In our next livestream, Jim explores common ways in which anxiety and insecurity are obstacles to recovery. Overcoming these requires mindfulness, action, and tons of accountability. Join us and get some tips for getting out of your own way.
Livestream: Recovery on our bad days
Mom said there’d be days like these but she didn’t say there’d be so many of them. In our next LIVESTREAM, Jim shares techniques for MANAGING STRESS, emotions, and getting through our hard times without a drink or a drug.
Never Face Fear Alone
Recovery is a lifelong process designed to promote health, manageability, and sustainability. Yet there are times when we have to do things we’re not ready to do because life circumstances demand it. Like a recovering heroin addict who has to take pain medication following a major surgery or having to take a job that isn’t conducive to your recovery because the bills must be paid.
Overcoming Hypervigilance in Addiction Recovery
Seeking safety is a spiritual undertaking. It requires connection and a shift in awareness. Hypervigilance is constantly scanning for threats. Serenity is knowing that either no threat currently exists or that we’re equipped to deal with it if there is one. This is not something we can do alone. We need progressively more safe people and safe places.
The Mythology of Happiness
Happiness is more a state of being than it is an emotion. Gratitude and attitude are the keys. How lovely and disturbing to find that they’re both in our control. Here it comes – another opportunity to get out of our own way.
How to Stay Cool When the World Is on Fire
I want to know what sustains you when you’re overwhelmed? I hope you have lots of answers to that question and I hope that list includes some pretty stellar people. I am grateful for the folks my HP puts in my life. When I look at my support system, my ego would like to believe that I’m so clever that I went out and found these folks – but it’s just not true.
Lies My Depression Tells Me
My friends in recovery personify the disease of addiction in a myriad of ways. I’ve learned volumes from that. There’s a vital distinction between what is me, and what is within me that is not me, seeking to destroy me.
How to Stop Worrying
If we’re going to overcome worrying; the first step is to differentiate it from concern. To be concerned is a healthy exercise of empathy and compassion. Worrying is waiting for the other shoe to drop and telling yourself you’ll feel relieved if it doesn’t and prepared if it does.
Why Your Brain Is 100mph and What to Do About It
All of us whose brains go 100mph engage in addictive thinking – the black and white, all or nothing, now or never mindset. Our minds get hijacked by urges, cravings and shiny distractions that distance us from ourselves. We strive to attain – whether it’s for the next fix, the next conquest, or even in achieving our recovery goals, our approach is largely the same:
What You Say vs. What Your Therapist Hears
My clients can only be as honest with me as they are with themselves. My job is to challenge what they’ve convinced themselves of.