Addiction & Possibility
A New Chapter
After enough years of living one story, a different life can begin to feel impossible.
After an attempt that didn’t last.
After going back to something you thought you were ready to leave.
After decades of believing:
“This is just who I am.”
But how long something has been part of your life does not decide how the rest of your story has to be written.
Possibility can enter your story at any point.
This is the story of my mom, Margie.
My Mom, Margie
For more than 40 years, addiction was part of my mom’s life.
But if I only told you that, you wouldn’t know my mom.
There was also pain and survival.
Health scares.
Love and loss.
Crazy adventures.
Animals she would do just about anything for.
A huge heart.
And more than a few chapters that probably deserve their own book.
For a very long time, addiction was woven into her life.
But the beginning of the transformation I want to tell you about didn’t actually start with her trying to overcome addiction.
It started with her health.
And with one 15-minute hypnosis recording.
It Started With a Cancer Scare
My mom had already survived breast cancer.
Then, in 2022, bloodwork raised new health concerns.
Her doctors arranged additional testing, including a colonoscopy.
For our family, this was frightening.
And this is where hypnosis entered the story.
It was created around her health and what she was facing at that moment.
My mom remembered hearing about hypnosis years earlier—especially people using it to quit smoking in the 1990s.
For whatever reason, the idea had stayed with her.
She believed:
“That might actually work.”
And that tiny opening mattered.
Because if you knew my mom then, getting her to sit down and enthusiastically embrace meditation and consciousness work was not exactly easy.
Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditations?
Forget it.
He triggered her. 😂
She basically refused.
But hypnosis?
Hypnosis she was willing to try.
One 15-Minute Recording
A hypnotherapist created a personalized recording for her that was about 15 minutes long.
It focused on her health.
She listened to it during the period between the concerning bloodwork and her follow-up testing.
And then the follow-up results came back negative and, as our family remembers the experience, surprisingly healthy.
That experience became incredibly important to my mom.
What happened next in her life is the part of the story that matters here.
Something opened.
For a woman who had lived through decades of addiction, health struggles, and deeply established patterns, the experience made her begin wondering whether her mind, consciousness, choices, and body might be connected in ways she had never really considered before.
The hypnosis wasn’t the end of her transformation.
It was the beginning of a cascade.
One Experience Began Changing What Seemed Possible
The change didn’t happen all at once.
One experience led to another.
One question opened another question.
One choice made another choice seem possible.
Health
Her relationship with her health began changing.
Food
Her relationship with food changed.
Environment
Her environment changed.
Daily Practices
Her daily practices changed.
Relationship With Drugs
Eventually, her relationship with drugs changed too.
New Possibilities
A different life began to seem possible.
Somewhere inside that cascade of changes, a woman who had lived with addiction for more than 40 years began creating a completely different life.
This is why the order of Margie’s story matters.
She didn’t first decide:
“I’m going to overcome four decades of addiction.”
And then use hypnosis as an addiction treatment.
The first opening was much smaller.
She was scared about her health.
She was willing to try one thing.
Then Her Whole Life Started Changing
The changes that followed weren’t limited to one area.
Eventually, my mom got off drugs.
She moved to Hawaii.
Food became a major part of our family’s exploration.
For about five months, we ate raw food.
Then we spent roughly a year eating vegan.
And trying things that an earlier version of my mom probably would have laughed at us for suggesting.
This wasn’t one magical overnight transformation.
It was a series of experiences that kept changing what she was willing to consider.
Then Her Grandson Changed the Journey Again
Another major part of Margie’s transformation came through our family’s work around her grandson.
Our family was exploring meditation, breathwork, consciousness, and healing practices together.
And my mom became part of it.
This woman who once wouldn’t even do the meditations I wanted her to try was now:
Think about that transformation.
Not because waking up at 4:00 a.m. makes somebody enlightened.
But because of who she had been and what she was now willing to do.
And doing it because she loved her grandson and wanted to be part of what we were doing for him.
Sometimes transformation doesn’t begin because we’re trying to become a completely different person.
Sometimes love gives us a reason to try something we would never have tried for ourselves.
And Then Came Vipassana
Eventually, Margie decided to attempt something that an earlier version of her probably could never have imagined:
A Vipassana meditation retreat.
She Left
She couldn’t finish the retreat and went home.
Another Chance
She kept living, changing, and practicing before going back a couple of years later.
That first experience could have become the end of the story.
She could have decided:
“See? This isn’t for me.”
“I can’t do this.”
“I tried.”
But that wasn’t the end.
She continued living.
Continued changing.
Continued practicing.
Continued having experiences.
And a couple of years later, she went back.
The Second Time, She Finished
When Margie returned to Vipassana, she was not the exact same woman who had walked out on day three the first time.
More life had happened.
More practice had happened.
More change had happened.
This time, she completed the retreat.
During the practice, Margie sat with thoughts, emotions, sensations, and physical pain.
Instead of immediately escaping what she was feeling, she practiced observing it.
And she describes an extraordinary personal experience during that retreat.
She observed physical pain in her body.
She stayed with the experience.
And she describes the pain changing and eventually leaving her body.
Someone else’s meditation experience may look completely different.
But the part of this story I love most isn’t that everybody should go to Vipassana and expect the same thing.
“I couldn’t do it then” did not have to become:
“I can’t do it.”
Then, Years Later, Came Another Surprise
This is where the hepatitis story actually belongs.
It did not happen during the original cancer scare.
It was discovered years later—after my mom had already gone through enormous changes in her life.
The hepatitis itself went much farther back.
After receiving a blood transfusion in 1989, my mom had been told she acquired hepatitis.
Then, years into this completely different chapter of her life, she says doctors discovered it was no longer showing up and were surprised.
But chronologically, this matters.
It wasn’t something that happened at the beginning and convinced her to change.
It was something she discovered years after her life had already changed dramatically.
And for Margie and our family, it became another remarkable chapter in a much larger story.
More Than 40 Years Did Not Decide the Rest of Her Life
This is the part I want people to understand.
Her transformation wasn’t:
Hypnosis → addiction gone.
It wasn’t:
Meditation → perfect life.
And it wasn’t:
One practice → every health problem solved.
Her story was a cascade.
A Health Scare
A health concern led her to try a personalized hypnosis recording.
A New Question
The experience changed something about what she thought might be possible.
Changing Daily Life
Her lifestyle began changing. She eventually got off drugs and moved to Hawaii.
Family & Practices
Food, meditation, breathwork, and love for her grandson became part of her changing life.
The First Retreat
She attempted Vipassana, left on day three, and continued growing.
Returning and Finishing
She went back years later and completed the retreat.
Further Discoveries
Years into her changed life, she continued discovering things about herself and her health.
One door opened another.
And another.
And another.
The Woman Beyond the Addiction
My mom is over 70 now.
She takes no regular medications.
She still has no gray hair.
And she has enough stories from her crazy years to fill a book—and eventually, we’re going to let her tell them.
I am incredibly proud of her.
Not because she suddenly became perfect.
Not because every problem disappeared.
And not because her life followed some perfect transformation story.
I’m proud of her because she kept discovering that more of her life was still possible.
Her addiction is part of her history.
It matters.
It shaped parts of her story.
But it is not the whole of who she is.
Sometimes the First Door Isn’t the One You Expected
This may be my favorite lesson from my mom’s story.
The thing that began the cascade wasn’t originally intended to address the biggest pattern in her life.
She wasn’t listening to that first hypnosis recording because she had decided:
“Today I’m ending more than 40 years of addiction.”
She was worried about her health.
That was the door she was willing to open.
And sometimes that’s how change happens.
The first step doesn’t necessarily look like the final destination.
Better Sleep
Maybe you begin because you want to sleep better.
More Energy
Maybe you start walking because you want more energy.
Feeling Overwhelmed
Maybe you meditate because you’re overwhelmed.
Food & Wellbeing
Maybe you change your food because your stomach hurts.
Asking for Help
Maybe you ask for help because you’re tired.
A New Possibility
Maybe you try one thing because something different might be possible.
What if something different is possible?
You don’t always know where that question will lead.
Possibility Doesn’t Mean Doing It Alone
Margie’s story is hers.
It isn’t a formula for someone else’s recovery.
Addiction is complex, and different people may need different kinds of support—including professional treatment, medical care, medication when appropriate, peer support, relationships, new environments, new habits, and personal practices.
For my mom, hypnosis was an early doorway into a much larger exploration of consciousness and health.
Then came lifestyle changes.
You don’t have to be ready for everything.
You don’t have to know exactly how you’re going to get from where you are to where you want to be.
You don’t even have to completely believe your life is about to change.
Maybe you simply need to find:
The first door you’re willing to open.
Margie’s Story
Addiction, Possibility & Becoming
A Story of Addiction, Possibility & Becoming
There is much more to Margie’s story than we could ever fit on this page.
And the woman who existed through all of it.
Margie’s upcoming book will tell the story of addiction and transformation— but more importantly, it will tell the story of a whole human being.
Planned Formats
Practice a Different Message
Sometimes change begins by practicing a different message.
Explore Recode experiences created around:
These experiences can become part of a larger personal practice and support system.
Create a Recode for Your Next Chapter
Your story isn’t Margie’s.
Your experiences, triggers, relationships, beliefs, reasons for changing, and vision for your future belong to you.
The Recode Method can help you create a personalized experience around what you’re working through.
Maybe it’s responding differently to a craving.
Asking for support.
Forgiving yourself.
Rebuilding confidence.
Strengthening a new routine.
Repairing a relationship.
Changing the conversation you have with yourself.
Or simply remembering the person you’re trying to become when the old story gets loud again.
Your experiences. Your words. Your next chapter.
Expect the Unexpected
Our family’s message isn’t that everyone’s recovery will look like Margie’s.
It won’t.
Her journey belongs to her.
But more than 40 years of addiction did not exhaust her possibilities.
And that is why we’re sharing her story.
The woman who once wouldn’t do the meditation eventually woke up at 4:00 in the morning to practice with her family.
The woman who left Vipassana on day three eventually went back and finished.
The woman whose life had revolved around addiction for decades eventually lived a life in which addiction was no longer the center of the story.
One health scare opened a door.
One hypnosis recording became part of a new question.
One question led to another experience.
Then another choice.
Then another chapter.
The person you have been is not the only person you can become.
An attempt that didn’t work isn’t proof that another one won’t.
A pattern that has existed for decades isn’t automatically entitled to the decades that come next.
And you don’t need to know the whole path today.
Sometimes the first change is simply allowing yourself to wonder:
What if my story isn’t finished?
Because at 20, 40, 70— or anywhere in between—