Testimonials for ASTARA

Living the Light

I had the pleasure of taking the Living the Light workshop with Marilyn Wise, and I can say it has been life changing.  At the time, I was going through a period of transition and getting ready to move in a new direction in many areas of my life.  My intent for taking the workshop was to gain more guidance and clarity during this time of transition, and boy did I!  By learning techniques and tools to attract that which you want into your life, you begin to feel a sense of empowerment and learn to trust in the universe to provide.  I look forward to seeing all that which I have begun attracting to my life take shape and come to fruition.  It was an amazing group of people and a wonderful experience I highly recommend! 

Shelly A. Gracon-Nagy

Dear Marilyn,

I want to send you a note of thanks for the way you and your classes have made such a difference in my life.  You taught me how to handle life and gave me so many tools for coping. 

With my mother having recently passed, I should be curled up in a miserable ball of self- pity, but I am not, I am living. Very deeply sad but coping.  With the New Year upon us, I looked back over the vision board you had us do, and I am pleasantly surprised and pleased with the fact that I have achieved success with every goal on there. I am making a new vision board for this year.  

From you I learned about not being afraid, not focusing in on if I do or do not have the self-confidence to do something, but deciding what I want to do (the passion test) and just simply taking the first small steps and doing it.   Over time it all adds up to success and in many ways, great success.   

Your Yoga classes have also made a big difference in my life.  They have improved not just my physical health but brought me incredible peace.   It is like an ongoing extension of your wonderful course “Living the Light.”  What a perfect name, because that is exactly what you have done for me, given me the ability to “live in light.”

Cathie

The Passion Test

The most important thing to know about Marilyn Wise is that she is a minister of love. She exudes a passion to elicit the highest self in each person she encounters. Marilyn facilitated The Passion Test I attended. She was a breath of fresh air. It was obvious she loved what she was doing and believes in wholeheartedly. Marilyn is so filled with joy, light and love that her presence is equal to the pleasure, energy and light of a sunshiny day. She has a gift of enabling people to feel safe, drawing them out of their comfort zones, into new heights of being. If one has the opportunity to take the Passion Test with Marilyn Wise, you’ll come away from the experience knowing you can live life being true to yourself.

Suzanne Troll

Marilyn,

When I walked through the doors at ASTARA, I was a shell of my former self.  I had been abusing a variety of drugs for years, I had been through a long fight with cancer, and I had really lost myself in the process.  I really couldn’t imagine a life with meaning and purpose, not to mention a life without drugs. 

From the minute I came into ASTARA though, I was made to feel at home, and I was treated with a sense of respect and concern that made me feel like I wasn’t alone and that I was worth helping.  The staff, especially Marilyn, is clearly passionate about what they do and seeing that created a comfortable atmosphere and trust from the start.  I wasn’t accustomed to trusting someone, but I now realize that the trust I had, and still have, in them was actually the genesis to my recovery. 

I became willing to try anything that was suggested and I started seeing results immediately.  Instead of a fear-based approach to recovery, they focus on the positive aspects of a new beginning.  That, combined with the multi-tiered approach to recovery, was exactly what I needed. 

I had tried to change before, but I was always unsuccessful.  With ASTARA, my experience has been the complete opposite.  I’ve changed and am still changing many things in my life and I see good things around every corner.  Instead of being filled with despair and anger, I am now filled with hope and love.  I am, and will always be, forever grateful to them for that.  I finally have myself back…

Andy

Dear Marilyn,

I just wanted to take the time to thank you and the entire team at ASTARA for helping me to achieve an even greater recovery than I could have ever imagined. The program itself, in its philosophy and love, have helped me embrace the emotional self who used drugs and alcohol when coping with life. I've never experienced such an organic process, in which love and true concern in clients have availed.

As you know, in the past, I have attended different outpatient programs. They all have had a positive effect on me in their own way. ASTARA sets itself apart...I am just amazed as well as my family and friends. They have all noticed a change in my life and that is one of the most gratifying experiences I have gotten to know!! But more important is the fact that I am not running from my past or my true self. It has been so scary for me, and I have just wanted to die inside for years. It is such a blessing for me to walk into a place where I feel home and I feel safe.

You above all have been so kind and reassuring and just amazingly patient. I really owe you many thanks from the bottom of my heart. You have been like family to me!! I am so very blessed to know you, and I want you to know how much I love you!

The yoga program also has been so wonderful and the women in the class are such survivors of their own; it is truly inspiring. Life has just been so hard for so many years... what pain I have healed from already is the thing in which keeps me from feeling I never have to look back. I can hardly wait to see you tomorrow in yoga! Ha, I LOVE that you take classes with me! How many times do we see people in life not practicing what they preach? You have been such a great leader in this way; you definitely do what you say you will do. Thanks again. Much love to you and the team always.

NAMASTE,
Kim 

"I just want to say thank you for the healing I have been able to attain from all the wonderful programs you have given me the opportunity to attend and interact...   It's almost as if the more I have "healed" from my inner child wounds and learned new coping skills, my body is literally responding and healing itself."

Veronica

..."recovery treatment with ASTARA has begun the most productive time of my life.  The mental, spiritual, and physical tools of the ASTARA team have changed the way I veiw myself and the world I live in."

Dan