March 29, 2021

Anxiety in Recovery

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Recovery
anxiety in recovery

Anxiety is something that every single one of us has experienced at some point in our lives. It’s a common reaction and response to certain situations and events. When we’re faced with anything uncertain or unknown, it’s pretty natural to feel nervous, worried, or uneasy. There isn’t anything wrong with being anxious from time to time, but anxiety can become much more than just an occasional response to certain conditions. For some, anxiety can become a persistent feeling. Anxiety can even grow to the point of being a disorder. In fact, it’s the most common mental health issue among adults, affecting over 40 million people. Given how common anxiety is, especially for alcoholics and addicts, let’s take a closer look at anxiety in general and how we can use the tools of recovery to help us with anxiety issues. The Issue With Anxiety In some circumstances, anxiety is a normal…

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March 19, 2021

This Too Shall Pass

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Recovery
this too shall pass

We’ve all heard the phrase “this too shall pass” — it’s downright ancient. For as long as we can remember, people have been using this little golden phrase to comfort themselves and each other in times of trouble and hardship. It reminds us that the storm raging around us, or inside us, is only temporary. The dark only lasts for one night at a time, then it’s light again. For some enlightened thinkers, the phrase is even something to remember in good times or moments of celebration. Good or bad, it will pass. It all does. But rather than make us sad or upset about the transient nature of life, this phrase reminds us to stay cheerful when things are rough, and to live more fully and be totally present when things are good because it will pass. All we have is now. The problem comes for us when the…

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March 10, 2021

Men’s Issues: Vulnerability

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Lifestyle
vulnerability

At Jaywalker Lodge, we deal exclusively with men seeking lasting recovery. Most of our men have also struggled with finding and maintaining recovery over the long term. That’s what makes us Jaywalkers, just like the parable in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. But in our efforts to help men in recovery and from our experience of being men in recovery, we have noticed that there are a lot of issues, hang-ups, and tricky situations that occur frequently. Whether they are new to recovery or seasoned alumni, old or young, fathers or sons, these concerns and problems affect a lot of men — maybe even most men. These issues that pop up most frequently deserve a closer look to see if we can offer any helpful insights or solutions. Helping men in recovery is what we do here at Jaywalker Lodge and is the main reason why we delve into Men’s Issues…

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March 1, 2021

Resting on Our Laurels

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Insights
resting on our laurels

This may not be a commonly used phrase anymore, but it still gets a lot of airtime in the rooms of recovery. The words may sound old-fashioned or even silly, but they illuminate an attitude about actions that can be very subversive and potentially very destructive. We may not even be aware that we hold this attitude, and it will undermine us all the more if it goes unseen. This odd phrase means well and is meant to save us from avoidable trouble. So let’s take a closer look at what this phrase can help us understand about life and our recovery. What Does It Mean? To “rest on our laurels” means to relax and rely on our past achievements or success as justification for not achieving new things or new success. It comes from the ancient Greek and Roman societies, where high-ranking and high-achieving people were awarded crowns made…

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February 24, 2021

Putting the Past in Its Proper Place

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Recovery
moving on from past trauma

Everyone has something in their past that weighs on them or still troubles them in other ways. We all have a moment of regret or remorse, something we wish we had done differently or hadn’t done at all. Perhaps there is something we wish we had done. It’s quite common to have some negativity in our past. Some of us even have trauma from our past that still hangs around. In an ideal world, we could effortlessly process our experiences, grow and learn from them, and then move forward. Unfortunately, most people don’t learn how to do this until later in life. For alcoholics and addicts, we usually don’t pick up on any of these techniques until we find the program of recovery. And even then, it’s quite a steep learning curve. Our pasts before our disease took hold are often filled with painful memories or feelings of shame and…

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February 19, 2021

Emotional Extremes (and Why We Should Avoid Them)

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Recovery
emotional extremes

Emotions are a part of human life. No matter who you are, what you are, or where you’re from, it’s incredibly likely that you have feelings. Some of us may be more sensitive than others, while others may have lost touch with their emotions or tried to bury them. For those of us who are alcoholics and addicts, it’s just as likely that we are in any of these camps. Typically speaking, alcoholics and addicts are more susceptible to our feelings and emotions. They affect us more acutely, often causing outbursts or drastic actions to avoid them altogether. Our sensitivity to our emotions can be a hard thing for us to admit, but the literature of recovery is pretty clear about it. We drank or used because we liked the feeling. We celebrated happily and indulged even more. Then we did it too much and lost control. We suffered consequences that…

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February 10, 2021

Men’s Issues: Ch-ch-changes

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Lifestyle
dealing with change in recovery

At Jaywalker Lodge, we deal exclusively with helping men find recovery from alcoholism and addiction. We specialize in helping those who have had difficulty achieving or maintaining recovery. We were like that ourselves, and it is a great joy to share the things that helped us overcome our chronic relapse and find lasting recovery. In the course of doing just that, we see men struggle with a variety of issues. These range from mental and emotional health issues to trauma, spiritual crises, and even things like societal pressures. Over time, we have begun to see such troublesome issues arise enough to be considered common. Though we each have a unique life experience, there is much that unites us in commonality. Just as we share the disease of alcoholism and addiction, and we also share in the solution to that problem —  the 12-Steps of recovery. There are other problems and…

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February 1, 2021

Connecting With Your Higher Power in Nature

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni, Recovery
higher power in nature

For people worldwide, from all walks of life, connecting with our own personal higher power is an important and rewarding pursuit. Whether we are alcoholics, addicts, or otherwise, many of us recognize some sort of power in the universe that is greater than ourselves. Especially for those of us who are in recovery, discovering and connecting to a higher power is a vital element of our success. Indeed, the connection to and reliance upon our higher power is one of the most central and important elements of recovery. This is not a roadblock to recovery for those who dislike the concepts of religion or spirituality or are unfamiliar with them. Simply working the 12-Steps will help us with any issues we have in this area. The wording of recovery says that we will have “a spiritual awakening as a result of these (12) steps…” It comes as we work the…

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January 29, 2021

Maintaining Priorities in Recovery

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni
priorities in recovery

Life is complicated right now for just about everyone, but especially for people with health challenges. All the craziness in the world today can be extra difficult for those with mental and emotional health issues. Many alcoholics and addicts in recovery today also experience mental and emotional health issues. Whether we have additional issues or not, being in recovery and keeping in healthy spiritual condition comes with a list of certain things that we must do. Despite the pandemic and all that has come with it, life still has its regular ups and downs as well. For those of us in recovery, we must turn some of our thoughts and energy to keeping our priorities in line. This is a straightforward way to ensure that we keep our recovery stable and safe. What Are the Right Priorities? The specifics are going to look a little bit different for each of…

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January 18, 2021

Men’s Issues: I Don’t Want To Look Weak

Posted by Jaywalker in Alumni
vulnerability

Nobody likes to look weak, and even worse is feeling weak. Culturally, men are trained to avoid any signs of weakness as best they can. Think about that for a second. The word fear isn’t used, but men are conditioned to fear weakness. Even more than that, we’re biologically wired to fear things we think are weak. Nobody can see us cry. No one must ever hear us ask for help. We can never let anyone challenge us, or “punk” us, or make us feel small. Because if any of that happened, we’d be weak. And weak men lose. Right? Not really. Mostly all of this is wrong. And I’m not talking about some reverse-psychology reframing of things to make them sound tough; I’m talking about actual strength. We don’t have a clear picture of that in society today. Male role models are typically superhero muscular, handsome, and wealthy. But…

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