Executive Corner

AUGUST 20, 2019

THE EXECUTIVE CORNER IS A NEW WEEKLY FEATURE OF THE ADDICTION/RECOVERY EBULLETIN. WE SEND OUR PARTICIPANTS FORTY QUESTIONS AND ASK THEM TO CHOOSE TWENTY THEY WOULD LIKE TO ANSWER. IT INCLUDES A SHORT PROFILE AND A LINK TO THEIR WEBSITE. WE HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.

August 15, 2019 – A gifted vocal artist in her own right, Nicholson’s musical career includes tours with Rod Stewart and Bette Midler—and appearances on such television shows as Oprah, The Tonight Show, The View, Good Morning America and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  

Soul Recovery. Ester Nicholson survived the ravages of addiction to discover something truly extraordinary: How to transform dependence into power.Her Soul Recovery teaching is one that speaks not only to those who have faced dependence to drugs or alcohol, but is applicable foranyone who has lost connection with their spiritual “center” and finds themselves experiencing outsized fear, compulsive behavior or a deep sense of unworthiness—or in Ester’s words: a “disconnection from the Soul within.  ”Soul Recovery lives at the nexus of the 12 Steps of Recovery and oft-considered “spiritual” concepts and practices including: meditation, life transforming inner child and forgiveness work, and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or “Tapping.”  “The intersection between a spiritual sense of wholeness and the accountability of the 12-Step process is where the rubber meets the road, and where true and permanent healing can take place,” Ester recently said in an interview.   Ester’s story of addiction and recovery was recently aired in a 30-minute feature presentation on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Her appearance on Super Soul Sunday’s “In Deep Shift” clearly touched a nerve for those who are looking for answers to the challenges of dependence-related behaviors and the scourge of addiction.

“We are collectively standing at a ʻrecovery momentʼ in our history—with challenges that face us on so many levels. As a people, as businesses, as educators and as organizations, we are at a point where we need to re-think, re-tool and re-engineer our future. For me, that suggests a basis in straight talk, back-to-our-roots thinking, and embracing a future that is consistent with foundational principles common to all of us.” – Ester Nicholson

Soul Recovery

Ester Nicholson

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice and when did you discontinue its use?
A. Cocaine. Crack took me down.  I discontinued crack and all mind altering substances on November 1, 1986.

Q. At which of the schools you attended did you learn the most?
A. The school of hard knocks.  Thinking the same thoughts, doing the same dumb shit, while expecting different results.  The best school on the planet.  My personal experience of disconnection.

Q. Do you believe leaders are made or born?
A. Leaders are created as an expression of the great creator.  However, if the qualities of leadership are not nourished and refined, it can get buried under the addiction to unworthiness and feelings of not being good enough.

Q. Which film have you watched the most?
A. The Godfather. It’s addictive

Q. Who is your favorite celebrity in recovery?
A. Not sure who is really in recovery.

Q. If you ever retire, would you prefer to live by the ocean, lake, river, or mountaintop, or penthouse?
A. I will never retire.  My work is my purpose.  I’d love to live on the ocean, lake and mountaintop.  Abundance is a good thing and possible for all of us.

Q. What is your favorite hotel or resort?
A. Las Venenas in Cabo

Q. Where do you go to “get away”?
A. Within – meditation is the most important practice in my life, and the best get away ever.

Q. What is your biggest or littlest pet peeve? 
A. Arrogance, looking down on others, rudeness and the unwillingness to learn something new. Closed minds

Q. How do you measure success?
A. Compassion, a consciousness of oneness and exclusivity, the willingness and the courage to speak and stand in your truth even when your knees are shaking in fear that you won’t be approved of.  Emotional freedom. Peace.  And then of course living your purpose to the fullest. Serving the masses and experiencing lavish financial abundance while doing it.

Q. If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?
A. Sex Trafficking, and anyone in need of a hand up, food and water – basic needs.  I’d adopt every animal and child on the planet if I could.  I don’t have a favorite charity.  They are all my brothers, sisters and children.  I’d help them all in any way that I could.

Q. Who was your biggest influence throughout your life?
A. Maya Angelou, Oprah, Manny Pacquiao.

Q. What is your current hobby?
A. Relaxing in a candle lit room, hot baths and massages.

Q. What prominent fe/male figure would you most like to date?
A. Michele Obama

Q. If you were giving a dinner party for your 3 favorite authors, Living or dead, who would they be? (choose 4 if you think one might be too drunk or stoned to attend.)
A. James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Stephen King (until recently), Philippa Gregory

Q. What is your FAVORITE Radio show, news show, podcast?
A. I don’t listen to the radio or news shows.  Have not committed to any particular podcasts

Q.   What is your FAVORITE APP?
A. The Tapping Solution

Q. What is your FAVORITE TV/cable/digital series?
A. The Loudest Voice – “outstanding”

Q. Who is your FAVORITE Director?
A. Steven Spielberg

Q. What is your FAVORITE Museum?
A. National Museum of African History

Q. What is your FAVORITE Band/composer/musical artist?
A. The Temptations, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart

Q. What is your FAVORITE Broadway musical/play?
A. Lion King

Q. Who is your FAVORITE Psychologist or what school of thought as related to psychology?
A. Sigmund Freud

Q. What is your FAVORITE Sport to watch? To play?
A. Boxing and basketball

Q. What is your FAVORITE Snack?
A. Everything

Q. What is your FAVORITE Cuisine?
A. Soul Food and Italian

Q. What is your FAVORITE Restaurant?
A. Brio Tuscan Grille

Q. What is your FAVORITE City?
A. San Francisco and New York

Q. Have you ever been arrested and, if so, what for?
A. Yes.  Defending myself from a domestic violence attack thirty-two years ago.

Q. Do you have any children?
A. Yes. One child – a daughter

Q. Do you think the U.S. should adopt the Portuguese Decriminalization Model?
A. Absolutely, and a lot of other humane models

Q. What books are you reading now?
A. The Thirty Day Mental Diet

Q. Do you take work home with you?
A. Yes

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
A. Relax, slow down, breath and listen intently – and then make a decision

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve given?
A. Get the f#@k out of your own way – peace, sanity and greatness is waiting for you underneath all that self-will.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, a disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?
A. A spiritual illness, emotional dysfunction and a physical allergy.  It overrides conscious choice

Q. What are five things you always carry with you?
A. cell phone, wallet, lipstick, sanitary wipes, purse/bag

Q. What’s the greatest risk you’ve ever taken?
A. Completely surrendering my life to my higher power; walking away from someone I really cared about because I knew it wasn’t the right person

Q. What is your biggest mistake?
A. Moving to Nashville when my grandson was only eight.

Q. What is the proudest moment in your life? 
A. When my daughter (who I lost for two years due to my addiction) and I healed our relationship and I became a real mother.

Q. Is there a favorite “Quote” you would like to share?
A. “God, grab my mind before it grabs me” –Ester Nicholson

Q. What is your favorite Weekly News Bulletin?
A. of course, you guys