Certified Addiction Recovery & Life Coach, Founder of Progressing Not Perfecting Recovery Lifestyle Blog | TSC Spiritual Gangster

Sober Curator Contributor – Bennington, Vermont

Samantha Bushika is a Certified Addiction Recovery & Life Coach, Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor (Intern), Certified Reiki Level II Practitioner, Certified Sound Healing Practitioner, Certified Crystal Healing Practitioner, Certified Shadow Work Practitioner (trauma-informed practice), and she is the founder of the addiction recovery blog Progressing Not Perfecting. Sam wants to save the world, but she knows it is a tall order, so she is doing everything possible to leave the world in better shape than she found it by helping others on the largest scale possible.

She has spent most of her adult life doing “Life on the Installment Plan” (the name of her in-progress book) due to her nearly lifelong addiction to using and selling heroin. Sam was in a never-ending cycle with the justice system being made. The Example of being addicted before addiction was determined to be a disease. Sam reports that her frequent trips to “finishing school” (her alt name for jail) often resulted from being five minutes late for group or being out of place as a non-violent, drug-addicted offender.

Turning it all around

At the age of 35, after the guy she saw died of an overdose and her best friend went to finishing school for providing the drugs that allegedly killed him [the guy she was seeing], Sam found herself at a crossroads after a lifetime of “lessons” from previous attempts to get sober. She also discovered the law of attraction. Three months later, Sam found herself pregnant. She walked out of her apartment and into the local homeless shelter with the clothes on her back, a correctional GPS ankle bracelet, and a 450-credit score. Three short years later, she had her second child and purchased a 350k home. She is now an entrepreneur, mother, blogger, and coach.

After applying the power of positivity to her life, things started changing drastically for the better. Sam didn’t think she had a maternal bone in her body, but as it turns out, she couldn’t be a better mother. She has started a movement to #provethemallwrong and #showthemwhatwecanreallydo to inspire and motivate others to channel the change they want to create. Sam swears that if she fixed the mess that was her life, then anyone could. She works tirelessly every day to show people that they are influential creators, and they are in control of their narrative, hoping that she can empower them, just as she was empowered, and change the course of their lives.

The Fallen

Sam has also created an online memorial on her blog for “The Fallen,” those we have lost in the war against drugs. Sam has lost countless loved ones, some before her eyes, and the first thirty people in the memorial are all Sam’s loved ones, and she isn’t done yet. She admits that no one thought she would be one of the last guys standing, but she is determined to make it count for something. She often encourages others by saying, “Don’t wait until tomorrow to be the person you could be today. Tomorrow is never a guarantee. Let’s make this count.”

Sam is also a huge proponent of Karl Jung’s Shadow Work and attributes a large part of her success to the practice of integration. Am offers a free-136-page crystal-themed shadow work prompt journal here and any support that might be needed on your journey.