As you orient yourself to a whole new year, and make important decisions that will shape its course, consider this:

There is only one decision you need to make;
either you are working at your Freedom,
or you have accepted your Bondage.
Robert Adams

May 2010 bring you all you need to support you in your healing journey.

Warmly,
Gloria

If you bring forth that which is within you,
then that which is within you will be your salvation.
If you do not bring forth that which is within you,
then that which is within you will destroy you.
The Gnostic Gospels

It is human to have needs.  To eat, to be kept warm and dry, to grow and develop at a pace that is suited to our own natural rhythm, to be touched by loving hands, to find stimulation from our environment, just to name a few.  In fact, these are some of the basic needs of the infant.  And they’re normal.  [...]

 
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but hope for the patience to win my freedom.”
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet/Saint

The best way out is always through.  Robert Frost
Ever wondered if there is anything you can do to grow out of the psychological conditions labelled ‘addict’ and ‘trauma survivor’?  Well, there are.  Eventhough each carry the burden of feeling trapped in a world of unending pain and suffering, each also hold the potential for relief [...]

Speaking as someone who works daily with folks struggling primarily, but not exclusively, with alcohol and drug addiction, I perceive it to be a multi-dimensional condition touching all aspects of an individual’s life.  Their biology, their psychology, their social network, their educational and vocational aspirations, as well as the spiritual dimension of their existence.  I see it has its genesis [...]

What is trauma?  We hear the word bandied about in the mental health community or at 12 step meetings, but what is trauma anyway?  Simply put, it’s someone’s subjective experience of a disturbing life event.  It overwhelms a person’s ability to cope and leaves them feeling as if they’ll be harmed by someone, or that they’ll loose their mind.  You [...]

At the heart of healing is an experience. It is the experience of being willing and able to be in the moment with your feelings. No matter how awful or repulsive or spectacular they may be, to allow yourself to stay there and feel what is there to be felt. Of course you know as [...]

Did you know that truth is always the same?   That it is what it is . . .  period . . .  and that it remains the same throughout time?  The only thing that really matters is that you allow yourself to bump hip to the truth within your own being, and let it lead you into [...]

Some yogis call it ‘bare attention’, the practice of being present to experience.
Some Buddhists call it ‘mindfulness’, paying attention to the moment on purpose, and without judgement. 
Some trauma experts refer to it as the path of awareness, that brings the survivor to the painful truth of their experience.
And then there are those in the recovery community who [...]