Okay, Bookenders, I know I mention self-care quite often. Like, a lot. Because self-care in healing and recovery is important. But, when you’re in the thick of healing, sometimes the usual “light a candle and journal it out” tips may not be enough. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good watermelon and lemonade candle moment. It’s under my warmer right now. But real self-care? The kind that helps you stay emotionally sober, break cycles, and not throw your phone across the room, that takes a little more creativity. Here are five self-care practices I’ve learned (some the hard way) that go beyond the surface and can help.

Loving someone in active addiction can feel like trying to hug a cactus. You want to help, but every time you get close, you end up hurting yourself, them, or both. The line between helping and enabling gets blurry fast. And sometimes, your best intentions accidentally push them even further away.

Let’s take a look at why affirmations work, how they help in both recovery and support roles, and how to use them in everyday life.

Whether you're in recovery from addiction, healing from betrayal trauma, or you're just trying not to gripe at the person who forgot to take the recycles out (love you babe), today is the perfect time to check in with yourself and get ahead of a potential spiral or tiny glitch.

Check in with yourself using the Life Wheel: a simple, powerful tool for addicts in recovery and the loved ones healing alongside them.

Discover 14 creative ways to track triggers and manage addiction or trauma recovery. Build awareness, spot patterns, and strengthen your coping tools.

After the response to my blog post and podcast on urge surfing, I realized something: it's one thing to read about the technique… but it's another thing entirely to practice it, especially when your nervous system is doing back springs inside your brain.

So I created a brand-new workbook to guide you through urge surfing, step by step.

Are you someone who tries to find the humor too? If you are, you’re not alone. A lot of us in recovery and healing use humor to help us through some of the toughest challenges and it’s the reason we’re still here. It’s not about making light of serious struggles. It’s about making room to breathe in the middle of them.