The site may look a little different if you have visited here before.  I decided to move it off of the domain from my personal web site as to help keep my anonymity.  All of the content is here just as before and hopefully someday I will be able to record more content.

In doing the podcast I discovered so much about myself that I really didn’t know about.  Little pearls of wisdom seemed to come from my mouth just at the time I needed to apply them in my life.  Starting this podcast in 2005 and recording the episodes was a magical experience.

I also love to hear from people who come across the podcast and download it.  Even though the episodes are a couple of years old, I think they are worth a listen.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at recoverypodcast at gmail dot com

My life is truly full of blessings today.  It has been almost five years since I placed my last bet and I can’t even imagine what life would be today if I was still in my disease.  In fact, who knows if I would be here.  I know that I definetely wouldn’t be living my dreams and traveling the world with my wife and son.  Please take care and thanks for being there!

Shawn C.

I have received quite a few emails inquiring about whether I am ok or not. I just want to let everyone know that everything is going great but my life seems to get busier and busier. I was on vacation from the 17th to the 26th of March and since I have been back I have been trying to catch up. My schedule is looking a little lighter starting in a couple of weeks but then my son’s tball is starting twice a week so I don’t know. Life is good but busy and I am really trying to find time for the podcast. I just want to thank everyone for the support and I love hearing from everyone. I will email everyone as soon as I release another podcast and if someone wants to record their story like Tim did I would be more than happy to post it as a podcast. Talk to you soon and thanks for being there!

Shawn C.

I really feel like I should post more personal stuff on this site. I am just another recovering person but my life is so full of blessings. I know that when I am down it sometimes help me to look at the blessings in someone else’s life in order to see the blessings in mine.

Since I started this podcast life has changed so much, which in reality is basically what has happened since I entered a recovery program. I have been really willing to change the way I think and live and have found things in life that really are beyond anything I could’ve imagined.

Sure in the past and even today I fight the change as I struggle to remind myself of the mistakes of my past. Learning is a struggle sometimes. In fact it is a struggle most times. I guess that is the only way it could be. It seems as my life does achieve balance I look for the reasons why it shouldn’t be.

I know in the last couple of months as I have had less free time my meeting attendance has gone down and as a result my spirituality has suffered. Not only am I blatenly aware of this but I remind myself of it on a daily basis. I am now trying to refocus my spiritual effort in order to find that balance again.

I feel great most days but I know it could be better and I find myself back to the ego way of making decisions. I recognize that I am not in charge but when I am making decisions sometimes I don’t recognize the truth of my existence.

I work in an environment where disease is all around. I form a shield daily and don’t let myself get to deeply involved with it. I even turned down an invite to a Super Bowl party because I know there would be people and factors there not healthy to my recovery. It is funny how I look at my recovery. I think it is sacred but it can improve dramatically.

The outlook is good for the next couple of months. My wife will be back to working the same hours as I do so I will be able to attend more meetings at night while she can watch my son. I also have cut way back on my television, focusing more on working out and reading. I also am taking more quiet time.

I have found it hard to meditate though. I seems like all of the meditation skills I learned before have left me and I find it hard to quiet my mind. Mostly of the excitement in my mind is positive because there are definetely more wonderful things happening in my life than bad things. Either way I need to find that strong connection again. The thing is that since I have refocused a couple of weeks ago the connection is growing stronger and I am feeling better all of the time.

Next month I am going on the 1st what I call “real vacation” in my life. When I was a child growing up in Southern California we used to only go on vacation to Las Vegas. When I moved to Las Vegas I only went on vacation to Southern California. What is real about that? Next month my wife and I will be going to Cabo San Lucas for a week to celebrate my 24th birthday and our 5th wedding anniversary.

When I look at that last paragraph I see so many blessings. Not only am I still married (I was seperated when I came into recovery) but I am still alive. I also will get to celebrate something which I never did and I am going on my 1st “REAL VACATION”. Did I also mention that my job is going really well and I moved into my dream house three months ago! WOW so many blessings.

I am going to call this post “The State of My Recovery”. I really do this all of the time but I never have done it in this form. This is really a daily inventory for me. I look at the good and what I need to work on as well as the big picture. By the big picture I mean where in general is my life heading and how am I in tune with it. I also look at in general where my spirituality and recovery are.

If you got this far I want to thank you for reading all of this and allowing me to share it with you. I do enjoy sharing not only my blessings but my lessons from recovery and addiction. I will get the next podcast up soon. Thank for being there.

Shawn C.

As promised here is the first of many 2006 renditions of the Recovery Podcast. Today we have a listener’s story recorded by him. Thank you again Tim for sharing it with us. Please vote for the podcast at PodcastAlley.com by clicking the link on the top of the page. Thank you again and let’s grow this thing further. Oh and by the way……..thanks for being there!

Shawn C.

Life has been moving so fast the last month. I sold my house and have spent the last 4 weekends looking for the new place I will call home. Last weekend we finally found our new home. Now both places are in escrow. The move is a happy one as we will have a much nicer home to raise our son.

Life is going really well and all along I was able to use my higher power as guidance. This process has taken two and a half months just to get to this point. The reason for that is it was not rushed. In my disease I was in such a hurry to rush everything and to jump on that opportunity. I found that these behaviors only led to personal disaster. I am trying it a different way this time. I am trying to follow the path of balance.

Somehow in all of this I have had trouble finding the time to do the podcast. I am rededicating myself to getting this podcast back on track. This weekend I will be out of town so I am looking at getting episode 16 out sometime next week. Another benefit recovery has given me is the ability to fly to Minneapolis this weekend to watch my Packers take on the Minnesota Vikings. The furthest East I have been in my life is Arizona and I am going all the way to Minnesota. I am so very excited.

Life has given and continues to give me so many opportunities. I am taking a snapshot of every one to draw on when times aren’t so good. For now that is all. I am so blessed to have this website and to have the friends and family I have. I am especially glad to have my friends in recovery like you. You have helped me to find the joy that life should have for everyone. Peace, love and thank for being there.

Your Friend,

Shawn C.

Episode 15 will be released tonight. I will talk about shame. I would like to open the podcast up in the next couple of weeks to hear your stories. If you would like to join me on the podcast to tell your story via Skype please email me. I think this would add a lot to the podcast. If you are interested or want some further information let me know. I just want to thank everyone again for the support.

Shawn C.

If you love this podcast please vote for us at PodcastAlley.com. The voting resets every month so if you have already voted in a previous month, please vote again. This will help to expand our community and get more exposure for the podcast. Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it.

Shawn C.

Shawn C