Recovery

Listen: “Rise” Eddie Vedder

When I was in High School I was a cross country and track distance runner. We had one of the best distance teams in the state of Missouri. We trained hard. We ran long miles every week; we did speed workouts regularly; and we competed on a regular basis during the season. My coaches knew the importance of the combination of LSD (long, slow, distance) and speed work (interval training). My teammates and I were so competitive that even our LSD days (10 mile runs) turned into a competition. On top of that, my coaches weren’t sophisticated in their understanding of recovery—this was the late 70’s and distance coaching was continuing to undergo advancement in the science of training, diet, and recovery. As I look back, I was chronically overtraining in my early competitive career. This was common in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I remember one track meet in which I ran the Mile Relay, the Two Mile Relay, the Open Half Mile, and the Open Mile on the same day after a hard week of training. Recovery is just as important as training. The four minute mile was broken for the first time in history after Roger Bannister took an extended period of rest. (Read The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.) Physically speaking, peak performance requires the right balance of training and recovery.

Recovery is important for emotional, relational, and spiritual health as well. It seems that God hardwired recovery into the rhythm of the Universe. In the Creation story, God separates light and darkness and builds rest into the rhythm of day and night. Furthermore, God himself creates in six days and rests on the seventh—Sabbath means “rest”—so there is a weekly rhythm of rest and recovery. As one reads further into the story of the Hebrew Bible, there are a variety of annual holidays (holy days) like Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles for a yearly rhythm of remembrance, rest, and worship. God even established creation care for the earth; the land receives a Sabbath rest every seven years (Leviticus 25).

It seems we all need appropriate rest and recovery from work and stress. Let’s admit it. We are not always good at this. While rest and recovery are essential for our wholeness and well-being (Shalom), we tend to push our own limits. We exhaust ourselves with constant work and worry. We are not good at recovery.

As I have shared the story of my meltdown through blogs and videos, you might realize that I didn’t do recovery well. I certainly tried to do recovery well, but I wasn’t prepared for the perfect storm. In 2016, I was dealing with insomnia, Xanax, alcohol, ministry burnout, and marriage issues all at once. I probably needed a seventh-year Sabbatical, like a year off of ministry. I had been going hard at everything my whole life. But I put it off. I thought I would bounce back like I always did, but I didn’t. I ended up with a “forced sabbatical” of miserable proportions (but hopefully redemptive in the long run).

All of us need a daily, weekly, and annual rhythm of recovery—physically, relationally, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s vital for our well-being and health. Each of us is unique in how we recharge. Some need quite prayer and meditation. Some need large amounts of physical exercise. Some need long conversations with friends who replenish us. Some need time in nature. Some need to sing or write or paint or create. We are all wired differently, but we all need rest, replenishment, and recovery.

We all get off course, develop poor habits, and end up empty because of it. We self-medicate to feel better with substances (food, alcohol, drugs) or behaviors (like gambling, sex, shopping, social media, gossip, binge watching). Every person needs to discover their own unique routines of recovery instead of harmful self-medication. You can learn from other people’s routines and try different things, but you have to stick with what works for you. (For an excellent discussion on this topic, read The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Lehrer and Tony Schwartz.)

When we get off course we need to recognize it and change. Recovery implies that something in life has gotten off track and needs to be returned to a place of health and wholeness. Shalom needs to be restored. “Repent” in the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek signals a need to change and return to God—the One who can restore and refresh us. Jesus calls us to repent or “change” in preparation for the experience of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). Returning to God involves change and transformation. We’ve lost control and gotten off track.  The Apostle Paul challenges us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). The Hebrew word for repent implies restoration and refreshment (Psalm 19:7). The Apostle Peter calls us to repent so that we might experience seasons of refreshment from the presence of God (Acts 3:20).

Human beings need periodic seasons of change (repentance) that leads to recovery, replenishing, and refreshing. Twelve step programs have been around for 85 years for substance addiction (AA began in 1935), but the twelve steps for recovery are biblically oriented and universal—regardless of your faith tradition (or even if you are an atheist or agnostic)—and can be applied to any situation (even if you just want to stop eating junk food). Some of the best practices involve the following:

1.     Honesty and surrender. This can be the hardest step in recovery. We have to get brutally honest with ourselves and admit that our management has caused us to be out of control. This honest evaluation leads to surrender to a “high power.” Something or someone greater than ourselves that is loving and caring.

2.     Going to meetings, community. We all function better in community. If you want to grow spiritually, develop a new exercise routine, eat healthier meals, start a meditation practice, or stop a destructive habit, chances are you will be more successful if you do it with other like-minded people.

3.     Sponsor, accountability. Find a sponsor or accountability partner. Ask someone that you respect who is further down the road from you in the habit that you want to start or stop; or maybe a friend who has the same goal. Have regular conversations with this person. Check in and give an account of how you are doing, both successes and failures. Failure is part of the process so don’t get discouraged.

4.     Therapy. Sometimes we have deep issues that need to be identified, typically emotional responses and belief systems that are connected to trauma of some sort. We self-sabotage for reasons that frustrate ourselves. A good therapist can help us work through these deeper issues of the heart.

While these steps are not complicated, they are challenging. Honesty with ourselves can be challenging, but worth it. I am working at making the steps of recovery a part of my lifestyle. Hopefully, we can walk this journey together.

Shalom

©realfredherron 2020