The Recovery Guy Podcast

Episode #88 - Friday The Checkup: New Thinking Supports New living

As part of the Mindful and cognitive approach to recovery support, balancing and aligning thought supportive actions is critical.

“You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.” Is a quote by Bill W. Bill was the co-founder of AA?

I agree with this statement. Most of us coming to recovery did so with an emotional response to the negative consequences of the addiction or behavior.

Once we begin the road of recovery and the emotion subsides it must be replaced with a new way of thinking. This is where the mindful/cognitive guidance comes into play.

Per quora.com

Cognition is the process by which one acquires knowledge through their experience, thought and sensory input. When a person uses this cognition to integrate various inputs to create an understanding, it's called cognitive thinking.

Also from Quora. Com Cognitive skills are used to comprehend, process, remember and apply incoming information. Every individual has his/her own method of cognition and thereby assimilate information differently. This cognition includes, but not limited to Perception, Memory, Attention, Reasoning, Emotion and Action. Focusing on these areas will lead us to a balanced and productive life.

Episode #87 - Tuesday The Fix: Control The Controllable

The goal is to stop the uncontrollable from controlling. Sometimes the best was to respond to the uncontrollable is to make the necessary changes that make those aspects irrelevant in our life. We can diffuse/neutralize or remove them or we can leave them. In the past, we lived a life that was defined by the controllable things we did not attend to and the people and places we engaged in that would always be uncontrollable. Once we enter into recovery and realize there is another way to live we take an inventory of what should and should not be in our life. Once we define that then we can eliminate the things we can’t control and control the things that belong. It is a required process to living an aligned life.

Episode #86 - Friday The Checkup: The Mindful Path To Addiction Recovery

We all need a path that promotes wellness and a new way of living. I can’t expect to elevate my life without elevating the path I have been walking. Part of my disappointment and disillusion came from expecting one thing while engaging in thinking that was opposed to achieving it. Mindfulness is a break from the old way and into the new.

Mindfulness is a technique in which one focuses one's full attention only on the present, experiencing thoughts, feelings, and sensations but not judging them:

Psychology: The practice of mindfulness can reduce stress and physical pain. Dictionary.com

How does mindfulness affect the brain? - Bupa UK www.bupa.co.uk

The most current Research shows that after regularly practicing mindfulness, the grey matter in your brain's amygdala – a region known for its role in stress – can become smaller. This is the area where Mindfulness and creativity live. The pre-frontal cortex is the area of your brain responsible for things like

• planning
• problem solving
• controlling your emotions
• Reduces stress

Episode #85 - Tuesday The Fix: Finding Your Way

Finding Your Way explores a particular joy that comes when we find out who we are. For those of us who find our way we realize we aren’t what we did. We did what we did because of who we thought we were. We lost our way. Now, we come into recovery and we are introduced to a path and others who have made the journey we hope to make and are still on the journey themselves. One day, I looked in the emotional mirror of self-reflection, I stated Oh, there you are Robert”. How about you? Have you discovered who you are? How has it been for you “Finding Your Way”

Episode #84 - Friday The Checkup: Practice Positive Affirmations

We need to change our thought process and start telling ourselves we can do or be whatever we want. Affirmations is a great way to change that thought process and get ourselves a new belief system that is of great benefit to us - that will make us reach our goals and get what we want. We can write down affirmations on a piece of paper and say them out load to ourselves every night before we go to sleep.

• I am strong
• I am smart
• I am confident
• I am successful
• I am rich
• I am a good person
• I can achieve anything I want
• I am helpful
• I am resourceful

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Episode #83 - Tuesday The Fix: Healthy Relating leads to Healthy Relationships

In order to give freely we must first take down the walls of personal secrecy and begin to share who we are and not judge what we learn about others. As a word of caution, let me say with some things we may need to be careful to whom and what we disclose, but for the most part we should feel free to “share our experience, strength and hope with each other”.

If a mechanic is going to fix my car they need to know a little history of my driving. If my doctor is going to prescribe the right medication, he/she will need to know my symptoms. The same is true with recovery. “We are only as sick as our secrets”.

Relate and relationship

Relate is to bring into or establish association, connection, relationship is an emotional or other connection between people:

• We first begin to relating to who we are and what we hope to become
• We make a commitment to a plan of recovery that mandates I look at me objectively/fairly
• When we take a positive active interest in others we encourage them to share things about themselves.
• We and they can come to a greater understanding that there are more similarities in us than differences between us.
• We are then practicing the First Tradition of Recovery. “Our common welfare should come first. Personal recovery depends upon AA/NA unity”.
• We teach and learn as a method of celebrating the new relational me

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Episode #231 Tuesday the Fix; Learning to Fly

When we first come into recovery we are infants who can barely roll over let alone crawl, stand, or walk. As we move forward in our recovery process and opportunity, we begin to grow a pair of wings which we will use as we learn how to fly. Some will grow a pair of wings and never use them. Others may limit themselves in their flight and or flying experience based on their fear or restrictions that others place on their flying. Learning to fly is about overcoming the perceived laws of aerodynamics and exploring new heights in our recovery. If you have not learned how to fly, I invite you to do so. Please let me know what I can do in this area. I wish you well and a happy soaring.

Episode #231 Tuesday the Fix; Learning to Fly

When we first come into recovery we are as infants who can barely roll over let alone crawl, stand, or walk. As we move forward in our recovery process and opportunity, we begin to grow a pair of wings which we will use as we learn how to fly. Some will grow a pair of wings and never use them. Others may limit themselves in their flight and or flying experience based on their personal fear or restrictions that others place on their flying. Learning to fly is about overcoming the perceived laws of aerodynamics and exploring new heights in our personal recovery. If you have not learned how to fly, I invite you to do so. Please let me know what I can do in this area. I wish you well and happy soaring.

Episode #82 - Friday The Checkup: 7 Lovely Logics

Today’s podcast is called 7 Lovely Logics. These logics are common sense approaches to living a life that makes sense. When we practice these logics we can’t help but be the better version of ourselves. We will ultimately lead more healthy lives and have a greater positive impact on those around us. Below are the recommended steps that we can incorporate into our daily lives.

Here are the 7 Lovely Logics

1)     Make peace with your past so it doesn’t spoil your future

2)     What others think of you is none of your business

3)     Time heals almost everything. Give the time, some time

4)     No one is the reason for your happiness, except yourself

5)     Don’t compare your life with others. You have no idea what their journey is about

6)     Stop thinking too much. It’s alright not to know all the answers

7)     Smile, you don’t own all the problems in the world

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Episode #81 - Tuesday The Fix: The 4 L’s

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The 4 L’s represent the Four Human Dimensions. Those 4 dimensions are the physical, emotional, mental and the highest dimension, the spiritual. These four dimensions produce four actions that are derived from them. They are to Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VlFZ-_ik8Y

In a quote by Dr. Covey he states:

“There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase; to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.

· The need to live is our physical need for such things as food, clothing, shelter, economic well-being, health.

· The need to love is our social need to relate to other people, to belong, to love and be loved.

· The need to learn is our mental need to develop and grow.

· The need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution.”

Living is foundational to all we have and are. Quite literally, if we aren’t living, then none of the other dimensions would matter. I remember not wanting to die, but living was so painful.

Loving is next because it is our emotional response to all that is around us. So many of us drank, used and engaged in various negative behaviors because we were so out of balance emotionally.

Learning comes after because I need to seek an intellectual reason or understanding of what is going on around and to explore a personal interest.

Leaving a legacy is the highest of all the dimensions because of is the essence of the spiritual realm. The legacy starts where the physical leaves off.

Where do these four play in your recovered life?