In his book Drop the Rock: The Ripple Effect , Fred H. helps us explore Step Ten, and how the habits and practices that we build in a program of recovery create positive effects in us that ripple outward into our relationships and beyond. As we work Step Ten, we come to see that all we can control is the integrity of our response to what happens.
Whether it was stress-eating over the last year of uncertainty and unrest, or the fact that the holidays are upon us again, many of us are thinking about what we put in our bodies, and how what we eat can affect our health - including our recovery. In this excerpt from her book The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober , author Jennifer Matesa takes a look at the addictive qualities of sugar, and what it does to our minds and bodies....
In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart offers a simple solution to the many ways we talk ourselves into false beliefs about our aptitudes and gifts: practice. Happiness, she teaches, is worth the effort.
Many of us are running ourselves ragged these days - especially parents or caregivers. In this excerpt from her book A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery: Taking Care of Yourself to Take Care of Your Kids , Rosemary O'Connor charts a path through the holidays that can help you stay sane and sober, and even enjoy some peace with yourself and your family.
Dr. Joseph Lee, in this excerpt from his book Recovering My Kid , helps illuminate the difference between guilt and shame, and shows us how these emotional and relational forces are at play in treating addiction, embracing recovery, and rebuilding trust and hope in a family.
Those of us in recovery came to know the life-or-death value of having at least one person who knows us through and through - and cares about us anyway. In this excerpt from his book A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes focuses our attention on the vulnerability and trust inherent to the Fifth Step.
Sandra Swenson, in her new book Just Dandy: Living with Heartache and Wishes , writes about the holidays and family from the perspective of a mother whose son struggles with addiction - and also as a person who manages the other aspects of her life that can be just as hope-filled and heartbreaking. How do we do it? How can we be "just dandy" and mean it?
The holidays are coming up and many of us will be feeling loss and grief this year, different from that felt in any other year. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss , Earl Hipp helps us see that we can help others through their grief, especially if we've already spent considerable time in The Hard Times.
As we think of the holidays, there's quite a bit we might need to cope with: health, boundaries, family issues, beverage and menu choices, and so much more. Here's a mini-course for coping with confidence from the book Of Course You're Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , by Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden.
Jennifer Storm, in her book Awakening Blackout Girl: A Survivor's Guide for Healing from Addiction and Sexual Trauma , brings us along on her journey through trauma and recovery, showing us how shame has shaped her experiences through it all - and still today. She reminds us that though we will make mistakes and need to make amends again and again in life, we don't have to let shame control us.
As we get closer to the holiday season, it's time to reflect on how those of us in recovery can be of service to others. In Three Simple Rules: Uncomplicating Life in Recovery , author Michael Graubart tells us about helping others, but making sure we're offering "helpful help," rather than "unhelpful help."
In her book Sane , Marya Hornbacher explores how Step Seven, particularly after working all the Steps before it, offers us the opportunity to see our own transformation: what we were before, while looking ahead to what we can become next. We can become something completely new - or something we already were, but couldn’t see, because of our addiction.
No one has been spared from loss or grieving this year, especially those of us in recovery who may also be experiencing the loss of our former coping mechanism, substance use. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss , Earl Hipp tells us all about grief and what we can do to work through it while sustaining our sobriety.
In times like these, the pressure is on - but what can we do about it? In his book, 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone , Dr. Allen Berger teaches us how to look inward and focus on our part of the problem.
Beverly Conyers, author of Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , just published Follow Your Light: A Guided Journal to Recover from Anything . Here are two exercises from the journal about forgiveness, something we can all examine a little more closely in ourselves on our recovery journeys.
Autumn is here, and we are living through unprecedented times. But let's never forget that while we've never been in this place before, others have gone before us, and they've had their own challenges and strife during their recovery. Marya Hornbacher, in this excerpt from Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power , weaves a story for us about her own experience in the world of the spirit.
Whether we are essential workers, first responders, or health care providers or we live with people who face incredible circumstances on a daily basis, we need to know how to support ourselves and each other. Cynthia Orange helps us identify and manage stress and depression in this excerpt from Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One's PTSD .
Melody Beattie wrote 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact: Meditations for Connecting with God, Self, and Others to help us remove what's in the way of our serenity. Here is week 18, where Melody helps us with the concept of "easy does it" so we can walk through recovery - challenges and all - one step at a time.
Many of us are survivors, and many of us are facing recovery not only from a substance use perspective but also from a place of trauma. Jennifer Storm helps us examine our recovery—honestly—from both perspectives at the same time in Awakening Blackout Girl .
Those of us who've been in recovery for a little while might wonder if we could use a check-up for our recovery. Fred H. looks to Step Ten to give us these spot checks—these recovery aerobics—in Drop the Rock: The Ripple Effect .
Humility helps us approach what we do with an open and curious mind, and no time is better to practice humility than today. Beverly Conyers, author of Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , explains how humility will only serve us in our recovery.
Sometimes the problem isn't the problem - the problem is how we cope with the problem. Sometimes, we need expert advice for how to cope with our problems, as explained by Dr. Allen Berger in his book 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone .
How are you feeling? It's a common enough question—especially in these days of the coronavirus pandemic. But not everybody knows how to answer it. In this excerpt from Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , Earl Hipp describes how an emotional vocabulary can help us tolerate and talk about the intensity and discomfort that come with big feelings.
In this excerpt from his book A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes outlines insights on addiction and healing from current brain science and invites us to embrace our recovery as a lifelong creative emotional, physical, and spiritual process of healing and growth.
There's a lot to be angry about these days. The coronavirus pandemic has affected our jobs, our health, and our families; recovery can feel harder to maintain. In this excerpt from their brief book, Of Course You’re Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden call us to examine self-pity as a destructive form of unhealthy anger, and point a way past it....
In this time of distancing and isolation during the pandemic, we can learn from how people handle panic, anxiety, and agoraphobia. This excerpt from Embracing the Fear: Learning to Manage Anxiety and Panic Attacks by Judith Bemis and Amr Barrada can teach us how fear can be useful to us in our recovery.
In times of crisis and uncertainty, even healthy people and relationships will experience conflict. With insights from neuroscience as well as her own recovery, Cynthia Moreno Tuohy's book, Rein In Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , opens the door to a whole new way to think about thinking—especially when the emotional stakes are high.
While right and wrong can sometimes be clearly defined, much of the time we wrestle with competing perspectives and pressures in order to do the next right thing. In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken offers tools for discovering options and making choices. In this excerpt, we explore the tension between chaos and discipline—a timely topic during the coronavirus pandemic, when chaos seems all too present....
In times of stress and uncertainty, it's common to worry about relapse, either for yourself or someone you love. Extra anxiety, fueled by global, local, or even personal experience with the coronavirus pandemic, may lead people to cope in all kinds of unhealthy ways. In this excerpt from Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery , Earnie Larsen reminds us that avoiding relapse depends on our willingness to "face what is chasing us."...
As we kick off National Recovery Month during a pandemic, it's a good time to look at one of our most popular titles for advice about how to manage ourselves as we manage our recovery. Here's an excerpt from Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects by Bill P., Todd W., and Sara S. to help us act "as if" we can keep walking through our recovery by looking up to see the big picture and having faith that we can—and will—get to where we're going....
