SOBRIETY ROCKS!!

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare Today is a very big day. Today I mark 1 full calendar year of being alcohol free. I have been preparing for writing a blog post for this day to share how I got here. I’ve reviewed all of my blog posts to date, looked back through my journal entries and my FB account.…

As long as I can remember, tulips have been my favorite flower. When I started drawing again, just recently, a single tulip was one I practiced and I was very disappointed in how it turned out. It started me thinking about the tulip and why I am so attracted to it. After all, tulips are…

I am not going to start this post by apologizing for my blog post yesterday, “punching bag”. I was in a very dark place and needed to express myself the best way I knew how. I haven’t been that far down in the hole in a long time. It’s frightening to me to think how…

Yesterday, January 3rd, I celebrated 11 months of being alcohol free. A day I never thought I’d reach, one month closer to celebrating a full year of sobriety, one I’d hoped to write an upbeat post or brag about my success, only to be yet, once again, reeling with loss and utter despair. Our pup,…

There is a well known tale about an elderly Cherokee who is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me”, he said to his grandson. “It’s a terrible fight and it’s between two wolves. One is evil. He is anger, envy, regret, greed, self pity, guilt and ego.” He continued, “the…

Since starting my blog several months ago, I’ve had a lot of people tell me I should write a book. My meditation practice this morning was about taking risks or stepping out of our comfort zones. When I contemplated this idea, I realized how much my very first step in becoming alcohol free was the…

I started a new series in my mindfulness app on self-awareness. The very first topic was “self trust”. At the beginning of my alcohol free journey I had a couple “a-ha” moments. Those moments where it was very clear to me why I made some of the choices I have made throughout my life. Those…

Anyone who’s had dogs knows that two of the most basic and vital commands is to teach sit and stay. After listening to one of my mindfulness practices this morning, I realized how those two commands can also be so helpful to tell ourselves. The narrator described sitting with our emotions, allowing this time to…

Today’s lesson in my mindfulness practice was learning how to ride the waves of change. I was offline the past 3 days while camping and just now getting back into the rhythm of my daily routine and had a zoom call with some of the members of our sobriety team from TNM yesterday afternoon. The…

How many of you remember the Reader’s Digest magazines? I loved those books and remember my parents had a subscription when I was a kid. My favorite section of the book was “laughter is the best medicine”. In The Upside of Stress, a book I read a while back, one of the challenges was to…