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.
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.
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!
To me recovery is about being honest with myself; being willing to consistently be taking the good hard look at myself and being committed to some type of "program/plan" that 1) acknowledges the nature of my condition (I'm vulnerable to not being able to control my use, and it' a condition that doesn't automatically disappear because I admit I have a problem, and 2) promotes ongoing personal growth.
Great post!
(If I can put a plug in, I'm brand new here, learning ther ropes, looking for ome subscribers. My substack is "Sobriety Doesn't Have To Suck!, where I talk about making sobriety and exciting and rewarding journey of transformation—as opposed to just staying "dry"))
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.
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.
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!
Thanks for being here and sharing, Victoria!
To me recovery is about being honest with myself; being willing to consistently be taking the good hard look at myself and being committed to some type of "program/plan" that 1) acknowledges the nature of my condition (I'm vulnerable to not being able to control my use, and it' a condition that doesn't automatically disappear because I admit I have a problem, and 2) promotes ongoing personal growth.
Great post!
(If I can put a plug in, I'm brand new here, learning ther ropes, looking for ome subscribers. My substack is "Sobriety Doesn't Have To Suck!, where I talk about making sobriety and exciting and rewarding journey of transformation—as opposed to just staying "dry"))