ascetics.

We go from being able to naturally act like kids to thinking the only time we get to access this state is when we’re a few drinks in.

What life wants to give us is infinitely better than what we think it owes us.)

The goal here is to create a situation you no longer have to escape, or a life you don’t have to numb. The achievement of sobriety is not the point; it’s a by-product of the work. The work is the point. Addiction is the hook that gets you in the door, and quitting is the catalyst to heal deeper wounds. Through

emotional freedom technique, or EFT, a person typically is led by a therapist or certified practitioner to repeat a script related to the traumatic event while tapping on different meridian points (or energy centers) on the body. This process allows for stuck energy related to the traumatic event to be released and flow through the body to

Cured means never having to drink again. Cured means enjoying life without needing to reach for a glass of wine to unwind each day or to enjoy a celebratory event.

When I think of what the disaster of recovery for women really is, it’s that most of us come into it without the things it’s beating us to deny. Women aren’t sick from an overdeveloped sense of ego or a pathological lack of humility because all we’ve ever done is chase our desires; we are sick because we don’t have these things, haven’t done these

You don’t want a cigarette. You want a moment. And it was true. That was exactly what I

What she is saying is that the underlying precepts of a spiritual path—in every lineage from which there is a path—seek to define a degree of spiritual freedom through reversal of status. And who has had that status in societies all over the world for the last few thousand years? Men.