Category: Uncategorized
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How to survive wildfires (and 2024.)
It’s 2024 and the world is on fire. Not in the hip Gen-Z “that’s fire-emoji” kind of way, but in the more traditional “we should be worried” understanding of fire. Let’s talk about how to survive 2024. While the world burns, we’re left feeling helpless under the impending threat of fascism, state-sponsored genocide, and a…
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Unmasking: choosing to live a more congruent life.
I’ve always been quite the cheerleader. I don’t mean toe-touches and tumbling, though that also applies to part of my life, I’m talking literally, I have led people with cheer. I’ve been the optimist, the encourager, the one you turn to when you’re thirsty for positivity. I smile when I offer compliments and genuinely think…
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Truth: Learning to Trust and the practice of Satya.
Trust is a struggle for me. Both trusting others and having faith in myself. Addiction all but destroyed my self-confidence and faith in most of humanity. In recovery, I broke through heavily cemented shame and guilt. I dug myself out from under piles of regret. Through the process, I realized that (generally) sober people can…
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Acceptance and Self-worth: the best parts of addiction.
How do you share self-worth? How do you keep a group of people who have seemingly decided that their lives are not worth living (at least not feeling) from losing hope that progress is possible? I remind them of exactly that point. These are our lives. Our one and only chance to experience being a…
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Growth and Fear of Success.
In the search for myself, I have overlooked the wisdom of my mother. Her ever-appropriate warning that life is short, so I better learn to love where I am or get my shit together so I can love where I’m going makes more sense the farther I walk away from the life I used to…
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Progressive hiding and how connection saved my life.
They say addiction is a progressive disease. I think hiding is the progressive disease that likely leads to addiction. Suppression of our truest selves, in any way, slowly suffocates until all that’s left is our fearful core. Why do we hide and what are we hiding from? I can only speak for my own experience…
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From hijacked to happy: how I found myself.
Who are you? The first time my therapist asked me this question, I froze. I hadn’t thought to find myself after addiction. I stumbled through the obvious responses – a woman, mother, teacher, and of course, person in long-term recovery. But who am I? What makes me authentically me? If you knew me before my…
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How to find your flow and get unstuck.
It happens to most of us. The feeling of “meh.” We can’t find our flow and feel kind of foggy, burnt out, and are very much running on autopilot. We’re motivated, but not enough to do more than doom scroll. Certainly not enough to make any big changes in life. We waste time, we stop…
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How to say “I’m sorry” – and mean it.
Over the past few years, I’ve had quite a lot of practice apologizing. My sister and children, ex-husband and former partner, even those acquaintances I unintentionally slighted all deserved to hear me take responsibility for where I was wrong and vow to be better. I made amends while working 12 steps and strained to not…
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Parenting in recovery:
How my kids saved my life and why our relationship is better than ever. I hurt a lot of people in active addiction. Intention doesn’t matter (of course I never meant to cause pain or worry) and at this point in recovery, amends have all been made. But parenting in recovery takes more than amends.…