LOL Sober

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . The other day, I did a long weight-lifting session. When I was done, my arms were shot. So when I grabbed my phone, it legitimately felt hard to pick up. I started laughing, because it was the first time my phone literally felt lik...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . Early on in my sobriety, I had a random—but brain-exploding—thought. I was 32 years old, and for the first time in my adult life, I was living without drugs and alcohol. By that, I mean, I was trying to be a husband and a dad and a...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . For the second time this week, let me just tell you a funny sobriety story. Maybe there’s some important meta message in there for you. Maybe there isn’t. It certainly ranks as one of the most important moments in my sobriety, beca...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . EDITOR’S NOTE: Not sure what happened this morning, but some people got this post and some didn’t. So I am resending to everybody. Apologies if you got it twice… it isn’t THAT funny to have to sit through it two times! One big goal...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . One big goal I have with this newsletter is that we just have fun. It’s the entire point of this thing: Sobriety is a blast for me when I do the work. So occasionally I am just going to dial up a funny story that has some sober ing...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . When I was in college, I contracted a freak illness that almost killed me. I spent a week in a coma, and when I woke up, I was glad to be alive… but terrified because I knew I’d never be the same. My doctors did the best they could...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site,  LOLsober.com . As I’ve said before, I am a big fan of Just for Today , a daily meditation book from one of the 12-step fellowships. I love that you can subscribe and it arrives in your email inbox every day with a little dose of something spiritu...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . And introducing my web site, LOLsober.com . When I wanted to go to rehab, I had to meet with an in-take counselor first to gauge my drug and alcohol use, and she’d determine the level of care she thought I needed. I had never been to rehab before, and hadn’t ever gone to a 12...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . A few weeks ago, I had a rough Saturday. It was mostly just lingering work stuff, I felt tired, my kids were bickering. Pretty normal adulting stuff at the end of the week. So I definitely had less than a full spiritual gas tank when I went out to run some errands. I was outs...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . I did something this week I hadn’t ever done before. I had to speak at a meeting about the Third Step (quick reminder: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him”), and I realized that of the 12 steps, this was perhaps my weak...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . Woo boy, I had an eventful Monday. It wasn’t a life-changing horrific incident. But it’s the maddest I’ve been in a long time. Or, as the children say these days… I was Big Mad. My kids were acting really crappy toward me. Really crappy. And it got me boiling-hot mad. Like, I...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . Today is Memorial Day, and I always try to take a moment and be grateful that I’m not planning on spending the day passed out in my basement. I used to plan for drunken holidays—they were the perfect time to get obliterated. Everybody’s off work, drinking and hanging out. And...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . I go to a few meetings right now where we read the Set Aside Prayer at the beginning. And every time, I am glad I hear it. As a refresher, here it is: God, today help me set aside everything I think I know about you, everything I think I know about myself, everything I think...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . As I type this, I am sitting in a hotel room, on my second solo trip away from home in the past 16 months or so. I’ll be honest: The idea of alone time has always been very exciting to me, and a year-and-a-half of being cooped up in a pandemic cage match every day in my livin...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of Just For Today, a short daily reading for addicts. (You can subscribe to the daily emails here .) I was struck by the May 21 reading (called “Keep coming back!”) that digs into the importance of meetings. And that reminded me of an...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . This is my fifth post of the week, so… sorry? I don’t anticipate being that active most weeks, but I got into a little bit of a spiritual groove the past few days and kept rolling. And here we are, with me blowing up your inbox again with a lot of extra posts. I’ve been think...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . It’s NBA playoff time! I’m excited… and staying up wayyyyy too late to watch games. I love sports. It’s probably my favorite recreational thing to watch on TV, and I’ll always be appreciative of what being an athlete did for me. I played high school sports in an area where at...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or  Facebook … or  Instagram … or  YouTube . I have an issue in my life right now that has been going on for over a year now, and it’s really spiritually draining. Part of the reason it’s been spiritually draining is because I am allowing it to be. I could not let go. I would not let go. And I did not let it go. Deep do...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack … or  Twitter … or Facebook … or Instagram … or  YouTube . This weekend, I had a few people tell me they like what I am doing here and asked how they could help. If you feel similarly, I’d say the biggest thing you could do is tell somebody to find it (NelsonH.substack.com) or hit the purple “Share” button at the very button. Which is...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram and  YouTube . I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my motives. Am I doing the right thing because it’s the right thing? Or am I doing the right thing because I want something in return? The answers to those questions are usually a good window into my recovery. I’ve made so much progress, for sure...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram and YouTube . This past weekend was Mother’s Day, and I found myself fondly remembering one of the first meetings I ever went to. I’d raised my hand and said I only had two or three days sober, and a guy came up to me afterward and said, “Make sure you stick around for awhile, for the cash and prizes...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook or  Instagram . I was at a meeting recently where we read the April 21 passage from Daily Reflections, one of my favorite recovery books. It’s an awesome little 60-second jolt every day (check it out here ). If I’m having a rough day, sometimes I’ll scroll through a couple of them, and it helps. In that April 21...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook or  Instagram . On Saturday night, I was thinking about what I wanted to share on Monday morning. I settled on a very sweet notion about how holidays like Mother’s Day used to be some of the most heartbreaking, obvious exhibits of my slide into active addiction. I either didn’t show up, or I did show up… and you...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram or FAX my mom (but not on Mother’s Day; maybe wait till 12:01 a.m. that night). I’m going to try something new… today’s newsletter can be read or listened to. Here goes: The best I can offer you this Friday morning is… ugh. Long week. Hard week. It was one of those stretches of time where I didn’t dr...

Please spread the word to a sober friend! Find me on  Substack ,  Twitter ,  Facebook ,  Instagram or FAX my mom. A quick note about LOL Sober… I got some valuable feedback from friends, and I am going to hold off on putting anything behind a paywall just yet. I’ve offered paid subscribers a refund. I’m going to keep the tech setup the same for now, if you feel so inclined to contribute as the new...