I’ve been wrestling with self-inflicted pressure that turns choices into requirements. I’m typically intrinsically motivated but can still get tripped up by extrinsic forces like approval, guilt, fear of disappointing people, and that inner “should’a” self-talk.

I’ve actually found a way to put pressure on myself to live the perfect recovery life, trying to build a perfect routine going to AA, church, trying social groups, hobbies, and even walking my dog. How easily I start to measure my recovery by how many things I can commit to and be perfectly consistent. Protecting my sobriety and my stroke recovery must factor in what supports my brain and body, not what fills my calendar. Recovery is building a life I can comfortably live inside where serenity is a valid metric.

I challenge anyone who relates to “should’a” self-talk to try one small experiment this week: pick one thing you’ve labeled as a requirement for yourself and relabel it as a choice. Instead of saying “I need to” say “I get to.” Notice if what started out as an obligation gets promoted into something fun.

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#EmotionalSobriety #StrokeRecovery #MentalHealth #SoberLiving #Recovery

My expectations are resentments under construction. Learned in sobriety, praying for someone I’m resentful toward helps me move toward forgiveness by remembering we’re all flawed and “sick in some way.” I realized, however, it can still carry an underlying tone of “I forgive you for not being what I wanted you to be.” A friend suggested to me that praising the other person can move us further into acceptance.

Praise removes the expectation entirely as well as the need to control someone’s character or rewrite who they are. Praising is choosing to see the value in another person’s temperament and God’s design, and even recognizing that what irritates me might be a strength in their life.

This same practice of praise can be turned inward too. Learning to praise myself, accept my own wiring, and remembering that the parts of me that I sometimes judge harshly, like my anxiety and sensitivity, can be my superpowers.

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#EmotionalSobriety #resentments #radicalacceptance #expecations #ego

Yesterday I finished an amazing book! It’s called Unexpected Awakening: 22 Days at a Buddhist Monastery Freed Me from Abuse by Laurie S. Jacobson (Available on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/09rqj0Ln)

It’s a MUST READ for anyone who’s ever stayed too long in a relationship that was breaking you. While this book tells a story, it is a testimony of resilience of the human spirit. There is a beautiful series of synchronicities throughout the book that inspire the reader to look beyond what’s in front of you to the hope we can cultivate within ourselves in our darkest seasons.

I was able to relate to the main character on so many levels, from quietly enduring emotional abuse to the restitution of her identity she found at the monastery. I, as a grateful recovering alcoholic and stroke survivor, recognized the deeply familiar feeling of detoxing from the chaos and finding that I’d not yet given up on myself. The mercy and silence at the beginning of a structured recovery journey is uncomfortable but necessary to start rebuilding one’s self-worth.

The psychological toll of emotional abuse is a self-constructed prison, and the author nails articulating her inner battle, fears, and the journey of her awakening. Her journey is not ordinary, in fact, it leaves the reader inspired that there is more going on in this life than what we see with our eyes. The story shows us how small choices and inner dialogue can lead us to freedom, just as it has in my recovery. Noticing, staying, and feeling the hard stuff is the imperfectly human pathway to living a new beautiful life.

That ending? I wasn’t prepared for it, and it absolutely undid me.

On my world famous Reads and Recovery Readometer scale it came in at 5 TAIL WAGS! https://recoverydailypodcast.com/reads-and-recovery/

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Link my low impact Recovery Exercise Program Week 1: https://recoverydailypodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Exercise_Week1.pdf

#emotionalabuse #spiritualawakening #freedomfromabuse #recoveryjourney #abusivemarriage

I’m exercising while I podcast, because my commitment to the show is solid and I’m hoping I can “borrow” a little of that and apply it to building a new exercise routine. It’s odd, but it works! 💃🏻

As I move through an upper-body-and-posture routine today, I talk about an amazing quote I heard: “Some of the worst things in my life never happened.” - Mark Twain. Wow! Doesn’t that just speak volumes about the terrifying stories we tell ourselves, especially during the slow collapse of my life when I felt trapped yet feared change.

Chronic headaches and winter isolation has blurred the line between fatigue and depression lately. It’s important during the winter months to notice if I still feel gratitude and look forward to things. These are signs that I’m experiencing fatigue instead of depression. Recognizing that they feel similar and learning how to distinguish them within me is a big step in stroke recovery.

If you’d like to join my low impact Recovery Exercise Program Week 1, listen to todays episode, and click here for your copy: https://recoverydailypodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Exercise_Week1.pdf

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#StrokeRecoveryExercises #VestibularRecovery #PostStrokeRehab #GratitudeInRecovery #AdaptiveFitness

Exercise used to be second nature for me before my stroke. I used to do flow yoga at 4pm daily, 4-mile walks with Autumn daily, and frequent outdoor runs. Now my vestibular symptoms, headaches, and stubborn back pain turned movement into a whole new negotiation.

So I outsmarted the resistance by pairing exercise with the one routine I never abandon — my podcast!

As I demonstrate Day 1 of a 7-day, 30-minute, low-impact exercise plan ✨SEE LINK TO EXERCISE PLAN BELOW ✨ (sit-to-stands, supported lunges, calf raises, weight shifts, heel-to-toe walking), I also share what’s been rattling around in my head: self-imposed crisis, expectations, ego, motives, and the tension between showing up for others versus showing up for myself. As the inner debate built a verdict, I landed on the role of gratitude in my life after stroke.

Link to Recovery Exercise Program Week 1: https://recoverydailypodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Exercise_Week1.pdf

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#StrokeRecoveryExercises #VestibularRecovery #PostStrokeRehab #GratitudeInRecovery #AdaptiveFitness

An unscripted check-in about enjoying the Super Bowl without looking at the TV, navigating vestibular limits, sober traditions, and the quiet mental load of noticing what affects symptoms.

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#vestibulardiscorder #vestibular #sobersuperbowl #soberlife #vestibularmigraine

Practicing Step 1 in stroke recovery is the activation point of building a psychological immune system. By accepting that my stroke changed my life forever, I could then begin adapting to the injury without exhausting myself in a constant fight against reality. Admitting powerlessness and unmanageability over my neurological injury took two years. In both alcoholism and stroke recovery, denial delayed healing. No matter how hard I tried to act normal, I was only making things worse. Step 1 interrupted that pattern. Once I accepted my disability, I could start healing physically and psychologically.

Each day I make decisions based on today’s brain, not yesterday’s. I must accept my fatigue, visual overload, and pacing as reality not failures. This is the same muscle I built in sobriety, accepting that alcohol was not an option and building a life around that truth. Acceptance stabilized life, strengthening my psychological resilience allowing for healing, adaptation, and hope.

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#strokeRecovery #StepOneAA #AcceptanceInRecovery #PsychologicalResilience #LivingInAcceptance #lifeafterstroke

Step 1 in my stroke recovery started the same way Step 1 did in my sobriety. I had to admit that I’m powerless over my disability just as I did my alcoholism, and that my life had become unmanageable. I was in denial prior to the moment of admission in both situations. No one could see what was wrong with me, and with both, all the pain was between my ears. I could describe symptoms, explain the pain, but I dismissed the severity with both. I tried to function normally while the pain gradually got worse each time. I pushed through and convinced myself the pain would go away. It never did.

Step One taught me to become self-aware. Stroke recovery took that lesson I learned in sobriety and turned the volume all the way up. Now I’m conscious of my eye movement, my pace, my gaze, the tiny shifts that most people don’t even notice but trigger pain for me. I see the same pattern in my addiction cravings and my impulse in stroke recovery to push beyond the limits of what my brain can do. My biggest challenge isn’t knowing what I can’t do, it’s accepting it.

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#StrokeRecovery #AcceptingUnmanageability #RecoveryJourney #RadicalAcceptance #LifeAfterStroke #step1