Addiction Recovery: A road less traveled

I recently watched a show that was very triggering for me. The show was a contest where groups of individuals volunteered to survive in the harsh wilderness of Alaska. The contest ended when there was only one group left standing. Initially, I thought the show was very clever… until it wasn’t. I saw some pretty harsh things the groups did to each other in order to ‘win’. I saw sleeping bags stolen, destruction of team property, lying, and other events. I found myself asking, “What would I do in these situations?” I found my responses were cruel and aggressive. The idea of seriously hurting someone was a very real consideration. I wanted to see them hurt, bleed, and be in so much pain they would have to tap out. These feelings started my heart racing. I couldn’t focus. All I could think about was this contest and getting overly aggressive. Then something clicked - I was triggered! I was triggered in a way that I haven’t been triggered in a long time. This thought of being triggered gro...

I enjoy strength training and powerlifting. I find it so enjoyable to set a goal and achieve it. What I like even more is being able to push myself beyond where I thought I could go. A few years ago, I purchased some Olympic lifting shoes. These are specialized shoes that lift the heel up by some distance. The first set of shoes I bought had about a 0.25-inch heel. They felt good and I enjoyed using them. Although these shoes were fun to wear, I noticed something negative occurring. The day after my squat workout, my knees really hurt. I didn’t like how my knees felt. I tried to make some adjustments but my knees still hurt. I also noticed my hips were getting sore throughout the week. To me, this didn’t make sense. I could see there were world champion powerlifters using these shoes and finding a lot of success with them. What I decided to do was look into a different set of Olympic lifting shoes. I finally bought a shoe that had a 0.75-inch heel. Initially, the pain in my knee wen...