<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Today we have Christopher. He is 27 years old from Melbourne, Australia and he took his last drink on July 13^th, 2019.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><u><span>Sponsors for this episode include:</span></u></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.betterhelp.com/get-started/?go=true&slug=elevator&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=2687&utm_term=elevator&promo_code=elevator&landing_page_img=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FqYHezjI.jpg&aff_channel=podcast&discount_rate=10&discount_period=P1M&date_interval=P1M&percentage_off=10&amount=1&amount_spelled_out=one&unit=month&gor=start"> <strong><span>Better Help</span></strong></a> <span><strong>–</strong> 10% off of your first month</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk195860230"></a><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span>On October 4^th-15th, we are going to</span></span> <a href="https://www.recoveryelevator.com/peru-2025"><span><strong><span>Peru</span></strong></span></a><span><span>!<span> </span> There are still three spots available for this 11-day 12-night journey throughout Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. Included in this journey are hiking the Inca Trail and a service project with</span></span> <a href="https://peruvianhearts.org/"><span><strong><span>Peruvian Hearts.</span></strong></span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span>[02:38] Thoughts from Paul:</span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Today Paul presents the third of a three-part series where he covers the healing one may expect in the first year away from alcohol. This week he covers the spiritual (not necessarily religious) component of healing and what can generally be expected over the course of the first year away from alcohol.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Spiritual growth isn’t necessarily linear and likely won’t start in the first week. There may have been a moment before your last drink when time seemed to stop, and you were pulled into the present moment where you could see where things were headed if you didn’t quit drinking.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>For some this growth may involve religious exploration and for others it may just be feeling the pull to be in nature or seeing life synchronicities and being able to decipher signals of intuition in your body. Creativity may return and books like Julia Cameron’s</span> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+artists+way+by+julia+cameron&i=specialty-aps&srs=19633587011&crid=2F9M049T7TGZR&sprefix=the+artist+way+by+julia+cameron%2Cspecialty-aps%2C108&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-pd-dpltr-2-ranker_2_31"> <strong><span>The Artist’s Way</span></strong></a> <span>can help unblock creative channels.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Paul shares many different ways spiritual healing can show up for people on the journey to being alcohol-free.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span>[09:28] Paul introduces Christopher:</span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span> </span></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Chris is 27 and lives in Melbourne, Australia. He is about to start being a psychologist in a few weeks where he looks forward to being of service, but currently is working in the restaurant area of a pub. For fun he enjoys the outdoors, running, hiking and is a fan of philosophy.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Chris’ drinking began like many others when he was in his teens. He says he instantly felt free, and his problems slipped away. He drank when the opportunities arose, and it was mainly binge drinking on the weekends.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Chris said he cared a lot of what others thought of him or if they found him interesting, so he began to believe that he had to drink in order to please them. This led to an escalation in his drinking and not long after he began to question his it but didn’t feel like it was an addiction. He kept himself busy to avoid dealing with those thoughts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>When Chris was 19 or 20, he was going into another semester at school and was exhausted. He decided to take this time to quit alcohol and drugs. He found himself thinking about alcohol a lot during this time and began to explore what this meant to him. Chris didn’t want to share with anyone what he was doing so kept it to himself.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>After the three-month break, Chris went back to drinking and it wasn’t the same. He realized that alcohol had