Mark Tuten, Founder of Soberminds Lifestyle
This Was Never About Looking Clean.
It was about becoming someone I could finally respect.
Everything you see here — from the Field Notes and Field Guides to the recovery apparel — is built from my own recovery, relapse, and rebuilding journey. Soberminds exists to help people build a life they no longer want to escape.
Last updated August 2026 — By Mark Tuten, Founder, Soberminds Lifestyle
There was a time when I thought sobriety was the finish line. I know now that it was only the beginning.
Soberminds wasn’t created because I had life figured out. It was created because I needed somewhere honest to put everything I was learning while rebuilding it.
This isn’t a brand built around addiction. It’s a brand built around what comes after.
Recovery Gave Me My Life Back. Building Soberminds Gave It Direction.
Soberminds exists for people rebuilding identity after addiction. Not just people trying to stop drinking. Not just people trying to stay sober. People trying to become someone they can trust.
Everything on this website — from the Field Notes to the Field Guides to the clothing — is built around one idea: recovery gives you another chance. What you build with that chance becomes your identity.
My Recovery Story: I Didn’t Change Because I Wanted a Better Life
I changed because I was about to lose the one I already had.
The last time I put my hands on my brother Kevin was in my own driveway, the summer my son turned thirteen. He’d driven up from Texas for my son’s big road series. We were drinking, and things turned physical between us. He left. He never made it to the series he came all that way for. That cost my son something too, not just me and Kevin.
The last real conversation we had was a phone call, a year or two into my sobriety. He was drunk, telling me how messed up his life was, blaming everyone the way I used to. I tried to get him to take responsibility, man to man. And that’s when it hit me — he was doing exactly what I’d taught him to do. Not on purpose. It’s just what I modeled. Someone taught me how to turn myself off and blame the world, and I turned around and taught Kevin the same thing without ever meaning to.
After that, I told him to stop calling me when he was drinking. I had to protect my sobriety. I still believe that was necessary. I also still wonder if it was me pushing him away when he needed something else. Both of those are true. I don’t think I get to pick which one wins.
We lost contact after that. There was no clean ending. No last good conversation. Just distance, and then he was gone.
I don’t know if I helped him by getting sober, or failed him by getting sober too late to bring him with me.
Kevin died to this disease. So did my brother Michael, in 2012. Neither of them made it out. That’s why I go hard.
Losing Kevin changed more than my understanding of grief. It changed my understanding of responsibility. Soberminds exists because I can’t change what happened to either of my brothers, but I can choose what I build from it.
The moment that finally broke through for me wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a movie scene. It was a letter from my kids, asking me to get help.
That hurt more than any withdrawal ever could. That was the moment I stopped asking why my life looked the way it did. I started asking what I was going to do about it.
The Rebuild: Life After Addiction
Learning how to live honestly was — that’s the part sobriety alone doesn’t teach you.
Before Soberminds, I served in the U.S. Navy and later worked offshore as a gas turbine technician.
One week after arriving at my first duty station, I found myself face down on concrete in handcuffs. In 2006, the Navy sent me to detox and 45 days of inpatient rehab, followed by a year of anger management and a year of therapy.
Those experiences taught me discipline. Recovery taught me how to actually apply it to my own life.
I spent the early days of recovery sitting in AA meetings, listening more than talking — sometimes three or four a day, for years. I learned discipline before I learned confidence. I learned consistency before motivation.
I learned that identity isn’t something you discover. It’s something you build. Slowly. Quietly. One decision at a time.
The Milestones, Not the Whole Story
This isn’t every important thing that’s happened in my life. These are the moments that shaped the work you’re reading today.
2017 — Everything Fell Apart
My marriage ended. My children moved four states away. I entered detox and inpatient treatment for the last time. Losing my family forced me to confront the life I’d spent years avoiding. That was where the real work began. I stopped running.
2018 — Looking for Something Different
During that season, I began questioning the identity I’d spent years protecting. One part of that journey included exploring ayahuasca in Peru. It didn’t fix me, and it wasn’t the end of the work — but it challenged me to look honestly at who I’d become.
2019 — Sobriety Becomes a Lifestyle
Long-term sobriety began. Art became an outlet, and the first Soberminds concepts emerged through NFTs. I started building.
2020–2022 — Learning to Build
I rebuilt a home. Then rebuilt another. Over those same years, I restored and customized several cars, and kept discovering that making things with my hands reinforced the same lesson recovery had already taught me: meaningful change happens one decision at a time.
2021 — Soberminds Is Born
What began as artwork became a brand.
2023 — Losing Kevin Changed Everything
My brother Kevin died to this disease. It changed my understanding of responsibility, not just grief. I found my purpose.
2024 — Starting Over in Peru
I gave up everything in the United States and moved to Cusco. It wasn’t just a move. It was another act of starting over.
2025 — Loss and Relapse
My grandmother died. My marriage ended. After years of sobriety, I relapsed. It was the most difficult season I’d faced in years, and it exposed something I hadn’t wanted to admit: recovery isn’t a destination. It’s a practice that requires continual attention. I learned recovery still needs protecting.
What the Relapse Actually Taught Me
After years of sobriety, I believed I had recovery figured out. I didn’t. Looking back, the relapse started months before I ever picked up a drink. I stopped using the tools that had helped me stay sober. I isolated. I stayed quiet. I convinced myself I could figure it out alone.
When I finally drank again, I didn’t become a new person. I became the same person addiction had always made me. That experience changed the way I understand recovery forever. Soberminds today isn’t built by someone who believes they’ve arrived. It’s built by someone who knows recovery is something you keep choosing.
2025–2026 — Soberminds Evolves
Every bit of that effort went back into this brand. Field Notes launched. The Field Guides were published. Soberminds grew beyond apparel into a place for rebuilding identity, discipline, clarity, and peace.
That journey is still being written. Every article, every Field Guide, every design, and every product is another piece of the life I’m still building — and an invitation for someone else to build theirs. I turned those lessons into something that could help others.
If this story feels familiar, start here.
Mark Tuten
Founder, Soberminds Lifestyle
I Don’t Write From Theory
I’ve been sober. I’ve relapsed. I’ve sat through thousands of AA meetings. I’ve served in the U.S. Navy. I’ve worked offshore. I’ve rebuilt my life more than once.
I write from experience — either something I’ve lived, something I’m actively rebuilding, or something I wish someone had told me years ago.
I don’t write because I’m an expert. I write because I’ve lived enough mistakes to know what happens when recovery is neglected — and what becomes possible when it isn’t.
Everything I publish comes from lived experience — not theory, certification, or recycled advice. The lessons here were earned through recovery, relapse, rebuilding, and continuing to show up every day.
Why Soberminds Lifestyle Exists
Soberminds Lifestyle began as an outlet, not a business plan.
Creating became the language I used when I couldn’t explain what recovery felt like. The artwork became messages. The messages became clothing. The clothing became conversations. Those conversations became a community.
Today Soberminds has become something much bigger than I originally imagined. Soberminds Lifestyle is a recovery lifestyle brand built for people rebuilding life after addiction.
Soberminds isn’t here to convince people to get sober. Recovery programs have been doing that long before I arrived. Soberminds exists for what comes next. It’s for the years after the meeting ends, when you’re trying to become someone you respect. Everything we create — from Field Notes and Field Guides to the clothing — is built around helping people build a life they no longer want to escape.
Three Ways to Do the Work
Field Notes
Honest essays about recovery, identity, discipline, clarity, and peace.
Explore Field Notes →Field Guides
Guided reflection for the quiet work nobody else sees. Not self-help. Not motivation. Just honest questions.
Browse the Field Guides →Recovery Clothing
Clothing that represents the person you’re becoming instead of the person you’re trying to forget.
Shop the Collection →Everything We Publish Is Built Around Four Ideas
Over time I realized everything I was writing came back to the same four ideas: Identity, Discipline, Clarity, and Peace.
Starting Over Isn’t Actually Starting From Zero
One of the biggest lessons recovery taught me is that you bring experience. You bring scars. You bring wisdom. You bring every lesson you fought to learn.
Starting over simply means deciding your past doesn’t get the final vote.
Read Starting OverThe Principles Behind Soberminds
- Recovery isn’t about perfection. Recovery is about honesty.
- Discipline creates freedom.
- Identity is built through action.
- Peace is practiced every day.
- Your past explains you. It doesn’t define you.
- Nobody is coming to save you. That’s the good news — it means you finally get to build the life yourself.
Start Here, Free
Field Guide // 000
A free taste of the same twenty-question format as the full Field Guide collection — five questions, no cost, built for the quiet work of starting.
Download Field Guide // 000If You’re New Here, This Is Where I’d Begin
Wear the Work
Recovery isn’t something to hide. It’s something to honor. Browse Recovery Hoodies or Sobriety Gifts.
Shop the Collection →Thank you for being here.
Whether you’re one day sober, ten years sober, or simply trying to become someone you respect again — I’m glad you found your way here.
Soberminds isn’t the story of a man who figured life out. It’s the story of someone who keeps showing up to build it — one day at a time.
Recovery gave me another chance. Building is how I protect it.
— Mark
Soberminds Lifestyle exists because recovery is more than quitting alcohol. It’s learning how to rebuild identity, practice discipline, find clarity, and create lasting peace. Everything published here — from articles and Field Guides to recovery apparel — is designed to support that lifelong work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Mark Tuten?
Mark Tuten is a U.S. Navy veteran, former offshore gas turbine technician, and the founder of Soberminds Lifestyle. He writes from lived experience with addiction, recovery, and rebuilding a life after both.
Why did Mark Tuten create Soberminds Lifestyle?
Soberminds began as a creative outlet during recovery — art and writing became a way to process what recovery actually felt like. It grew into a brand built around helping people rebuild identity, discipline, clarity, and peace after addiction.
What is Soberminds Lifestyle?
Soberminds Lifestyle is a recovery-focused brand publishing Field Notes, Field Guides, and recovery-inspired clothing, all built around the idea that recovery is about building someone, not just quitting something.
Is Soberminds affiliated with AA?
No. Soberminds is not formally affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous or any recovery program. AA played a significant role in the founder’s personal recovery, but Soberminds is an independent brand, not an extension of AA.
What does “Built From Struggle” mean?
It’s the idea that Soberminds wasn’t created by someone who had life figured out. It was built out of real struggle, and everything the brand publishes reflects that origin rather than a polished, after-the-fact version of recovery.
How long has Mark Tuten been in recovery?
Mark’s recovery began in 2017. He experienced a relapse in 2025 after years of sobriety, and has been honest about that as part of his story, recovery isn’t something he considers finished, it’s something he keeps choosing.
Recovery is still something I choose every day. Soberminds Lifestyle is how I continue that work — through writing, design, reflection, and building tools that help other people rebuild their lives after addiction.
For Kevin Tuten and Michael Deason
Michael
Missed every day.
Kevin
Your story still matters.
They died to this disease. They never made it out.
They deserved more time. More peace. More chances. Soberminds exists, in part, because they no longer have the opportunity to tell their stories. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to tell mine honestly, and hopefully help someone else keep writing theirs.