What does it mean to find your way back to love when you've spent years struggling with addiction and self-hatred? And how can a spiritual awakening sustain us even when the road to healing is long and difficult?
In this powerful and deeply personal episode of Beyond Names: Spirituality for Anyone and Everyone, Dr. Habib Boerger welcomes Sahra Laird, an intuitive energy healer, spiritually based life coach, and entrepreneur from Asheville, North Carolina. Sahra shares her extraordinary spiritual journey, from growing up in an interspiritual Sufi community to struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, finding recovery through 12-step programs, and rediscovering the spiritual principles that would transform her life.
Sahra recounts a profound encounter with her Sufi teacher, Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-Jamal, that gave her an unforgettable glimpse of the underlying unity of all creation. Even through years of darkness that followed, this experience remained a source of hope—a reminder that something deeper than her pain was real and that she was never truly alone.
Together, Sahra and Dr. Habib explore the relationship between darkness and light, the challenging work of spiritual growth, and the possibility of returning to our authentic selves and the love at the heart of our being. Sahra also shares practical wisdom from her recovery journey, including the importance of community, humility, service, honesty, and finding a Higher Power that works in everyday life.
This conversation is a reminder that spiritual awakening doesn't mean life becomes easy. It means learning how to meet life's challenges with greater honesty, courage, and love. We don't have to deny the darkness to choose the light, and we don't have to follow someone else's spiritual path to discover our own way home.
Whether you're exploring spirituality, navigating addiction recovery, searching for healing, or simply longing to reconnect with your true self, this episode offers an honest and compassionate invitation to keep going.
In this episode, we explore:
Sahra's journey through addiction, recovery, and spiritual transformation
How a profound Sufi spiritual experience became a lasting source of hope
The relationship between darkness, light, and the return to divine love
What Sufism and 12-step recovery can teach us about surrender and humility
How daily choices and spiritual practices help us cultivate compassion, courage, and integrity
Why there are many doorways to the Divine—and how to discover what supports your own spiritual journey
Join us for a heartfelt conversation about recovery, spiritual awakening, the unity of creation, and the enduring possibility of finding our way back to love.