Neff Inspiration

486 Pat Roos: Surviving Alex - A mother's story of Love, Loss, and Addiction

In Pat’s words: 
My new book, Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction (Rutgers University Press, May 2024). It would be useful to talk about my goals. And the two questions that drove my narrative: how to survive something trauma like this, and what might we have done differently? It's most useful to focus on what "we" more generally could do, beyond individual families. 
I was a professor of sociology at Rutgers University when in 2015 my husband Chip and I suffered the tragic loss of our 25-year old son Alex from a heroin overdose. Then, and earlier during his active addiction, we were baffled and confused, not to mention heartbroken, by the insanity and chaos that turned our lives upside down and inside out. My training as a sociologist led me on a quest to better understand what happened to my family. Building on my professional and academic perspectives, I wrote a sociological memoir, Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction, published in May 2024 by Rutgers University Press.
I spent much of my sociological career investigating systemic patterns of inequality by sex and race, focusing on how subtle mechanisms of inequity get reproduced. After Alex’s death, I realigned my research and advocacy interests, turning grief into activism. In Surviving Alex, I use the same skills to examine extant explanations and treatments for the ever-growing overdose epidemic and find them wanting. Weaving together the personal and the sociological, I learned about the broader set of factors implicated in mental health and substance use disorders. Instead of focusing on individual-level choice and brain disease arguments, I direct my attention to the larger social context in which those individual-level actions occur. Ultimately, I hope to inspire a moral community of action to realign public health policy to address the overdose crisis.
In Surviving Alex, I describe the two roads families travel in the carousel ride from hell that is addiction. The ideal road—what all parents want for their child—travels a straight line through an idyllic childhood, high school and college graduations, career success, a family of one’s own. A second road—one that parents dread—heads directly into the storms, depression, anxiety, mental health disorders, substance use, and in the worst case, death. These two paths are not at opposite ends of the same continuum, but rather roads that run parallel to one other, and frequently intersect. I describe how Alex walked each of these roads, veering toward happiness, success, and sanity at some points in his life, and toward anxiety, despair, and addiction at others. I make clear that “good families” travel both these roads, arguing that addiction happens to people from “good families.” Indeed, as I underscore, addiction can happen to anyone.
I integrate existing research and writing on addiction with the information I gathered over the years we lived with Alex’s mental health and substance use, and with the trauma associated with his death. I talked with important people in Alex’s life, including his friends, therapist, teachers, police officers, family members, and others who met him along the way. As Alex’s medical heir, I collected intake and medical information from the institutions in which he resided, providing a wealth of information from social workers, doctors, psychiatrists, rehab staff, and jailers to flesh out my personal narrative and interviews.
Ultimately, I imagine a world steeped in compassionate, paradigm-shifting harm reduction methods, as opposed to the punitive, choice-based approaches that currently exist. I champion more holistic approaches that value the humanity of those contending with substance use and mental health disorders, leading to more effective public and private policy strategies and reductions in the corrosive effects of stigma. We need to build stronger bridges from the harm reduction policy world to the lives of families facing addiction, meeting those who use substances where they are. There is substantially more to the explanation of the overdose crisis than bad choices made by those in the throes of addiction. Understanding the larger, systemic picture is key to understanding how to fix the problem, and the kinds of roles that government and private partnerships can play in developing solutions. 

3 Top Tips
1) Move beyond conventional explanations to combat addiction, focusing on health-based as opposed to punitive, criminal justice approaches.
2) Implement harm reduction strategies to produce holistic, compassionate approaches to addiction.
3) Promote multiple paths to recovery and reform ineffectual treatment systems by introducing medicines for substance use.

Social Media 
email: pat@patroos.com
web page: patroos.com

485 Laura Mangum Broome: How to Move Beyond Adversity and Flourish in Life

Laura Mangum Broome is a Resilience Coach and Author of "Flourishing After Adversity." In a five-year period, Laura overcame breast cancer, the loss of her oldest son, a heart transplant, and a sudden divorce after 27 years of marriage. Adversity makes you bitter or better. Laura chose better. From her experiences, she developed a 3-Step Resilience Framework to help others transform pain into purpose and rediscover joy. In her spare time, Laura is a volunteer mentor for youth aging out of the foster care system and transitioning into adulthood. She lives a joyful life with her family in San Antonio, Texas.

3 Top Tips 
1. Focus on what's in your power to move forward toward your goal. (I can't do that, but I can do this.)
2. How did I overcome past challenges? What superpowers stand out?
3. I can find at least one good thing is this difficult situation (at least it's not worse). What are other things in my day (week, month) that I'm grateful for?

Social Media
Website: https://www.icope2hope.com/ (free resources available and contact information)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/icope2hope/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-mangum-broome-96473539/

Special Offer:
Free Resource: 20 Key Strategies to Strengthen Resilience and Embrace Change
Link: https://www.icope2hope.com/20strategies

484 Steve Wilson: Teetering on a tightrope - My bipolar journey

As an energetic normal boy of nine, Steven W. Wilson would not have guessed that the most horrifying day of his life was lurking just months ahead.
From that terrifying day when he was at the theater, to his suicidal ideations, his attempt to kill his father and his subsequent hospitalization, Teetering on a Tightrope sweeps the reader headlong into the abyss of bipolar disorder. Wilson propels the reader into his sometimes out-of-control mind, inability to perform sexually and overwhelming anger. Despite all that, Wilson gushes about the monumental times when he was in a state of normalcy and could enjoy life's golden moments, all centered around his family and friends. Teetering on a Tightrope shows that those who suffer from bipolar disorder can experience a full and productive life.

483 Craig Meriwether: Overcome Fear and Anxiety In Life & Program Yourself For Confidence

Craig Meriwether is a mindset coach and clinical hypnotherapist helping people eliminate negative emotions and trauma so they can reach their full potential.
Craig is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Medical Hypnosis Specialist, Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) specialist, and Founder of Arizona Integrative Hypnotherapy helping people eliminate the negative emotions and limiting beliefs that may be keeping them from reaching their full potential.
For over 12 years, Craig has been helping people heal from early childhood trauma, helping cancer patients with pain control, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, students with test anxiety, entrepreneurs with confidence, athletes with peak performance, and anyone who may be dealing with overwhelm, fear and anxiety.
Craig has created Ace Any Test, the most comprehensive course for test anxiety relief so people can eliminate anxiety around exams, auditions, job interviews and public speaking, as well as increase confidence and self-esteem.

3 Top Tips
1.) What is strongest in your mind is what you do over and over again. If you practice the piano, or martial arts, or a foreign language you'll get better and better every day. Same if you're practicing anxiety, fear and anger. So what if you started practicing something else, confidence, happiness, peace?
2.) It doesn't take months and years to change your mindset. Research shows you can start rewiring your brain in less than a week.
3.) Just by sitting in a comfortable place, closing your eyes, and pretending you are the person you want to become you can literally rewire your brain. Olympic athletes do this every day.

Social Media 
aceanytest.com 
craig@aceanytest.com
aziht.com. (my hypnotherapy website)

5 free recordings to Program Yourself For Confidence. 
https://aceanytest.com/boost-your-confidence/
Also I have an affiliate program for my Ace Any Test course. When you sign up you get a custom affiliate link which you can put in the show notes, use in social media and use in an email newsletter.
You can find out more about the course at information at https://aceanytest.com/ and more about the affiliate program at https://aceanytest.com/affiliate-program/

482 Nicole Poulton: How to get sober in 5 simple steps

Nicole Poulton is an addiction and recovery coach, transformational speaker, entrepreneur and an inspiring survivor of sexual abuse. With over 12 years in the addiction and recovery field, Nicole has impacted over a million lives with her message.
Currently, Nicole serves as a coach and mentor guiding individuals, teams and families through the trials of addiction and sobriety, with a focus on healing and behavior education. Nicole’s mission is to empower others to step into their full potential so they can create a life they truly love. Her approach shows that 5 simple steps can be the breakthrough you need to beat addiction. 

3 Top Tips
1. The addiction is always a solution to a deeper problem. If you address the root, it's much easier to stop the addiction.
2. Understand the 6 human needs. We call have the same 6 human needs and your addiction is meeting at least one (or more). Identifying which needs it meets helps to make the changes necessary to prevent relapse.
3. Leverage. Instead of waiting on the universe to give you leverage (overdose, loss of job, family troubles) there is a way to facilitate leverage by utilizing the concept of pain and pleasure. 

Social Media 
Website: nicolepoulton.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicole.poulton/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nicole.poulton
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010776640313

Special Offer: Id love to offer my ebook: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/form/5nQi8f0iDeis48qQ8kvX

481 Eva Rodriguez: How Unexpected Tragedy Forced Me to Transform My Life and Health

Eva Rodriguez is a former HR executive turned trauma-informed Certified Life, Health, and Weight Loss Coach for Millennial women. She teaches women all over the world how to lose weight without dieting and how to become strong from the inside out. Eva’s life came to a complete halt in 2015 when her fiancé and the father of her only child died in a car accident. The following year, her mother died of cancer. With her world crumbling around her, she found herself dealing with her grief, pain, and sadness by overeating, overdrinking, overworking, and overspending.
On the day Eva passed out in her office due to exhaustion and dehydration, she realized that it was time for her to get her health together, get her life together, and be an example of strength, love, and resilience for her son. Eva’s educational background includes Life Coaching, Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coaching, Personal Training, Intuitive Eating, Meditation, Somatic Healing, EFT Tapping, Neurolinguistic Programming, Hypnosis, Manifestation, and Barre.
Eva is the host of the top-ranked fitness podcast Lose the Weight, Not the Curves, and in her 1:1 coaching program, Eva helps women lose 30 pounds in 90 days using her signature 3-2-1 Body Recomposition Method, Nervous System Regulation Tools, and Intuitive Eating Framework.

3 Top Tips 
1. How to find your compelling why and why it matters for your transformation
2. Tools for regulating your nervous system
3. The one question to ask yourself before you overindulge in food or alcohol 

Social Media
Eva's website: https://eva.fit
Eva's YouTube https://youtube.com/@itsevarodriguez
Eva's TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@itsevarodriguez
Eva's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/itsevarodriguez/

Special Offer
My free 3-part mini-training called How to Lose Belly Fat Fast where you'll learn the exact science-backed method that I created to get your body into fat-burning mode so that you can start losing inches off your waistline in the next 10 days

480 Birgitta Visser: The Journey Of Healing From Trauma To Empowerment

Birgitta Visser is a modern-day mystic, guiding others on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. As a Soul Empowerment Coach and Divine Channel, she tunes into higher frequencies, delivering messages from the many Light Beings and Master Teachers. With her gift for Light Language Healing, she weaves light codes that activate transformation in those seeking alignment with their soul's purpose.
She is the author of BE-com-ing Authentically Me, sharing her often turbulent life’s journey - one that has taken her through the shadows and into the light. Though her path has been anything but conventional, Birgitta's story serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration for others to unlock their own potential for growth and empowerment. Her honesty and vulnerability remind us that even in our most trying moments, we have the power to heal, overcome, and embrace our true selves.
She hopes that people will awaken to what life is all about and is simply here to offer her words as food for thought in unlocking their own potential to BE-com-ing authentically themselves.
This interview proves that to go from Trauma to empowerment is a true journey of healing. 

3 Top Tips 
How to live a more empowered life by overcoming our trauma
Grounding ourselves and harnessing the spiritual energy to manifest the life we truly want
The power of meditation
Loving ourselves

Social Media 
http://www.powersoulhealing.com
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/universallightwarriors/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHrjXt3goKbsWVXNv9kq5Tg/

#spirituality #motivation #meditation #spiritualawakening #selflove #happytuesday #healing #inspiration #positivevibes #lightworker #mindfulness #raiseyourvibration #spiritualgrowth #loveyourself #selfcare #higherawareness #wisdom #expandingconsciousness #highervibes #motivation #morningmotivation #gratitude #inspiration #traumahealing #liveauthentic #startliving #takeaction #believeinyourself #transformation #lightlanguagehealer

479 DK Ciccone: Hurting Does Not Equal Broken - Finding Resilience Through Movement

Dana Karen (“DK”) Ciccone is a certified Pilates instructor who helps people in pain improve strength, mobility, and well-being in a weight-neutral environment. She’s also trained in pain reprocessing therapy through the Pain Psychology Center. Having begun her own journey with chronic back pain as a young teen, she has been exploring ways to help herself and others regain joy of movement for decades. After twenty years in the health sector, DK left a corporate career to follow her passion, later launching Movement Remedies, a chronic pain–focused Pilates studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first book, You’re Meant to Move: A Guide to Conquering Chronic Pain, Increasing Stress Resilience, and Reclaiming an Active Life, was released December 2023.
DK Ciccone's approach proves that hurting does not equal broken. 

Tips to get moving when you don't feel like it:
1) Remember your "why" and make sure it is authentic
2) Move your body in all directions for just a few minutes each day, in ways that feel good
3) Find ways to challenge your body that bring you closer to your why

Social Media 
https://movementremedies.org
https://www.facebook.com/movement.remedies.llc/
https://www.instagram.com/movement_remedies/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-karen-ciccone
https://www.youtube.com/@movementremediesllc 

Special Offer 
Free digital copy of my book! Email me dk@movementremedies.org
Free movement class for low back and hip pain: https://connect.movementremedies.org/LowBackandHipPain

478 Helen Sernett: Feeling Lost and Finding the Way Again - A Guide To Healing With Sleep

Helen Sernett, founder, and host of the Sleep Lists podcast, was a non-profit fundraiser at the end of her rope struggling with a long list of medical issues.
Underlying all of it was the fact that she could no longer get herself to sleep. With Sleep Lists she serves up bedtime dreams every episode by reciting a lulling list of similar items.
Lately, she’s more well rested and less on edge. She records voice over work and speaks at events about her experience with resilience and the power of neuroplasticity.
Helen enjoys family time, cooking from scratch, and cosying up with a good book or movie.
In Helen's words: 
I felt like I was going crazy. I felt frazzled, stressed, and burnt out as a non-profit fundraiser. At the same time, I felt an enormous sense of apathy. It snuffed out not just my desire to work but all my passions. I was the proverbial ship lost at sea. I made it back to shore when I took control of my sleep.
Regaining control of my sleep schedule and getting good rest improved both my mental and physical health. Sleep was the lynchpin in a host of medical issues I had been navigating (and some I still am figuring out). If you have never given thought to your sleep you are a very fortunate person. Those of us who have lost our way and face insomnia are adrift—lonely, scared, and in need of help, tools, and time to heal. I provide insights into what it's like and how I found my way back to shore.
Now that I’ve found my way, I help others do the same. And if you’re one of the lucky ones, I want to make sure you never get lost in the first place. Women, middle aged people, non-profit workers, parents, caregivers, anyone with chronic illness, anyone who has ever felt burnt out in their career, and people who have big hearts tend to resonate with me and my story.
I embodied the expression of, "Work hard and sleep when you're dead." Now I fight against that culture of constant movement because I know the damage it does. If you want the secret to navigating change, being an adaptable person, finding a good mood, and gaining better health, it's simple (but that doesn't mean it's always easy): sleep. I talk about how I help myself and others get it and why it's so critical for brain, body, and spirit.

3 Top Tips
Treat sleep like your life depends on it, because it does.
If getting to sleep is tough, I have a tool that works really well.
Do your best to maintain a regular sleep schedule to help your body and mind. 

www.sleeplists.com
https://facebook.com/sleeplists
https://instagram.com/sleeplists
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleep-lists/
https://youtube.com/channel/UCKfMvDMHSELtQyGWfYIkmwQ
https://www.patreon.com/SleepLists

477 Karoline Fischer: The transformative power of working with the subconsciousness via hypnotherapy

Karoline Fischer is a trained MD who decided to train as an RTT Hypnotherapist as she found out personally how transformative this way of work can be. 
In her own words:
I had worked my entire adult life with therapists for my own life, and when I found methods that worked with subconsciousness, transformation really started to happen in my life. I am Karoline Fischer, an immigrant living in New York, originally from Austria. Loving New York and life. Very energetic and always interested in learning and meeting new people. I am passionate about supporting people in their healing and transforming their lives. I also love the arts, all of it. :-) 

3 Top Tips
It is never too late.
You can really transform your life.
It is never too late to have a happy childhood.

Social Media
www.instagram.com/karoline.fischer_

Karoline shows that the transformative power of working with unconsciousness with hypnotherapy can lead to massive changes in everyone's life. 

Special Offer
I offer 20 min consultations that are free and can take 10% off my fees for clients that come through this podcast.