Every person, place and thing have a story that contains the details of the process that each have gone through on their journey. In other words, theories, hopes, creativity, goals, and imagination can be found in all the ways that we and objects exist in the world. In a novel, the author uses creativity to generate and manipulate the experiences of the often-made-up characters while maintaining a sense of relatable authentic-ness by giving them the desire to overcome or achieve something and us the wish that they will. In the story of a field, the plants have requirements in order to grow there but if the prickles that affect them are too much, then the objective won’t occur until the vegetation adapts or the environment changes into something more hospitable either way though there is always the hope that everything will just be what it needs to be. In the tale of a smile, a limited field of view believes that a grin means that someone is happy even though there has always been an underlying chance of a plot twist where that specific facial feature is actually the innovative cover -up for pain but then it’s hard to perceive that an established belief has to evolve as the particulars of existing become more visible to us. Even music and art have their components or mediums that can be arranged, then rearranged and then repositioned again to create different results depending on the artists perspectives or the place that they are at when their feelings came to life. All of those things exist not because of the promise or guarantee of a perfectly finished product, or an easy and loveable trail surrounded by only flowers or words that say and are heard exactly as they are hoped to be but because through trial and error, its imaginable to find what is possible by expanding theories to work better with the different settings that occur in our lives especially the ones found on the inside of each of us. During Ryan’s three-week battle for his life, there were some individuals who “flipped out” over my steps in that one particular process based on their belief of how things should have been handled. For them there was real truth in their goals along with their hope, but we also have to be aware that sometimes the prickles are too much in the space that they are growing in, or certain actions are not the right movements to get us to where we want to be even if they work for someone else or there is a theory that says they are the right ones for everyone. As I pass this way again, I am able to see the moments in which my behaviors in the yesterdays would have implied to Ryan that he had not only failed by falling into the weeds to begin with but by also going down into them again and again. Of course, it’s easy to feel that way when we are caught in the midst of breathing in fear and pain, but it also feeds the hell by pushing the possibility and the hope from the light into the shadows for that person when those things were already on the edge for that individual. I understand and feel that now that I have also experienced a similar and yet different circumstance in which I was the person living it while others were the observers on the sideline. I regret that both Ryan and I hadn’t realized sooner that the series of movements that he kept trying to follow through with for years were not the ones that were ever going to help himself imagine what he would look like in a place beyond his substance use. So, what are you strong, powerful and loud enough to do today for you regardless of what you have done again and again on all of the previous days? A little bit at a time, imagine yourself beyond your substance abuse. A little bit at a time step in a different direction while feeling your way to discovering some things that work and others that don’t not that you can’t. A little bit at a time seek help until you find the one that will sit with you while you get all right with all that you are. Most of all recognize that as a work of art you are on an epic journey of trial and error where love and hate are both found in the form of dragons, prickles can hurt you as well as help you reach the light, and weeds are a part of the process leading to the beauty of the person that you are going through all of this with, but you have to look both ways. Have the best day POSSIBLE for you because a little bit at a time you are so very POSSIBLE. Love Always, Heavell
Thanks to the curiosity of some researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, they are gaining new insight into addiction remission after mapping the occurrence of it happening in substance users who suffered a stroke. The technique known as lesion network mapping led to entire brain circuits rather than it being in specific brain regions pointing to new targets for treatment. They found a specific brain circuit for nicotine and another similar one for alcoholism suggesting a potentially therapeutic, targetable neural pathway for addiction in general, rather than addiction to a specific substance. “Now that our study has identified a target-a specific human brain circuit-we hope to test whether targeted neuromodulation to this brain circuit provides sustainable symptom relief to our patients. We have hope that we can make significant strides towards helping patients with substance use disorders”.
Author Juho Joutsa, Brain lesions disrupting addiction map to a common human brain circuit. Published in Nature Medicine https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01834-y
A little bit at a time and with a little bit of hope, we are imagining so much more…
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