May 10th, 2016 - THERE IS NO "EASY" IN RECOVERY

 I am going to put my daily list first from now on as the blog is now officially back up and running.  So here it is:

1. Gratitude:  I am grateful for 27 days of sobriety!  Iggy's continued support and guidance during IOP.  The new bunch of friends I am making in IOP.  They are a chatty group and offer up some good thoughts, but they'll never replace my brothers from other mothers that I met during Inpatient.
2. Daily Coping Skills:  IOP sessions.  Meditation.  Blogging the events of the day.
3. Daily Goal:  Sifting through the reams of paperwork I received from Inpatient and attempting to put them into some logical order subject matter-wise and get them into a binder for easier reading.  (THAT'S A WORK IN PROGRESS!)
4. PSA:  I love, respect and accept myself as I am.

Today's IOP session dealt with the differences between multi-tasking and prioritization. 


Multi-tasking leads to stress, which in turn leads to stress.  Stress leads to chaos and chaos has the potential to trigger someone to go back to drinking/using.


Meanwhile, Prioritization leads to structure.  Structure is what we recovering addicts need.  We use it to build a solid foundation on which we can build on our future decisions.


I mentioned that I would have to redo my resume and remove the word 'multi-tasker' and replace it with something like 'able to prioritize various work projects'... or something like that.  I shared my frustration with the group about the quality of jobs I am currently receiving via email.  Once I get this new resume cleaned up, I hope it will bring in better job offers through Career Builder and Monster.


I was told by both Iggy and the guys that I was stressing myself out just talking about the resume and to take it easy and treat it like my recovery... one day at a time.  Someone referenced the whole tree/weed scenario Iggy spoke about yesterday.  Personal problems/Addictions are the tree/weed.  Remove the tree or weed and another one just grows in its place.  I have to go to the root below the surface to get rid of it. 


So, I guess I still have a little anxiety issue I need to work through.  It was also mentioned that in recovery we sometimes have to make decisions that require us to be a tad bit selfish.  It's not easy, but then as the title of today's post sort of says... the word 'easy' isn't really used in recovery.  I get that. 


Iggy's parting comment was (paraphrased here)... "Our lives are at stake here and we have to fight very hard in recovery to save our lives." 


Amen to that!


Everyone be well and keep working it one day at a time.  Blog at you tomorrow.