Your Definitive Guide To a Happy Sober Holiday Season - Tools And Tips Welcome to the Tools and Techniques Entry. So far, you’ve reviewed your current status of recovery in general, and you’ve assessed your upcoming holiday specifically. Today we’ll build a list of tools and techniques that can help you curate a holiday season that you enjoy free of...[ read more ]
Your Definitive Guide to a Happy, Sober Holiday Season - People, Places, and Traditions “The Holidays” Those 2 words create feelings, emotions, and begin a series of automatic responses in people. For some, “the Holidays” creates feelings of fun, festive, family celebration. They remember and anticipate laughter, Aunt Jen’s sugar cookies, Dad’s turkey, and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade...[ read more ]
7 Reasons You Should Start a Gratitude Practice Today November is known in the Recovery Community as “Gratitude Month.” Go to a 12-Step Meeting in the month of November, and the selected topic is even more likely to be “gratitude.” (In case you are not aware, gratitude is a common meeting topic the other 11 months, too.) Meeting attendees are...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Contemplative Movement This is the next in my series “The Science of Woo: How the practices of spiritual disciplines, positive psychology, and other “out there” ideas are backed by science.” You can read earlier posts in the series below: I covered forgiveness. Here you can read about the science of gratitude. And you can LMAO yourself...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Service and Volunteerism The Greek philosopher Aristotle summarized that the essence of life is “To serve others and do good.” It’s Memorial Day in the United States, and I thought that would be a good day to publish the next in my series “The Science of Woo: Service and Volunteerism. You can find the beginning of...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Laughter Before I went to sleep last night, I laughed so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks. When I woke up this morning, my sides hurt. The same thing happened yesterday. This is a special and delightful weekend for the Recovery Therapist. My daughter graduated from college yesterday. That is, of course, one of my...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Forgiveness Today – Easter – is a perfect day to feature Forgiveness in my series on the topic of “The Science of Woo.” There are ideas that transcend one religion and are found in all religions, and the idea of Forgiveness is one of those ideas. I am never surprised when those ideas are found by...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: How the practices of spiritual disciplines, positive psychology, and other “out there” ideas are backed by science I am introducing my series on “The Science of Woo: How the practices of spiritual disciplines, positive psychology, and other “out there” ideas are backed by science.” One of the struggles I have as a treatment provider to persons...[ read more ]
“Your resentment trains you to see evidence of your rightness.” Briana and Dr. Peter Borten (The Dragontree) The above quote was part of my meditation material this morning. In 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) identified resentment as a significant issue for persons with a substance use problem, and science has since produced significant research supporting the need for healthy habits...[ read more ]
Triggers: The Science Did you know?: The Recovery Therapist is in long term recovery For me that means that I have been clean and sober for 27 years. (33 as of the re-write) I want to share a scenario from 27 years ago. I had long since left the pattern of drinking in bars. I gave up recreational drugs and...[ read more ]
