Helen and Valerie discuss the stages of recovery as an individual process that is a journey, not a destination. Helen tells her dramatic story of struggle and triumph over multiple mental illnesses.
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Recovery Stages and Helen’s Story
Episode 2
Helen Sneed: Welcome to Mental Health Hope and Recovery. I'm Helen Sneed.
Valerie Milburn: And I'm Valerie Milburn.
Helen Sneed: We both have fought and overcome severe chronic mental illnesses. Our podcast offers a unique approach to mental health conditions. We use practical skills and inspirational stories of recovery. Our knowledge is up close and personal.
Valerie Milburn: Helen and I are your peers. We're not doctors, therapists or social workers. We're not professionals, but we are experts. We are experts in our own lived experience with multiple mental health diagnoses and symptoms. Please join us on our journey.
Helen Sneed: We live in recovery, so can you.
Valerie Milburn: This podcast does not provide medical advice. The information presented is not intended to be a substitute for or relied upon as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The podcast is for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any health related questions you may have.
Helen Sneed: So today our topic is the stages of Recovery.
Valerie Milburn: Also today we're going to hear your story, Helen.
Valerie Milburn: Your inspirational story of struggle and hope and recovery with your own mental health condition.
Helen Sneed: Well, thank you, Valerie. I guess I want to say to begin with, there are stages of recovery. I prefer to look on them as building blocks because that way you can look on them something as you can sort of move around as at best it suits you. And there's not necessarily a particular order and you can try one on one day and one the next. But it is a process. And no two people go through the stages in the same order, much less chronologically. That's just not possible. So bear in mind that we will describe stages, but we're not about to tell you how or when to use them. What we can do is explain how the stages of recovery affected us. What worked for us is not necessarily a model for others. For me, after years of struggle, there's one guiding truth. It's a journey of many steps, not a destination. There's a brilliant quote that has helped me keep fighting. Martin Luther King said, you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Valerie Milburn: You're right, you said it.
Valerie Milburn: Recovery is definitely a journey, not a destination. It's such an individual process, it has no set stages. My journey has had many fits and starts and like life, many ups and downs.
Helen Sneed: When we talk about stages, I almost kind of have to not laugh, but kind of frown really, because initially my identity was shattered. I just didn't have anything to work with in terms of putting myself together to move forward. And also I was a snob about survival. All I could see is that I wanted to wave a magic wand and return to the accomplished, active person I used to be. So I had no patience or capacity for breaking it down into steps.
Valerie Milburn: I'm going to talk about that also in a little while about wanting to.
Valerie Milburn: Get back to my accomplished state. But recovery doesn't mean necessarily returning to functioning as it was before the pre symptomatic phase of a person's life. For example, I could never return to the type of stressful career I had before my illness, nor abandon the level of self care and supportive care that I now require. So about that wanting to return to my accomplished state. Once when I was lamenting to my psychiatrist that I would never achieve the goals I had set out for myself for my career when I was younger or follow that path I was on before my breakdown, he stopped me and said, wait a minute, I knew you when you were successful as you're describing successful now. He said you weren't successful when you were successful. He said what you're doing now with your life is what matters now in your state of recovery is when you're successful.
Helen Sneed: That's a pretty sobering concept for someone like me.
Valerie Milburn: Yeah. He has been a cornerstone of my recovery and my biggest cheerleader, my psychiatrist.
Valerie Milburn: So,
Valerie Milburn: Helen, you and I have several.
Valerie Milburn: Models of the recovery process we really like. And one is from the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine. And this model says that the recovery mode aims to help people with mental illness and distress to, quote, look beyond mere survival and existence and move forward and set new goals. And this was definitely true for me. I was in a place where I was just in survival and existence mode and I have moved forward and set new goals. The Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine also writes, quote, recovery is a voyage of self discovery and personal growth. Experiences of mental illness can provide opportunities for change, reflection and discovery of new values, skills and interests.
Helen Sneed: Valerie, I am so glad that you found this model because I have fallen in love with it for many reasons, but it's mainly because it is the most vivid and optimistic definition of recovery that I have seen. And I've seen a lot of them. It almost makes it sound like an adventure, that it's not only just crawling out of some pit from h***, but that you're actually going to crawl someplace higher than that. I wish I had known this way back when because this is again, this is the most abundant definition that I've heard of recovery.
Valerie Milburn: Yes, it's very uplifting to know that things will change.
Valerie Milburn: And that's one of the parts about that quote that I love is the part that talks about opportunities for change because I am a different person than I was before my breakdown and five year fight in into a life of recovery. I have been able to find new true talents and fulfill them. I mean, I'm more grateful for life. I am healthier in every way. I'm closer to my family and friends. I'm more connected to my community. And Thomas Mann kind of sums this all up in this quote. No one who learns to know himself remains just what he was before. And my self discovery that learning to know myself came through therapy and the 12 steps. And I indeed discovered new values, skills and interests. One of my deepest new values now is home and family. I have a deeper appreciation for my family. I have a rich spiritual life now and I have a passion for service work, for volunteering in the recovery community, for speaking out to break down the stigma surrounding mental illness. And I never saw myself in these roles. I never saw myself as a podcaster.
Helen Sneed: Well, you have embraced the change, which I think I found more difficult as the process went on. But there's another model that you and I really like in terms of the stages it describes. It's from my files and I'm sorry to say I have no idea where it came from or where I found it. So I want to say if anybody out there knows this as we go through it, please let us know on our email. It's mental healthhopeandrecoverymail.com Again, mental healthhopeandrecoverygmail.com and we would love to hear from you. So the order that we moved through the stages in was different for each of us. Again, back to the building blocks philosophy. As we've said many times now, recovery is an individual journey that only you can make. Let's walk through. There's six stages to this model and let's start just and go through them. Starting with one.
Valerie Milburn: Valerie, Stage one is recognition and safety.
Valerie Milburn: Stage one, the recognition part came to me while I was living in a sober house when after my husband said I couldn't come home.
Valerie Milburn: This happened during my seventh psychiatric hospitalization.
Valerie Milburn: And my suicide attempt. My husband said I couldn't come home. I went to live in a sober house. And this was when I was finally able to recognize the dire state of my mental health.
Valerie Milburn: Now, the second part of that stage.
Valerie Milburn: The feeling safe, didn't come until much later. Now stage two is acceptance. And I finally moved into acceptance of my mental health condition after I did enough research to discover that I have a Medical illness. Mental illness is a medical illness. It's a biological brain disorder and it's not my fault. And that was stage two for me. Acceptance.
Helen Sneed: Stage three is a treatment plan and belief in the possibility
Helen Sneed: of recovery. Well, my first stage to recovery started right here with stage three. Was able to get some traction because I was finally able to use the skills I had learned to begin to control my hideous thoughts and feeling the things that had driven me all my life and to take a few steps of positive action when I was feeling a little better. Even when I fell back, I had this flickering belief in my chance for recovery.
Valerie Milburn: Stage four is consistent self care and.
Valerie Milburn: That is what I still do. Stage four is my daily wellness plan, which I described in depth when I told my story in the last episode. Helen, you're going to share your wellness plan today when you share your story in a little while.
Helen Sneed: Stage five, Reconnect with community. I think it's difficult to describe the value of returning to the world. That's the only way I could get back was through other people, through my people. And it happened in fits and starts. Someone would ask me to go to the theater and I'd say, well, yes, I'd really like to do that. And then two weeks later when we were supposed to go, I felt so bad I couldn't dress myself. And so I would cancel. And I went back and forth and back and forth and finally I was able to show up more times than I canceled. And again it was that reconnect with people. Finally. Stage six, reduction of symptoms and belief in long term plan. Now I return to this stage again and again. I still do. When my symptoms were quieter, I could take action. Remember, I'm the person that keeps going. Action is all the more I could accomplish, the more I believed in my long term future plan. But I had to put it in writing. This is something I recommend to people because even in my darkest, most hopeless hours, I had a piece of paper and my plan was on it and the way to get there was on it. And I knew that maybe I could dig my way out.
Valerie Milburn: I know you're a big believer in journaling and the journaling is a part.
Valerie Milburn: Of your wellness plan. Now there's another model I want to talk about. It's a model for sobriety stages of recovery. And though substance use disorder is a mental health condition, it's often looked at kind of differently. So one of the stages of sobriety.
Valerie Milburn: Recovery model I'd like to talk about.
Valerie Milburn: Is from smart recovery. And SMART stands for self management. And recovery training. So these five stages start with the pre contemplation stage, where not only can you not see the solution, you don't even recognize the problem. And I have a story that really illustrates that. I went to outpatient treatment for the first time after my psychiatrist said, if you don't go to treatment, I won't see you anymore. And he was my lifeline, even at this early stage of my struggle. So I went to outpatient treatment, and one of the things we had to do was a history of our drug and alcohol abuse. And mine was about 21, 22 pages long. And we had to give it in a group therapy session. And I did. And when I finished, I looked up and people's mouths were hanging open. And I kind of said, what? What's going on here? And the therapist said, are you open to feedback from the group? And I said, sure. And one of the people said, you know, for somebody who looks like you and sounds like you, that is an astonishing history of drug and alcohol abuse. And I think that was what moved me into stage two, the contemplation stage, where I thought, okay, maybe I have a problem. I had gone from not recognizing the problem and I wanted to stop feeling so stuck. I acknowledged in the contemplation stage, stage two, I acknowledged I had a problem, began to think about solving it, which moves you into stage three, the preparation stage, where someone is planning to take action and are finally beginning to make adjustments before they begin to change their behavior. But in the preparation stage, you're still not out of ambivalence. I was still on the fence. I wasn't ready to do the work required to get and stay sober. From there, when the ambivalence is resolved, we move into action. Stage four is the action stage, where we overtly modify our behavior.
Valerie Milburn: And I did.
Valerie Milburn: I began working the 12 steps. Now, the action stage requires the greatest commitment of time and energy from action. Action is all, as Helen often says, action moves us into maintenance because recovery is a lifelong
Valerie Milburn: wellness plan. And I never stop the maintenance of my recovery. Again, I've talked about my wellness plan. Helen's going to expand on hers. Helen, you will talk about yours.
Valerie Milburn: A few of my ongoing lifelong wellness.
Valerie Milburn: Steps are exercise, eight hours of sleep, trying to eat right, prayer and meditation, other mindfulness practices, therapy and medication, managing my stress. My 12 step program, not isolating this action, never ends. I will work every day for the rest of my life to stay clean and sober.
Helen Sneed: Well, that's amazing. I think what's interesting to me about I don't have a substance or alcohol use disorder, but I'm so struck by the similarities of attaining and of working towards sobriety and also working toward recovery because they're so similar. And so much of it has to do with working against your instincts and your old habits and trying it again and again and again until you get it right or get it right part of the time.
Valerie Milburn: Talking about the stages of recovery just now has been really a great lead in to transitioning into storytelling, which is where we're headed. And Helen, we're going to get to hear your recovery journey now. You and I have shared our stories many, many times and with all sorts of audiences, and we've long been believers in the power of storytelling. But you know what? If we hadn't been believers, we sure would have been convinced by the responses to me sharing my story in our last episode because we've received so many texts and emails and phone calls, I even had a handwritten note arrive in the mail. So many responses about the power of storytelling and about our discussion in our last podcast. One of the responses was, your podcast could be labeled. For anyone who has completely given up, here's a lifeline of hope. We also tell our stories for our own healing. Roger Bingham said, we tell our stories in order to feel at home in the universe. I know sharing my story, knowing that my dark past is a shining light of hope to others, has really given meaning to a part of my life that was once just pain and shame. And Helen, I know this is true for you, and your journey is a light of hope for me, as it has been to literally thousands of people already. So let's delve into your journey. I know you grew up in Austin, but spent 40 years living in New York. How old were you when you moved to New York and what drew you there?
Helen Sneed: Well, I was born and raised in Austin, but the minute I graduated from college, I went to Tulane in New Orleans. I moved to New York and spent the next 40 years there. I moved back here to Austin several years ago now because I am a New Yorker still in so many ways. The first thing you should know about me is I am a terrible driver. Truly terrible. I'm used to taxis and subways and it shows. I can go for days without making an unprotected left turn because it's just too terrifying. So regardless of where you are today, you are much safer there than you are out on the road with me. Well, it's a black Honda Accord. If you see me coming, just pull over because I don't do well in tight spaces.
Valerie Milburn: Well, since I live 10 minutes from you, I'm always looking for your black Honda Accord. Now, you are an accomplished writer, and besides writing, what are some other things in your life that are important to you?
Helen Sneed: Well, you're very kind, Valerie. I just say I'm a writer. I also love to read. I have a large family and many friends. People are the most important thing in the world to me. I also love anything that has a story. Books, movies, theater, music, politics, even the gym. You will learn something of my own story today, and I hope in some small way to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Valerie Milburn: People sometimes ask me to describe my mental health journey. And do you ever get this question?
Helen Sneed: Oh, I do. It's difficult to describe, as you well know. I mean, people ask me,
Helen Sneed: well, what happened to you? What's it like to have mental illness? And I've tried to explain, but I found that words alone are inadequate. But there's a photograph from the Vietnam War. It's a little girl running down a dirt road, straight into the camera. She is naked, her clothes burned away by napalm. Her little face is contorted with agony and terror. She is screaming. There are people around her on the road, but they are not paying her any attention. She is utterly alone. I called her the Burning Girl. And at its very worst, this is what mental illness feels like to me. Just burning, burning all alone.
Valerie Milburn: That is such a descriptive picture of mental illness. It really, really gives a true sense of what it feels like. You once told me that you have very few memories before the age of 8. What memories do you have?
Helen Sneed: Well, I grew up in the. Excuse me. I grew up in the country, and I do have very few memories before the age of eight. It's almost blank. But I do know. I believed I was so dirty and low I should live in the barn with the animals. Early childhood trauma was a contributing factor, no doubt, But I learned over time to fake it. I created a double life, and it allowed me to build a footbridge over the sewer, and it allowed me to keep it all inside and to overachieve for many years until I crashed.
Valerie Milburn: You did crash, but you had a very long fight. And sometimes, summarizing our treatment gives a picture of that fight in our journey. Can you summarize your treatment?
Helen Sneed: Well, my medical history is roughly. Sorry, the length of Beowulf, but here are some numbers. Three hospitalizations, one lasting a year and three months. I was locked up for 15 straight months, 39 consecutive years. Of individual therapy, including a male psychiatrist who began a sexual relationship that lasted for six years. 64 medications in various combinations, five diagnoses, bipolar anorexia, clinical depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder. More than $2 million in lost salary and benefits. Like millions of Americans, I was wiped out by catastrophic illness. The stigma of mental illness is so great that my life was built on lie upon lie upon lie, Because I wanted to have a job and friends and maybe even a boyfriend. But I didn't know how to handle it. I mean, if some nice guy called and asked me to dinner, what was I supposed to say? Well, yes, I'd love to, but you should know that I'm profoundly mentally ill. So I didn't know what to do. So I continued to lead a double life and kept it inside. And that was to my detriment.
Valerie Milburn: Can you talk about your symptoms and did they escalate over time?
Helen Sneed: Oh, symptoms. I developed life threatening symptoms, Suicide attempts and acting out so extreme that for long periods of time, I was cutting daily and binging or starving weekly. Now nobody wants to act this way. I knew that my symptoms were bizarre and grotesque and just kind of mind boggling. But there's a quote from Proust that I think helps explain it. He said, to wisdom and kindness. We make promises. Pain we obey. When I was out of control, I was obeying this excruciating pain and I was trying to stop it as best I knew how. I ultimately stopped functioning altogether. I couldn't answer the door, open my mail or email, answer the phone, leave my apartment. Finally, I couldn't even leave my bedroom. I felt like I'd become a plastic bag full of big shards of broken glass that would. That would poke through at any minute and I would just disintegrate. And that was all that was left of me. My revered doctor told me I was hopelessly sick, I would never recover, and I would never work again. I was so shocked by her contempt and betrayal that I looked at her and I said, you know, I will devote the rest of my life to proving you wrong.
Helen Sneed: And I did.
Valerie Milburn: Yes, you did. You proved that doctor wrong. And you also proved that there is always hope, even in the darkest moments. What helped you fight your way back?
Helen Sneed: Well, it was, you know, I think the best term is, you know, probably was true for you, too, is that you, you claw your way back into the world. And for me it was very slow, and it's like white knuckle by white knuckle. But there were definite treatment methods that support My treatment has lasted 39 years, and that's way more than half my life. Please don't freak out over how long it took me to recover. I got sick in 1981. Yes, I know many of you weren't even born then, but the treatment methods were so primitive and the medications were ghastly. I'm far more optimistic for people who are fighting for their mental health today. There's so many more weapons at hand. The science and medicine are catching up. Medications are far more sophisticated. I think the most important thing is the doctors are just smarter. There is a vast body of knowledge now about these illnesses, and they can use it to help their patients. Individual therapy has been the centerpiece of my treatment and one where I've had dismal misfortune. I made the mistake of worshiping my doctors. I never questioned them. I blamed myself when I didn't get better, and I blamed myself when I got worse. It wasn't until I found a therapist who would not let me worship her and who insisted on equality in the relationship that I began to make real progress.
Valerie Milburn: That's important. Now, you and I both know medication isn't for everyone. And what about you? What role has medication played in your recovery?
Helen Sneed: Well, I think you're right to mention that medication can be pretty controversial subject because some people recover without it. Some people tried it doesn't work, and they recover without it. Then there's someone like me, and I need it. I've been on drug trials since 1981, and it wasn't until 2008 that a new doctor prescribed a medication that began to work. Within a few days, for the first time in my life, I was able to begin to tame the thoughts and feelings that had controlled me all my days. I will be on medication for the rest of my life. I currently take seven, which is a pretty stout cocktail. But my brain needs it, and the side effects are just part of the bargain. I just wish the pills didn't cost so much, but maybe they'll fix that someday.
Valerie Milburn: Yeah. Isn't that true? What about Dialectical behavioral therapy? I know it plays a very powerful role in your life. Can you talk about that for a minute?
Helen Sneed: Thank you for bringing it up. I am a fan and a practitioner of it. Dialectical Behavior Therapy. DBT literally saved my life. Better still, it allowed me to save my own life, which is the purpose of it all. What it does is it teaches dozens and dozens of skills to overcome those tidal waves of hideous thoughts and feelings that can just engulf a person. To this Minute I use it dozens of times daily. I'm using it even as I speak.
Valerie Milburn: Are there any other treatments that were effective for you?
Helen Sneed: There were a number of treatments. Hospitalization was important because it kept me from killing myself. I always hated the hospitals, but I loved the people in them. They were my salvation. Best of all is group therapy. I've always learned the most from my peers because you're in a room and everyone's in the same boat and everyone gets it. From those friends, I received wisdom and support and generosity and humor that I will never forget.
Valerie Milburn: So let's shift into kind of our wellness plan that we've mentioned a lot and that I've talked about in depth. You and I talk a lot about coping skills, coping strategies, and that's going to be one of the focuses of this podcast. What coping skills do you rely on?
Helen Sneed: Well, the most significant things I need are structure and people daily, for I'm convinced that loneliness is what kills people with mental illness. It's just so lonely. The DBT skills are something that I use with tremendous success. A very simple one is to smile. They've proven that smiling releases these fabulous chemicals in the brain. It brightens your eyes. It opens up your face. When I first started feeling better in New York, I swore I would never again look like a loser
Helen Sneed: on the street. I come down the elevator across the lobby, say good morning to the doorman, and smile. I felt better before I hit the pavement. Exercise and sleep in appropriate measure, are essential, as is a sense of humor. I would be dead without one. You mentioned keeping a journal, which is something that I did over the years, and I still do because in a way, it kind of has helped me write my way to recovery. When the world overwhelms me, I have finally found safety through the simple act of reading in bed. But the big surprise, the real kicker, has been volunteer work. It has strengthened me in ways I couldn't have foreseen. Through teaching and speaking for NAMI and other organizations, I have found value in my long, ugly story at last. I can reduce stigma and ignorance. I can pull beauty from the darkness. I can give people hope.
Valerie Milburn: Yes, you and I really enjoy our volunteering together with NAMI Central Texas. It's been a wonderful part of our friendship together and our journey together. And you know what? Your whole story just now is just the ultimate story of hope. And I want to thank you for sharing your dark, difficult part of your journey. You're just an inspiration to me. But now can you tell me what your life is like? For you in recovery.
Helen Sneed: Yes. I want to thank you all. You've been very patient for hearing the dark side of my story. So now here is the good news about my life and recovery. But I first have a kind of a major caveat. Like so many people, I've had a very difficult time during the pandemic, which has been now almost a year. The isolation, the economy, civil unrest, all have pushed me back into a dark place time and time again. But I also can clearly see the many things in my life that are worth fighting for and I am not going to lose them. I am not going back. So here are some of the things worth fighting for. People. First, I didn't see my family for six straight years, which is unheard of in my family. And now I have a great relationship with all of them. I reconnected with my friends and the world. They forgave me for not answering the phone for 10 years and swept me back into their lives. Let me tell you also more about the good news. One of the things is New York City. My dream was to take it by storm. And you know, in many ways I did. Despite my illnesses, I had high profile jobs at the national and international level. I was an executive at a global entertainment company when I lost everything. As I began to recover, I wrote a play and to my astonishment, it was produced off Broadway and it was very well received and now it's been published and it's had numerous productions around the country. I finished my second play on deadline and I don't do deadlines. And now I'm writing a book on my struggles and subsequent recovery from these profound mental illnesses. These were the dreams of my twenties and I am living proof that it is never too late to get your heart's desire.
Valerie Milburn: There is so much hope in that statement and those are amazing accomplishments. Do you have more you want to share about your life and recovery? I know there's a couple of things I know about you that are really worth sharing.
Helen Sneed: Well, they're worth sharing and they're also so worthwhile to me. You know the things in life that you find to be so gratifying that you almost feel guilty doing it because it can be so wonderful. One of those is public speaking. I flat out love it. I've spoken before the National Institute of Mental Health and in other high flown locations on the subject of mental illness and recovery. These were very important turning points in my path because for the first time in years I felt like my old self again. I had thought that person was dead and it was just a question of killing myself, and that would be the end of the story. But what I learned is you can retrieve your strengths and your enthusiasms and your creativity, and they will take you places you never dreamed of. These are fierce, mean illnesses, and you have to use every fiber of your heart and your mind and your spirit to do battle with them.
Helen Sneed: But as I began to get better, I ran into a person I never thought I'd see again. Myself.
Valerie Milburn: I love that I found myself again, too. One thing I discovered is that I can handle big stressors, sometimes better than little annoyances. Do you find this to be true?
Helen Sneed: Well, I like to say that recovery is made of many successes, large and small. For me, the smallest things are always the hardest. Only recently have I begun to open my mail on a regular basis. Well, on a semi regular basis, if I'm going to tell the truth here. I still have very difficult periods of struggle within. It can be pretty hard. It's like having a head full of rats. They claw at each other. They claw at me and they multiply rapidly. But now when this happens, I have this one jot of perspective. I know what to do. And so when I find myself on the brink of stepping off the abyss, I just say to myself, darling, it's like talking to a seven year old, Darling, why are you looking back? You know the past will kill you. And I'm able to pull myself back into the present, into the day at hand, the hour at hand, the minute, if need be. And this works about 90% of the time. It's like an Old Testament miracle. So I have learned to take one day at a time. Not perfectly, but most of the time. But I never understood happiness, joy and sorrow. The big black and white emotions. Yes, but what is happiness? I used to say to my friends, look, I know the glass is either half empty or half full, but what is in the glass? And now I know, and you don't get it every day. But I want all of you to know that having the chance to tell my story with you makes me very, very happy.
Valerie Milburn: Oh, Helen, thank you. I mean, the words thank you doesn't even seem adequate for the appreciation I have for the. I mean, the really intimate journey you just shared with us. Your story of pain and struggle is ultimately a story of healing and hope and inspiration. I know your story is going to offer hope and inspiration to many people, as you have offered hope and inspiration to me for many years. And I will indeed say thank you. Thank you, Helen.
Helen Sneed: Thank you, Valerie. You're going to make me start crying. So I'm really grateful for your kind words. Now we're going to look at the topic of mindfulness. Each episode we're going to close with a mindfulness practice. In case you're not familiar with it, the American Psychological association defines mindfulness as a moment to moment awareness of one's experience without judgment. So, Valerie, here we go.
Valerie Milburn: Here we go. Basically, mindfulness means being aware of and controlling your experience. That's what we're going to do today. We're going to live completely in the present moment and be fully aware of our experience, whatever we're doing, wherever we are. So let's get mindful. If you're driving, be fully present in your sense of touch. Feel the steering wheel. Feel the material of the seat you're sitting on. At the next stoplight, take in the beauty of the sky. Fully immerse yourself in the moment. Maybe roll down your window and take in the sounds around you. Feel the outside air on your skin. If you are drinking coffee, really savor your next sip. Can you smell your coffee? Fully immerse yourself in the moment. If you are outside right now, maybe running or walking, look around, appreciate the beauty you see. Fully immerse yourself in the moment. Can you take in all the scents that nature offers? What does the sky look like? What shades of green are the trees and bushes? Are the trees with leaves
Valerie Milburn: or are there patterns in the bare branches? Admire a beautifully landscaped yard. Fully immerse yourself in the moment. If you're walking in the city, slow down for a bit. Admire the architecture of the buildings around you. Admire the urban landscaping. Fully immerse yourself in the moment. Take in the sounds of the city. Are there conversations around you? Begin if you're drinking coffee, fully savor your next sip. Fully immerse yourself in the moment. That's it. That's a very quick mindfulness exercise. You were just mindful. Mindfulness can be a cornerstone of your recovery. It's one of the cornerstones of my recovery.
Helen Sneed: Thank you so much, Valerie. I use mindfulness so often that it's become like breathing or blinking. I don't even think. Here we are at the end of recovery stages. It would be great if some of the stages become part of your own journey, especially if you use them as stepping stones that can help build your path to living in recovery. In our next episodes, we begin our series on relationships. The connections to other people that can support, comfort, trigger, exasperate and transform our lives and health. We'll look at key relationships, family, friends, therapists and psychiatrists, support groups, healthy and unhealthy relationships, as well as the phenomenal gift for healing we can find in others.
Valerie Milburn: Yes. Please join us on our launch of the series on relationships in our next several episodes. I want to thank our listeners today. We are honored that you have joined us for our episode, Episode two. Thank you for joining us.
Helen Sneed: And I leave you with our favorite word, onward.