When I sat to write this week, all I could think of was the Journey I took some years back wherein I climbed Mount Sinai. All I could see in front of my eyes was the view from the top of that Mountain…and for whatever reason, I just knew I had to dig around in…
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Can Travel be the Ultimate Test of Your Sobriety? Tips for Sober Travel
Whether for pleasure or business, traveling can be challenging for those working hard to stay sober. Traveling can feel like the ultimate test of your sobriety. With a little planning and foresight, you can minimize the risk and enjoy travel by keeping these tips in mind: Become familiar with your destination When researching a vacation…
Words Create Worlds
I want to write to you today about words. Yep, words. And not just 4-letter ones either, though often they are my favourites 😉. You see, today I sat here a full 45 minutes pondering the blank page before me, conjuring some sort of magic to pour forth from my fingertips and produce words on…
The Caring Quotient: Balancing Serving with Self-Care
According to Google’s dictionary, the word quotient can have two meanings: “a (mathematical) result obtained by dividing one quantity by another” or “a degree or amount of a specified quality or characteristic.” When it comes to those in the field of health care, I have noticed that often the numerator (the care provided) can become…
Substance Abuse and Holistic Treatment Therapy, Is It Right for You?
A holistic treatment approach for substance abuse disorder is a form of healing that treats the whole-person. While standard treatments only consider body, emotions, and mind, holistic treatment includes spirit too. Therapists believe that when one of these elements doesn’t work properly, it affects the others. The primary goal of holistic therapy is to achieve…
The Patient’s Power: The Physician’s Office
Catchy title, right? Let’s examine the power you have as a patient and how it can benefit you. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz who didn’t understand that she had had the power to return home to Kansas, a patient often has no clue about her power in the sacrosanct doctor-patient relationship. Why not?…
Finding Your Purpose in Life and Recover from Substance Use Disorder
Having a purpose in life creates a focus that fills the void discovered in recovery. But why is it so hard to identify your life’s purpose? When we are young, we aren’t taught to reflect on our purpose in life. Discovering our life’s purpose takes real self-examination and awareness. You know you are getting closer…
Community: Lessons from the Ant
When I was in nursing school, there were many times when I wondered if I would survive, for each week brought new knowledge that had to be acquired, new applications of knowledge already assimilated, and another opportunity to prove I was progressing in that knowledge (tests). So, I was looking forward to studying for and…
Building a Healthy Lifestyle with Social Support as the Foundation
Habit building is hard. Just ask anyone who has ever made a New Year’s resolution and given up on it by February! One of the best ways to be successful at behavior change that fuels long-term, sustainable, healthy habits is to have a support system. Knowing that you have people in your corner who are…
