Do you know what keeps conflict and the power struggle in place? Yep! Criticism. Criticism kills love. Criticism can kill a marriage. There is no such thing as constructive criticism in intimate relationships. When we criticize others we hurt them and we hurt ourselves. When we criticize our partner we freeze them in the very…
Our society is in the midst of an emotional meltdown. We are restless, irritable, fearful, frustrated and our tempers are about to blow. None of this is how we want our lives to be, but our pressure cooker society has pushed us to the emotional limit. We deserve relief from getting tormented by daily stress. …
There seems to be a common misconception that when we stop drinking and using, out of nowhere we will become these perfect people. Alcoholics and addicts (non-alky’s too) have an inner need for perfection. From time to time in recovery, I hear this thought-process: “I was only bad when I was out there drinking and…
Hello Friends! It’s time to make 2018 a year to Reimagine Relationships! New Year’s resolutions are ultimately about our relationship with ourselves and with others. Is improving your relationship on your list of New Year’s resolutions, but you don’t know how to make that happen? What if the relationship you have with yourself is the…
One of the biggest challenges that recovering people deal with are relationships. It is important to realize that building a relationship in recovery is a difficult and complex process. Almost a fault, I hear people oversimplifying relationship problems by using slogans to instruct recovering people about recovery and relationships. Slogans like “Turn it Over!”…
What is often missing in addiction recovery is deep-feeling (inner child) work. The word addiction can be confusing because most addicts/alcoholics like myself have put the cork in the bottle. We stopped the addiction, but haven’t stopped the addictiveness. We go to another addiction. The addictiveness is like the “hole” in the soul. The “hole”…
There is almost no bigger challenge in recovery than being married or in a committed relationship. I say this having worked in the field of mental health and addiction recovery for many years. During that time I have come across hundreds of recovering addicts and non-alcoholics who have struggled to maintain a loving relationship. From…