Logic didn’t get me sober or compel me to make major changes in my life. I knew alcohol was destroying me long before I stopped drinking, but that knowledge wasn’t enough. I had to feel desperate. Every transformation in my life has started with an intense emotional spark. Change has always been ignited by pain, fear, guilt, or even hope. Messy, humbling emotions propel me if I allow them to.

It starts with acknowledging what I feel and letting it push me toward action. When I name the emotion instead of burying it, I can understand what it’s asking me to do. Emotions can be invitations. The fear that once paralyzed me now signals me that I’m on the edge of growth. Guilt ignites amends. Hope fuels purpose. Consistent responses to my emotions build new habits.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#EmotionalSobriety #RecoveryJourney #ChangeThroughEmotion #EmotionalGrowth #SobrietyStories #HealingFromWithin #FeelToHeal #CourageToChange #RecoveryDailyPodcast #MindfulRecovery

I thought honesty was just not lying to other people, but I’ve learned that it starts within. When I got sober, I could see the hiding and breaking promises, but I couldn’t see the lies I was telling myself. I began to look at my motives, fears, and excuses throughout the day. I had to stop justifying my behavior and pretending I was fine when I wasn’t. Honesty requires presence. I can’t be honest about what’s happening right now if I’m stuck in yesterday or tomorrow. I need a constant check-in with myself, Am I doing the best I can right now? Or am I avoiding getting uncomfortable? That self-awareness without judgment invites growth.

I still make excuses for my character defects, mostly to protect my ego. But when I notice it happening, I recognize it as an opportunity to grow. Honesty is giving yourself permission to be vulnerable. Being honest keeps me spiritually awake and connected to reality. And as a professional irrational thinker, I have to work at not making up stories in my head about what I think everyone else is thinking.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#HonestyInRecovery #EmotionalSobriety #SpiritualGrowth #RadicalHonesty #SelfAwarenessJourney #SobrietyAndGrowth #InnerHealing #AuthenticLiving #RecoveryDaily #MindfulHonesty

When I live in the present, life is simpler with less chaos, less noise, and less drama. In sobriety, that serenity comes from acceptance, willingness, and facing my fears. It’s doing the next right thing even when I don’t feel like it. That same mindset carries me through stroke recovery and life with chronic pain and vestibular disorder. Both require daily acceptance, balance, and the courage to live in what is, not what was or might be.

Growth only happens in the present moment. When I’m in my support groups, listening and sharing, I stay grounded where my feet are, and that’s where fear quiets and serenity waits. Living sober feels a lot like living with a chronic condition. It’s familiar, but still scary at times. Both are “one day at a time” journeys. Some days it’s one minute at a time, just showing up despite the pain. I don’t have to promise myself that everything will be okay someday. I only have to know that right now, everything is okay, and right now is where I’m learning to live.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#sobriety #recoveryjourney #strokeawareness #vestibulardisorder #emotionalhealing #mindfulness #onedayatatime #acceptance #chronicpainrecovery #serenity

Hearing in early sobriety that I had “character defects” offended me. Who are you to say I’m broken? I just like to get drunk.

I’ve come to see these defects as imperfections or symptoms of being human. They’re not diagnoses that can’t be changed. My character defects distorted my instincts for survival, security, and belonging and were further swollen by alcohol. My drinking replaced natural instincts with artificial ones that I believed were keeping me safe. Now I work to reclaim those natural instincts through spiritual growth, honesty, surrender, and daily practice. When I see my ego, anxiety, self-pity, or insecurity on the rise, it signals me to understand where I’m still healing and learn how to live better.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#SobrietyJourney #CharacterDefects #RecoveryGrowth #SpiritualHealing #AlcoholRecovery #HealingThroughFaith #EmotionalSobriety #HumanImperfection #ReclaimYourInstincts #RecoveryDaily

I experience inner healing and transformation through giving back. Hosting a vestibular disorders support group on Tuesday reminded me why service is such a vital part of my recovery. Before the meeting, I was hoping no one would show up. This is a classic alcoholic instinct to avoid the work and discomfort. But they did show up, and what unfolded was powerful for me. One woman attendee spent three years desperately researching what was wrong with her after a brain injury. She said to us Tuesday night that she finally felt heard, seen, and understood. Watching her relief and recognition strengthened my resolve to make help accessible to the sick and suffering. Giving back gives me purpose, and it also helps me emotionally heal from all I’ve lost. The outward act of service through hosting support meetings, sharing, and listening transforms me on the inside.

Whether through sobriety, stroke recovery, or vestibular disorder advocacy, my purpose is to carry the message and pass on what was freely given to me. Each time I do, I tap into more serenity, clarity, and energy to in my own recovery. The miracle of giving back is that in helping others find balance, I strengthen my own.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#RecoveryThroughService #HealingByHelping #SobrietyAndService #VestibularRecoveryJourney #StrokeSurvivorSupport #GiveBackToHeal #InnerTransformation #CarryTheMessage #EmotionalHealingThroughPurpose #ServiceBringsSerenity

It’s challenging to reestablish routines after a stroke, and I find it to be so once again after moving into a new house. Every habit that came naturally now takes extra thought and energy, from feeding the dogs to remembering where things are in the house. It’s a humbling reminder that lifelong recovery requires patience and self-compassion. The mental fatigue that comes from having to think through every tiny step can easily spiral into anxiety or self-criticism, so I’m back to napping every afternoon. Napping is part of my emotional self-care and an act of acceptance. When I slow down, I can see the noise in my mind and choose to quiet it down.

Lately, I’ve been working through Step 4 again, making a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself. Most of my complicated emotions come down to simple human needs of being hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (H.A.L.T.). In the moment, it can feel discrediting to the heaviness of my feelings to simplify the solution like that. But, once again, when I pause, I can get honest with myself and take real action on the inside instead of lashing out or taking ineffective action toward others on the outside.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#StrokeRecovery #AlcoholRecovery #Step4 #HALT #SelfCompassion #RecoveryCommunity #MentalHealthAwareness #TraumaticBrainInjury #stroke #12StepRecovery

Today has been one of those days where anxiety feels like it’s humming in every cell of my body. My heart’s been fluttering off rhythm since this morning, the way it does in a panic attack but for no clear reason. I keep taking deep breaths and telling myself it will pass, but the feeling lingered all day.

For so many years, I lived in this constant state of anxiety. Back then, my only instinct was to run from the discomfort and silence it with a box of Vella Chardonnay. But I can’t outrun fear. I can only walk through it. The difference now is that I know I don’t have to face it alone. I have the tools and willingness to talk about it no matter how uneasy it feels. In my morning meeting, we read The Man Who Mastered Fear, and it felt like divine timing. I have learned to move through fear differently.

At my old house, I used to take the shortcut home on walks, cutting my route in half whenever I felt too vestibularly symptomatic. But in my new neighborhood, there is no shortcut. Once I start, I have to go the whole way around the block to get home. And that’s exactly how fear and anxiety work for me now. I have to take the long way through them, not rushing the process or numbing it away. I hand it over and surrender, over and over again, even when it’s minute by minute. The fear doesn’t vanish, but I keep walking anyway. I trust that each step forward is healing me in ways I can’t yet see.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#RecoveryJourney #OvercomingFear #AnxietyRecovery #SobrietyAndFaith #EmotionalHealing #OneDayAtATime #CourageToChange #MentalHealthAwareness #SurrenderAndTrust #TheLongWayHome

Have you ever heard someone say “this too shall pass” in hard times? When life feels unpredictable and uncomfortable it can reassure us that the pain is temporary. But I noticed today that when life feels beautiful and serene, a different fear shows up for me. How often I do fear that the good won’t last. It’s my instinct to protect myself from disappointment. What I’m realizing, though, is that if fear lives in both extremes, when am I actually just “being” and content. I am fully aware of my need to control and predict what comes next. But, when I let that fear run the show, it robs me of the joy and serenity that’s available to me right now.

So, “this too shall pass” means something broader that I gave it credit for in the past. Everything is impermanent. The work is in staying present, savoring the good without clinging to it, and moving through the hard without resisting it. When I talk about my fears out loud, they lose power over me. When I take action, I burn away fear’s energy and let it propel me toward growth.

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To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#RecoveryDaily #SobrietyJourney #MindfulLiving #EmotionalSobriety #LetGoAndGrow #FaithOverFear #SerenityInSobriety #HealingThroughPresence #ThisTooShallPass #GratefulRecovery