The Sober Shaman

Transforming addiction by making the spiritual practical.

Spiritual practices that transform addiction into long-term, successful recovery. https://www.thesobershaman.com/s/podcast?utm_medium=podcast (www.thesobershaman.com)

  1. 4d ago

    The Pause That Wasn't There | How Sky Breath Gives People in Recovery the One Thing Active Addiction Took Away

    At Stanford, Andrew Keaveney was chairing the Buddhist Club and trying to meditate. He tried a dozen techniques and kept coming up short. Then he found Sky Breath Meditation and four years later he was living at the source of it, at an ashram in Bangalore, India figuring out why it worked when nothing else had. In this conversation, Andrew shares how Sky Breath Meditation works with our physiology rather than against it, using the documented relationship between breath patterns and emotional states to bring the nervous system into alignment from the inside out. We get into what the research actually shows, how it fits alongside 12-step work, psychedelic integration, and traditional clinical care, and why it doesn't ask you to believe anything different than you already do. What separates Sky Breath from other meditation techniques and why it's the most studied breathwork protocol todayHow the breath-emotion connection works, and what a scientific study revealed about running it in reverseWhy Andrew & I believe addiction is about identity and what it takes to get underneath itWhat a person in recovery said Sky Breath gave him that nothing else had: choice - in the moment before the decision Website: artofliving.org | Recovery-specific: skyrecovery.org

    52 min

  2. Jun 17

    Addiction to Comfort & the Loss of Meaning, Purpose & Mastery

    Episode 73: Addiction to Comfort & the Loss of Meaning, Purpose & Mastery There's nothing wrong with comfort. Rest, recovery, the exhale after a hard week, these are essential. The problem isn't comfort. It's when comfort becomes the goal. That's the line this episode draws. Because when we're working toward mastery and comfort serves the work, we come back Monday morning lit up and ready to give. But when we're just grinding until Friday, when the drink, the couch, the shortcut is what we're actually after, we've crossed into something familiar to anyone in recovery: an addiction. Using the Chinese Five Element cycle, I walk through exactly how comfort-as-goal moves through the addiction cycle the same way any substance does. The fruit looks, smells, and maybe even tastes like success, but it's hollow calories. Here's what that costs us: When comfort is the goal, meaning goes out the window. Every time.Shortcuts don't just rob you of mastery. They also sacrifice the heart, and that's where inspiration and purpose actually lives.Crisis is a gift. Rock bottom is where the belief finally cracks open enough to let something real in.Mastery holds the magic to connect you to lineages of the past, people right now, and plants seeds in the future. No shortcut does all three. Thanks for listening. Find the full Alchemist Recovery Program, 52 lessons, one year, at thesobershaman.com.

    46 min

  3. Jun 12

    Hold the Ball: Qi for Pain, Cravings and the Heart

    Recorded from the back porch along the banks of the Ping River here in northern Thailand, I'm joined by Tucker our Temple Cat and a cacophony of singing birds for this episode of the Sober Shaman Podcast. We get into Qi, and not by talking about it, but by having an experience of it. The focus is one simple, powerful Qigong exercise: holding the ball. In 13 years inside addiction treatment centers, this is the exercise that lit people up. I could see the light bulbs going off when someone felt the Qi between their palms for the first time. We'll explore Qi follows Yi. Energy flows where attention goes. Which means we can direct it, move it, use it. Starting with the basics, jaw, shoulders, belly, we work through three lines of relaxation, build the Qi ball between the palms, and then take that ball of love and light to wherever it's needed: a headache, a knee, gastric upset, anxiety, cravings, heartbreak. No place to put it? Bring it straight into the Heart. This is a practice that can deliver palpable relief, not a cure-all, but an absolute component of healing that puts you back in participation with your own recovery. Want to run through it step by step? Lesson 23 is waiting at thesobershaman.com. Links referenced in this episode: thesobershaman.com

    49 min

  4. Jun 7

    My Guardian Spirits: A Shamanic Journey in Sobriety

    “Sobriety Is Boring” Really? I’ve noticed this sentiment has been showing up on social media lately, and I’ll admit, I get it. I bumped up against it in those first couple of years and I’ve had many people tell me they’ve experienced exactly the same. It’s common to hit some pretty quick plateaus of the, “Ok, I’ve stopped. Now what?” variety. But here’s what I keep coming back to: what’s boring, exactly? Life? Yup, there’s a lot to cover here. Because, as we know, stopping the active addiction is just the beginning. Links referenced in this episode: continue reading on Substack herethesobershaman.com

    52 min

  5. Jun 2

    Am I a Shaman?

    Am I a shaman? It’s right there in the name but the answer might surprise you. In this episode, I dig into what the word “shaman” actually means, why I deliberately use it, and why I’m equally deliberate about saying I’m not one. From lineage, ancestors and sacred language to power loss, soul loss and spiritual intrusion, I share the path I do walk and why I’d rather teach you to be your own shaman than do the work for you. Show Highlights What a shaman actually is, Unpacking the real, traditional meaning of shamanism: lineage, sacred language, ritual, and the role of intermediary between people and spirit. Why I use the word, but don’t claim the title. The intentional tension behind the name “The Sober Shaman” and why challenging preconceived notions is part of the work. The three forms of shamanic disease. A breakdown of power loss, soul loss, and spiritual intrusion, and how they show up in addiction and trauma. Teaching you to do it yourself. Why I believe the most powerful healing is the kind nobody can do for you, but it’s also the kind nobody can take away from you, either. And how I guide people to reclaim it. This one is close to my heart, so I hope it sparks something in you too. Listen in, and let me know your thoughts. Don’t forget to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and come find me on Substack and at www.thesobershaman.com. Links referenced in this episode: thesobershaman.com

    36 min

  6. May 28

    Addiction & Adderall: The Cost of Speeding

    In this episode, I ask a few questions that always seem to hit a nerve, reveal definitive opinions and ignite interesting conversation. To begin, I start with, "What are the long term effects of Adderall?" There's a lot to look at there. Then, I visit a question that I'm often asked, which is: "If I'm diagnosed with ADHD, prescribed Adderall by a licensed psychiatrist, and taking it as I should be, is this still an addiction?" I take a look at these from a Chinese medicine perspective, which Adderall, and any amphetamine, is simply a form of Fire. Speed makes us go faster, and as is the nature of things that make us go faster, certain universal laws come into effect. And the last one, which is something I ask of every prescription, "Where's the off ramp?" Which is my way of exploring when is enough going to be enough, the "problem" finally fixed, and we can stop taking the medicine. These are the questions not enough people seem to be asking, which is why I'm kicking up the dirt here. It's a discussion that needs to keep being revisited. Links referenced in this episode: thesobershaman.com

    45 min

  7. May 21

    A Shamanic View of Illness

    “There is no chemical solution to a spiritual problem.” You’ve probably heard this one, as it’s one of the most quoted lines in recovery. Maybe you’ve even said it a few times yourself. But here’s the thing: What exactly is the spiritual problem? Because if we can’t name it and we can’t map it, then the saying is just a groovy bumper sticker. True, sure, but not particularly useful. In this episode, I’ll be nailing down exactly what the spiritual problem is through an introduction to the core shamanic model of illness. It provides answers and gives us a solid framework for understanding addiction, This isn’t one culture’s tradition or one religion’s perspective. It’s a structure that’s found on every continent of the world that points to the same three root causes for all disease. And when I applied these to addiction, something fit into place where nothing else had clicked before. The shamanic map finally made sense of the spiritual territory. The three reasons, in order: Power Loss — We are all born with spiritual help. Whatever you call it. That connection gets severed when the TAHL hits — the Trauma, Abuse, Heartbreak, and Loss that overwhelms every defense we have. Power Loss isn’t weakness. It’s a severed connection.Soul Loss — When the pain becomes too much to be present for, a piece of us leaves. Psychology calls this dissociation. Shamanism calls it Soul Loss. Basically the same thing, different language. That piece takes qualities with it, our innocence, trust & childlike-joy, and leaves a void where those blessings used to be.Spiritual Intrusion — The void doesn’t stay empty. It never does. Something moves in. It’s pain-fear-based, hungry, and perfectly fed by your drug of choice. This is the spell of addiction. And the only reason it works is because we believe the lie it tells us about who we are. You don’t have to frame any of this in spiritual terms if that’s not your language. The concepts hold whether you call it a spirit, a belief, a pattern, or a spell. What matters is recognizing the sequence and understanding that recovery, at its core, is about reversing it. Stop feeding the intrusion. Court your soul back. Reclaim your power. That’s the treatment plan. And this episode is where it starts. With Blessings, Randal thesobershaman.com

    46 min

  8. May 15

    The Spell of Power: Man-Made Authority vs. the Living Web

    Kevin O'Leary is making the rounds, and his case for the Stratos Hyperscale Data Center is polished, confident, and deeply unsettling. Not because he's lying — but because he's telling the truth about exactly what kind of world we're choosing to build. In this episode, we pull apart the reasoning behind "we need this" and ask a harder question: need it for what, exactly? And according to whose values? Some of O'Leary's foundational pillars — national security, medical advancement, and job creation — sound like progress. But look closer and you'll find the same engine running all three: fear. Fear of enemies. Fear of disease. Fear of falling behind. When fear is the foundation, the structure it builds is one of control, dependence, and hierarchy — not human flourishing. We look at what it means to place data centers on top of farmland, possibly permanently. That isn't a neutral infrastructure decision — it's a declaration that our relationship to data is more important than our relationship to food. And when tech inevitably offers lab-grown food as the solution to the food problem it helped create, we'll have traded another living thread for a managed one. We talk about medicine — and the empowered patient that this model of "advancement" continues to leave out of the equation. We talk about community — what Main Street actually gave us, and what we quietly surrendered when big business became the default form of human organization. And we talk about power. Not the kind that flows through server farms, but the kind that flows through relationship — with nature, with neighbors, with your own body and choices. Two kinds of power are on the table right now. One is being built with billions of dollars and the full force of fear. The other lives in the choices you make every single day. Which one are you feeding? Takeaways: The "if we don't, our enemies will" argument behind Kevin O'Leary's Stratos Data Center is the same fear-based logic that drove the nuclear arms race — and it's still building the wrong world for the wrong reasons.When we place data centers on farmland, we're making a values statement: that our relationship to technology matters more than our relationship to nourishing, living food.Modern medicine's promise to "advance through AI" continues to disempower the patient — ignoring that the vast majority of chronic disease is lifestyle-dependent and entirely within each person's own control.Big Business as community — built on competition, hierarchy, and dependence on billionaire infrastructure — is one model, not the only model; Main Street, reciprocity, and relationship-based commerce existed, and can exist again.Every strand we hand over to a tech system — food, health, commerce, human connection — is another thread removed from the Web of Life, and the cost doesn't show up until the web starts to tear. Links referenced in this episode: substack.com / thesobershamanrandallyons.com

    35 min
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About

Spiritual practices that transform addiction into long-term, successful recovery. https://www.thesobershaman.com/s/podcast?utm_medium=podcast (www.thesobershaman.com)

Information

  • Creator
    Transforming addiction by making the spiritual practical.
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Randal Lyons
  • Show Website
    The Sober Shaman