Spirit of Recovery

Simplicity is the key to serenity. When life gets complicated, take a breath, let go, and let order into your day. Without the frenzy you will have plenty of power to create a fulfilling day. Special guest Peggy K. is a family member affected by the disease of addiction. She is in her own long-term recovery as a family member. She is a Unity minister, committed to her own spiritual growth and to f...

Art is a powerful tool for self-expression, creating an avenue for feelings, intuition, and insight. Tapping into the healing power of art does not require “talent,” but simply a willingness to open to your inner life. Engaging in art can support strong, long-term recovery. Special guest Robin M. Gilliam has been in long-term recovery since February 6, 1991. She climbed her way out of the hole of...

Winter holidays are an invitation to find the light inside us. We don‘t have to get caught up in shopping frenzies, emotionally charged memories, family tensions, or gloomy weather. Keeping our focus on our spiritual program, self-care, and supportive connections nourishes and turns up the love light inside. Special guest Lonnie Vanderslice shares how her commitment to recovery principles and Unit...

Angels come in many forms—as deep intuition, as caring people, and sometimes as welcome yet unexpected visitors! Being receptive to our higher power’s love and guidance in whatever form it comes is a rich gift of recovery. Special Guest Billye Jones is an author, a licensed Unity teacher, and a family member with more than 40 years' experience living a program of family recovery. She shares from h...

Gratitude opens our awareness to the awesome abundance of goodness. Gratitude makes room for Spirit’s action in our lives and creates space for grace. Special guest Rev. Melinda Wood Allen shares her life-changing encounters with gratitude and grace, and her powerful original music. Melinda is a spiritual speaker, teacher, workshop facilitator, and award-winning singer/songwriter with more than 29...

With commitment and hard work, you can take your recovery with you wherever you travel or live. Even when you live in a country where there is little or no recovery community, you can still work the principles, maintain freedom from addictive behaviors, and grow. Special guest Kay D., a Unity student in long-term recovery from the serious disease of food addiction, has traveled the world, remained...

Military service takes a big toll on both the service members and their families. Project Sanctuary helps military families reconnect with each other and with their communities. Through a program of professionally led therapeutic retreats, this nonprofit organization “takes military families from battle ready to family ready.” Designed from feedback from the families themselves, Project Sanctuary...

Finding Spirit within everyday experiences is what creates recovery. By being grounded in gratitude, love, and joy in life’s simplicity, we are energized to keep growing. Special guest Rev. Laurie Durgan, spiritual director at Caron Renaissance Treatment Center and associate minister at Unity of Delray Beach, Florida, as well as a person in long-term recovery, shares how she supports recovering pe...

Recovery podcasts are a powerful, easy-to-access resource. They bring experience, strength, and hope through inspiring personal stories, practical wisdom, and new insights. Special guest Omar is the host and founder of the SHAIR Podcast, and a person in long-term recovery. His passion for recovery and podcasting came together to create SHAIR. Omar’s weekly interviews with recovering alcoholics and...

Yoga, an ancient spiritual practice that integrates body, mind, and spirit, supports deep healing in recovery. Y12SR—Yoga of 12-Step Recovery was developed to “heal the issues that live in the tissues.” Special guest Gloria Uridel, a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, a certified Y12SR yoga instructor, and a person in long-term recovery, has taught yoga since 2000. She shares why yoga...

One of the largest cities in America, Houston, Texas, decided that continuing to bury and lock up its young people was not an option. A wide spectrum of community leaders came together to build the world’s largest peer-driven youth and family recovery network. The new film Generation Found takes a look at how it works. Special guest Mario Diurno, outreach coordinator for Generation Found and a per...

Religious, cultural, and spiritual beliefs and faith communities can be a great source of comfort, strength, and inspiration for young people and adults. Unfortunately, religion can also carry an unrecognized shadow side, resulting in the harmful misuse of power. Oftentimes people in recovery must heal painful childhood experiences with religion in order to develop a genuinely nurturing spiritual...

Music is a natural expression of our deepest self. Finding the music in our own soul helps us heal and moves us into new connections with ourselves and others. Spcial guest Kathy Moser, an award-winning professional musician in long-term recovery, gives recovery performances and songwriting workshops for recovering people. Her workshops are not only fun—they develop practical recovery skills. Kath...

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else is the greatest accomplishment,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It takes great courage to take a stand with yourself—quieting old voices that would tell you that who you are is just not enough. Special guest Brent Uzell, licensed Unity teacher and spiritual leader, shares how authentic spirituality gives us the streng...

Recovery means reclaiming that in us which is precious—our wholeness. It is about so much more than stopping the use of a substance, a behavior, or a distorted focus on another person’s problems. Recovery means finding our spirit and letting it sing! Special guest Anji Kat is an award-winning inspirational singer/songwriter and motivational speaker with more than 20 years' experience in health, we...

Recovery happens as we honestly share our lives. Special guest Kevin Hart writes, “If someone would have told me that someday I’d write a book sharing what it is like to be an alcoholic and drug addict, fully disclosing all my shortcomings in a very candid way, I probably would have laughed and downed another drink. But, that is just what has been done. Why? The real answer: I am not sure. Nonethe...

Recovery comes from within. Of course, we engage the support of mentors and resources—yet ultimately recovery from addiction comes from the willingness to shift our internal attitudes and outer behaviors. Recovery is our Higher Power’s invitation to love ourselves more fully. The same is true of recovery from other diseases. Special guest Richard C., a person in long-term recovery since 1974, is a...

Long-term recovery does not happen in a vacuum. Individuals make connections with themselves, higher spiritual values, other recovering people, and with healthy lifestyle actions more readily within a larger recovery affirmative environment. Communities that understand addiction, that have supportive norms, laws, ethics, and social and employment supports, are essential. Special guest David Houke,...

In recovery what was broken becomes our greatest gift.  We realize that true strength is within us and in the genuine supportive connections we make with other people. Guest Davis S. is a person in long-term recovery from serious addiction to prescription opioid pain medication. He shares his journey to sustained recovery and how his amazing encounter with a monarch butterfly brought him the coura...

Marijuana Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share experience, strength, and hope that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from marijuana addiction. Based in the 12 Steps adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous, the MA program supports growth through a spiritual housecleaning. This cultivates self-awareness, a growing relationship with one’s higher power, and freedom from fe...

Being in recovery opens us to a new understanding of success. We realize that comparing ourselves to others while striving to meet unrealistic outer demands robs us of peace of mind and self-worth. It can even derail our recovery. Special guest Chris Shea, M.A., CRAT, CAC-AD, addiction counselor, campus minister, life coach, nationally recognized speaker and author, shares what happens when we shi...

Musicians deal with intensified stress—exposure to public evaluation, extended time away from family, nonstable income, and constant pressure to creative excellence. When a young Austin musician lost his battle with depression in 1995, his grieving father and friends galvanized Austin’s close-knit music community to create a unique organization offering mental health services to local musicians. T...

Do you have to give up your intellect, intelligence, and rational thinking processes in order to live a spiritual life? Not so, says special guest Gudjon Bergmann. Actually living authentic spirituality demands that you explore and honor all of these aspects of yourself. Nonfiction author and novelist Gudjon Bergmann has a varied background. Prolific and industrious writer, professional speaker, m...

The Overeaters Anonymous program offers physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery for those who suffer from compulsive eating—which can show up as many different patterns of food behavior. The concept of abstinence, rather than dieting, is the basis of O.A.’s 12-step program—a set of principles that promote constructive inner change. O.A. is open to anyone who has a desire to stop eating compuls...

Addiction is a disease—not a disgrace. Current research strongly suggests that sexual or “love” addiction not only exists, but in fact manifests in the brain and in behavior in very similar ways to other recognized forms of addiction like alcoholism. Special guest Bridget Wilson, founder of Solutions Auckland, specializes in treating people with sex and love addiction. She shares what this addicti...