Adult-Addict

7 weeks of embodied practice and enquiry into your addictive patterns, with the possibility of freedom through creativity and orientation towards the sacred.

Online: Tuesdays Sep 22 – Nov 3

6 – 7.30pm Central European time

5 – 6.30pm UK time

9 – 10.30am Pacific time

Warning: this course is not for you if you’re deep into using with a substance addiction. In that case, I recommend you seek out a 12-step program as a good starting place, or find a therapist who specialises in working with addictions. It is also probably not for you if you are in a very fragile condition psychologically, because whilst this course is trauma-informed and attuned to the vulnerability inherent in addictions, it is also an approach rooted in creativity, which requires a balance of safety and risk. You’ll need some capacity to walk on the wild side.

If you’re like most of the human race, especially those of us living in a tech-based rat-race mainstream world, do you recognise yourself here?….

Do you engage in behaviours that are damaging to yourself and others, that you wish you could stop, but don’t?

Have you sworn over and over again to get a grip and find the discipline to change, only to find yourself back to square one after a few weeks or even days?

Do you act normal, but deep down know that a core part of you is weird, twisted or deformed in some way?

Addiction is a problem. At its most extreme, addiction can fuel the most horrific behaviours humans indulge in, but we’re all subject to this deeply misunderstood soul-cry of longing.

The object of our addictions — the substance, the behaviour — is not the heart of the matter. The roots run way deeper, usually in painful childhood experiences plus a lack of mentoring from strong wise elders during adolescence. Added to that, we’re subject to a host of influences that can be detrimental to our health, ranging from epigenetic inheritances to cultural distortions of natural hungers, and non-physical forces that mainstream world doesn’t have an understanding of or language for.

So, what’s the pain you’re carrying inside you, or at the receiving end of?

What are you medicating?

What are you on the run from?

What are the hungers you believe you cannot possibly satisfy?What is the longing in the depths of your belly, your heart, that if you got anywhere close to meeting it, would burst through ‘comfortable, nice, normal’, revealing your wild and true nature?

These are not questions to answer lightly. In fact, if you’re anything like me (and you probably are) it is a lifetime journey to grow through them, and doing so changes you beyond recognition.

Adult-Addict is a way of stepping in the right direction, of orienting yourself towards life instead of suppression, towards love instead of shame, towards truth instead of lies.

You will learn how to:

• Use the creative paths of dance, voice, writing and embodied speaking to unravel our darkly tangled threads and weave a new cloth in colours of light, love and truth.
• Root every moment in Prayer, acknowledging our powerlessness to entirely control ourselves, whilst having faith that the power of divine intelligence, of the Holy Mystery, of Life, Love, or whatever you call God, opens doorways that we cannot even imagine on our own.
• Unravel the relationship between enslavement and surrender, devotion and denial, pain and pleasure.
• Build a foundation of right relationship with the three Holy Lusts — Sex, Money and Power — so they become pathways of self-knowledge into the heart of your particular addictions, and beyond into service to the world around you.
• Use creative practice to ground, centre and come down out of triggered states, back into relational adulthood, and then communicate from the heart rather than the head.

Our deepest hunger is for total communion with the Divine. But we will not be trying to ‘get there’ by transcending our human limitations or leaving behind our worldly desires, understanding that God is already closer than breath. That we are That. Indeed, we will not really be trying to get anywhere, but rather to move with what is, trusting that life is fundamentally good, and all is actually well, even if we’re in pain.

We take the path into the world and through our desires, discovering that the world is Divine too. We’re designed to desire passionately, to feel a lot about that, and by going right into the heart of the matter, into our worldly experience, we find ourselves in our own centre.

That’s what we’re going for here, one new step, one buried feeling, one twisted belief, one taboo desire at a time.

Adult-Addict is not aiming to ‘fix’ you, or to achieve miracles in a few weeks. It is a set of tools you can use for the rest of your life. Like any good tools, they will only work if you use them, but the course will give you a strong start.

Each session will have the following structure:

• Arrival, grounding, embodied warmup
• Learning material for the week
• Practice
• Q&A with Adam
• Outlining home practice for the week
• Breakout into small groups.

In growing through addiction, it’s crucial to have some company. We’re social animals, and in order to avoid the shame around our addictions, we often isolate ourselves, making healing and awakening more difficult. A vital part of the course will be for you to have some sense of belonging to this circle of people going through a similar journey: to see each other’s dance, hear each other’s voice, and find common ground with each other. To help with this, there will be:

• A small support group with 2 or 3 others from the course that you reach out to in between sessions.
• One practice per week that you can use to stabilise and integrate what you learn during the calls.
• A community forum where you can, if you choose, ask questions and share what’s going on with each other.
• Encouragement to stay connected to this support network well beyond the formal duration of the course, if you wish.

Addiction is a painfully disempowered state, whereas adulthood has the capacity for joyfully empowered creativity. The reality of all our journeys is a non-linear path with elements of both, often stumbling around in the dark, not really understanding what’s happening until much later when we look back.

That’s been true for me, and when I look back, I see that the ways in which I’ve managed to dedicate my time to good practice, call out for help, and also just let go and surrender to the messy mix of being human have made a difference. I’ve struggled deeply with my addictive patterns, and from this life experience, have gathered a mix of understanding, compassion and strong practices for us. I look forward to sharing some of that with you, and travelling a little way together.

Adam

Course structure:

Session 1: Foundations — grounding, boundaries, communication, agreements, meeting each other. Basics of practice with movement, breath, voice, drawing and writing. How to withdraw or settle when needed, and knowing when and how to pause. Standing in the sacred.

Session 2: Adult — understanding addiction, glimpsing freedom. Introduction to the creative process, embodied, and how it reflects the three Holy Lusts. Making space for pleasure, humour and prayer.

Session 3: Heartfelt — learning to use creative tools to embody, express and release emotional energy. The true nature of ‘negative’ emotions, their vital role in our well-being, and finding the discipline to be a free spirit. Getting to the heart of your addictions.

Session 4: True — getting honest with yourself about what you’re up to. Hidden patterns, seeing straight, and how much we need each other to create anew. Finding the shapes of your addictions and the power of desire.

Session 5: Relational — why it’s almost impossible to do anything constructive when you’re dysregulated, how that f*cks up your relationships, and what you can do to come back to ground, centre, and the present. Beginning the hard work of relational recovery.

Session 6: Joy — accessing the gifts of ’negative’ states, allowing them to take us through a reset and transformation, seeing the beauty in everything, and surrendering to our deepest nature as a way to reconnect with all we hold sacred.

Session 7: Next — preparing to finish the course and establish what your next steps might be, what support you might need in place, and how to recover when you inevitably stumble and fall.