I am a peer mentor for Natural Highs. I struggled throughout my life starting from an early age. This led me to gravitate to tv and videogames early on, and eventually drugs and alcohol. My drug use progressed from marijuana and alcohol to cocaine, benzos, heroin, ecstasy, and various other drugs, often used in combination with one another. I was addicted to heroin for a year needing it all day every day, was able to quit, and then eventually painkillers again for a year needing them all day every day, until once again I forced myself to quit. I passed out on the highway twice while driving, and had multiple overdoses and situations where I almost died. Underlying all of the drug use were the issues I was facing as a child which would have easily been labeled as mental health conditions. At the end of my time using drugs I came to a point where the reality of my situation hit me with undeniable truth and clarity, and I saw no other solution but to take my life by overdosing. Luckily I was unsuccessful. That led to a near death experience where I broke through the identities and issues and beliefs I had about myself and life. I experienced my self free from any issues I was dealing with. For the first time in my life I felt like myself. I was totally complete, full of love, and felt so amazing, better then I had ever imagined I could feel. It was in that moment that I realized what I was always searching for through drugs, and also what I was always seeking throughout my entire life. It was in that moment and the weeks that followed that I remembered on a conscious level what life was supposed to be like. Since that experience I have set out to understand the experiences I was having, and to come into that version of myself and that state of completeness. Now I see addiction and mental illness from an entirely new perspective. I realize that what was causing the challenges that existed in my life long before I discovered drugs is that I was burdened by the patterns, belief systems, and trauma I inherited through my family lineage and humanity in general. I have spent the last 6 or 7 years seeking to understand the tools, vocabulary, and knowledge to come into my natural state.

I see so many young people (and adults) these days struggling with the same things that I went through, but now there are greater dangers like fentanyl laced drugs and a rise in suicide. I know that I can help people to overcome their challenges so that they can come into the natural state we crave to live in on all levels of our being. I am looking to use my experiences and the tools and knowledge I have gained to support others so that they don’t have to go through everything I went through or worse in search of the peace that can only come from aligning with our natural state. I am hoping to support young people and the community, both individually and in groups. I will teach people how to be human, the most important aspect of life that we never learn about. I do so through lectures, coaching, and meditation practices. We need to reawaken the wisdom of life that exists in everything, including our cells. Once we learn to come back into our body and align with the natural laws governing all life we come into that completeness and peace that is our natural state. Then we are able to engage with life and use it to become the best possible version of ourselves as nature has intended.