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Find Recovery and Then Go Out and Bloom

10:32 am By 13 Comments

After recovery

 

It was May of 2010 when I started Treatment Talk.

I was looking for something interesting to do, a new endeavor, a new project.

I had a cause, and I wanted to write, and yet I did not know where this journey would take me.

As I’ve said on previous occasions, blogging has been exciting and rewarding. The people I’ve met have been incredible.

I feel as if I’ve only just begun…

When you find recovery, you are learning to let go of your bad habits. The question that often follows is, what’s next?

Besides face to face support, books and magazines, we have opportunities to find inspiring content online. The most inspiring write from the heart.

I want to introduce you to nineteen fellow bloggers, some of the very best. They support a healthy lifestyle, and encourage you to bloom and shine just like a new spring garden.

Recovery is the first step, but there is a next step, and that is to live your very best life, the one you were meant to live.

When you read these blogs, they are not necessarily about recovery. They are about living life.

These writers inspire you with their intuitive wisdom for successful and fearless living. They teach you how to collect smiles, get inspired, be happy, and change your life. You learn about the Law of Attraction, how to use simple steps for living today better than yesterday, and how to heal completely with positivity, love and happiness.

They teach you to make it happen for a better you and a better world. They write about how to stop worrying, how to let go to get closer and how to shake up your inner creativity. You learn to take small steps toward living your vision.

Come back to the place where receiving information intuitively was natural and open up to your full potential! ~ Angela Artemis, Powered by Intuition

Don’t allow fear to hold you back from the life that you deserve. Don’t allow fear to rob you of your happiness, passion, and purpose. ~ Tess Marshall, The Bold Life

When we look back on life, we want to be able to say that although it may have taken us awhile to get started, when all was said and done, we took advantage of all the possibilities we should have. We lived up to our potential. ~ Sibyl Chavis, The Possibility of Today

recovery and bloom

Commit with love and an open mind and you will discover how much of the “impossible” is actually possible. ~ Aileen Mahoney, Kaisen Vision and Evotive Marketing

Being happy and positive is not all that difficult …. We are already happy positive beings, we just need to understand how to focus on the positive instead of the negative everyday. ~ Zeenat Merchant-Syal, Positive Provocations

Sometimes the simple path to leaving our baggage on the ocean floor begins when we grow tired of the sneak attacks, the conflict it creates and the happiness it steals. ~ Alex Blackwell, The BridgeMaker

Happiness is an inside job. You must love yourself enough to choose it, to align with it, and even to share it. ~ Nea Joy Justice, Self Improvement Saga

Beyond recovery

“The Law of Attraction isn’t just about material stuff. It explains Who You Really Are, why you’re here and can help you find the happiness and joy you’ve always deserved.” ~ Melody Fletcher, Deliberate Receiving Blog

Shout from the gallows about how good you are and how good you are going to become.  ~ Arvind Devalia, Make It Happen

Reality becomes almost unimportant against the power we have to shape our experience of life as we perceive it. ~ Betsy Henry, The Zen Mama’s Blog

When forgiving becomes a part of who you are, you’ll feel like a huge weight has been taken off of your shoulders. ~ Fran Sorin, Awake Create

recover and bloomCan you see the blessing this moment offers you? Even though you don’t know the big picture, can you enjoy what life is dishing you right now? ~ Andrea DeBell, Brite Talk

What impact on myself, my significant others do I want to make in the next 10 years? ~ David Stevens, Personal Power 4 Me’s Blog

I believe that all of the answers that we will ever need to know have always been within us – in our soul.  ~ Jodi Chapman, Soul Speak

Your time here on earth is short.  Don’t carry burdens.  Have fun.  Do what makes your heart sing. ~ Paige Burkes, Simple Mindfulness

bloom in recovery

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball or we face unexpected changes.  Sometimes if we live in fear and fear the unknown, we miss out on the opportunities that lie undiscovered. ~ Victor Schueller

In order to change our life we must first change ourselves, change the ideas from which we think, the ideas that keep us firmly anchored in our present life. ~ Elle Sommer, Reflecting a Life

There are many blessings in disguise that aren’t always apparent to us, and many of these blessings are afforded to us simply for being alive! ~ Joe Wilner, Shake Off the Grind

The shrine of the ashram was at the top of the hill and once we got to the top, we had a breathtaking view of the city. My favorite city. My spiritual hometown. ~ Vidya Sury, Going A-Musing

What inspires you to stay in recovery and reach your full potential?

If you enjoyed this post please share it on twitter, FB & Google+. Thank you.

take care,

 

P.S.  “Exercise is often the going that moves us from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect.” ~ Julia Cameron

Quote from 101 Natural Highs for an Amazing Drug-Free Life  

Filed Under: Hope, Joy, Loving an Addict, recovery Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Parent Pathway: Helping Parents Get Answers

7:23 pm By 13 Comments

 

This is an interview with Kim Box of Parent Pathway.

Parent Pathway has recently released their documentary, Collision Course.

It was announced that Collision Course has been nominated for an Emmy Award!

The final selection will be on June 9th in San Francisco at the Northern California Emmys. If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to watch Collision Course and share it with your family.

1. Please introduce yourself for readers that don’t know you.

I am the Co-founder and President of Parent Pathway, LLC.  I am passionate about awareness and prevention of teen substance abuse and addiction.  I am also passionate about helping parents who have a child or any loved one who is struggling with substance abuse.  It affects so many young people who begin with recreational ‘partying’ with their friends and end up with the disease of addiction.  This is one disease that is completely preventable; young people and their parents need to know the consequence of substance abuse.

2. Tell us about Parent Pathway and why did you start the website?

Parent Pathway has been created for parents by parents to find a place to get answers, a sense of community, and hope for their loved ones and themselves.  We realized the need for this service by seeing what was happening in our communities and families and we also realized that it was difficult to get information to help parents in their time of need.  When you realize that your child has gone past the point of experimental substance use and into a serious problem with drugs and alcohol it is difficult to know what to do.  It is not a situation that many parents feel compelled to share with their friends and family, it can be very lonely and filled with fear.  My partners and I decided that we would create a website to help parents navigate through this difficult situation with their loved one.  Our goal is that they find the website and instantly realize that they are not alone and others are here to help.

3. What is Meetings in a Box? Who would benefit from these meetings?

Meetings in a Box are a guide to have a meeting with a group of parents or to do as an individual to help support them through their journey of a loved one struggling with addiction.  Each Meeting in a Box is a topic with a description, relevant quotes, music, books and then an exercise to explore the topic and learn how to work through it.  An example of some of the topics are; Denial, Hope, Fear, Boundaries, Gratitude, Trust, and many more.  These are topics are typical for overcoming co-dependent and enabling behaviors as well as taking care of ourselves.  Meetings in a Box is a very innovative service to help parents cope and move forward in their journey.

4. What are some of the common drugs that seem to be abused in the Sacramento area? 

I believe the Sacramento area is very similar to many other areas.  We have seen an extreme surge in prescription drug abuse.  Pain killers like Oxycontin, Vicodin, Norco and many others are very expensive on the street which leads those addicted to these opiate based drugs to use heroin because it is much less expensive and the same high.  Alcohol continues to be a huge issue.  We are seeing young people binge drinking in middle school, high school and college leading to death in some cases.  Even with awareness around drinking and driving, there are still high numbers of young people abusing alcohol and suffering the consequences which can ultimately lead to alcoholism.

5. You also speak to parent groups in your area. What is your message for parents and how can they help prevent their children from becoming addicted to drugs?

Our message is simply that abusing drugs and alcohol at a young age can have immediate and long term consequences.  The adolescent brain continues to develop until the age of 25.  By using substances, you are altering the chemistry of the brain and have a very high probability of developing the disease of addiction of which there is no cure.  Ninety percent of all adults who have the disease of addiction began abusing substances before the age of 18.  After the age of 18 the probability of the disease of addiction is one in 25.  Parents need to understand this and help their child stay safe and away from abusing substances.  We encourage parents to get educated on how substance abuse affects their child and encourage them to talk early and often to their children so they can make good choices.  We encourage parents to keep prescription drugs locked up to prevent easy access.

6. Where do you go from here? What are your dreams for the future?

Our goal is to get as much visibility to Parent Pathway so that parents can get the help and support they need.  It is such a difficult situation to discover your child has a serious problem with drugs and alcohol.  We want parents to easily find our site and know there are others that have traveled this path and will be there to support them.  My ultimate dream is that there is enough awareness and education to parents and young teens that we turn this growing epidemic of addiction around and see it rapidly decline.  And that would result in not having a need for Parent Pathway.  But until then, we will be there help parents navigate through their journey.

Are you a parent who is concerned about your teen? What can we do to prevent teen substance abuse? If you have any questions or if there is something I can help you with, please feel free to contact me through the contact form. I would love to hear from you.

take care,

Filed Under: Addicted Family, Addiction, Loving an Addict, Parents of Addicted Children, Substance Abuse Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Living a Life of Gratitude Today

5:47 pm By 38 Comments

Feeling Gratitude Today

 

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Have you had one of those situations where you were blindsided by a sudden turn of events?

Your situation hopefully had a happy ending.

You may realize that it was a close call and you feel gratitude.

Last Sunday, I texted my daughter who has just moved to a new apartment in the city. She didn’t reply and I texted her again on Sunday and then again on Monday. I was beginning to get concerned.

She called back asking if I had seen her email. I found it and she explained that she had been at a friend’s apartment. Someone in the living room happened to look out the window and noticed flames coming from the apartment below.

She and her friends all left quickly, pounding on all the doors of the building. One friend helped the elderly women who lived in the building get out safely.

What they thought was a small kitchen fire that would be extinguished within a few minutes turned into much more.

Within 15 minutes the entire building was engulfed in a 4 alarm fire. Flames were shooting out of every window. The building was demolished.

Thankfully the residents were not hurt, although unfortunately a couple of the fireman suffered some injuries.

My daughter’s friend lost everything that was contained in the apartment. My daughter only lost her purse with all the basic essentials of life, keys, wallet, and drivers’s license.

What is most important is that they are safe and unharmed.

When these types of close calls happen, I have a hard time not going to that place of the “what-if.”

Again I’ve been reminded how precious life really is.  How important it is to remember that while a life can take decades in the making, it can be extinguished in a moment.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

What I’ve realized is the things I worry about most, rarely happen. On a handful of occasions during my life, I’ve been jolted by a turn of events that I never expected. Gratitude is what I think about at the end of those days.

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~ Marcel Proust

Living a life of gratitude will make you feel happier. You can even feel grateful for those moments of crisis in your life. Gratitude turns bad things into good. It reminds you of what is important and it encourages you to say thank you to other people.

Here are some ways to feel gratitude today:

  • Every experience is a gift. Even if you feel confused or troubled, know that every event in your life can offer a gift. Look at the every situation with eyes of gratitude. It may be really an opportunity to grow and be creative. You are now stronger for what you have been through.
  • Our greatest weaknesses can often prove to be our greatest strengths. They provide us with opportunity for growth that we would never have had otherwise. Everything about you can be used for good. When we feel unsure, it is a signal that there is something that we can learn.
  • Growth can occur during times of crisis. Although we wish that life would go along peacefully, there are often bumps in the road. The Chinese word for crisis is written with two brush strokes. The first represents danger, and the second represents opportunity.
  • When you are feeling fear, take a moment and notice the growth in your life. Instead of letting fear stop you in your tracks, look back and be grateful for how much progress you have made. Know the joy of gratitude. Feel the strength of your growth.
  • Notice the miracles that have touched your life. They may have always been there, but now you can take notice. Become aware of the many gifts of your life by practicing gratitude. Be thankful for the little things as well as the big ones.
  • Be grateful for the people in your life. Enjoy and spread the love . Acknowledge those close to you, and tell them often how much you appreciate and love them. We can learn something from every person we meet.
  • Express your gratitude when others do something for you. That simple act can make a difference in your life as well as that person’s life. Take a moment out of your day to say thank you. It costs little and will spread happiness.

I am once again reminded about how grateful I am for my life and the people in it. I am waking up to another beautiful day. The sun is shining and all is well with my world.

Here is a beautiful poem of thankfulness to leave you with:

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are 
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

~ Author Unknown

How about you? What are you grateful for? Has your family had any close calls, that pushed gratitude to the forefront of your thoughts? Please share in comments.

Take care and have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Filed Under: Gratitude Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Re-Awakening: A New Guided Meditation Program That Can Change Your Life

10:33 pm By 31 Comments

 

 

I am delighted to interview Steven Aitchison, author and founder of Change Your Thoughts blog. Steven and Angela Artemis have created a new guided meditation program called The Re-Awakening, a program designed to help someone rid themselves of stress, anxiety and depression .

1. Steve, please introduce yourself to the Treatment Talk readers who may not know you.

I am an extremely happily married soul with 2 great sons and a mental dog named Kara.  My heart and home is in Scotland, UK.

I am the author of Change Your Thoughts blog, which has now been running since August 2006, and it’s went through a lot of changes over the years, but it keeps me writing and hopefully brings a lot of readers some pleasure with articles from myself and many great guest bloggers.

I have also written 5 books and produced 11 Products on personal development, with the latest product being The Re-Awakening: A Guided Meditation program narrated by myself and Angela Artemis.

I work full time as an Addiction Counsellor, mainly helping people recover from alcohol issues.  When I’m not doing that I love writing and marketing the business.

2. Please tell us about your amazing blog. When did you start it and why?

Oh, the blog started in August 2006 and I started it as a way to give my creative brain an outlet for ideas on helping others.  I had just finished my degree in Psychology and was writing short stories but felt I had something to give as a personal development writer.

The blog started off quite badly as I didn’t have a clue what to write about, so i started talking about trivial stuff, like how to reduce farting (I know, who wants to know about that :) ).  However after writing some rubbish for a month I started to get into it and my creative muse was turned on as I started sharing with others what has worked for me in my life as I was a prolific readers of personal development books.

There have been times when I kind of abandoned the blog in search of making money online, as my internet marketing skills were being born, however I kept coming back to it.

In 2010 I decided I was going to focus solely on the blog.  At that time I had 3,000 subscribers.  As soon as I focussed all my attention on the blog I started getting more and more subscribers, and funny enough I was making more money from it through advertising.

Today the blog has 32,000 subscribers and I feel we have a great community over there.

3. How long have you been meditating? How has meditation changed your life?

I have been meditating for around 10 years, but it wasn’t constant. There was always the question of was it working, am I doing it right, am I sitting in the right position, does my legs need to be behind my ears for it to really be effective :) you know all that kind of stuff.

However I discovered when I didn’t meditate there was something in me that was missing.  I missed it and felt out of balance when I didn’t do it.

When I found a few guided meditations a few years after I started, that’s when it really became a habit for me, and if it wasn’t for the guided meditations I would still be doing it on and off.

 4. Can you please tell us about The Reawakening Guided Meditation System?

The Re-Awakening has been an idea that has been swirling about inside my head for a few years.  Ever since I discovered guided mediation I always felt I could maybe produce better ones and more focussed.

So a few months ago I decided it was time to get this idea out of my head and into the real world.

The Re-Awakening is a set of 10 guided meditations designed specifically to Re-Awaken our heart, mind and spirit.  I know it sounds a bit airy fairy, but I truly feel that we have lost our way in the world a bit.  The news is like a constant stream of blackness which is infecting our core spirit, so much so that people are afraid to go out the door sometimes.  What we sometimes forget is that the news is totally skewed in it’s reporting. 

I heard somewhere that for every 19 bad news stories that were reported there was 1 piece of good news reported, when in real life there is hundreds of good news stories to every 1 bad news story.  That kind of  skewed reporting is truly bad for our spirit.  So, The Re-Awakening was produced as a way to counteract, if only a little, the bleak view we might have of the world.

 5. Can you specify how meditation and your program would be beneficial to people in recovery or family members of an addicted person?

Over the years of helping others addictions I feel that there is something missing from the lives of people who have become addicted to alcohol or drugs.  It’s only recently that I have kind of figured out what it is: A sense of purpose.

We’re living in a world with fewer jobs, higher divorce rates, more stress, and a less socially connected world.  Rather than help someone with their addiction I think we should be helping people with addiction issues finding a sense of purpose in their lives.  Without a sense of purpose then alcohol and drugs seems like a way of escaping.

Finding your purpose means finding a place within yourself that has the answers.  However, to find this place you need stillness, calm and focus and I feel that meditation can give us all of these.  This goes for the person in recovery and for the families of the persons in recovery.

6. What advice do you have for someone who is new to meditation?

Meditation can seem to much of a hassle in the beginning, but the trick is to make it a habit.  When you have a good habit in your life you reap the rewards and the benefits become cumulative, meaning the more you do it the more you benefit.  However, as I have found, if you do it for a bit, stop, then start again you are not getting the full benefit from it.

With The Re-Awakening you are bypassing the hassle factor of meditating as you are shown straight away images in your mind that are conducive to deep relaxation and having a deep connection to heart, mind and spirit. Almost immediately you start to feel the benefits which will motivate you more to continue and build on those benefits such as: feeling less stressed, less anxious, able to cope with life much better, more productive, and generally much more in control of your own life.

7. What about people that say they do not have time to meditate? What suggestions would you give them?

If you can’t take 10-20 minutes out of your day to do something for yourself then there is something wrong.

The thing is with mediation you actually gain more time in your life.  You might be thinking ‘If I have to take 20 minutes to mediate each day, surely I would have less time in the day?’ What mediation does is it gives your brain a boost, a 10 minute mediation can have the same effects as having a 2 hour sleep which means your mind is much more alert, much less tired and is able to be more productive, more creative, and make much better use of your time, therefore you are actually gaining more hours in the day by mediating for 10-20 minutes per day.

8.  What do you like to do in your spare time?

The little spare time I have is spent with family.  Friday night is movie night in our house, we get a takeway and sit and watch a good movie together.

Saturday and Sunday is the same, I like to spend time with my wife; go for a meal, go shopping, go to the pictures anything as long as we’re together.

The boys are at an age where it’s not really cool to be with us :) but we still spend time together going to rugby, playing COD or at the moment helping them prepare with their exams at high school.

All the rest of time I am working as an addiction counsellor, writing, producing products and dealing with the business side of my life.  I manage to survive on 5 hours of sleep per night and I put that down to mediation and good time management :)

Do you think meditation is for you? Are you ready to find some calm in your life? Let us know in comments.

For more from Steven Aitchison, please visit his blog at Change Your Thoughts. You can check out The Re-Awakening BY CLICKING HERE. 

take care,

 

Filed Under: Meditation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Treatment Talk’s Monthly Message ~ April 2012

8:48 am By 7 Comments

Treatment Talk Monthly Message

We are well into spring, the season for new life, growth and change.

Worms begin to emerge from the earth, ladybugs land on screen doors, green buds appear, birds chirp, and flowers begin to bloom. A new world is upon us and anything is possible.

When you clean out our closets, and let go of what is no longer needed, consider letting go of those habits that no longer support you in a positive way.

Spring is a great time to brush away those cobwebs and begin again.

What’s Happening in the World of Recovery

Alcohol Awareness Month – April was Alcohol Awareness Month ~ We can all help prevent our children from abusing alcohol.

What you can do:  Talk with your children regularly about the dangers of underage drinking, including drinking and driving.

The Partnership at Drugfree.org, in collaboration with a diverse group of committed partners, will undertake a first-of-its-kind week-long public awareness campaign, “Wake Up to Medicine Abuse” from September 23 to 30, 2012, to curb the abuse of medicine, one of the biggest drug problems in the United States today.

In an effort to help curb the abuse of medicine, one of the biggest drug problems in the United States today, we are all encouraging parents and the public to take action.

What you can do: 

  • Talk with your kids about the dangers of abusing prescription and over-the-counter medicines
  •  Safeguard and properly dispose of unused medications

Drug and alcohol abuse is preventable, and with help, addiction is a treatable disease.

World No Tobacco Day!

Did you know that May 31st is World No Tobacco Day!

“It brings awareness of the health issues and dependency issues related to tobacco use. World No Tobacco Day stresses the importance of making people all over the world aware of the health dangers of using tobacco. It also stresses the addictive nature of tobacco use.

World No Tobacco Day is supported by medical organizations around the world. Many groups and organizations use this day to encourage individuals to quit smoking. They promote education of the issues and dangers of using all forms of tobacco.”

What you can do: Be healthy ~ quit smoking!

Flourish and Bloom This Spring:

 The Silver Lining, by Vidya Sury

Where’s Your Aimpoint?…somewhere in the middle?…why not aim higher?, David Stephens

 How to Forgive Those that Have Hurt You, Melody Fletcher,

The Real Truth about Why You Suck: You Don’t, Arvind Devalia,

Have the Courage to do the Impossible, Andrea DeBell,

A Little Inspiration

“A sponsee asked me recently “how do we really live life on life’s terms, when it appears at best to be an extraordinarily difficult proposition?”

“Yes indeed” I replied, “Difficult yes…but not impossible.”

I went on to say that in recovery I have learned that we must approach each moment of each day with the spirit of hope no matter what. Yes there is suffering in life, there is pain and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. And yes we will lose some of the battles as we struggle for our dreams.

But what we do not see and what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement and loss. For me that is recovery, and the very essence of “living life on life’s term.”

Learning to understand addiction and its consequences is a life long journey~ not a single step. The decision to stop using is the step of a life time- but it is the life time of deciding not to use that makes the journey successful!”  Kim Manlove

Last Month’s Posts:

Thanks as always for reading. We are not alone on this journey. Let’s support each other!

Do you have any suggestions regarding recovery? Please share in comments.

Have you felt the fear of addiction? Me too! My friend, Tess Marshall has put together a not to be missed course, Take Your Fear and Shove It. Check it out. It may help get your fear under control.

take care and have a peaceful day,

 

Filed Under: Monthly Message, Treatment Talk Monthly Message, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saying Yes to Change with Alex Blackwell, The BridgeMaker

9:13 pm By 15 Comments

 

I am honored today to interview Alex Blackwell who has just published his first book,  Saying Yes to Change: 10 Timeless Life Lessons for Creating Positive Change.

Alex is a gifted writer and founder of the amazing blog, The BridgeMaker.  Alex writes from his heart, sharing his past, even the most painful parts, so that we can be inspired, realize that we are not alone, and know that change is possible.

Can you explain your book title, “Saying Yes to Change?” What convinced you to write the book?

Saying Yes to Change is a reminder that the choice to seek positive change belongs to each of us. Except in unfortunate circumstances, we can chose to stay in a place that is toxic, destructive or unfulfilling; or we can chose to break free, seek change and begin the journey to a more rewarding, happier life.

Simply put, we own the choice to say “Yes” to change and I believe that is incredibly empowering.

I wrote the book to provide a properly-sized window into my life so others can see their lives in the reflection of the window’s glass. Often we feel like we are alone with our thoughts, feelings or fears. But by being open with my path to change, might give someone the encouragement to begin their journey, too.

What overall message do you hope to share with readers of your book?

Saying Yes to Change: 10 Timeless Life Lessons for Creating Positive Change is for anyone who feels the nudge to change; and it’s for people who are already walking the paths to positive change. If you feel stuck, alone or scared, the book will inspire you to acknowledge what you need to heal or change so you can begin living a happier, more meaningful life – right now.

The book has one primary theme, or message I would like the readers to remember: Creating positive change begins with discovering one powerful truth: You cannot change or heal what you do not acknowledge.

Clearly your upbringing affected you. Can you expand how your mother’s substance abuse altered the course of your life?

Cathy, this is a deep and painful question.

My mother was an alcoholic. Later in her life, she became addicted to pain medications (narcotics). Both of her parents were also alcoholics, so I guess she never had a chance.

My most vivid, and painful, image of mother is of her sitting in a dark room, drinking. She would pull down the window shades to make sure the light didn’t come in. The only light was from the end of her cigarette.

To this day, I get triggered around 4 p.m. when the light begins to fall outside and the room grows darker. I turn on every light in the room so I don’t have to go back to that time and space.

Her abuse has altered my life by making me anxious, but it’s also made me vigilant to break the cycle for my children. I’m proud to say that I have done that.

Do you think everyone who has a troubled childhood has to “hit bottom” before they can change and shed the burden of their past? What advice do you have for others who have suffered from a similar situation?

No, I don’t.

I believe we walk the journey that is planned for each of us. Hitting bottom is not a prerequisite to surrendering the past, only becoming mindful of what the past is costing us is needed. This mindfulness can certainly happen in degrees – there’s no one size fits all.

Tell us about your amazing blog, The BridgeMaker.

The BridgeMaker connects people who are looking to walk by faith, share inspiration and celebrate positive change. The meaning of the blog’s name comes from becoming aware of where we are today and seeing where we want to be tomorrow and then making the deliberate choice to cross the bridge to discover the beautiful life waiting for us there.

What is your dream going forward? How will change continue to affect your life?

My dream is to continue sharing my heart. I don’t know where all of this is going, or how it will turn out, but I do have faith. This is my plan and I’m excited to see what’s next!

What do you like to do in your spare time?

This may sound old-fashioned, but I still enjoy hanging out with my wife, Mary Beth. I love our Saturdays of running errands, chauffeuring Emily to her events and then catching a movie, or dinner, or both.

I’m also an avid runner, Kansas City Royals baseball fan and an enjoyer (but not expert) of fine wine.

I try to spend my spare time savoring every moment – each one happens so fast.

Alex is giving one copy of his book to someone who comments, and shares this post! Please leave a comment and let us know that you shared. Thank you!

Click here to order this inspiring book on Amazon!

Alex Blackwell is the Founder of The BridgeMaker. His first book, Saying Yes to Change: 10 Timeless Life Lessons for Creating Positive Change is now available on Amazon. Connect with Alex on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or joining Treatment Talk to receive my free ebook, Beyond Addiction, Embrace the New Life.  Have a peaceful day!

The winner of Saying Yes to Change was Carolyn H. ! Thank you Alex!

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