Happy 4th of July!!! Now let's dig into the wound of Independence.

In this episode, I speak with Mary Wagstaff, a holistic alcohol coach for Women. She is radicalizing what it means to live alcohol-free through the lens of Women's empowerment for the aquarian age. We cover a lot of territories as we discuss masculine and feminine energy and the difference between independent and individual. "Independence" belongs to the group while "individual" belongs to the (surprise) individual. 

So many people get caught in the story that they are independent, or that it is the goal if we want to be free. The problem with that is there is no independence for the individual. All too often individuals give up their dharma, their purpose, to follow the road of independence, which leads nowhere. As an individual, we are dependent on others, maybe not people but the earth, and animals if nothing else. We are absolutely dependent, but we can be our own individuals within that dependence. The more we flounder about trying to grasp at independence the further we may fall under the influence of that desire.  

Check out Mary's website here www.marywagstaffcoach.com

If you are a parent or the adult child of a parent you are caring for or if you are a professional caregiver in any field, you face the very real threat of burnout nipping at your heels every day. This podcast can help you take a step back from that and get a wider perspective but working with me on a 4 session Recover Yourself package can finally put to bed any fear of burning out. Once you know how to recover yourself out of any situation, you’ll begin to gain more with every little thing you give. You’ll become unshakable and avoid conflict and stress without even knowing they were an option.

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

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Venmo: @MartinJon_Garcia

 Creating Chaos in our lives is easy, and we all do it. Every expectation we carry for ourselves or others creates chaos. In this episode, I am talking with Thomas FreeMe about how when we have expectations and lie to ourselves and others we are creating chaos. That, and how the system, that we look to for guidance is creating chaos as well.   

If you are interested in contacting Thomas FreeMe check out his work by googling "Thomas FreeMe Podcast" or just connect here on YouTube.  

Recover Yourself is a podcast series focused on recovering strength and power we have inadvertently given up. There is no limit to our power and yet we have all been shown, warned, and taught to live in fear that we are not enough and that there is not enough resource in the world for us.  

As a former addict, I am coming out with the message that we can all recover. I am changing the conversation from "Recover From" to "Recover To" and I want to help people recover who they are. MartinJon is the host of Recover Yourself and a mentor, speaker, and originator of Portrait Facilitation which helps people recover themselves completely. MartinJon is dedicated to contributing his unique experiences to better the world, his life, and the lives of others by helping people understand we have no limits.  

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

I recently returned from Guatemala where I spent 5.5 days in complete darkness at The Hermitage Retreats. This experience gave me a lot to think about and a lot to integrate into my life. Darkness has always been beautiful for me. When I was much younger I used to sit in a bathroom in the house I lived in which got no light in it unless the basement light was on. Sitting in there I had beautiful experiences of space breathing, whatever that means. Needless to say, I was very excited to experience darkness again over a greater amount of time.

This episode is really just me telling my friends Robin Dluzen, Tom Torluemke, and Linda Dorman about what happened there. It is not a deep dive into my psyche, but a travelog of my experience. Recovery, to me, has everything to do with knowing myself, and sitting in the dark over the better part of a week is one way to be with one's Self. 

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

o Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

Awareness is a cumulative process. If you start right now and open yourself to becoming aware of something that you previously were not aware of, like “What are you avoiding doing?” Whether there is a clear answer or not matters less than being aware that the question may have an answer. That is how we become aware, we can simply start by asking a question about how we feel about something and approach it with curiosity.

Ann HInce is the author of A Pathway to Insight, published a year ago today as I write this. Ann has found that seeking out what we truly feel, and accepting those feelings, is the key to inner peace. Ann’s focus on awareness is arrived at through EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique) also known as tapping. We don’t cover tapping in this episode but there are plenty of places on the internet you can find instructions on that specific procedure. Awareness, however it is arrived at, is the focus here, and to add awareness to any aspect of your life is beneficial. I hope you will take this as a sign to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings so you can continue to recover yourselves.

You can find, and contact Ann on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and through her website.

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

o Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

Harm reduction has been a huge focus of mine recently and I am happy to be conversing with Gretchen for this episode. I have to admit, I am a fan of toughness. That is not to say I am a fan of tough love, many people see my approach as one that stems from tough love but that’s not the case. Love, deep love, when we have it for ourselves and can offer it to others can very quickly look tough as it relates to the tough love movement, but it is what motivates those actions that are the measure.

Love can at times look quite tough but there are a lot of things that cannot be explained along the journey of love looking like what we expect, and it looks tough. The “Tough Love” idea is a simple one, get tough and you’ll see results, but that has rarely been the case and like the disease model never was backed by research. However, that never stopped anyone from making the statement that it was backed by research. I have no problem with love looking tough but when we take steps to be tough alone we are only doing more harm.

Gretchen Burns Bergman is the Executive Director and a Co-Founder of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), a 22-year-old non-profit organization that works to reduce the stigma associated with substance use disorders through education and compassionate support while advocating for therapeutic rather than punitive drug policies.

She served as California State Chairperson for Proposition 36 in 2000 (treatment instead of incarceration), and she was one of the three signers of Prop 64 in 2016 to legalize marijuana. She is the lead organizer of the Moms United to End the War on Drugs international campaign. Her articles on therapeutic justice and harm reduction strategies have been published nationwide, and she has spoken before countless audiences. Since 2014, A New PATH has been providing overdose prevention training and Narcan distribution in San Diego County. Currently, over 9000 individuals have been trained and 2040 lives are reported saved. She is also a fashion show producer and has two grown sons who are in long-term recovery from heroin addiction.

• Websites: www.anewpath.org and www.momsunited.net

• Facebook: facebook.com/anewpathsite

• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/PATHMomsUnited

• To support our work: https://www.anewpath.org/support-usTeasers

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

o Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/martinjon/

o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MartinJonRecoveryMentor

o LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjonarts/

o Anchor https://anchor.fm/martinjon 

o Pandora https://www.pandora.com/podcast/description/recover-yourself/PC:29611

o .Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recover-yourself/id1465440178

o Amazon https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/93c9f241-bbaa-45ff-80ea-7e6d6cc6f2b2/Recover-Yourself 

o Link Tree https://linktr.ee/martinjon

o Venmo: MartinJon_Garcia

All of my work revolves around this concept of "Recovering To." Without hesitation, I believe that if we can each recover ourselves and stop living under the influence of others we will not only live amazing lives, we will contribute, love, inspire, and support everyone around us without even trying. Doing that will also help us naturally evade unnecessary conflict, stress, and health problems. But we first have to recognize where we are being influenced. 

I have been doing this work for a long time now, not that I am done, I have a lot of things that I still live under the influence of, however, I have been in the cycle of questioning and being curious for such a long time it is not easy to pick apart and express. 

I am talking with @laurs_worldofsobriety today because she is much closer to the source of the transition into "Recovering To" and I wanted to present the things that come with that transition. the fears, the anxiety, all the things we have to face in moving into a healthy direction. 

I always want to emphasize that sobriety is a beverage choice. It might be a very difficult one to make, and I am very proud of you for making it, but at the end of the day, it is simply a beverage choice. Recovery is what you choose to do with that and how you want to proceed in your recovery is your choice and I wish you the best, whatever that choice is.

When we are in recovery, we want to examine if there is a destination, or goal we are looking to achieve. Laurie hosts Laur's World, an interview series of people recovering Out Loud https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Qugr1ff5KeEa9fBkFNONA you can also find her on Instagram @Laurs_WorldOfSobriety

If you are a parent or the adult child of a parent you are caring for or if you are a professional caregiver in any field, you face the very real threat of burnout nipping at your heels every day. This podcast can help you take a step back from that and get a wider perspective but working with me on a 4 session Recover Yourself package can finally put to bed any fear of burning out. Once you know how to recover yourself out of any situation, you’ll begin to gain more with every little thing you give. You’ll become unshakable and avoid conflict and stress without even knowing they were an option.

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. These start with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

o Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

In this episode With Jenna Velez, she mentions the phrase “Post Traumatic Growth” which I had not yet heard in my travels. It is such a great phrase for many of my experiences, because, yes, I have experienced trauma, but it was that trauma that I grew through. That is not to say I want others to experience that trauma as well but we, all of us on this planet, have resilience.

In a recent episode with Ken Bain he mentioned that we punish people who try but have not yet succeeded. I mention that to say that if we are currently traumatized we are simply in a state of having not yet succeeded in overcoming it, not that we never will. We often write off people who have experienced and struggled with trauma, even ourselves. We can so easily not take into account the depth of resilience we have within ourselves. It is something I have addressed in many episodes and I cannot believe the will be the last either.

Jenna applies her trade at The Mental Health Association of Westchester Inc and hosts the Surfacing – The Meaning in the Story podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/surfacing-the-meaning-in-the-story/id1553150810I was grateful to be a guest on that which you can find here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovering-to-with-guest-martinjon-recovery-mentor/id1553150810?i=1000534658040

You can find more information on MHAWestchester at www.mhawestchester.orgor follow them on social media

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. These start with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

The system of treatment as it relates to substance use has not followed the research. There is no other way to put it. If we were to examine the system related to its actions and the outcomes they claim to desire we can easily see that the system has a problem. It is not acting appropriately and continuing to perpetuate problems.   

This is not only the case for the addiction treatment world, unfortunately. We have already seen this play out in education, in my interview with Ken Bain, and in Criminal justice, in my interviews with James Kimmel and Tio Hardiman. We have systems that, although loud, have not followed the research in any way and are continuing to pull the wool over our eyes about their effectiveness.   

Terry applies his trade at Above and Beyond here in Chicago. It is the only place that I would ever blindly support because I know they respect their position in the community. Too many treatment centers get blind support because most people just assume that they are being set up to help, unfortunately, that is not often the case. This is not due to malintent, but when you go out into the world wanting to help, the amount of help you can give is endless, daunting, and no matter what you do there will always be more.   

When we experience that endless void of things to do, we will burn out. To avoid that, we look to easy solutions like abstinence. Since abstinence can be tested it is the litmus test for so many. Quality though, cannot be measured so it quickly gets overlooked as a metric. I am sure there are great centers all across the United States but more often than not the treatment center around the corner from you is not helping people but continuing to contribute to a diseased system that has erroneously label people diseased.  

This is a recent article by Terry http://better.net/chicago/life/health/the-nature-of-addiction-you-dont-get-addicted-to-the-drug-you-get-addicted-to-the-experience/  

As my work suggests I am always looking to recover myself completely and my aim is to help others recover themselves. I see a client for a total of 4 sessions which is designed to launch self-directed lives and separate us from the constant draw of codependency. This starts with my doing a portrait of my client. The portrait is an intimate experience, these open a vocabulary to trauma and are healing. This process is not for everyone and if you are not ready, I will not work with you. It is important that you are ready to step into yourself and stop playing a victim cursed by things around you. If you are interested in working together reach out at https://www.martinjon.com/  

The Recover Yourself approach is a path to your total wellness: Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual (however you define that). If you have pain or a major diagnosis, spiritual misgivings, or are easily emotionally disrupted, you are not whole. We give up on ourselves so easily. As children, we lived under the influence of our parents and that, for many, continues from one relationship to another. There is a you that you will be, which you have never known, that you can Recover To. Contact me when you are ready to step into that.

Support me financially through Venmo: MartinJon_Garcia

NAD is a supplement. Similar to testosterone, if we are not producing enough, we want to supplement it. Well, NAD enhances the ability of Vitamin B3 to support cellular healing in the body. This is a naturally occurring element in the body in which production can decrease for several reasons. Substance abuse or any abuse the body suffers could potentially erode the production of this in our body, as well as aging.

I am talking with Mike Godfrey and Stephanie Rose who are working together on a research project entitled “Perceptions of Mental Health and Recovery after Receiving NAD Treatment: A different Approach for Recovery and Withdrawal.” Although I do not support an abstinent-only approach, NAD seems to be a route for those that want abstinence.

Withdrawal is painful no matter how you slice it, and when it comes to stimulants there has previously been no help, or harm-reductive approach, to detoxing. NAD is not only being used to detox people from stimulants but for those who are ready to leave their MAT (suboxone/methadone) behind, as well as alcohol. Not everyone is going to want to move into abstinence but for those that are interested in that route, NAD seems to get people to a place where they can step into sobriety with a mind that is thinking clearer than otherwise would be possible.

Since doing this interview I have been taking NAD, I have not experienced any noticeable shift in my thinking or behaving. However, it should be noted that I didn’t take any tests to see the level of NAD I was producing, so it very well may have been a wash. I do have an MRI coming up in Dec for my MS, if I have significant shrinking in my legions or if it aids in any way I can detect, I will definitely let you know.

The center doing the research is Incura in North Little Rock Arkansas. https://incura.life/ @incura.life on Instagram

Dr. Stephanie Rose bio https://uca.edu/healthsci/facultystaff/rose/

Questions:

Would you try NAD if you were in a position to face detoxing? Where do you see NAD treatment, taking the information you have heard here, being able to offer benefit. Is NAD offered in your treatment facility?

The Recover Yourself approach is a path to your total wellness: Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual (however you define that). If you have pain or a major diagnosis, spiritual misgivings, or are easily emotionally disrupted, you are not whole. We give up on ourselves so easily. As children, we lived under the influence of our parents and that, for many, continues from one relationship to another. There is a you that you will be, which you have never known, that you can Recover To. Contact me when you are ready to step into that.

o Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RecoverYourself

o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/martinjon/

o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MartinJonRecoveryMentor

o LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjonarts/

o Link Tree https://linktr.ee/martinjon

o Venmo: MartinJon_Garcia

Harm Reduction is exactly what it sounds like, the desire to reduce harm. If you are not actively wanting to do harm there is no reason to oppose the ideas around harm reduction. We are looking to have a system that treats people with more respect than it currently does. Does that mean when we get you to treat people better, we will stop, no it doesn’t. Because when you treat people a little better, we will ask you to once again reevaluate and treat people even better than that.  

Maia mentions in this episode 2 things I want to point to specifically.   

1. That to practice harm reduction we have to look at risks in context and identify what harms we are looking to reduce.  

2. If you are treating someone with respect and dignity you are practicing harm reduction.  Maia Szalavitz is the author of 3 books Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, Unbroken Brain:  A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, and her latest from Hachette Go Undoing Drugs:  The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction.  

Maia Szalavitz is the author of 3 books

Questions for treatment center groups 

1. What are the rules you have around for yourself around using your DOC? How do those rules affect how you have treated others in respect to relationships similar to that which you have to your DOC? Can you approach that in a more respectful way?