Pursuit of Recovery

04/20/2026

Mom’s Monday
📝 Notes
On 11/23/00 my momma wrote:

“Our conscience operates on the basis of how it is programmed.”

In recovery, this hits deep.

For so long, many of us were running on old programming—beliefs shaped by pain, trauma, addiction, and survival. That inner voice… the one that told us:

* “You’re not enough.”
* “You’ll never change.”
* “Just one more won’t hurt.”

That wasn’t truth. That was conditioning.

Recovery is where we begin to reprogram the conscience.

We start feeding it something new:

* Truth instead of lies
* Faith instead of fear
* Accountability instead of avoidance
* Grace instead of shame

What once felt “natural” to us—numbing out, reacting, people-pleasing, escaping—was simply what we practiced over and over. And what we practice becomes our internal guide.

But here’s the hope:

What was programmed can be reprogrammed.

Through steps, through spiritual growth, through honest conversations, through daily choices—we begin to align our conscience with something higher. God, truth, integrity.

And over time, that inner voice changes.

Instead of condemning, it convicts.
Instead of chaos, it guides.
Instead of destruction, it protects.

In recovery, we don’t just stop using…
we start rewriting the script that once ran our lives.

What old programming is still speaking in your mind today—and what truth can you begin replacing it with?

04/20/2026

Celebrating Pursuit of Recovery’s 6th year! Thank you for your continuing support. We could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

Today, Pursuit Of Recovery™ turns 6 years old. 6 years of showing up. 6 years of walking families through chaos. 6 years of watching people come back to life. And what I know today—more than anything—is this: Recovery is not one-size-fits-all. It is personal. It is layered. And it r

04/16/2026

Let’s talk about this… because this is where so many people get stuck.

When you begin to heal, you disrupt the system you once fit into.

You start saying:

* “No” instead of “maybe”
* “I need space” instead of people-pleasing
* “I choose sobriety” instead of chaos

And suddenly… the people who were comfortable with the old you feel uncomfortable with the new you.

Not because you’re doing something wrong—
but because you’re doing something different.

💥 Your healing shines a light on what others may not be ready to face.
💥 Your boundaries remove access they once had.
💥 Your growth challenges the roles everyone got used to.

So what happens?

Sometimes they question you.
Sometimes they guilt you.
Sometimes they try to pull you back into the version of you they understand.

But hear me clearly:

👉 Recovery is not about staying relatable to others.
It’s about becoming honest with yourself.

🌿 Client Connection / Authority Positioning

This is one of the most critical phases I walk my clients through
learning how to stay grounded in their recovery even when others resist it.

Because real recovery isn’t just about putting substances down…

It’s about:

* Rewiring relationships
* Rebuilding identity
* Reclaiming your voice
* And standing in your truth without apology

🙏 Reflection Question (Engagement Driver)

Where in your life are you shrinking your growth to keep others comfortable?

📣 Call to Action (Soft but Clear)

If you’re navigating this season—where your healing is creating tension in your relationships—you don’t have to do it alone.

I offer private recovery coaching and family guidance through Pursuit of Recovery, where we walk through these exact dynamics with clarity, structure, and support.

📩 Message me or email: info@pursuitofrecovery.com
Let’s protect your recovery—together.

04/15/2026

Step One: “We admitted we are powerless over our emotions—that our lives had become unmanageable.”

At first glance, this step can feel uncomfortable—even offensive.

“Powerless over my emotions? Aren’t I supposed to control them?”

But Step One isn’t about weakness.
It’s about truth.

What does “powerless over our emotions” really mean?

It doesn’t mean you don’t have feelings.
It doesn’t mean you’re broken.
And it definitely doesn’t mean you’ll never have peace.

It means this:

When left unchecked, our emotions can run the show—and when they do, we lose our ability to respond in healthy ways.

We don’t choose the first feeling that rises up—
the anxiety, the anger, the shame, the fear.

But without awareness or tools, we do start reacting:
• We shut down
• We lash out
• We isolate
• We people-please
• We try to control everything (and everyone)

That’s the powerlessness.

What does “unmanageable” look like?

Unmanageable doesn’t always look like chaos on the outside.

Sometimes it looks like:
• Smiling on the outside, but unraveling internally
• Overthinking every conversation
• Letting one emotion dictate your entire day
• Living in cycles of guilt, fear, or resentment
• Feeling exhausted from trying to hold it all together

Unmanageable means our inner world is dictating our outer life.

Why this step matters

Step One is the doorway to everything else.

Because as long as we believe:
• “I should be able to fix this myself”
• “If I just try harder, I’ll feel better”
• “These emotions define me”

…we stay stuck in the cycle.

But when we admit:

“I can’t manage this on my own anymore”

Something shifts.
• The pressure to be in control lifts
• The honesty begins
• The healing can start

A recovery-centered reframe

Step One is not saying:

“I have no power.”

It’s saying:

“What I’ve been doing isn’t working—and I’m ready for something different.”

How this connects to real recovery

In your work, this step creates space for:
• Learning emotional regulation instead of suppression
• Responding instead of reacting
• Inviting support (God, community, tools, structure)
• Separating identity from emotion

Because the truth is:

You are not your emotions.
But without help, they can start to define your life.

Step One isn’t about giving up.
It’s about surrendering the fight you were never meant to win alone—
so you can finally begin to heal.

04/13/2026

Mom’s Monday 📝Notes

On 3/4/02 My Momma wrote:

“It is impossible to live with peace in your heart and rebellion in your actions.”

In recovery, we often say we want peace—peace of mind, peace in our relationships, peace within ourselves. But peace isn’t just something we wish for… it’s something we live into.

When our actions are out of alignment—when we’re resisting truth, avoiding accountability, or holding onto old behaviors—we create internal conflict. That tension shows up as anxiety, irritability, restlessness… the very opposite of peace.

Recovery teaches us that peace comes from alignment:
• When our actions match our values
• When our choices reflect honesty and willingness
• When we stop fighting the process and start surrendering to it

Rebellion doesn’t always look loud or obvious. Sometimes it’s subtle:
• “I know better”
• “I’ll do it my way”
• “Just this once won’t hurt”

But every small misalignment chips away at our serenity.

Peace is not found in controlling life…
It’s found in living in integrity with it.

Today’s Reflection:
Where might my actions be out of alignment with the life I say I want?

Gentle Reminder:
You don’t have to be perfect—just willing. Peace grows in that space.

04/12/2026

Sometimes, a door is open. We can walk through it and into that room. We can stay there as long as we want and as long as we can stand being in that room. Many of us have learned to take care of ourselves so well that we can be in extremely uncomfortable situations and still comfortably take care of ourselves.

The question then becomes not “Can I?” but, “Do I want to?”

There are many situations in life where we can insist on having our will and way, sometimes for an extended period of time. Stubbornness and persistence can be good qualities. We can stay with a thing until we learn it well. But we can also take that too far and stick with a thing– a project or relationship– when other weaker and wiser souls might have given up.

Instead of asking yourself if you can, ask yourself something different. If you’ve been hanging in there, trying harder, and diligently taking care of yourself, back off. Stop asking yourself if you’re good enough to handle the situation. Ask yourself if the situation is good for you.

God, help me take the time to ask myself, “Is this what I really want?”

-Language of Letting Go🎈🎈

04/11/2026

In families, especially in recovery, we often think closeness is the goal.
But there’s a difference between connection and control.

When adult children aren’t allowed to have:
– emotional boundaries
– independent thoughts
– their own relationships

…it doesn’t create closeness.
It creates pressure.

And pressure eventually leads to distance.

Not because they don’t love you…
…but because leaving feels like the only way to breathe.

Here’s the truth:
Boundaries don’t break families.
Lack of boundaries does.

In recovery, we’re learning:
Love without control
Support without overstepping
Connection without losing ourselves

Because real healing says:
“I can love you deeply… and still let you be your own person.

Where in your life are you holding on too tightly… out of fear of losing someone?

04/09/2026

Move a 💪🏻 Muscle,
Change the 🧠Thought❣️

Walk when:
- you’re having a difficult conversation
- you just got bad news
- you’re with a child who’s having a tantrum or a huge reaction “ok let’s walk together” get them moving
- you’re having therapy (if using telehealth or by phone especially)
- you’re feeling irritable and don’t know why
- you have to give someone bad news
- you wake up groggy
- you have brain fog or feel like your brain is “shut off”
- you want to text something you might regret
- you have to make a big decision
- your brain won’t stop replaying the conversation
- you want to connect with consciousness, god, or the universe
- you want to forgive yourself

04/09/2026

Learning to be a healthy giver can be a challenge. Many of us got caught up in compulsive giving – charitable acts motivated by uncharitable feelings of guilt, shame, obligations, pity, and moral superiority.

We now understand that catering and compulsive giving don’t work. They backfire.

Caretaking keeps us feeling victimized.

Many of us gave too much, thinking we were doing things right; then we became confused because our life and relationships weren’t working. Many of us gave so much for so long, thinking we were doing God’s will; then in recovery, we refused to give, care, or love for a time.

That’s okay. Perhaps we needed a rest. But healthy giving is part of healthy living. The goal in recovery is balance – caring that is motivated by a true desire to give, with an underlying attitude of respect for others and ourselves.

The goal in recovery is to choose what we want to give, to whom, when, and how much. The goal in recovery is to give and not feel victimized by our giving.

Are we giving because we want to, because it’s our responsibility? Or are we giving because we feel obligated, guilty, ashamed, or superior? Are we giving because we feel afraid to say no?

Are the ways we try to assist people helpful, or do they prevent others from facing their true responsibilities?

Are we giving so that people will like us or feel obligated to us? Are we giving to prove we’re worthy? Or are we giving because we want to give and it feels right?

Recovery includes a cycle of giving and receiving. It keeps healthy energy flowing among our Higher Power, others, and us. It takes time to learn how to give in healthy ways. It takes time to learn to receive. Be patient. Balance will come.

God, please guide my giving and my motives today.

-Language of Letting Go🎈🎈

04/08/2026

It’s easy to paint ourselves into a corner with what we’ve grown accustomed to expecting from ourselves. Sometimes we can work so hard to build that career, get that relationship, or become a certain way that we start living up to an image of ourselves that has become outdated.

Stop trapping yourself.

Those goals might have been what we wanted then, but they don’t work anymore. And just because we achieved them doesn’t mean we can’t go on and do something else. What do you expect from yourself? Have you taken a look? Do your expectations reflect the genuine desires of your heart, or do they reflect something else?

Are you grumbling and complaining about some aspect of your life– something you’re expected to do but resent? Maybe the only person expecting you to do that is yourself. Expectations can be subtle little things. Take them out and examine them. If some of them are outdated or useless, maybe it’s time to throw them away.

Can you feel the rush? Listen quietly. It’s there. It’s the sound of a life and spirit being set free.

God, help me set myself free from ridiculous and unnecssary expectations.

Activity: If this were the last ten years of your life, what would you be doing? Where would you be living? What would you be doing for fun. work, friendship, and love? If the answer is different from where you currently are, maybe you should be someplace else.

-Language of Letting Go🎈🎈

04/06/2026

Mom’s Monday📝Notes

On 8/29/2002 my mother wrote:

“Sometimes our lives require a major disruption in order to realign our thoughts with the Lord.”

In recovery, that “major disruption” often looks like:
• Hitting a bottom
• Losing something (trust, relationships, freedom, health)
• Feeling the full weight of our choices
• Or simply becoming so exhausted by our own thinking that we can’t keep going the same way

And while those moments feel painful—even devastating—they are often the very doorway to transformation.

Recovery Reflection

Addiction thrives in misalignment:
• Self-will over surrender
• Control over trust
• Fear over faith

Disruption interrupts that pattern.

It shakes us awake.

It creates a pause long enough for us to ask:
• What am I doing?
• Where is this leading me?
• Is there another way to live?

That’s where recovery begins—not in perfection, but in interruption.

Spiritual Connection

When we begin to realign with God (or a Higher Power), we start to:
• Replace chaos with clarity
• Trade control for surrender
• Move from isolation into connection
• Shift from “my way” to “Thy will”

What once felt like everything falling apart…
becomes the very thing that allows everything to come back together—differently, and more truthfully.

Mom’s Monday 📝Notes – Recovery Reframe

That disruption you went through?

It wasn’t the end of your story.
It was the interruption your soul needed to hear God again.

Reflection Questions (for you or your clients)
• What “disruption” brought me into recovery?
• What was I believing or doing before that moment?
• How has my thinking shifted since surrendering?
• Where might I still be resisting realignment?