Recovery Daily Podcast

I have intense internal pressure to do things even when I know it will cost me physically. Inspired by a conversation with my psychiatrist, I used an emotion color wheel to slow down and name what’s underneath that pressure. The emotions, like fear, guilt, sadness, anxiety, and even grief over who I used to be, play a huge role in my daily decisions. It helps to identify those emotions and separat...

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is our Q2 Reads and Recovery book pick. It captures the chaos and distortion of alcoholism so well! Saying No is a difficult but necessary part of self-care. You know those moments when everything in you is saying no, but we say yes anyway and then pay for it later with fatigue, pain, frustration, or resentment. Today I talk through what people pleasing reall...

Advice is easier said than done. Things like “listen to your body,” “be patient with yourself,” and “accept where you are” are simple, but living them is something else entirely. In recovery, I navigate chronic pain, fatigue, and the constant negotiation between what I want to do and what my body will allow. And it’s all day long every day that the battle occurs. I’m writing a book—I don’t know if...

I remember walking past some bushes in detox on the way to the cafeteria, scared a bottle of wine could be hiding there, waiting for me. What scared me was me. I didn’t trust that I could stop myself. I thought my recovery was just physical, and I just needed to control my hand from picking up a drink. But in that short walk, I saw that the problem was more about my mind reaching for the drink ins...

Living life on life’s terms in stroke recovery means learning how to live peacefully in a reality I didn’t choose. I still get angry, scared, frustrated, and sad, but I allow those feelings to run their course without dictating my behavior. Since my stroke I abandoned the illusion that I can control my life by just working harder, planning better, and pushing my body further. Neither life nor my b...

If I could talk to my past self, I would tell her she’s doing the best she can with the tools she has, and she’s not weak, broken, or uniquely over emotional. I would tell her that the anxiety and depression are real, not imagined, and that she doesn’t have to act like she’s ok and as if nothing is wrong. I would tell her that she simply has a human condition. She’s not the only one who feels dark...

I didn’t understand, or even want to consider the possibility that my stroke permanently changed my life in an instant. How do you wrap your head around that. I did everything right. I was sober for five years. I did yoga every day at 4 PM. And I even became a runner, albeit short distance and not fast. Maybe I should say casual jogger 😂. Anyway, I thought if I followed the rules, went to the doc...

I work hard to be happy. It takes intentional daily choices for me. Living with invisible illness, whether it was alcoholism, anxiety, depression, or now my vestibular disability after stroke, means there is so much going on inside of me that no one else can see. There’s a mental, emotional, and physical load behind even simple things I do. So I must participate in happiness and not wait for it to...

Step One in my vestibular recovery means accepting that I can’t force my brain and body to behave the way they used to. If I try to push through symptoms or do more than I can handle, I just create more pain, frustration, and unmanageability for myself. No one can see my dizziness, brain fog, daily head pain, and fatigue, but recovery gets even harder when I pretend they aren’t there and try to “a...

My faith journey began with desperation and willingness. Sobriety first introduced me to the idea of depending on a power greater than myself, even when I felt awkward and unsure about it. It felt more like discipline than conviction. I practiced gratitude, prayer, and “acting as if” I believed, long before I felt connected to anything. That willingness squeaked opened the door. I began to see tha...

How do we know when it’s time to make a change? The process begins long before the actual decision. We must notice that we are suffering. I can often recognize pain in other people much faster than I can recognize it in myself, but change begins when I stop long enough to admit, “I’m not okay.” That pause matters, rather than rushing straight into self-pity or problem-solving mode. Take time to se...

Change began when I conceded to my innermost self that the way I was living was no longer working. This pivotal point happened when I got sober and when I left my career for stroke recovery.  That inner voice tends to get buried under denial, fear, and survival mode. Admitting complete defeat meant I was willing to change something, and stop forcing my way to work. Little did I know, the only thin...

Living with a chronic illness or disability, it’s difficult to know when to stop chasing doctor appointments, medications, and possible fixes, and instead start living life. For a long time after my stroke, I searched for the next solution, better specialists, drugs and treatments that might finally change what was happening to me. I found the most frustrating part was that no one ever said, “Ther...

This week is the VEDA (Vestibular Disorders Association) Conference, Life Rebalanced Live 2026. It’s become one of my favorite weeks of the year because it’s the one time I’m immersed into a fellowship of hundreds of people who get it . The dizziness, brain fog, nausea, visual intolerance, migraines, and fatigue are shared along with solutions for how we live well when we don’t even feel comfortab...

Even when our painful circumstances don’t move, our emotions around them do. My disability is permanent, but my emotional experience is fluid. You may have heard before that our emotions move like weather, and it’s our job not to attach ourselves to them. But, my character defects tell me that whatever hurts today will hurt like this forever. I don’t have to drag my pain through a hard season. I c...

I sat down with Kaitlin Weigle to discuss what it’s like to live with OCD, and what misconceptions exist, like “all OCD’rs are clean.” Kaitlin breaks down how OCD is the obsessive loop and compulsions that try to neutralize fear, including mental compulsions like arguing with your thoughts, seeking reassurance, and avoiding triggers. We talked about intrusive thoughts, why they feel so convincingl...

Yesterday I heard the phrase, “gratitude is action,” and it gave me pause. What does that really mean? In early recovery, my sponsor and sponsees shared three “gratefuls” with each other every day. Not autopilot answers, but three gifts that positively affected my life that day. It took time to build the habit, but I began scanning for strengths, assets, and connection. That training mattered when...

After my stroke, I began experiencing vision problems and headaches that I couldn’t clearly explain. Over time, I realized the core issue wasn’t my eyesight itself but my inability to tolerate motion, especially seeing things move. Walking through a grocery store felt overwhelming, like everything was rushing toward me. I saw multiple eye doctors and completed extensive testing, yet I was repeated...

I’ve been wrestling with self-inflicted pressure that turns choices into requirements. I’m typically intrinsically motivated but can still get tripped up by extrinsic forces like approval, guilt, fear of disappointing people, and that inner “should’a” self-talk. I’ve actually found a way to put pressure on myself to live the perfect recovery life, trying to build a perfect routine going to AA, chu...

My expectations are resentments under construction. Learned in sobriety, praying for someone I’m resentful toward helps me move toward forgiveness by remembering we’re all flawed and “sick in some way.” I realized, however, it can still carry an underlying tone of “I forgive you for not being what I wanted you to be.” A friend suggested to me that praising the other person can move us further into...

Yesterday I finished an amazing book! It’s called Unexpected Awakening: 22 Days at a Buddhist Monastery Freed Me from Abuse by  Laurie S. Jacobson  (Available on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/09rqj0Ln) It’s a MUST READ for anyone who’s ever stayed too long in a relationship that was breaking you. While this book tells a story, it is a testimony of resilience of the human spirit. There is a beautiful...

I’m exercising while I podcast, because my commitment to the show is solid and I’m hoping I can “borrow” a little of that and apply it to building a new exercise routine. It’s odd, but it works! 💃🏻 As I move through an upper-body-and-posture routine today, I talk about an amazing quote I heard: “Some of the worst things in my life never happened.” - Mark Twain. Wow! Doesn’t that just speak volum...

Exercise used to be second nature for me before my stroke. I used to do flow yoga at 4pm daily, 4-mile walks with Autumn daily, and frequent outdoor runs. Now my vestibular symptoms, headaches, and stubborn back pain turned movement into a whole new negotiation. So I outsmarted the resistance by pairing exercise with the one routine I never abandon — my podcast!  As I demonstrate Day 1 of a 7-day,...

An unscripted check-in about enjoying the Super Bowl without looking at the TV, navigating vestibular limits, sober traditions, and the quiet mental load of noticing what affects symptoms. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.  Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779   Visit my Etsy shop, and join my crea...

Practicing Step 1 in stroke recovery is the activation point of building a psychological immune system. By accepting that my stroke changed my life forever, I could then begin adapting to the injury without exhausting myself in a constant fight against reality. Admitting powerlessness and unmanageability over my neurological injury took two years. In both alcoholism and stroke recovery, denial del...