My guest on the podcast this week was Jesse Harless.
We had a great conversation about his story and the announcement of his book which was recently published called “If Not You, Then Who? Harness Your Strengths to Turn From Addiction to Abundance.”
I loved this book! And when it comes to the simple everyday tools for turning your life around to create more healthy habits, Jesse nailed it with his acronym called: F.E.A.R.S.
I meant to ask him to explain this on the podcast but our time went by so fast so I’m going to share it here.
We are all recovering from something – at least I think we are. So even if you are not in recovery from drugs and alcoholism, maybe you are recovering from a trauma you had in your life, or co-dependency, creating debt, a divorce or relationship breakup, quitting smoking, looking for a new job after losing the last one, gambling addiction, or recovering from a health issue to name a few.
These FEARS tools can be used in your recovery. Learn to practice them.
Here is the F.E.A.R.S. Toolkit (Read Jesse’s book for a much deeper explanation on each topic.)
F = Focus
Focus on your recovery. This means making your recovery the most important aspect of your life. If you don’t put it first, it may keep getting pushed down in the priority of your life until one day you forget and you may end up back at square one. So make Focusing on your recovery a priority. Here are a few suggestions:
- Create a daily to-do list to stay on track
- Feel your feelings – don’t stuff them
- Build your recovery team of people who support you and you feel safe calling when you need help
- Keep yourself accountable (call someone on your team every day)
- Live on purpose every day
E = Elevate
Elevate your recovery by discovering new ways to be creative, adventurous, and connected in recovery. Some ways you might do this are to learn new things (knowledge), find a sponsor/mentor, make new friends, envision a new and bright future for yourself. Stay inspired.
A = Appreciate
Appreciate your recovery by showing gratitude for everything which increases your well-being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You can do this by writing a gratitude list, journaling, sharing your story with others, and being of service to others. The more you appreciate your recovery, the more abundance you’ll experience in all of those areas of well-being.
R = Resilience
Build resilience in recovery to overcome adversity so you can develop a resilient heart and mind, which enables you to face your fears, trust your intuition, survive low spots and setbacks and handle any adversity you may encounter.
S = Self-Care
Self-Care in recovery is so important because of the deep level of healing it provides. We must slow down to recharge our batteries before helping others. Deep breathing and meditation is an important practice. Being centered is a mindfulness practice. You can practice each morning or during any part of a chaotic day in the office, when someone frustrates you, or at the end of the day when writing in your journal. Self-care is a gift you give yourself and it’s okay if you’re not perfect. (Jesse’s goes into a lot more details of self-care techniques in his book.)
The link to the full podcast episode with Jesse is here. If you liked this episode, please 1. Subscribe 2. Rate the Podcast (click on 5 stars!) and 3. Leave a review (I would appreciate it!)
All my best,
Maureen
P.S. If you are curious about Clubhouse, please email me or text me with your iPhone number at 860-989-6506 and I’ll get you in! There are SO MANY quality discussions going on there. If you are already in Clubhouse, please follow me @maureenrg and join my club called Recovery@Work.
