A BALM Family Reaches A Five Year Milestone on my Birthday!

Today is my 60th birthday and the best present I have received this year came in the form of a FB message (names changed of course) two days ago:

“Today is Sheila’s 5th anniversary of recovery. Couldn’t have done it without you, the treatment center, and of course, without Sheila.”

Seeing that note lifted my spirits.

It reminded me of the importance of sticking with families going through the ups and downs of early recovery (often 2 years or more).

It reminded me of the importance of reminding families who sometimes feel as if they are being dragged through the mud,

• To persist with everything they are learning in BALM
• To continue to work with their coach
• To continue to love loved ones going through the ups and downs of the struggle

To watch a loved one on the one hand fight against and on the other repeatedly fight to finally get their bearings in a world better lived without the chemicals destroying their lives, takes so much out of a family.

Here in the BALM community, we do everything we can to help families learn new skills and tools so they can stay sane through it all and give their loved one the best chance of recovery.

Just as a loved one who does ‘everything right’ for a good long while and then, for whatever reason, moves away from recovery, moves away from community, stops doing what works to stay in recovery, will often come dangerously close to losing their recovery or may lose it again, so too a family member.

Family Recovery is a practice. We never get perfect at it. But every time we do the work of cultivating our deep inner calm, it grows deeper and calmer.

Everytime we help rather than enable, stay out of denial and choose awareness, treat our loved one with dignity and respect even through their struggles, we are contributing to their potential recovery.

Traveling this path with a community, with a coach, makes it so much easier.

So grateful to have the BALM to offer. So good to have so many families working to help each other grow in BALM skills.

So inspired by the growing number of coaches reaching out to families all over the world, teaching them how to Be A Loving Mirror, and increasing the amount of peace and recovery in families, helping us achieve the BALM mission of helping ALL families blaze the trail to recovery in their homes!!!!

Love to everyone and remember:

Be A Loving Mirror!

Best,

Bev