5 Ways to Start Your New Year Right, Recovery-Style

“Where is the pause button?” I have wondered. If I could just find a moment to stop the always-spinning world around me, just long enough to dig out and get my act together.

While I have not yet found the Pause button on the world around me, I do believe there is always a Pause button within me.  It is called the Present Moment, and I can choose to go there whenever I am willing to let go of the need to get “on top of it”…and the belief that I ever even can.

While this Pause button is easily overlooked because it never screams at me the loudest, never feels crucial or like a crisis do-or-die, I have decided that for me, it is.

No matter what else is on my to-do list, I will do it better if I can do it with Presence.

Taking the time to actually work my recovery is one of those things that slows me down and invites the Present Moment into my life on a daily basis.

There are 5 new tools available on sal12step.org that may be just what you need to help you put your recovery at the top of your priority list, instead of always just below the do-or-die crises that never seem to stop.

The Women’s 12 Step Curriculum breaks down the S-Anon Twelve Steps and Working the S-Anon Program into 150 days of bite-size readings and journals.  It takes me about 15 minutes a day to log on to the website and do my Step Work for that day. The short assignments keep me moving forward more consistently than I was doing on my own.

Intro to Recovery

If you have been working recovery less than a year, this is a Course that may be helpful to you.  Intro to Recovery includes 5 weeks of Zoom meetings, held on Thursday nights at 8pm MST. Each week one of 5 topics is discussed in a small group setting with moderators who have strength, hope, and experience to share. (Boundaries, Surrender, The Recovery Puzzle, The Circles Models, Sponsorship) If you still have questions regarding the new concepts involved in recovery, this Course may help you acclimate and better understand your path to healing.

How to Set Effective Boundaries

It is still shocking to me how many women I talk to that still don’t have official boundaries in place, even after working recovery for a long time. From my experience, a woman working her recovery without boundaries is like a man working his recovery without sobriety.  It just doesn’t work. You can’t progress through the Steps when you keep allowing yourself to be put right back into Trauma.  If you have struggled to set and hold healthy boundaries, this Course may be what you need to finally find some footing and make progress toward real healing.

Power of 12

This Course is a 28 week program that is limited to 12 participants.  It entails a weekly 60 minute Zoom meeting where we work all 12 steps over the Course of 28 weeks.  This program is like putting your recovery on hyper-drive. For me, it was amazing to see the tangible results of God working in my life as I implemented the steps in a more focused way than ever before.  I witnessed him removing specific character defects I had put on the shelf in earlier recovery, and saw important relationships in my life morph into healthier spaces. I also widened my support circle with 11 deep new friendships with women I respect and love.

Guided Meditations

Our Guided Meditations Course is almost up and running, and we think you’ll agree that the time it has taken to get it right has been well worth it.  If you have not explored the tools of meditation and mindfulness as part of Step 11 in your journey of recovery, you are missing out on a real game-changer.  Our gifted friend in recovery, Holly, will lead you through meditations that will bring you closer to your Higher Power than you ever knew was possible.

We hope that these additional tools available through our sister site sal12step.org will offer you valuable resources to deepen your recovery and find greater healing and presence in your daily life.