The Clear Horizon

From oblivion of alcoholism into the light of sobriety

life

  • A cycle ending, but the Horror goes on…?

    A week at the sea has ended and I am back in domestic territory. Funny thing: After a perfectly clear horizon yesterday giving me the symbolic anchor of a time to breathe, today the weather hailed us with snow and wind. As if the Universe wanted to tell me something… No, joke aside. Of course… Read more

  • The Clearest Horizon in a Long time: What do the old ones from the Deep try to Tell me? – The power of symbolism in Recovery

    Yes, another overcomplicated headline and topic, but the longer I stay at the sea and the more time I find at the moment to dive into the works of Thomas Ligotti, my hyperfocus is feverishly working. And then, today, I went to the beach, and it was the clearest horizon I saw in a long… Read more

  • COVID and Alcohol – what boredom has to do with drinking

    It wasn’t the stress that made me drink more than before in the COVID – era. This is an interesting insight, because I always thought that I had a very stressful time during COVID. Yes, it was stressful. I had a lot of remote home schooling, I had shifts of emergency childcare at the school… Read more

  • Keeping the Beast Alive – why feeding my system from the outside is important

    Will I ever find an end in this journey? Probably not. The good thing about this, though, is the fact that I have control of the pace and the length of this journey. As far as I am concerned, there is still a lot to dive into, and the road is still a long and… Read more

  • My life is like a mobile

    No…not like a phone. Well, sometimes maybe, but this is not what I mean. I mean the kind of kinetic art sculpture you can hang from a ceiling with dangling parts on different levels. And this is what my life is like. Actually, it is an image that we use a lot in systemic pedagogy… Read more

  • The Fast Forward Button

    Fast For…what? Those of you familiar with the notion “cassette player”, “VCR” or other mechano-audiovisual devices will remember a button which was called the Fast Forward Button. For those who have not grown up to use these relics of times long past: It was meant to give you the opportunity to quickly – or, fast… Read more

  • deconstruction, stripping down and recombining different and seemingly opposite mindsets to form new ones.

    A complicated title to this blog. What I mean is the following: Remember the seemingly nonsensical BS I wrote yesterday? Very good. If your brain works like mine (which is not very probable) you might even make sense of the Mumbo-Jumbo I wrote yesterday. And that was only the practical application. Today I would like… Read more

  • Boundaries of self improvement, Rev’d

    It’s interesting how some expressions tend to trigger certain reactions or the urge to alter mindsets. As soon as I post something on this site, one of the tags that are suggested is “self improvement”. Now, I have discussed that topic, but it keeps coming back to me every now and then. The first question… Read more

  • Intrinsic and extrinsic Motivation – When does it get problematic?

    I definitely touched upon the topic habits and when they might be or become toxic. What I didn’t do, I think, was deal with the aspect of motivation, as to why, I actually pursue certain habits and actions, and in how far the individual pursuit of “good” habits is intrinsic, extrinsic, and when either is… Read more

  • Recap of 6 months of cutting back and quitting – what are my takeaways from the past for the next 6 months (+)

    Although it has not been 6 full months of complete sobriety, the beginning of my journey started actually with cutting back (severely) on my drinking. In this post, I will have a look at the quantitative and qualitative aspects of my recovery journey and what implications the results of this recap have for my future… Read more