From Sobriety To Recovery: An Addiction Recovery Podcast

Ep #273 - A person new in sobriety and recovery has a lot of inner turmoil, which will show in their outer actions and behaviors. Supporting them, while not enabling them, is critical in the early stages. If you or someone you know is a supporter of a person in addiction recovery or if a loved one is seeking answers to what they can do to help you, this episode can guide you and them to a wiser un...

Ep #272 - You will want to change many of your habits and routines in your early stages of sobriety. There are certainly actions and behaviors you are going to need to stop doing to increase your odds of not succumbing to the mental gymnastics and voices in your head saying, "come on, one more time." Whether you are new to sobriety or an old-timer, these tips will help you on your journey or suppo...

Ep #271 - Wow, I'm seven years sober. Addiction recovery is a journey. A huge part of mine has been learning to accept me for me. My life, where I am, who I am, what I am doing - all of this and more is part of my human experience, and it is a massive experiment in learning my human design. I am me. We are we. Together, we achieve a collective vibration of being free - from booze, from drugs, from...

Ep #270 - Do you think you have a drinking, drugging, or process addiction problem? There can be a lot of information out there telling you one thing and then being contradicted by the very next Google result. If you are asking yourself if you have a problem, then chances are you are long since past the point of no return, and sobriety to addiction recovery is either your future or a deepening of...

Ep #269 - A new year brings with it an opportunity to change our lives in a meaningful way as our society has deemed this day to be so important that we all get to forget now to put 24 on everything we date for the next few weeks, LOL. Jokes aside, today really is just another day in life - yet we can choose to make this the day that changes everything. In reality, any day can be that day. You dec...

Ep #268 - Your level of commitment to yourself when you step into sobriety is going to determine significantly your resiliency when your mind plays games with you and uses its cunning and mental gymnastics to pull you back into behaviors you have already decided you are sick and tired of having in your life. Being sober curious is dabbling, and being interested is slightly more into it, but gather...

Ep #267 - Not making assumptions and striving to do your best every day are beautiful life goals to seek to achieve daily. Perfection is non-existent, so release the notion you will rock these every opportunity they present themselves. Instead, seek that level of self-awareness that opens you to the recognition and evaluation of your behaviors so you can correct and grow so the next one is the bes...

Ep #266 - Be impeccable with your words, and do not take things personally. Sounds easy enough, and then life creeps in - you know, that thing that happens while you are busy making plans and doing things. When you strive to live by the four agreements, you offer yourself a roadmap to navigate. There will be detours, speed bumps, and emergency pitstops, but they are not meant to deter you from you...

Ep #265 - Self-awareness connects us to what we are doing and why we are doing it, and I don't mean the obvious why - I mean the profound reason related to a past anchor. In the depths of our subconscious lies the answers to the questions we seek. The first step is to recognize that you are not thinking, feeling, or acting the way you desire, and evaluating your motivations as to when, where, and...

Ep #264 - Addiction isolates. Maybe not in the beginning, when our socialization is kicked up because of the introduction to substances, but in time, when we aren't paying well enough attention, our drug or booze of choice begins to shrink our world smaller and smaller. Then, one day, we look around, and the reasons we started to use aren't as prevalent, and in their place is isolation with our ad...

Ep #263 - Your words have power. They have meaning. What you repeat in your head about yourself becomes your identity statement. Choose wisely what you say to yourself. This year, choose your power words with the internal desire to live toward them; those power statements fuel your life's inferno! Listen to #164 and #193 for past episodes on this topic. Just hit play, and let's dive in with our op...

Ep #262 - Life throws curve balls, or is it hail the size of a baseball? Living our lives through our past is killing us. You see it everywhere in our world. Old grudges, past misdeeds, a lack of acceptance and forgiveness - all these and more eat away at our souls. Today, let us choose a different response. Let's all decide to seek a higher sense of ourselves. I live my life through the exaltatio...

Ep #261 - Triggered, activated, tripped - whatever you call it, you have emotional anchors set all around you. They can be in your external world where other people do things around you, to you, or with you. Additionally, there are infinite anchors in your mind just waiting for that turn down an old worn-down path, and then the anchor triggers/activates and trips the old behavioral pattern loop -...

Ep #260 - Focusing on what we are doing, where we are, and when we are is such an important habit, yet often tossed aside in a world where a thousand things are vying for our attention every day of our lives. Pull yourself back into the moment, realize that multitasking isn't a real thing, and utilize your five senses. These are excellent ways to bring you back into focus on the task at hand. Afte...

Ep #259 - Part two of the expectations walks you through an in-depth adventure around why knowing where you place expectations is crucial in identifying areas in your life when you can release your predeterminations and ground into the moment. There are many aspects of your life where what you expect to happen won't, and right behind that disappointment is anger, sadness, depression, and all their...

Ep #258 - The holidays trigger anchors in our lives set down by unfulfilled expectations from past holiday experiences. We have expectations set all over our lives. Some are real and pertinent, like fidelity in a romantic relationship or trust in a friend, and others' expectations are not warranted, let alone discussed and agreed upon. You want to live a life running over with disappointment - exp...

Ep #257 - Your emotions are valid, and your expression is unique to you. Accepting others for who they are and how they choose to heal is empowering to everyone involved as judging and criticizing alienates and ostracises - and if anyone knows what it feels like to be alienated and ostracized, it is us in the addiction and recovery community. The beauty in the grief pattern inventory is that we ca...

Ep #256 - Grief, sadness, loss, and all the other emotions we express and feel are deeply personal processes for us to navigate. The Grief Pattern Inventory is a system that helps us identify how we process grief - and I now notice how it is useful in regard to many emotions that we feel that are not pleasant. Intuitive grievers and instrumental grievers will display and process their emotions ver...

Ep #255 - It is okay to be sad about something ending that matters to you. It is okay to have anxiety about something important to you. Feelings and emotions are a wonderment to the human experience. How we choose to process these emotions makes our human-ness simultaneously magnificent and tragic. I embrace my sadness. My confusion. My anxiety. Because on the other side of all, that is something...

Ep #254 - People are awesome. People are rude. People are friendly. People are cruel. We do not control how people treat or behave around us. We are in control of how we react and respond - and sometimes, it doesn't even feel like we are in control of that. A key I have reasoned is that I will treat others how I want to be treated as much as I can. I have bandwidth issues. I overload my plate. I d...

Ep #253 - Imagine your life as a towering skyscraper, each floor constructed upon the foundations of past experiences, some wonderous and joyful, others painful and traumatic. These lower floors are often hidden in the shadows of the unconscious mind, unseen yet foundational to everything that rises above. We understand that to reach the pinnacle of our personal mountain of accomplishment, we must...

Ep #252 - Events in sobriety may feel, sound, and look much differently than similar experiences from your addiction days. Celebrate these changes. Celebrate the differences because we once prayed for a new life and when it arrives understand there will be some internal blocks around whether it was fun or blah. When we decide to undertake sobriety, it comes from a burning desire to make a change, ...

Ep #251 - The parallels between working out or yoga to the journey from sobriety to recovery are so noticeable I must share this perspective with you. I learned a lot from my first yoga session in years today. I will not repair years of shortening my muscles in one session. I am not going to benefit myself by pushing into a stretch so deeply that I injure myself. I am in this for the long haul. I...

Ep #250 - Crisis moments. What are these to you? Every day, things that are out of our control are happening around us, and yet we survive. We live to face the next day's challenges. In the world of addiction and survival, living on the edge of our sanity might have worked for months, years - and probably decades. Now we desire to dedicate ourselves to the ultimate challenge - to break years of pr...

Ep #249 - The fear of the unknown is part of the reason you stay the same and avoid taking the plunge to make massive changes in your life. Deciding to be courageous doesn't mean you don't feel fear - it means you choose to ignore it and take action anyway. Sorta like in the Game of Thrones when Arya's "dancing teacher" said to her, "not today death, not today." Say 'not today' to your fear of the...