How we as a house build and create community
OUR MISSION is in guiding our residents toward their unique recovery lifestyle. Having a community of supportive women allows you to create your own skilled recovery practice. Our hope is that you find out that recovery is full of laughter and life. RELAXING THINGS to do and a new lifestyle to create while doing them.
OUR AREA is rich in natural beauty that heals the soul yet we're close enough to the culture of New Haven's or Old Lyme's musuems and Old Saybrook's shops or New London's waterfront restaurants. It's no wonder that there is every kind of amenity from free yoga classes on the beach to being wrapped up in blanket for a guided meditation and singing bowls. There are open mic nights and weekends in a coffee shop, singing bowls or a choir to join.
OUR HOUSE'S GENTLY STRUCTURED program is nearly entirely designed to support your community. We're a trauma-informed sober loving home that's 12-step based.
1) Morning/evening meeting and meditation
2) Participate in outpatient therapy or intensive outpatient programs
3) Independent/use our guidance to obtain work/volunteer position
4) Choose your 12-step sponsor/complete steps 1-5 in our workshop
5) Share dinner every evening and prepare dinner when it's your turn
6) Be randomly drug and alcohol screened
7) Find work or volunteer or attend school
8) Take a turn as Peer-Leader for fun activities and try our experiential offerings.
9) Stay sober!
Recovery isn’t as simple as using your willpower. No one chooses to become addicted but it is your responsibility to become educated about your recovery and recovery practice. We offer workshops both mornings and afternoons for residents to connect with each other and bond through reading and discussing recovery literature, the Big Book and doing 12-step work together. These workshops spur thinking and discussion about recovery topics such as accepting help and helping another, non-judgemental acceptance of others, mindfulness and recovery or living "on life's terms", to name a few.
Recovery Workshops Spark Conversation and Friendships
Our shared dinners are unique among sober livings. They must be made fresh and with love. The dinner must take into consideration other's allergies and food preferences. Every night, a different house member takes a turn to plan, purchase, prepare and serve dinner and practice good communication, consideration and good nutrition.
Shared dinners spark conversation, friendships and offer good nutrition
Gardening is the ultimate mindfulness. Each leaf of green tells it's own story and at the same time is a vital part of our very existence.
Gardening
Recovery experience shows that people who practice mindfulness and meditate are more peaceful and better able to focus on their tasks. Practicing mindfulness is a skill that people in our house practice every day. Trying to be more mindful is also learned by breaking the process into its parts of emotion, thinking and behavior. Many have thought it “wasn’t possible for them” after a couple tries. But like any skill, mindfulness takes practice. Workshops and labyrinth walking every week.
Mindfulness
As William Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We work the 12-steps in the present through discussion and reading both the NA and the AA 12-steps. In doing so, we form a life time friendship.
12-Steps
Recovery and community go together because getting physical is a great way to relieve stress, distract yourself from circular thinking, build healthy habits and re-orient your mind. We are only minutes away from Centered Yoga or Body Karma Yoga. Membership is included. Immerse yourself in the natural beauty of our area because we are near miles of trails for hiking, biking or running. Located one mile to the beach, Right Path in Clinton has kayaks to borrow for exploring one of the many rivers that flows through our town. There are bikes to ride on the paved trails at either Hammonasett or Chatfield Hollow Parks. They have miles and miles of trails to hike and explore. We often have a group that day trips to ski or ride to a nearby mountain. Weekend recreation is peer-driven. Having fun and beign sober, what an idea! Having fun an making friends sober, what an amazing idea!
Recreation
