"We live in a generation of emotionally weak people. Everything has to be watered down because it's offensive, including the truth." I have been pondering this quote since I saw it posted on social media. Have we become too political correct?
Read MoreWhen we are addicted to something, our true self tends to get hidden away. Only to be seen in glimpses here and there, when the cravings are not controlling us. And usually, when we are addicted to something, most of our waking time is spent on figuring out when to get our next fix, recovering from the crash after the high has worn off or dealing with the insatiable cravings. There is little space to just be. Be okay with who we are. This is super stressful. And what do we do, when we are stressed out? We reach for our addiction of choice. And on and on it goes.
Read MoreRecovery from any kind of addiction is a long winded road. It is not straight, nor does it even always go in the right direction - there are many u-turns and steps back along the way.
Read MoreHow many times do you find yourself in the same situation, just differences faces and different spaces? If your answer is more than 3 times, you might want to consider what the shared feature of each situation is.
Read MoreWhen are we ready for change? When the time is right. And the time is always right. Time is the only thing in life we cannot get more of. Nevertheless we tend to wait for that right time, as if only then magic can happen. I don't know many people who truly ever change. I do know many people, who say they are waiting for the perfect time. When the time is right, then they will do it. Whatever that may be.
Read Moreto just keep walking. Seems pretty solid advice. Yet I wonder how many of us disregard this oh-so-simple advice and instead freeze in the moment, like a deer in headlights. We stay stuck in the pain, we might find ourselves in at times for far too long. So that a moment in pain becomes an eternity. Crippling us.
Read MoreIt is impossible to change and keep lasting change going, if you do not have a clear vision in your head of, who you want to be and what you want you daily life to look like on there other side of breaking addiction. Without vision the people perish, so it says even in The Bible. Whenever someone is stuck and feel stagnant, like they can't move, yet they may say they want to, they often don't have a clear vision on where they are heading. How are you going to get there, if you don't even know where you are going?
Read MoreWhen was the last time you thought about how that slice of buttered bread felt in your body? The key to master effortless health without obsessing about what to eat when, is to simply get back in tune with our body. Everything we eat has an immediate impact on our body's biochemistry. Health is about balancing our biochemistry.
Read MoreAfter getting clean many expect an almost overnight change and applaud from their nearest ones as well. The road has been long and winded and often we thought we just wouldn't make it. That this life was not for us. That we didn't have what it takes to live in this skin. Every minute felt like another stabbing pain. Yes, that is how many feel that long road to finally figuring out how to live in this paper-thin skin without relying on drugs, food and alcohol.
Read MoreMedication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), represented typically by Suboxone and methadone, is used to treat opiate addiction and appears to be useful in reducing overdoses and decreasing transmission rates of HIV and hepatitis C. The short term benefits of MAT begs the question, as to what the long-term perspectives are. What happens when the addict needs to come totally clean and face what life without any drugs feel like? Considering that most people admit to feeling numb on any amount of drugs after prolonged time. Being numb will eventually itself lead to depression, thus MAT is only temporary.
Read MoreAnd every symptom brings with it a lesson. Until we learn the lesson, the symptom remains. So instead of attacking it, we need to create space to understand what it is, that we are supposed to learn from this symptom. Many of us have this idea, that any body fat is a bad thing. Body fat has an essential role for optimal health and absolutely crucial for female mental health and hormone balance. So when we talk about weight being a symptom, we are talking about a fat percentage below 21% for females or above 30%. For men it is a health concern, if it drops below 14% or rises over 25%.
Read MoreIf there is one thing I have learnt in life, it is that everybody hurts sometimes. No one hurts more than others. And yet it seems that there is this competition going on “who has it tougher”. I don’t get it: Aren’t we supposed to change what we don’t like in life, instead of continue being in a situation that cause us to complain day in and day out. Isn’t insanity defined by the very act of doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different outcome...?
Read MoreWe tend to think of spiritual practice as something very isolated - something where we engross ourselves in ourselves even more. It easily becomes a thin veil for narcissism and spiritual materialism - nurturing fanatic views and black-white thinking even further.
Read MoreOur current state of balance, can change yearly, monthly, daily and even minute-to-minute. Knowing our current state of balance is an essential tool for figuring out what needs attention right now. We can then feed those needs, rather than continue in a state of suppression and denial - all of which only leads to further imbalance and built-up. You don't fix needs by ignoring them, you fix needs by listening and caring for them.
Read MoreNest time you feel like you are about to do something that you have promised yourself not to do - ask yourself this simple question: Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? This is one of the most easy tools to begin to replace bad habits, step by step. So simple that many refuse to do it - because "it is just too easy" and thus a waste of time, because everything else in life seems like a battle. This is the lie we tell ourselves to NOT take action: if it is not hard, it must not work. Yet it is the simple things in life that works best.
Read MoreRecovery involves a personal recognition of the need for change and transformation. Recovery is a process through which we gradually achieve greater balance of mind, body and spirit in relation to other aspects of life, including family, work and community. Each person’s recovery process is unique and impacted by cultural beliefs and traditions. Our cultural experience often shapes the recovery path that is right for us. The take-away here is that no one single thing is enough to focus on, not the abstinence, not the trauma, not the nutrition and not the spiritual aspects of connecting with self, others and God. Recovery is complex and requires us to focus on all aspects simultaneously in order to get all the legs on the stool stable.
Read MoreRecovery is not just about quitting past destructive behaviors and addictions. We might like to think that recovery is simply being abstinent - being clean, not engaging in bad habits and not taking xyz. Recovery that lasts, however, is not passive. It is not us sitting it out, waiting for the craving magically to just disappear over time. The most frequent relapse happens, when we think our recovery is about focusing on just NOT doing that or taking that. This will simply exhaust our willpower over time and we will give in. We will give in to the craving, because we are not creating a space for the recovered new self, we are just abstaining - and life feels empty when we go about it this way.
Read MoreI am not a big fan of so-called cheat days. And anyone with a history of addiction issues likely want to avoid this black-white pattern of planning their eating schedule as well. Cheat days easily turn into binge days. And this leaves us in a mental state of feeling like a failure - we went overboard, we felt like we lost control and allowed our impulses to completely take-over. This is a red flag situation for anyone to relapse back into their primary type of addiction. Simply because our MINDSET is now one of "whatever", "I can't control myself" so "I might as well xyz".
Read MoreIs it all or nothing - what do you think? I like to think that most things in life can be enjoyed in moderation. Although learning to embrace parts of something that has once controlled one, can be difficult. And indeed for some substances it is not possible, as the biochemical component is too strong to ever gain a sense of how to enjoy in moderation again. Yet, from my years of having worked in the addiction field, I am convinced that the deeper lesson of addiction is to embrace the gray zone.
Read MoreHello, my name is xyz and I am an addict. Not something anyone ever wants to have to say out loud. Therefore, we often make excuses, explanations and elaborations for our destructive habits, as to not have to attach ourselves with the term "addict". When we are scared of change, when we fear we won't make it through to the other side, when the light seems so far away and we feel weak... That is when we will often tend to deceive ourselves. We will lie in an attempt to survive in the midst of the misery. We will often lie so much, that we convince ourselves, that we do not have a problem. That everything is OK. We are OK. This is OK. What we are doing is fine - everything is just fine. When in fact we are slowly drowning.
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