Laurie McGarvey joins us on The SHAIR Podcast today. She is the founder of Recovery Management Solutions, and Laurie is currently fundraising for the Herren Project for this Boston 2016 marathon.
Sober Date: June 13th, 2008
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So Laurie, tell us about how your life is today because I'm assuming it's very busy, give us your daily routine and how you squeeze in recovery.
Laurie: Okay. Let me just say that for me, this alcoholic recovery is my routine, so everything that I do, whether it's from when I get up in the morning and I get down on my knees and I say, "God's will, not mine, be done today," and that's how I have to move. When I don't stay with that routine, you know what? Quite honestly, I get negative. That's not who I've learned to be. I really try and stick with my daily routine of prayer and some type of ...
I'm not real good at meditating because it's tough for me to sit still so I try and do more of a walking and gratitude list even before I move into the day, get into the workplace. I have 2 kids. I have a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old and a dog and they're very active. I try and keep something, like I use my phone a lot, and I keep everything, all my devotionals, all things like that, and I work through it throughout the day. I've learned to pause before I go into situations and it allows me to be who God needs me to be in that space rather than thinking about me and my ego.
Omar: Got it. Absolutely. I totally got it. My next question was going to be how do you maintain your spiritual condition, the conscious contact with your higher power, but it looks like you already got that covered.
Laurie: You know what? Yes, I have. I was taught well. However, I get stuck. I get stuck a lot, and I'll be honest, I've been stuck the past couple days, and I'm fighting my way back to my higher power and it's ironic that I happen to be doing this particular talk with you on this day. God has a reason for everything. There's a page in the Big Book that I live out of. I'll say, "This is really how I live out of," page 417, and it talks about acceptance. Acceptance is the answer to all our problems. There are no mistakes in God's world. You know, this alcoholic will resist reading that page and keep herself miserable for a good 48 hours and then finally I'll just say, "You know what? I'm just going to read the page," and everything goes. The spirit comes back. I'm still rebellious. 7 years sober and I'm still rebellious, so I just say to myself, "Laurie, keep coming back."