Focus (Episode 2 - Archive)Focus (Episode 2 - Archive)
Relational Recovery
Wes Thompson and Austin Hill talk about how digital distractions, impulse control and spiritual disciplines intersect with addiction recovery. They highlight the importance of slowing down, owning personal choices and creating space between craving and action.
7:04•19 Oct 2026
Choosing Focus: Phones, Faith and Impulse Control in Recovery
Episode Overview
- Many distractions, such as phone and social media use, are personal choices rather than outside forces.
- Constant digital stimulation erodes the ability to think, pay attention and reflect clearly.
- Addiction recovery depends heavily on impulse control and creating space between urge and action.
- Practices like prayer, meditative prayer, silence, solitude and scripture reading help slow mind and body.
- Stillness in early recovery can feel uncomfortable because painful thoughts and memories surface, but facing them is part of growth.
“There’s not going to be any space between impulse and decision.”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober? This archived conversation from Relational Recovery zooms in on a surprisingly simple but demanding ingredient: focus. Host Wes Thompson and co-host Austin Hill chat honestly about how everyday distractions chip away at mental, spiritual and emotional health. One of them laughs at his own habits, saying, “No one ever forces me to turn my phone on.
No one ever forces my thumb to go over the Instagram app and push it. That’s my choice.” From there, the talk gets real about responsibility: most time-wasters and triggers aren’t imposed from outside—they’re chosen. The episode leans into how constant phone use, social media, video games and digital “fake worlds” weaken the ability to think, pay attention and reflect. They connect this directly to addiction, especially for those dealing with substances like heroin.
Impulse control isn’t framed as abstract psychology; it’s the very thin line between feeling an urge and acting on it. Without reflection, they explain, “there’s not going to be any space between impulse and decision,” which makes relapse far more likely. For people rooted in Christian spirituality, this conversation will feel especially relevant.
Prayer, meditative prayer, silence, solitude and scripture reading are described as hard but essential tools that “slow us down” and expand that crucial space between impulse and action. They even acknowledge that early phases in the Refuge programme can be tough simply because there’s so much quiet, and in that quiet, old memories and painful thoughts surface. Anyone juggling recovery, faith and a phone that never stops pinging will recognise themselves here.
If focus really is a choice, what might change this week if you guarded yours a bit more carefully?
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