I remember when I threw away $10,000. I mean, I didn’t actually throw away $10,000 in a literal sense. It was a few years back when I was in the middle of my sobriety. I was in a pretty secure position mentally and had a decent working situation. This is when avoiding triggers becomes even more important…when you’re comfortable…

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, came along a recruiter with a job offer. Now, this offer was, as you can guess, about $10,000 more year on my salary. But, the problem was that it added a ton of unnecessary complication to my life and stress. You see stress is a major trigger for lots of people in recovery and adding more of it to my life was not a good idea.

Most people thought I was totally crazy when I told them I was going to pass. They just couldn’t wrap their why I would throw away $10,000 like that. For those of us in recovery, dealing with lower levels of stress to protect our sobriety should be a no brainer…

Sometimes I sit and think about my recovery not as a single decision or choice but as a series of courageous actions that I have to make every day. Every single little decision we make impacts the outcome of our sobriety. Avoiding triggers and decreasing the stress inputs we face daily should be a top priority.

Check out Section 6 of Lecture 19 in our Stop Drinking Alcohol course for more information on avoiding triggers.

I really encourage you to take bold, courageous action in protecting your sobriety and what you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Taking this bold action requires you to be prepared, in recovery and ready to act. Take one of our courses on recovery and addiction so you can be the best version of yourself possible.

We’re here to help in any way that we can and we’ve opened a new program for November students. For the month of November we’re giving away free courses on addiction to every day.

Simply like and share our Facebook page or Twitter and then message us. Let us know what course you want and we’ll take care of you. It’s as simple as that! We’re trying to help spread the word and we need YOUR HELP to do so!

To your recovery,

Nick

(p.s. check out our most recent Tips During Recovery video on Youtube if you haven’t already)

If you read yesterday’s email (or blog for those who read it elsewhere) you’ll know that I wrote about how yoga has really helped me through addiction and continues to do so through my recovery. I made a little joke about downward facing dog right? All is well. Except for one thing…

Apparently yoga really pisses some people off. I woke up this morning to a really angry and, quite frankly homophobic, email from one of our long term readers. In the years and years we’ve been doing Live Rehab (plus the years I’ve been in marketing/sales) I’ve never had a response quite like this.

As much as I would love to print the whole thing it’s really quite rude and disrespectful so I won’t. But, it doesn’t end there. Because ultimately, as much as I wanted to just throw this guy/gal out the window I had a feeling they might be in need of help. So I reached out…

And haven’t heard anything yet. So I’m sending this email/post out to anyone who is reading. If you need help please let us know. Sometimes you don’t reach out in the right way and that’s ok with us. Everyone is going through something at some time in their life.

Yoga can truly help with your recovery but so can running, weight lifting, football or pretty much any type of physical activity. Even power walking. Whatever you end up doing, the process of moving your body and getting out of the zone/headspace you are in can do wonders. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Please don’t attack the people who are trying to help you and the community. Most of us are human (except for the robot dog we have) beings trying to help one another and get by at the same time. However, I do have a warning…

We won’t tolerate it again from the same person. Homophobic attacks, slurs or any kind of hateful speech towards the recovery community will be grounds for immediate muting, banning, site blocking, email removal, course banning and whatever other ways I can think of to remove you from the Live Rehab community. I hope we won’t have to do that!

For those of you still with us – THANK YOU! A couple of you have asked what yoga to do etc after yesterdays message and all I do is load up one of my favourite instructors on Youtube – Yoga With Adrienne. She has a ton of great content (some 300+ videos!) with various lengths and topics to find the perfect one for you. Check her out!

Another great resource the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Yoga from our friend Joanna – a great read!

Anyway, I hope todays message doesn’t cause as much drama as yesterday!

To your recovery,

Nick

(update: November 24th with more resources)

I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle it to be completely honest. I was sweating like a sheep dog in the middle of summer. The thing is, we weren’t even doing hot yoga! In the early days of my recovery and sobriety, I wasn’t that healthy but I knew I had to be active.

Yoga seemed like the right idea for me because, to be honest, I thought it would be easier. But, that morning, I was sorely mistaken. You see, yoga is a great full-body workout and when I was detoxing from alcohol, my body was pissed off with me.

Luckily that day I did not puke during downward facing dog but boy did I feel like I wanted to. There are many striking health benefits of yoga for people who aren’t battling addiction problems but what about for those of us who are or are in recovery?

The health benefits apply to all of us and research from Harvard Health had this to say:

Available reviews of a wide range of yoga practices suggest they can reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. In this respect, yoga functions like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends.

By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal — for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly.

We just released a video on the benefits of meditation and prayer which is also linked to the practices of yoga (check it out here).

Since those early days of my recovery, I’ve tried to incorporate yoga and spiritual practices into my weekly approach to healthy living. I couple this with working out, running and generally being active.

If you’re still struggling with alcohol or drug-related addictions please check out our range of courses you can take from the comfort of your home or on the go.

To your sobriety,

Nick

There was only a few minutes left of the run but I felt for sure I was going to pass out. We’d be running for almost 30 minutes straight and I was ready to just crash out. There was something about the run this morning that was particularly hard for me.

I’ve never been much of a runner. Even before I obtained sobriety and way back before addiction I was terrible at it. If I think back to my football/soccer days I remember always being the slowest and worst runner on the team! A bad runner for football/soccer is never a good combo!

I like to snap photos when I’m out running for inspiration later on. Here are some recent ones:

In my sobriety however, I have found an appreciation for being fit and healthy. I try and spend time working out at least a few times a week. For a while I was doing crossfit as well (although I injured my ankle on a run – funny coincidence…) which I really loved. Getting into a gym and throwing some shit around is a ton of fun. It can also be a great stress reliever as well!

There are some incredible health benefits for those of us in recovery which are peer reviewed and part of research findings. Here are the general benefits:

Provide Pleasurable States Without Use of Alcohol
Alcoholics may find exercise to be a positively reinforcing alternative to drinking.

Provide Positive Alternatives to Drinking
Exercise can also serve as a healthy, positive means of filling unstructured time

Reduce Depressive Symptoms and Negative Mood
Both aerobic and strength training exercise programs during the course of alcohol treatment have resulted in decreased depressive and anxiety symptoms

Decrease Stress Reactivity and Improve Coping
Exercise can serve to reduce stress reactivity and to supplant drinking as a primary coping mechanism

Increase Self-Efficacy
Enhancing one’s self-efficacy is likely to result in positive behavior change.

Decrease urges to drink
Moderate-intensity exercise may provide short-term relief from urges to drink alcohol

All these findings (plus more details if you want to view the scientific details can be found via the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health website ) point to something that should be a cornerstone in your recovery; physical activity.

For more information on how you can implement changes to your health and exercise check out Section 2 Lecture 3 of the 30 Day Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Plan

Here’s to your recovery,

Nick

I spent the day in London today looking around and generally enjoying some of the free culture on display. I’ve been so focused on Live Rehab work lately that just getting out to enjoy the world was a great way to spur creativity and life. Drug and alcohol addiction issues weren’t anywhere in my headspace.

It was the small things of the day that really added up to the greatest impact. The ability to enjoy what was happening without feeling tethered to a drink. Spending time with my family and not looking for a clock to see when I could find my next (insert your drug of choice here).

Sometimes it isn’t about the longer battles and wars that we face as addicts on an ongoing basis. Rather, it’s about the little wins we can find in the daily existence of being clean and sober. I know many people we’ve worked with who wouldn’t have been able to get out on a day like today without worrying where their next fix would come from. Drug and alcohol addiction attacks anytime and any place – and it always attacks.

For those of you in recovery right now, I know it can seem like you might never ever get to that point in your life. I can assure you that you can get there. It will take hard work and you do need a guide to help you along the way. Developing a plan and approach takes effort.

Think about how you got addicted in the first place and how long you have been addicted for. Most people I will assume it is quite a while. In that case, you’re going to have to put in equally as much time in your recovery. The first part of the battle should be to get a 30 day plan in place that gives you the exact steps you need.

This type of plan is especially important because without a plan in place you’re going to be trying to “wing it” on your own. We’ve got courses you can take that will walk you through how to quit things like alcohol, opioids and smoking. Your instructor is a certified chemical addictions counselor, has her MS, BS and certificates as well as having helped over 800 people find their sobriety.

Get our 30 Day Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Plan course for only $10 through the end of this month (31st of October). Drop us a line if you need specific help or want to chat. We’re here to help.

Here’s to your recovery,

Nick