Today is supremely painful. My soul hurts. One of those days when nothing seems right; or if it does, not for very long. My regular pattern is off.Dreams lingered without message; the beginning of the day felt awkward. My yoga practice was OK- but did not transport me as it so often can. The discipline…
I was talking to a woman the other day about being active in our recovery program, doing “the footwork”; reading, working the steps, going to meetings, meeting with others, finding ways to be of service in the program and so on. We were sharing the things we do to keep our practice of the program…
I remember when I got my GPS unit. It has taken some of the fear out of going to new places. I enter my destination and in a firm voice it advises me. I like it.However, my GPS takes time to load it’s information! I plug it in and it takes time to crank and…
What do chicken pox, candy and compromise have to do with drinking? EVERYTHING in Carolyn Hannan Bell, M.S. , L.P.C. ‘s new books: “Mommy’s Disease” and “Daddy’s Disease”. In the late 1970’s I knew I had a “problem” with alcohol and drugs. I was alternately trying to control my intake and just giving in and…
No post this week– but a link to an article of mine that was just published by the OMExchange.I am passionate about how yoga can be of great help in preventing relapse; and that we need as many tools as possible to avoid this frequent visitor to our disease. Catching the relapse [back]slide when it…
“One Day At a Time” used to be the way I got through the week, hand over hand, from one drunken stupor to hangover to the next. I would cry in the shower, twisting the true intention of the phrase to fit my need for inebriation. “Just let me get away with using for one…
I love language. I love words and their use. Sometimes my brain, however, takes the written word and weaves new application; both reading and misreading a phrase. I recently enjoyed a mystery: “Still Life” by Louise Penny. In this book takes place in a small village in Canada. In it she used a phrase, “Tiffany tunnel”,…
It was probably something someone said.. or it was my own thoughts bouncing around – but I started thinking about my desire to control (people, places, things, outcomes – you name it.) I usually talk myself away from that cliff; I have been “in the rooms” for a while now and I know that down…
Ok -I admit it. I have feelings of vanity. I struggle with letting go of the image of my physical self. I say this not to get the response of “you have nothing to worry about”, “you look GREAT for your age” or any other response of re-assurance. I say this as an observation: something…
Yes – you read that right. One week after teaching a yoga class at Elmwood Correctional Facility I hear “M” advise other women in the class to “Just f*&@%ing breathe!” There had been a frustrating situation going on in the jail. A change in snack offerings had caused the women to become upset and a…