Anchored in Connections
After 20 years living on a sailboat, Carole Fontaine learned that you can be surrounded by people and still feel the void. Through chronic illness, sober living, and breast cancer, her closest friends…
Connection, Work, and Daily Life
Recovery lives in ordinary days: the people around us, the routines that hold, and the family and work that ask a lot of us. These articles cover the everyday practice of staying well.
61 pieces
Thriving in Recovery: No Matter the Weather
As winter darkens the days and reshapes routines, people in recovery face unique emotional challenges. This piece offers practical tools for staying connected and emotionally balanced through the seas…
Create a Money Plan in Recovery
Maya spread her bills across the kitchen table, overwhelmed by numbers she'd been avoiding for months. Building financial stability in recovery means facing what you owe and creating a realistic plan.…
Creating meaningful relationships requires courage
Carolyn didn't respond to emails, and the frustration built. Rather than withdraw, the author chose a harder path: speaking up with kindness. That conversation, and Carolyn's openness to hearing it, b…
Finding Purpose Through Work
A teacher stays late after dismissal, helping a struggling student finally understand fractions. That moment of connection, of being needed, of mattering to someone else, is what transforms work from…
Six Tips for Balancing Family, Career, and Anxiety
A parent sits down with their spouse after dinner and finally says what's been building for weeks: I can't do this alone. That conversation, hard as it was, became the turning point. This piece offers…
The Healing Power of Community
Marcus sat in the church basement, listening to others share their stories, and for the first time in years felt like he belonged somewhere. That moment of recognition, of being truly heard, became th…
Why Not Ask for Help?
A person struggling with substance use disorder sits alone, thinking about asking for help. But shame whispers that they should handle it. Fear of judgment whispers louder. Understanding these barrier…
Loving Fully: The Transformative Power of Love and Connection
A person in recovery sits across from someone who truly listens, without judgment. In their new book, Stephen R. Andrew and Wendy Noyes argue that this kind of genuine connection, not willpower alone,…
Regaining Control, Overcoming the Bank Account Challenge
Maya sat in the credit union lobby, holding her denial letter. For months, she'd paid bills on time, stayed focused on recovery. But the banking system flagged her past. Many people rebuilding their l…
The Power of Positive Experience, A Source of Hope
A child learns their feelings matter when a parent listens. A neighbor brings over dinner after a hard week. These small moments reshape lives. Research shows positive childhood experiences buffer aga…
Family Matters: Navigating the Challenges of a Loved One’s Addiction
A mother sits across from her therapist, finally naming the guilt she's carried for years. Her son's substance use disorder has reshaped her entire family, but she's learning she didn't cause it and c…
Rise to Recovery: Maximizing Your Time in Treatment
You're walking through the doors of a treatment facility for the first time, unsure what comes next. Stan Popovich offers five practical strategies to help you get the most from your time there: follo…
Healing Inside Out
Someone in early recovery discovers their body needs attention too: years of neglect have left them with untreated health problems and no idea where to start. Physical wellness turns out to matter dee…
Healthy Bonds: The Magic of Connection
When fear keeps you isolated, telling one person your struggle can shift everything. Research shows that people surrounded by supportive relationships heal faster, experience lower stress, and even li…
Nurturing Your Intentions: Empowering Change from Within
January arrives with possibility, and you set your intention. By February, it's gone. The article explores why our resolutions fade and how to build the internal fuel that sustains change. Discover ho…
Compassionate Conversations (Issue 29)
Tips for employers on how to recognize and compassionately respond to substance use challenges in the workplace.
The Practice of Listening: Cultivating Connection
Someone calls their knee "bad." But when you listen closely, that knee is doing its best to tell you something. This piece explores how deep listening,to our bodies, our past, our pain,becomes the fou…
Reframing Relationships
A friend struggling with opioid use found steady ground not through romance, but through peers who showed up to cook meals, wipe tears, pick up her son from daycare. This piece explores why those frie…
Recovery’s True Persona
Karen St. Clair pauses when asked what recovery means to her. She thinks of the masks falling away, the relationships built on trust instead of fear, the moments she thought impossible becoming real.…
Compassionate Conversations
Your employee arrives late again, irritable, thinner than before. You've noticed the pattern but dreaded the conversation. Yet three in four people with substance use disorder work. When employers spe…
Fibers in the Threads of Community
In a small Maine town, a person in recovery discovers that the same community that remembers every mistake can also become a lifeline. This piece explores how chosen communities, built on shared value…
Relationships with Humans, Nature, and Animals
Someone sits alone, wondering why connection feels impossible. The answer might be simpler than it seems: before we can truly relate to others, to nature, to the world around us, we must first underst…
Discovery Recovery with Choices
Karen St. Clair woke one morning and noticed how her mood at dawn differed from dusk. She realized she made thousands of choices daily, each one shaping her emotional landscape. Through discovering EF…
From ‘Failure’ to Success
Your friend turns the car around halfway up the mountain, panic in his chest, and posts about it anyway. This piece explores why admitting defeat might be the bravest choice in recovery, and how shari…
Journey Toward Recovery Discovery
After sixteen years of chronic sciatic pain, one EFT tapping session released the trapped emotions causing it. The author hasn't felt that pain since. Now she's sharing what changed her life with othe…
Thriving During the Holidays
A person navigates a family dinner in December, watching others raise glasses while holiday music plays. The season brings joy for many, but for those in recovery from substance use disorder, the holi…
One Gratitude at a Time
Your alarm goes off. First thought: "Too early. I hurt." But what if you paused there? Your heart beat all night without asking. Your lungs kept working. You can see, hear, feel. This piece explores h…
Sensational Radar
After years of numbing pain through survival mode, someone realized their body held vital signals they'd learned to ignore. By tuning into physical sensations tied to emotions, they discovered how to…
Smober or Sober or $omething Else?
A therapist's client walked into her office for the first time at 78, ready to transform. This story opens a conversation about what recovery really means today. It's not one thing. For some it's free…
That’s All I Had to Do?
A woman in recovery calls a friend in tears, furious at someone for no reason she can name. Her friend asks one question: Have you eaten? Twenty minutes after a meal, the anger vanishes. This piece ex…
6 Ways to Fortify Yourself
When stress piles up, your body needs more recovery time, not less. This article explores six practices that fortify you during turbulent periods: rest, recovery, refuge, relationships, resilience bui…
What’s Your (Ally) Language of Love?
A person in recovery celebrates a milestone. A coworker shows up. A neighbor asks the right question. These moments matter because allies shape how recovery is seen and supported. Learn how to express…
Music for Recovery
Carol stood in the pantry, headphones on, recording her voice for the first time. Thirty minutes later, she emerged and whispered, "I actually don't sound bad." Over six weeks, a guitar and a song bec…
9 Work-Life Recovery Tools to Empower, Satisfy, Grow, and Delight
After a breakdown in year three of sobriety, this person walked dogs instead of launching companies. It took years of that simple work to rebuild boundaries, reconnect with recovery, and find real suc…
Making Deposits
For decades, a woman searched for what would make her feel enough: the right partner, the right body, the right achievement. Each desperate attempt to fill an inner emptiness only deepened it. Recover…
Finding Meaningful Work and Helping Others Find Theirs
Zachary Walker turns 30 this summer, settling into a cottage with his girlfriend while helping other Mainers find jobs and stability. Seven years into his recovery, he works as a Peer Connector for Go…
Stealth Camping with Hundreds of My Closest Friends
Zinnia parks her minivan in an Ohio lot after a sleepless night, shaken and alone. Then she finds a packed AA meeting three minutes away. Over breakfast with people who understand, her shame lifts. Th…
The Search for Serenity
A TV character yells "serenity now" at his blood pressure, hoping words alone will melt away his anger. It doesn't work. But a prayer written nearly a century ago offers something deeper: not a magic…
The Power of Consistency
Someone in recovery sits down to meditate for five minutes. Just five. They do it again tomorrow, and the day after. A year later, they've meditated over 1,800 times. This piece explores how small, re…
There’s No Place Like Home
A woman realizes her years of searching outward for belonging missed something crucial: home lives inside her, in how she sees herself and her world. This piece explores how your deepest beliefs shape…
People in Recovery and Plants
Manfred hands over a ten-inch plant, full and thriving, grown from a tiny cutting he found in his sink. He talked to it regularly, encouraged its growth. This is what the Bill W. plant represents: how…
Home is not ‘there,’ it’s ‘here’
For years, she chased a mythical "there": the right job, the perfect body, a love that would finally make her whole. She filled the emptiness with drugs, alcohol, and self-hatred. It wasn't until reha…
Conversations
Sarah sits across from her mother, bracing for the same argument they've had a hundred times. But this time, she pauses and asks something different. Journey explores how curiosity can transform famil…
The Nature of Family
A counselor remembers her turbulent childhood, the anger that followed, and the slow shift toward seeing her family history as a classroom instead of a wound. She discovered she could define family on…
Parents Dealing with their Kids Addiction and Alcoholism
When Karen and Eddie's daughter showed signs of substance use disorder, they asked themselves: Who do we turn to? Isolation and shame nearly consumed them until they found a family support group. This…
No Strangers
During a video call, Jody said something that stuck: "We may be living in strange times, but we are not strangers." This article explores how connection becomes our anchor during upheaval. While the w…
Meaningful Conversations
Sarah sits across from a friend in recovery, phone face-down on the table. Before responding, she listens, really listens, to what's being shared. This article explores how active listening builds dee…
Making Service an Everyday Practice
Sharon Roberts, a receptionist at United Way of Greater Portland, noticed a visitor's energy on a Friday afternoon and said so. That small act of recognition stayed with them. What if service isn't ab…
Compassionate Living
Stephen Andrew, who has led support circles in Portland for 32 years, watches people struggle against isolation during social distancing. He knows that emotional distance feeds vulnerability to return…
Service to Self
When the ground beneath you shifts, when everything feels unstable, your survival depends not on what surrounds you but on the strength within. This piece explores why tending to yourself first isn't…
Family Matters
Kaitlin MacKenzie asked her parents for one thing in early recovery: connection instead of judgment. Her father, a police chief, learned to lead with love. Her mother, a teacher, created space for hon…
Daily Self-Care Recovery Practices: Part 2
Someone in early recovery once described themselves as fog waiting to lift. That simple act of writing, of naming where they stood, became part of something larger. This piece explores ten daily pract…
Daily Self-Care Recovery Practices: Part 1
Marcus couldn't remember the last time he slept through the night or ate a meal without thinking about what he was missing. In recovery, he realized substances had been his broken solution to pain and…
Is it selfish to love yourself? No way – it’s healthy!
In a women's group, Kimble was asked a simple question: how do you celebrate yourself? She froze, embarrassed to admit she'd learned to love who she was. That discomfort reveals something many people…
Give the gift of truly seeing others
Amy Wood pauses after a meeting to email someone back, not with quick praise, but with specific details about what she noticed and why it mattered. This gift of truly seeing others,acknowledging what…
Foster creativity. Become a more valuable employee. Grow your career.
A manager sits silent after a team member shares an idea. Another colleague jumps in immediately with something unrelated. The idea dies. This article shows how listening, curiosity, and genuine respe…
Our Oneness makes us unique – and part of a whole
A person with one leg moves across plains by embracing another person with one leg, then another, moving faster as their love tightens the embrace. This ancient story teaches how community forms when…
Making Connections
A woman held up a sock monkey she'd stitched and said, "This is the first thing I've made in my life." In recovery programs across Maine, creative activities like painting, pottery, and fabric work ar…
Creative Expressions
Someone finds peace with hands in garden soil. Another unwinds rebuilding an engine. A third discovers calm while baking. Creative expression takes endless forms, and it's far more than art. It's how…
Making the Most of Get Well Job
Mike Elovitz owned a consulting business in New York City. Then he moved to Portland to start over in recovery, smoking fish at a restaurant and working a convenience store register. His Get Well Jobs…