Not everything has to be productive. Striving for a successful, efficient, and effective life can cause us to forget that. We live in an age of maximized productivity. We’ve created an entire culture around streamlining our lives in order to make time last as long as it can, to get the most done, and create
“Relapse is a part of recovery”- it’s a dangerous statement to make. Many people assume that relapsing is a natural part of the recovery journey, that you don’t really get sober until you’ve been knocked down a time or two. Worse, people assume that long term recovery is really just intermittent recovery. Anyone who might
There’s something so boring about being stuck inside. Many of us have experienced. We can’t comprehend or pay attention to anything, anyone is saying because it’s all too small. The board is too small, the classroom is too small, even the ideas are too small. Recovery is full of big concepts about life which is
“You’re such a character,” “you got character, kid,” “that guy! What a character!”. The more you look at the word character the more foreign it becomes. A character is a fictional person or a role in a book, play, film, or physical portrayal of something. We use a maximum of 140 characters in our ‘tweets’
Coming to the first step of recovery, admitting you have a problem with alcohol, is hard to do when you don’t want to admit you have a problem with alcohol. Denial can take you years deeper into your alcoholism than you need to go. Perhaps you aren’t yet experiencing the chemical dependency on alcohol which
The activities, messages, and cliches used over and over in treatment can get annoying. When you start to ask yourself why you have to be so grateful and make good choices, remember this: a lot of scientific research has gone to great lengths to understand how the brain works regarding addiction and mental health. Nothing
You’re Not Wasted: Some days this is more exciting than others. Even on your worst days sober, they are better than your best days drinking and using. It was fun until it wasn’t. Today, you get to live your life without the foggy haze of drugs and alcohol. You’re Not Hurting Yourself: Self-harm isn’t a
You just aren’t built to go non-stop. None of us are. Even marathon runners have to stop to sleep during their training. Humans are not machines, no matter how hard we try to be. We can’t keep going without burning out. At some point we have to stop, take a breather, and reboot. In recovery,
Feeling isn’t always fun. That’s a hard fact to face when you are in recovery. Day in and day out of various clinical therapy groups, life coaching, mentoring, and more, brings up a lot of feelings. We don’t usually turn to drugs and alcohol to honestly confront our emotions. Usually, we turn to them to
For some people, there is no worse night sleep than one spent in the great outdoors. Rocky ground, bugs, fresh air. The thought is a total turn off. Others, however, light up at the thought. The comfort of a sleeping bag, the tranquility of nature far removed from the hustle and bustle of city life.
