Synopsis

​One of my most challenging cases was that of a young woman from a prominent family in the Middle East.

BD found herself trapped in cycles of addiction that would often lead to destructive and uncontrolled physical and emotional reactions when triggered by family members or anyone in her environment. The situation became critical to her family when some of these cycles ended in an overdose that could potentially threaten her life. 

As a regular user of cannabis, she also became addicted to prescription drugs like Xanax and Valium, prescribed by Psychiatrists trying to relieve her anxiety and stress while treating the addiction to Cannabis.

The real danger for BD was that she had lost all hope and her will to live. She no longer cared about the consequences of her choices or actions, and would often drive under the influence at high speeds, narrowly escaping death on a few occasions, but also always avoiding any consequences due to her family's influence.

When I first met BD, she had been in and out of some of the best rehabilitation centers in the world with little to no effect; she was angry, resentful, and resistant, but trapped in a situation where she had almost no choice...

As a last resort, her parents had locked her away in a facility against her will. 

She lost all personal freedom for almost a year, and once she was released, she was offered the choice to go on a transformational journey with me, or face being locked up again as soon as she relapsed again or lost control of her emotions...

Something she knew was inevitable. 

Symptomatic expression

• Uncontrolled, often violent, and reactive behavior

• A severe addiction to prescription medication, leading to occasional overdose

• Excessive weight gain that was affecting her health and the condition of her heart.

• Imbalance in brain chemistry [genetic in origin but triggered by drug use and poor health]
  

Transformational Process

To treat these severe symptoms, BD had to be removed from her home environment, away from her normal triggers, negative influences, and easy access to the substances to which she was addicted.

She was taken to our retreat space in South Africa, called the Well-Being Sanctuary, where the first phase of her program focused on detoxification and getting her body back into a more balanced state using the five pillars of well-being… nutrition, hydration, sleep, detoxification, and exercise.

The objective of the first phase of the program is to gain clarity in mind and body, to get the energy flowing through the system, and to get the person to feel good without needing to use any substance.

Once that objective was achieved, BD started to develop an awareness of her energetic system [body, mind, soul], and how everything is connected.

• She learned to manage her mental/ emotional state naturally with exercise, sleep, and food.

• She developed an awareness of the destructive patterns, thought forms, and beliefs that supported the addictive and destructive behavior, and the mechanisms to slowly dissolve the effect they had on her life.

• She claimed responsibility for her patterns and was thereby empowered to change them.

• She developed the tools to deal with her emotional state in a constructive way, and the ability to respond rather than react in triggered situations.
  

This process helped her develop the awareness to recognize when she was triggered into an emotional state, the self-discipline to pull back out of the effect, and empowered her to consciously choose how she wanted to respond to life.

 Over the next few cycles BD developed:

• Insight - the ability to stay present to the truth in the moment, not to get lost in the stories that are generated by the mind as it projects the cause of our suffering out into the world, and often onto the people we love.

• Clarity - the ability to separate perception from the actual truth, and to see the connection between our choices, actions, and the suffering that we experience in mind and body.

• Authentic expression - the ability to be yourself without needing to project an acceptable image so that you will be accepted, loved, valued, or admired.

• A deep awareness of the natural process that guides each of us on our own unique path out of suffering.

• An awareness of her true nature at the soul level, and her deepest purpose for being.

 Outcome

At the start of her journey, BD was living in a world where all potential seemed lost, where death, prison or losing all personal freedom were the only options.

Pulling oneself out of such darkness is almost impossible, but once BD experienced the light she held within herself during the first phase of the journey,  she realized that we all hold the power to heal ourselves at every level and that there is a natural guidance system that is leading us towards a more connected, healthy, and purposeful life, she had the motivation to do the work.

Today she lives a more empowered, balanced, joyful, and constructive life.

She is no longer controlled by her addiction, or her mental/emotional state, and has started to create a life where she can be seen, loved and respected for the incredible being that she is.