Recovering From Reality

In this week's episode I am joined by Ruthie Lindsey.

At seventeen years old, Ruthie was hit by an ambulance outside of a gas station in rural Louisiana. She broke her neck, punctured her lungs, and ruptured her spleen. Doctors performed a spinal cord fusion using wire and miraculously, she walked out of the hospital within a month.

Only a few years later, newly married and settling into adulthood, a simple turn of her head left her body riddled with chronic pain. Her case confounded medical professionals and in the months that followed, she became addicted to narcotic painkillers, depressed, and bedridden. After dozens of visits to specialists and surgeons, a doctor discovered that the wire holding her neck together was piercing her brain stem. Without another surgery, she would be paralyzed.

As she prepared for the procedure, her father passed away suddenly, her marriage began to collapse, and she surrendered her spirit to dependency and suffering. The surgery repaired her spine but she still felt broken, inside and out, until she chose to change her narrative.

Ruthie went home to the same town where she almost lost her life. She decided to learn joy again, to retrain her spirit to soothe her physical pain, to salvage strength from her suffering. She traded fentanyl for sunsets and morphine for picking wildflowers on the side of the road. Ruthie stopped using her body as a hiding place and started using it as her bridge to connect with the world.

Now a speaker, author, podcast host, and social media figure, Ruthie travels the globe sharing her story, empowering others to find purpose in their pain and to look for beauty in the midst of their brokenness. Her new memoir, There I Am: The Journey from Hopelessness to Healing is available now.

In this episode, we dive into topics like:

- Near-death experiences 

- How physical pain turns into emotional pain

- Addiction to prescribed medication

- Divorce 

- The tragic loss of her father 

- The brain's way of coping with trauma 

- Owning our recovery journeys 

- The importance of joy 

- How we always have been and always will be perfect, whole and worthy 

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This week I am joined by Jess and Bekah from the Chatty Broads Podcast. We dive into so many great topics like motherhood in quarantine, living with bi-polar disorder, mental health, our birth stories and the importance of making informed decisions and maintaining bodily autonomy in the birthing process.

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In this week's episode, I am joined by Ziwe Fumudoh, an American comedian and comic writer based in Brooklyn who is notable for her saucy and sarcastic commentary on politics, race, and young adulthood. (NY Times) She attended Phillips Academy in Andover and Northwestern University, where she studied poetry, film, and African-American studies.

Her comedy career began as an intern for Comedy Central, and a year later she wrote for The Onion and The Rundown with Robin Thede. Currently, She is a writer on the show Desus and Mero. She has a show on YouTube entitled Baited With Ziwe in which she has her white friends as guests on the show and she baits them into making unwitting racial faux pas.

Every month she appears in a show that she created at Brooklyn's Union Hall entitled Pop Show in which she performs original pop songs. A reviewer in Forbes magazine wrote that she has the "confidence of an old comedy pro”. (via ZiweFumudoh.com)

In this episode, we dive into topics like:

- Cancel culture

- Shame vs. guilt and how you. deal with them

- Beauty standards

- Allyship

- Politics

Mentioned in this week's episode

- Ziwe's IG Live show feat. Alexis

- Vulture's recap of Ziwe interviewing Alexis

- Ziwe's website, Instagram (@ziwef), and Twitter (@ziwe)

- Listen to Ziwe's music on every platform

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In this part q+a, part call-in episode, I answer questions about...

• Sexuality and identifying as bisexual
• Romantic relationships 
• Discussing addiction with children
• Spirituality (Christianity, prayer, mindfulness, etc)
• Making amends and reconciling past relationships 
• Reparenting
• addiction
• shame
• Confidence and self-esteem
• Setting priorities
• Financial crisis and recovery
• Helping a friend who’s in active addiction

Mentioned in this week’s episode

• Ep. 25 Wake Up B*tch It’s 2019 with Laganja Estranja
• How to Know God by Deepak Chopra M.D.
• Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader
• The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön
• Science of Mind 365 by Ernest Holmes
• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• A New Earth by Ekhart Tolle
• Agape Spiritual Center’s Facebook
• Dirty Genes by Ben Lynch
• Lost Connections by Johann Hari
• I thought it was just me (but it isn’t) by Brené Brown
• The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
• Ep. 77 Having a Money Mentality Makeover with Amanda Frances
• Beyond Addiction by Jeffery Foote
• In the Realm Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté
• Chasing the Scream by Yohann Hari

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Jess and Kate met working in a bar together... eventually the two got sober and joined forces to start the Seltzer Squad podcast to create a community for those seeking and maintaining sobriety. Today we are diving in to discuss our individual paths towards sobriety and what has and has not worked out for us.

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Shaman Durek is a 6th generation shaman, author of best seller "Spirit Hacking: Shamanic Keys to Reclaim Your Personal Power, Transform Yourself, and Light Up the World," and a visionary for the Now Age. His focus is on the evolution of humanity and simplifying our lives through common sense. He’s redefining what wellness means by putting the power back in peoples’ hands so that they can consciously live their lives authentically and in alignment. Through his powerful ancient teachings he helps demystify spirituality making it attainable and understandable for the mainstream audience. Durek’s teachings have impacted thousands of people from diverse public figures like Nina Dobrev and Gwyneth Paltrow to tech giants like Dave Asprey of Bulletproof Coffee.  Durek’s online Shaman School and widely popular show Ancient Wisdom Today are instrumental in helping people tap into their personal power and unblocking any negative patterns that keep them from reaching optimal human performance.

In this weeks episode we are diving into Durek’s path in shamanhood, he challenges me on a few limiting belief systems, we talk about healing from abuse and about the great shift that is happening on the planet right now.

www.OseaMalibu.com/Recovering  Use code “reality” for $10 off your first purchase of $50 or more

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In this week’s episode, I am joined by Marlee Liss, who confronted her rapist through restorative justice. Marlee is a leader in personal healing, a public speaker, and advocate for healing restorative justice. Marlee chose to sit down and confront her rapist through restorative justice, rather than go through with a trial. She is the first to tell you that this method isn’t for everyone, but there is so much to learn from her journey. 

In this episode, she shares her extremely profound story and we discuss:

• overcoming internalized objectification culture
• holding people accountable and having empathy for them
• the difference between shame and guilt
• what it meant for her to hear her rapist take ownership and apologize
• what it means to reclaim your sexuality
• how to heal from sexual trauma, and the role of forgiveness in healing
• teaching our children about sexual abuse
• creating consent culture through integration

You can follow Marlee Liss on Instagram at: @marleeliss and visit www.marleeliss.com to learn more.

Books mentioned:

• Until We Reckon by Danielle Sered
• Kids books: This is My Body, Red Flag Feelings

Another episode that ties in with today’s topics: Episode 57 with Katie Wilcox

You can follow along with us on Instagram:

@recoveringfromreality

@itsalexishaines

@liferesetcourse

This week's episode is brought to you by: Green Chef: 

If you or someone you know needs addiction treatment please visit www.alorecovery.com

Produced  by Dear Media

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Jeff Epstein (yes, that’s his real name) is a podcast host, pop culture fanatic and one of my dear friends who is known for his viral instagram account where he makes the best memes. Jeff is also a recovering heroin addict having used from the age of 17 until finally getting sober at 26. Now 2 1/2 years sober, he is here to share his story which includes arrests, several stints in jail and multiple overdoses, having sex with lots of girls despite being totally gay, along with his take on all things pop culture.

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Biet Simkin is a global meditation leader. She is called the “Lady Gaga of Meditation” as she combines modern principles, pop culture, and spirituality into her meditation practice and teachings. Biet has overcome so much in her life - from the death of her parents and daughter, to the ups and downs of the music industry, as well as overcoming addiction. I learned so much from her book, Don't Just Sit There!: 44 Insights to Get Your Meditation Practice Off the Cushion and Into the Real World, and I’m so grateful to have her on the podcast this week.

This episode is filled with riffs on mortality, getting sober, incorporating meditation into our daily lives, facing our mortality without fear, and what it means to be on the path to enlightenment. 

In this podcast we discuss:

• Overcoming adversity
• Sobriety
• Finding and choosing peace no matter what is going on in our lives or the world around us
• Hidden childhood trauma and how it affects our path to enlightenment
• Divided attention versus fascinated attention
• What it means to walk the spiritual path
• Coming to terms with and facing our mortality without fear
• A mini Q&A about meditation: best times, lengths, and the meaning of boredom

You can follow Biet on Instagram at: @guidedbybiet

You can follow along with us on Instagram:

@recoveringfromreality

@itsalexishaines

@liferesetcourse

This week's episode is brought to you by: Osea Malibu: Visit www.oseamalibu.com/recovering to receive $10 off your first purchase of $50 dollars or more. FREE shipping for orders in the US over $75

If you or someone you know needs addiction treatment please visit www.alorecovery.com

Produced by Dear Media

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today I am joined by Amanda Frances, a self-made multimillionaire. Amanda has created courses and been a life coach over the past nine years, empowering others to remove their limiting beliefs surrounding money in order to receive the abundance they deserve. My mom and I have taken two of her courses, including Money Mentality Makeover, and I’m so excited for you to hear some of what she has to share. In this episode, we talk about what it means to be an energetic match for what we want, removing judgement and the ideas surrounding whether money is good or bad, and how spirituality plays a role in what we receive.

Produced by Dear Media

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.