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Living A Recovered Life
The new single from Chris Swan and Soul Motivation Records is coming on January 1st!
The song is designed to help us start the year with the right mindset. If we are thankful for what we have and we believe God will provide what we need, then there's no need to worry. There's plenty to go around when you are living abundantly!
Oh yea, and it’s a jam.
Fear is a powerful force. It’s also incredibly sneaky the way it can work itself into our lives, quickly take hold, and destroy our hopes and dreams. Fear can be paralyzing, keeping us from making decisions and moving on with our lives.
Fear can keep us isolated. So often we spend way too much time worrying about what others think of us. It can make us push people away when all they want to do is love us. Fear can make us believe that we don’t belong. It can make us feel like we are not good enough or cool enough, which can lead to self-loathing and a feeling of worthlessness. It can lead us down a path to where we don’t even want to live anymore.
Fear can fester and destroy our lives. It’s so important that we call out our fears and face them head on. We need to look at them logically, find the false information we base them on, and replace them with truth.
The truth is we were created to be here and we are here for a purpose. We do belong and we are worthy of love. We are perfectly imperfect just the way we are, even with all our flaws. We are meant to be happy and successful.
Fear can work it’s way into our lives quickly, so we need to choose to see the truth over our fears everyday. A great exercise is this: every night before we go to bed, we need to take a few minutes and ask ourself “Was I afraid today?” If the answer is yes, we need to call out those fears. Look at them logically and see if they really make sense. Then replace those thoughts of fear with the truth.
If we do this consistently every day, we can destroy fear. It won’t disappear forever, but we can keep it from ruining our lives. We can gain strength in reminding ourselves of what the truth really is. And then we can live the lives we were truly meant to live.
Don’t let fear steal your joy away from you. Let the truth ring free and give you the peace you have been looking for your whole life.
I've always loved this song by Rachel Platten. I thought it would be cool to do a hip-hop version of it. So here is what I came up with. Hope you dig it!
http://bit.ly/2Q4c5ad - To get a free download of Fight Song!
Recently, I had the chance to be on The Way Out Podcast to talk about recovery and my new album, Welcome To The Fellowship. This podcast is a great resource for those of us going through recovery. When you need some encouragement or maybe you need some questions answered, The Way Out is a great place to go.
I hope you get some encouragement from this interview. Just click play below to take a listen.
I will be performing LIVE at Evangeline’s in St. Louis on December 18th, 2018. With Steve Lord joining on drums, we will be playing songs from Welcome To The Fellowship, my latest release from Soul Motivation Records.
The set will also be featuring music from Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and select 90’s hip-hop jams! You won’t want to miss this one.
Evangeline’s is located at 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO 63108
The new single from Chris Swan is here and this time it’s a cover song!
“I have always loved this song and thought it would be cool to do a hip-hop version of it. I tried to take elements of the song that were already very hip-hop in nature and exaggerate them. I hope you dig it,” says Swan.
I am excited to announce that…
Click the link below to check out our new store and get 20% off on everything in the store!
“Honesty is truth and that truth shall set us free.”
-Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book Pg. 218
What a great quote from the Big Book. Honesty has been a big part of my recovery. Honesty towards others, sure, but mainly honesty with myself. It’s been one of the biggest challenges and also one of the biggest gifts.
To start getting better, I had to admit I was powerless. I had to accept that I had a problem and I needed help. I had to stop lying to myself saying “It’s not that bad” or “I’ll change someday.” The truth was I was dying. And once I could admit that honestly, I was finally willing and able to do what I needed to do to live.
And now every day I have to practice honesty to stay sober from alcohol and abstinent from compulsive overeating. I have to face the consequences of my actions, truthfully.
If I choose to drink again, I have to be honest with myself about what that would feel like. It would be fun for a few minutes or hours, but then it would be hell for days. I have to stop romanticizing my days of drinking and look at them for what they were - an insane cycle of misery and depression. That’s the truth, not this fuzzy memory I keep coming back to where those were the “best days of my life.” I was not living the dream. I was living the nightmare when I was drinking and by being honest with myself about that, I can push the alcohol away for another day.
When it comes to the food, I have to weigh and measure my food honestly, not trying to sneak in a little extra here and there. I have to report to my sponsor any changes I need to make in my food plan throughout the day. And I need to share my story with others - openly and honestly. This is the only way I can stay on a healthy path and it’s important to encourage others in their journey.
When you live a life of lies, you have to work really hard to keep them all straight and to try to make yourself believe them. It’s so much work and, honestly, it’s really exhausting. I don’t ever want to go back to that “house of cards” life. When you choose honesty, all that work goes away and you are free.
I’ve tried it both ways and I can say honestly that honesty has been the better path by far.
If you missed my CD release party for Welcome to the Fellowship, fear not. I had some great friends there who shot some video and I thought it would be cool to share it with you. Click play below to check out the videos.
P.S. If you haven’t got your copy of Welcome to the Fellowship yet, what are you waiting for? Get it here ==> BUY NOW <==
My new single is coming December 1st, 2018 and this time it’s my very first cover song - Fight Song by Rachel Platten!
I took this already awesome song and extracted the hip-hop elements from it and turned it into a hip-hop jam.
I can’t wait for you to hear it!
I recently had the opportunity to hang out with Willie B in the studio on his show Turn Up To Turn Down on KDHX in St. Louis! Click below to take a listen to the interview:
Hey, how's it going?
So you may have heard I have a new CD out called Welcome to the Fellowship. And now it's time to throw a party and you are invited...
It's going down this Tuesday, November 20th, at Evangeline's Bistro and Music House in St. Louis! Music starts at 7pm with COCOMOFO from NYC. And then I will be hitting the stage at 845pm. And I have a few special guests that will be there with me!
We are doing the songs live - NO TRACKS! I'll be on the piano and my man Steve Lord will be on the drums. Chela Mancuso from Crystal Lady will be there to perform The Mess Around with me. Trumpet great Jim Manley will be in the house to sit in on a few tunes. And I just confirmed that Russ Mohr (Co-founder of my old band LP Outsiders) will be in the building! He'll be sitting in and we are bringing back some LPO classics! This is the first time we have performed together in years and for sure the first time we have played these songs together since the LPO days!
This is going to be epic. You don't want to miss it!
Hope to see you there!
Cuz I got lint in my pocket, WHAT?!
P.S. Evangeline's Bistro and Music House is located at 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, MO 63108.
P.P.S. If you don’t own it yet, you can get Welcome to the Fellowship by clicking here!
For years when I was drinking and overeating, my biggest fear about quitting was “What will I do with the time? What will I have left to make me happy?” I always came up short, unable to come up with something. I was so scared my life would be empty and boring without my addictions.
When I quit drinking, food became my substitute. Instead of alcohol, I just doubled up on food. And there was some comfort in knowing that I had a back up vice to turn to. At least I had one comfort left.
Ironic how the substance that is supposed to give us life was actually taking mine. And all because I was scared I wouldn’t be able to find happiness without it. I had to let my overeating go but how could I possibly find any joy in life without it? With food being my final vice, what would I substitute this addiction with?
Then came OA. And I discovered a permanent substitute for all my addictions. One that really worked and brought joy into my life. Real joy. Joy that would last longer than a drinking binge or a 2 hour meal. One that didn’t include hangovers, guilt or shame. It was the answer I had been seeking for all these years.
I finally found my people in the rooms of OA. We are the same in so many ways. Finally I am not alone. We are all in this together. I am surrounded by an army of people who get it. And I can’t overstate how much comfort I find it that. For years, I tried to overcome my addictions alone. It felt overwhelming and impossible.
But there is strength in numbers. I have meetings I can go to so I can stay connected to people who care. I have people to call when I am having a hard time. I get to serve my fellows by picking up the phone and encouraging them when they need it. There is also a lot of hope in hearing another’s story of struggle. And also hearing the stories of those who have overcome their addictions.
I am choosing community and connection over isolation and addiction. There is so much more joy on this side. The fellowship brings true joy and peace that I never was able to find in alcohol or food.
I finally found the substitute I have been searching for my whole life. This is what true happiness feels like.
If you can relate to this, I would highly encourage you to check out AA or OA, depending on your drug of choice. The fellowship is waiting with open arms. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.
Hit play to hear what inspired my song Perfect and what I hope you get out of it. And be sure to share this video with those who you think need to hear it!
Sometimes we feel lost. We feel unsure of our future. And I’ve found in my recovery from alcoholism and food addiction, these feelings creep up more than ever before. There are some days that I feel on top of the world. Those days are a lot of fun. And it’s important to enjoy them. But there are also a lot of hard days where I miss the comfort I use to experience from my old vices. Sometimes I feel completely empty with no substitute for these substances. I feel like I’m all alone. I feel like it’s unfair that I don’t get to enjoy the things that other people seem to be able to.
After I wallow in my pity party for a few moments, I pull myself out by remembering how miserable my life use to be when I was using. It’s so easy to forget that and to just over romanticize the good ol’ days. But the old days were not all good days. They were mostly awful so I have to remind myself of that fact.
The next thing I can do, is look to the promises of the Big Book of AA. These are examples what of others have experienced from going through recovery and just knowing that these await me is more than enough to pull me out of my pity party. On days that are really hard, I can hold onto these promises. You can find all of them on pages 83-84 of the Big Book. But here is a summary of some of my favorites.
The Big Book promises us that we will know a new freedom and peace that we have never felt before. We will not regret the past. We will see how our experiences can benefit others. The feeling of uselessness and self pity will disappear. Self-seeking will slip away. Our outlook on life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will know how to handle hard situations. We will realize that God is doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.
What amazing promises these are. They reassure me that I am truly living the life I was meant to live. These promises are the things I have been searching for my whole life. I am so thankful to finally be on the path to achieve them.
If you are having a hard day, I would challenge you to pick up a Big Book and read through the promises. There is also a great PDF with a list of the promises you can find by clicking here. There is always hope. There is always a better day coming. And knowing that other’s have experienced this fact, is often just enough inspiration to get me through one more day.
What is your favorite promise in the Big Book? Leave me a comment and let me know how it has changed your life.
One of the biggest keys to success in recovery is gratitude. I don’t know why, but my default setting is negativity, cynicism and bitterness. I spent years being a bitter pessimistic person. It’s so weird that this is also the time in my life where I was the most depressed?!
I don’t know why the negativity comes so easy. It’s like there is comfort in complaining. I think cynicism is just a way to let myself off the hook and to not really try for anything. Saying things like “I’m just meant to be fat. It’s impossible to lose weight.” let me feel like I didn’t have to try.
But humans are designed to try and try again. We need a purpose and a goal to strive for. If we are not striving for something, we feel incomplete. So that’s how I felt. Bitter, lonely and incomplete. I was miserable.
Now I choose to focus on gratitude every day. It’s something I have to consciously choose to see and practice. But when I do, I see a whole new world. I see all the love and opportunity that surrounds me. It’s always been there, I just couldn’t see it before.
Gratitude has made all the difference in my life so I am going to keep choosing it every day. I would encourage you to give it a try as well. It may just be the change you are looking for.
It’s here! My very first music video ever! It’s for my song Perfect. Check it out and be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
I know hearing other people's stories has been a huge inspiration in my recovery. So I thought I'd share mine. Hope you find some hope in it today.
Here’s a behind the scenes look at the making of Chris Swan’s sophomore release from Soul Motivation Records - Welcome to the Fellowship!
Just hit play below to take a look.
“My mission with this record is to help others overcome their obstacles and to find the hope that is waiting for them,” says Swan.
