Happy anniversary to me and True Love! That is what I want to say, first and foremost. Because today is the day that I begin to take my desire for True Love very, very seriously.

What that desire means to me is that I want to become the kind of lover and the kind of person who can keep True Love in my life. I want to make True Love happy, and I want to keep True Love safe, and I want to make True Love proud of me. I want to provide for True Love as True Love has provided for me, even at my worst. Because at all the most hopeless points along the way, before today, the fact is that True Love never failed to help me and to comfort me, and to just generally be there, right there with me, as long as I could claw my way past enough self-pity and self-induced sadness to open my eyes to see True Love, and all the truth and beauty contained therein, right there within me.

This gratitude and appreciation for True Love -- along with my outright wet-and-wild desire to have and to hold and to keep True Love in my life -- has prompted me to take the only logical and true and, yes, right next step. And that is to commit myself to being in a Serious Relationship with True Love itself.

You heard me: as of right now, and for at least the next half of my life, True Love and I have decided that we are in a very, very, very Serious Relationship. True Love is the benefactor, the beauty, the nursemaid, the guide, the teacher — all of it! True Love is, truly, the Universe to me. So why wouldn’t I want to make True Love my King, or for that matter, my Queen?

Actually, I’d love to squirrel True Love off for a weekend in the Bahamas with me to show True Love how much I love and appreciate it. But, chances are, I’d be offered weed or something weird down there, and I don’t want to risk getting distracted or derailed from my Serious Relationship with True Love. Especially not now.

So here we will stay, True Love and I, and here we will continue to love, and to learn, and to connect more deeply with each other, with every True Love-centered day that goes by. They say you should never, ever make your lover into your Higher Power, but they don’t know the funny story about how True Love and I met.

Remember when True Love was merely a thought in my mind, a spiritual abstraction, and then, ultimately, my imaginary and literary companion, here on the page? They don’t know how our relationship has deepened and developed and taken some pretty crazy hairpin turns over the past six or seven years of knowing each other, to say nothing of the thirty-some years before that, when I was too busy being busy, and whirling in circles around myself and other impossible situations, to even notice True Love dancing free and strong and wild beside me, close enough to reach out and touch, if I had taken the time to glance up from my own machinations and manipulations, for just one clear, sweet minute.

The way I used to be was like a clueless middle-school boy: too busy making fart jokes with his similarly clueless buddies to really see the pretty girls standing around, waiting hopefully for our attention, just a few feet away. Well, all I can say now about that is that I am clueless no more. I will grab True Love by the waist, and pull it close to me, just like I will on every successive day after this one.

I want this commitment to signal that I take my relationship with True Love as seriously as True Love does, so we can both relax and enjoy the Serious Relationship we both want to be in. Together! For the record, let me state it again. Quite simply, I am in a Serious Relationship with True Love itself.

❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press

For MUCH more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

I know, I know, my dear Addict friends... "you got this."

You don't really need me... let alone, my help.

You're totally fine!

As a matter of fact, you've got everything totally under control.

So if I asked you a question like... "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

You might pretend to scratch your chin and really think about your answer... 🤔

Before saying something pithy like, "well, I could really use a tricked-out convertible Jeep for summer!"

Or maybe you'd snort and give a cynical response like, "for the state of the nation to get its head out of its ass and straighten the F out!"

Fair enough.

Those things are all well and good and totally legitimate to want.

But please, don't kid yourself that either one would bring you anything approaching long-term joy or fulfillment.

On the other hand, I'm willing to bet that there's an answer you're FEELING, but not remotely ready to say out loud, just yet...

...because you haven't even admitted it to yourself.

Something along the lines of... I WANT LOVE! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Or even... I want MORE love! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

(gasp!)

Are you okay?

Did the ground fall out from under you at that admission?

Did anyone hear you say such a needy, childish thing?

Can you even STAND to feel so weak and vulnerable to admit that you want something so "gooey" or "woo-woo" as LOVE?

That's a joke, my dear Addict friends.

Because wanting love -- ESPECIALLY from a place of lack -- is just about the STRONGEST thing any person could do. 💪

And also... One of the WISEST.

Congratulations, you just flung open the door to True Love! ❤️‍🩹

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press

For MUCH more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

In this episode, your official guide to True Love (Emily Sussman, LCSW) reviews the finer points of Dr. Richard C. Robertiello's article, "BE YOUR OWN TRUE LOVE," which appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine (June 1979).

Main points:

❤️ Good self-love is about having the balls to know who you are, and express it to the world.

❤️ Inauthentic self-love is about grandiosity, and seeking attention for your external accomplishments, instead of being vulnerable about what you really need.

❤️ "Narcissistic extension" occurs when we choose a partner or a friend based on the qualities we fear we lack. However, we end up resenting or envying that person for their strengths, if we do not openly acknowledge that lack within ourselves, and try to meet it authentically.

❤️ As you open up your capacity to seek out praise and affirmation where you truly need it, you will increase your ability to give other people praise.

❤️ The way to enhance your self-love involves opening yourself up to receiving praise and affirmation from people you trust.

❤️ Self-love is ultimately about knowing what you need, knowing what is out there to fulfill that need, and being free of hangups about going after what you need and want.

❤️ You must be "your own true love." The full text of Dr. Robertiello's article can be found at theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com/resources

Special thanks to  @CasaMiaVintage  for the ASMR "magazine flip" video featuring the June 1979 issue of Cosmo. You can check out many more flip videos by subscribing.

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press

For MUCH more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Principle #10 of True Love: True Love's greatest desire is for you to stop relying on the world for your happiness, and start depending on True Love for absolutely everything you want.

❤️

My dear Addict friends, most of us have absolutely no frame of reference for this, most benevolent, of True Love's essential qualities and characteristics --- which is only part of the reason this Principle seems outlandish (at best), or downright delusional (at worst). So let me try my hand at explaining why you might be LOL-ing as you shake your head in rueful cynicism, as I conduct this video with stars in my eyes, and rainbows shooting out of my mouth. 💫 🌈

We'll break down the first part of the Principle, first. "True Love's greatest desire is for you to stop relying on the world for your happiness..." I mean, what in the actual F? Doesn't the world contain all the desirable and beautiful people, places, and things that COULD make us happy, if only we HAD them in our possession? (I'm talking cars, furs, jewels, vacations, big-screen TVs, the latest phones packed with cool features, hot Brazilian models, great jobs with low-deductible health plans, high thread-count sheets and towels, etc.) What ELSE should we be looking to, if not the external world around us, to promote our own happiness?

But if you think THAT"S bananas, then try the second part of the Principle on for size: that you should "start depending on True Love for absolutely everything you want." Come again, Princess? How in the holy heck is some abstract, woo-woo concept such as True Love going to magically come down here and grant you every wish you could possibly think of? descends deeper into sarcasm... Should you just quit your job right now, pull up a meditation pillow, and start dictating your pie-in-the-sky Amazon wish list to some crazy, non-existent deity that you don 't even know from Adam right now?

Look, my dear Addict friends, I am well aware of how outlandish this Principle might strike you, in these early stages of Your Journey Deep Into the Heart of True Love. And I don't give a you-know-what, because at this point, my objective is only to a) tell you the truth and carry the message of True Love, no matter how crazy it sounds; and b) get you to feeling some shred of curiosity, inspiration, or intrigue that encourages you to KEEP GOING on this crazy journey, for which True Love has apparently drafted me into being a human guide.

But here's the big reveal: the number one HARDEST thing to swallow about this Principle. Namely, the shockingly controversial potential for you to get ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU TRULY WANT. Because you're not used to getting what you want, now, are you? In fact, I''m willing to bet that no matter how beautiful, popular, rich, or successful you've been in this crazy, competitive world of ours, you've probably never once had a lover, a friend, or even a family member who wanted nothing more than to give you whatever you needed, so as to see you blissfully, radiantly HAPPY, in the soft, flattering love-light of its love-gifts.

And yet: I stand by the capital-T Truth of this Principle. 💪

That's all for now, my dear Addict friends, and that's plenty. Next time, we're onto the Rules of True Love -- or, in other words, how to play its game and WIN. Because when you win, True Love wins, too. Love, after all, is the ultimate (and, some would say, the only) win-win proposition.

❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Attraction, not promotion... AKA, the idea that I should not go looking for True Love with a butterfly net, hoping to pounce on something (or someone) whom I believe could help me feel True Love… then attempting to capture them, through sheer force of my will or some other act of forceful manipulation, before taking them home in my net, like they were some sort of treasured bounty I just caught.

Or.... to bend and twist and contort myself into inauthentic pretzel shapes, so as to please somebody into getting them to love me. Sort of like what a marketing team does. Ads are hardly ever about the actual product, amirite? They're all about the pitch, the sale, and the fervent, desperate effort to reel ‘em in. The objective is to get customers to give the company what it wants, whether that’s time, money, attention, accolades, or all the rest of it.

No, no, that’s not how True Love works at all, now, is it? Attraction not promotion, remember. If promotion, in its crassest form, are those awful commercials I have to sit through when I watch "The Love Boat" on my streaming service, even though I am forking over an extra $7.99 a month to the channel that owns the rights to "The Love Boat," which gives me basic access to all ten seasons of "The Love Boat," over and above the fees I’m already paying for the streaming service, itself… Well, you can probably smell my annoyance and outright indignation from here, because nobody asked for all that crass promotion.

Bottom line: nobody likes promotion. It’s coercive, it’s unwanted, it’s intrusive, and it’s dangerously, painfully, and quite obviously fake, anyway. Those ads aren’t interested in me. They just want my money.

But attraction? Attraction is a whole different animal. Attraction is a beautiful, sleek snow leopard, maybe, in contrast to the greasy snake-oil salesman that embodies promotion. The snow leopard, by contrast, has nothing to prove to the masses, nothing to push, nothing to sell. And yet, she is perfect, just the way she is. She attracts mates, she eats, she sleeps, and she putters around her natural environment and doesn’t get troubled by much, except her natural predators, if snow leopards even have any.

Let’s get away from the animal analogy now, because I am equally ignorant of the facts about the animal kingdom as I am about quantum mechanics. Rather, I know a whole lot about a very specific, very limited sliver or the animal kingdom, if You could call human psychology and behavior — along with all the principles of recovery as they relate to the existential, lifetime journey of humankind — part of the animal kingdom.

My point is, I do what I do and I know what I know, and I have the training and expertise to practice what I know, on a professional level. And all I can manage, in the way of promotion (if you could even call it that) is to hang a virtual sign over my office door and see who shows up.

The best part about attraction is what a relief it is that I don’t have to try too hard or do too much — I just have to keep doing what I do, which is helping addicts get into recovery and start loving themselves, as best as I possibly can. But, if I was posting billboards all over Route 933 here, the way the cannabis companies do all the way into Michigan, it would be a totally different story. I’d get all the wrong people trying to come through my door: the parents and spouses of addicts, for example, trying to get me to do interventions, which is a service I simply don’t offer.

True Love tells me that promotion yields inauthentic or unsustainable results, while attraction will typically get me the real deal — meaning, the kinds of people and circumstances that are a good match for who I am, and what I have to offer. The right people find me in virtue of all the pure and unfiltered Truth, and True Love, I’m putting out into the Universe.

Are we clear on this, my dear Addict friends? Because that is how attraction not promotion works — meaning, that is what you all have shown me.

❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Blame the curse of growing up in the disaffected and ironic 90's... but I had a very defined idea, until not-so-long ago, of what was "cool" or "acceptable" behavior.

Like, don't get too excited about anything, because that's LAME. Don't show or tell friends or lovers how much you love/want/need/appreciate them, because they'll think you're DESPERATE. Don't go out on a limb and be silly, goofy, or too "out there," because everyone will label you as WEIRD.

("Weird," by the way, used to be just about the worst thing anyone could call me. I had such a blistering desire to be "normal" and not to be singled out or judged for anything... probably because deep down, I thought I was such an unacceptable freak, myself.)

"Stop thinking," is what I wish I could tell my younger self. "Get out of your mind, and into your emotions. Ride the good ones. Single them out. And express them in your daily dealings with the world around you, through what you say, how you think, and what you do for others."

Self-consciousness will get you nowhere, when it comes to expressing the love inside you. That's because the only one truly judging you is YOU. Believe it or not, most people will be thrilled and surprised at the prospect of someone radiating a positive emotion in their presence -- unless they're very, very down, themselves.

In that case, they might just need someone to hold their hand for a little while, first. ❤️‍🩹 That someone could be you!

And True Love, that reciprocating, mutually beneficial little devil, will see to it that you land a nifty emotional reward for giving love to someone who so desperately needs it. After all, do you think you're the only one who's getting on board with this whole "expressing the love inside you" thing?

Well, my dear Addict friends, the fact is, True Love INVENTED this kind of loving self-expression! As such, True Love's gifts and rewards for you, for doing the same, are both limitless and immediate.

❤️

The Addict's Guide to Love ❤️ is a 20-chapter series in which Emily Sussman, LCSW, lays out the Principles and the Rules of True Love, so you can harness all the power, beauty, and limitlessness of a relationship with True Love, yourself. ☺️

Here’s a rundown of what she'll cover....

❤️ What in the heck IS True Love? (Spoiler: it goes waaaay beyond romance.)

❤️ How does True Love relate to YOU? (Hint: it loves you truly, wildly, and irrationally.)

❤️ And how can you harness True Love's power as a force for limitless JOY in your life? (Hot tip: believe in True Love like crazy).

Join Emily, your official guide to True Love, as she breaks it all down for you in bite-sized, 5-minute chunks of beautiful and benevolent truth.

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

I might have said all the wrong things in this video. I think I even made the thumbnail all wrong! It looks almost offensively ugly, now that I'm seeing it published here.

But maybe that's okay. Maybe it's okay to be rough, and messy, and not super hot or professional all the damn time. Maybe all that True Love wanted was for me to express exactly what I did, and to create exactly what I did, in the time and place that I did.

Simple, right? Honesty may make us all feel a million scary feelings, in the moment. But honesty is also, mercifully, simple. 😅 I mean, think about it. At the end of the day, honest is just "what is." Literally!

And at the very least, I have faith that what I came up with, here, is rigorously, disruptively, and lovingly honest enough to satisfy the unconditionally loving standards of True Love.
❤️

The Addict's Guide to Love ❤️ is a 20-chapter series in which Emily Sussman, LCSW, lays out the Principles and the Rules of True Love, so you can harness all the power, beauty, and limitlessness of a relationship with True Love, yourself. ☺️

Here’s a rundown of what she'll cover....

❤️ What in the heck IS True Love? (Spoiler: it goes waaaay beyond romance.)

❤️ How does True Love relate to YOU? (Hint: it loves you truly, wildly, and irrationally.)

❤️ And how can you harness True Love's power as a force for limitless JOY in your life? (Hot tip: believe in True Love like crazy).

Join Emily, your official guide to True Love, as she breaks it all down for you in bite-sized, 5-minute chunks of beautiful and benevolent truth.

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Do you remember having a best friend forever (BFF)? Like way back, in childhood? What's the first thing you remember about the way you felt when you were with that person?

For me, the emotional memory of having a BFF is all about FREEDOM of spirit... the kind of JOY you don't have to hide... and the SECURITY of true closeness. And with a best friend, those feelings come all rolled up together, under the blanket of a warm, easy and natural companionship. ☺️

I remember how I could be absolutely myself around my childhood BFF, and she would never in a million years judge me or make fun of me. (Thank you, Kerry Kennedy, wherever you are!) I could share my crazy ideas with her... my unpopular opinions... my ridiculous crushes and outrageous dreams... and she would receive it all, in a spirit of unconditional acceptance and understanding. (That's because she truly LOVED me, and vice versa. ❤️)

Feeling seen, heard, and understood are priceless, but the best part of having a BFF was all the LAUGHTER! I remember one sleepover at Kerry's house where we laughed straight through, from the afternoon all the way 'till morning. Our rip-roaring playfulness resulted in feelings of unfiltered ecstasy that we weren't afraid to show each other. Which then resulted in more of ALL of that, each successive time we were together!

What I'm getting at is the essential quality in a forever best-friendship: TRUST. First of all, it's trust that the two of you want the same thing (to help each other feel good, when you're together). Which then turns into trust that your best friend wants to do that with YOU, over and above anyone else! (How flattering, right? YES! It's meant to be! 😍)

In many ways, I think best-friendship is the most spiritual kind of relationship humans can enjoy. That's because you're both committed to the relationship for no reason other than the most basic and beautiful one of all... It's because you enjoy the repeated experience of loving and believing in that person -- and all the mutual fun and enjoyment that results from that.

I know that True Love will shower YOU with beautiful feelings of connected enjoyment, too...

As long as you WANT that kind of True Love in your life. ❤️

****

The Addict's Guide to Love ❤️ is a 20-chapter series in which Emily Sussman, LCSW, lays out the Principles and the Rules of True Love, so you can harness all the power, beauty, and limitlessness of a relationship with True Love, yourself. ☺️

Here’s a rundown of what she'll cover....

❤️ What in the heck IS True Love? (Spoiler: it goes waaaay beyond romance.)

❤️ How does True Love relate to YOU? (Hint: it loves you truly, wildly, and irrationally.)

❤️ And how can you harness True Love's power as a force for limitless JOY in your life? (Hot tip: believe in True Love like crazy).

Join Emily, your official guide to True Love, as she breaks it all down for you in bite-sized, 5-minute chunks of beautiful and benevolent truth.

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

That’s because humans can satisfy their physical needs — things like food, shelter, and resources — without a true and personal connection to love.

Survival is one thing, and I don’t mean to make it sound like it’s nothing. But if survival was everything? I think we’d both know a lot more people who were happy, secure, and fulfilled… …instead of feeling empty, anxious, or lonely.

As a therapist, I can tell you that behind closed doors, there are an awful lot of people with seemingly perfect lives who are secretly battling mental illness, chronic pain, dysfunctional relationships…. And, of course, addiction.

These are people who are deeply unhappy. They resent their jobs. Their circumstances! The religion or God they grew up with. And, even, their families. But in my experience, there’s a deeper cause at the root of depression, anxiety, and addiction.

It’s because they’re unhappy with themselves.

Guilt. Shame. Anger. Regret. And remorse… They’re struggling with feelings, memories, or circumstances they’re just dying to forget about. The problem is, those feelings just never seem to go away.

But I think the most negative feeling of all isn’t really a feeling, per se. It’s a lack of feeling — specifically, a lack of love. Whether people know it or not, feeling a lack of love inside is the reason they reach out therapists like me.

I don’t do treatment gimmicks. I don’t play expert academic. And I’m not some hypocritical ego trip, talking down to you from some phony perch of personal perfection. The reason I’m here is to do my part to help connect you to love. True Love — in the form of Your True Self.

My name is Emily Sussman, and I’m an addiction therapist, a recovery author and coach, and a recovering addict myself. And I believe that love isn’t just the way out of the darkness. Love is the key to a free and joyful existence.

That’s why my approach to thriving in a life of love from the ashes of addiction is simple. One hundred percent True Love. ❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

I want you to know that love isn’t something you should know already. You will never in a million years hear me utter the words "you just gotta…"

True Love may be simple, but it’s rarely “just” that easy. I know all too well, that when you’re starting from a place of shame and self-loathing, or even just feeling numb all the time…

Love is anything but easy or intuitive.

Love isn’t anything you ever learned about in school.

And love definitely isn’t anything you’ve absorbed in the polluted air of our narcissistic and materialistic consumer culture.

But I can promise you that love isn’t anything abstract or woo-woo, either. Love is real, it’s powerful, and it's available to everyone.

In other words… Love is for you. That’s right: Love is FOR you — no matter who you are, where you came from, or what you’ve done.

Sure, love can be a feeling, like the way it’s depicted in romance novels or feel-good movies. But let’s not stop there. Love is so, SO much more than that.

Love is action.

Love is an attitude.

Love is an identity.

Love is an experience.

Love is a stance towards life.

And, especially when it comes to therapy… Love is a process.

So let me ask you: is love your way of life, right now?

If it is, then you already know exactly what I’m talking about. Love is your purpose. Love is your meaning! Love is how you connect to everything and everyone around you. Love is both your means, and your goal. Love is your guiding principle of how to live.

Or maybe you sense that right now, love isn’t any of those things for you. If that’s the case, then you probably know some of the other ways we humans tend to fill our lives with so-called meaning, purpose, and direction.

Alcohol. Drugs. Money. Food. Sex. Power. Control. Drama.

It’s not that any of these other ways of life are “wrong” or “bad.” Let’s face it: we all engage in some of them, some of the time, to a greater or lesser extent. So let’s not judge ourselves, please!

Instead, let’s throw a little love on the situation by simply acknowledging that reality with a shrug, before moving right along.

I mean, I’m assuming you want to move forward. If you do? Please stay with me. ❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

For me, recovery hasn’t just been a journey. It’s been what I like to call a Journey Deep Into the Heart of True Love.

And when I say heart, what I really mean is, my heart. And when I say my heart, I’m talking about your heart, too. The human heart!

And, along with that heart, our natural human desire to know ourselves, love ourselves, and express ourselves freely.

I don’t think this particular journey is so much about seeking happiness as it is about letting go. Letting go of your doubts…

Your fears…

Your dishonesty…

Your masks...

Your crutches...

Or whatever else isn’t working for you anymore.

It also means starting the process of letting go of your draining and destructive addictions. Not that it’s easy to let go! It can be terrifying to contemplate the idea of living without the defensive attitudes and behaviors that we believe keep us firmly in control…

And protected from pain.

Shying away from anything that makes us feel vulnerable or uncertain is pretty much a universal, among humans and animals, alike. None of us grows up without building at least a few walls of self-defense — or, boulders, as the case may be. And we addicts tend to be master builders.

But your walls do a lot more than help you control your exposure to pain. Your walls prevent you from seeing, believing, and experiencing the True Love that’s already inside you.

That’s why you can’t take the journey deep into the heart of True Love all on your own. Not without an unconditionally accepting guide, who will help you see yourself, understand yourself, and accept yourself along the way… so you can finally express yourself freely and authentically, out in the world.

That’s me — your guide!

As long as you want True Love…

As long as you believe it’s possible to experience it…

And as long as you allow me to be your guide.

I believe that a successful recovery is a transformative process that’s guided by True Love. And as miraculous as that process is, there’s no magic or smoke-and-mirrors to it.

True Love requires only that you trust in love enough to allow its benevolent process to unfold.

One day at a time, True Love will require your honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness… all of which signal your consent for it to do its transformative work.

Because letting go of your need to control this process of recovery is another thing you might need some help with. No problem! That’s what I’m here for.

I have all the faith in the world that True Love isn’t just possible. True Love is both available and accessible. To YOU! In fact, True Love’s been waiting to jump into your arms for quite a while!.

That is… As long as you want love.

As long as you’re willing to practice love.

And, as long as you believe in love. (Or at least, suspend your disbelief.)

Until you begin to experience the truth of True Love for yourself.

❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

I don’t know how you happened to land here, but I’m extremely glad you did. Thrilled, actually!

I only wish I could greet you with a tray of cupcakes. Or, maybe, some pita and hummus. Such are the limitations of the Internet.

But in the spirit of making yourself as comfortable as humanly possible, I invite you to kick off your pinching shoes… …shed your tight-fitting undergarments… …and please, for the love of God, remove your mask of normalcy.

I know that all those things serve a purpose as far as helping you “fit in” with the rest of humanity. And that’s fine. But in keeping with the spirit of this Universe of True Love… I’d like to remind you that you’re free to check any baggage at the door that feels like it’s hiding or distorting who you really are.

On that note? I can assure you that you won’t find anything in this Universe of True Love that represents anything other than the True Love inside the person who created it. That would be me…. Emily Sussman.

And that’s the whole idea. Because the expression of what’s in your heart is always an act of True Love. My greatest hope is that you’ll stick around and explore this Universe of True Love long enough to discover some for yourself. Your True Love.

In order to increase your chances of that happening, please keep your senses, your mind, and your heart open, whenever possible. If there’s one thing I know about True Love, it’s that it has a mind and imagination of its own — for each one of us.

As such, True Love might show up for you in a feeling of connection… A feeling of inspiration… A feeling of desire… …Or, maybe, through your own act of genuine creation.

So take a look around. Assess the options. Enjoy the presentation! And ignore whatever it is you don’t like. Take as much or as little as you want from my buffet of True Love, here, without guilt or regret. True Love is both plentiful and limitless… which is a good thing, for those who come here hungry.

That’s another thing I should mention. It’s perfectly okay to come to True Love in a state of wanting. Even if you don’t quite know what you want to change, quite yet.

It’s my goal, as both a therapist and a coach, to move everyone I work with into a state of active and enthusiastic desire. Because it’s only when we can identify what we want, that we can start to find our direction towards it.

After all… You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have the desire to live a better life than you currently do! To that end… True Love is always happy to serve. ❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press. Al rights reserved.

For more, visit theaddictsguidetotheuniverse.com.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Maybe it seems like forever (or never!) that you've felt the incredible affirmation... connection... and outrageous sense of your own strength and potential that can only come from the experience of being IN LOVE. ❤️

Doesn't being in love feel a little bit (dare I say)... SUPERHUMAN? 🦸 When you're in love, your world literally seems brighter, full of more vibrant colors. And tasks that once left you depleted? You're now tackling them with a smile on your face and a swing in your step.

Yes, indeedy-o! (Being in love makes you say goofy things, amirite?) The greatest thing about being in love is that it connects you to all the gold inside you -- to say nothing of all the gold you're vibing on inside that other person, place or thing that you're in love WITH. 😍

Now let's step away from those great lovey-dovey memories, and back into the here and now. (Ooof, I hope it was a soft landing.) As your unofficial Guide to True Love, I'm here to tell you that no matter what your current circumstances are -- unhappily partnered or utterly un-partnered; looking for love or feeling "so over it" -- there's someone out there that's in WILDLY and IRRATIONALLY in LOVE with YOU... without you even noticing.

Enter True Love, stage left.

The best thing about coming to know and understand that True Love is wildly and irrationally in love with you, my dear Addict friend, is that you'll also come to understand that you don't have to do a damn thing to KEEP earning True Love's love and admiration, besides living each day, as best you can, as who you truly are.

Don't know who you truly are yet? That's ok! Bring your messy and unfinished self to the True Love party! 🎉 I assure you, True Love is STILL wildly and irrationally in love with you, even in your darkest and most ashamed moments. We addicts (even recovering ones) have a lot of those! 🖤

It's my mission to guide you towards accepting the truth that True Love loves and believes in you 💯, NO MATTER WHAT. As a matter of fact, True Love is just waiting for you to jump into its arms -- like any good lover would! -- so it can bring the full flower of its gifts into your life experience.

If you do enter this process of learning how to embrace True Love, what's waiting for you is all the affirmation, security, and comfort that comes from trusting that a beautiful and benevolent force for good is on your side -- absolutely wherever, whenever, you want to connect to it.

Let me say it again, and not for the last time: True Love is ready, willing, and 💯 able to connect with you, and bring YOUR life into full bloom... whenever you're ready (or desperate enough) to let True Love in. ☺️ ❤️

****

The Addict's Guide to Love ❤️ is a 20-chapter series in which Emily Sussman, LCSW, lays out the Principles and the Rules of True Love, so you can harness all the power, beauty, and limitlessness of a relationship with True Love, yourself. ☺️ Here’s a rundown of what she'll cover....

❤️ What in the heck IS True Love? (Spoiler: it goes waaaay beyond romance.)

❤️ How does True Love relate to YOU? (Hint: it loves you truly, wildly, and irrationally.)

❤️ And how can you harness True Love's power as a force for limitless JOY in your life? (Hot tip: believe in True Love like crazy).

Join Emily, your official guide to True Love, as she breaks it all down for you in bite-sized, 5-minute chunks of beautiful and benevolent truth.

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

Imagine, if you will, entering a relationship with a beautiful lover. Now, please don't get all freaked out if you're already married or partnered. I promise, there's no cheating necessary... in fact, this new lover will actually enhance your existing relationships, far from threatening them! So let's just go with this little thought-experiment, shall we? ❤️

This new lover I'm talking about isn't a person -- it's actually a force, a power, and a defining characteristic, in and of itself. And the best way I can explain that is to say that this new lover shows up in a variety of settings and circumstances in your life. Sometimes you see this new lover in the way the sunlight hits your child's hair, seeming to illuminate her face from the inside out. Sometimes you experience it in the joyful camaraderie between you and your colleagues, in the midst of a successful collaboration. Sometimes it shows up in a gorgeous magnolia tree, or in the way a juicy steak appeals to your hunger after a long, depleting workout.

Beauty takes many forms, after all.

But the common denominator between all these experiences is this: when your new lover shows up, its beauty gets your attention in a delightful way. That's because beauty is an emotional stimulus that kicks down the door of your everyday experience, awakening your senses and interrupting your usual train of anxious thoughts. Suddenly, instead of being stuck inside your own mental echo chamber, you're experiencing an intimate feeling of connection to whatever it is that you're finding beautiful -- whether that's a person, place, thing, or idea. 💡

And that's the most beautiful thing about this beautiful new lover. (Spoiler, the lover is True Love itself!) True Love's beauty gets you noticing and connected to the world around you, in a refreshing and exciting way. I'm even going to venture to say that BEAUTY is the quality of True Love that initially pulls you out of yourself, and into this loving connection. ❤️

How deeply you end up venturing into that True Love connection is up to you. You could go all the way with it, of course, and take the Journey Deep Into the Heart of True Love -- the journey that will allow you to follow all the delicious little rabbit holes that your experiences of beauty take you down. Or.... you could move on quickly by dismissing your moment of beauty as some meaningless diversion, perhaps even telling yourself that moments of beauty never last. (To which I say: perhaps not, but there's always another beautiful experience around the corner, waiting for you to take notice and connect to it through your appreciation. ☺️)

But I'll also venture to say that beauty connects you to YOURSELF, even if it's just one or two precious moments that you allow yourself to stay present in any given beautiful feeling. That's because beauty is a deeply personal experience. What registers as beautiful for one person may fall flat for another. Not everybody likes magnolia trees, or eats steak.

Were you the kid who always got picked last in gym class? Were the boys (or girls) slow to ask you to dance, or to the prom? Maybe your trusted business partners went off the grid the minute times got tough. Maybe your marriage dissolved like Alka-Seltzer in water. Or maybe you never felt lucky enough to meet that special someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with.

The good news is that True Love doesn't care about any of that sh**. True Love is standing right there next to you as we speak, waiting for YOU to be the one to choose True Love, in a partnership to put all other partnerships to shame. True Love has been waiting to jump into your arms for quite a while, in fact!

And the good news is that you don't have to make this partnership official with a ring, a ceremony, or even a finger-pricked oath in blood. There's no test, and there's DEFINITELY no keeping score, when it comes to True Love. When you're just getting started in the process of building a partnership with True Love, all you need are three things...

❤️ HONESTY about where you are (no worries if you only have access to a little bit of your own truth right now -- True Love will see to it that you get up to speed)

❤️ An OPEN MIND about what love is, and what it can do in your life

❤️ Most importantly of all, the DESIRE to start following the path of True Love, one step at at time.

So... WILL you start, with whatever and however much of these you have today? Will you lay down your feelings of doubt, cynicism, or outright mistrust in order to dig deep for this honesty... this openness... and this all-important DESIRE for True Love?

(Spoiler: True Love's love language is TRUST. With that, it'll be putty in your hand.)

No worries if you're not remotely there yet. We're just getting started! That means all you have to do is bring your desire to find out more into our next episode. ❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫

I've always thought that the best visual imagery I could give of True Love would be a vast and limitless ocean -- a Sea of True Love, if you will. Now imagine that this ocean contains all the truest desires of your heart, all "out there," somewhere below the surface, in this vast and limitless body of water.

Your challenge, as an active participant in your relationship with True Love, will be to let go of your fears of swimming... of cold temperatures... of sharks circling... and even your fears of losing control over the course of your life. Letting go of all these anxieties and nightmare scenarios means allowing the benevolent waters of True Love to carry you directly TO the truest desires of your heart. (Which, I will remind you, are all here, just waiting for you, just below the surface.)

Will you allow True Love to take the lead, and follow the course it takes as it carries you directly to those desires, as well as to many more gifts and rewards you can't see or predict, from where you're standing today? (Spoiler: that means you won't have to go fishing and searching and struggling to find them, yourself.)

And when I ask whether you're willing to let True Love take the lead, what I mean is, will you stay present and connected to True Love in a loving relationship throughout? Will you stay in communication with True Love, engaging in the kinds of honest conversations and self-reflection that will reveal to the both of you WHAT your truest desires are, in the first place?

If you are, then I have all the faith in the Universe that you are already on a course for True Love to connect you to all the truest desires of your heart. ❤️

Copyright 2025 Freedom Recovery Press.

Sent with True Love from the Universe ❤️💫