Recovery Road
Welcome to Recovery Road, a podcast from Hazelden Publishing. Here you'll find the best thoughts, excerpts, and reflections from our most popular resources. These words, feelings, and insights from world-renowned authors have helped millions of people conquer substance use disorder so they can live their best lives. What's in these podcasts represents the best of the best—and we present them here for inspiration on your journey. Now more than ever, we need to find the calm in the chaos, stay focused on self-care, and remain on our path to long-term recovery. Remember, you are not alone. We are all in...
Thu, January 26, 2023
Accepting Ourselves and our Addiction
First Year Sobriety: When All that Changes is Everything , Guy Kettelhack draws on the voices of women and men who are navigating the unknown territory of their first year of sobriety. This excerpt includes the personal accounts of Marcia and George, two people in recovery who still find themselves occasionally overwhelmed with rage.
Thu, January 19, 2023
The Power in Powerlessness
In her book A Woman's Guide to Recovery , Brenda Iliff gives expert advice, caring support, and personal stories of women who have found their way out of the mess of addiction and into new lives marked by healing and recovery. This excerpt discusses the paradox of the First Step, exploring how we can find true power through admitting our powerlessness.
Thu, January 12, 2023
You are Not Alone: Joining "The Great We" of Recovery
In her book Mindfulness and the 12 Steps , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart offers support for recovery, drawing on her personal experience and a wide range of knowledge in psychology and spirituality. In this excerpt, she points out that "we" is the first word of the Twelve Steps and makes a case for the importance of connection and community as spiritual resources for healthy recovery.
Thu, January 05, 2023
Back to Basics: What Does Unmanageable Mean?
In this excerpt from his book, Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There , bestselling author and sober alcoholic Michael Graubart explores the word unmanageability as it appears in Step One, and how our impulse to control everyone and everything is at the heart of our struggle with alcoholism and other addictions.
Thu, December 29, 2022
Twelve Ways to Revitalize Your Recovery
In this excerpt from the revised edition of his classic book A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes offers practical advice for revitalizing a recovery that may feel stalled or stuck and reminds us that the gifts of recovery are always meant to be shared.
Thu, December 22, 2022
Nothing Less than Love is Required
Now That You're Sober: Week by Week Guidance from Your Recovery Coach , Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty offer practical advice and wise inspiration for the recovery journey. In this excerpt, we hear personal insight from James, an AA member who has had a tough go at life but now helps others hear and embrace the message and the miracle of recovery.
Thu, December 15, 2022
Service: The Adventure of Reaching Out
In his book Second Year Sobriety: Getting Comfortable Now That Everything Is Different , Guy Kettelhack explores growth and the challenges we often face in our second year of recovery. In this excerpt, we hear a personal story from Jack, a member of AA who is learning what acts of service can look like in recovery.
Thu, December 08, 2022
The Rich Rewards of Step Twelve
In his book Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works , author and sponsor Hamilton B. writes for both sponsors and sponsees about this important part of the program. In this excerpt he highlights the relational power that undergirds Twelve Step recovery and is the focus of Step Twelve: we find recovery with the help of others, and then we get to pay it forward.
Thu, December 01, 2022
The Active Spirituality of the Twelfth Step
In her book A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington guides readers through the Twelve Step journey through the lens of women's perspective. In this excerpt, we learn what a spiritual awakening is and how it applies to us as we take the Twelfth Step.
Thu, November 24, 2022
Mindfulness: A Path to Personal Growth
In her book, Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , Beverly Conyers shows us how the practice of mindfulness, which includes deep acceptance of the present moment, can be a daily part of recovery and a path to a happier life.
Thu, November 17, 2022
New Every Morning: How to Remake Your Decisions Each Day
In her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , Karen Casey offers a guide for living with more serenity and creating a world that will nurture us and our relationships. In this excerpt, Casey discusses how she starts her day with God. We see how doing this helps her have a positive attitude for the day ahead.
Thu, November 10, 2022
Practicing Presence: The Power in Meditation
In his book Practicing the Here and Now , Herb K. offers a framework for understanding and accessing the powerful gifts of prayer and meditation found in the Twelve Step journey of recovery. In this excerpt, Herb describes the practice of meditation, defining it as an intentional process that allows us to receive guidance that both informs and transforms our lives and relationships.
Thu, November 03, 2022
Conscious Contact: Finding Your Way Forward
In her book Mindfulness and the 12 Steps , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart offers support for recovery, drawing on her personal experience and an impressive range of knowledge in psychology, spirituality, and the Twelve Steps. In this excerpt, we hear the author's own story of working with a spiritual advisor and how the invitation to prayer and meditation at the heart of Step Eleven helped her face a life-changing choice.
Thu, October 27, 2022
How to Not Be a Jerk
In Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , recovering alcoholic A.J. Adams shares insights and wisdom from his own story of skeptic spirituality, and the gifts of acceptance and willingness that he found along the path of recovery. In this excerpt, the author shares his two-step method for working Step Ten in the moments when it's most needed.
Thu, October 20, 2022
How to Break the Cycle of Stress in Relationships
In their book Rein in Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , Cynthia Moreno Tuohy and Victoria Costello offer brain training techniques for breaking the cycle of compulsive thoughts and behaviors. In this excerpt, we are given a real-life scenario that shows how not communicating feelings can affect our relationships and daily life.
Thu, October 13, 2022
Step Ten: How to Sober up to Your Humanness
In his book, Drop the Rock: The Ripple Effect , Fred H. helps us explore Step Ten, and how the habits and practices that we build in a program of recovery create positive effects in us that ripple outward into our relationships and beyond. This excerpt discusses the importance of paying attention to our feelings as we practice Step Ten.
Thu, October 06, 2022
Keep Moving Forward
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives and find an authentic path to recovery. In this excerpt, the authors offer Step Ten as a pattern for growing into the promises Alcoholics Anonymous makes about how we will feel and what we will experience in recovery.
Thu, September 29, 2022
From Resentment to Forgiveness: Learning to Let Go
In Finding your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken offers forty-one universal principles, paired as positive and negative counterparts, that guide behavior. In this excerpt, we see the emotional toll of holding on to resentment compared with allowing ourselves to forgive.
Thu, September 22, 2022
Beyond Blame: Repairing Relationships in Early Recovery
In his book Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works , author and sponsor Hamilton B. writes for both sponsors and sponsees, helping people at any stage of recovery understand and apply the guidance of the Twelve Steps and make the most of the sponsor relationship. In this excerpt, he explores the hard but rewarding practice of face-to-face relationship repair that is the focus of the Ninth Step, "Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."
Thu, September 15, 2022
Working Through Step Nine
In A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes offers the Steps as a pattern of practices and habits that make lasting recovery possible. We can use these principles as a guide to a new way of living--letting go of our old ways of thinking and acting and accepting that change in our lives is both ongoing and inevitable.
Thu, September 08, 2022
Unapologetic Amends: Forgiveness and Step Nine
Our addictions kept us isolated from others--even the people we hurt. They also often made us strangers to ourselves. Those of us who also live with a mental disorder can have a hard time figuring out which of our diseases has done the most harm, and how we can possibly start healing our relationships as well as ourselves. This can make the direct amends of Step Nine feel almost impossible.
Thu, September 01, 2022
Responsibility: The Cornerstone of Recovery
We probably started to learn about being "responsible" at a young age. Our guardians, teachers, and employers may have used the word numerous times, reminding us to hold ourselves accountable. But what does responsibility look like now that we're in recovery? Craig Nakken can help. In his book The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior , Nakken helps people understand the process of addiction as well as the progressive nature of the disease and how to be healthy and happy and sober. We can use Nakken's insights&--including those having to do with the value of responsibility--to keep building a successful recovery.
Thu, August 25, 2022
Choose Differently: Five Ways to Own Our Part
In her book When Reality Bites: How Denial Helps and What to Do When it Hurts , Holly Parker provides exercises and personal stories that can help us understand and accept the positive uses of denial and learn to move past it when it becomes counterproductive. This excerpt introduces five different ways people tend to point the finger and avoid responsibility in relationships.
Thu, August 18, 2022
The Trio of Unwelcome Feelings: Envy, Guilt and Shame
In her book The Next Happy , Tracey Cleantis offers a roadmap for letting go of a dream that isn't working and teaches us how to set realistic goals for finding a new way forward. This excerpt describes how envy, guilt, and shame—what Cleantis calls the "Trio of unwelcome feelings"—can get in the way of our progress. We don't have to let these emotions rule our lives.
Thu, August 11, 2022
Starting from Within
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives and find an authentic path to recovery. In this excerpt, the authors describe the Program as a process of finding harmony with the activity and will of a Higher Power, which includes the work of setting things right with the people we've harmed.
Thu, August 04, 2022
Six Tips for Avoiding Personalization and Blame
In their book What Went Right , Dr. Michael G. Wetter and Eileen Baley introduce easy-to-understand principles and techniques for recognizing and intervening against self-defeating thought processes and improving self-esteem. This excerpt includes tips for avoiding personalization and blame—two unhealthy responses to feelings of guilt.
Thu, July 28, 2022
Awakening Change: Build your Meditation Muscle
In her book The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober , Jennifer Matesa offers a guide to achieving physical recovery as part of our path to lifelong sobriety. This excerpt offers tips for meditation and can encourage us to create a healthy new habit.
Thu, July 21, 2022
Into Action: Become a Better Person
In his book Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , A. J. Adams describes how joining Alcoholics Anonymous changed his preconceptions about recovery and what could work for him. In this excerpt, Adams describes what the program taught him about real humility as well as the type of action that produces change on the road to recovery.
Thu, July 14, 2022
Humility: How to Be Great and Small at the Same
In her book A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington guides readers along the Twelve Step journey through the lens of women's perspective. In this excerpt, we learn how Step Seven can help us stay conscious and aware of our actions. Most of all, it lets us ask for help letting go of the results.
Thu, July 07, 2022
Arrogance vs. Humility
In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken outlines forty-one basic principles, paired as positive and negative counterparts, that guide our behavior. This excerpt explores the way arrogance can be tempered by self-awareness and honest humility.
Thu, June 30, 2022
Healing Magic: Make Reappearing Issues Disappear
In her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , Karen Casey offers insightful advice on how to heal ourselves and mend our relationships. In this excerpt, Casey explains how improving our relationships involves and includes improving ourselves as well. Growth means accepting responsibility for how we—and our relationships—evolve.
Thu, June 23, 2022
Let Go and Let God: Are You Willing?
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives and find an authentic path to recovery. In this excerpt, the authors ask us to be honest about our "willingness" when it comes to recovery and challenge us to let go of the defects of character that can keep us stuck in old patterns and afraid of the future.
Thu, June 16, 2022
Gifts in Disguise
In her book A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington guides readers through the Twelve Step journey through the lens of women's perspective—including her own recovery story. In this excerpt, Covington notes that seeing our patterns doesn't make them change. To do that we need to learn how to let them go.
Thu, June 09, 2022
Ready for Change: Step Six and the Beginning of Recovery
In his book Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works , author and sponsor Hamilton B. writes for both sponsors and sponsees about how to work the Steps together. In this excerpt he explores the heart of Step Six: whether we're ready to have our Higher Power take away the defects of character that we identified in Step Four and that we admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being in Step Five.
Thu, June 02, 2022
Sixth Step: Surrender and Trust
In their book, Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects Bill P and Todd W study Steps Six and Seven. This excerpt focuses on Step Six, in which we "became willing to ask God to help us remove our defects of character."
Mon, May 30, 2022
Meditation Monday: Emotional Support
A pair of short meditations selected from late May entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: A Life of My Own and Today I Will Do One Thing . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to seek and find emotional support for our recovery.
Thu, May 26, 2022
Navigating Conflict with Safe Sounding Boards
In her book Conscious Service: Ten Ways to Reclaim Your Calling, Move beyond Burnout, and Make a Difference without Sacrificing Yourself , Elizabeth Bishop offers practical tools for self-connection and self-care. In this excerpt, she describes how to build supportive relationships before we need them. Tapping the insights and support of "Safe Sounding Boards" can help us navigate difficult situations without losing our cool or threatening our recovery.
Mon, May 23, 2022
Meditation Monday: A Little Help Won't Hurt
A pair of short meditations selected from late May entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: A Day at a Time and If You Leave Me, Can I Come with You? Today's Meditation Monday selections challenge us to reach out when we need help and stay honest about reality in what we say and do.
Thu, May 19, 2022
Problem Solving in Seven Steps
In his book Passages Through Recovery: An Action Plan for Preventing Relapse , Terence Gorski describes six stages of challenge we face in moving from active addiction to sobriety. This excerpt offers a seven-step method for managing stress and solving problems during the stabilization stage of recovery.
Mon, May 16, 2022
Meditation Monday: Cultivate Calm
A pair of short meditations selected from mid-May entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's classic meditation series of books: Day by Day and Twenty-Four Hours a Day . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to cultivate patience, learn to avoid overreacting, and share the load with others.
Thu, May 12, 2022
How to Stop Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
In their book Rein in Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , Cynthia Moreno Tuohy and Victoria Costello offer techniques for breaking the cycle of compulsive thoughts and behaviors. In this excerpt, the authors discuss "self-fulfilling prophecies"—how the pain we experience in relationships can lead us to repeat old patterns—and offer strategies for change.
Mon, May 09, 2022
Meditation Monday: Get Going
A pair of short meditations selected from early May entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Easy Does It and Answers in the Heart . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to enter and enjoy this day of recovery with creativity, love, and action.
Thu, May 05, 2022
How to Embrace Your Greatness
In her book Conscious Service: Ten Ways to Reclaim Your Calling, Move beyond Burnout, and Make a Difference without Sacrificing Yourself , Elizabeth Bishop offers practical tools for self-connection and self-care. In this excerpt, she challenges us to explore and celebrate what makes each of us great—and she's not interested in lies, or bragging, or puffed-up half-truths. Claiming our greatness is all about honesty.
Mon, May 02, 2022
Meditation Monday: Conquering Fear and Anxiety
Two short meditations selected from early May entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: A Woman's Spirit and Walk in Dry Places . Today's Meditation Monday selections are gathered around the theme of conquering our fears and anxieties.
Thu, April 28, 2022
Toxic Positivity: When Being Too Positive Becomes a Negative
In her book The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward , Tracey Cleantis offers practical advice on how to heal from our losses and let go of the things and relationships that no longer work for us. In this excerpt, the author shares her personal experience of balancing real grief and authentic positivity.
Mon, April 25, 2022
Meditation Monday: Remember and Release
A pair of short meditations selected from late-April entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Walk in Dry Places and A Life of My Own . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to remember the past without sinking into regret, and practice releasing our impulses to control the present and future.
Thu, April 21, 2022
Sobriety, Serenity, and Stuff: The Sixth Tradition
In their book Living the Twelve Traditions in Today's World: Principles Before Personalities , Mel B. and Michael Fitzpatrick examine the history of each AA principle and how they remain relevant to recovery programs today. This excerpt explores the Sixth Tradition: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose .
Mon, April 18, 2022
Meditation Monday: Loving Ourselves and Others
A pair of short meditations selected from mid-April entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: In God's Care and Answers in the Heart . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us regard ourselves with compassion and treat the people around us with love and care.
Thu, April 14, 2022
Twelve Signs of Misery Addiction
In her book When Misery is Company , Anne Katherine helps those of us who feel comfortable in our misery find a new path toward happiness. This excerpt reviews some common self-sabotaging patterns and offers ways we can be more mindful in our activities and begin to enjoy life more.
Mon, April 11, 2022
Meditation Monday: Seasons of Change
A pair of short meditations selected from mid-April entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: The Promise of a New Day and Each Day a New Beginning . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to us to accept the seasons of changes in our lives and find growth beyond our comfort zones.
Thu, April 07, 2022
Three Strategies for Self-Care When Loss is Ambiguous
Bestselling Author Melody Beattie's The Grief Club blends healing wisdom and pragmatic guidance to help us face life's most difficult moments and do the work that allows us to move ahead. In this excerpt, Beattie describes the importance of claiming our own space for grief, and the challenge of detaching from feelings, behaviors, and people who aren't—and never will be—our responsibility.
Mon, April 04, 2022
Meditation Monday: Wisdom is a Gift
A pair of short meditations selected from early April entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: A Life of My Own and Easy Does It . Today's Meditation Monday selections invite us to listen to the wisdom and insight other people share with us.
Thu, March 31, 2022
Why Recovery is All or Nothing
When we were using, alcohol or another substance controlled us. It directed our thinking and acting, formed our goals and ran our lives. And that didn't go so well for us and for the people who care about us. We'll never be able to make peace with our addiction when it's active; we have to be fully committed to recovery. Half measures are not enough. A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living is written as a companion to the Big Book. It directly applies to those who are working the Twelve Steps. Understanding that some of us don't frame our recovery according to the Twelve Steps, we can still take lessons from this tried-and-true tradition and apply them to our own journey. For those of us who are using the Big Book, the following excerpt is a reminder about the limits of self-will and the need to give one's life over to the direction of a Higher Power. Whether it happens in a miraculous moment or over a long process, the authors assure us that once a power greater than ourselves is directing our will and our life, our whole life is going to improve. This excerpt is from the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living . It has been edited for brevity.
Mon, March 28, 2022
Meditation Monday: Make Way for Hope
Welcome to Meditation Monday. We’re pausing each Monday for a few minutes of reflection and inspiration from the authors of the Hazelden Meditation series of books. Meditations are daily reflections, prayers, slogans and phrases intended to offer inspiration and comfort, and—above all— hope to those of us in recovery. The selections for this last Meditation Monday in March come from one of Hazelden’s best-loved meditation authors, Dr. Karen Casey. Together, these meditations from Each Day a New Beginning and A Woman’s Spiri t invite us to focus on letting go of anger and replacing it with a more positive outlook.
Thu, March 24, 2022
Reality Check: Find Peace Through Humility
Some of us in early recovery may have a challenging time with the spiritual part of it all. As human beings, we often want answers to all of our questions. We may not feel safe with uncertainty, and cling to any belief to eliminate that fear. We may demand answers about our addiction, life, and the universe that we may never receive. But with patience and practice, we will come to understand things more than we ever did before—especially when it comes to finding and trusting a higher power. In her book Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power , Marya Hornbacher shares her own journey and offers a fresh approach to cultivating a spiritual life in recovery. Anyone who may feel disconnected from traditional ideas of a higher power can use this book to explore the concept of faith. In this excerpt, Hornbacher writes about humility as an essential element of true spirituality. Awareness of our limitations can ground us in the present moment and bring us back to ourselves. Accepting that we do not know everything—and never will—can bring us peace of mind to freely grow in our spiritual journey. This excerpt is from the book Waiting: A Nonbeliever’s Higher Power by Marya Hornbacher. It has been edited for brevity.
Mon, March 21, 2022
Meditation Monday: Welcoming Change
Welcome to Meditation Monday. We’re pausing each Monday for a few minutes of reflection and inspiration from the authors of the Hazelden Meditation series of books. Meditations are daily reflections, prayers, slogans and phrases intended to offer inspiration and comfort, and—above all—hope to those of us in recovery. The selections for this third Meditation Monday in March come from two of Hazelden’s popular recovery resources: Today I will Do One Thing , by Tim Mc., and Day by Day , which was written anonymously. Together, these meditations invite us to embrace change and form new habits that will improve our lives in recovery.
Thu, March 17, 2022
Just Breathe: Two Techniques to Help You Relax
Stress is part of everyone's life. Those of us new to recovery have let go of the substances and processes we once relied on to detach from our anxiety and calm our feelings of fear. Now we need some new—and hopefully healthier—ways to manage daily stress. Relieve Stress: 20 quick Techniques , by Dr. Katrin Schubert, is an accessible guide to coping with stressful situations in recovery and daily life. In the book, Schubert shares easy and quick exercises that promote in-the-moment body awareness and emotional mindfulness. The following excerpt includes two of Schubert's step-by-step breathing techniques. The first focuses on the soothing joy that comes with gratitude for each organ in our bodies. The second helps us relax by letting go of tension with every exhalation. This excerpt has been edited for brevity.
Mon, March 14, 2022
Meditation Monday: First Things First
Welcome to Meditation Monday. We're pausing each Monday for a few minutes of reflection and inspiration from the authors of the Hazelden Meditation series of books. Meditations are daily reflections, prayers, slogans and phrases intended to offer inspiration and comfort, and—above all— hope to those of us in recovery. The selections for this mid-March Meditation Monday come from two of Hazelden's best-loved recovery resources: A Day at a Time and Twenty-Four Hours a Day for Teens . Together, today's meditations invite us to prioritize our recovery and take each day as it comes.
Thu, March 10, 2022
Three Steps Toward Forgiveness
The statement "Nobody's perfect" may sound cliché and overused, but it's true. We have made mistakes in our past, and we will continue to make mistakes as we move forward in life. We must learn to forgive ourselves and extend grace to others as well. Recovery involves learning along the way. When we remain teachable there’s room for mistakes as well as forgiveness. In their book What Went Right: Reframe Your Thinking for a Happier Now , Dr. Michael Wetter and Eileen Bailey offer advice about how to change the self-critical stories in our minds. We can reframe our thinking to gain self-confidence and a more fulfilling life in recovery. We do not have to carry any burdens from the way we lived before sobriety. In this excerpt, we explore ways to forgive and accept our mistakes. We can use our past to forge a better path to long-term recovery. Wetter and Baily share real-life examples of how overthinking our mistakes can negatively affect our daily lives. This excerpt helps us realize that a wrong decision or misjudgment does not make us a bad person with a bad life. It only makes us human. This excerpt is from the book What Went Right: Reframe Your Thinking for a Happier Now , by Dr. Michael Wetter and Eileen Bailey. It has been edited for brevity.
Mon, March 07, 2022
Meditation Monday: Start with Yourself
A pair of short meditations selected from early March entries in two of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Walk in Dry Places , written by Mel B., and Days of Healing, Days of Joy , written by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty. Today's Meditation Monday selections are gathered around the theme of self-reflection, self-awareness, and sharing.
Thu, March 03, 2022
Claim Your Power in Recovery
In her book A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington explores the Twelve Steps through the lens of women's experiences with addiction and recovery. The following excerpt invites us to reconsider the word "powerless" as it's used in the First Step: "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable."
Mon, February 28, 2022
Meditation Monday: Help from Your Higher Power
The selections for this last Meditation Monday of February come from some of Hazelden's beloved recovery resources: Easy Does It , In God's Care , and A Woman's Spirit . Together, these three meditations can help us focus on connecting with our Higher Power and keeping faith in the promises of recovery.
Thu, February 24, 2022
How to Live the Steps and Take Steps for Living
In his book, Drop the Rock—The Ripple Effect , Fred H. describes how the habits and practices that we build as we work a Twelve Step program of recovery create positive effects in us that ripple outward into our relationships and beyond. This excerpt focuses on the importance of understanding and embracing the Steps not as ideas to be learned but as activities that give shape to our lives.
Mon, February 21, 2022
Meditation Monday: Let It Go
The selections for this mid-February Meditation Monday come from three of Hazelden's popular recovery resources: A Life of My Own , Today's Gift , and Twenty-Four Hours a Day . Together, these meditations focus on releasing control of outcomes and finding serenity through acceptance and the assistance of our Higher Power.
Thu, February 17, 2022
Give and Take: Being Part of a Healthy Whole in Recovery
In her book The Recovering Heart: Emotional Sobriety for Women , Beverly Conyers explores emotional sobriety, or healing, by addressing many of the behaviors and feelings that come with early recovery. Although this book is written for women, this excerpt will likely resonate many of us.
Mon, February 14, 2022
Meditation Monday: Patience Brings Peace
The selections for this mid-month Meditation Monday come from some of Hazelden's bestselling recovery resources: Walk in Dry Places , Answers in the Heart , and Keepers of the Wisdom . Together, these three meditations focus on serenity and patience, especially as we interpret the things that happen to us and receive feedback from others.
Thu, February 10, 2022
Change Your Words to Change Your Thoughts
In their book What Went Right: Reframe Your Thinking for a Happier Now , Michael Wetter and Eileen Bailey provide easy-to-understand ways to recognize and interrupt self-defeating thought processes. This includes our rigid black and white thinking and our problems with managing expectations.
Mon, February 07, 2022
Meditation Monday: Good Trees Can Bear Good Fruit
The selections for this first Meditation Monday in February come from a trio of Hazelden's enduringly popular recovery resources: Answers in the Heart , Twenty-Four Hours a Day , and The Promise of a New Day . Together, today's three meditations invite us to claim our basic goodness and the positive value we share as human beings—even as we seek to improve our lives and our relationships in recovery.
Thu, February 03, 2022
Why We Wait: Navigating Sex in Early Recovery
In her book Sex in Recovery: A Meeting Between the Covers , Jennifer Matesa explores the challenges people encounter when navigating sex and romance while living in recovery. She creates a space for a vital, new dialogue about sexuality and intimacy. Many people may believe that sex is not a factor in their recovery. Matesa explains how important it actually is.
Mon, January 31, 2022
Meditation Monday: Honesty Every Day
Three short meditations selected from January entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: A Day at a Time , Walk in Dry Places , and Easy Does It . Today’s Meditation Monday selections focus on simplicity, honesty, and living free from denial in recovery.
Thu, January 27, 2022
Six Basic Recovery Attitudes
In his book, Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery , beloved author and counselor Earnie Larsen explores ways we can bring greater love, acceptance, and belonging to our recovering lives. This excerpt details what he identifies as six "basic" attitudes that support healthy and joyful recovery.
Mon, January 24, 2022
Meditation Monday: Stay Positive
Three short meditations selected from January entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: God Grant Me , In God's Care , and Days of Healing, Days of Joy . Today's Meditation Monday selections are gathered around the theme of positivity.
Thu, January 20, 2022
How to Let Go of the Past
In his book The Spiritual Self: Reflections on Recovery and God , Dr. Abraham J. Twerski helps us understand the meaning of spirituality, and he offers insight on how to nurture our relationship with God while in recovery. In this excerpt, we learn ways that we can work on our character defects in recovery.
Mon, January 17, 2022
Meditation Monday: Living Means Changing
Three short meditations selected from mid-January entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Each Day a New Beginning , Twenty-Four Hours a Day , and Easy Does It . Today's Meditation Monday selections explore the theme of change and transformation as central to life in recovery.
Thu, January 13, 2022
Four Steps for Nurturing Your Value in Recovery
In their book Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery , Dr. Sterling T. Shumway and Dr. Thomas G. Kimball offer guiding principles that are key to long-term recovery. This excerpt describes "value nurturing," including examples of how this practice can help us shift from negative self-talk to positive hope in our ability to change and grow.
Mon, January 10, 2022
Meditation Monday: Patience Is a Virtue
Three short meditations selected from early January entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Walk in Dry Places, If You Leave Me, Can I Come with You? and Day by Day . Today's Meditation Monday selections are gathered around the theme of "patience."
Thu, January 06, 2022
Five Steps for Finding a Fresh Perspective
In her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , Karen Casey offers guidance about what can help or hinder our relationships. In this excerpt, we explore the ways we can grow when we are willing to understand situations from a fresh perspective.
Mon, January 03, 2022
Meditation Monday: Face and Embrace Today
Three short meditations selected from early January entries in three of Hazelden Publishing's popular meditation series of books: Today's Gift , A Day at a Time , and The Promise of a New Day . Today's Meditation Monday selections are gathered around the theme of "today."
Thu, December 30, 2021
Let Your Head Lead Your Heart: The One-Year Relationship Rule
In their book Now That You're Sober: Week-by-Week Guidance from Your Recovery Coach , Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty offer support, insights, and exercises for people in early recovery. In this excerpt, we learn why it is important to wait at least a year in recovery before beginning a new romantic relationship.
Mon, December 27, 2021
Reclaim Your Reactions: Eight Things You Don't Have to Do Anymore
Melody Beattie’s Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself is a modern classic, packed with personal reflections and exercises. In this excerpt, Beattie explains why some of us are prone to react in unhealthy ways, and offers eight insights to help us reframe how we feel and rethink how we choose to respond to others.
Thu, December 23, 2021
How Hanging On to Hurt and Resentment Harms Recovery
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives. In this excerpt, we learn about different ways that resentments can appear in our lives and how they can present a roadblock to our recovery.
Mon, December 20, 2021
Build Better Boundaries: Cats, Dogs, and Healthy Relationships
Anne Katherine, in her book Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin , explains the need for boundaries and how they can affect various aspects of our lives. This excerpt emphasizes the importance of communication in all of our relationships.
Thu, December 16, 2021
Humble, Not Meek: How to Open Up Step Seven
In Drop the Rock: Removing Our Character Defects , Bill P., Todd W., and Sara S. discuss the principles behind the Sixth and Seventh Steps, not only for understanding but also for action - so we can transform our lives and our relationships in recovery. In this excerpt, we examine Step Seven: "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."
Mon, December 13, 2021
How to Get Unstuck in Recovery
In his book Passages Through Recovery: An Action Plan for Preventing Relapse , Terence T. Gorski explains the recovery process through six stages - transitioning from active addiction to sobriety. This excerpt describes the importance of conscious growth in our lives. It also compares two very different ways of coping with "stuck points" in recovery - approaches to problem-solving that lead to very different results.
Thu, December 09, 2021
Four Methods for Self-Care at Work
In her book An Invitation to Self-Care: Why Learning to Nurture Yourself Is the Key to the Life You've Always Wanted , Tracey Cleantis explores how to improve self-care in many areas of life by applying seven key principles. In this excerpt, we learn ways we can incorporate self-care into our daily routines at work.
Mon, December 06, 2021
Celebration Anxiety: How to Handle Success in Recovery
In his book First-Year Sobriety: When All That Changes Is Everything , Guy Kettelhack discusses the milestones and obstacles that are common in the first year of recovery. This excerpt explores the anxiety we may have around celebrations.
Thu, December 02, 2021
The Trend Is Not Your Friend: Craving, Control, and Step One
Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There by Michael Graubart is a practical guide for people who wish to find or deepen their recovery through the Twelve Step program and who are working on the first three Steps. In this excerpt, we examine Step One and what the word "unmanageable" means during active addiction.
Mon, November 29, 2021
Inconvenient Recovery: The Gifts of Step Ten
It's tempting to think that the Twelve Steps are the on-ramp to a life of recovery - the things we have to do to get onto the easy road of contented sobriety. In this excerpt from the revised edition of his classic book A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes explains the significance of Step Ten - that the Steps are actually a pattern for life. They offer an ongoing set of practices and habits of heart and mind that we return to daily.
Wed, November 24, 2021
Repairing Relationships: Making Amends in Early Recovery
In his book Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works , author and sponsor Hamilton B. writes for both sponsors and sponsees about this important part of the program. In this excerpt, he explores the practice of face-to-face relationship repair that is at the heart of the Ninth Step.
Mon, November 22, 2021
Practice the Feeling Process: Tips on Finding Freedom
In her book When Misery Is Company: End Self-Sabotage and Become Content , Anne Katherine provides solutions for those of us who may fear allowing ourselves to have hope or to be happy. In this excerpt, we explore how understanding and processing our true feelings can lead to freedom from our past.
Thu, November 18, 2021
Nine Benefits of Healthy Self-Esteem
In their book What Went Right: Reframe Your Thinking for a Happier Now , Michael Wetter and Eileen Bailey offer practical techniques and principles to help us recognize self-defeating thoughts. In this excerpt, we explore the impact of accepting ourselves and letting go of our negative self-image.
Mon, November 15, 2021
A Spark of Faith: Agnostics in AA
In his book The 12 Steps Unplugged: A Young Person's Guide to Alcoholics Anonymous , John R. interprets the philosophies and stories of the Big Book in straightforward language that speaks to regular people. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of faith, this excerpt can help you understand the spiritual aspect of AA's approach to recovery.
Thu, November 11, 2021
The Not-So-Good Old Days: Leave the High Drama in the Past
In his book Second-Year Sobriety: Getting Comfortable Now That Everything Is Different , Guy Kettelhack explores the growth and the challenges we often face in the second year of recovery. In this excerpt, we learn how it is common to miss having a bit of chaos in our lives. If we want our recovery to last, we must continue to be mindful and ground ourselves in the moment.
Mon, November 08, 2021
Don't Go Away: Coping with and Healing from Trauma
In her book The Recovering Heart: Emotional Sobriety for Women , Beverly Conyers provides guidance on achieving emotional sobriety and self-acceptance. This excerpt explains the ways that trauma can affect our emotions and our lives, and how the defensive strategies we may use to protect ourselves from the pain of trauma can backfire and prevent us from healing.
Thu, November 04, 2021
Willing or Willful? How Keeping an Open Mind Can Help in Recovery
In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken outlines 41 universally accepted principles, paired as positive and negative counterparts, that guide our behavior and are tools for discovering options and making choices. In this excerpt, we learn the difference between willfulness and willingness.
Mon, November 01, 2021
"Any Time I Want": How Addictive Thinking Distorts Our Concept of Time
In his book Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception , Abraham J. Twerski, MD, explores the origins of addictive thoughts and offers hope to those of us seeking a healthy and rewarding life in recovery. In this excerpt, Dr. Twerski explains how we addicts may have a distorted concept of time and discusses why a "one day at a time" approach is key to long-term sobriety.
Thu, October 28, 2021
Apparently Irrelevant Actions: Simple Steps to Reduce Cravings
In this excerpt from his book Craving: Why We Can't Seem to Get Enough , Dr. Omar Manejwala examines the "apparently irrelevant" choices we make that can either set us up for failure or help us succeed in avoiding a return to use. Using data and science, Dr. Manejwala shows how a combination of beliefs and behavior can reduce our cravings and help us maintain abstinence - the cornerstone of recovery.
Mon, October 25, 2021
How to Reconnect to Your Self in Recovery
In her book A Woman's Way through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Stephanie Covington explores the Twelve Step program from a woman's perspective, but the invitation to self-connection in this excerpt applies to all of us, regardless of gender. Now that we are reclaiming ourselves from addiction, we need to ask, "Who are we? What do we need and what do we want for our future?"
Thu, October 21, 2021
Two Ways to Improve Your Self-Care Routine
In her book A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery: Taking Care of Yourself to Take Care of Your Kids , Rosemary O'Connor addresses issues that mothers face at all stages of their recovery. Whether you're a mom or not, you can use the wisdom offered in this excerpt to develop self-care routines and rituals that will help you build well-being and find hope for the future.
Mon, October 18, 2021
Let It Start with You: Break the Cycle of Family Addiction
In the book Unwelcome Inheritance: Break Your Family's Cycle of Addictive Behaviors , Lisa Sue Woititz discusses the generational trauma of addiction and explores how we can break the cycles that continue to harm our families. Woititz co-authors the book with her late mom, Dr. Janet Woititz, an early leader in the Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA) movement. This excerpt helps us imagine and embrace our personal role as a change-making bridge between our family's past and its future.
Thu, October 14, 2021
Sex and Recovery: Telling the Truth Together
In her book Sex in Recovery: A Meeting Between the Covers , Jennifer Matesa argues that the language and practices of recovery are as appropriate to the bedroom as they are to the church basement meeting. Just like every other aspect of our recovering life, we're invited to approach sex and intimacy with courageous self-examination and humble honesty.
Mon, October 11, 2021
How People Change: Six Stages of Transformation
In her book Addict in the Family: Support Through Loss, Hope, and Recovery , Beverly Conyers offers important lessons on love, detachment, and self-care for families who are dealing with addiction and codependency. This excerpt is for anyone who wants to understand how people change and what progress in recovery - or any significant life transformation - can look like.
Thu, October 07, 2021
Begin with Yourself: Loving-Kindness for Life in Recovery
In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart shares tools for calming a self-critical mind. This excerpt introduces a Tibetan breathing meditation called tonglen. We can use this practice to develop more compassion and become willing to send as well as receive love and kindness in our lives.
Mon, October 04, 2021
Stay on the Sobriety Highway by Mapping the Route
In their book Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening , Dr. Robert Meyers and Dr. Brenda Wolfe offer advice for people interested in helping their loved ones who have substance use disorders. This excerpt describes the process of building a "road map" to identify addictive triggers, signs of drinking or drug use, and "exit ramps" to help redirect the person's behavior.
Thu, September 30, 2021
Stress Less: Two Techniques for Calming Anxiety
Relieve Stress: 5-Minute First Aid for the Mind , by Dr. Katrin Schubert, is a welcome guide to coping with stressful situations in recovery and daily life. Selected from the twenty exercises that comprise the book's how-to content, this excerpt offers a pair of step-by-step techniques for calming anxiety and managing stress.
Mon, September 27, 2021
You Are Enough: How to Change a Negative Self-Image
In his book Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception , Dr. Abraham Twerski reveals how self-deceptive thoughts can threaten the sobriety of a recovering individual. We can use this excerpt to help us identify and sort through any distorted realities we have and correct negative self-images.
Thu, September 23, 2021
Easy to Read, Hard to Do: Steps One and Two for Skeptics
In his book Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , A. J. Adams describes how joining Alcoholics Anonymous changed his preconceptions of the program. In this excerpt, Adams introduces the Twelve Steps to people in early recovery and discusses how he learned to navigate the first two Steps during his own journey.
Mon, September 20, 2021
Retrain Your Brain: How to Let Go of Controlling Behavior
In her book Rein In Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , Cynthia Moreno Tuohy offers ten techniques that can help with the compulsive thoughts and behaviors that most of us still struggle with in recovery. In this excerpt, Tuohy discusses how control in relationships and addictions are similar, and how to develop different skills and behavior patterns to improve our relationships.
Thu, September 16, 2021
Unity and Humility: Tradition One and the Success of AA
In their book Living the Twelve Traditions in Today's World: Principles Before Personalities , Mel B. and Michael Fitzpatrick celebrate the history and development of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and interpret the program for the twenty-first century. This excerpt discusses the very first Tradition and how its focus on humility and unity continues to guide decisions and solve problems within AA groups today.
Mon, September 13, 2021
Stop That, Start This: Two Essentials for Early Recovery
In his book The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior , Craig Nakken discusses the genetic factors, cultural influences, and progressive nature of substance use disorders to help readers understand the process of addiction. In this excerpt, we explore two practices that are beneficial in the early stages of recovery: defining abstinence and developing positive rituals.
Thu, September 09, 2021
Time for a New Road: Mental Illness, Addiction, and That First Step
In her book Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps , Marya Hornbacher opens the discussion of recovery from co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders. In this excerpt, Hornbacher discusses her early experience with the Twelve Step program and her struggle with Step One, as someone who also deals with a mental illness.
Mon, September 06, 2021
We're Not Normal: Allergy, Addiction, and the Myth of Willpower
A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living is an intensive study of the basic text of Twelve Step recovery - the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. This excerpt offers insight on what it means to be allergic to alcohol or other addictive substances, and how "willpower" is an unhelpful myth when it comes to a substance use disorder.
Thu, September 02, 2021
Let’s Get Real: Two Myths and One Truth About Recovery
A Place Called Self: Women, Sobriety, and Radical Transformation by Dr. Stephanie Brown is an insightful guide that can help readers unravel painful truths and confusing feelings in the process of creating a true sense of self in recovery. In this excerpt, Dr. Brown defines recovery, addresses the myths surrounding it, and discusses the truths of the recovery experience.
Mon, August 30, 2021
Four "Can'ts" and Four "Cans": Dealing with Anger in Recovery
In their book Of Course You're Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , authors Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden help readers understand and manage the powerful emotions that often accompany early recovery. Anger won't go away on its own, and reasons to be angry won't disappear, but how we choose to process and act on our anger can and will change. That's the promise of recovery.
Thu, August 26, 2021
Time Brings Change: How to Write Your Life's Next Chapter
The Grief Club , by Melody Beattie, offers powerful healing wisdom to help us through life's most difficult times. In this excerpt, Beattie shows us how we can acknowledge and work through the grief that comes with any kind of change. Those of us in early recovery are in transition all the time. Beattie's insights can help us manage these moments while also maintaining our sobriety.
Mon, August 23, 2021
Letting Go and Letting God: Sobriety and Self-Will
For decades, the book A Program for You: A Guide to the Big Book's Design for Living has helped millions of people understand and apply the Twelve Steps to their lives and find an authentic path to recovery. In this excerpt, the authors guide us through the concept of giving up our self-will and letting our Higher Power take control.
Thu, August 19, 2021
Four Ways to Find Safety, Serenity, and Freedom from Trauma
Passages through Recovery by Terence Gorski presents an action plan for preventing relapse. Gorski describes six stages of recovery from addiction and offers advice for working through the challenges of each stage. In this excerpt, Gorski explains the effects of repressed memories and how working with others in a safe environment can help us process our feelings and be more honest in our recovery.
Mon, August 16, 2021
Eight Techniques for Uncovering Joy Every Day
In her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , author Karen Casey offers wise counsel about what helps and what hinders relationships. Drawing from her own life experiences and lessons learned the hard way, Casey provides tips and steps on how to practice gratitude throughout recovery.
Thu, August 12, 2021
End Emotional Isolation: How to Reach Out and Receive Help
In the book Sober but Stuck , author Dan F. has compiled testimonials from people in recovery to remind us that we're not alone. These voices offer insight into issues that often act as barriers to our continued sobriety. In this excerpt, Matthew describes how he overcame his struggle to reach out, gained the courage to tell his story honestly, and received genuine help to move forward in his recovery.
Mon, August 09, 2021
Help Wanted: Higher Power
In this excerpt from her book Recovering Spirituality: Achieving Emotional Sobriety in Your Spiritual Practice , psychotherapist Ingrid Mathieu shows us that we don't have to be stuck on unhelpful definitions of God. We can let go of images and attributes that don't serve our sobriety. We get to be free to choose our own conception of a Higher Power we can trust - one that helps us heal.
Thu, August 05, 2021
Four Tips for Reducing Stress by Dealing with Feelings
In his book Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , Earl Hipp offers a framework for recognizing and dealing with feelings that can come with uncertainty, loss, and crisis. This excerpt introduces techniques for reducing stress and gives specific tips to guide us through problem management. We can use these tools to help navigate the difficulties in recovery and our daily life.
Mon, August 02, 2021
Hope Grows in the Recovery Greenhouse
In their book Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery , Dr. Sterling Shumway and Dr. Thomas Kimball have identified six principles that reinforce the Twelve Steps and that are key to maintaining lasting recovery. This excerpt compares recovery to a greenhouse and describes what we need to keep our recovery, and healthy relationships, flourishing.
Thu, July 29, 2021
Help from All Sides: Finding Meaning in the Journey
Those of us in recovery have a unique lens when it comes to pain and trauma. We have a sense that we can learn from our suffering, but how do we actually do that? In his classic book A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes shows us how learning from our painful past can help us find meaning. Together with others, we can heal our hurting brains, find our spiritual power, and discover our life's purpose.
Mon, July 26, 2021
Twelve Step Tutorial: What a Sponsor Does
In his book Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works , author and sponsor Hamilton B. lets us in on some of the need-to-know information about what can seem like a mysterious part of the program. In this excerpt, he offers a few basics about how sponsorship works, what a sponsor is for, and how this unique relationship helps newcomers to recovery find help and hope.
Thu, July 22, 2021
Help for the Recovering Heart
In her book The Recovering Heart: Emotional Sobriety for Women , best-selling author Beverly Conyers shares insight on achieving emotional healing by addressing our behaviors and feelings. In this excerpt, Conyers describes the benefits of having a therapist, sponsor, or a group to talk to as we work the program and progress in our recovery.
Mon, July 19, 2021
Open Invitation: Work the Program That Works for You
In First-Year Sobriety: When All That Changes Is Everything , author Guy Kettelhack gives insightful advice about how to approach life when we're new to sobriety. In this excerpt, he reminds us that there isn't one specific way to go through the program, or to do recovery itself. We're not right or wrong - there's only one requirement for membership in a Twelve Step program: the desire to stop drinking or drugging.
Thu, July 15, 2021
Addictive Rituals
Unhealthy and isolating rituals were part of our experience of addiction. Healthy rituals that connect us with others must be part of our recovery. Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior , by Craig Nakken, describes the two-sided personality we developed through our addiction and offers insights that can help us navigate the journey of wholeness and recovery.
Mon, July 12, 2021
Maintenance and Management: Boundaries in Recovery
In her book Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin , author and therapist Anne Katherine explains what healthy boundaries can look like. In this excerpt, Katherine gets us thinking about how our boundaries came to be and discusses how good boundaries need ongoing attention and maintenance.
Thu, July 08, 2021
Drop the Rock: Decluttering and Detoxing
Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects by Bill P., Todd W., and Sara S. is an important book to have when approaching Steps Six and Seven - in which we become ready and then ask our Higher Power to remove our defects of character and our shortcomings. In this excerpt, we're told how we can clean our house and detox in other areas of our lives in preparation to have our defects of character removed.
Mon, July 05, 2021
Questions and Answers for Recovery Beginners
In his book Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There , Michael Graubart shares a practical approach to the first three Steps. This excerpt addresses some of the common yet important questions and concerns we may have as newcomers in recovery.
Thu, July 01, 2021
New Dreams Ahead
In The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward , author Tracy Cleantis discusses how important it is to pause, reflect, and then move forward in our lives when things don't go as planned. This excerpt reminds us that giving up on a certain dream does not make us a failure or a quitter. Letting go can be a healthy decision that allows us to change our perspective and develop new goals - to reach the next happy.
Mon, June 28, 2021
Relationship Revelation: Every Argument Is About Fear
A lifelong student of human relationships, best-selling author Karen Casey focuses her attention on which actions and behaviors help relationships flourish, and which hurt. In this excerpt from her book Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment , Casey reminds us that fear is at the center of every argument in any relationship - and teaches us how love can undo fear.
Thu, June 24, 2021
Learn from Loss: Relapse as a Teachable Moment
In the book Now What? An Insider's Guide to Addiction and Recovery , William Cope Moyers shares his own story as a way to help others understand how addiction works, and find hope in the practical promises of recovery, regardless of how hopeless the present moment seems. In this excerpt, Moyers offers a way to see even something as unwanted as relapse as a moment for learning and growth.
Mon, June 21, 2021
Understanding Trauma and Anger: Setting Boundaries
Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One's PTSD by Cynthia Orange is a resource for learning to live with the scars of trauma and the "shock wave" effect of PTSD - along with effective responses to addiction and co-occurring disorders. In this excerpt, Orange discusses how anger can sprout from trauma. We discover how we can protect ourselves from toxic people and environments, which is essential for a healthy recovery.
Thu, June 17, 2021
Embracing Doubt as a Spiritual Practice
In her book Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power , Marya Hornbacher shares her own journey to recovery and a spiritual life as she explores spiritual concepts related to the practice of the Twelve Steps. In this excerpt, we explore how doubt can teach us spiritual strength. She explains how we can learn to wait through our doubt - keeping faith in ourselves and our recovery path.
Mon, June 14, 2021
The Three Stages of Recovery
In his book Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery , Earnie Larsen expertly and compassionately guides those who want a deeper understanding of recovery and their program. In this excerpt, Larsen introduces the three stages of recovery - addressing issues that could block our growth in recovery.
Thu, June 10, 2021
Almost Mindful: Training Ourselves to Stay Present
In Almost Anxious: Is My (or My Loved One's) Worry or Distress a Problem? Dr. Luana Marques and Eric Metcalf offer a practical set of skills to help maintain our anxiety at a level that is "just right" - not too much and not too little. This excerpt provides techniques to "troubleshoot our mindfulness practice" to help us find more enjoyment in our daily lives.
Mon, June 07, 2021
Recovery and Your Physical Well-Being
In her book The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober , author Jennifer Matesa offers a guide to achieving physical recovery as part of our path to lifelong sobriety. In this excerpt, she shares her personal story of how physical activity helped her stop craving alcohol and find a sense of home for the first time.
Thu, June 03, 2021
Loving-Kindness: Finding a Friend in Yourself
In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart shares effective strategies to calm a self-critical mind. In this excerpt, we explore "loving-kindness practice" - training that can help rewire our brain to develop a kinder voice toward ourselves as we do the hard work of recovery.
Mon, May 31, 2021
Grace and Growth: There's No Finish Line to Recovery
In this excerpt from her book Recovering Spirituality: Achieving Emotional Sobriety in Your Spiritual Practice , Dr. Ingrid Mathieu explores the cyclical nature of learning and growth, underscoring the hopeful and freeing reality that there is no finish line when it comes to recovery.
Thu, May 27, 2021
Tradition Eight: Giving It Away
In their book Living the Twelve Traditions in Today's World , recovery veterans Mel B. and Mike F. guide us through the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous - and what they see as the key to the heart of the movement's lasting success: principles before personalities. This excerpt, focused on giving without payment and staying in one's own lane, provides a perspective on the core commitment to keeping peer-supported recovery free and nonprofessional.
Mon, May 24, 2021
A Story for You: Bill W. and the Beginning of AA
In his book The 12 Steps Unplugged: A Young Person's Guide to Alcoholics Anonymous , adolescent addiction counselor John R. helps us discover the hidden treasures of the Big Book. In this excerpt, the author compares his experience with that of Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, to help us connect with the basic messages of getting honest with ourself, accepting the help of others, and finding a relevant spiritual support.
Thu, May 20, 2021
The Case for Commitment
In his book A Gentle Path through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Patrick Carnes presents twelve guiding principles essential in long-term recovery. This excerpt is about the vital importance of commitment in a recovering life, and the task of training our brains to help us do this hard work rather than taking shortcuts that can sabotage early recovery.
Mon, May 17, 2021
The Joy of Step Twelve: Help Yourself by Helping Others
In her book Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps , author Marya Hornbacher examines the Twelve Steps and the tough yet rewarding journey toward recovery from addiction and successful management of a mental health disorder. In this excerpt, Hornbacher discusses the vital importance of Step Twelve: "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."
Thu, May 13, 2021
Logical Sense: Reaping the Benefits of Consequences
In his book What's Wrong with My Kid? When Drugs or Alcohol Might Be a Problem and What to Do About It , mental health and addiction recovery advocate George E. Leary offers a judgment-free guide to the warning signs of drug use or addiction in our kids. In this excerpt, Leary defines the difference between natural and logical consequences, and describes how their use can be teaching tools that prevent parent-child struggles while effectively addressing substance use.
Mon, May 10, 2021
Practicing Presence: The Power in Meditation
In his book Practicing the Here and Now , Herb K. offers a framework for understanding and accessing the powerful gifts of prayer and meditation found in the Twelve Step journey of recovery. In this excerpt, Herb describes the practice of meditation, defining it as an intentional process that allows us to receive guidance that both informs and transforms our lives and relationships.
Thu, May 06, 2021
Purpose and Persistence: Moving Beyond the Limits of Addiction
In their book Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery , authors Sterling Shumway and Thomas Kimball identify six essential principles that reinforce the Twelve Steps and are key to lasting recovery. This excerpt focuses on how the early phases of recovery lay the groundwork for reclaiming our life's purpose, and for rebuilding our sense of achievement and accomplishment.
Mon, May 03, 2021
Inner Critic: Your Own Worst Enemy
In her book Conquering Shame and Codependency: 8 Steps to Freeing the True You , therapist and author Darlene Lancer offers an in-depth look at shame as a primary cause of codependency and addiction. This excerpt challenges us to examine our childhood - connecting the dots on how lingering past traumas can impact our adult lives. We learn about our inner critic and how we can develop empathy for the child we once were.
Thu, April 29, 2021
It Takes a Family: Strength-Oriented Sobriety for Everybody
However you define "family," experts agree that we have the best chance of sustaining our recovery when the people we love most are involved in it - in a healthy way. In this excerpt from her book It Takes a Family: Creating Lasting Sobriety, Togetherness, and Happiness , Debra Jay offers guidance for those who love a person recovering from addiction.
Mon, April 26, 2021
Dealing with Our Feelings: Emotions Can Be Allies
Inspirational author Melody Beattie examines the ins and outs of codependency in her book Codependent No More . In this excerpt, Beattie explores the intensity of our feelings as a call to action - bringing us face-to-face with reality. We discover how our compulsive behaviors and addictions are often triggered by buried emotions.
Thu, April 22, 2021
Strength in the Struggle: You Are Worth the Work
In her book Awakening Blackout Girl , survivor and victims' rights advocate Jennifer Storm shares information, tools, and resources for healing from sexual trauma while also in recovery from substance use. In this excerpt, she discusses the importance of self-awareness. We learn that mistakes are what lead to learning and growth, and that a setback does not mean you're on the verge of relapse.
Mon, April 19, 2021
Get Your Loved One Back: Intervention as Hostage Negotiation
In Love First: A Family's Guide to Intervention , Jeff and Debra Jay provide steps for harnessing the power of family and friends to create a better future with loved ones who have an addiction. In this excerpt, the authors apply insights from the science of hostage negotiation, highlighting the competing pulls of loss and gain that color every interaction with a person trapped in active addiction.
Thu, April 15, 2021
Finding Abundance in Financial Recovery
Those of us in recovery often have had fraught relationships with money. We know that our work includes settling both financial and emotional debts. In this excerpt from her book Spent: Break the Buying Obsession and Discover Your True Worth , psychologist and author Sally Palaian outlines signs of financial health, describes how cleaning up our finances can lead to a sense of abundance, and explains how learning to be flexible and trusting is key to our inner peace in matters of money.
Mon, April 12, 2021
You vs. the World: Learning to See Our Interconnectedness
In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , therapist and addictions specialist Craig Nakken outlines forty-one spiritual principles that we can use to guide our behavior. In this excerpt, we learn how separateness can affect our daily lives in an unhealthy way, while connection with others provides opportunities for growth. Nakken also explains how finding the right community will help us progress on our road to recovery.
Thu, April 08, 2021
Terms of Acceptance
In the book A Balanced Life , Tom Smith offers guidance for the family and friends of a person with mental illness on how to support their loved one while maintaining emotional, mental, and spiritual balance in their own lives. In this excerpt, Smith discusses why we may have a hard time accepting the limited control we have over others' actions, and how acceptance can help us move toward greater personal peace and improved relationships.
Mon, April 05, 2021
Recovery for Body, Mind, and Spirit
Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA by A. J. Adams is a perfect read for those of us who are in early recovery or who are having doubts about joining Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In this excerpt, we hear how Adams's entire life changed - in body, mind, and spirit - after only one year in the program.
Thu, April 01, 2021
Becoming Independent: Learning to Live Alone
Sandra Swenson, in her book Just Dandy: Living with Heartache and Wishes , shares her pain and struggles, strength and determination, as a series of crises - including her adult son's fight with addiction and her unexpected divorce - continue to unravel her world in unexpected ways. This excerpt is a refreshingly honest account of one woman's experience with heartache, acceptance, and re-discovery as she learns to navigate life on her own and finds new strengths and resiliency.
Mon, March 29, 2021
No Spiritual Shortcuts: The Only Way Forward Is Through
In this excerpt from her book Recovering Spirituality: Achieving Emotional Sobriety in Your Spiritual Practice , Dr. Ingrid Mathieu explores "Spiritual Bypass," defined as the habit of using spiritual language and insights to avoid dealing with the difficult feelings and experiences that are part of every life.
Thu, March 25, 2021
Don't Let Fear Overrule: The Lack of Intimacy
In Sober But Stuck , Dan F. presents the stories of people who are dealing with difficult barriers in their paths to recovery. In this excerpt, we are introduced to a man who has discovered how the lack of intimacy has hindered his personal relationships and how dealing with our character defects can aid in our recovery progress.
Mon, March 22, 2021
I'm Not God: Working Out What's Worth Worshipping
In his book The Spiritual Self: Reflections on Recovery and God , rabbi and psychiatrist Abraham Twerski speaks with a unique perspective on the ways spirituality can affect emotional health and successful sobriety. In this excerpt, Dr. Twerski offers insights about the role of ego in Twelve Step recovery, and how a healthy spirituality can help us right-size the way we think of ourselves.
Thu, March 18, 2021
Improve Sleep: Dreams Interrupted
Improve Sleep by Dr. Katrin Schubert offers significant strategies for a good night's sleep. This excerpt shares techniques that can improve your sleep habits. Having a stable night routine is essential in our paths to recovery. Following these tips can reduce sleepless nights and prepare you to take on the next day.
Mon, March 15, 2021
Passages Through Recovery: Controlling Behavioral Impulses
Passages Through Recovery by Terence T. Gorski provides readers with an action plan to stay on the course of recovery. In this excerpt, Gorski discusses the power of using good judgment, and provides advice on how we can learn to control our behavioral impulses.
Thu, March 11, 2021
Family Traits: Discovering the Origin of Our Addictions
In Unwelcome Inheritance , Lisa Woititz, with material from her mother, Dr. Janet Woititz, discusses and analyzes Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA). In this excerpt, we are reminded that, although addiction can be inherited, we can break the cycle. We learn the importance of knowing our relatives' health histories and how making these connections can be beneficial in our own recovery.
Mon, March 08, 2021
The Wealth of Healthy Relationships
In the book Rein in Your Brain , Cynthia Moreno Tuohy gives insightful guidance for how we can be more thoughtful in our daily lives. In this excerpt, she visits the topic of relationships and gives us examples of how to effectively determine the health of our personal relationships.
Thu, March 04, 2021
Keep Bringing Your Body: Making the Most of Meetings
As Meredith Gould reminds us in her book Staying Sober: Tips for Working a Twelve Step Program of Recovery , regular attendance at meetings is a key feature of Twelve Step recovery, and the place where much of the isolation-busting magic of real recovery starts. In this excerpt, Dr. Gould offers an overview of what a newcomer to meetings might encounter, as well as some tips for making the most of Twelve Step meetings.
Mon, March 01, 2021
An Invitation to Self-Care: The Many Faces of Self-Harm
In her book An Invitation to Self-Care , bestselling author Tracey Cleantis identifies some of the unhealthy habits and behaviors in our daily lives, and demonstrates how learning to nurture ourselves is a central part of living the lives we want. In this excerpt, Cleantis describes what self-care is by illustrating some of its opposites, and shows how these actions can hinder our journey to recovery and our better selves.
Thu, February 25, 2021
The Road to Compassion Goes Through Empathy
In this excerpt from her book Take Good Care: Finding Your Joy in Compassionate Caregiving , author Cynthia Orange invites us to regularly exercise our "empathy muscles." As we do, each of our interactions and relationships will benefit from more compassion, patience, understanding, and kindness.
Mon, February 22, 2021
Tune In Today: Turning Down Denial and Turning Up Compassion
In her book When Reality Bites: How Denial Helps and What to Do When It Hurts , lecturer and author Holly Parker demonstrates how denial helps people cope in times of crisis or tragedy. She also teaches us how to recognize when denial becomes counterproductive or detrimental - for ourselves as well as our neighbors and the planet. In this excerpt, Dr. Parker describes the ways we often "tune out" uncomfortable realities and offers a method for turning up the volume on compassion.
Thu, February 18, 2021
The Power of Action for Healing and Hope
In her book The Recovering Heart: Emotional Sobriety for Women , Beverly Conyers gives readers of all genders wisdom for the journey of recovery. In this excerpt, she underscores the links between reflection and action in the process of healing. Action is the antidote to habitual helplessness and poor self-image. The path to reclaiming the power we lost to trauma and addiction is through those positive things big and small that we do to build self-worth.
Mon, February 15, 2021
Shared Hearts: Healthy Love in an Unhealthy Time
Now in its third edition, Brenda Shaeffer's Is It Love or Is It Addiction? has helped countless people find their way from the trials and confusion of addictive love to the fulfillment of whole and healthy relationships. This excerpt celebrates the enduring power of love, and describes some ways that power can get twisted by trauma or misused through misunderstanding and inattention.
Thu, February 11, 2021
Pocket Your Pride: Humility and Hope in Step Five
In Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps , bestselling author Marya Hornbacher shares her own recovery story to guide readers through the maze of issues that make "working the Steps" uniquely challenging for people with co-occurring disorders. In this excerpt, Hornbacher explores the critical distinction between humility and humiliation as people with mental health disorders undertake Step Five.
Mon, February 08, 2021
The Myth of Immunity: Risks That Accompany Success
In Craving , author and physician Omar Manejwala translates the neurobiology of this human phenomenon into real and accessible terms, explaining why we just can't seem to get enough. In this excerpt, Dr. Manejwala points out that it's often when things are going well - when we think we've got it all figured out - that we are most vulnerable to our cravings, and most at risk for relapse.
Thu, February 04, 2021
Skills for the Hard Times: Self-Care in a Season of Grief
We live in a culture that is in denial about the complicated emotions surrounding loss and grief. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss , Earl Hipp argues that people who understand loss and grief are better able to face life boldly. In this excerpt, Hipp offers a list of self-care skills that helps us survive and even grow through the hard times of our lives.
Mon, February 01, 2021
Back to Basics: What Does "Unmanageable" Mean?
In this excerpt from his book Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There , bestselling author and sober alcoholic Michael Graubart explores the word "unmanageability" as it appears in Step One, and how our impulse to control everyone and everything is at the heart of our struggle with alcoholism and other addictions.
Thu, January 28, 2021
New Year, New Vision: Seeing Without Judging
While many see the new year as a chance to try new things and make big changes, author and recovery guide Beverly Conyers shows how each day - even each moment - contains the same promise and possibility. In her book Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , Conyers shows us how the practice of mindfulness, including the skill of seeing without judging, can be a game-changing part of recovery and a path to a happier life.
Mon, January 25, 2021
New Year, New Now: Stop Letting the Past Control Today
Beloved author Earnie Larsen was a true and certain guide to living more abundantly in recovery. In his book Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery , Larsen explores ways you can bring greater love, acceptance, and belonging into your life. This includes learning to fully inhabit the present moment - what he calls "getting in the now."
Thu, January 21, 2021
New Year, New Chances: Rebuilding Trust in Early Recovery
Beverly Conyers has helped hundreds of thousands of readers recognize family roles in addiction, heal shame, and build healthy relationships. In Everything Changes: Help for Families of Newly Recovering Addicts , Conyers underscores the role of trust in family relationships and offers advice for supporting the loved one in your family with the disease of addiction, as well as ways to care for and support yourself as you navigate the early months of recovery.
Mon, January 18, 2021
New Year, New Perspective: Work, Success, and Self-Worth
Whether we're in the early stages of recovery or have a few years in the rearview, having a job or not having one can offer some formidable emotional challenges. In his book First-Year Sobriety: When All That Changes Is Everything , Guy Kettelhack helps us explore ways to deal with our hopes and fears about loneliness, success, and purpose without resorting to old, self-destructive behaviors.
Thu, January 14, 2021
New Year, Next Happy: Grieving Losses Large and Small
In her book The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward , Tracey Cleantis offers practical help for the journey of grief. With wisdom from her own hard experience, Cleantis shows how to face the reality of letting go of dreams that can no longer be; accept sadness, anger, and shame; and ask the questions that will let you find a new way forward.
Mon, January 11, 2021
New Year, New Hope: Spiritual Skeptics Welcome
In Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , recovering alcoholic A. J. Adams shares insights and wisdom from his own story of skeptic spirituality, and the gifts of acceptance and willingness that he found along the path of recovery.
Thu, January 07, 2021
New Year, Deep Breath: Challenge Your Anxiety-Fueled Thoughts
In Almost Anxious: Is My (or My Loved One's) Worry or Distress a Problem? Dr. Luana Marques offers practical steps to reduce anxiety. Learning to monitor and challenge our negative thoughts can help us find more enjoyment in our days, experience better family and work environments, and eliminate the emotional, mental, and even physical problems that anxiety often causes.
Mon, January 04, 2021
New Year, New Start: Resistance, Acceptance, and Self-Knowledge
In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken offers tools for discovering options and making choices, especially when the choices aren't clear. In this excerpt, we explore the tension between resistance and acceptance, and how both reveal who we are and what we can be.
Thu, December 31, 2020
New Year, New Start: Becoming, in Every Moment of Life
In her new book, Just Dandy: Living with Heartache and Wishes , Sandra Swenson writes about leaning into the future with hope and confidence - not that everything will turn out fine, but that, whatever happens, she will act in ways that are true to herself. The new year is an opportunity to keep becoming, keep learning the lessons that come with grief as well as gratitude, and keep living with integrity, grace, and openheartedness.
Mon, December 28, 2020
Love in Recovery: Start with Yourself
Jennifer Storm, in her book Awakening Blackout Girl: A Survivor's Guide for Healing from Addiction and Sexual Trauma , brings us along on her journey through trauma and recovery, sharing her missteps as well as personal triumphs. Finding love and pursuing relationships in early recovery can be fraught in the best circumstances; Storm says our search for deep and dependable love must start with ourselves.
Thu, December 24, 2020
Trust the Process: Ripple Effect in Everything
In his book Drop the Rock: The Ripple Effect , Fred H. helps us explore Step Ten, and how the habits and practices that we build in a program of recovery create positive effects in us that ripple outward into our relationships and beyond. As we work Step Ten, we come to see that all we can control is the integrity of our response to what happens.
Mon, December 21, 2020
Nourishing the Body: The Sugar Thing
Whether it was stress-eating over the last year of uncertainty and unrest, or the fact that the holidays are upon us again, many of us are thinking about what we put in our bodies, and how what we eat can affect our health - including our recovery. In this excerpt from her book The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober , author Jennifer Matesa takes a look at the addictive qualities of sugar, and what it does to our minds and bodies.
Thu, December 17, 2020
Let Go a Little: Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance
Brené Brown, in her book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are , gives us the permission many of us may not even know we needed these days: to lighten up. We are allowed to experience joy and laughter - even in unpredictable and painful times.
Mon, December 14, 2020
You Are Worth the Effort: Training Makes the Difference
In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart offers a simple solution to the many ways we talk ourselves into false beliefs about our aptitudes and gifts: practice. Happiness, she teaches, is worth the effort.
Thu, December 10, 2020
Sober Mom's Tools for Surviving the Holidays
Many of us are running ourselves ragged these days - especially parents or caregivers. In this excerpt from her book A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery: Taking Care of Yourself to Take Care of Your Kids , Rosemary O'Connor charts a path through the holidays that can help you stay sane and sober, and even enjoy some peace with yourself and your family.
Mon, December 07, 2020
The Difference Between Guilt and Shame
Dr. Joseph Lee, in this excerpt from his book Recovering My Kid , helps illuminate the difference between guilt and shame, and shows us how these emotional and relational forces are at play in treating addiction, embracing recovery, and rebuilding trust and hope in a family.
Thu, December 03, 2020
Find Your People, Find Your Voice: Belonging to Others in Recovery
Those of us in recovery came to know the life-or-death value of having at least one person who knows us through and through - and cares about us anyway. In this excerpt from his book A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes focuses our attention on the vulnerability and trust inherent to the Fifth Step.
Mon, November 30, 2020
Looking Ahead: Set Your Own Goals
We don't need to wait for the new year to make some goals. In fact, it's well-known that we need to have things in our lives to look forward to, and goals can be how we do that. All of us in recovery can take some notes from Melody Beattie, in her book Codependent No More , about how to find the joy in setting goals.
Thu, November 26, 2020
Just Dandy: Being With Family While Being Without Family
Sandra Swenson, in her new book Just Dandy: Living with Heartache and Wishes , writes about the holidays and family from the perspective of a mother whose son struggles with addiction - and also as a person who manages the other aspects of her life that can be just as hope-filled and heartbreaking. How do we do it? How can we be "just dandy" and mean it?
Mon, November 23, 2020
Help for the Hard Times: Supporting Others
The holidays are coming up and many of us will be feeling loss and grief this year, different from that felt in any other year. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss , Earl Hipp helps us see that we can help others through their grief, especially if we've already spent considerable time in The Hard Times.
Thu, November 19, 2020
The Gifts of Imperfection: Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
Ten years after it was first published, Brené Brown, in her book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are , gives us advice that is particularly relevant this year - especially as we get close to winter. Here are her thoughts on fear of the dark and scarcity, as they get in the way of our gratitude and joy in these challenging times.
Mon, November 16, 2020
Coping Ahead: Preparing for Confrontation
As we think of the holidays, there's quite a bit we might need to cope with: health, boundaries, family issues, beverage and menu choices, and so much more. Here's a mini-course for coping with confidence from the book Of Course You're Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , by Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden.
Thu, November 12, 2020
Shame in Recovery: An Unwelcome Visitor at the Holidays
Jennifer Storm, in her book Awakening Blackout Girl: A Survivor's Guide for Healing from Addiction and Sexual Trauma , brings us along on her journey through trauma and recovery, showing us how shame has shaped her experiences through it all - and still today. She reminds us that though we will make mistakes and need to make amends again and again in life, we don't have to let shame control us.
Mon, November 09, 2020
A Helpful Reminder: We Can All Help Others
As we get closer to the holiday season, it's time to reflect on how those of us in recovery can be of service to others. In Three Simple Rules: Uncomplicating Life in Recovery , author Michael Graubart tells us about helping others, but making sure we're offering "helpful help," rather than "unhelpful help."
Thu, November 05, 2020
Transformation: The Journey of Recovery
In her book Sane , Marya Hornbacher explores how Step Seven, particularly after working all the Steps before it, offers us the opportunity to see our own transformation: what we were before, while looking ahead to what we can become next. We can become something completely new - or something we already were, but couldn’t see, because of our addiction.
Mon, November 02, 2020
Learning to Recognize Grief: Skills for the Holidays...and Recovery
No one has been spared from loss or grieving this year, especially those of us in recovery who may also be experiencing the loss of our former coping mechanism, substance use. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss , Earl Hipp tells us all about grief and what we can do to work through it while sustaining our sobriety.
Thu, October 29, 2020
Emotional Sobriety: Pressure Yourself to Change
In times like these, the pressure is on - but what can we do about it? In his book, 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone , Dr. Allen Berger teaches us how to look inward and focus on our part of the problem.
Mon, October 26, 2020
Mindfulness for Healing Through Forgiveness
Beverly Conyers, author of Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , just published Follow Your Light: A Guided Journal to Recover from Anything . Here are two exercises from the journal about forgiveness, something we can all examine a little more closely in ourselves on our recovery journeys.
Thu, October 22, 2020
Autumn Spirituality in Recovery
Autumn is here, and we are living through unprecedented times. But let's never forget that while we've never been in this place before, others have gone before us, and they've had their own challenges and strife during their recovery. Marya Hornbacher, in this excerpt from Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power , weaves a story for us about her own experience in the world of the spirit.
Mon, October 19, 2020
The Trauma of Now: Helping Ourselves and Each Other
Whether we are essential workers, first responders, or health care providers or we live with people who face incredible circumstances on a daily basis, we need to know how to support ourselves and each other. Cynthia Orange helps us identify and manage stress and depression in this excerpt from Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One's PTSD .
Thu, October 15, 2020
Easy Does It: Finding Serenity in Upheaval
Melody Beattie wrote 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact: Meditations for Connecting with God, Self, and Others to help us remove what's in the way of our serenity. Here is week 18, where Melody helps us with the concept of "easy does it" so we can walk through recovery - challenges and all - one step at a time.
Mon, October 12, 2020
Honesty in Recovery: Giving Ourselves Room to Grow
Many of us are survivors, and many of us are facing recovery not only from a substance use perspective but also from a place of trauma. Jennifer Storm helps us examine our recovery—honestly—from both perspectives at the same time in Awakening Blackout Girl .
Thu, October 08, 2020
Drop the Rock: Recovery Aerobics
Those of us who've been in recovery for a little while might wonder if we could use a check-up for our recovery. Fred H. looks to Step Ten to give us these spot checks—these recovery aerobics—in Drop the Rock: The Ripple Effect .
Mon, October 05, 2020
Look to the Stars: Practicing Humility
Humility helps us approach what we do with an open and curious mind, and no time is better to practice humility than today. Beverly Conyers, author of Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , explains how humility will only serve us in our recovery.
Thu, October 01, 2020
Emotional Sobriety: How to Cope with Problems When You're Sober
Sometimes the problem isn't the problem - the problem is how we cope with the problem. Sometimes, we need expert advice for how to cope with our problems, as explained by Dr. Allen Berger in his book 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone .
Mon, September 28, 2020
You Have Feelings: A Gentle Reminder About Being Human
How are you feeling? It's a common enough question—especially in these days of the coronavirus pandemic. But not everybody knows how to answer it. In this excerpt from Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , Earl Hipp describes how an emotional vocabulary can help us tolerate and talk about the intensity and discomfort that come with big feelings.
Thu, September 24, 2020
Hijacking and Healing: The Brain Science of Addiction and Recovery
In this excerpt from his book A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes outlines insights on addiction and healing from current brain science and invites us to embrace our recovery as a lifelong creative emotional, physical, and spiritual process of healing and growth.
Mon, September 21, 2020
Exit the Resentment Lane: Positive Self-Talk During the Pandemic
There's a lot to be angry about these days. The coronavirus pandemic has affected our jobs, our health, and our families; recovery can feel harder to maintain. In this excerpt from their brief book, Of Course You’re Angry: A Guide to Dealing with the Emotions of Substance Abuse , Gayle Rosellini and Mark Worden call us to examine self-pity as a destructive form of unhealthy anger, and point a way past it.
Thu, September 17, 2020
What Agoraphobia Can Teach Us About the Usefulness of Fear
In this time of distancing and isolation during the pandemic, we can learn from how people handle panic, anxiety, and agoraphobia. This excerpt from Embracing the Fear: Learning to Manage Anxiety and Panic Attacks by Judith Bemis and Amr Barrada can teach us how fear can be useful to us in our recovery.
Mon, September 14, 2020
Standing Still in the Moment: Train Your Brain to Think First
In times of crisis and uncertainty, even healthy people and relationships will experience conflict. With insights from neuroscience as well as her own recovery, Cynthia Moreno Tuohy's book, Rein In Your Brain: From Impulsivity to Thoughtful Living in Recovery , opens the door to a whole new way to think about thinking—especially when the emotional stakes are high.
Thu, September 10, 2020
Between Chaos and Discipline: A Path to Serenity
While right and wrong can sometimes be clearly defined, much of the time we wrestle with competing perspectives and pressures in order to do the next right thing. In Finding Your Moral Compass: Transformative Principles to Guide You in Recovery and Life , Craig Nakken offers tools for discovering options and making choices. In this excerpt, we explore the tension between chaos and discipline—a timely topic during the coronavirus pandemic, when chaos seems all too present.
Mon, September 07, 2020
Trust Your Story: It's Bigger Than the Present Moment
In times of stress and uncertainty, it's common to worry about relapse, either for yourself or someone you love. Extra anxiety, fueled by global, local, or even personal experience with the coronavirus pandemic, may lead people to cope in all kinds of unhealthy ways. In this excerpt from Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery , Earnie Larsen reminds us that avoiding relapse depends on our willingness to "face what is chasing us."
Thu, September 03, 2020
Fake It Until You Make It: Acting "As If" in a Pandemic
As we kick off National Recovery Month during a pandemic, it's a good time to look at one of our most popular titles for advice about how to manage ourselves as we manage our recovery. Here's an excerpt from Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects by Bill P., Todd W., and Sara S. to help us act "as if" we can keep walking through our recovery by looking up to see the big picture and having faith that we can—and will—get to where we're going.
Mon, August 31, 2020
Finding Calm in a Crisis: Recharge, Relax, and Remember
It's impossible to have a problem-free life—the global effects of coronavirus have underscored this reality. Written originally for young people Earl Hipp's book, Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , offers specific ways to access calm and stay in touch, even when the storms are raging.
Thu, August 27, 2020
Trust in a Time of Crisis: Living Without Knowing Outcomes
In his book, A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes teaches that recovery's process of healing and growth will be sustained not by control but by trust. In this excerpt, Dr. Carnes invites us to reflect on a time in our life when we survived—and even thrived—through a leap of faith.
Mon, August 24, 2020
Relapse Red Flags: A Cyber Junkie Recovers in the Real World
In this time of coronavirus, many of us are spending hours each day looking at screens. In Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap , Kevin Roberts describes the need to carefully navigate this landscape while staying rooted in the realities of supportive relationships and healthy boundaries.
Thu, August 20, 2020
Making Art for a Natural High
When it feels like we're trapped and all we want to do is escape, how do we do that without turning to our addictions? Look to Jodie Gould's High: Six Principles for Guilt-Free Pleasure and Escape for how to use art to find pleasure.
Mon, August 17, 2020
You're Not Alone: The Importance of Finding a Sponsor
The pandemic has brought with it new ways for the recovery community to connect, but what stays the same is the value of a sponsor, a mentor, a guide. In Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA , learn about how to find a sponsor in your own recovery.
Thu, August 13, 2020
Detaching: Taming Our Reactions for Our Own Health
These are times when it's easy to react negatively to those around us, whether it's in anger, fear, embarrassment, or some other emotion that was pulled to the surface by the people we're with. Melody Beattie in Codependent No More helps us learn how to detach, so we can react in a more healthy way.
Mon, August 10, 2020
Fences: Boundaries Keep Us Safe from Ourselves
As we are staying home during the pandemic, we can use the time to explore the concept of our boundaries and how we take care of ourselves while in recovery. In Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin , Anne Katherine explains why boundaries are important and leads us through a couple exploratory exercises.
Thu, August 06, 2020
The Gift of Listening: Helping Others in the Time of Pandemic
Living in a time of pandemic-related isolation and uncertainty invites us to care for ourselves and others in new ways. In his book, Three Simple Rules: Uncomplicating Life in Recovery , author Michael Graubart makes the case that truly enjoyable, fruitful, spiritual, meaningful, and sober lives come from living by three simple rules: Trust God. Clean house. Help others.
Mon, August 03, 2020
Believing that Life Should be Easy
What is the role of acceptance during the coronavirus pandemic? Where is serenity when we need it most? In this excerpt from his book, 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery , Dr. Allen Berger gently but firmly roots us in the reality that life is hard and always will be.
Thu, July 30, 2020
Food, Sleep, and Exercise: Anti-Anxiety Basics for Troubled Times
In this era of coronavirus, it's helpful to revisit three essentials in the anti-anxiety toolbox. In Almost Anxious: Is My (or My Loved One's) Worry or Distress a Problem? , Dr. Luana Marques reminds us how good sleep, healthy food, and regular exercise will help us maintain mental health, even in uncertain times.
Mon, July 27, 2020
Four Ways to Resist and Recover from Addictive Emotions
In some of us, the neurochemicals associated with negative emotions trip the reward centers of our brains and we become addicted to unhappiness. In his book, A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Principles: Living the Values Behind the Steps , Dr. Patrick Carnes offers four strategies for rewiring our emotional pathways and reclaiming the functions of a healthy brain.
Thu, July 23, 2020
How Recovery Prepares Us to Reframe Pain and Suffering
Beverly Conyers, Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , puts suffering into perspective and reaches into philosophical and religious teachings to be able to reframe it for us. It's not a glib "suffering makes you a better person!" type dismissal, but it's more of a reminder that we, as people in recovery, have learned the most important lessons because of our suffering.
Mon, July 20, 2020
Anger in a Time of Crisis: Recognize and Avoid the Volcano
Feelings are what make us human. Written originally for young people, Earl Hipp's book, Feed Your Head: Some Excellent Stuff on Being Yourself , is a timely reminder, in these anxiety-producing days of coronavirus pandemic, about healthy expression of anger.
Thu, July 16, 2020
Practicing Gratitude: Appreciation as an Antidote to Anxiety
Having tried all kinds of unhelpful responses to feelings that seem overwhelming, those of us in recovery have practices to help us navigate negativity, and we're usually looking for more. Kevin Roberts recommends the depression-defying gift of gratitude in his book, Cyber Junkie: Escaping the Gaming and Internet Trap .
Mon, July 13, 2020
Healing the Wounds of Shame: Human, not Perfect
Authors Ronald and Patricia Potter-Efron describe shame as, "A painful belief in one's basic defectiveness as a human being." In their book Letting Go of Shame: Understanding How Shame Affects Your Life , the Potter-Efrons help us consider our shame as a messenger or teacher, with a role to play in our lives.
Thu, July 09, 2020
Sorry, Self: Being Gentle with Ourselves during a Pandemic
In this time of uncertainty, let's turn our attention to one of the only things we can control: our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, by working through two exercises from the new guided journal by Barbara Theodosiou, Living Without Shame: A Support Book for Mothers with Addicted Children . Although this support book is designed for mothers, these exercises can be helpful for anyone who feels a little (or a lot) overwhelmed right now.
Mon, July 06, 2020
Stupid Thing 8: Confusing Self-Concern with Selfishness
Maintaining a healthy recovery during a worldwide pandemic can be hard work. In addition to keeping connected to our support systems and staying away from opportunities to use, we also need to continue the work of self-evaluation. In this excerpt from his book, 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery , Dr. Allen Berger shows how confusing self-concern for selfishness prevents us from acting on our own behalf. Learning to honor and care for ourselves is a hallmark of recovery.
Thu, July 02, 2020
Sleep and Massage for Escape During the Pandemic
There are fewer options than usual for finding a natural high while we're both in recovery and in the pandemic. Luckily, Jodie Gould's High: Six Principles for Guilt-Free Pleasure and Escape tells us we can restore ourselves with sleep and massage.
Mon, June 29, 2020
Meditating with Flo: Finding Avenues for Anxiety in Recovery
If you've ever asked for advice in calming your anxiety, someone has probably suggested that you meditate. In her book The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober , author Jennifer Matesa introduces us to somebody who greatly improved her own meditation practice: a dog named Flo.
Thu, June 25, 2020
Surrender: How Step 3 Helps During a Pandemic
For those of us who walk in the worlds of both mental illness and addiction, it's important to think about what Step Three's release of control means to us, especially with the coronavirus pandemic in our midst. In her book Sane , Marya Hornbacher talks about the illusion of self-control and the concept of surrender.
Mon, June 22, 2020
In a Time of Crisis, Stop Trying to Be "Good" at Meditation
Too much stress puts us at risk of relapse and can harm our health, but how can we avoid stress at a time like this? In her book A Kinder Voice: Releasing Your Inner Critics with Mindfulness Slogans , Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart offers this paradox: meditation will work much better for us when we stop trying so hard.
Thu, June 18, 2020
Sober Mom During the Pandemic: Recovery and Exhaustion
Many of us are running ourselves ragged these days, as parents or caregivers. But, as author Rosemary O'Connor explains in A Sober Mom's Guide to Recovery , it's not only beneficial to show yourself some compassion, it's necessary.
Mon, June 15, 2020
Recovery and the Pandemic: Emotional Boundary Basics
We're all facing some new and challenging interpersonal situations these days. In her book, Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin , Anne Katherine show us how each challenge is an opportunity to assert who we are, and what we truly need to live happy, healthy lives.
Thu, June 11, 2020
Not a Democracy: Parenting Teens During the Pandemic
During the coronavirus outbreak, having to stay confined is not easy, especially if you've got a son or daughter who's working through a substance use disorder. In his book Recovering My Kid , Dr. Joseph Lee helps you create a safe home where you set the boundaries.
Mon, June 08, 2020
Cleaning House During a Crisis: Silence Your Negativity Committee
For those of us trying to maintain our recovery, this global health emergency is a stressful time. In Three Simple Rules: Uncomplicating Life in Recovery , author Michael Graubart gives advice on silencing the negativity flying around in our heads.
Thu, June 04, 2020
Crisis and Creativity for People in Recovery
Today, those of us in creative areas of work may be struggling to answer whether our work is "essential," which can cause creative blocks reminiscent of those we experienced while active in our addictions. In her book The Recovering Body , Jennifer Matesa emphasizes the vital importance of creative work, and reassures us that our moments of blockage and self-doubt will pass.
Mon, June 01, 2020
Good Grief During the Pandemic: Loss without Losing Everything
Many of us are grieving right now: Losing jobs, old ways of life, the ability to see loved ones. Even losses due to coronavirus or relapse. In Without Shame , author Barbara Theodosiou describes losing her son to the disease of addiction in 2015, and how self-care, forgiveness, and service can be present, even in grief.
Thu, May 28, 2020
Grandparenting During the Pandemic: Signs You Need Some Help
Many grandparents find themselves parenting their grandchildren, due to their own children struggling with substance use disorders, incarceration, or challenges, like COVID-19 or other illnesses. The Grandfamily Guidebook by Andrew Adesman, MD and Christine Ademec, is a helpful resource for grandparents during these times.
Mon, May 25, 2020
Returning to Step One: Harnessing Our Periods of Descent
Realities like physical distancing can stir up feelings of isolation, and even darkness in our recovery. As Marya Hornbacher explains in Waiting: A Nonbeliever's Higher Power , we can return to Step One to find meaning and value in even our lowest moments.
Thu, May 21, 2020
Parents of Kids in Recovery: Checking In with Your Emotions
Parenting a child with a substance use disorder is hard, but it's especially difficult due to the pandemic. Dr. Joseph Lee, in his book Recovering My Kid , coaches us through handling our feelings and taking out our emotional trash.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Life and Trauma: Ask for, and Accept, Help
We all need some help. Every one of us is dealing with situations we didn’t anticipate. Stress and uncertainty are real these days, in old and new forms. We need to remember all of the sources of help available to us, as well as the ways we can be of service to others. In this excerpt from Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One's PTSD , Cynthia Orange teaches us how to ask for help, how to best offer help, and how to make our crisis-filled days a little bit more predictable.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Readiness to Change: Step 6 for Those with Mental Illness
For those of us who balance both mental illness and substance use disorders, it's hard to find our footing during a global pandemic. Marya Hornbacher, in her book Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps writes about the Sixth Step: the willingness to have God [or our Higher Power] remove our defects of character. This means being totally open to a new way of life and a new kind of self. In these unsettled times, her honesty about confronting and releasing fear and anger can help.
Tue, May 05, 2020
You Can't Always Be Disney Dad, Particularly When Distancing
Many parents are supporting their children around the clock these days, while also trying to work. We're managing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a time of stress; accounting for our children's emotions as well can seem impossible. Whether you've got kids at home or not, there's help. In his book Sober Dad: The Manual for Perfectly Imperfect Parenting , Michael Graubart reminds us that, even though we will be imperfect and make amends as needed, we will be there for the ones we love.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Working Step 10: Paying Attention to Our Emotions
Whether we've been working the Twelve Steps for a while, or are new to them, we're experiencing a time like no other during this global pandemic. We're finding new ways to maintain our recovery, so we don't destroy all that we've worked so hard to build. We don't have to do it alone. The Big Book provides us with specific directions for working Step Ten, as well as some clear promises and warnings. Fred H. offers wisdom about emotions and Step 10 in his book Drop the Rock—The Ripple Effect .
Tue, May 05, 2020
Finding the Light: Choosing Mindfulness Instead of Checking Out
Many of us are used to numbing our feelings and checking out, by way of substance use or other process addictions. Feeling our emotions can be new and scary. As we face daily news about a global pandemic, escaping from painful emotions like fear and anger is an enticing option. How do we withstand it? Mindfulness practice helps ground us in the present moment. In Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , Beverly Conyers describes the life-saving benefits of mindfulness.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Welcome to the Club: Grief and Recovery During a Pandemic
This is a time of change for all of us. Maybe you are experiencing the change from in-person support meetings to virtual connections, job loss, or even the death or illness of a loved one. Some changes are bigger than others, but all major changes require us to grieve what was lost. In her book The Grief Club: The Secret to Getting Through All Kinds of Change , renowned author Melody Beattie explores the comfort and compassion that comes from knowing that others have walked the roads we're on.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Active Listening: Caring for Others While Caring for Ourselves
During the coronavirus pandemic, many of us are providing care for others, both professionally as well as personally—all while maintaining our own health. Much of the art of caregiving is about paying close attention to a wide range of cues. The skill of active listening can help. We can't offer a hug right now, but we can offer an ear...and a heart. Your recovery will be better for it. We offer some tips from Take Good Care: Finding Your Joy in Compassionate Caregiving by Cynthia Orange.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Identifying Emotions: When Life Turns a Grandparent into a Parent
For people with substance use disorders, the current global health crisis can make conditions worse. Substance use might be heavier, and seeking help can seem even more difficult. If adults with children are struggling, grandparents may be called upon to care for their grandchildren. It might be for a little while, the duration of the pandemic, or longer. The Grandfamily Guidebook: Wisdom and Support for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren , by Andrew Adesman and Christine Ademec, can help.
Tue, May 05, 2020
Shame Resilience 101
For many, shame can be paralyzing, and moments of extreme stress or crisis can bring shame rushing to the surface. We need to remember that it's unrealistic to expect ourselves to be perfect, even in the best circumstance. In this time of collective crisis, revisit the basics of shame: what it is, why it hurts, and what to do about it. For help, we turn to shame expert Brené Brown, and her book The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are .
Wed, April 29, 2020
Five Mindful Ways to Tame Your Anxiety in Stressful Times
For many experiencing this global crisis in countless local and personal ways, it can start to seem like everything is spinning out of control. Anxiety and uncertainty about the future have created a sense of deep unease. The practice of mindfulness can help change our perspective and provide much-needed peace of mind. Beverly Conyers, author of Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything , offers five mindful ways to tame your anxiety and nurture your overall well-being.
loading...