Feeling Our Emotions When we’ve relapsed, our instinct is often to try and move on as quickly as possible, to forget about it so that we don’t give it too much of our energy and cause ourselves to relapse again by thinking about it too much. We don’t want to dwell on the pain ofRead More
Returning to work after completing a treatment program has its specific challenges, just as every part of our recovery journey does. We can be filled with trepidation, worry and self-doubt. We question how to handle the logistics and also the interpersonal dynamics surrounding the transition. Many of us are able to take time off fromRead More
Focusing on Replacement Habits As we’re working to recover, we discover that many of our habits are harmful to our health and detrimental to our sobriety. We want to break these habits, and we often work on doing this by focusing on them because now that we’re practicing mindfulness, we’re observing ourselves do these badRead More
You’ve managed to get sober successfully – congratulations! That is a huge milestone and something to really be proud of. You’ve worked extremely hard, and now you might be wondering if you’ll be able to stay sober for the long haul. The truth is, recovery is a lifelong journey and in order to stay sober,Read More
Too Broken to Be Fixed As we’re working to recover, one of the things we want to shift is the attitude we have towards ourselves and our recovery work. Are we thinking of our personal development as working to heal ourselves, or as trying to fix our brokenness? Do we feel whole within ourselves withRead More
If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). As we’re working to recover from our addictions, we need a certain level of inner peace, emotional stability, and overall balance if we’re going to be able to defeat the many challenges that come with recovery, from the addictiveRead More
How we think and feel about ourselves is one of the most important elements of our recovery and is a crucial part of the inner work we need to do in order to heal ourselves. How we self-identify can literally make or break our recovery. If our self-identification is based on self-hatred and self-rejection, ourRead More
One of the elements of our recovery programs that we find most challenging is the act of making amends to the people we’ve hurt throughout our struggles with addiction. We have a very hard time forgiving ourselves and also seeking forgiveness. We find apologizing to be extremely difficult. Some of us never move past ourRead More
Unconscious Thinking When we aren’t conscious of how we’re thinking, many of us tend to allow our thoughts to control and overpower us. We’re not being mindful or vigilant about the health of our thought patterns, and we’re defaulting to the self-destructive, self-hating beliefs stored in our subconscious minds. Very often the health of ourRead More
The recovery process is as much about healing our thoughts as it is working to get sober. In fact, the healthier our thought patterns and belief systems, the more conducive they are to our sobriety, and the more success we’ll have in our recovery. When we’re thinking in self-loving, self-empowering ways, we become stronger inRead More