Tag: 12-steps

April 5, 2022

Looking Forward to Today…

Posted by Bill Anuszewski in Treatment
Looking Forward to Today

In our disease, it can seem almost impossible to look forward to the day ahead. Today is just another grind to appease our domineering addiction – just a struggle to survive, to get the next drink or drug. The past is a blur of pain and regret. Tomorrow is a source of worry and fear and more struggle. There is little hope in our future when we are drowning in alcoholism and addiction. In fact, the only hope there might be is that someday we will get clean and sober. That hope is real, and it’s our best bet. It is vital that we hold on to the hope of sobriety. If you’re reading this, then that day is here – or it has already come, or it will soon. Hope and perspective are just a few of the great gifts of entering recovery. We are given hope, which is…

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July 23, 2021

Taking Our Wellness Seriously

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Mental Health, Recovery
wellness

In early recovery, we are introduced to many new modes of living that we never knew before. It’s easy to see how things involving our general health and wellness went by the wayside when we were living in active alcoholism and addiction. Now, in recovery, we have the time, energy, and opportunity to pay attention to any areas of our life that went neglected in our disease. Now, in recovery, we can finally take our wellness seriously. This is not only a new opportunity for us, but it is also a responsibility. A glass can only spill what it contains. If we do not take care of ourselves, we will be unable to properly help anyone else — and helping others is not only one of the main purposes of recovery, it’s also the most surefire way to protect and maintain our recovery. Being of service to others is not…

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July 5, 2021

I Have No Faith. Can I Still Work the Twelve Steps and Recover?

Posted by Jaywalker Lodge Staff in Recovery
faith

The matter of faith is a big question — a huge question, in fact. It touches people from every walk of life, whether they are alcoholics or addicts or not. And people have been wrestling with the issue of faith since the dawn of man. That’s a long time. Whether we have great faith or no faith, personal beliefs and inner faith are things that every person has a position on. Some believe that faith is all that matters, while others believe it doesn’t matter at all. These disparate positions can cause a lot of trouble, and that’s not an arena for us to step into. What we can weigh in on is faith in recovery. But we aren’t going to tell you what to believe — that’s not our place. What is our place is to help people understand how our personal position on faith plays into our recovery….

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June 28, 2021

Have Patience With Yourself

Posted by Administrator in Mental Health, Recovery
patience

It’s a safe bet that you have a lot going on right now. We all have busy lives that are always changing, especially in recovery. There is always some 12 Step work to do, a meeting to attend, or somebody we can help! Particularly for those who are new to recovery, it may seem like things are changing all the time or there’s almost too much going on. But just as often, even with all the changes in our lives, we can’t stop ourselves from thinking about all the stuff that we wish we could change. As if there wasn’t enough happening already! Those of us in early recovery fall into this trap a lot, but anyone in recovery at any point can get caught up in rushing after a whole bunch of changes that we want to make. We see the things that we wish were different and we…

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June 23, 2021

Dealing With Frustration

Posted by Administrator in Alumni, Mental Health
frustration

Recovery is obviously a true blessing in our lives. For alcoholics and addicts, recovery is among the greatest gifts we could ever receive. Working the Twelve Steps changes nearly every part of our lives, and it often changes us in ways that make us much happier and more peaceful. However, life is still life, even in recovery. Not every day is sunshine and rainbows, though admittedly the sun shines a lot brighter and more often in recovery. But we will still face troubling times on occasion, and we will still have to deal with negative emotions. Luckily, recovery offers us many helpful ways to weather such storms of life. Life does not stop being life in recovery. It is still subject to ups and downs, hard times and good times, tragedy and euphoria. What recovery does is help us navigate the inevitabilities of life with peace, calm, and clear direction….

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June 22, 2021

Personal Touches in Recovery Treatment

Posted by Administrator in Recovery, Support
individualized therapy

Recovery treatment has quite a few blanket elements that are applied to everyone, mainly because they work for almost everyone. Alcoholics and addicts are always served by abstinence and sobriety. Also, both individual and group therapy tend to be remarkably helpful in recovery treatment. Eating right and being physically active never did anyone any harm. And then there is the biggest and most effective universal solution: the 12-Step program of recovery. This course of action works for anyone who is willing to do the work. The Twelve Steps, combined with meetings and being of service, is the solution that really works for so many of us. These are big, one-size-fits-all applications of recovery treatment methods. But each of them also has a deeply personal element that sometimes gets overlooked. For truly effective recovery treatment, we can’t forget the personal touches needed with each method. Addiction recovery treatment has so many…

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June 16, 2021

The Importance of Giving Back in Recovery Treatment

Posted by Administrator in Insights, Support
giving back

From a purely medical standpoint, altruism does not seem like an appropriate treatment for alcoholism and addiction. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the 12-Step program has an intense focus on altruism and just so happens to be among the most effective, successful, and versatile treatment methods for alcoholism and addiction ever devised. Adding altruism to recovery treatment increases the chances that one can get and stay recovered, as proven by the success of those who work the 12-Step program. Of course, altruism alone is not enough. The specific brand of altruism taught in the 12-Step program must be engaged with while continuing to work the entirety of the recovery program. Medical treatments, therapy, and psychiatry along with physical, mental, and emotional health are still important factors, too. Being that alcoholism and addiction is a disease of a three-fold nature — 1) the physical allergy, 2)…

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June 12, 2021

The Gift of Responsibility

Posted by Administrator in Insights, Support
responsibility

Responsibility is often overlooked when it comes to treating alcoholism and addiction. Jaywalker Lodge understands that freedom is proportional to the responsibility we accept for our lives. And freedom is what recovery is all about — freedom from alcoholism and addiction, freedom from our grosser handicaps, and freedom to live a life of happiness, joy, and purpose. Freedom is everything in recovery, but freedom only grows if the responsibility we’re willing to shoulder grows. Far too often, the very concept of responsibility has a hard time sticking in our world. Not only is responsibility often disdained by alcoholics and addicts like us, but most of the people in our lives (sometimes including those who wish to help us) are unwilling to trust us with responsibility. We have to admit this is fair, given that in our disease we are very seldom responsible for much else besides pain and destruction. Through…

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June 10, 2021

Yesterday’s Home Runs Don’t Count in Today’s Game

Posted by Administrator in Alumni, Recovery
resting on your laurels

Anybody who has spent time in recovery or read the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous enough has heard the phrase “resting on our laurels.” This is an old saying based on Greek and Roman culture, where winners of competitions were granted crowns of laurel leaves (laurels). Resting on our laurels is when we are too easy on ourselves, counting on our past successes to carry us through the present and the future. A modern version of this saying is “Yesterday’s home runs don’t count in today’s game.” The meaning is the same — our past successes are wonderful, but they aren’t enough to live fully in the present or keep fear of the future at bay. In recovery, sayings like this take on a slightly new meaning. What they come to mean in the rooms of recovery would be something like “The work you did for your recovery yesterday won’t…

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June 3, 2021

Will I Always Inventory About the Same Things?

Posted by Administrator in Recovery, Support
personal inventory

Hopefully, if you’ve been in recovery for even a little bit of time, you’ve gotten busy with the 12 Steps. If this is the case, you’ve likely encountered the 4th Step and the 10th Step. These are commonly referred to as the personal “inventory” steps. Even if we’re new to the 12-Step program, we’ve probably heard a lot about the inventory steps — including a lot of mixed reviews. Some people dread inventory, while others swear by it. We can only assume that if it’s part of the 12 Steps, it isn’t optional if we want to recover and live a happy life. Nor could it possibly be something to fear or dread, or even remotely harmful, because the 12 Steps are designed to help us find freedom and recovery. What seems to be the biggest reason that personal inventory gets a bad rap is that sometimes things can get…

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