(Disclaimer: This transcript is using AI technology. Please excuse any errors.)

Music 0:00
Welcome to the Atheists in Recovery Podcast, where we talk about finding hope in recovery. And now your host, Dr. Adina Silvestri

Adina Silvestri 0:11
Hola Atheists in Recovery, and welcome to Episode 96 of the atheists in recovery podcast. And today we are talking about manifesting your dreams in recovery. But before we do, I want to talk a little bit about a spring survey that I created. And I would love it if you would take 45 seconds to fill it out. This is a survey to help me help you. Really, I mean that the questions are very, very simple. What's your favorite episode? What's your least favorite episode? Do you like guest episodes? Would you rather not do any solo episodes? really straightforward questions and they would help me out a great deal and in the direction that the podcast takes in the future. So if you wouldn't mind going to the show notes page below, or you can go to atheistsinrecovery.com/springsurvey. And as a thank you, after you've completed it, you'll be able to download a spring cleaning your recovery checklist just for you. Okay, so let's get on to the episode today. I want to start us off with a quote. The quote is, the life of every man is a diary, in which he means to write one story and writes another and as humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is, with what he vowed to make it JM Barrie author, Peter Pan. I believe this quote really speaks to what we're talking about today, it's really highlights this theme of journaling and knowing what you want, but perhaps just getting stuck and not knowing how to get there. So my hope is that after this podcast, you will dominate the world. Now, my hope is that, you'll wonder why you haven't added journaling to your recovery journey in the first place. Like it'll just be so obvious to you. This is this is my hope. So let's talk about five takeaways of manifesting your dreams in recovery. As I mentioned, perhaps you know exactly what it is you want in life. But there's something that's keeping you stuck. Maybe you're in recovery, and maybe you have all these results. You don't have to be in recovery, however, to manifest your dreams. But let's say that you want to save money, you want to be a better partner, a parent, you're going to write that book or start that business, you're going to get rid of some of those bad habits. If you did all of these things at once, you'd experienced burnout, you know, the whole one step forward two steps backward thing. Let's avoid that. Let's Let's essentially avoid that. So more effectively than analyzing these sabotaging behaviors is to nail down a keystone habit. And this is a principle from the book The Power of Habit by Charles duhigg. And he says Keystone habits are small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives. Okay. So you acquire one of these Keystone habits and everything else will fall into place and so a great Keystone habit is journaling. Let's talk about why that is. Number one. journaling accelerates your ability to manifest your goals. As part of your morning routine, your all seize the day. you hone your to do list, you review your life vision, your big picture goals and as you read and write these goals. Daily become forged into your subconscious mind. Every single day, you're setting the path for whatever decisions or behaviors you decide to engage in. Very important. Number two, journaling creates a springboard for your daily recovery. Maybe you struggle with consistency. I know this wouldn't be

out of the norm. I know that I'll A lot of people that I see, you know, they're in the recovery journey, and they're doing great, and then they slip up. And then it's sort of like a snowball effect, everything else in their life just kind of falls back to, to behaviors that they're just not proud of, or that don't align with their morals or values anymore. And so, you know, with this, with journaling, you're creating that new habit or routine that will eventually lead to other habits and routines. I think I'm skipping a few steps here. So let's go back. So let's say that you struggle with consistency, and you're doing this for a few weeks, this new habit, and then you fall off. So journaling will curb mismanagement. So, at the end of the day, if you bookmark your day, at the beginning of the end, with journaling, at the end of the day, you realize you're opening up your journal, you're seeing how much you accomplished that day. Maybe you're even giving yourself a rating. And if you want to know more about how I rate my days, you can look at Episode 89. So you just go to atheistsinrecovery.com/ Episode 89, for more in the rating scale. So you're writing about what you learned and experienced, most importantly, you're writing about what you want to focus on tomorrow. As you're mentally shutting off for the evening, your subconscious will be preparing a feast for you to devour in the morning journaling session. And then in the evening, this session is short, you know, maybe it's just one or two paragraphs, but it's, it's worth it is it really is it really sets the stage for the next day. Okay, number three, journaling creates clarity and congruence. journaling can create so much power by journaling in the morning in the evening of start to see incongruencies. You know, perhaps you want to write about your recovery journey. Maybe you want to start a blog about narcissistic partners, or emotionally neglected children or whatever you want to write about. But you just you just aren't able to make it happen. Whereas your journaling, you'll start to really clearly see what needs to be removed and what should be included in your life. So you're then making those steps in order to get closer to those goals. Maybe the thing that standing in your way. And this is this is something that stands in my way pretty often is Netflix. And so maybe you're curbing your Netflix so that you could get in some writing time in the evenings or that you could get to bed earlier in the evening so that you can get up in the morning before the house wakes up and start a writing session. Just one tiny example there. Number four, journaling wipes away your emotions. And I think of this as like emotional journaling is like emotional windshield wipers. So, in that way, it probably doesn't matter. Doesn't matter when you journal as long as you journal. If you're experiencing really difficult emotions, start to write about it. Start to write about it. I know personally when I wake up, I'm pretty cheery in the morning. But if I do wake up and I'm in a bad mood, I get out that pen and paper maybe you're an electronic person, but I like pen to paper. And it It helps get those thoughts and those feelings out even if it's just a rant session because then it's those feelings and thoughts aren't ricocheting around in your in your mind any longer. And you're able to really objectively look at what it is you're feeling what's beneath all these emotions. Okay. So journaling is like emotional windshield wipers and then number five, journaling reveals and tracks patterns and cycles. And I've talked a little bit a little bit about this before but if you want to hold on to something, you track it, whether it's money, or

sobriety days or whatever it is. And you will be tracking different things at different times in your life. You know if you're solidly in recovery you're Tracking other things, you're probably tracking meditation or moods. And journaling is a great way to track patterns and cycles, never tracking moods, for example, you start to see on certain days, when you're peaking, when you're having a great day, I know and then you'll start to see what you know, what did I do that day? So ask yourself these questions like, who was, who was I around? What did I do? What was my routine? Like? What was my diet like, you know, all these things, maybe you had a great day out in nature with with your children. Maybe you're surrounded by loved ones. Maybe you just had a solitude day where you got to be creative. You know, make sure you're tracking that that's important information. Because then you can add that in into your daily and your weekly routine, and more of it in. Okay, so, in conclusion, we talked about five takeaways to manifest dreams in recovery. Number one was to use journaling to accelerate your ability to manifest your goals, too, as journaling creates a springboard for daily recovery. Three, journaling creates clarity and congruence. And you really want to hone in on those incongruencies. You know, what are you doing that standing in the way of creating this future life that you've always envisioned? Or maybe you're pivoting? What are you doing to make sure that that pivot is is extremely is on the right path, maybe you've always loved your life, by other people's

view of you, maybe

you always lead your life to make parents happy are too you know, when the approval of others and you know, now you're not doing that anymore, you're pivoting or you're listening to what you want. You know, journaling is great for that. It's great for helping you see what you're doing that standing in the way. Number four, journaling, wipes away your emotions. Think of those windshield wipers, number five journaling reveals and tracks patterns and cycles. So as we wrap up, guys, journaling is a powerful tool, you know, I love it, I do it often. You're essentially identifying and working towards your future self every single day, and you'll design the life that you want to live. Okay, so before you go, one last announcement, please don't forget to take the air spring survey, this 45 second survey to share some feedback with me. It's relatively pain free, I promise. And you could find it again on the show notes page below or go to atheists in recovery calm for slash spring survey. Alright, thanks for listening guys. Bye.

Music 13:01
Thank you for listening to the Atheists in Recovery podcast. For more great info and to stay up to date head over to atheistsinrecovery.com