A large number of Kundalini Global teachers are further qualified in working with anxiety and addiction recovery. As part of our Level Two training, we work to certify in Carolyn Cowan’s Mastering The Addictive Personality.
Right now, Carolyn is offering a series of classes called Containing The Addictive Mind and, on February 5thand 6th, she is also offering The Great Anxiety Hack.
Both of these are a wonderful introduction to starting your own new path relative to overcoming an addictive personality, and to considering, if you are a yoga teacher, if this is a specialism where you have experience, insight and knowledge to share.
What is the addictive personality?
The addictive personality is a response to ‘what happened’ to us. This could be anything, and is often many things, that made us feel violated, abandoned, rejected, shamed…
Someone with an addictive personality may or may not have a history of substance addiction but it is likely they will have experienced many different manifestations of this state of being (e.g. an anxiety ‘disorder’, an eating ‘disorder,’ self-harming behavior and sexual acting out) that are all ways of attempting to ease their own suffering as they fail to manage their emotional body – but that ultimately lead to more.
Addiction is Suffering
Suffering is key. Someone ‘normal’ (whatever that means!) could engage in behaviors that cause suffering in someone with an addictive personality and be ‘fine.’ When the behavior has its routes in an attempt to feel safe and when it causes suffering then it is a safety state and a playing out of the addictive personality.
In Kundalini Global trainings we do not work with the ‘Disease Model’ that is used in 12 Step recovery. We consider the addictive personality as a result of what can happen to the body, brain and our emotional responses when we have experienced trauma, abuse or shame.
Often the safety states are so ‘normal’ to the individual with an addictive personality that they do not even notice that they are hyper aroused virtually 24/7.
Those who are aware of it, those who come to a point where they are aware and would like to make change, are the minority. From that place huge, enormous, transformation can begin.
Looking for safety and security
The addictive personality, relative to how we may, as teachers, hold awareness of it when working with clients, is informed by attachment theory. Those of us who experienced adverse childhood experiences and whose attachment to our primary caregivers was not secure have a propensity for acting out whatever behaviors gave us some sense of safety and security in childhood in an (usually unconscious) attempt to be picked up and soothed and told everything is ok.
When we have an addictive personality, we drop into the inner child very quickly. The response is on a hair trigger.
In Kundalini Global, the addictive personality, and the way in which it plays out, is not considered a disease that cannot be overcome. Indeed, it can be our gold! The aspect of our story from which we can create change not only for ourselves but also for others.
