Crossroads Recovery Centre

Conversations At The Crossroads - Episode 1 by Crossroads Recovery Centre

Have I ever sat down and wondered how the effects of addiction have manifested in me – physically and mentally? There may be a number of effects of addiction : apathy, a draining of internal resources, health, (for example diabetes), a lack of motivation, a lack of commitment, a lack of grit. Have I become socially withdrawn, introverted, emotionally numb, hypervigilant or distracted ? Am I unable...

4. Self-centrredness How does the self-centred part of my disease affect my life and the lives of those around me? Selfishness, the centre of it all The cure for selfishness More concerned with my loss than a tual being Allowing the ebb & flow or what is real Am I giving because at some point I would like to receive? How unaware am I of the impact i have on others or more concerned with my hurt

Even when I try to do the right thing, I slip. Impulsive actions Thoughts that just pop into my consciousness Where does it come from Strange mental blank spot The Dis-ease

Where does obsession fit in? Am I constantly thinking about acting out in some way? Where can I get, how much, where can I steal a moment, how canbi have more that others and hide it Subtle thought processes running in background Do I find myself doing things I don't want to? Buy Looking at porn Overeating Am i unable to figure out why i do these things? Am I compelled by a force i cant comprehend...

Five Minute Contemplation: Do you ever think 'Why do I do the things I do'? Do you ever contemplate that 'driver' you have inside yourself and wonder what you can do about it? Maybe it's time to think about it?

Today we delve into Steven Pinker's book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress and look at the pace of how our civilization has evolved. We also revisit the Fermi Paradox, named after the Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi. It posits the contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and variou...

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get’ – Forrest Gump. Life is unpredictable. We can plan and prepare for things but we have no way of knowing that things will work out exactly as we planned. We need to have faith in the decisions we make and understand that what is meant to be will be. We need to take responsibility for our decisions and then trust that where we...

Things that start out with positive intentions to them, can turn into negative situations. Fasting can be highly beneficial for my physical health and my cognitive capabilities, however, there is a fine line between fasting and starving myself. Stress on our bodies and our minds is not always detrimental and yet people fear stress. It is in places of discomfort where change begins. How do I naviga...

“Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.” - Carlos Santana. Using the illustration of what it takes to play the guitar with skill, we look at what it takes to maintain sobriety. Recovery from addiction involves the learning of new skills and it takes commitment, dedication and many, ma...

Society needs laws, systems and structures in order to function effectively. In this podcast we take a look at artificial intelligence (AI) – where machines simulate human intelligence, (intelligence being defined as “the ability to benefit from past experience, act purposefully, solve problems, and adapt to new situations”) by using rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions. Computers ca...

The most respected people in the Gulags and the concentration camps were the people who told the truth, regardless of the consequences to themselves. Are we, as addicts, capable of evaluating and drawing conclusions about what is truth and what is not and how does the way an individual defines the truth for themselves impact on their own community ? Do we only tell the truth when it is convenient...

Humans everywhere create and rely on concepts of time- ideas about the nature of time that allow us to make plans, share memories and discuss possible futures. How does our perception of time impact us and the decisions we make and the way we run our lives? Demonstrations of time dilation on the Space Shuttle proved that clocks ran slightly slower than reference clocks on Earth. Atomic clocks on s...

If we take a scenario where people have the same talents, physical strength and intellectual abilities – there will still be people in that group who succeed and others who do not. What sets those people who succeed apart? What is it that makes some people capable of heroic, courageous acts? How are some people able to be constantly challenged and pushed past their limits and succeed towards the n...

In 1784, the philosopher, Immanuel Kant described enlightenment as “humankind’s emergence from its self-incurred immaturity”, its “lazy and cowardly” submission to the “dogmas and formulas” of religious or political authority. Humans are innately emotional beings, made from what Kant referred to as the “crooked timber of humanity”, combined with which the way we understand the world around us chan...

Recovery is not a short term goal, it is not quantifiable and is a life long goal. At some time in our lives we have been happy. Our active addiction results in our losing all of this : Paradise lost. Time has been lost,our active addiction has stolen from us. How do we “regain paradise”? How do we find our way out of the darkness? Fear of change is a natural human instinct, but how do we overcome...

“Later I also learned to go into that inner timeless and deathless realm that I have originally perceived as a void and remain fully conscious.” The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment – Eckhart Tolle. If success depends on how well I handle transition from one set of circumstances to the next, what does it take to cope with transition ? How do I manage the external stressors within...

“You are the maker of the dream … Whatever you put into the dream must be what is in you.” - Fritz Perls. There is little doubt that your dreams can impact the type of day that you are going to have. Dreams can indeed be very significant. Dmitri Mendeleev came up with the idea for the periodic table in a dream. Paul McCartney woke up with a tune in his head and thought, 'That’s great, I wonder wha...

How do we reach a shift in consciousness within ourselves ? What does it take for this to occur ? Is it an external event or an internal event ? What does finding enlightenment for yourself have in common with the birth of the universe and the possibility of there being life on other planets ? Both are rare events. Drawing an analogy between what it takes to create planetary life forms and what it...

How do we process the information around us and what effect does this information have on us ? In our addiction, where we influenced by the people around us which led to us making poor choices? We were the villain in our lives influenced by the thinking and behaviour of other villains. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, the theory has been tested again and again in such things as the Milgram expe...

#33 Flow, finding space “The last great attempt to free consciousness from the dominion of the impulses and social controls, was psychoanalysis; as Freud pointed out, the two tyrants who fought each other for control of the mind were the Id and the Superego, the first a servant of the genes, the second a lackey of society – both representing the “Other”. Opposing them was the Ego, which stood for...

What is consciousness and what is spirituality and how do we explain these concepts so that they make sense to us? How can coming to our own understanding of these concepts help us overcome periods of adversity in our lives ? Is consciousness the result of chemical interactions in our brains or is it the what religious people refer to as a soul ? Are my choices in life programmed by my genes ? Are...

Do Honour Codes work? DO HONOUR CODES WORK. In this podcast I talk about two opposing ends of a scale. Strictly abiding by the rules or not bothering with them at all. Using the ancient Bushido honour codes as a metaphor for our current life situations. This code is particularly fascinating because if its followed to the strictest letter of the law, it could end your life. It can be potentially da...

When looking at the Grant Study, one of the longest multigenerational studies done, a few facts stand out immediately. That’s the basis of this podcast, along with about 5 other studies along the same lines to back it up. What is of particular importance is how glaring problems with alcohol are. In conjunction with smoking are the biggest causes of premature illness and death. Many people try to q...

Fringe Sub-cultures There are always going to be Fringe Sub-cultures and if we pay any attention, it would seem they are an imminent threat. Politics and extremism are always a hot topic if we look at how many news channels there are! Not forgetting that in our country, to get a license to broadcast, there are a minimum number of mandatory news hours required. Extremism, whether it be political; f...