Pets and animals have a certain way of supporting our journey through sobriety that other things cannot. Addiction recovery takes a toll on the mind, body, and spirit. It is a lifetime of maintenance work, planning, and setting up relapse prevention strategies to keep you from going back to drugs or alcohol. There are many…
Everybody is born wanting to please their parents or guardians. It is natural for a child to want to do what makes their parents happy because it normally wins them praise and affirmation. Sometimes, no matter what a child does, their parents disapprove or find ways to tear the child down so the child will…
Summertime is when people get their t-shirts and shorts on, barbeque pits outs, and invite friends over. It is a time to go outside and play while the sun shines endlessly and it seems like everyone is happier and more social. For people with sobriety, the first, or subsequent, summers can be fraught with worry,…
Everybody has a critic deep inside them. It just comes out more for some than others. It can take away the joy and anticipation of feeling like you are doing great work in your recovery when you feel like a still-small-voice in your head will not stop saying negative things. A critical inner voice can…
People who struggle with getting into the recovery zone after addiction typically struggle with the idea they cannot do what they used to do. Getting caught up in thinking too hard about the past and what it was like can quickly derail positive thinking and behavior in recovery. What you may need is to find…
It can feel really hard to accept ourselves as we are when we think or feel we have done so many things wrong when we were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Recovery is not about bashing ourselves over perceived wrongs. It is more about accepting our lives as they are now, in the present. Even…
The journey of recovery is a long, winding road. It has ups, downs, twists, and turns. It has all the drama of a Hollywood movie and none of the glamour. The challenge for people in recovery is that it looks a lot like everyday life, just packaged in lots of things like emotional, physical, and…
Grief is a normal response to difficult circumstances in life. Whether it is death, loss of a friendship, divorce, moving, or other situation, the challenge is still the same. The grief can consume a person’s life if they get lost within its depths. Letting grief become too overwhelming can lead to less ability to function…
Some people seem to attract drama or dramatic people in their lives. It is not because people always attract those types into their life, but maybe they are attracted to helping others who bring drama into their life accidentally, however it happens, it can really be dragging you down in recovery. Now is the time…
Intuition was once thought to be an extrasensory thing, something that was too far out to be real. Perhaps it was ‘that feeling’ you got about a certain person you met that you had seen them before or had been in a certain place before. It might be that feeling you get when you walked…