iPhoto Expresses 30 Years of Recovery

Over the last several months, I’ve acquired a new digital camera and a Mac and much to my surprise, I’m having a ball with iPhoto. Hence, the new images, I hope they help to convey my ongoing discoveries on multidimensional levels. Pictures do speak a thousand words and these in particular evoke many feelings. When I view them while aware of my felt senses, with judgment suspended and an open heart, I’m flooded with good feelings.

That’s me in Maui on the right in late December outlining the “talk” I gave for Crossroads Centre and the Staged Recovery Project @The Institute.Org in NYC last week. On the far left is Lisa Baruch of Crossroads and Ana Venezia of The Institute flanking “happy me” at the event. It was an honor to be with an addictions recovery community on the same evening that marked my own 30th anniversary in the recovery process, a challenging journey beyond my wildest dreams.

It was a hard-hitting presentation, as I had my first opportunity to share a larger context of my own faceted recovery work that has informed my research and inspired my experience; all the while expanding my horizons and creating shifts in perception. I was able share an authentic story of how I developed fresh eyes and ears on the most graceful ways of healing through Stage Two recovery. This stage has the power to relieve our bodies from “pockets” of frozen trauma energy which keeps us unconsciously repeating unrewarding (or destructive) behaviors or in isolating from what we want most. These energies are fragments of trauma lodged in our nervous system that disconnect us from ourselves and our worlds while causing havoc and keeping us in a state of dysregulation.

I also shared for the first time publicly the pivotal life experience in 1989 that began my shift from a linear, cognitive and emotional healing framework to prioritizing somatic and body-oriented paradigms resulting in the possibility of having a more graceful and efficient healing process without shame or blame. This is a big time saver. When we shift our consciousness to the body and energy fields we can experience ourselves from a more evolutionary perspective thereby eliciting more compassion for ourselves and others.

The group that attended ranged from individuals a week in recovery to others with more than thirty five years under their belt. Some of the newcomers fretted at the idea of yet another stage of recovery, this is understandable. Yet, similar to a staged treatment process for other illnesses the foundation stage of healing supports and makes possible that which follows in order to access even deeper healing. I sensed for many it was an evening of seed planting and the take-home message offered was to consider that an addiction is the cannibalizing of our psychic energy and soul and that recovery is the clearing and making of space for love and wholeness to manifest.

I am grateful to Crossroads and the Staged Recovery Project for this opportunity and to the Freedom Institute for hosting it. A great 30th anniversary, indeed!