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The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). You can connect with Dr. Chip Dodd at chip@chipdodd.com. Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com.

You can also RSVP to Bryan for "Awaken the Heart" on Sunday, March 1 - more details here.

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• What is Substack? It is a subscription-based platform that allows independent

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We are created to live fully, and we do so through relationship with ourselves, others, and God, as we bring the true heart of feelings, needs, desire, longings and hope to relationships.

Relationship requires vulnerability.

If the ability to be “comfortable” with dependence is fractured in one’s earlier years of life, the result is a set up for that person to feel the need to “hide” his/her heart. Instead of remaining present and connected, he/she has a compulsion to perform in order to belong or matter.

Trauma is experienced when one’s ability to accept their need for dependence is fractured.

The need to suppress emotional pain in order to survive, belong, and matter is the foundation upon which addiction is built.

Addiction is a false fulfillment of how we are created to live.

Addiction is relationship with a substance or process that gives a sense of connection without having to be vulnerable; in other words, a person can distract or numb themselves from having to feel by using some form of avoidance of relationship with one’s self, others, and God.

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