By: Lakeview Health
“Balance is not better time management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices.” – Betsy Johnson
How do you find balance? The first step is knowing when you’ve lost your balance. When that happens, the only thing to do is redirect our focus and keep moving forward. Our Lakeview Alumnus and Alumni Coordinator, Nick Goslin (pictured left, can’t you tell?) shares his recipe for balancing unity, service, recovery, mind, body and spirit into a life he enjoys living to the fullest. It can be a lot to juggle, if you don’t have boundaries and priorities to turn down the heat when you need to cool off, or crank up the fire for when it’s time to get cracking! Life is like baking. Just like you want to bring all the ingredients together to bake up something you actually want to eat, in recovery you want to make sure to include the important tools (ingredients) so that you can actually enjoy your life. Feel free to use this recipe as a guide for finding your own balance in recovery.
Baking up Balance
Serves 4 (Years of recovery) You will need:
- 2 Daily Prayers
- A Pinch of Meditation
- 1 Home Group
- 5-Person Support Network
- 1 Whole Sponsorship Tree
- 1 Service Commitment
- Smile (Reuse after each use)
- 1 Day at a Time
- 6 Days a Week in the Gym
- 3 Happy-Making Hobbies
Instructions from Chef Nick:
- Say a Little Prayer Start off with daily prayers. Keep it very simple. Sometimes I only ask God to give me strength to stay sober in the morning and acknowledge by saying “Thank You” for providing that strength every night.
- + Meditate Add a pinch of meditation every day. I do this in the car or in the gym, by quieting my mind, sometimes if only for 30 seconds. All meditation counts! For example cleaning, cooking, working out.
- Home Group Meeting Stir in a good home group. This is a meeting I attend every week where I share, get to know people, and serve. The home group holds me accountable to who I really am, calls me out when I’m dishonest and offers love when I get down on myself.
- Add Fellow-chips Sprinkle in 5 friends. Call on a daily basis. Choose people you can call no matter what time it is that will always pick up. My support network knows when I’m not myself and asks if I need to talk.
- Keep it in the Family Pull in sprigs from sponsorship tree daily to mix in the batch. A sponsorship tree is made of people you sponsor, the person who sponsors you, the other people who your sponsor sponsors and the person who sponsors your sponsor. Still tracking with us? It’s OK. Your sponsorship tree is just your family in the program, which inevitably includes everyone in the rooms, extending past that always.
- Keep ‘em on their Toes Work steps with new sponsees for freshness and flavor.
- Service with a Smile Drop in a service commitment. This element has totally changed my outlook in recovery and within the 12-Step community.
Service gives me a purpose and helps me by helping others #WinWin.
- “Smiling is my favorite” – Elf Smile all day, even when you don’t want to. I do this because no one wants an unhappy person in their life, especially themselves. I love to smile at people who are having a rough day and make their day more enjoyable.
- Work It Out Use one large portion of physical exercise every day. I need to keep a healthy balance of mind, body, and spirit in my recovery. This is how I meditate, where I’m able to quiet my mind and focus only on the task at hand.
- Have Fun! Having fun in recovery is what makes it all worth it. If I’m not laughing uncontrollably at least once a day I’m doing something wrong.
- Hobbies for Happiness Garnish recovery with at least three hobbies.
*These things make life worth living:
- I stay outside and enjoy nature as much as possible.
- I go to as many live music venues as I can.
- I attend recovery based conferences all across the country and meet young people in recovery.
Remember to mix well and serve this recipe to all your friends! Enjoy!
