I’m pretty good at coping once I’m already overwhelmed. The harder part is recognizing what my mind and body are telling me before I get there.Today I’m talking about proactive coping—recognizing the physical and emotional warning signs before they become emergencies. I look at the difference between coping and avoidance, intentionally visiting my “dark place,” and why even healthy things like hobbies, creativity, and excitement can push me too far when I stop listening to myself. Recovery is teaching me that I don’t have to wait until I’m hurting, exhausted, isolated, or overwhelmed to respond. My emotions don’t have to make my decisions for me. What is your mind or body whispering to you today? Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Listen to the Whisper Before It Becomes a Scream

Why do I say “I’m fine” when  I’m not? Sometimes I hold back because I don’t want to burden anyone, seem dramatic, be misunderstood, or admit that I need help. But what I refuse to talk about doesn’t disappear. It usually finds somewhere else to go.Sobriety taught me that connection requires my participation, and stroke recovery has taught me the same lesson in a different way. When I live with symptoms other people can’t see, I have to talk about it for others to walk beside me. Sharing what’s wrong isn’t asking someone to rescue me. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Let Yourself Be Known: Stop Holding Back What’s Wrong

Boris takes over the podcast today. Don't miss it. I spend a lot of time paying attention to difficult emotions, like fear, anger, sadness, resentment, anxiety, but the emotion wheel goes both ways. Joy and love have a whole vocabulary of their own, and I deserve to experience those feelings without guilt or waiting for the other shoe to drop. Recovery has taught me that difficult and pleasant emotions can exist at the same time. I can grieve what my stroke took from me and still love my life. I can live with chronic pain and feel excited, inspired, peaceful, proud, playful, and hopeful. One feeling doesn't cancel out another. Today I'm looking at the joyful side of the emotion wheel and asking, "What does happiness actually feel like?" Because happiness isn't something I should wait for. I need to participate in it. I need to do happiness. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

I Need to Do Happiness

Humility used to feel a lot like humiliation to me. My recovery program helps me to know what belongs to me, do my part, and trust God with the rest. In this episode, I talk about how sobriety and stroke recovery have challenged my need for control, how pride can disguise itself as independence, and why asking for and receiving help is part of humility. I can plan, advocate for myself, and participate fully in my recovery without trying to manage the universe. That position is already filled. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Humility: Knowing Where My Job Ends

I didn’t want to record today. I wanted to run into my art studio and make handmade journals—my newest creative obsession. But recovery skill I learned in sobriety kicked in: do the next right thing. I’m learning how to put a container my enthusiasm in order to not abandon my purpose in recovery which is connecting with you. Feelings are information, and that includes excitement. Wanting to do something isn’t the same as the decision to do it. Sometimes I need to turn off my “wanter,” stop asking what sounds more fun, and focus on what the next right thing is in front of me. Recovery tools become most powerful when we practice them enough that the healthier response starts becoming automatic. And today, apparently, the next right thing was recording an episode about how much I didn’t want to record an episode. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

When a Hobby Becomes an Obsession: Taming the Creative High

Living with stroke-related disabilities, chronic pain, and fluctuating capacity means my mind and my brain don’t always agree about how much I can do. I need to notice when my brain needs a slower pace and adjust before I reach the point of crashing. Slowing down doesn’t mean I have to stop, while not slowing down requires me to. Instead of trying to push through, I ask myself what would make today 10% easier? The day may simply need to be a different size than the one I planned. Do you ask too much of yourself? Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

What Would Make Today 10% Easier?

For the longest time I tried to change everything around me and thought that I couldn’t change me. I was a victim of my thoughts and emotions. I had it totally backward. I can't change anything beyond my fingertips, but I can change what's happening between my ears. Even thought when I can't choose the circumstances of my day, I still get to participate in shaping how I experience it. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Change the Direction of Your Thinking

I know I need to rest. I just don't want to. It can be for me to stop, take a nap, or simply sit without thinking about everything else I could be doing. After stroke, things people normally do to relax, like watching TV or reading, aren't options for me because using my eyes hurts. Meditation practice that I learned in sobriety has helped me to “rest my thinker,” when I’m restless, irritable, and don’t want to lay down for a nap. Today I explore ways I can rest without using my eyes. Rest isn't doing nothing. It's accomplishing something my brain needs. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Learning to Rest in Stroke Recovery

Being able to do something and deciding whether I should do it are two very different things. In sobriety, I look ahead at the consequences of my choices. In stroke recovery, I’m still learning how to do that with my physical and cognitive capacity, especially when the consequences don’t show up until hours or even days later. There’s a fine line between perseverance and restraint, and expanding my capacity and exceeding it. I also share about boundaries, self-awareness, and acknowledging when I successfully honor what my brain and body are telling me. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Just Because I Can Doesn’t Mean I Should

Being busy can make us feel important, productive, and needed. But when productivity becomes part of our identity, stopping can feel frustrating and uncomfortable. Stroke recovery teaches me lot about the physical, mental, emotional, recreational, and spiritual rest we need to stay well. Sometimes it’s anxiety, ambition, money, technology, and ego that keeps us constantly moving. We can become physically tired, mentally scattered, emotionally short-tempered, spiritually disconnected, and unable to enjoy the life we’re working so hard to build. Even the things we love can exhaust us. We forget to give ourselves permission to stop or ignore the signs that we should.  Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Busy Body: Freedom To Do Nothing

When illness or disability limits our independence, home can change from a place of comfort into a place that feels confining. There is grief in losing spontaneity and watching ordinary life continue without me. As someone painfully experienced in the isolation that comes with alcoholism, the solitude that I once sought in staying home can easily become isolation.  My disability imposes real limits, but my spirit doesn't have to live within those same boundaries. Creativity, relationships, service, faith, purpose, and using my voice expand my life. I’ve been learning to bring more of the world to me when I can't always go out into it. Life is happening right here where my feet are. The question I've learned to ask is: Given that this is true today, what is still possible? Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

When Your World Gets Smaller: The Hopelessness of Feeling Homebound

Willingness is what actually changes us. Being “entirely ready” is learning to recognize them character defects show up, stop defending them, and make a repeated, consistent decisions to choose a healthier response. Fear can become faith. Ego can become humility. Resentment can become forgiveness. The need to control can become trust. This practice has become as essential in my stroke recovery as it has been in my sobriety journey. I can’t control my disability. I can, however adapt, ask for help, rest, trust, and keep practicing. Recovery has no finish line. Growth is measured by the direction I’m moving, not how quickly I get there. The only thing standing between me and living better is my willingness to let go. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Willingness Is What Changes Us: The Lesson of Step Six

False pride can look like courage to others while fear is running the show. In this episode, I explore how trying to control what other people think of us can keep us from asking for help, admitting what we need, and allowing ourselves to be fully known. I share the parallels between sobriety and stroke recovery, from hiding my alcoholism to hiding the cognitive challenges that came after my stroke. Honesty about who I am today is a learning process. Being honest and self-compassionate enables me to honor my disability, strengthen relationships, and give other people the opportunity to recognize themselves in my experience. What are we protecting when we hide parts of ourselves,and what could change if we stopped? Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

What Is False Pride? The Fear of Being Fully Seen

Sobriety doesn't make life painless. I get to feel all the things, good and bad, without reaching for the escape I know would give me temporary relief. In this episode, I talk about the difference between relief and resolution, learning how to feel pain better, and remembering that whatever I choose today gets handed to the person I wake up as tomorrow. Taking care of my future self happens today. I don't have to feel good today to have a good day in recovery. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Taking Care of Tomorrow’s Me Today

In this Reads and Recovery episode, I review Haven Point by Virginia Hume, a multigenerational story about grief, alcoholism, family secrets, resentment, and belonging. I reflect on how one person’s unprocessed pain affects an entire family, why honest conversations matter, and how understanding the experiences that shaped our parents can change the way we see them and ourselves. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Haven Point by Virginia Hume: Alcoholism, Family Secrets, and Generational Recovery

The clot buster worked. My words returned for the most part. There was no brain bleed. I was 46 years old, five years sober, and I had survived a stroke. I genuinely believed I could go home and get back to my normal life. In this episode, I look back at those first days after my stroke and the enormous relief and gratitude I felt when I could communicate again after suffering aphasia during my stroke. I talk about how five years of sobriety had already taught me how to survive scary things one day at a time. I didn't know it yet, but the recovery program that helped me rebuild my life with alcoholism would be essential to rebuilding my life after stroke. At the time, though, I wasn't thinking about a lifetime of stroke recovery. I thought the worst was behind me. In retrospect, I'm grateful I didn't know what was coming. I needed the chance to believe I was okay, return to my life, and discover for myself what recovery was going to ask of me. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

I Survived

Five years ago, a nurse walked past my room in the ICU after my stroke and said, “You belong here.”  My outward appearance didn’t match the seriousness of your medical condition. That moment became significant in shaping my understanding of invisible illnesses. It was my first glimpse of what I would encounter repeatedly—people believe what they can see. Living with a central vestibular disability and chronic pain created a strange internal negotiation. If people see me laughing, creating, enjoying my life, or simply having a good day, will they think I'm not suffering?  A photograph captures the smile, but doesn’t capture the work it took to get it on my face or the fatigue and pain after everyone goes home.  In this episode, I talk about the pressure I've sometimes felt to look "sick enough" to be believed, what my stroke recovery has taught me about living with things others can't see, and why I don't have to prove my pain exists. I can laugh while my head hurts, be grateful while grieving what I've lost, and love my life while wishing parts of it were different. My disability doesn't disappear when I'm happy, and I don't have to have a cure to allow myself to live. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

You Don’t Look Disabled

I have a lot going on right now, all of it is stuff I want to do. I'm writing, painting, volunteering, crafting, decorating, and apparently I've added learning to fish now too. So I was walking the other day feeling completely overwhelmed. How have I somehow managed to achieve being overwhelmed in medical retirement just doing my hobbies? In this episode, I talk about what I'm learning about enthusiasm, capacity, and the energy it takes just to add something new to my life. I'm also learning that every idea doesn't have to become a project, everything doesn't have to be finished right now, and sometimes I need to leave a little space in my life to experience it. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

When My Enthusiasm Exceeds Capacity

Living with a vestibular disorder has made Maslow’s hierarchy of needs very apropos to me. Every day, I have to consider how much energy I have and where I need to spend it, from taking care of my basic physical needs and navigating my environment safely to participating in relationships, maintaining my self-esteem, and building a meaningful life. In this episode, I talk about what “I can’t watch TV” really means when visual movement causes pain, how I balance my limited spoons with the things that fill my cup, and why living with disability requires me to reevaluate my needs throughout the day.  Sometimes the best way I know how to do that is simply to get still.“The more still I am, the more I see.” Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Through the Lens of Disability

Four questions have guided people many folks in recovery for generations since the Oxford Group began:How loving have I been? How unselfish (kind) have I been? How honest have I been? How pure have I acted? Known as the Four Absolutes, these influenced early AA and still offer a practical way to examine our thoughts, motives, and actions daily. They provide a compass for living one decision at a time. In this episode, I explore what each one means in everyday life, and how these timeless principles can strengthen emotional sobriety, deepen our relationships, and bring intention to the decisions we make every day. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Rather listen on Apple Podcasts? <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recovery-daily-podcast/id1693924779</a> Visit my Recovery Upcycling Etsy shop! <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling">https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling</a>

Get Started

Download the App

Social Links

Get Started

Download the App