What Recovery Is

     Recovery is……

Taking it one minute at a time. Closing your eyes and breathing deeply. Resting when you want to keep going. Eating three meals each and every day. Opening your mouth and saying “I’m not okay today.” Saying “No” when you it gets to be too much. Asking for help. Believing tomorrow holds something better. Pushing yourself not to be faster, smarter, or better looking, no pushing yourself to be healthier. Giving up former dreams that made you sick – which gives you room to find out what makes you strong.

     Recovery is…..

Learning how to be in healthy relationships. Learning to honor your needs, acknowledge theirs, and know that relationships are things you cannot control. It is making a commitment to be honest and true to yourself first – your heart. Working to rectify those broken ties along the path of the illness and destruction.

    Recovery is….

Different for everyone. Never ending. A journey that morphs as you change and grow. It is challenging. Sometimes filled with dark – other times filled with light and excitement. Ever changing.

     Recovery is….

The hardest thing I’ve ever worked on. The most rewarding. Life-saving. The most exhausting. The most exciting. The most tiring. The most aggravating. The most frustrating. It is my primary job. It makes my future possible.

     Recovery….

Takes time. Takes energy. Takes focus. Takes determination. Takes strength. Takes faith. Takes support. Takes commitment. Takes love.

     Recovery….

Is how I live myself and what I have witnessed in others. It’s a battle in and of ourselves. Recovery made it possible for me to keep going to college, restore friendships, love others, inch my body toward health.

Recovery is hard. Recovery is painful. Recovery is frustrating to no end.

AND

Recovery is Beautiful.