Acceptance, Change, Knowledge: Dissecting the Serenity Prayer Part II

by mental healthtreatment

While the surface-level meaning of the Serenity Prayer offers powerful concepts like serenity, courage, and wisdom, it’s the deeper meaning of the Serenity Prayer’s core concepts that can help us apply its words to our recovery journeys more effectively.

As with everything in recovery, the more steps we take to give meaning to what we learn and practice, the more likely we’ll be inclined to continue learning and practicing even after we leave the sober living facility.

The first part of the Serenity Prayer asks for peace to accept what we can’t change. Acceptance is a huge first step in our recovery journey, because it’s only after we accept the inevitable that we can begin working on the things that we can change in our lives. When we ask God to help us accept what we can’t change, we’re removing the power of unsurety, doubt and control from our lives. When we accept who we are, the nature of addiction, and how it can be beaten, we return the power of our future back to the only ones who should have control of it: ourselves.

The meaning of change in the Serenity Prayer is action-based. Once we’ve accepted what can’t be changed, all that lies ahead of us is what can be changed. With a clear mind and nothing we’re still holding on to, we’re asking God to give us the strength to take action in our lives. Recovery happens when we give ourselves the green light to start sifting through issues and situations in our lives, sorting them out, and correcting them for the better.

Finally, knowledge lies at the crux of every action we take in recovery, and it’s fitting that knowledge brings up the end of the Serenity Prayer. When we ask God to give us the “wisdom to know the difference” between what we can and can’t change, we’re asking Him to show us the people that will help us discern the things about ourselves that we might not be able to discern by ourselves. We’re also asking Him to help us learn about ourselves. Each day is a day to learn something new about ourselves, and when we gain knowledge in recovery, we gain confidence and independence. When it comes to living sober, knowledge really is power.

At The Last House sober living facility, we strive to dive deeper into the Serenity Prayer to uncover meaning that can help us make the most out of our recovery journeys. Learning the power of acceptance, change, and knowledge in recovery helps make us more confident and independent as we walk our recovery paths. Call 1-866-677-0090 to get started with The Last House today.

Being a Young, Sober Man in Los Angeles

by Recovery

Los Angeles. The home of film, dreams, beautiful people, and activities galore. Being a young, sober man in Los Angeles means tons of exciting opportunities to explore, mature, and strengthen our independence. After all, there’s no better way to enjoy the City of Angels than with a clear mind and a sense of adventure.

Here at The Last House sober living community, we help our men make the most of the opportunities Los Angeles offers by arranging social engagements like sober parties, service
events, conventions, fellowships and mandatory house outings, all designed to help us learn how to face common challenges with the support of our peers.

As a young, sober man in Los Angeles, the city is your oyster, and we help you find new ways to make your mark on life. As strong, independent men, we’re designed to be so much more than what addiction wants us to be. It’s the skills we learn, the passions we find, and the activities we enjoy in sober living that help us become the best versions of ourselves.

Some of the sober activities we enjoy here at The Last House on a sunny Los Angeles day include yoga, morning meditation, and surfing. On weekly outings, we like to mix it up with activities like golf, restaurant outings, and a skiing trip every once in a while.

Getting sober in Los Angeles starts with a mindset, and the sober living community that we foster here helps our men see sobriety as not just avoiding alcohol and substances, but as a new way to look at life. Every activity we enjoy ties us to something deeper– be it a sense of brotherhood, renewed confidence, or strengthened independence.

The activities Los Angeles offers don’t serve as mere distractions from drinking or using, but become new ways for us to exercise our passions and stimulate our interests. With the right mindset and a community of brothers behind us, we can make the most of young, sober life here in Los Angeles– because every day can be a new adventure.

Here at The Last House sober living facility, the young men that we work with learn just how fun getting sober in Los Angeles can be. Through the activities they enjoy at our sober living facility, they form powerful bonds with brothers, strengthen their self-confidence, and become independent men that will let nothing stand in the way of living their best lives.  Call us at 1-866-677-0090 to get started with The Last House today.

Starting 2019 Sober: Best Year Ever

by Recoverytreatment
Starting 2019 Sober: Best Year Ever

We’ve made it. 2019 is finally upon us, and with every new year comes new opportunities to better ourselves, achieve our goals, and become the men we always knew we could be. Year one of the recovery journey can duly be one of the most challenging and rewarding years of our lives– and there’s no better time to get started than right now.

As a sober living facility in Los Angeles, many of our men come to us not just for help getting sober, but in order to work on strategies that will help them maintain their sobriety while living in one of the busiest, most populated cities in the world. There’s a lot of distractions here in Los Angeles, and our first year sober has to be the point at which we learn how to cope with these distractions safely and productively. Even though we’ve no doubt learned many strategies to beat addiction during initial treatment, the sober living environment provides us with the structure and support we need to transition back into the world with confidence.

Why is a sober living environment important for the first year?

Getting sober requires dedication, commitment, and hard work, and staying sober after initial treatment requires much of the same. One of the biggest reasons that the sober living environment is so useful is because it helps us jump a common first year hurdle known as  PAWS, or post-acute withdrawal syndrome. Doug, a successful lawyer and family man that battled addiction and graduated from initial treatment without incident, indicated just how hard PAWS was to deal with when he tried to make the transition from initial treatment to life at home on his own. Like many, he was confident that he was prepared for life on his own after learning to manage addiction and control cravings through initial treatment, but was in for a bit of a surprise.

“But I wasn’t [ready],” he explains. “Instead, I just got depressed, and the depression made me feel like if I drank maybe I would feel better. I knew rationally that wasn’t the case, but even after the physical cravings were gone, I just felt too raw to deal with life.”

The sober living environment helps us combat PAWS by helping us build confidence in our abilities, gain independence, learn accountability, and, most importantly, grow with a support system of men that are in the same situation we’re in. When people think of getting sober here in Los Angeles, the first thing they seem to think is that it means either no more fun, or constant fear of falling back into the same self-defeating thoughts and habits that caused them to drink in the first place. With sober living, however, that couldn’t be farther from the case. We help our men jump the PAWS hurdle in their first year by showing them how easy it is to live a substance-free life boldly and unashamedly.

The sober living environment is also very important for the first year of recovery because it provides us with a platform to learn and grow from our mistakes with the help of mentors and brothers that understand us and have our best interests at heart. Getting sober isn’t a process meant to be undertaken alone. That’s why most addiction treatment facilities here in Los Angeles and practically everywhere else rely heavily on the concept of group therapy, outings, and events. We know how important the recovery community is in treatment, and it’s even more important immediately after we leave initial treatment. The fact of the matter is that while it would be nice to return home to an environment that immediately understands what we’re going through and knows exactly how to help, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, even when family members and loved ones back home are well intentioned and want to genuinely help– as is often the case– there can still be a bit of a learning curve as they attempt to adjust to our new way of life. With the range of emotions, PAWS, and other first year hurdles to navigate, it can be extremely comforting to transition to an environment that knows exactly what we need to not just make it through our first year of getting sober, but to excel.

2019 really can be our best year ever, and not just because we’re committed to getting sober. Being our first year of recovery as men here in Los Angeles, 2019 can be the year that we become the men that we’ve always wanted to be. The journey to eternity starts with a single step, and that single step is taken here, in the first year of our recovery. By getting plugged into a sober living environment like The Last House, we can be confident that that step is a step in the right direction.

The Last House is a men’s sober living facility in the heart of Los Angeles. We believe that recovery is a lifelong process, and we provide our men with the tools they need to conquer addiction and live life to the fullest each and every day. There couldn’t be a better time than the start of the new year to make a pledge to live sober. Whether you’ve just graduated from initial treatment or are looking for a program to get back on the right track, The Last House is here to help. Call us at 1-866-677-0090 to get started today.

Recovering for the Future

by addictionRecovery

Recovering for the Future

Page 119 of The Big Book offers a simple, comforting look ahead for the wives of men that were a part of the inaugural AA groups of the1930s. “Your family is reunited,” it says, “alcohol is no longer a problem and you and your husband are working together toward an undreamed-of future.”

Itn the 1930s, this would have seemed all but impossible to many of the wives that might have read this. Their husbands had no doubt struggled with alcohol for years, and the mere thought of their being able build a future together soon was probably a lot for them to take in.

It happened, though. As Alcoholics Anonymous began to flourish, so, too, did the lives of many of its attendees, including several of these husbands. Over time, AA and its practices have become a staple in many recovery communities, and the 12-step process, introduced so, so long ago, has only continued to grow in its use and effectiveness.

As a men’s sober living facility, we here at The Last House work to be able to make that same kind of promise to the families of the men we live, work, and learn with. We aren’t AA, and we aren’t a treatment facility. We’re the bridge that links men from these places back to the real world, and, as such, we have the important responsibility of giving our brothers the tools they need to be able to create those successful futures with their families, friends and loved ones.

We do this by combining the principles set forth by our forefathers in the AA community with a focus on unity, life skills, and peer support. Our process is strict, but fair, and the bonds we form with the men that walk through those doors are bonds that won’t easily be broken. As a unit and a family, we tackle problems, situations, and tough issues head-on, while learning to navigate through whatever life throws at us with poise and confidence.

How does unity help me recover for the future?

The Big Book couldn’t be any clearer about the importance of unity for our personal recovery: “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.”

Recovery is a wholly collaborative process. As The Big Book states very early on, we alone are powerless against addiction. After all, if we were able to fight it on our own, there would likely be no such thing as addiction in the first place. In a sober living community like ours, we stress the importance of being able to rely on those we trust to help us make it through tough times. It’s no secret that a burden is lighter when shared by many people. Unity to us means holding our brothers accountable for their actions, and taking full responsibility for our own. It also means reaching out for help from a friend instead of thinking that we have to do it all on our own. Remember, in the real world, there’s often little opportunity for “re-dos”. Learning to enjoy, appreciate, and utilize the power of unity is a skill that is absolutely necessary for the future, specifically when it comes to dealing with potential problems that we might not know how to face on our own.

Unity isn’t necessarily a difficult concept to understand, but it’s learning to reach out to others, to use the resources provided for us, and to put the good of the group before ourselves that really makes all the difference. As men we can be proud, and while it’s admirable to be confident in ourselves, we sometimes confuse haughty pride for true confidence and end up dealing with the consequences the hard way. At The Last House, we teach that unity doesn’t mean that you’re showing weakness, but that you know how to work with your brothers to become even stronger individually. It’s in working together that we learn how to build that true confidence in ourselves and those that we support.

Life skills for the future

If there’s one thing sober living communities teach us, it’s how to prepare for life. As a segway between the treatment center and the real world, the sober living process strives to provide us with the tools we’ll need to become viable, contributing members of society, to take care of our responsibilities, and, as The Big Book asks of us, to be champions of the treatment process for others that need help. Here at The Last House, we teach men life skills for the future by encouraging them to be self-reliant and proactive in everything that they do. Whether it’s attending a court session or cooking dinner for their brothers, our men are required to be prompt, respectful, and dutiful in fulfilling the responsibilities they’re assigned. If they aren’t, consequences picked by the group hold them accountable and encourage them to get it right the next time.

Sober living is equal parts recovery community and real world experience. As such, our men get the chance to apply the skills they learn in our community to their day jobs, outings, and recreation outside of our facility on a daily basis. In doing so, they learn to build their self-reliance, confidence, and poise. By the time they’ve graduated from our sober living community, they aren’t just fitting into mainstream society– they’re excelling! We believe in the power of practicing the right habits, and The Big Book backs us up: “Our basic troubles are the same as everyone else’s, but when an honest effort is made “to practice these principles in all our affairs,” [we] seem to have the ability, by God’s grace, to take these troubles in stride and turn them into demonstrations of faith.” Practice really does make perfect, and the more we practice, the easier it is to transition into the real world with a bang!

The Last House is Los Angeles’ premier sober living facility for men transitioning out of treatment and into the real world. If you want more out of your life after treatment, call us at 1-866-677-0090 today!

Perception is the Battle

by addictionRecovery

Perception is the Battle

What if the only barrier between you and an amazing life after treatment was your perception? What if the only reason you weren’t sure if you were ready for life after treatment was because you kept telling yourself you weren’t?

These are questions that many of us don’t quite know how to answer. The truth is, we don’t often like to admit that the only person in the way of our own happiness and success might very well be ourselves. It unsettles us to know that we may be preventing something incredible from happening simply because we’re afraid to give it a chance to happen.

For many men after treatment, however, this is the exact situation we face. We enter treatment with one mission: to get better. Once we do get better, though, our perception sometimes shifts from our treatment to our future. If we’re not careful, we may even become tempted to shrug off the things we learned in treatment and focus on the unsurety of not knowing what’s out there waiting for us.

Perception is powerful, and it plays a very decisive role in our lives. In sober living, we learn to harness the power of perception to change our fear into hope, and our insecurity into confidence. Just because the future is out of our control doesn’t mean we need to be afraid of it!

How does sober living change my perception?

As The Big Book indicates, it isn’t until we realize that we are helpless against addiction on our own and take the steps to get help that recovery can truly start. Likewise, it isn’t until we change the way we view life after treatment that we can really take the steps to make the most of it.

Think about it– if you’ve just graduated from an intensive treatment program, the last time you really had a go at the outside world was well before you ever stepped foot through the doors of that treatment facility. That could have been anywhere from three to six months ago. Perhaps even longer. Even if you went the outpatient route, your days were so structured and inundated with therapy, activities, and programming that you likely had little chance to involve yourself in too much else. While that intense schedule is perfect for treatment, you need a bridge between that kind of living and the rest of your life, which, more than likely, won’t be quite as treatment-heavy. Without that bridge, you may not be nearly as prepared as you should be to re-enter a world that can be anything but forgiving.

Enter sober living. The sober living environment allows you to gradually make the adjustment back to the real world, and in doing so, adjusts your perception of what awaits you after graduation. Think of it a bit like swimming. Jumping headfirst from the diving board into the deep end isn’t really the best method for learning how to swim, even if you have the skills to do it. Instead, one might suggest starting shallow and building your confidence before having a go at the deep end. We know which method we would try!

At The Last House, one of the things that makes our sober living community so successful is the fact that we champion independence. In our minds, there’s no better way to build up your confidence in yourself and your ability to excel after treatment than by giving you the room to do it. Community rules and guidelines are built by and for the brothers, and each man is responsible for keeping himself in line, and holding the man beside him accountable for his actions as well.

With increased confidence in our own independence and self-reliance, our perception of next steps, again, shifts considerably. We aren’t nearly as afraid to confront what awaits us in the real world because we’ve built the skill set we need to conquer it in sober living. Since sober living communities encourage our involvement in the outside world by mandating that we look for work, attend court dates, and engage in community outings, our return to the real world isn’t intimidating at all. In fact, we look forward to it. As The Big Book states, “from a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment.”

The last way that sober living changes our perception about life after treatment is perhaps the very best. In our sober living communities, we are encouraged to utilize our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses. Simply put, we rely on our brothers to help us identify areas of our lives that need some work, and collaborate to fix them. If we’re selfish, peer support can help us fix it. If we’re passive, group outings can boost our confidence. No matter what we may struggle with, there’s a sober living activity designed to fix it, and because of this, we graduate from sober living considerably more self-aware than we ever were before. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses and how to use them and deal with them gives us more confidence for facing the future!

The Last House is a premier men’s sober living facility in West Los Angeles that specializes in making gentlemen out of the men that come to us post-treatment. Call us at 1-866-677-0090 to see how we can help you gain the confidence to blow life out of the water after treatment!

Shedding the Stereotypes of Addiction

by addictionRecovery

Shedding the Stereotypes of Addiction

When most people think of addicts, they think of three things: ego, entitlement, and selfishness. People believe that, particularly in the millennial era, addiction is characterized by spoiled twenty and thirty-somethings who weren’t used to hearing the word “no” enough when they were growing up. We know that isn’t really the truth, and that addiction affects a great deal of people of all ages, races, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. If addiction was only an issue for “spoiled brat millenials,” then the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a notorious drunk in his own right, would not have co-founded the iconic organization at nearly forty years old, and it certainly wouldn’t have been founded in the 1930s (millennials weren’t around then, yet).

While we know this stereotype is not completely accurate, of course, some young men do fit the bill. As a sober living facility in Los Angeles, we take on a wide range of men that come to us from situations in which entitlement, ego, or selfishness did drive them to use substances (or if it didn’t drive them to use, drove them to continue using). After recovery, these men aren’t necessarily ready to take the plunge into a world that might not be as forgiving as family members or loved ones were, and they enlist our help to get them prepared.

At The Last House, we’re in the business of combating these negative stereotypes with a few positive ones of our own. Our facilities foster brotherhood, companionship, discipline, self-worth independence, and accountability. We make the perfect gentlemen out of men that otherwise may have had trouble finding their way after treatment. The work we do in shedding these stereotypes as a sober living facility allows the men that we work with to leave our program as viable, contributing members of society, and gentlemen that anyone would love to be around.

How do you shed the stereotypes of addiction?

The Big Book is very clear on the power of positive thought in addiction treatment, and that’s one of the primary ways we as a sober living facility slowly shed the stereotypes portrayed by our clients. As men who have escaped the cycle of addiction, the power of thought goes a lot further for us than for others who never had to wrestle with losing the ability to rationalize, make good decisions, and control their wants and needs. Chapter three of The Big Book hits the nail on the head: “The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, must be smashed.” While this particular passage refers to action we should take while addicted, it makes it very clear that those that have gone through addiction are not like other people in many ways, which couldn’t be more right. One of these is the power of thought.

The power of thought begins with the understanding that the sober living facility is not a place for men to come and relax. It is a place of work, and a place to be only if you are committed to bettering yourself and working to help better your brothers who stand beside you. If this is not your ultimatum, we urge you to leave and pursue another avenue, or to try your hand at returning to the real world where you may or may not excel, depending on how prepared you are upon entering. We champion the power of thought by reinforcing positives, and refusing to overlook negatives. Land a job interview? Heaps of praise from our staff and your brothers. Come late to one meeting out of ten? There’s a consequence– no matter the other nine perfect attendances. Thought processes start to shift when it is realized that every action has a reaction, and that even the slightest deviation from rules, no matter how much good you’ve done, invokes some sort of punishment. We take this strategy from The Big Book itself, and its keen focus on accepting consequences as a means of growing in recovery (“We know that little good can come to any alcoholic who joins A.A. unless he has first accepted his devastating weakness and all its consequences.”) Over time, a changing thought process drastically changes stereotypes concerning ego and attitude. Our clients learn very quickly that thinking things will go their way, and that they do not have to follow the rules of the house will land them in trouble with not just the staff, but with the brothers they have come to know, love, and hold accountable as well.

We also shed stereotypes by encouraging the men of our program to work to not only return to society without issue, but to return to society as gentlemen, and as better men than they were before they even got involved with substances. As individuals that have already battled through addiction and come out on the right side of treatment, our men already have clearer heads and a better sense of self worth than many of their peers who never went through an ordeal with addiction. We use that heightened self-awareness and self worth to encourage our men that now is as good a time as any to conquer those dreams, slay those dragons, and prove to the world that recovery is not just about quitting drugs. It’s about coming out better, stronger, and more powerful than ever before.

At The Last House of West Los Angeles, we offer premier sober living care for men that are ready to get more out of their lives, and to make an impact on their communities when they return home. To get started, call us right now at 1-866-677-0090. We can’t wait to meet you!

Sober Living, in Theory

by addictionRecovery

Sober living, in theory

Everyone knows what addiction is. It’s a vile disease that takes over the brain, renders our will useless, and ultimately wreaks havoc on our entire body while driving us away from family members, friends, loved ones, and those who care about us. Thanks to the movement to generate more information about addiction, we also now know what addiction treatment is. We understand just how powerful looking deep inside of ourselves to fix our problems can be, and we realize that therapy can be a wonderful way of getting to the root of the issues that cause us to rely on substances in the first place.

Sober living, however, is a concept that hasn’t quite caught up to the mainstream as fast as other aspects of the addiction recovery process have. While many people credit addiction treatment with ridding them of their addiction, they forget the powerful impact sober living can make when it comes to transitioning from treatment to life on their own.

As Dr. Drew said during our radio interview on his eponymous show, addiction treatment has changed. In the generation of millennials, addiction treatment has become more about coddling and less about learning the skills to excel in life after treatment. In some cases, there is a severe disconnect between the behavior men display, and the actions they feel entitled to receive from others.

At a facility like The Last House, we connect the disconnect.

Our sober living facility focuses on making men the very best they can be by championing their independence, confidence, and self-sufficiency, and encouraging them to build bonds with brothers that will last a lifetime. The Big Book couldn’t say it any better: “it became clear that if we ever were to feel emotionally secure among grown-up people, we would have to put our lives on a give-and-take basis; we would have to develop the sense of being in partnership or brotherhood with all those around us.” In our eyes, brotherhood is key to a successful transition to life after treatment. Having a tribe that will hold you accountable, force you to keep your word, take responsibility for your actions, and put the well-being of the group before yourself is an invaluable part in learning the skills necessary to make the most out of life after treatment.

Sober living, in theory, is designed to make you more than just a better person after treatment. It’s designed to give you the tools you need to become a contributing member of your community, and a champion of the recovery process for others that may need your guidance. At The Last House, we follow the Big Book’s assertion that being able to help others that are suffering through the same things we suffered through before treatment both keeps us on the straight and narrow, and allows us to give back. In fact, The Big Book couldn’t be any clearer about how important being able to help others is, especially in saying that “helping others is the foundation stone of our recovery.”

The core values of sober living

At The Last House, there are three concepts we preach more than anything: the concept of unity, the power of peer support, and the importance of life skills. Understanding these key values is the key to success for our clients.

Unity is a powerful tool in the transition from treatment to life on your own afterwards. Addiction treatment is not a one-man process, and the extension of treatment afterwards shouldn’t be either. Unity means knowing that your brothers have your back through thick and thin, and reassuring them that you have theirs. It’s what gives you the confidence to better yourself, and to step out of your comfort zone. The wonderful thing about sober living is that, although we operate in a very structured environment, it isn’t the same as treatment. Clients have the freedom to go out, work, engage with others, and live their lives. This is where the power of unity shows through the most. The brothers in our sober living homes are never forced to form bonds and relationships– their shared environment, triumphs, and failures causes them to form organically. These bonds are hard to break, and they last for years after graduation from our sober living program.

Peer support is next, and ties directly into our unity concept. In sober living, your brother is your best friend, your confidant, and your biggest fan. Whether it’s cooking meals for each other, taking turns cleaning up recreation areas, or enjoying a group outing together, sober living provides an environment brimming with opportunities for clients to give and receive help to and from each other. We find this so important, because the same practice of helping each other in the sober living community becomes a learned practice that clients replicate after graduation. As The Big Book says, one of the best ways to stay sober is to surround yourselves with others who are working on the same goal. Two are much stronger than one, and a group focused on the same thing is virtually unstoppable.

Finally, at The Last House and most other sober living communities, life skills are created, developed, and strengthened every day. In every aspect of what we do, we incorporate concepts that tie in with something greater– being the best person you can be, and a viable contributing member of your community after recovery.

Sober living is an awesome way to build the skills you need to transition into life after treatment with ease. The Last House is Los Angeles’ leading sober living community for men looking for guidance, support, and strength from other brothers. Call us today at
1-866-677-0090 to see how we can help you!

The Gentleman’s Guide to Recovery

by addictionRecovery

The Gentleman’s Guide to Recovery

Chris Kirby, Director of Admissions here at The Last House, kicked off a Dr. Drew segment quite pointedly. “We’re dealing with a disease that is characterized by ego, entitlement, and selfishness,” he said.

He couldn’t be more right.

As drugs and alcohol have become more and more mainstream in American culture, many millennials have suffered the devastating consequences of addiction. Fortunately, addiction awareness has increased, and many of these men and women are getting the help they need at recovery facilities nationwide.

When they leave these facilities, however, there can sometimes be a steep learning curve, particularly if their treatment was coddling or didn’t present the real-world experiences that they would likely face after graduation. For men, this can be an issue, because a “learning curve” could mean trouble finding a job or providing for their families.

This is where sober living comes in.

At The Last House, an all-male sober living house in West Los Angeles, we focus on the exact opposite of coddling, and mitigate ego, entitlement and selfishness by providing a rigorous but fair living environment and pushing our clients to get out into the workforce, take responsibility for their actions, and be proud of who they are after treatment, without relying on others like family members and friends to do things for them.

Sober living facilities like The Last House place a premium on providing support for men that need a system that will allow them to get back on their feet, champion their recovery, and have an encouraging tribe of brothers to help them make the right decisions. We’re here not only to help men transition back to life on their own. We’re here to make them gentlemen, and, as the

The Big Book says, to help them learn how to drive and motivate others to pursue recovery as well.

How does sober living make me a gentleman?

Page 88 of The Big Book couldn’t be clearer: “We alcoholics are undisciplined.”

This statement doesn’t just apply to alcoholics, though. Many men who have suffered from addiction and gone through treatment may have the discipline to refrain from using substances, but this doesn’t mean that they have the discipline for everything. Just like anything else, we have to learn discipline and the importance of it in order to train ourselves to do the things we need to do for our lives, our health, and our families after treatment. In learning discipline, we also learn self-reliance, and acquire an essential trait of the gentleman: the ability to control ourselves and become truly independent.

In sober living, men learn to appreciate a structured environment, rules, and discipline, in much the same way the military learns structure and order. We have curfews, required meetings, and consequences for our actions that make us that much more inclined to follow procedures. It’s not that rules are shoved down the throat, or that punishments are harsh or unfair (for missing a mandatory meeting, for instance, the required and fair consequence is to write an essay on the importance of punctuality), but we learn that rules and parameters are actually healthy for us in a way that we probably wouldn’t have out on our own.

The Big Book is the inspiration behind the sober living facility’s discipline policy, and it couldn’t make more sense:  “Did anyone ever hear of a society which couldn’t somehow discipline its members and enforce obedience to necessary rules and regulations?”

In sober living, we know that the only way to get the most out of each other, to become gentlemen and champions of the benefits of recovery, is to hold each other to a standard of excellence and order. That standard is upheld by the rules we follow.

Sober living also makes men into gentlemen by teaching the importance of self-reliance. The Big Book speaks about self-reliance in a number of ways, and, it is true that when addicted, self-reliance can sometimes prevent us from getting the help we need. However, after treatment, it is important that we learn to rely on ourselves again. In fact, it is one of the markers of a true gentleman, and it shows the world that we have what it takes to take care of ourselves and make notable contributions to our communities.

When addicted, the world often sees us as people that cannot control ourselves. Addiction can make us a nervous wreck almost incapable of functioning normally in society, and at this stage, self-reliance is out of the question. With treatment and the right sober living plan, however, this changes. The Big Book uses the phrase “from a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment” when describing the man that has successfully recovered with the help of such treatment. At The Last House sober living facility, we teach this self-reliance by forcing our clients to do for themselves. Whether this means rotating group dinner shifts, going on job interviews, or showing up early to court dates, we show our men that self-reliance is all about an attitude, and the brothers in our facility help each other foster that attitude organically.

Being a gentleman starts with discipline, which transforms into a self-reliance that breeds confidence, surety, and meaningful societal contributions. At The Last House, our sober living community provides the tools men need to make more of themselves than they were even before addiction. We don’t just teach men to live life after addiction. We teach them to live life to the fullest. Call us at 1-866-677-0090, and start taking your life back today!

One Mind, One Body, One Soul: Aligning Yourself to Maximize Your Recovery

by mental healthRecovery

meditation in recovery

To align mind, body, and spirit is to live awakened. It is to become more in tune with not just who you are, but with the person you want to be, and even the person you used to be. We all have desires, passions, and dreams, but we often live in a way that prevents us from realizing them. Living this way stints our growth, and keeps us chained down. At The Last House sober living, we encourage young men to break those chains and live connected, both through activating their own mind, body, and spirit connection, and through forging uplifting bonds with their peers.

For a long time, addiction treatment was purely about the mind. It made sense, to an extent: because addiction is a mental illness, it was only fitting that recovery efforts focused on the mental implications of the illness. Unfortunately, not paying attention to the physical or spiritual consequences of addiction led to treatments that were not nearly as effective as they should have been. Over time, therapists found that they needed to adopt a more holistic approach to treatment, and the idea of treating the mind, the body, and the soul was born.

Sober living houses like The Last House could not be better suited for this kind of holistic addiction treatment experience. Here, we are just as focused on what is going on in your head as we are on how you feel, and even how you collaborate with others. That’s one of the reasons why we champion collaboration in everything we do. Being around a tribe of brothers always striving to better themselves invites you to do the same

What exactly does alignment mean?

Our bodies live in more than one dimension. There is the physical dimension that we see, touch, taste, hear and feel. Then there’s the mental dimension, and the spiritual. Most of us never really stop to consider how these dimensions might be intertwined, but they very much are. For instance, think of what happens if you tell yourself that you do not want to get out of bed and go to work, because you hate your job. Almost immediately, your bed begins to feel a lot more comfortable. That’s physical. You more than likely begin to think of jobs you would much rather have. An astronaut, perhaps? Or maybe a scientist? That’s mental. Then, as you slog off to brush your teeth, make the coffee, and get ready for the day, you can’t quite shake the feeling that you really don’t want to go in to this job. That’s the spiritual. Many people live in misalignment on a daily basis, and they don’t even realize it. They feel these things, but aren’t able to make the connection, and wonder why their life feels off.

The thing is, whether we like it or not, our bodies understand and are constantly aware of this connection at all times. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous makes the connection between the three dimensions very clear, as it pertains to drinking, and even indicates that the reason for alcohol addiction begins in the spiritual realm. It says: “we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.” In short, when we look inside ourselves, we can see the spiritual malady that causes a physical reaction when we pick up a bottle (to drink), and address it accordingly.

Alignment, then, is identifying that there is a connection, and changing our outlook accordingly. At The Last House, we focus on what it means to identify this connection in a number of ways. Number one, we encourage transparency, direction, and emotional vulnerability in our group sessions. Every man in the room has weaknesses and strengths, and we tell it like it is there. Encouraging one another to look inside and pull out things that we’ve kept hidden forces us to confront spiritual and mental stressors. Then, in sharing, we make a physical action out of what we’ve discovered inside.

Number two, we champion camaraderie. Every man shares a room with at least one other man. We eat meals together, go on outings together, laugh together, and cry together. We forge physical bonds through confronting our spiritual demons together, and we gain mental confidence by knowing each of us has each other’s back.

Finally, we provide tools for the future. Once we find out what our spiritual desires are by listening to our thoughts and looking inside ourselves, we make them happen by putting pen to paper, brick to mortar, and action to imagination. We completely stimulate, the mind, body, and soul so efficiently that our men begin to listen to their whole selves. They realize that they can make things happen in their physical worlds simply by listening to what they want and making a plan to get it. It’s this experience, and this power, that makes their recovery process not just so successful, but so life-changing.

Aligning yourself to maximize recovery is as simple as joining a dynamic sober living house like ours and listening to what your spirit has been telling you all along. We don’t know what makes an alcoholic pick up a drink even though they know it will kill them, or what makes a drug user use a dirty needle knowing it could mean dire consequences. We do, however, know that just as the mind, body, and spirit are connected when addiction sets in and they take those actions, the mind, body, and spirit must be aligned to guarantee true transformation in recovery.

If you’re looking for the alignment that you need to make your transition from drugs and alcohol complete, you need look no further than The Last House, a men’s structured sober living program in Mar Vista, California. Call us today at (855)998-5278.

Actualizing Your Power Over Addiction

by addictionRecovery

power over addiction

For years, there have been many schools of thought on how to make the addiction treatment and recovery process the most effective. One thing that everyone agrees on though, is the fact that it is the job of recovery centers and sober living houses to restore power to clients. When addicted, we are essentially powerless to control even the most basic of feelings, desires, and impulses. In fact, attempting to control our impulses without professional help can often lead to terrible withdrawals or serious medical issues. Actualizing your power over addiction actually begins as soon as you take the first step in seeking treatment. Making the decision to get treatment for addiction is making a conscious effort to put addiction in its place, which is it out of your life. Many of us do not consider going to treatment to be a meaningful assertion of our power due to the shame and stigma of addiction and addiction treatment. Even the slightest attempt at a fight proves one thing: you have what it takes to beat addiction for good.

Addiction is an illness, and like anything else, it continues to grow stronger and stronger as long as you give it what it wants- more episodes of using. In most cases, all addiction wants is to keep running your life. Not taking action allows addiction to grow and flourish. Taking a stand against addiction by seeking treatment stops addiction in its tracks. Once your mind is set on getting help, there is little that addiction can do. The hardest part is deciding that you need that help.

At The Last House sober living facility, we focus on making men the best they can be by fostering a structured, collaborative environment that encourages accountability, honesty, and emotional vulnerability. Here, we don’t just emphasize the addiction recovery process. We teach life skills that help give men the confidence and self esteem they need to go out and make a difference in the world. When you leave our facility, you really are able to actualize your power over addiction, and your story and journey serves as a beacon of light for other young men that may be struggling to find their way.

The Last House is a leading men’s sober living facility that offers long term care after primary treatment. We focus on making men the leaders of today we know they can be, while teaching them the life skills they need in order to be successful anywhere they go. After leaving The Last House, our men aren’t just successful members of society. They are true gentlemen of recovery. Call us today at (855)998-5278!