Hello, I my name is Oriya and I am a recovering somebody.

For the next 42 days, I will be sharing a post with snippets from my upcoming book (title will be revealed later on…)

The purpose of these posts is to inspire you to explore your own addiction to “somebodyness”, as well as getting some momentum going for the publication of my book (& agency).

You see, for most of my life, I struggled with the great addiction of trying to become “somebody”… special, powerful, successful, normal, love-able, righteous or at least ”not bad”…

My journey began as religious kid in Israel, dreaming to be free - American Dream Style. I migrated (ran away) to America as a teenager to chase the “stuff” I saw in the movies - most importantly: make something out of myself!

I did whatever I technically could, for over 20 years, trying to become a cool “somebody”…

I looked outside, saw what was to new frontier to pioneer and jumped right in - unprepared & ready to go!

Out of high school I became

- a Microsoft & Cisco certified Professional, before anyone even knew about these companies…

Immediately followed by:

- a New York City tech founder & entrepreneur in the hot dot.com bubble era…

After selling a (7 figure) company in my early 20s, I studied some more…

- an NLP Practitioner & Ericksonian Hypnotherapist - learning from the O.G. teachers…

but $ seemed like a better goal, so I became

- a (no so cool) real-estate agent & (very cool) broker during the good ‘ol days,

but addictions were getting me, so I ran away again from NY to LA and turned into:

- a business & marketing consultant in Los Angeles working with Hollywoodies to spread “love & light” in the world…

After a quarter-life crisis, I spent my 30s as:

- a mega supercool underground urban shaman, facilitating designer-plant-medicine journeys around the globe for the elite spiritual crowd…

but the harder I tried to become “somebody” the harder my soul became…

Unfortunately (or fortunately) my “somebody” bubbles kept bursting… and every boom became worst and and more embarrassing than the last…

Until one day - I have found myself in a complete recreation of my tumultuous childhood… this time with my own family, 30 years later and 3000 miles from where I ran away from as a teenager…

That’s when I realized that I must go back into the Lion’s Den - I must stop everything, return home, heal and try to remember what and who it was I really know myself to be…

Maybe one day, I thought, I cab actually be my name - which is a light to the world.

So at the age of 37, with my Somebody’s tail between its legs, I returned back home (Israel) with my wife and child, to give nervous system a chance to relax…

I had one thing on my todo list: stop everything - more specifically: stop hustling to be somebody… that meant no more work, no more gigs, no more trying to be the next cool somebody.

Originally, I gave myself a year to do nothing and act like a tourist in Israel… but life had its own healing plan for me…

Upon arrival we found out that we were pregnant with another boy, my father followed me home to die suddenly and then the pandemic froze the entire world around me… which was actually pretty comforting considering how I felt.

For the first time, at the age of 40, I felt that perhaps I’m really not so crazy… and that my long held suspicion that the whole world is mad - is actually true!

Right around the time my father’s passing, an old friend who was always a mentor of sorts - called me out of the blue and told me that he is taking on coaching clients. Like I said, he was always a mentoring figure in my life, but he was a successful entrepreneur not a coach…. and here he says that he is taking on mentees.

Truth is, I have always secretly wished for a Mentor like I read about in Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich… so that was a very welcomed surprise…

When I asked if I could become one of his students, he resisted at first -

“I am not sure I can help you” he said to me.

“you are too addicted to reality” he continued..

To make a long story short, this conversation went on for two years… we would speak just about every day with the intention for me to recover from my addiction to reality itself….

After hundreds of conversation and my own work, right when I was ready to fire him ;) I had my “moment”… with him on the phone, looking at the sea..

On afternoon, on the fall of my 42nd year on earth, I literally re-membered.

While it’s impossible to describe the ineffable… I can share my remembrance in one sentence:

I am the ocean, expressed as a wave, remembering that I am the ocean.

That’s when I realized that what I have actually been addicted to is my “somebodyness”.

I have been under the illusion that I am a lonely wave, lost in the sea of other somebodies, trying to figure out which somebody I need to be… where in reality, I have always been the ocean, expressing itself as a wave on the journey of remembering itself…

My whole journey I kept trying to become a “cool & successful wave”, not realizing I am actually the ocean…

I am no longer trying to become “somebody”

So what changed? Was it the 5 years of inwardness? Karma? age? My mentor’s tenacity and persistence?

I don’t know… and quiet frankly it doesn’t matter. What matters for me now is creating more waves of remembrances…

because there’s really nothing else to do.

Now, as I am recovering from this great “somebodyness addiction” - I can acknowledge what kind of wave I have always know myself to be: a writer, a storyteller and entrepreneur helping others with theirs…

I have thousands of digital notes and dozens of filled notebooks…

I was waiting to be “somebody” before I am worthy of sharing my art??

That’s cute.

So my first order of business is publishing a body of work that I have been working on these 5 years of inward journeying!

As diehard story nerd, I have mapped the remembering journey in 12 beats (Four Acts broken down to twelve moments) which I have used as a map and writing tool to decode my own journey and uncover the deeper story.

This body of work will be used as an example for more…

Here we go…

Are you struggling with the greatest addiction of all? being somebody cool/special/successful/worthy?

I would love to hear from you…

Oriya