5. Martyrdom Anonymous

Wild Permission is your reminder that you already have everything it takes to live the life you want. Your dreams matter. You matter.

Hosted by artist and permission-giver Alexis Wild, this podcast is your space for quick bursts of courage, truth, and joy. Alexis helps you remember who you are—worthy, powerful, and enough—while inviting you to step into your wildest, truest self.

This is your permission slip to follow your desires, trust your heart, and create a beautiful life on your own terms.

www.alexiswild.com

www.wildpermission.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

I'm here today to tell you that I have an addiction.

...And I ponder and wonder if perhaps we share this.

I'm addicted to suffering. I'm addicted to being the victim. I'm addicted to being a martyr.

Maybe you've cringed as I said that or maybe you recognize in yourself this struggle as well?

Because… yes, a victim is persecuted.

But gosh, does a victim ever hold a lot of power!

In my addiction and my hold to martyrdom, it means I don't have to succeed. I don't have to thrive. I don't have to go for the things that I want. Because I can't! I just simply can't!

Is it true that a victim is powerful? Yes! Holding on to victimhood means that I can blame everybody else for my lack of everything. And in being addicted to lack I can make excuses for why I haven't done the things that I've said I want to do → All those big, big, big huge dreams.

I don't need to go get them because it's too hard.

There's too much for me to go against.

There's too many people telling me I can't do it. 

…And so it's easier and more scintillating, more attractive, for me to simply roll over and claim that my life is too hard to succeed. It's too hard for me to thrive when all these things have happened to me all my life. 

Did you feel that in yourself as well? The allure of martyrdom is such that it allows us to put the opinions and viewpoints and feelings of others above our own… and then when we feel like we've squeezed ourselves so tightly into the little box that they made for us, well then gosh, we can be so proud. ♦ Because we are finally exactly what everybody expected us to be. ♦

Only this pride is just a sham, and you know it as well as I do. 

My addiction to martyrdom… to being less than… to being the victim… to being the one who has been hurt… it allows me to have access to tools that simply aren't accessible if I were thriving. Let's think about it. I can go and get free counseling. I could sign up for free government assistance. I could whine and cry to ANYBODY and they will listen to the victim. Do we love to listen to people brag about the things that they've achieved? Not usually, right? It feels uncomfortable, doesn't it? This is because we're all addicted to being small! To allowing the world around us and other people and circumstances to dictate what happens in our own lives. We're addicted to smallness. We're told that life has to be a struggle. 

So we sign up for it.

I'm here to say, F no.

So, sign me up for martyrdom anonymous.

I will pledge allegiance to the God of my soul.

I will take 12 steps all day long every single day of my life in order to shed the martyrdom and the fear and the victimhood that has held me back.

I don't need this. You don't need this

We don't have to be addicted to suffering!

Our birthright is to grow and to thrive.

Look at nature. She takes over a field if she can and she never stops. She grows and grows and grows and even where humans have tried to stop her. She still pushes through because nature and our nature is to grow to be abundant, to thrive, to multiply. 

Nature is not a martyr and neither are we. 

Neither am I.

Neither are you. 

So, today, a big fat middle finger to our addiction to suffering. We're stepping up.

Martyrs anonymous - a 12 Steps allegiance to ourselves because we're here to thrive. 

We have full unadulterated permission to thrive!

About Alexis:

Some artists paint what they see. Alexis Christine Wild paints what she feels—and what she hopes you will feel too. Since 2014, her richly textured canvases have woven together bold colour, flowing movement, and hidden words of affirmation, poetry, and intention. Each piece is layered with meaning, as if the artwork itself is whispering, You have permission to be exactly who you are.

From her light-filled home studio in London, Ontario, Alexis creates work that now lives in homes and collections around the world. She is also the host of the Wild Permission podcast and curator of The Space, a vibrant small business incubator where creativity and community meet.

Working mainly with acrylics and plaster on canvas, Alexis invites viewers to come closer—because the deeper you look, the more you find. Her art is both a visual experience and an emotional one, sparking connection to self and others alike.

And Alexis’s creativity doesn’t stop at the canvas. By pairing her art practice with her passion for guiding others, she helps people make bold, aligned moves in their own lives—transforming her work into a living dialogue between courage, self-expression, and meaningful change.