UnWeaving Ourselves From Addictions.

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Can you see prison bars in this weaving loom?

 

 

We weave our addictions into a pattern. 
They become the pattern of our lives. 

 

The addictions we create.
With our yes’s and our no’s.

 

These yes’s and no’s become the fabric of our lives.
They are that which we weave.

 

The first yes.
The second yes.
The yes to drugs, alcohol, and various distractions.

 

The first no.
The second no.
The no to being with ourselves just as we are.
The no to our discomforts, angst, and pain.

 

We continue the yes’s and no’s.

 

Weaving and weaving
the fabric of our lives.

 

The fabric grows.

 

We keep weaving the yes’s.
The yes to alcohol.
The yes to drugs.
The yes to distractions.

 

The fabric starts to cover our life.
It’s all we can see now.
It begins to smother us.

 

What we once started weaving
is now trying to kill us.
We have lost ourselves. 

 

We can’t breathe
and we keep weaving more yes’s and more no’s
trapped and imprisoned
by our choices of the YES and the NO.

 

 

Hola my dear friends, and welcome to The Studio today. 
I am feeling a bit poetic today, but more so, I want you to know that I know about this imprisoned self — and more than that —I want you to know there is a way out; an undoing of this weaving. Freedom from the smothering.
How do we free ourselves?
We can begin by unweaving — by doing the opposite with our yes’s and no’s. Start saying yes to what we are saying no to, and saying no to what we are saying yes to.
Unweave yourself and have a little patience and understanding in the process. No time is lost, if anything, look at all you have learned along the way. Just begin now. 
laura

 

* Laura C Meyer, MS,  is a therapeutic mindfulness instructor and founder of Live More Studio. She currently blogs and writes about mindfulness for addiction and mental health and believes people deserve more than the mainstream.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Powerful Life Lesson from a Children’s Book.

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If we want the problem of addiction, anxiety, and depression to go away-

we must learn to face our problems. 

 

Hi Everyone. I am really excited about our guest today, the children’s book, What Do You Do With a Problem? 
With over 20 years of research, and in working in the field of education, mental and behavioral health, I am utterly convinced that addiction, anxiety, and depression don’t exist (don’t have to), and what does exisit…what is true…is that people don’t know what to do with a problem.

book excerpt: And the more I worried, the bigger my problem became. 

Anxiety Exposed. Unless my client had intense trauma-related anxiety, they show up to my office proclaiming to have anxiety, and when I start to inquire, it (the anxiety) always reveals itself as a past or current unresolved problem, usually a pile of unattended problems, and/or a problem they’ve created in their mind that hasn’t happened yet and will probably not happen.

book excerpt: I wished it would just disappear. I tried everything I could to hide from it. 

Enter Pills & Addiction. Client after client…when I start to inquire, it all comes down to trying to hide from a problem and trying to make the problem disappear.
Some of my clients have been trying to make problems disappear with drugs and alcohol for so long, that they aren’t addicted to anything other than avoiding problems.
My depression clients are the same: they are depressed because they don’t know how to be with a problem. They take pills to avoid problems.

book excerpt: Maybe I was making the problem bigger and scarier than it actually was. After all, my problem hadn’t swallowed me up or attacked me. 

Low self-esteem and lack of confidence are not going to attack you. Relationship and financial problems aren’t going to eat you alive. Your problems aren’t going to attack you.

book excerpt: I realized I had to face it. It was an opportunity for me to learn and to grow. To be brave. To do something. 

This is the entire process of my job. I have never (and I mean never) sat with a client whose real problem was about addiction, anxiety, or depression. It was/is about showing them the opportunity to be brave and to do something (different).
Most all my male clients who are “depressed” are depressed because they aren’t being brave.
I keep emphasizing the numbers because it’s insanely true.
I will end with this: If we want the problem of addiction, anxiety, and depression to go away- we must learn to face our problems.
Head on over to Barnes & Noble . Read it to your children! Other books in the series include: What You Do With An Idea? and What Do You Do With A Chance?
These books are a solution for our future.
 laura

 

* Laura C Meyer, MS,  is a therapeutic mindfulness instructor and founder of Live More Studio. She currently blogs and writes about mindfulness for addiction and mental health and believes people deserve more than the mainstream.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer

Leading Yourself Through American Mayhem

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I no longer felt stressed or angry about America’s current state of affairs. I felt empowered to change my life, to take a leadership role to influence change, and I was excited to be a part of the transition. 

Don’t make it a revolt: make it revolutionary. 

 

Hi Everyone! and welcome to The Studio, our guest today is the February issue (which I believe runs through April) of Fast Magazine, and their amazing insights on how to lead ourselves through this time of transition. 
I too have been struggling with the American mayhem of gun-control, mental health debates, black this, gender that, far left, far right, failing policies, weak legal protection, hate, protests, and all that jazz. 
I am not a hater, nor a yeller, and I don’t find much value in protesting without sustainable solutions: SO WHAT TO DO?

We are highly aware of the problems…less aware of solutions.

Awareness is the first step to change, but some of us are needing to move forward into action.
Part of the larger mayhem is not only the situation at hand but more about the stress of not knowing what to do. And for me personally, a lot of my anger arose out of my own self-anger for not doing anything.
This week, I found myself reading noteworthy solutions in the February issue of Fast Magazine; How to Lead with Optimism: 185 Inspiring Lessons For a World In Transition – upon which I no longer felt stressed or angry about America’s current state of affairs. I felt empowered to change my life, to take a leadership role to influence change, and I was excited to be a part of this American mayhem. 

Leading Yourself Through American Mayhem

Be impatient to stand still, yet patient about selecting a course of action.
Focus on The Opportunity when things fall apart. I’m not saying it’s going to feel good or be easy, but I am saying that there is an opportunity here; now.
Don’t Stand For Nothing or Everything. In Fast Magazine, the author writes that it is not the time to be shy, and quotes a verse from the musical Hamilton: “If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?”
Too many people are standing for anything and everything; not really knowing what they stand for. People are standing up for #metoo, civil rights, immigrants, gender equality, gun-rights, and so on.
In trying to feel good about doing something, we end up with too many people making noise, and fewer people creating sustainable action. 
Sustainable Action is a plan that can hold future ideas and idealistic values, but needs to be rooted in the reality of today.
Know the Problem and take the lead. Most of our American systems are outdated: our food system, education, healthcare, government, legal, even our financial system of beliefs in consuming for happiness is so old school.
You may want to choose all of them because they are all important, but you will make more of a difference if you choose the one you are most passionate about, and commit to making a change in that system.
Local Changes. Don’t be so quick to run to the White House thinking you can make changes – ask what you can start doing locally; in your own backyard. 
Unplug from the mayhem for a while and ask yourself: What is my responsibility? What do I need to do, and can I find some integrity and happiness in doing it? Can I be a role model for change? or am I feeding the mayhem?
Change is happening, and you are part of the change. You don’t have to like it, and it can be painful, but we all have to find our own way through the transition.
Go get your copy today at (my heaven on earth) aka Barnes & Noble. 
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* Laura C Meyer is a mindfulness instructor, mental health & addiction therapist, and founder of Live More Studio.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer

Anxiety. Pills. Skills. And Fish.

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Hi Everyone and welcome to The Studio!

 

Our guest today is Terri Cole.
Unknown-3 Terri is a New York-based licensed psychotherapist, and I use some of her older work (Decoding Fear) with clients in regard to anxiety, fear, and worry. 
As most of you know, I don’t buy into the medical model when it comes to telling people their brains are broken “so take this pill.”
I’ve worked with too many people who have overcome anxiety and/or stopped taking benzodiazepines. And with my own personal times of finding myself in the boxing ring with anxiety, only to find that I kicked its ass, it ran away, or we became friends…I am convinced we don’t need pills! Pills are sooo last decade. 
Pills are out. Skills are in. 
And for my male clients, we sometimes look at anxiety just as if we were in a boxing ring- it makes the obstacles of life (such as anxiety) fun- yes, fun. I didn’t say pleasurable. If we found ourselves in a boxing ring, the word pleasure wouldn’t exactly fit, but there can be a sense of fun as we are challenged to beat the opponent. 
And…I’m all about the “Teach a Man To Fish” philosophy when it comes to mental and behavioral health. 
Below is Terri’s PDF: Decoding Your Relationship to Fear. Download it. Work it. 
It’s an easy worksheet and an easy place to begin.  

 

CLICK HERE ⇒ PDF Decoding Your Relationship to Fear

 

Enjoy and I will see you soon, 
laura

 

* Laura C Meyer is a mindfulness instructor, mental health & addiction therapist, and founder of Live More Studio.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer

What If Addiction Was An Opportunity?

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What if…
What if you were to consider – to think – for a moment – that addiction was an opportunity.
What if you were not a victim? What you didn’t attach yourself to a lifetime of disease?
What if…
addiction was an opportunity to become stronger? more loving, to yourself and others? 
What if…
you entered the door of your addiction differently? If you “woke up” in the middle of your circumstances differently?
Just think about it. 
laura

 

 

 

Earning Your Own Self-Respect.

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Hola, Bonjour, Ciao, and all that jazz….welcome to The Studio:) 
I can feel it…I can feel when their mind starts churning. I wait patiently, and they say, “You ask hard questions.” 
I reply, “I know. I don’t mean to, but just chew on it a little longer. ” 
One of my most recent questions to clients, has actually been hard for me to swallow: still chewing on it, digesting it in very small pieces…
Question: What would you have to do, start doing, stop doing, or anything in between, to start earning your own self-respect?

 

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* Laura C Meyer is a mindfulness instructor at The University of Virginia’s School of Medicine, mental health & addiction therapist, and founder of Live More Studio.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer

Food for a Man’s Soul.

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Hola my friends, and welcome to The Studio:)   
My guest today is David Brooks, author of The Road to Character. David’s book is a key element in my work with male clients. 
I am fascinated at what happens when I ask male clients, “Where in your life have you been brave or courageous?” and they look me as if I’m speaking a foreign language.
When the “Man Plan” gets proposed, and I bring up traits such as confidence, integrity, and inner strength, they inevitably ask, with the utmost sincerity, “How do I get that?” 
I asked a client the other day, “What does it mean to be a man today, in 2017?” 
He didn’t know, and I understand the challenges of that question, BUT it’s a question worth exploring. 
It’s a question of utmost importance for the survival of our country. Because being a man matters. 
If you find yourself connecting to the excerpt below: The Road to Character is a must read. It’s food for a man’s soul. 

 

Years pass and the deepest parts of yourself go unexplored and unstructured. You are busy, but you have a vague anxiety that your life has not achieved its ultimate meaning and significance. You live with an unconscious boredom, not really loving, not really attached to the moral purposes that give life its worth. You lack the internal criteria to make unshakeable commitments. You never develop inner consistency, the integrity that can withstand popular disapproval or a serious blow. You find yourself doing things that other people approve of, whether these things are right for you or not. You do not have a strategy to build character, and without that, not only your inner life but also your external life will eventually fall to pieces. 
-The Road to Character

 

Ciao and enjoy!

 

* Laura C Meyer is a mindfulness instructor at The University of Virginia’s School of Medicine, mental health & addiction therapist, and founder of Live More Studio.

This website is designed as an educational experience. It is not therapy. The information acknowledges that while medication is a viable treatment option, it is not the only solution. Disclaimer