Mary C on Recovery Demystified: Early and Mary talk AA - what can go wrong, what can go right. Each talks about their own recovery, with many memorable and shareable quotes from both. It goes fast; it's very rich.
The neuroscience and reasoning behind people-pleasers reaching the end of their rope is a good thing. This is part 2 of a 2-part series. CLICK the PIC for our latest blog
KNIVES OUT! The first of a two-part blog uses a popular movie scene to illustrate how to handle tensions that can arise from the plurality in recovery communities. We use AA meetings as an example. Diverse worldviews are more inviting for more people with alcohol use disorder. This can also cause tension. What do you do with this tension - confront, withdraw or channel the Ninja skills of de-escalation?
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Joe C of Rebellion Dogs is a recurring guest/co-host on the Emotional Sobriety Podcast. This one, titled “The Merry-go-round,” features some quotes from an October musing in Beyond Belief Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life and some chat about the still practical wisdom of Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius - click to listen….
Readers are emailing Rebellion Dogs as they have freshly discovered the New England Book Fair 2025 winner of Book of the Year, 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well. Author William H Schaberg is best known for his historical writing. For people in recovery, we discovered Bill Schaberg through his 2019 offering, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA. 30 Things is a legacy book - a deeply personal account of the best advice he's been given and shared through the years. Rebellion Dogs has started a series of 10-minute vignettes with Bill about the book. Check our YouTube for our progress.
Kick the tires some more by listening to 30 THINGS chapters read in a Zoom meeting of the Growing In Understanding Group CLICK HERE
Visit our reading room for Hardcover, paperback, eBook and bundle packages.
THIS JUST IN: AMAZON.com is treating bulk buyers like retail bookstore royalty with 40% discounts for 100-unit purchases. We just heard about it from a treatment center that gives away about 40 per month as graduation greeting cards - everyone signs the inside with messages for the grad.
As requested, we now offer Rebellion Dogs SWAG silliness - a rebellious approach to gifts, apparel, and fun on our recovery journey - "We are not a glum lot!: For every season there is a garment. Hoodies to t-shirts, beverage mugs, and more. One of a kind, we offer two-sided tee shirts and sweatshirts:
See our Gift & Merch page for mugs, pillows, ball caps and other designs.
ReBElliOn dOgS SwAg, “Rebellion Dogs our every sip at first” coffee mugs, ha, ha, ha.
T-shirts, hoodies, plus these selections of drinkware. Now something to sip from or wear while musing on daily reflections or being seen and heard at your local group or clubhouse. More of what we don't need but sometimes we want - fridge magnets, throw pillows, etc. CLICK the PIC and browse - great gift ideas are still in design mode if you have some good ideas.
NOW on YOUTUBE:
Survey Says: A look at 50 years of demographics and trends revealed from membership surveys from 1968 to 2022.
PODCAST PIT-STOPS with JOE C. - we stopped by three fellow recovery podcasters (click to listen)
Raymond and Joe talk about eras of recovery, how AA culture was different in the 1970s than in the 2020s and what is the “secret sauce” that causes hopelessness to transform to stable, meaningful recovery. In AA we say, “It's the Steps,” “Meeting makers make it,” or “It is about a higher power (and it doesn't have to be god).” But beyond AA, SMART, LifeRing, Refuge Recovery, Dharma Recovery, She Recovers, Women For Sobriety, psychotherapy, all of these bright about evidence-based results; what does it all have in common?
"Right, you know, there's plenty of sober rock stars.' In other words, sobriety is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end – a way of achieving the things that truly matter in life. Whether you're in recovery yourself or simply interested in learning more about addiction and sobriety, this episode is a must-listen.
Join Joe C on the Recovery Survey podcast with Brett (2022) and discover the power of hope, community, and finding your own path to a fulfilling life after addiction.
Joe C is a regular on the Emotional Sobriety Podcast now, here's a classic: Allan, Thom, Patrick and Joe talk about the Emotional Sobriety of Oh The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Suess. CLICK the PIC to listen in :-)
How many podcasts do you listen to? Is it like a meeting-on-demand, you can tune into for free anytime, any place? Maybe every home group should have a podcast, sharing members' unique stories or your group's meeting-after-the-meeting coffee talk.
Available on YOUTUBE on Herb K's site from our co-hosting 1/2 day workshop. Our topic is Steps Two and Three. An atheist and a Big Book literalist discuss the secular, practical path to AA sobriety's legitimate equivalency to the spiritual/religious version.
SECULAR AA Meetings on Demand: Listen to International Conference of Secular AA speakers and panels any time, anywhere CLICK HERE
The quasi-official hangout, online for freethinkers in 12-Step recovery is AASECULAR.org Please join up and lurk to your delight or join the conversation.
You are invited to bring a song--Your Song--that mattered most in a challenging time in your life, a song that empowered you or comforted you or said what you could not articulate. Or something you've written that has a cathartic impact on sorrow, fear or challenge.
Saturday AUGUST 30, Root Love, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
The International Convention of AA theme is The Language of the Heart.
You'll find a hospitality suite for the International Conference of Secular AA in the Fairmount Vancouver; other grand hospitality suites await throughout the convention spaces.
Rebellion Dogs Publishing will be hosting a table at Sober City - a merch, food, and fellowship place and we have friends joining, all of whom fall into the "Language of the Heart" criteria. Jay Stinnett has an award-winning documentary about Bill W's journey into Transcendental Meditation. Authors Tom Adams (A Marriage That Changed the World: Lois and Bill Wilson and the Addiction Recovery Movement) and Andy C (Gems, More Jems, Closing Arguments), WIlliam Schaberg's 2024 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well will all be there plus more: Video, merch, books, meet & greet. Forty thousand are coming to Vancouver. Visit AA.org for registration information.
Sober City is free. Contact AA.org to register for meetings and panels at the Convention Centre and BC Place Stadium.
Root Love and Rebellion Dogs Publishing presents "Emotional Sobriety" with Joe C
Participants are limited to 20, offering a participatory, intimate workshop in a beautiful, natural environment.
This event is at Root Love, just 15 minutes from Picton, Ontario. Located in beautiful Prince Edward County, RootLove is an off-the-grid, eco-conscious Healing Sanctuary nestled on 33 acres of forest. It is a safe haven that empowers our guests to adopt a happier and healthier life mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually within themselves, towards others, and in respect to our planet.
Finding emotional regulation in a world gone mad has its challenges. This will draw on the recent work of Dr. Allen Berger, Gabor Mate, and writer/YouTuber Heidi Priebe. Otherwise known as "Wise Mind," "Self-regulation," "Emotional Intelligence," and" Emotional Sobriety," emotional sobriety has captured the zeitgeist--there are over 15K #emotionalsobriety posts on Facebook right now. We will be talking about strategies that can improve or life experience right now, where we are at, to gain benefits now, as a journey of emotional sobriety - not a destination we may never arrive at.
Please visit the website, email or call David or Amie @ RootLove for more information.
$55.00 CDN + HST = $62.15 RSVP by sending an e-transfer to rootlovepec@gmail.com
Thriving instead of Surviving: What are the characteristics of people who are better because of addiction and/or trauma? The science is ongoing but strong evidence suggests Connection, Hope, Identity, Meaning & Empowerment are factors in the best outcome rates we can hope for.
https://bit.ly/GrowingInUnderstanding
What is the latest science around Peer-to-Peer?
How does CHIME show up in 12-Step and other mutual-aid groups?
This is ten years of ICSAA - International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous, a three-day "everyone welcome" event of workshops, speakers, friends of AA (secular NA, Al-Anon, OA, ACA, and more), meetings, events, pool-side chats, and food.
$135 for the weekend, registration + some food and beverage offerings included
In our last blog, “Knives Out,” movie characters were used as an artist's conception of pluralism. We used a Whodunit drama to act out the type of scene we can see in…
“When bits of information or data are contextualized, we have knowledge. Knowledge helps us to appreciate what we know and to acknowledge that there is much we don’t; together these are the beginnings of understanding. Wisdom grows and understanding births…
Zeitgeist captures the shared ideas, beliefs, and spirit of an era. Certain things are coming together. The year 2025 turns to 2026, and what are our ideas and beliefs in the third decade of Century 21?
“Recovered alcoholics often say, ‘Just not drinking is not enough.’ Just not drinking is a negative, sterile thing. That is clearly demonstrated by our experience. To stay stopped, we’ve found we need to put in place of our drinking a…
