Mindfulness

In this week's vlog, I will be discussing mindfulness. Throughout my life, I never wanted to meditate and thought it was a waste of time. I also had a major misconception about it. I thought that it meant that I wouldn't have any thoughts if I were meditating perfectly!

In this week’s vlog, I will be discussing mindfulness. Throughout my life, I never wanted to meditate and thought it was a waste of time.  I also had a major misconception about it. I thought that it meant that I wouldn’t have any thoughts if I were meditating perfectly! However, that is not the case. Mindfulness and meditation allows you to really stop and understand your thoughts.

“Stop. Breathe. Be.” This is a tool that I learned during a mindfulness course I recently completed that helps me in so many ways. The most important is that it has given me the ability to sit in the moments. I can do it anytime and anywhere. For example: when I’m playing golf – before I swing – I take a deep breath and let it out. This action gives me a chance to be right there in the moment and not at my next swing. This has also helped me tremendously with sobriety and other areas of my life.

So, here is my advice: please take some time to just breathe and be! It makes life a lot more enjoyable. I promise!

#sobernotashamed

#busylivingsobe

My Journey From Addiction to Recovery: Part 3 – Today

My Journey From Addiction to Recovery: Part 3 - Today Prior to getting sober, I always thought one's successes or failures were measured in material items. I am happy to report that I was completely and utterly wrong! Material items do nothing when it comes to self worth.

Prior to getting sober, I always thought one’s successes or failures were measured in material items. I am happy to report that I was completely and utterly wrong! Material items do nothing when it comes to self worth. Yes, it feels good to wear something nice and live in a nice house, but it won’t make you happy!

Happiness, serenity, joy, and peace of mind are all internal, spiritual jobs that take time and energy to achieve. They are a daily job, something that needs to be nourished and cared for all of the time.

I can say this for sure, prior to getting sober; I hated looking in the mirror. Today, I don’t hate what is looking back at me. In fact, I love myself! That is something that I never thought would happen!

To hear more about my journey from addiction to recovery, please check out my vlog!

#busylivingsober

#sobernotashame 

My Journey From Addiction to Recovery: Part 2 "The Aha Moment"

I am back to continue with my story, last week I spoke about how much I loved drinking that was until it was too much my self worth finally trumped the shame I needed help!

This week, I am back to continue sharing my journey from addiction to recovery. Last week, I spoke about my addiction to alcohol and now I am sharing what it took to make me see that I needed help.

I wish I could say the night when I had my last drink was horrible. That night I didn’t have metal around my wrists while seeing lights and hearing sirens around me. I was completely alone!

On that fateful day – almost 10 years ago now – I had started drinking in the afternoon around 4pm. I was drinking an entire bottle of wine by myself and just kept on drinking. That next morning, I woke up and said I was done – for real this time! I couldn’t drink anymore!

That was it.

Check out the vlog above for more of my story and stay tuned for part 3 of my journey on how my life is today busy living sober!

My Journey From Addiction to Recovery

Published on Jul 21, 2016 In this week's vlog, I am going to talk a little bit about me and my journey from addiction to recovery. In this week's installment, I will talk about when my addiction to alcohol began. My life of drinking was fun - I loved it!

In this week’s vlog, I am going to talk a little bit about me and my journey from addiction to recovery. In this week’s installment, I will talk about when my addiction to alcohol began.

My life of drinking was fun – I loved it! I was always the life of the party! However, I was also carrying a big secret. I didn't like myself. Life had too many uncertainties and was overwhelming! My home life wasn't what life looked like on TV and I wasn't in love like people were portrayed on my favorite shows. I also had a lot of fear! So, I drank a lot- to the point of blacking out – to deal with all of the things that I didn’t like, which was very scary!

I knew my way of drinking and coping wasn't normal, but being an alcoholic was not an option. Being an alcoholic was like having leprosy – anything would be better than being an alcoholic. My huge fear was that I was an ALCOHOLIC! Oh my gosh the shame!!!!

Stay tuned for next week to find out what happened to make me realize my addiction and how it was affecting me.

Choices

Mission: To bring addiction out of the shadows and educate society that addiction is a disease, not who you are.

We all make choices in life. Some choices are easy, like where to go to dinner or where you may shop. Other choices like where you should go to college, who should date, or if you think you have a problem or not with drugs and alcohol are a lot harder decisions to make.

My daughter decided back in April which college she wanted to attend. Her choice was not made lightly.  We revisited her number one and number two schools. She sat in on classes, spoke to students at both institutions, and after much deliberation she decided on her school! She was thrilled and sure of her decision! After a couple of months and hearing where her friends were going she started to second-guess herself.

We all do this! We all make choices and then doubt our decision.  No one knows if the choices we make are good. It takes time! It is a process.

For me, the biggest choice I made was deciding to stop drinking. It was a hard choice! It was going to change everything! Who I would be spending time with, where would I be comfortable going? It was a huge choice. Little did I know that stopping drinking would open my life to so much potential! I love life! No more regret or remorse for yesterday! Life is good! I am busy living today! 

Breathing

Breathing This week's vlog topic is about breathing. After taking a mindfulness course, I realized how important it is to breathe. It is no secret that as humans, we must breathe to stay alive. But, when we really take time to take a deep breath, we give ourselves the ability to clear our heads and our thinking.

This week’s vlog topic is about breathing. After taking a mindfulness course, I realized how important it is to breathe. It is no secret that as humans, we must breathe to stay alive. But, when we really take time to take a deep breath, we give ourselves the ability to clear our heads and our thinking. By concentrating on our breath, we can inhale and feel the air coming into our nose and our tummy expanding. When we exhale, we feel our tummies flatten.

Everyone has negative and positive thoughts in their head at all times. However, as a recovering alcoholic, instead of immediately reacting to those thoughts, I take them in and try to stay mindful. I want to let them float by! Due to my addiction, I tend to focus on the negative thoughts rather than the positive ones. Addiction has a horrible stigma, and that is my reason for starting Busy Living Sober. Fortunately, that stigma along with my negative thoughts is disappearing with the help of breathing.

Try breathing and let me know how it worked for you!

#sobernotashame