Watershed Ashling

Friday, January 30, 2015

Recovery Fix: Popular Sober Images

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Monday, July 28, 2014

Friday, July 25, 2014

Top 30 Of The Most Inspiring Quotes

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” – Henry Ford
“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” -Albert Einstein
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
“Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.” – Unknown
“Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” – Unknown
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
“The bad news: there is no key to happiness. The good news: it isn’t locked.” – Unknown
“To be outstanding, get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” – Alrik Koudenburg

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“It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” –Anne Frank
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” –Albert Einstein
“All our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them.” –Walt Disney
“As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.” - Steve Maraboli
“The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” -Marcel Proust
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” –John Lennon
“One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness.” –Jackie Kennedy
“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” –President Abraham Lincoln
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” –Alfred Lord Tennyson
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank

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“I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.” – Marliyn Monroe
“I think you end up doing the stuff you were supposed to do at the time you were supposed to do it.” – Robert Downey Jr.
“We don’t back off obstacles and tough situations; we use them to make us stronger.” – Jada Pinkett Smith
“A flower does now think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Unknown
“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”- Buddha
“Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.” – Aldous Huxley
“Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa
“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.” – Kurt Cobain
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy

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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Sobriety Slogans That We Love To Hate

Sometimes you just need a quick saying or thought to help change your attitude. It can be as simple as using the ever so popular phrase in the rooms, "just for today." Some may find sobriety slogans confusing, some may find them annoying, while others may find them inspiring. It really depends on the willingness to want to accept a different way of thinking and the acceptance of whatever feelings one may be having.

I found myself using many of these slogans in my early sobriety, and still do. I would hear them over and over again and be like "ugh, OK, we get it - first things first" or whatever the choice phrase was for that moment. But when I needed to actually use and apply that phrase to my life, it all made sense. Today I embrace those sayings and take it as a little sign that I may need to listen if I am hearing them too often. There are so many opportunities to grow if I just pay attention.

Here are some popular sobriety slogans that may help you on your path in recovery.

Recovery Slogans

Recovery is a journey - not a destination.

GOD = Group Of Drunks.

Think...Think...Think.

K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Silly (Stupid).

This is a "we" program, not a "me" program.

Just For Today.

We're all here, because we're not all there.

H.A.L.T. Am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired?

Fear: I may not get my way. Resentment: I did not get my way.

Live & Let Live.

This too shall pass.

Attitude of Gratitude.

First Things First.

One Day At A Time.

Pass it on.

Keep Coming Back, it works if you work it!

Best Regards, Watershed Ashling

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Being An Alcoholic In Recovery: The Pink Elephant In The Room

Hi my name is Ashling, and I am a raging alcoholic.

Hi my name is Ashling, and I am drunk.

Hi my name is Ashling, and I am a woman in long-term recovery. Ah, that sounds better.

Let me clear something up though, I am not ashamed of being an alcoholic, you can actually read my full story here: Watershed Ashling, I Am An Alcoholic, but for some reason it has an effect on others when they find out. When I first tell someone that I am an alcoholic in recovery, I usually get that uncomfortable look and body shift as if they are trying to figure out how to respond to me. I say it with a smile, too, so that just adds to the confusion on how they should treat the situation. In some cases, people have given me props congratulating me on my sobriety only to push me out of their lives later for one reason or another.

You see, it's because there is still this lingering stigma of who and what alcoholism is. Usually I get the heartfelt apologies for the hell I have to endured followed by how difficult this must be for me on daily basis. The enduring agony of having to continue the battle of overcoming alcoholism for the rest of my life. Well sheesh, when you say it like that, why the heck would anyone stay sober?!

This brings me to my second point, I do not go to battle daily with my alcoholism. I do not fight the desire to drink and in many cases if you're drinking in front of me, it's more uncomfortable for me because I feel uncomfortable for you being uncomfortable, not because I want to drink. Alcoholism is a 3 part disease: mental, physical, spiritual. The physical cravings go away when I have had a full medical detox, the mental obsession is lifted when I work a full program of recovery, and my spiritual malady is addressed when I live my program of recovery. I choose to live my life by principles today and help others find their path to recovery. That is my experience and its not that I have to live this way of life, it's the fact that I get to. The miracle of recovery is that the obsession to drink gets lifted when you work it. So when people feel sorry for me, I simply say "you don't need to feel sorry for me, I've done that my whole life." hehe.

I am not defective or broken, I just suffer from the disease of alcoholism, just like someone who suffer from diabetes. Although not curable, it is treatable. I would like to invite you to treating the recovered alcoholic just like any other person, those of us in recovery are all around, and you may not even know it because we are just like you in every way, we just don't drink.

Hi my name is Ashling and I am a grateful alcoholic in recovery.