Hey, it's Michael Maassel, your host of Monday State of Mind, bringing you an impactful finish to our insightful conversation around community vitality in recovery. This episode will leave you contemplating the value of multiple communities in your own recovery journey. I offer you a deep dive into my personal adventure, exposing the changes and growth I underwent in sobriety and the impactful revelation that different communities can feed diverse areas of growth and interests.
Our episode doesn't shy away from the tough stuff – we address the challenging process of letting go of communities that no longer serve your growth and the courage it takes to seek out new ones that will. We explore the exciting, sometimes daunting, constant evolution of self and how embracing change can result in something wondrous. Earlier this month, we were joined by the remarkable Tabitha Miller, sharing her experiences on the importance of online communities, and the fabulous Taylor, spinning a wonderful tale about his experiences with community. So, if you're ready to explore the dynamic changes within yourself and your communities, then tune in to this meaningful episode!
For over 50 years, Harmony Foundation has worked as a nonprofit to serve those seeking recovery from substance addictions. Our residential and intensive outpatient programs are in a collaborative and respectful treatment environment with multiple specialty tracks offering additional support. Our main campus is nestled on a 43-acre campus in the Rocky Mountains just outside of Estes Park, Colorado, that promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. With one of the most robust alumni programs in the county, clients remain connected and empowered for a lifelong journey of recovery.
For more information about Harmony Foundation, please visit:
www.harmonyfoundationinc.com
Hey, it's Michael Maassel, your host of Monday State of Mind, bringing you an impactful finish to our insightful conversation around community vitality in recovery. This episode will leave you contemplating the value of multiple communities in your own recovery journey. I offer you a deep dive into my personal adventure, exposing the changes and growth I underwent in sobriety and the impactful revelation that different communities can feed diverse areas of growth and interests.
Our episode doesn't shy away from the tough stuff – we address the challenging process of letting go of communities that no longer serve your growth and the courage it takes to seek out new ones that will. We explore the exciting, sometimes daunting, constant evolution of self and how embracing change can result in something wondrous. Earlier this month, we were joined by the remarkable Tabitha Miller, sharing her experiences on the importance of online communities, and the fabulous Taylor, spinning a wonderful tale about his experiences with community. So, if you're ready to explore the dynamic changes within yourself and your communities, then tune in to this meaningful episode!
For over 50 years, Harmony Foundation has worked as a nonprofit to serve those seeking recovery from substance addictions. Our residential and intensive outpatient programs are in a collaborative and respectful treatment environment with multiple specialty tracks offering additional support. Our main campus is nestled on a 43-acre campus in the Rocky Mountains just outside of Estes Park, Colorado, that promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. With one of the most robust alumni programs in the county, clients remain connected and empowered for a lifelong journey of recovery.
For more information about Harmony Foundation, please visit:
www.harmonyfoundationinc.com
Hey, hey, welcome to season 2, episode 12 of Monday State of Mind, brought to you by Harmony Foundation. My name is Michael Mausel and I am your host. What is good, what is good. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I am going to be wrapping up this theme. We have been deep into talking about community and I love this topic. We could do so many episodes on community, but we'll just keep it at a few of them, right? So we're going to dive right in. For those of you who are just tuning in to Monday State of Mind, check out the previous episodes that I have done on community.
Speaker 1:We started out talking about a personal journey, like I said, talking all about changing and inviting a new community that I never thought I would invite into my life. I chatted with Tabitha Miller, all about online communities and the importance of letting people in. Even if you're just doing online, it doesn't matter where you live. There is community available to you everywhere. We then talked about the family members, right? We talked all about how important it is for family members and loved ones to get community to be able to process and to build connection with other humans that are growing through what you're going through with your significant other who might be in recovery. We had Taylor on here. Taylor, what an amazing human talking about his experience with community. It was amazing and I love his storytelling. I'm here solo to wrap this community conversation up. This one's going to be short and sweet and to the point. It's a point that is very valid and one that I really want you guys to all think about, and that is the importance of inviting the concept of knowing that it is okay to have more than one community that you love in recovery. I bring this up, this topic up, because a lot of times, when people get sober and we get immersed into a community, we get attached right, because we make all these new friends and we are so grateful for the experience we've had in this community, whether it be an AA home group, whether it's a smart recovery, it's Dharma, it's whatever. Is your home, your main hub for community, right. Then we start to change, because if there's one thing I know about, recovery is the only constant in life not just in recovery, I'll say, but in life is change, and so as we grow and evolve in recovery, sometimes we need to be able to get into acceptance that, hey, I might need to switch up my community. I might need more than just my AA community, and that was something that I had to look at and that's why I'm here. So let's talk about it.
Speaker 1:When I first got sober, I was connected. Connected, connected to my AA community. I felt safe, I felt seen. I felt like that is just where I found my socializing. And then, when I was active or I did other things, I was pretty much by myself or with, you know, one or two other people.
Speaker 1:When I started to get more comfortable with who Michael Mausel was and who I was becoming, I realized that I needed more in my life than just my AA community. I wanted to have a running community. I wanted to have a community of friends that I could hang out with outside of just the rooms right. And when I thought about it at first it felt scary. I felt like, oh, here we go, more change. Here we go, big man upstairs, give me more change.
Speaker 1:If there's something I know about alcoholics and addicts is like the one thing that we dig our heels in the ground with is change. But I also knew that if I wasn't growing, I was dying. There's a saying that I've said before we're either green and growing or ripe and rotting. And so, as I look back on my sobriety, it started with one community, and then I started branching out. I started because I started getting interest Again. I started finding things that brought me joy besides just doing stepwork. But it was also important to be around people that supported these interests. Whether it's running, it's crocheting, it's backpacking, it's skiing right, be able to find community that can help you grow in those different areas.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize how important community was until I got into AA, and then I realized that when I was going out and doing all of these other things while, yes, I still enjoy my time by myself I really, really enjoyed being able to have shared experience with other humans that shared the same passions that I had. Too many times when we get sober I'll just speak for myself. When I got sober, I didn't know what that looked like. I thought in the beginning that my community would just be my recovery community and I was like ooh, and while that is still today number one in my life, I realized I needed more, and I want to say this message because I think a lot of us might even have guilt, like oh, but if I invite more. Am I cheating on this recovery community? Because I'm going to choose to hang out with these guys sometimes instead? And no, it is about what is going to fill you up and so that you can become the best person possible, knowing that you should always be rooted very first and foremost in 12-step or whatever recovery community that you choose, like that should always be your anchor.
Speaker 1:So let's see, I've gone through a myriad of communities and sometimes, when I look at my recovery, I want to bring up the aspect of sometimes you have to walk away or break up with a community that's no longer serving you and man, that can be hard too, right, like if you've gifted so much time to a community, like where you show up to a certain home group or you've been showing up going skiing with the same people every every single week, like you have it dialed, and then something shifts and you're like you know what? This isn't serving me anymore. I need something different and I'm here to tell you that that's OK and that's part of being human and that is the human experience to be able to continue to evolve and to grow and to change. At first it was hard for me. It was hard to be able to be like man. I love all these humans, but I want to try something different. And so how do we deliver that message? What does that look like? It's honesty. If you're working a solid program of recovery, it's rooted in honesty and integrity and being able to just say, hey, I have loved being a part of this, but I'm really excited to explore other options. And if other people are working a good program or people support your recovery, then they're going to say, hey, man, like that's awesome. Might be sad that you're not going to be hanging out with us as much, but you know, do what you got to do.
Speaker 1:It isn't about people pleasing and staying in a community. When you get into recovery, just because you think you should stay in a community, do not sit on yourself and do not tell yourself that you need to stay in a certain space because that space did so much for you. Things have their time in our lives. Everything in our lives serves a purpose and is supposed to be there for a certain amount of time, and I will allude this to friendships. Some friendships are meant to be there for a lifetime. Some friendships are meant to serve a purpose for a year, maybe six months, maybe five years, and so, if you can really choose to understand and grasp this concept of growth and evolving, it should bring excitement. Because, again, we are not ever the same. I'm not the same person. I was yesterday, maybe even 10 minutes ago, before I came on this podcast.
Speaker 1:So it's about choosing to get comfortable with evolution of self, that change is the only constant, and to know that in the evolution and the change, you will always be supported as long as you seek it and that you show up with honesty and integrity about how you exit one and enter another. And I know that to be true for myself and it's something that I look back on, for being sober as long as I have and seeing my evolution of different home groups, different groups of people that I would do certain activities with. If I look back and I'm like, ah, I am so grateful for each and every one of these experiences and I'm so grateful that I remained open, that I remained open to being able to know and to believe that, hey, you all were here for this moment, at this perfect time in my life, to help me to get to this next community that's gonna help me in a different way. That is needed for the time of my life that I am in right now. How cool is that? Like, just think of the depth of the possibilities that happened for us. When we look at like, hey, as long as I am rooted in my recovery and I put my recovery community first and I choose my recovery so that I can have all of these other communities come and go, or some will stay for a while, good things happen, we evolve and we are supported along the way.
Speaker 1:I firmly believe that getting sober is not just about having your community in AA and going to work and Groundhogs Day every single day. It's not about that. This community is a gateway. Your recovery community is a gateway to other communities that allow you to thrive and choose that. Choose to look at it that way and, instead of being sad if you're like God, this isn't serving me anymore, be like wow, I'm so grateful for that experience. Again, mindset shift, perspective is everything we need to be able to look at things and not be so sad and instead be like wow, so grateful that this came into my life and I'm so grateful to know that something else is gonna come in and it's gonna serve me for exactly what needs to be served.
Speaker 1:Community is powerful. Community becomes even more powerful when we become willing to be in acceptance of growth, when we become willing to be in acceptance of evolution and getting excited about like I don't need to stay in the same space, I get to keep growing and I get to keep evolving. So this episode is for you, the one who might feel complacent with your community, the one who might feel like I don't know how to break away from this community. It's not serving me anymore to find something different. This is for you, the person who feels maybe lost. It's like just start somewhere, just start with one, and if you start with one community, more will come as a result of getting to know people in that community that already have other communities that they might invite you into. This business of sobriety and connection, which then seeds.
Speaker 1:Community is so cool, and so the biggest message here is possibility. There is so much possibility and experiences. I will say that can happen for us If we remain willing, if we choose to not try to be in control all the time, if we choose to be open to what can happen for us. I am so grateful that today I can look back at all of the different communities that I've been a part of and be like, wow, I know exactly why all of these people were in my life at these times. And I can look at my present communities that I'm a part of, because there's a lot of them that I'm a part of and I can absolutely, with so much conviction, be like I know exactly why I am a part of all of these communities.
Speaker 1:They all are serving a major purpose in my life right now, and if I didn't let go of certain things in the past, who knows if I would have had the space for the ones that I'm in right now? So, create space, remain open, stay willing the possibilities are endless and get so excited. That is what I got for you on this beautiful Monday. And, like I always say before we part ways, I want to remind you that help is available. If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please reach out to the Harmony Foundation at 970-586-4491. Just remember that together we build better humans. All right, you guys, I'll see you next week. Thank you.