Lightbulb moment recovery coach

Day 3

I think i may have asked to much of myself today. My three tasks were,

1. Complete two gym classes. Hot boxing and hot yoga one after the other. Go back for some Personal training.

2. Rake up the leaves out the back and weed the garden bed against the fence.

3. Clean out the fridge and the pantry.

I have nearly completed all my tasks, but comprises had to be made as well. I remembered this morning i had promised to go over to my father-in-law house, which meant that time in my day would be taken up, so i skipped the hot boxing, went home and started the pantry.

It is amazing how much food we waste, because we have forgotten what we have at the back of the pantry. We had lasagne for tea tonight, because i had two boxes of lasagna sheets that needed to be used. (Sorry deleted the finished pantry photo)

I then headed off to the gym to the hot yoga, where i found out we were really just going to be pretzels. My hips and knee did feel better from the heat, and enabled me to be able to participate in my personal training better. Last week everything was hurting.

The fridge was next, there isn’t much in there, but the shelves were a little terrible and the fruit and veggie containers were full of bits of left over greens. The sauses and jam had spilled as well. Nice and clean again. Hygienic conditions for when i do the shopping in a few days.

Because i make lasagne from scratch, meat and sauce not the pasta it took up a lot of my afternoon, and i was only able to rake up the leaves out the back. It does look nicer.

I also was able to put some washing on and fold the towels off the line. So over all a very productive day.

I have to remember not to let my ego take over and allow me to push myself beyond my limits. I have to also remember not to be too hard on myself, because i am proud of myself for at least tackling 95% of my tasks today.

When we are in recovery, we have to remember to take a day at a time, and Easy does it.

Tomorrow is a busy day for me at work, so i am going to set a smaller more realistic goals for myself.

1. Walk my client, who is in a wheelchair to the shopping center instead of driving. Tracking this so i can see where we have been and how far. (I have been putting this off because of it being winter).

2. Go to a Pilates class in the afternoon. ( i am aiming to get exercises into everyday)

3. Only have one coffee for the day. ( my water consumption is terrible)

Happy Monday everyone. Xxx

Day 2

Sunday is a day of rest i was told when i was a little girl in sunday school. As an adult i still believe this. I have always enjoyed a Sunday that involves, not much, but because i am trying to rewire my brain into not Procrastinating so much i have to continue this new habit of setting myself three tasks to do everyday.

Today i set myself some easy tasks.

1. Go to the gym to do some Chi ball.

2. Go to the football and hopefully see my team win.

3. Find something healthy to eat at the footy.

I woke up just before 8am and considered canceling my chi ball class, as it was so nice and warm under the doona and it was Sunday morning after all, but i had promised to meet someone there, and i don’t really like canceling on people, because i don’t really like people doing it to me. 😣

I haven’t been to a class in awhile. (Procrastination at its best on a Sunday ), but i am glad i went. Its a brilliant class that helps to keep you focused and moving so that my hips, and knee don’t hurt so much. It hopefully help strengthen them. Exercise i am finding is a great release of pent up energy.

Home again to get ready to head into the city to watch the footy. (Australian rules for those who might be reading this from another part of the world) A game that has you sitting on the edge of your seat most of the time, though today while i watched my favourite football team Geelong, who are sitting on the top of the ladder, lose to my fiancee team Hawthorn, who isn’t even in the top 8. I was able to go and find something healthy for my lunch, which i thought would be impossible, seeing as when i asked my fiancee to get me somthing healthy he brought back two pies. 😂

The Thai beef salad was delicious. And a bottle of water, it was all just the right size. Was it cheap no, but then nothing really is at the footy. I had completed my tasks. I was happy. 😁

Did i treat myself?

Yes, i could not go past a hot jam donut. No pictures needed of that, because it was Sunday and i hadn’t said i wouldnt be completely good. 😝😛

Tomorrow is Monday and i have only got an two hour shift, which i don’t mind as i am trying to find a good work life balace. Something i think will help with my mental health and Procrastination problem.

So my tasks for tomorrow are,

1. Complete two gym classes. Hot boxing and hot yoga one after the other. Go back for some Personal training. 🥊🧘‍♀️💪

2. Rake up the leaves out the back and weed the garden bed against the fence. 🍃🍁☘

3. Clean the fridge and the pantry out. ♻️

I hope everyone one has had a great weekend. 💟

Day 1.

Well i have to say i am impressed with myself today. I set myself the goal yesterday that i would complete three tasks that i had been procrastinating about.

Yesterday i said that i would fix up my potted garden, give the boganvilla a hair cut and i would wash the floors.

Three things i had been putting off, my green bin is now over flowing, and anything else garden wise will have to wait till after Thursday when the bin is emptied, and its not only from the boganvilla but the rose bush i hadn’t trimmed back yet. While the boganvilla is a pain with the nearly 1 cm thorns, i would much rather tackle it than the the extremely thorny roses.😣😭🌹

All the dead leaves have been removed from my pots and they have all had a feed. White oil sprayed to protect from the caterpillars. 🐛 I rearranged all my pots to help them enjoy the winter sun. ☀️

Floors where swept and washed. Jug of dirty water to prove it. Amazing how quickly the floors get dirty, but then we wear our shoes inside and we have a blue heeler and a bullpug who i think sheds more hair than any other dog i know. (Lucky she is cute)😁

Besides those three things i have done today, i have started the process of ordering my wedding flowers and all that intails with that.💐👰 Drove to my nail lady and had my nails fixed.💅 Love gardening gloves, because they are still looking pretty. (My nail lady Lisa told me she would kill me if i ruined my nails so soon after having them done), she does a great job and i had full confidence that i and my nails would be fine.

Now to have a hot shower and go out for a while with friends.

Tomorrow’s tasks i think i will keep simple seeing as it’s Sunday.

1. Go to chi ball at the gym ( would love a long sleep in) 😴😴

2. Head into the city to the MCG to watch my football team Geelong hopefully beat my fiancee’s team Hawthorn. (There’sthat 50/50 chance my team might be tired, but i don’t think they will be.) 😜😁

3. Eat as healthy as i can at the footy. (Now there is a test in its self. 😁🍔😣)

Have a great night everyone. Be happy and safe.

I come home everyday, do the bare minimum and then sit on this couch.

Everyday i think to myself, i need to do all of these things, get rid of the junk accumulating around my house, get into the garden and weed, prune and to feed my over abundance of roses. I think everyday i will go to the gym, i will eat healthy and i will lose the weight i want, before i get married next year. And every day i come home from work and i feel exhausted, its winter here and i use that as an excuse to not go out into the garden, or get my new project done. But then there is always an excuse.

Who am i kidding?

Just myself right?

My head is in my hand and i am shaking my head at the self pity and victim role that is playing out in my head.

I dont like being a victim, dont allow others around me to play that role, i am the most positive person you will ever meet, but then at the same time i am very good at hiding behind that, so no one can see me, just like this picture, you can only see a little bit, the little bit i want you to see.

Procrastination has been a slow and steady decent onto my life. I have seen it coming and haven’t move quick enough out of its way. It has really hit me, now that i am an empty nester and do not have my childs school routine to keep me on my toes.

I know its about routine and changing habits. I have been in recovery from many different things, now i need to be in recovery from procrastination.

Lightbulb moment here and yes it is scary. I need to set myself a challenge, to teach my self not to procrastinate so much.

How do i do this? I have put a lot of thought into this while i have sat on the couch and procrastinated about what to do. My theory is that i have to set myself three tasks per day and complete them, with doing this everyday for a year i will teach my self how to get off my butt and get things done.

Hopefully it will end my Procrastination, and it will improve my mental health and self worth.

Writting in this space, within this community everyday will help me over come my fear of writing too. (Hopefully)😆

Photo evidence has to be provided. Sometimes things are going to over lap, but thats ok, because my garden and the gym never go away. 😂😂

Keeping a virtual diary of my achievements and fails will also keeps me accountable for experiment.

Tomorrow is the 20th of July, my three things i would like to get done are,

1. Fix up my potted garden in the deck area.

2. Cut back my boganvillia

3. Wash the floors in the house.

See you all tomorrow.

Night. Xx

Yikes, here we are half way through the year and i haven’t posted anything.

Fear really gets me. All those nagging questions that we ask ourselves, when we embark on this writing journey. Is my writing good enough? Will any body read it? What happens if nobody likes it? Am i going to be pulled up for all my grammar mistakes? Literally i can not remember everything my English teacher taught me. Though i do remember my English teacher’s telling i had talent, but i didn’t believe them, wish i had now.

Rejection really goes hand in hand with that fear factor. I have written a lot of stories over my life and never thought about them being read by others. Even all the lovely comments i got from readers here about my other posts terrified and excited me all at the same time. Fear and rejection again rearing its ugly head. Every day i say to myself just get up and write just a little bit, but most days i find some excuse.

Last week i went to a work shop to help me to better expand my blog, something i had put on hold for awhile while i work on this fear and rejection anxiety, it was a massive eye opener for me to see so many others there in the same place as me. Lightbulb moments were popping in my head like blinding lights.

Fear stepped in when two ladies talked to me about my blog and encouraged me to keep going and all i had really said was that i want to help people in recovery. And not just recovery from addictions but from life as well.

I am in recovery right this minute from my anxiety over being rejected as a writer. I am a great believer in what ever happens happens, but i also realised that procrastinating and allowing fear to rule my life will never get me those writting dreams i always dreamed of.

So finger out of bum, i am getting of the fence and i am facing this fear and rejection on face to face. After all how can i get people to trust and believe in me in me, if i dont trust and believe in myself.

Spirituality is sometimes a confronting word.

What does it mean to you?

For me i believe in a higher power, but i can not quit say GOD!

When i was little, i went to Sunday school, at St Margrates church hall in my little home town. One sunday we went down to the local police station for a meet and greet, we were all horrified when one of the policemen ruffed up the sunday school teacher and threw him in the jail cell. The policeman looked at us and said “that is what happens, if you get into trouble with the law!”, to this day besides a few speeding and parking tickets i have never been in trouble with the police.

I did religious instruction in school and was taught about God and his son. In my family we were not forced to go, we only went if we wanted to.

I never understood the bible, still think some of it is rubbish, but used it to my advantage when i wrote a year 12 A paper on the Anglican female nuns who wanted to become ministers. As i needed a quote from the bible about us all being equals. The minister was very happy to help.

St Margrates church hall was were i found myself one June evening in 2013, waiting for the meeting to open. I sat outside wondering why i was there. I had been sober for 18 years by this stage and thought that i didnt need to go, but my mother had thought it was a good idea, i was struggling with being back in Victoria and she thought i could make friends with new people.

When i entered the hall it was like stepping back into time. I was five years old again. I also knew that my own father had sat in this hall for the same reason i was that night.

I made myself coffee, chattered with the other members, i had a brave shell around me, but i was terrified on the inside. I sat at the table, looked up at the 12 steps and traditions, thought to myself “i dont know if i have to that”, but really i did.

I thought about all the God words up on those banners, and thought i dont believe in God. I now know that everyone grapples with the God word when they come in to the rooms for the first time.

Just the other day, i had a friend say to me that i should change the words of the 12 steps to omit the word God and replace it with higher power, in my posts on my Facebook page. He said it was off putting. I told him that for us all in the beginning its off putting, but why change something that works.

It says a God of our understanding. For the first 18 years of my sobriety my God, my understanding was my parents. I didn’t want to disappoint or shame them again because of my addictive nature.

I think through out the years of white knuckling sobriety, i knew that there were spirits or a higher power watching over me. I could be completely desperate for something good to happen, i would be at my wits end and at the 11th hour my miracle would happen.

My gratitude would be in abundance, but then i would let myself get back to that desperate state again. My instincts were very good too. My gut usually helped guide me in the right direction. Sometimes i would make a mistake, but now i know, it was my higher power at work.

When i had my break down, i knew it had all disappeared and i felt completely lost and extremely empty. Once again my higher power and the universe were teaching me a lesson.

When i sat in St Margrates church hall and listened to the stories of the miracle that was AA, i came to believe that the was a power greater than me at work.

Do i believe its God? I dont know it could be, but then that could be because i was raised as an anglican and thats what i was taught. I have looked at different religious groups and i realise that all though they believe in a different entity, they are all praying for the same thing, PEACE AND HARMONY, for all man kind.

Our disease does not discriminate between people, regardless of their, sex, race, religion or social standing. We are the same. We have been powerless over our addictions and we have found a God or a higher power of our own understanding to help guide us through our recovery.

What ever spiritually is to you, cherish it and nourish it, to help you be where you need to be in this world.

What is recovery? It’s so many things, that you could recovering from. Life is so full of things that force you to rethink things and to recover from something that has either held you back or down. Something that has broken your heart or your spirit.

Sometimes we seem to recover from one thing only to have to go back to the start again and recover all over again, from something else. It can sometimes be a never ending cycle that we can not seem to break free from.

For me i have and will always be in recovery from my alcoholism. I live in harmony with that part of my life, but i have had to do the 12 steps so many times now and not just for my addiction.

I realise now that everytime i am in recovery from something, i need to 12 step myself again and again. When i was first in early recovery i learnt about the 12 step program, but my youth and ego didnt allow me to really take to much notice. I understood it and thought i only had to do it once. How wrong i was!!!!

For the first 18 years of my recovery, i white knucked it, didn’t attend meetings. I became a marter and a narcissist at the same time. I would fall on my sword to avoid an argument, but i wanted to control everything and everyone around me. I would enter relationships wanting to only please, would manipulate the situation to keep a bad relationship going so that i wouldn’t be alone, it was a never ending cycle that lead me to have a complete mental breakdown.

In my recovery from my breakdown, i threw myself into my work, i did my service work helping the elderly and the disadvantaged, i thought that if i helped others then it would make everything OK! Once again i was wrong. It did help, it gave me perspective about life, but it didnt fill that hole that was large in my soul.

When i came back into the rooms, i layed my heart and soul on the table and started at

Step 1. I admitted that i had become powerless over my life, that i was a mess.

Step 2. I became to believe that my higher power had kicked my butt back into the rooms for a reason.

Step 3. I made peace with my higher power

Step 4. I wrote out an inventory two pages long.

Step 5. I confessed my wrongs to my higher power and my sponsor.

Step 6. Asked for my defects of character to be removed.

Step 7. Humbly asked my higher power to also remove my shortcomings

Step 8. Wrote out a list of all those i had harmed.

Step 9. I made amends with all those on my list and most importantly i made amends with myself.

Step 10. Continued taking inventory and admitting when i was wrong, but learned when it was appropriate to do so, and not when others thought i should.

Step 11. Continued to talk to and have faith in my higher power.

Step 12. Having realized that i needed to do my service work within the rooms picked up a tea towel and listened to speakers and the old timers. Held the hands of those who were in early recovery and continued to work on myself.

When i went through these steps again, i realised that these steps can be used for everything in my life. Heart break, loss, sugar addiction, and anything that i feel is holding me back.

This is what recovery is to me. The freedom to be able to live my life on lifes terms and how to be at peace. The gapping hole in my soul is nearly closed.

Phew i am glad that 2018 is drawing to a close. It has been a year of great saddness, with small touches of happiness. It has been a year that has taught me great strength and shown me that i am stronger than i thought.

My sobriety has been tested to the max this year. If anything was going too make me fall off the wagon then 2018 would have been the year to do it.

Death and mayhem have dominated my life this year, which has shaken me to the core. My heart is so very sore from the tears i have shed, with each passing of a friend or family member. Six people to date have left my life or created a hole where they once where in my heart.

I believe that this year has shown me that, its time for a change. Its time to focus on me and what i need to achieve in my life time. I have had a pretty full life so far, but there is still more to do.

My childhood was spent moving around in Victoria with my family. I have witnessed my parents ugly divorce, followed by my grandmother’s passing. My first mini break down at the age of 14.

I experience the first suicide that still haunts me today. I witnessed my mother being raped and the justice system failing us. I was just only 15.

My alcoholic gene has kicked in by this stage. I was off and running. Down hill quickly. I become a teen mum and kick my drinking habit at the age of twenty.

I become a single mum, move to Queensland and raise my child there with the help and support of friends. I work my butt off to put her through private school.

Always just keeping my head above water. I have learned how to go out in society and to mix with others while they are drinking. I experiment with drugs, always conscious of my addictive personality. They do not help me.

I lived through bad relationships, always hoping to find my Mr right. One after another i am running myself into the ground.

I hit a really hard wall and my spirit is broken. I work on mending myself, it takes me nearly 5 years to find what really helped me to over come my depression.

It wasn’t my really good doctor, who helped me to get counseling, he was not upset when i didnt want to take his prescription drugs. Although his support and understanding was a great help and a turning point.

I traveled to Europe, hoping that one of my dreams that was finally coming true would help me find the peace in my life that craved so very badly. It wasn’t what i expected and it didnt turn out as i had hoped. I would go again, just not with the person i went with before.

I found my salvation inside the meeting rooms of Alcoholic Anonymous. There i learnt how to live life on lifes terms, how to love myself again and how to stand within a storm of life, without it affecting me to much.

It gave me the ability to learn to love fully and to be loved fully. Walking into those rooms and sitting down, taking my painted ears off and putting on my listening ears, gave me the chance to meet Mr right. Has given me the ability to own a house and live in a relationship that i thought was not possible.

These abilities have protected me this year. It has given me strength. It has also given me the strength to support my fiance during these hard times as well. It has taught me to keep my ego in check and to not take things too personally.

I am ready to take what i have learnt in 2018 and to make a difference in 2019. This years struggles are going to be next years triumphs.

Goodbye 2018, i can not thank you for the memories, but i will thank you for showing me what i need to achieve in 2019.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton