17/10/2025
17 years of smoking w**d every day and I’ll tell you what finally worked to gain my power back in 2020.
IT WASN’T:
The 3 years of psychoanalysis nor the many years of therapy with a psychologist (when the latter passed it was one of the hardest I’ve cried in my life so it wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate them)
The high priced, world famous retreat I did at 19-20 yrs old (though it worked for a week or two until I went to a wedding)
Being a health nut or in the best shape of my life
Daily spiritual practice, meditation, prayer (though this did lead me to the solution)
WHAT ACTUALLY WORKED?
A sobriety circle.
- No trained professionals
- No fancy bio hacking
- No astral plane downloads
Just a group of humans showing up honestly, with daily commitment to the practices and a very strong incentive towards accountability.
When you did “one more day” you did it for them as well as yourself.
The principles, the tradition and guidelines handed down through experience - the filtering of what worked through countless repetition and became foundational — of course this neutrality is extremely important.
But my participation in those groups brought about a lasting change in my cells that has endured until today, in a way a lifetime of solo self improvement could never do (though I think my internal ritual muscles maintained the effects after the fact).
I know you may think a group program means you’re just saving $ because you can’t get all the juicy time to yourself, your struggles and your yearnings.
But I promise you it’s not that.
First off, the people my work attracts have always been special.
Second, our intuition is super powerful when we are not clouded by the biases we have about ourselves and our closest relationships. So the perspective of others on our situations CAN be invaluable (when welcomed).
Third, we do the work not just for ourselves but so that we help the momentum of the group, those who have similarly invested in the process. That means faster results (like when you workout harder in a group class because of embarrassment / healthy competition)
Lastly, synchronicity. The group that shows up always feels destined.