My guest today, Megan Starks, has spent 20 years in and out of addiction, interwoven with her spiritual journey. She finally got to the place where she was done. Megan is now over 8 months sober and writes a blog to help change the stigma around addiction. I started reading Megan’s blog on Medium and loved it! So I got in touch to ask her to be on the show. Below are some of the life lessons I took away from our conversation.
“Definitely drank and used because of childhood trauma.”
Megan was and has always been quite spiritual but struggled to go between the light and the darkness. I think we go through some version of light versus dark and then have to make a choice when the darkness gets to be too much. As Megan suggested we all have to go through our own version of The Hero’s Journey and we have to remember we have the power to find the good in our story and provide value to others as a result of finding this good.
“ Anyone who is striving to awaken must go through…”
It was interesting to have a guest on the show speak about the power of the 12 Steps. We have had some guest that don’t align with them, but Megan has been working them for years and believes they are the foundation for spirituality. Before, she would only make it to around 6 months of sobriety. But once she finally became “spiritually bankrupt”, she came out the other side.
She takes a daily inventory of her resentments which naturally occur. “On a day to day bases, you just clean it up”. Taking responsibility for your part in any situation, rather than being a victim or blaming the other person. This was key to her recovery because it is resentments that cause us to drink.
“We are her co-creating our reality with the other people around us.”
We also spoke about the power of meditation to help your recovery and the fact you are not your thoughts. Suggesting this separation can help you reprogram some of your neural pathways.
We went on to talk about being sober and the struggle to have “fun”. Megan said she wasn’t having fun, she does not date and leads a rather quiet life.
I said in the interview, we need to consider exchanging fun for fulfillment and give back to the world from the pain we have endured. Not to settle for a low-level connection of being on drugs with someone and instead seek out deep and meaningful conversations you’ll remember!
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Last but not least we touched on books, some that were mentioned:
- RECOVERY 2.0: Move Beyond Addiction and Upgrade Your Life by Tommy Rosen
- In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
- I Am That: Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Good mentation app:
Go and check out Megan’s blog:
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Originally published at lisa.insideaddiction.co.uk