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Thank you for such an honest, open share, Jo. For me, too, sobriety is about way more than abstinence or giving up a thing (though I see that as a prerequisite). It’s about pulling towards what’s truly connecting and nourishing for the body, mind, and spirit. It’s about choosing to live more beautifully.

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Sober 36 years. Love your post. You certainly want recovery which is awesome! Love how you share openly with your Sponsor. Change is hard for me too. Yes, I can try to be prepared but I cannot predict. So I need to be have an action plan for the befuddling shocks life deals me. Simple savior for me has been to talk to Sponsor or other close recovery colleague when I am shocked about anything. I also use preemptive stuff like daily readings. Time to plug my new book of daily readings : https://a.co/d/hH0cvZf . Ha, you might like it....key for me is to remember that I won't come back to recovery if I relapse so I have to ACT upon, not react to triggers. ACT is kind of short form 12 step process: Accept I can't do it alone, Connect to HELP (HIGHER EFFECTIVE LOVING POWER), and allow HELP to Transform me in this moment. Thanks again for your great share. You are a very cool person.

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Thanks for hosting this vulnerable essay, Dana. Thanks, Jo - that's a LOT of change to handle in one go, especially with a non-compliant machine with a life of its own! I'm guessing you've not been getting much sleep, either.

I was just sharing with a caregiver how our hyper-vigilant brains go into super-critical judge-y mode when we're sleep-deprived. Darn that cortisol...brain freeze didn't help me write strategy presentations when I was hurting over Dad.

Caregivers experience many changes, and there are big temptations to manage the hurt and struggle with food and/or alcohol -anticipatory grief or the loss of identity are dark burdens to navigate. So YES definitely, practice over perfection!

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Thanks for being here and sharing, Victoria!

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