Move Beyond Addiction And Upgrade Your Life
I first met Tommy Rosen five years ago at a yoga, meditation and addiction recovery retreat at Esalen Institute. We were both attending as students, and got to know each other over shared meals, and daily walks between the dining hall and pavilion where classes took place. One day over lunch we were talking about our careers and he expressed a strong desire to combine his passions for recovery, meditation, nutrition and yoga (he’d been teaching a mixture of Kundalini and Vinyasa yoga for years). The following year I returned to the same retreat, and he was one of the teachers.
Indeed, Rosen has been a busy man since that lunch we shared five years ago. In 2012, he founded the Recovery 2.0: Beyond Addiction Online Conference Series, which brings together experts sharing cutting-edge teachings about addiction, recovery and personal transformation. The video interviews are live-streamed for free, increasing access to potentially life-changing information and resources. And at the end of the conference period, Rosen makes the entire set of interviews available for purchase. Within the past two years, more than 70 experts and 60,000 people from over 100 countries have participated.
His first book, Recovery 2.0: Move Beyond Addiction And Upgrade Your Life, was recently published by Hay House, and it’s a page-turner. In it Rosen expertly interweaves highly entertaining personal stories with educational content, breaking down complicated topics and making them very easy to understand, and nearly impossible to not relate to. I mean, who hasn’t experienced the feeling of being addicted to a mobile device, social media, work, sugar, caffeine, or binge-watching TV shows? As Rosen says, “In the final analysis, addicts of any kind are primarily addicted to looking away.” For those seeking a more definitive definition of addiction, here’s one straight from the book: “Behaviors become addictions when they are used continuously to avoid something.” And that includes oneself — Rosen makes clear that difficult feelings unprocessed over time become a risk factor to craving more intense kind of escape.
When speaking about co-dependence, which most people associate with obsessive romantic relationships or family members of alcoholics, he quotes addiction expert and founder of Yoga of 12 Step Recovery Nikki Myers, saying, “codependency is the disease of lost self” — a beautifully simplistic description of a complex struggle. He goes on to explain that, “Codependency has a lot to do with placing the needs of other people before our own and having difficultly setting healthy boundaries.” To be clear, I don’t mean to suggest that everyone is an addict, but I do believe that anyone could read this book and get something out of it. And that includes people who are currently active in 12 Step programs.
Rosen walks a very fine line here, boldly stating that a sustainable recovery must go beyond the 12 Steps to include yoga, meditation and proper nutrition. But he also repeatedly, and responsibly, stresses the importance of getting a sponsor and working the 12 Steps as soon as possible. Says Rosen, “Recovery 2.0 is a program of recovery that honors and includes the 12 Steps while also building upon their foundations.” This is based on his personal experience, having spent 12 years actively working a 12 Step program, being relieved of his obsession to drink and use, seeing his life get noticeably better, but still feeling stuck in what he calls “The Frequency of Addiction”.
You often hear people in recovery talk about addiction being like a game of whack-a-mole, where once you get a handle on your main addictions, other ones begin popping up. For Rosen, this included addiction to cigarettes, sugar, caffeine, and gambling with such intensity that he hit another “bottom” while still sober (the story is too good to attempt summarizing here). He was still mired in the “Frequency of Addiction” — making decisions based on avoiding some aspect of himself. “Most addicts,” says Rosen, “are disconnected from their bodies and their intuitive selves.” This is where yoga, meditation and nutrition become key. “At all costs,” he says, “we must not look away.”
Recovery 2.0 is an inspiring read that provides countless resources to help those interested in a holistic approach to recovery, and the honesty with which Rosen tells his personal story is sure to evoke some laughter. The final chapter is focused on the importance of discovering your personal mission, and using your unique talents to be of service. This is an important piece, as he believes those who do not feel useful are at greater risk of relapse. Rosen ends with a powerful plea, saying, “If you have ever had one single thought that you wanted something more for your life, please heed that thought. I believe it is the voice of your own heart asking you to become whole again.”
