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There is no two ways about it, quitting smoking is very hard to do. Quitting smoking while in the first few months of recovery can be even tougher. When you first go into alcohol recovery the general rule is to not even attempt to quit smoking until after your first year of sobriety. There is just too much going on in your first year of sobriety and you need to focus on your recovery. I’m a firm believer in this. One task at a time until you master the task. However, here comes the do as I say not as I do part, smoking was driving me nuts. I really hate the smell of cigarettes and I was sure that I would never meet the women of my dreams if I was stinking like cigarettes. So against others advice I embarked on the quit smoking path. I have quit smoking twice before. Once for 13 years and another time for six months. My recollection of both occasions was that it wasn’t that bad, not fun, but not that bad. Boy, was I wrong! It was tough, really tough. I had about six false starts before it kicked in. It wasn’t [...]

  I’m sitting on the deck of my four hundred square foot apartment watching the sunset. I can not believe how lucky I am, how much my life has changed in the last ten months. It’s been almost a year since I moved here. I was still drinking when arrived. I still remember the day I said enough was enough. I got on the internet, did a quick google search for AA meetings and I was off and running. Well, off and running the next day, I still had a twelve pack in the refrigerator I needed to kill. I couldn’t pour it down the drain, that would have been a waste of money. Now I’m sitting here, ten months later typing away on the old Sony Vaio that I managed to resurect, watching the sunset in the west without a care in the world. I always feel this way after I finish my walking meditation. I have always been a walker, so when I started meditating walking meditation was a perfect fit for me. Walking meditation, simply put is just walking while you focus in on the present. You focus on the simple act of walking, one step at [...]

I’m now nine months and some days into my sobriety and I believe I owe a large part of that to my new and improved connection with my spiritual side aka my higher power. I’ve discovered that there are two ways that my Higher Power speaks to me. One is through other people, and the other is through meditation. There is nothing better than clearing my mind of all the nonsensical stuff that i think about all day long to focus on the things that really matter, my sobriety, my family & my friends. For those of you who are new to meditation I’m going to share with you how I practice my art of meditation. I am by no means an expert, in fact I consider myself a novice but I consider meditation so important to my sobriety that I want to share my thoughts and practice with you. Take from it what you will and hopefully others will share how they meditate as well. Location, Location Location I need a spot away from any distractions. Turn the cell phone off, no TV, no radio, no cats crying for food, no one to bother you. Solitude is the name [...]