When I was 16, I was 5’8 and 115 pounds. I was able to run a five minute mile and had complete control over my eating habits. Fast forward 12 years later, I am 28-years-old and over 200 pounds and cannot even jog a block before getting winded, I don’t know where things exactly went
What do I mean by Recovery? Recovery is the process of being able to consistently abstain from a problematic substance or behavior, to correct control over behaviors that damage personal relationships, and to repair dysfunctional emotional responses. (Adapted from the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s definition of addiction.) In finding control over behaviors we also
Relapse and Triggers What is Relapse? Lapse describes a short “fall off the wagon,” and relapse describes a longer and perhaps more permanent “fall off the wagon.”. Hendershot et al. describe it this way: “a setback during the behavior changing process” (2011 www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-6-17/pdf) . If you re-engage with sugar or sex, codependent
What is the relationship between recovery, relapse and triggers? Addiction. What is “yoga” doing in the title? Yoga brings the keys to self-awareness that help maintain recovery, prevent relapse and release triggers in a healthy way. In order to fully appreciate the benefits of yoga, we have to delve deeper into recovery, relapse,
One byproduct of entering recovery is the multitude of gifts that sobriety can offer us. Some of the perks are more obvious than others, such as improved health, relationships, overall satisfaction and contentment. Although life steadily improves after active addiction, there is the stark reality of the state of the life you have just awoken
“Unhurt, unstruck, or unbeaten” – these are translations of the sanskrit word for the heart chakra. If only our hearts were so pure, so unscathed by life and time as to be called “anahata”. Unfortunately, at least for me, that has not been the case. All types of love: brotherly love, love of
Two crumpled receipts: 1 from Costco,1 from Ralph’s, 1 double-sided shopping list, 1 yellow post it note scribbled in blue ink: “Thanks for the loan PT,” 3 pellets of hard dog food & a tablespoonful of sand. This is what I found at the bottom my laundry basket, after I hoisted a heaping double
A time of reflection. A time to cast the mind forward and the glance backward. A time to reset my intentions and to consider where my intentions have fallen by the wayside. How have my actions missed the mark? I am good with the practical, with the mundane, even with the technical. But relationships…
With the ever increasing demands on us to function in our high pressure world, many of us find we live in a constant state of high alert and anxiety. I myself, spent over a decade in sustained high stress situations (probably longer than that if the truth be told) and having to deal with