Category: Recovery

Sometimes our addictions and mental health issues are so debilitating we feel as though we’ve forgotten how to live our lives in healthy, empowering ways. We don’t feel able to function normally, accomplish our goals, or even get through the day. We feel so depressed we can’t get out of bed. We stop taking care […]

When we’re still embroiled in our addictive patterns, one of the things we tell ourselves the most is that this time will be “the last time.” This will be the last time we go on a binge or bender. It will be the last time we use at all. It will be the last time […]

Addiction and mental illness can cause us to become completely disconnected from our inner selves, so much so that we lose sense of who we are. We lose our voice. Our voice is how we communicate our innermost thoughts and feelings with the world, with the people in our lives, and with ourselves. It’s how […]

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Part of our recovery work is creating goals for ourselves and setting intentions. Sometimes we set those intentions without making sure we’re putting the necessary energy behind them in order to follow through with them. When this happens, our […]

As recovering addicts, there are different ways in which we self-identify that hurt us, that hold us back, and that are defined by the limiting beliefs we believe about ourselves. We feel as though we’re not good enough. We feel unworthy and unlovable. We feel ashamed of all the things we’ve done wrong and the […]

Sometimes as we’re recovering, we feel ashamed and embarrassed about where we are in our journey. We feel down on ourselves. We feel disappointed that we haven’t made as much progress in our recovery as we would have liked. We feel like we’re so far from our goal of sobriety that we might as well […]

One of the best things we can do for ourselves as we’re working to recover is transform the relationship we have with our pain, our difficult emotions, our addictions and mental health issues, and our tough life experiences. Our instinctive response to pain is to resist it. It hurts, so we try to avoid feeling […]

The recovery process, like any personal development journey, is full of ups and downs, challenges and obstacles, successes and perceived failures. What we come to realize is that what feels like a failure, or a mistake, or a flaw, is actually an invitation to open ourselves up even more to the process of learning how […]

Many recovery programs stress the importance of developing a relationship with our higher power, knowing this power, connecting with it and recognizing its existence within us. They view a religious or spiritual practice as being an important part of the recovery process. Many of us don’t already feel connected to a higher power, and we […]

If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Too many of us have known or been connected to someone who took their own life, and the tragedy of it stays with us forever. Many of us want to find a way to address suicide within our families […]