Most of us don’t think about our circumstances. We are like fish swimming in a body of water that is getting ever more poisonous. We don’t see how sick we are becoming simply due to the toxicity of the water. We adapt to living with environmental hazards and minimize toxicity. After all, other fish swim …

Imperfect as we are, parents today deserve all the credit in the world for raising children in challenging times. Many of us fret over how we’re doing as parents. Examining our part in our children’s pain can be the most painful thing we do in life. Seeing our kids suffer today due to our own …

For some time, I have been thinking about perfectionism – my own as well as the people I have met in almost thirty years of recovery. The image that comes to me about perfectionism led to the title of this article. Perfectionism can often be a curse! I see the drive to be perfect as …

The Phoenix Spirit talked with John Magnuson, the visionary founder of Relevant Recovery, a new Recovery Community Organization (RCO), designed to train and mentor Family Life Recovery Coaches at Minnesota’s first Recovery Ranch – a space and place where individuals, families and organizations can “experience” recovery as they build greater wellbeing. John’s life story, his national network …

The arguments surrounding the root cause of addiction have raged for decades. Addiction is often viewed as a societal or moral failing rather than a biological one. Many people believe that it is a choice to continue to drink or use vs. an illness. But is this really the situation? I recently sat down with …

Recovery from substance use disorders is an incredibly challenging journey, but it’s also one of the most rewarding paths a person can take. Every individual in recovery deserves to be celebrated, no matter what their recovery looks like or how they define it. This September, during Recovery Month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services is …

Living with a mental health diagnosis can put you at risk of getting tangled in a maze of social media apps. Persistent and practically addictive features such as “likes,” impressions, and notifications have defined the last two decades of online media. If you feel empty amidst all of this, you are certainly not alone. While …

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” Karl Barth I have been remembering joy—the exuberance of youth, the thrill of nature’s beauty, the energy of feeling connected. I have missed joy, her delight with both the spectacular and the ordinary. Anxiety, fear, and doom have permeated the last several years. They roll in like a …

I have been in recovery for almost thirty years and have been part of a 12 Step group for the same amount of time. In this article, I would like to share some struggles I have had with the idea of Higher Power – an important concept in recovery through the lenses of the 12 …

I learned a lesson about grace when I experienced its flipside a number of years ago, after I was laid off from a corporate communications job in health care. Seeking employment, I dutifully worked my network, including a breakfast meeting with a woman I had recently worked with. She had just started a new job …