Blog

In a recent blog entry, we encouraged you to take up journaling as a way to support your sobriety. We considered a number of different approaches that can be useful on your recovery journey. Still and all, it can be hard to start a journal. A blank page—whether in a...

The baseball season is underway—and America’s Pastime might be the sport that best serves as a metaphor for the sobriety journey (though that has not stopped us from using another sport for this purpose). That is because the baseball season is long. Each team plays 162 games—not including Spring Training...

When you think of a diary or journal, what comes to mind? Maybe you imagine a pink notebook outfitted with a tiny padlock to prevent prying eyes from reading your intimate thoughts. Maybe you imagine literary reflections on nature an account of an adventure or the ongoing record of the...

How are you sleeping these days?  If you are like a lot of folks, there is a good chance that the answer to that question is “not that well.” Maybe you have trouble falling asleep. Maybe you have trouble staying asleep. Maybe you have trouble waking up in the morning....

Our minds are both wonderful and mysterious. The combination of thoughts, emotions, and instructions to the various parts of our bodies is a wonder to even think about. How it all works continues to be a subject of research and theorizing. And even if we were to eventually map the...

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that the idea that things can’t get any worse is largely an illusion. Every time it looks like 2020 has thrown everything it has at us, we find ourselves facing new challenges. There is a rampant virus (please wear a mask!). There...

Let’s face it: People can be really judgmental. People judge their coworkers: He sure seems to be out of the office a lot while the rest of us are stuck here working. People judge their neighbors: Can you believe how tall the grass is in their yard? People judge members...

Even though we take our name from a body of water, we would be the first to acknowledge that French Creek Recovery Center is not near any sort of hotbed of surfing. When the Beach Boys sang about “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” Pennsylvania didn’t come up. But for people who are in...

Pick the Right Recovery Program for You When your time in residential treatment comes to an end, it is an excellent idea to start attending meetings with others who are in recovery from a substance use disorder. But how do you know which recovery program is right for you? In...

Forgiveness and New Beginnings Demond Tutu—a South African theologian, a human rights activist, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—has this to say about forgiveness: Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. It is a powerful idea—and it applies to your recovery journey. After all,...