Recovery Elevator

Liz, with a sobriety date of July 8, 2017, shares her story.   Workshops for the Bozeman, MT, retreat in August are lined up!  There are still a few spots left!  You can find more information about this event here   On today's podcast Paul talks about a common misconception people have as they move forward in a life without alcohol.  That misconception is that when we get sober, we will finally fi...

Nick, with 111 days sober, shares his story.   On today's episode Paul discusses anxiety, depression and stress.   "These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them." ~ Rumi.       Depression is when mental energies are stuck in the past, anxiety is when we are living in the future, and stress accumulates when the end goal is more important than the task at hand.   Liberation from all three of...

Sami, with a sobriety date of July 21, 2018, shares her story.   On today's podcast Paul discuses surrender.  What does is really mean to reach a point of surrendering?  It doesn't have to be complicated.  Surrendering simply means yielding to your next stage in life.  As Paul mentioned on a previous podcast, addictions are no more than sign posts in life, and surrender is when we fully accept the...

James, with a sobriety date of November 12, 2016, shares his story.   Recovery Elevator is on Instagram!  Please follow Paul and Ben here .   On today's podcast Paul discuses relapse.  For some, and Paul has only met a few, relapse isn't part of their story.  But for the vast majority it is, and it isn't something to be ashamed of.  Spontaneous sobriety is rare.  Paul feels that the word 'relapse'...

Brad, with a sobriety date of August 31, 2018, shares his story. Paul talks about the 'now' and ways we can ground ourselves while we find ourselves taking this thing one day at a time.  At some period in our journey we will find ourselves logging our days in our tracker like it 'ain't no thing'.  Then there are other days when we wake up and keeping the mind in check can be a constant struggle. ...

Libby, with 112 days of sobriety, shares her story. Paul talks about a trend he noticed in the airport bookstore.  Amongst the '20 best sellers' there were several books with clear, unambiguous titles.  Our society is collectively starting to wake up and are looking for ways to unf*ck ourselves.  He says that all of these books, including the one he is currently writing, are not fulfilling a trend...

Ashley, with 192 days of sobriety, shares her story. Paul talks about how alcohol is the invitation.  What is this invitation?  It's called addiction.  Depending on how you RSVP you could have a life filled with infinite joy.  The fact that you are listening to this podcast right now is a good clue as to how you're going to RSVP.  At first the invitations may not show up with enough frequency to c...

Dr. Sue Morter, talks to us about how our bodies and minds have the capacity to heal themselves if we allow it. Registration is now live for the Recovery Elevator retreat in Bozeman, Montana this upcoming August.  You can find more information about this event here Paul discusses addiction and how there are hundreds of definitions for what addiction is.   He has covered several of them on this pod...

Mina, with a sobriety date of May 30, 2017, shares his story. You can sign up for a FREE 5-day Recovery Elevator video course here .  Paul discusses the most controversial word he has encountered in AA.  The word is recovered , as in your addiction to alcohol is behind you.  Although recovered is mentioned in the books of AA, after Paul said the word in an AA meeting, he noticed a shift in the ene...

Tricia, with a sobriety date of November 14, 2016, shares her story. Sometimes we reach a moment in our journey where we say, "what's next?".  Paul discusses what he would recommend when you reach this moment.   Do not go 'seeking', that reinforces a mind state that we are lacking something.   Instead, listen to the body.  The body is going to tell you where to go next.      SHOW NOTES   [7:30] Pa...

Steven, with a sobriety date of August 7, 2016, shares his story. Registration for the Bozeman, Montana Retreat opened up this past Friday.  Space is limited for this retreat.  You can find more information about events here Internet memes…a picture, coupled with a few short words, can spread powerful messages.  Paul describes one he saw the other day.  It was an old school telephone with the word...

Juan, with a sobriety date of May 29, 2018, shares his story. Congratulations to Kirk S. in Florida for hitting 1 year of sobriety.  This Friday, March 1st, registration for the Recovery Elevator Retreat in Bozeman goes live.  Space is limited for this retreat.  You can find more information about events here After the interview with Juan, Paul will discuss detoxing from alcohol and how dangerous...

Bill, with a sobriety date of October 8, 2018, shares her story. We want to thank Mike Noll for his commitment to doing the podcast show notes for the previous 35 episodes and welcome Kerri, from California, to the position, who will take over doing the next 26 episodes.     We still have a couple spots left for our Nashville event coming up this February 22 – 24.  Registration for Bozeman Retreat...

Crystal, with 84 days of sobriety, shares her story. This is a special podcast episode!  It marks 4 consecutive years of podcasting…208 straight Mondays in a row.  Paul talks about how Recovery Elevator and the RE community has saved his life, and shares ways we can all help others stop drinking.   SHOW NOTES [11:00] Paul Introduces Crystal. Crystal has been sober for 84 days and lives in San Anto...

Tom, with a sobriety date of June 6, 2018, shares his story. Events – I am excited about the upcoming events for Recovery Elevator.  As already mentioned on the podcast we have Nashville on Saturday, February 23rd.  We also have the Bozeman Retreat from Aug 14-18th.  The Bozeman Retreat was a huge hit in 2017 and it is back on the calendar for this year. Guys, what I am particularly excited about...

Dusty, with a sobriety date of  9/21/15, shares his story.   On January 1st, I launched the 3rd private, unsearchable Facebook accountability group.  All Café RE signups starting January 1st-January 31st will be placed in the new group.  This group will be capped at 300 members to ensure intimacy.  For the entire month of January, you can use the promo code 2019 for 75% off registration. If you're...

Kane, with 49 days of sobriety, shares his story. On January 1st, I launched the 3rd private, unsearchable Facebook accountability group.  All Café RE signups starting January 1st-January 31st will be placed in the new group.  This group will be capped at 300 members to ensure intimacy.  For the entire month of January, you can use the promo code 2019 for 75% off registration. If you're a Recovery...

  Lucy, with 65 days of sobriety, shares her story.   Do I need to avoid social situations where alcohol will be present?    The answer is yes, then no, then yes.  Sorry if that's confusing. I explain better in the episode.   On January 1st, I launched the 3rd private, unsearchable Facebook accountability group.  All Café RE signups starting January 1st-January 31st will be placed in the new group...

Jeff, with over 2 years since his last drink, shares his story… That could never happen… Analysis of the famed James Bond movies reveals that James Bond is a full-blown functioning alcoholic living on borrowed time.  "There is strong and consistent evidence that James Bond has a chronic alcohol consumption problem at the severe end of the spectrum… His workplace, MI6, needs to become a more respon...

Warren, with 48 hours since his last drink, shares his story… 12 reasons why sober is better: 1 - Look your best.   2 - Look and feel properly rested. 3 - Alcohol fixes things you didn't notice were broken.  4 - Make the most of your time.  5 - Build better relationships.  The opposite of addiction is connection. 6 - More confidence.  You can do anything you put your mind to.  7 - Less fear! 8 - S...

Jeff, with over 38 days since his last drink, shares his story… During this festive holiday season, we will, no doubt, we encouraged to drink at one point or another.  We can't think ourselves out of long-term addiction, but in the moment, there are tools we can use to help gives us the ability to say no.  Follow the drink, and play the tape forward.  There is plenty of data behind us to help us m...

Walter, with 2½ years since his last drink, shares his story… The Cure to Addiction… Is it possible?  Are we close to a cure?  No.  AA was founded in 1935, and since then we still don't know what causes it or how to treat it.  A holistic cure will attack/treat the root causes.   The Rat Park experiment by Bruce Alexander points to the conclusion that the causes of addiction are social and environm...

Asaph, with over 6 weeks since his last drink, shares his story… A link to the mentioned Russell Brand podcast episode with Gabor Maté.   Gratitude, what is it good for?... everything.  Gratitude is a topic that needs to be continually covered in recovery.  It's a box in recovery that will never be checked, because it is ongoing.  How do we create a mindset of appreciation?  Apply some conscious a...

Patrick, with 10 years 2 months since his last drink, shares his story. SHOW NOTES [10:50] Paul introduces Patrick Patrick is 37 years old, and is from Brooklyn, New York.  He's been sober since August 23, 2008.  He is married and has no children.  He works as a stand up comedian, recovery coach, and a video editor.  He likes to try to squeeze in a good meal between shows, visit friends, and snowb...

Aaron, with over 1 year since his last drink, shares his story...   SHOW NOTES   [12:30] Paul Introduces Aaron. Aaron is 39 years old, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He's been sober since October 16, 2017.  He's married with two children.  He works in HR and Recruitment for a small company.  He likes home improvement, the outdoors, gardening.  He likes to restore and repair his house and cars.    [ 1...