Welcome to Celebrating
Life In Recovery, I'm Cheri.
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Today we are going to just
talk about how incredibly cool
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God is, come
join us in the café.
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Welcome to the café,
there is a group at the café,
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some friends of mine that
have done the program before.
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That is Angela and Dan and
I want to say, I'm glad you're
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back, and there is
a group from Wildwood.
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The reason I brought them
in, is that a lot of you know
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that I have been
dealing with cancer.
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What is really interesting,
leukemia, and I'm fine,
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I just want to say that,
some people have me already
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dead, I am not
dead, but I am fine.
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I ended up thinking, in my
recovery, this whole program is
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about recovery, in my
recovery I used to if I got hit
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with something like
this, or not even like this,
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if I got hit with even
with it's going to be a bad day,
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I wanted some drugs,
if you know what I mean.
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Now in my recovery, I'm getting
hit with the major things
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and I am finding out that
even that, I can deal with.
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I gathered through the
first part of my recovery the
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ability to look at some of
these pretty intense things,
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I can say you
know what, I am okay.
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I can deal with this,
I can get through this.
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So what I did is I started
to look at, I've done a lot
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of recovery work and I
know if there is a psychological
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problem, if I'm dealing
with anger, if I'm dealing with
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depression, if I'm dealing
with that kind of stuff I know
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what to do, but I didn't
know physically what to do.
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So I called around, and
I called around and it was
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terrible because I am in
Ministry so I never have a dime.
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Halftime I don't have gas
money, so if you have any money
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to send it to me, going to
have to tell them I don't have
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that, so called around
and asked a number of places,
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can I come and go through
your program and learn how to
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take care of myself physically?
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Wildwood, they were so
amazing, because they just said
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absolutely, and what I found
out when I got there is that
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there is a number of
people from all over the world.
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Students from all over the
world that really believe that
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health and recovery is more
than just figuring out how to
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stop doing drugs more than
just figuring out that I'm not
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going to get lost on a computer
anymore, I'm not going to
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spend 12 hours with
videogames, or Internet porn,
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or I'm not going to
drink and slam drugs.
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I'm not going to isolate myself.
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More than just that physical
thing, so these students
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from all over the
world have their own stories.
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Some of the stories are
just like, you look at some
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body that is incredibly
healthy, looks like they have
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it all together
and they have come from
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some pretty
heartbreaking backgrounds.
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So I learned a couple
things, I learned you can't
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judge somebody by how you
see them and that some people
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are so passionate about
telling others, that part of
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maintaining your
recovery and your health is
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to learn that
everything matters.
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It matters, like I didn't
know when you sleep, when you go
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to sleep, I go to sleep
when I can't keep my eyes open
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anymore, so it is two clock the
morning and I think I can't do
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another thing and it
is time to go to sleep.
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But I didn't know that from
eight to 12 o'clock at night,
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from eight at night to 12
o'clock at night that if you
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are sleeping only your
body produces serotonin levels.
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Well serotonin helps you
with depression, it helps you
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feel good, it helps you
laugh and all those things.
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But if you are not asleep,
your body doesn't get it.
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I'm thinking, oh stop, I
don't think I have ever been to
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sleep before midnight, you know.
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So I had to start learning,
I'm dealing with health,
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I'm dealing with
maintenance stuff, so I need
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to go to sleep earlier.
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I didn't know that the serotonin
level that your body builds
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up between eight and 12,
when the sunlight hits your
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eye, the morning, that place
where your serotonin builds up
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gets released, it
says, oh good morning.
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I'm like stop, because
I never go to bed on time.
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So I started to actually
learn that if in the long run
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I want to be
successful in my recovery.
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If the long run I literally
want to walk into a life
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that is healthy, I
have to start being healthy.
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You know part of it that
I learned at Wildwood was
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discipline, stop its killing me.
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You know I'm not disciplined,
and I've always said it's
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my personality, but I really
have learned that discipline
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is not a bad thing.
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I took up biking as a hobby.
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At first just riding
around the block, I thought my
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first ride I was going to
ride, our blocks in the country,
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20 miles, so I thought
was going to do 20 miles or at
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least 5 miles, and I
got a mile and looked up and
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thought, I cannot do this.
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I remember God lovingly
saying to me, just like you
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did the first part of your
recovery, when you took your
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first step, you
realized you were powerless and
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turned it over to Me.
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You allowed Me to show you
some of the things you need
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to get rid of,
and all that stuff.
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This step and maintenance
and recovery, taking care of
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yourself is going
to be like that too.
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At first it is going
to seem like it's going to
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be a lot of work.
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At first you are going
to be really struggling with
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going around the
block, or even going a mile,
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but you know
what, you will get it.
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I thought at first He was
crazy, I don't mean to say
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God is crazy, but
He knows what I meant.
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I thought no way, not me!
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Now I'm doing 20 miles
without even thinking about it.
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I did 100 miles
around Lake Tahoe.
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And we did 100 miles with
3800 cyclists and it was the
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funnest thing, on mile
81, it was a 7 mile incline.
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I almost cried, but
you know what, I made it!
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It is an amazing thing, so
this part of recovery is more
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than just walking
away from the drug.
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It is more than just walking
away from your dysfunction.
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It is more than understanding
the things that I can't do.
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It's walking into
your life, what can you do?
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How do you take care of
your body, how do you get your
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energy back, how do
you get healthy again?
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Once you get all that, the
recovery part of it becomes
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easier, because daily I'm
not only staying in my recovery
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program, but I'm actually
getting myself healthier.
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I pray that for you,
because I never realized
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how unhealthy I was.
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All the stuff that was getting
at me and now it is a joy
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to wake up every morning.
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It is a joy to figure out,
you know what I'm going to do
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every day, so we are going
to break and I will introduce
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you to a woman I
met while at Wildwood.
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She has an incredible story,
but we are going to hear how
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she maintains her recovery.
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We'll be right
back! Stay with us.
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