Worth Recovery

Finding motivation and inspiration to stay in recovery is important.  Those sources change as our recovery journey changes.  Lately, as I've been working through grief and watching my mother slowing deteriorate, new motivation and inspiration has come from an unexpected source.  Listen as I share my current source of courage and bravery.

In episode 80, I asked the question, are you All In when it comes to recovery?  In episode 81 we discussed some of the distractors that prevent us from being all in.  After a long few weeks and a thorough self-evaluation, in this episode we discuss the 3 major indicators we can use to assess whether or not we are All In when it comes to recovery or any other major area of our life. Announcements:...

Recently, as I've tried to acknowledge my own reality, I've been surprised by the variety of responses I've received. Whether it's friends, family, people in recovery, people out of recovery, as I've acknowledged the reality around me, I've been told to not think about it, ignore it, stop blaming, stop playing the victim. Society really teaches us not to acknowledge the difficult things in our liv...

Sometimes we just miss our addiction.  We know that the relationships we had and the behaviors we engaged in are unhealthy and they aren't serving us.  However, they did serve a purpose in our life.  They helped us escape and numb out from the chaos and unmanageability of our lives.  Sometimes as we go through withdrawal and start to feel rather than escape, we miss those old relationships and beh...

Continuing this series from Episode 078, Megan and I finish our discussion about our Help Wanted ads. Moving Megan across the country was a jumbled bag of emotions. It was so fun to spend that time with her, Scott and Bronx. It was so fun to be on the road and drive and see new places! It was so hard to leave her there and fly home alone. In this continuation of our interview, we discuss what make...

I just celebrated by 41st birthday!! During the day, three seemingly small things added up to an amazing day! As I was reflecting on these things, I wanted to share them with you. I hope you can build the hope that I did from these events. It is definitely the small things in recovery that give us the greatest results!! ---- Register for the Worth Recovery Event: "Engaged in the Struggle" in Salt...

Continuing our discussion on being ALL IN, I share with you my big three distrator behaviors! These are behaviors that prevent me (and probably you) from being ALL IN in our recovery journeys. These behaviors sneak into our lives, they aren't always exactly apparent. They are hard to see and sometimes the behavior itself prevents us from getting the true reflection of what we are doing. If we aren...

In this episode I share with you a recent revelation I have had about my life. I'm holding back. I'm not ALL IN! Of course, this isn't the case in all areas of my life - but it is in some significant places. This recent realization drove me to consider the areas of my life where I am ALL IN. One of those areas is my recovery. I am ALL IN with my recovery! Are you? Are the 1 in 18 that will stay lo...

With all the recent media coverage on rape and rape culture, Amy explores the idea of consent with CSAT therapist Jackie Pack.  Jackie will be speaking and sharing her expertise at "Engaged In The Struggle," the upcoming Worth Recovery event in January.  Listen to this great interview about what consent really means and how we get it all wrong.  

As we continue to get healthier and upgrade our lives in recovery, it is essential that we upgrade our relationships along with it.  Otherwise, we get stuck.  While Amy helped moved her friend across the country, they discussed their relationship and what makes it work.  Listen to them discuss the help wanted ads they are going to place!

In this preview episode, Amy interviews Lu Duke, one of the presenters at the upcoming Worth Recovery Event: Engaged in the Struggle.  Lu is not only a CSAT therapist, but a Daring Way Facilitator - Consultant, trained in the work of Brene Brown.  In this episode she discusses core and aspirational values and how they play a role in our recovery. 

To celebrate her 4 year sobriety anniversary, Amy shares her own Spiritual Awakening. Knowing that addiction is an "illness that only a spiritual experience will conquer", Amy shares some of the major spiritual experiences that have contributed to her spiritual awakening. 14 symptoms that you are having a spiritual awakening. You have the sense that something is different. You feel yourself drifti...

Grief comes to visit all of us on occassion. It is it's own size.  It can feel like a presence in our life.  It manifests in different ways for each of us.  In this episode, Amy discusses some of the grief she is dealing with, some of the ways it manifests, and some of the strategies she is using to get through it in her life.  

Thoughts from Amy's car continues with an episode about preparing for the holidays. Amy shares how unvoiced expectations are just resentment waiting to happen.

Trauma can be complex and deep.  It brings wounds into our lives that we try desperately to master.  In an interview with Candice Christansen, Amy discusses the correlation between trauma and addiction, some of the ways we act out our trauma, and some of the tools we can use to work through and eventually master our trauma. You can learn more about Candice and the work she is doing by visiting www...

In the continuation of the deep dive on the 12 steps of recovery, Amy explores how all of the work we have done up to this point prepares us for Step 9, for making amends.  She discusses how amends is more than apologies, more than just saying we are sorry.  In preparing to work step nine, we need to understand the principles behind all of the other steps as well as why apologies are insufficient....

In the conclusion of the series on Objectification, Amy discusses two questions:  How am I objectifying myself? and what boundaries do I need to set in objectification by others?

While driving to spend some time with her family, Amy shares the cycle and evolution of relationships in her recovery.

In the continuation of the series on Objectification, Amy discuses the first of the reflection questions from last time, "How do I objectify other people?" and provides 4 concrete strategies you can use to stop!  Objectifying goes so much deeper than just looking at appearance.  Learn some strategies to stop the objectification you are doing in your life.

Concluding the discussion on step 8, Amy shares one of the most influential experiences she has heard about forgiveness.  Using the experience of Corrie ten Boom, related in her book "The Hiding Place", Amy shares why forgiveness is something we continually practice.  And just as essential as forgiving others is learning and practicing forgiving ourselves. We just keep working at it and keep pract...

What does objectification look like?  What are the qualities that define objectification?  How do you identify it, stop it for yourself, and hold boundaries with people that objectify you?  At the request of a listener and in response to Amy's own experiences, she discusses all these questions and more.  

In the conclusion of this two part interview with Dr. Aaron Glade, Amy discusses more about Trauma and Addiction, including stabilizing your life, building hope for the future, and the importance of talking about it.  

On the way back from visiting with her mom, Amy shares some of the raw emotion around death, addiction, fantasy, and recovery.

In part one of this two part series, Amy interview Aaron Glade, Ph. D, LMFT, CSAT, about the role of trauma in addiction. They discuss capital T and lowercase t trauma and some of the effective treatment options for for trauma therapy. You can read more about Dr. Glade here .

In the continuation of the series on the 12 steps of recovery, Amy discusses one of the major principles she had to learn and practice while working Step 8:  Letting Go.  After offering examples of some of the things she had to learn to let go of, she offer 6 practical ways to help you begin to let go of things in your life as well.