When I was 12 years old, I tried smoking marijuana for the first time. It was sunset in the winter in interior Alaska, where the colors of the sun going down are dusty pink and orange. I stood for a moment in front of a birch trunk, seeing the gold and white and...
Understanding and Healing Addiction
It’s an attempt to regulate our nervous systems externally, using substances and behaviors, when we have not yet learned how to self-regulate with resonant warmth for the self.
The healing work of addiction takes us into the deeper layers of self, creating ever more expansive self-compassion and gentleness.
The healing of personal addiction is honorable, rich work, and it is the fractal for the healing that our society needs to undertake in order to be able to live in a non-addicted state of being and reciprocity with our planet.
How to Work With Unconscious Contracts
When I was walking my dog last night I ran into a rigid place inside myself. For any of you who've worked with me for a while, you know that a felt sense of rigidity is a cue, a way of knowing there's something going on under the surface. This rigidity provides an...
Healing Addiction With Unconscious Contract Work
In order to belong, survive or honor our families, we make unconscious and silent agreements with ourselves, our caregivers, or the world, which can keep us feeling stuck, small and constrained. When working with addictions and compulsive behaviors, we can use unconscious contract work to touch on, bring healing to, and release ourselves from agreements that are no longer serving us.