Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenneth Rosaasen.
Hi Kenneth, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Maryland in 1976. My parents brought me, my brother, and sister to Redlands, California, When I was 8. I am the oldest out of the 3 of us. My father was a house painter by trade and my mother had many various jobs while we were growing up. We definitely weren’t rich, but we weren’t exactly poverty-stricken either. MY parents lived paycheck to paycheck. I remember it being very stressful in my house when the rent and the bills were do.
My Father was a good man and a hard worker who would do whatever he had to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, but he also had a very rare blood disease that would cause him to blood internally. He was in the hospital more times than I can remember, countless times, and each time I remember feeling powerless and unable to do anything except hope and pray he wouldn’t die. His blood disease was incurable and basically untreatable. The Doctors would just monitor him and somehow, he would pull through. But the effects on my mother and all of us was traumatizing.
I grew up dealing with horrible anxiety and never really understood what was happening to me. I can look back now and see a clear picture of why that was. The early formative years of my life were also shaped by some pretty intensely traumatic physical injuries of my own. At 5 years old, I fell about 12 feet from my aunt’s back porch onto my head and was in the hospital for more than a week with a broken arm and a very serious skull fracture across my forehead.
Like I said, my father was a good man, but he was not a strong male role model for me and my brother and sister. He was the youngest of 7 brothers and was sick most of his life. He couldn’t handle almost any conflict, so when it came time for disciplining us, he really struggled. As a result, my mother tried taking on the role of disciplinarian and leader of the household. That didn’t work very well. It mostly just drained her energy and left her feeling bitter and resentful towards my father. And it left each of us with a mother who was cold, unaffectionate, and chronically unhappy.
By the time is was 15 I was heavily using alcohol and tobacco as a way to manage my anxiety. This quickly lead to meth use and a lot of unprotected sex. Which ultimately landed me in jail, rehab, and becoming a father at age 18.
When I turned 19, I was already a father of 2 little girls, Lauren and Ashely. Both having different Mothers. I Did get clean from meth and straighten up enough to keep working in construction to provide for my daughter Lauren and her mother… I was off meth but continued to drink very heavily almost every day.
At age 21, I had my first panic attack and ended up in the ER, thinking I was dying of a heart attack. The doctors tried to tell me my EKG was normal, but what I was experiencing was far from normal and scared me to death. This panic attack was so severe that it lead to years of multiple panic attacks per day. Sometimes lasting for 4 hours or more and leaving me completely exhausted.
For almost a decade I suffered with panic attacks and alcoholism. And now a benzodiazepine addiction which was a result of the medication I was prescribed to manage the anxiety just so I could function and go to work.
During this time, I also had 2 more children, 2 boys, one with the mother of my daughter and another child with a woman I was dating when we were broken up.
In my early 30’s after going through a horrible custody battle. I began to lose all hope and fell into a deep depression. I began using meth again. I began selling meth and stealing cars as a way to pay for my habit. This didn’t last very long. I was arrested about 4 or 5 times and caught a very serious case that earned me a 5-year prison sentence.
I spent 2.5 years in prison and was released in May 2012. Having nowhere to go I was back on the streets homeless and on drugs and at serious risk of going back to prison.
About 3 months after my release, me and a close friend got into an altercation that nearly costed both of us our lives. I was stabbed 6 times by him, and I hit him in his head with a tire iron. One of the stab wounds hit an artery, and one punctured my lung. I was bleeding to death and drowning in my own blood that was filling my lungs.
I had many other experiences where I nearly died, but this was the first time where I had the presence of mind to accept that I was going to die. It was the acceptance of my own death that really made this time different. I became calm and realized that the only thing that mattered to me in the world was that my children knew who much I loved them. I asked my friend to promise me to tell them who much I loved them, which she did.
By some miracle, I made it to the hospital where they performed emergency surgery to repair the artery that was severed in my shoulder. I lived, and nothing would ever be the same again after that.
This experience put all life and the preciousness of it into perspective. I was forever grateful to be alive. Every breath after that became a gift. In fact, everything became a gift. I stopped expecting things and started appreciating everything.
For this point on, things started changing in my life. I wish I could say I learned all the lessons I needed to, but the truth is I still had many to learn.
I had a few other massive awakening in my life after this. Which are full stories on their own. Which were very powerful and transformative. I’m happy to share more about these if asked to.
But essentially, I really began searching at this point for answers. I was not willing to live like that anymore.
I moved to San Diego in 2016. I moved here to start my life over fresh. Where nobody knew me as the man I once was. Where could reinvent myself and became the man I knew I was capable of becoming. I had various jobs in construction and began paying off years of child support. I lived in my van and showered at the YMCA so that I could afford to live here and pay my child support. I began building new relationships with people I admired and valued. After a few years, I had a new family. What I call my soul family. It was though many of these connections that I was introduced to a man named Neil Christiansen who was the director of an organization called the sacred sons. I got involved with this organization as it was just getting started, and learned so much about healthy mature masculinity. After a few years with them went off one my own and began a coaching business and building my own Community of men called Moksha. Moksha means freedom or liberation.
I know have the honor to help so many men who are struggling with the same things that is suffered through for so many years. Helping them find freedom from addiction, find purpose and meaning in their lives. And develop their gifts that they can use to contribute to a better world.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a wild roller coaster with twists and turns, ups and downs. Massive heartache and great triumph and redemption.
Some of the greatest struggles were my alcoholism and meth addiction. As well as making it out of homelessness. I also became a father at the age of 18, which forced me to grow up without having any real mentors or anyone who could show me how to be a man and a father.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am leadership/empowerment coach and breath work facilitator. I work with men who are struggling with everything from lack of purpose to addiction. I help them rewrite the stories of their lives. I teach them practices such as meditation and breathing techniques to help them manage stress and their emotions. One of the things I am most proud of is the men’s group I founded called Moksha which means liberation. We have weekly circles online and in person where men come from all over the San Diego County to practice together and share openly and vulnerably. We currently have almost 90 members and growing.
What sets me apart from others is my obsession with helping others become the best versions of themselves. I am a true believer that anyone can change if they are given then tools and the supportive environment to grow. I am living proof of someone who was a liar, a thief, and drug addict who completely turned his life around and became a man of integrity who is deeply trustable.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I’ve had many teachers along the way. One of them is a man named David Snyder. He is a doctor of Chinese medicine, Hypnotherapist, and NLP master practitioner who has a practice in Solano Beach. When I was still on drugs and homeless, I use to watch his free videos on the subconscious mind and hypnosis on YouTube. After watching countless hours of his videos, I started to really understand how my mind worked and how to get off drugs and alcohol. I learned how I was affecting my reality with my thoughts. I quickly began to change my life and eventually moved to San Diego, where I got trained and certified in hypnosis by him.
Also, the men’s organization called the sacred sons. My good friend Neil Christiansen is the director and brought me in to be part of the organization. I began my journey of “men’s work” with them. This is where I learned about male rite-of-passage rituals to help young men grow and develop into strong mature men.
Also am a part of a massive community of men and women here in San Diego that we refer to as the “conscious community.” These people are all part of what I call my Soul Tribe. I get all the support, love, and encouragement from each and every one of them on a daily basis.
Pricing:
- 1;1 coaching for $11oo/month
- group coaching offerings $333/month
- in person circles are suggested donation of $20
Contact Info:
- Website: kenrosaasen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/life_force_liberator/
