{"id":1220,"date":"2025-06-30T17:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T16:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2025-06-30T17:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T16:18:09","slug":"active-retirement-active-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/30\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Retirement, Active Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am in awe of my Mother. She is at retirement age now yet she still works part time, she manages her own relationship in her own unique way, she spends far too much time taking care of me when I\u2019m in addiction and still manages to go to active retirement activities such as art and pickleball. It got me thinking of recovery. Recovery to me should be the equivalent of active retirement. If I wasn\u2019t a ball of anxiety I\u2019d be going to Smart Recovery. They host meetings and go beyond. They have activities for people in addiction too, they go bowling, have sober lunches, have spinning classes together and I believe they even have outdoor fitness classes.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At present my recovery is far from \u2018active\u2019. By next week I hope to be back yet again attempting the couch to 5k app \u2018Just Run\u2019. I would like to introduce swimming and walking into my weekly routine too. Recovery isn\u2019t just about not using or picking up a drink or betting slip. It\u2019s about nourishing the body and mind too. If you struggle with physical exercise there are plenty of other options too. Meditation comes highly recommended in \u2018Active Recovery\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have given up many many times in recovery because I chose to make it a life not worth living. If you&#8217;re not enjoying sobriety you might as well pick up or gamble again. A level of maturity is needed however. An understanding that miracles don\u2019t happen overnight. This week I have kept myself busy, I hope to continue to do so. I\u2019m stressed at present financially and can\u2019t see light at the end of the tunnel. Luckily through the brief times I have had sobriety I have matured slightly, I know now today that giving life time will reap rewards in the end. In Smart Recovery they suggest doing a cost benefit analysis of \u2018using\u2019 and one for \u2018not using\u2019. They ask you to define the benefits and disadvantages into short term and long term columns. When you see it in black and white it becomes a no brainer. The long term benefits trump the short term disadvantages every time.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>I am in awe of my Mother. She is at retirement age now yet she still works part time, she manages her own relationship in her own unique way, she spends far too much time taking care of me when I\u2019m in addiction and still manages to go to active ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,67,63,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-addiction","category-fastforward","category-livingsober","category-mentalhealth","category-reflections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Active Retirement, Active Recovery - Sober.ie V1.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recovery to me should be the equivalent of active retirement. If I wasn\u2019t a ball of anxiety I\u2019d be going to Smart Recovery.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Active Retirement, Active Recovery - Sober.ie V1.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recovery to me should be the equivalent of active retirement. If I wasn\u2019t a ball of anxiety I\u2019d be going to Smart Recovery.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sober.ie V1.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-30T16:18:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-7.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"827\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@#\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shanley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shanley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/3722c2ea24643db39df2442d10d25025\"},\"headline\":\"Active Retirement, Active Recovery\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-30T16:18:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\"},\"wordCount\":375,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-7.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Addiction\",\"Fast Forward\",\"Living Sober\",\"Mental Health\",\"Reflections\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/\",\"name\":\"Active Retirement, Active Recovery - Sober.ie V1.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/active-retirement-active-recovery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sober.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blog-Small-Large-7.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-30T16:18:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"Recovery to me should be the equivalent of active retirement. 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