Overwhelmed
• Insecure
• Not Enough
• Fatigued
• Anxious
• Fearful
• Stuck and Stagnant
• And like your dreams for a better life may just not be possible

So, what exactly is Dominant Dogma: Dominant Dogma is a term I coined to encompass all the cultural narratives and beliefs which externally, and subsequently internally as adaptive strategies, tell you who you’re supposed to be, how to do it, and what you need to buy to live that out. 

These stories that define for you what it looks and feels like to:

• Thrive
• To belong
• To succeed
• To lead and be a leader
• To be healthy and fit
• To be a Christian
• To be a wife
• To be a husband
• To be a partner
• And overall, a good and normal human

As I share those titles and states of being, you likely have a picture of what these titles mean to you based on the Dominant Dogma in your world. A vision of what success looks like, an awareness of who you have to be in order to be considered a “good” human, a knowing of where you fall short with your health and fitness routine. 

These visions and knowings make up your programming, your conditioning, your lens of the world. 

Many of these stories, plans, and beliefs that make up Dominant Dogma are not inherently right or wrong, good or bad. 

In fact, for the most part, we all have an understanding that it is wonderful to help others and to get some type of movement in during our day. 

However,   

• It is how dominant culture misuses the stories, beliefs, and virtues that they become toxic tools of manipulation.
• It is how we are required to fit into Dominant Dogma to be accepted and safe.
• It is how patriarchy, supremacy culture, and those at the top of the capitalist food chain, benefit from your playing small and feeling broken.

It’s how the stories and beliefs have become Dogma instead of concepts and perspectives that we can evaluate, contemplate, set healthy boundaries around, and yet still empathize with.

I want to pause and define dogma real quick. 

Dogma: 

A belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. – source

Recently, I listened to an episode of the “Sounds like a Cult” podcast and found it beautifully interesting how in each episode they essentially question the Dominant Dogma of different groups and followings. 

With each group they discuss, many of the values that the group shares are not inherently harmful, however where things consistently go wrong is the way humans believe and then are required to believe, the messages the group teaches without evaluating the system.

–

The way, these seemingly innocent stories and lenses of the world, become Dominant Dogma is largely rooted in capitalism, colonialism, tribalism, and hierarchical “power over” systems. 

Those in privileged positions tend to utilize your need for safety and belonging to control and shape the Dominant Dogma in your life in such a way that it benefits them. 

This can be seen in political spheres, religions, clubs, businesses, and even families. 

Now, I want to briefly sidebar here and chat about Dominant Dogma in business and in marketing.

I think it is very important to hold the both/and here because there is also the element of living within a world where people do need to make money in order to live. 

This podcast in-of-itself is part of my business marketing plan and it’s here to both offer beneficial free content and function as part of my funnel sharing how I can help you Live Your Freedom and navigate the Dominant Dogma in your world.

What I personally have found to be critical so that I don’t blanket label EVERY BUSINESS as a manipulative scheme to take my money and make me feel small, is to notice where there is transparency and consent. 

I’m going to end our sidebar there for now, because that is a whole set of podcast episodes that we will cover at a later time, but I did want to touch on it because I don’t want to cultivate nor be a part of further polarization and crafting a Dominant Dogma around labeling every and anything as inherently wrong or bad.

Instead, I am here to help you recognize where you have been sold a message of brokenness when all along personal freedom was right at your fingertips. To help you pick up an attitude of self-responsibility when it comes to evaluating the Dominant Dogma in your life. 

–

Due to your innate drive of self-preservation, you likely are unconsciously living from Dominant Dogma, those stories, and beliefs, of your culture and subculture. 

Living it out unchecked and oftentimes from a place of positive belief and a good heart. 

Not realizing how you may be upholding a cage for yourself, and those around you. 

 Especially those with marginalized and divergent identities.

This first episode is really an invitation to take a hard look at yourself and your world, though I encourage you to enter this space with compassion because you come by these patterns naturally. 

And that is where we are going to wrap up today and where we will pick up next week.

Now, I recognize this episode was a bit heavy, and I promise, we won’t be all doom and gloom on this podcast, but we will continue to hold the both/and. We will be going deep, inviting nuance and critical thinking, AND we will remember the power of the present, what is in your control and how can you Live Your Freedom right here and now. 

To wrap up and to help bring us back to an energy of expansion I’m going to share one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Edith Eger,  “The only place where we can exercise our freedom of choice is in the present.” ― Dr. Edith Eger

Again, I will be right back here next week, and if you want to cheat and jump ahead a bit, head to megscolleen.com and download my free Freedom Manifesto!

All right, I’ll see you next week!

Freedom is yours, 

Megan