Sober Soul Recovery

When facing difficulties and stressful situations, it can be tempting to turn to drugs or alcohol to cope. Even if you don’t intend to use substances as a coping mechanism, it can happen without you realizing it. If left unchecked, coping by way of substances can turn into a full-blown addiction.

So many of us long to be part of something real. But we’ll need to risk discomfort and criticism and show the world our real selves first, says vulnerability researcher Brené Brown.  

Everyone is likely to experience a traumatic event in their life, it is almost unavoidable. Everyone’s experience of traumatic events will be different. How people are affected, cope and recover vary greatly. Enter Emotional Resiliency, a key ingredient as to why some people seem to sail through stress without a care in the world. Learn how to measure, acquire and build your emotional resilience.

Having trouble setting limits? You try and try, but your boundaries are often ignored? It’s frustrating, to say the least, but it’s not always the other person’s fault. Here’s why and what to do.

We are what we think, and the way we think determines how we experience life and where we go with it. Therefore, if we want to change our lives, we need to change our thinking first. What kind of thinking are you better at? Are you a good decision maker? A problem-solver? A planner? A visionary? Are you a person who makes a lot of sense, or a person who says “I don’t know” a lot? One useful way to answer these questions is to start by describing why we think, and what purpose it serves for us. If we examine the reasons behind the thinking process, we can better understand how thinking can be helpful in our lives.

You, yourself, as much as anyone else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. – Buddha Self-blame is one of the most toxic forms of emotional abuse. It amplifies our perceived inadequacies, whether real or imagined and paralyzes us before we can even begin to move forward. Get some skills for coping with this for addiction and recovery.

So many topics, so little time!  Recovery, beyond the 12 Steps, reducing stigma & shame, and "Breaking Free" (their new podcast) from anything that no longer serves us!

Recovery is a process of change through which people improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential.    According to SAMHSAthere are four major dimensions that support recovery:   Health—overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) or symptoms and making informed, healthy choices that support physical and emotional well-being. Home—having a stable and safe place to live. Purpose—conducting meaningful daily activities and having the independence, income, and resources to participate in society. Community—having relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love, and hope.

Stress and its negative effects on the mind and body have been the subject of many books, articles, and blog posts. A Google search turns up well over half a billion entries on the topic. All seem to agree that stress must be reduced for any hope of health and happiness. Not surprisingly, a cottage industry of stress-reduction techniques, devices, and other products has emerged.   The most popular suggestions for reducing stress involve various forms of relaxation and meditation. These help some of the people some of the time but not for very long. Even when you can take time out from stressful encounters to relax or meditate, you’ve done little to mitigate the invisible undercurrent of stress.

The belief that we stay strong by ignoring our difficult emotions is false. Thinking that we must ignore how we really feel in order to make a living, be productive, get off the couch, or just plain take care of ourselves, leaves us in a state of constant fear. Every life contains happy feelings and sad ones too; such is the human condition. If we are afraid of our sadness and don’t believe we can manage or live a life with it, then our life contains a constant presence that is a threat to our basic wellbeing. As a result, we are in a state of perpetual weakness.

Self-reflection can be defined as the capacity to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about one’s fundamental nature and purpose. It is usual to use the term introspection interchangeably with the term self-reflection because they mean more or less the same thing. Self-reflection is the opposite of external observation which refers to the process of the individual looking outside of themselves to the physical world.

Why don’t we take action to help ourselves?    I’m a trained psychotherapist, mental wellness coach, writer, and mentor.  In my work with professionals and through my writing, I hear from far too many women and men who share that they’ve put off getting help for mental wellness for months, years, even for a most of a lifetime. Deep down, they know they need help, and they know they’re miserable and can’t fix the situation by themselves, yet they so often do nothing to help themselves.

What needs to happen for individuals to achieve and sustain recovery? How is sustained recovery maintained? What degree of improvement in which areas of one's life are required for the individual to have something he or she does not want to lose to active substance use? We need to explore these questions and others to examine and improve our understanding of recovery and work to effectively promote it.

Using substances to self-medicate can lead to symptoms of mental illness. For example, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America says that alcohol and other substances can worsen anxiety symptoms.   Self-medication can have a negative impact on mental health and does very little to treat the underlying condition. Recognizing forms of self-medication can help you understand how substance abuse may be related to depression and other mental health conditions.

Lynn discusses the importance of understanding your beliefs about relaxation and how to be compassionate in your search for mental wellbeing.  “Some women and men aren’t actively looking for emotional and spiritual healing, but when the guidance to do the work actually becomes available to them, they choose it,” wrote Casarjian in her book. “We can’t choose what we don’t yet know exists,” of Healing: A Prisoner's Guide to Inner Power and Freedom by Robin Casarjian

Holidays are occasions for fun and celebration, and alcohol plays a big role in the festivities. But a combination of good cheer and abundant alcohol can take the fun too far, and the long weekends of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the Fourth of July can lead to some very bad decisions or...

Automatic thoughts are images, words, or other kinds of mental activity that pop into your head in response to a trigger. These thoughts can seem mundane or unimportant, but they can, in fact, be extremely impactful. The types of automatic thoughts a person has can affect their health outcomes as well as their overall quality of life. In this episode, I will cover what automatic thinking is and how it affects people’s lives, what automatic thoughts look like, and some cool tool for breaking the cycle of negativity.

What does it mean to be meaningfully mentally well? Mental health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It encompasses the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to regulate your feelings and cope with difficulties. Strong mental wellness isn’t just the absence of problems. Being mentally or emotionally healthy is so much more than being free of depression, anxiety, or other psychological issues. 

A physical or emotional addiction/dependence are actually the same thing.  They are changes in the structure of our brains which is our physical body.  These brain changes make emotional and behavioral regulation difficult and have a great impact on how we behave. 

Trust is defined as a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.   Trust can help bring us closer to other people. Trusting others, such as family members and friends, can reassure us that we’ll be helped when we need it. It’s the foundation of any healthy relationship — including the relationship you have with yourself.   Trusting yourself can build up your confidence, make it easier for you to make decisions, and reduce your stress levels. And the good news is that even if you don’t trust yourself now, with some effort you can build up that trust over time.