I used to live in a constant state of anxiety. I was always bracing for something to go wrong. Everything was already wrong. I was dying a slow alcoholic death, and I didn’t know how to make it stop. I no longer carry shame about that part of my journey. It wasn’t a graceful decision to change. It felt more like being dropped into the deep end. But I had to hit the bottom of hopelessness to start listening without judgement.

I didn’t know how to live in the moment I was in; I was always in the past or the future. I had to learn to slow my mind down. Practicing meditation helped me learn how to sit still so that my mind could learn how to still. Everything inside me wants to move, but with each experience I’m getting better at patience. My faith and trust are becoming something I’m living inside instead of something I’m blindly falling back into. Consistent action and patience have shaped my recovery path.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#spiritualawakening #recoveryjourney #faithinrecovery #came2believe #mentalhealthrecovery #emotionalsobriety #meditationpractice #patienceandaction #surrendertowin #nextthingright

During a recent virtual sobriety meditation meeting, I was sitting peacefully still as the chair played a beautiful piece of music he had carefully selected for us. Just as I was settling into that serene space, a YouTube ad unexpectedly blared through the speakers. The chair quickly scrambled to silence it, clearly frustrated, despite having tested the video beforehand. The interruption startled me, but what lingered was my concern for his serenity. I couldn’t stop thinking about how he must’ve felt embarrassed and disappointed. He had done the work to prevent the very thing that happened. But, as life tends to, things didn’t go according to plan.

That moment stirred up thoughts about the tension between control and surrender. I realized how often I am anticipating the other shoe to drop, trying to control everything, forgetting how little control I truly have. The chair’s experience reminded me that disruptions are just part of living. My faith has grown from blind trust, to lived experience, to evidential trust. But none of that could have happened without first surrendering. Just as that small disruption in the meeting became a reflection point for me, so too can all of life’s interruptions become opportunities to learn.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#recoverycommunity #mindfulnesspractice #acceptancejourney #emotionalsobriety #spiritualgrowth #livinginrecovery #faithoverfear #surrenderingcontrol #dailyreflections #mentalwellness

My to-do lists feel more like a guilt trip than a game plan. I need to pause and take a step back. The endless pressure to do it all drowns out what truly matters in my life. Instead of fitting my priorities into my schedule, I should be scheduling around my priorities. I started with identifying my top three core values yesterday. I shared that those are communication, health, and learning. But not everything I love doing, like painting, sewing, and upcycling jewelry, aligns with those values. These hobbies still matter because they fill my cup and make me happy.

To make room for both, I anchor my day in my values with sobriety meetings, dog walks, physical therapy, and my Recovery Daily Podcast. Then, I carve out time for creativity. Even 30 minutes of painting a rock or finishing sewing my project runway pants fulfills that need. I time-block most things in my day to be able to include value-based activities and hobbies, while honoring my disability and chronic pain. In recovery, we have to let our energy guide our schedule, not our task list.

Some days I just want to play, and that’s okay, too.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#recoveryjourney #chronicillnesswarrior #sobrietytools #dailyrituals #valuebasedliving #timemanagementtips #mentalhealthmatters #creativehealing #selfcompassion #energybasedscheduling

Stop. Do you know what your core values are? Mine are communication, health, and learning. These three themes have shaped every meaningful part of my life. I discovered them several years ago through an exercise where I named all the values that resonated with me, then narrowed them down until I found the top three that consistently showed up in the moments that felt most fulfilling. These three have always been at the center of who I am.

I’ve always been passionate about communication. At the company I medically retired from, I built an internal communication strategy for FUN. Who does that! That’s how deeply I value clear, thoughtful dialogue.

Health, especially mental health, has been a driving force in my life. I lived knowingly, yet helplessly, under the weight of invisible illness for 42 years. Sobriety helped me see it, and with professional support, medication, and daily step work, I’m managing it.

I never wanted to graduate because I never wanted the learning to stop. Turns out, the real education began afterward. Every day I learn something new about myself, and that helps me prioritize what is meaningful in my life.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#selfawareness #corevalues #mentalhealthrecovery #personalgrowth #sobrietyjourney #dailyreflection #lifelonglearning #healingjourney #mindfulliving #authenticself

Letting go has been one of the difficult practices in both sobriety and stroke recovery. It felt like failure when doing things my way, how I planned it, didn’t work out. Letting go felt like giving up. But looking back, I see that my way just kept ending up with me drunk, depressed, and isolated. I wore my ego like armor to protect me from all those around me that I believed were better than me. If I acted confident, maybe nobody would know I was falling apart.

Today I watch others struggling to get sober and wish I could bottle up what I’ve found so that they too could find the beauty in life. But just like nobody could make me get sober, I can’t make others do it either. All I can do is share how I do it. I practice letting go daily. The very first time didn’t feel good, in fact it was scary as H – E – DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS. But with time, faith, and repetition, it became freeing. And when you do something that’s uncomfortable enough, it becomes comfortable…at least familiar.

In stroke recovery, letting go looks different but feels the same. Letting go is muscle. I still don’t do it without fear, and maybe I never will. But I let go anyway, because when I try to force the path before me, I end up staring at the ground instead of living the life in front of me.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

To learn more about vestibular disorders visit https://vestibular.org

#sobrietyjourney #strokeawareness #mentalhealthrecovery #lettinggo #healingprocess #emotionalsobriety #faithoverfear #recoveryispossible #livinginacceptance #dailyrecovery

Flow is the sixth and final stage of my Acceptance Framework, where daily life starts to feel manageable again, even if the tough emotions are still present. Fear shifts from being paralyzing to protective and productive. Routines resume, boundaries are respected, and living feels possible. You’re living within your acceptance and no longer fighting reality. Some days we have to revisit earlier stages to reinforce that we’re supported and that even small steps can create rhythm rather than resistance.

Maintaining Flow requires intentional practices. Daily self-inventories help me stay grounded, and on the hard days, I turn to my God-Box to let go of what I can’t control. Gratitude lists keep me from slipping into self-pity. Setbacks are part of the process and part of being human. Acceptance isn’t the absence of fear, embarrassment, or shame. It is moving forward anyway. Sometimes I forget that I can feel multiple emotions at one time, and they won’t kill me.

With consistent practice, this rhythm becomes habit. I can't count how many times I cycle through this Acceptance FRAMEWORK in a single week. It’s been a long road to accept my disability, and this is how I practice it.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

#healingjourney #mentalhealthmatters #recoverypath #emotionalresilience #acceptanceframework #neuroplasticity #mindfulrecovery #innerstrength #progressnotperfection #flowstate

Flex is the fifth stage of my Acceptance FRAMEWORK, focusing on rebuilding confidence through practice. This is where we start gently and consistently exposing ourselves to the thing that we’ve been avoiding. For me, this means I start small like holding on to someone’s arm when crossing a parking-lot. Each time I reach out for someone’s arm for help it sends a message to my brain that I’m managing my disability, it’s normal to hold on to someone, and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. These repetitions are brain push-ups, rewiring the brain through neuroplasticity. Confidence doesn’t arrive fully loaded. It’s built through repetition, patience, and support.

Support systems are key. Whether it’s help from a therapist, a walking partner, a support network, or family, the brain learns better with safety and encouragement. I’m not as confident as I look. “Acting-as-if” has been a go-to strategy for me since early sobriety. My addiction therapist once asked me, “Do you ever visualize something going perfectly? Or do you always plan for all the worst scenarios?” I realized that day that I could choose to visualize success. With practice comes rhythm. And rhythm leads to Flow, which is tomorrow’s final stage of my Acceptance FRAMEWORK.

Stay tuned tomorrow for stage 5: Flex.

Fine > Focus > Friction > Framework > Flex > Flow

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

This month I'm participating in a fundraiser for vestibular disorders awareness because I know what it’s like to live with something you can’t fully explain and no one can see. Visit my fundraising page: https://s2b.funraise.org/fundraiser/rachel-abbassi

#neuroplasticity #brainrewiring #recoveryjourney #confidenceinprogress #acceptanceframework #mentalhealthsupport #exposuretherapy #sobrietymotivation #healingthroughpractice #invisibleillnesswarrior

Mapping Fear Into Action is the fourth stage of my Acceptance FRAMEWORK that addresses the emotional pushback we feel when faced with things we can’t control but need to accept This stage doesn’t eliminate fear, but it gives it a purpose, lowering anxiety and creating momentum toward change. By gathering facts, leaning into your support network, setting micro-goals, and allowing a trusted person to hold you accountable, you can transform emotional chaos into steps toward accepting reality. Shifting fear into facts empowers us, resources provide tools and connection, micro-goals make the process manageable, and accountability keeps us moving forward.

Common roadblocks to acceptance include overwhelm, analysis paralysis, and lack of support. Tonight, write down one thing you’re struggling to accept. What are the facts around that one thing? What resources could support you as you process it? And what’s one small goal you’ve been avoiding that could build momentum? Plans are only the beginning. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about practice, and how to use it to rewire the brain.

Stay tuned tomorrow for stage 5: Flex.

Fine > Focus > Friction > Framework > Flex > Flow

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and YouTube.

For more information, visit me at ⁠⁠⁠recoverydailypodcast.com⁠⁠⁠ or email me at ⁠rachel@recoverydailypodcast.com⁠.

Visit my Etsy shop, Recovery Upcycling. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RecoveryUpcycling

This month I'm participating in a fundraiser for vestibular disorders awareness because I know what it’s like to live with something you can’t fully explain and no one can see. Visit my fundraising page: https://s2b.funraise.org/fundraiser/rachel-abbassi

#recoveryjourney #mentalhealthtools #overcomingfear #healingframework #tinyhabits #buildmomentum #mindfulaction #vestibularrecovery #emotionalresilience #selfaccountability