By D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA

A couple of decades ago when I first learned about “Personal Recovery”, it was all about finding freedom from addictions. Alcohol addiction, drug addiction, sex and relationship addiction, video game addiction, food addiction… the list goes on, and seems to encompass nearly any behavior that is out of whack or done is excess.

But what is personal recovery really? Watch the news and you’ll always find some celebrity who is entering rehab for some disorder or another. Is recovery just about stopping the dysfunctional behavior? Or is it something else?

Personal Recovery is not just about addictions

Remove the addiction, and what is left? Remove drinking too much, stop sleeping with random people in an effort to approximate love, or stop making yourself throw up after eating too much – whats left?

YOU!

All those things inside of you that pushed you toward a “too much” addiction in the first place are still there. And in fact the inside stuff you’ll discover when you remove the substance or moderate the addictive behavior can be pretty painful to look at! Its why so many addicted people don’t seem to find real lasting recovery.

Personal Recovery is all about living

If you’re new to recovery, if you’ve found freedom from a substance or behavior that used to dominate your life, have you found how to LIVE IN RECOVERY?

I’ll be exploring what it means to live in recovery over the next few weeks. Come on this journey with me! Take a look at the following list and see if you find yourself.

• Personal Recovery means facing the pain of the past
• Personal Recovery means embracing the reality of the present
• Personal Recovery means being free to make choices
• Personal Recovery means kicking out someone else’s skeleton that’s been hanging out rent-free in your closet (thanks to my friend Sharon for that mental picture – love it!)
• Personal Recovery means accepting help is not a sign of weakness
• Personal Recovery means being willing to do the work necessary to create the life you want
• Personal Recovery means breaking old cycles, and passing on what works to your children
• Personal Recovery means owning up to the mistakes you’ve made
• Personal Recovery means refusing to allow someone else to dictate how you feel or your choices in the present
• Personal Recovery means practicing a joy filled fully-present daily life
• Personal Recovery means laughing when you’re happy and crying when you’re sad
• Personal Recovery means giving yourself permission to be an imperfect human being
• Personal Recovery cannot happen in a vacuum. It only works when you practice it with others on the same journey
• Personal Recovery requires giving, so you can receive more
• Personal Recovery is the key to freedom, in absolutely every area of your life!

Practicing Personal Recovery today

What will you do today to practice living in recovery? Just one thing, one intentional thing, can make the difference between falling back into old habits or moving forward into freedom.

Try this one today: name how you feel right now. Tired? Overwhelmed? Content? If you’re like a whole bunch of other people, you’ve spent a lifetime thinking you’re “supposed to” feel a certain way, then trying to make yourself feel it. Stop! Take a moment right now and check in with your insides. After all, this moment is all you’ve got.

How do you feel?

Name it.

Own it.

That feeling is uniquely and wonderfully yours!

No need to try to change how you feel – just acknowledge it. Trust me, your feeling will change in time – that is the nature of being alive. But when you are able to pay attention enough to name the feeling in this moment, you’ve taken a step forward into being intentional about your life.

And THAT is a big part of Personal Recovery!

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Ronae Jull - Hope Coaching

Parenting teens is tough! After raising four and spending the last 25 years as a family life coach, I've learned a few things that work. Check out my website for mobile apps and resources. Have a parenting challenge? Your first "Meet the HOPE Coach" session is always free!

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