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Why You Should Do The Twelve Steps: Part Two

Written by enlightened solutions on March 27, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction. Leave a Comment

Previously we discussed three reasons why you should do the twelve steps when you are seeking sobriety in your life after addiction. The twelve steps are one of the longest standing programs for alcoholics and addicts to find recovery. All of modern day treatment is inspired by and founded on many of the principles and philosophies originally laid out by the authors of Alcoholics Anonymous and creators of the twelve step program.

You have some free time on your hands: Addiction takes up more time than we realize. After getting sober, we find ourselves with a lot of free time on our hands. We might be in a treatment program, living in a sober living, or trying to do recovery on our own. Either way, there are hours in the day we simply haven’t had before. Doing something productive with our time is essential to staving off cravings and obsessive thinking which can lead to relapse in the early stages of recovery. What better way to fill your time than trying something new, spending time with an experienced person of recovery, and learning new strategies for staying sober?

Its worked for millions of people around the world: Alcoholics and addicts are quick to make an argument. A common argument against working the twelve steps is “What if it doesn’t work for me?”. Before the modern treatment model we know today existed, the twelve step program of Alcoholics Anonymous is all that people had for helping them recover. As of 2012, more than one million copies of Alcoholics Anonymous, affectionately called “The Big Book” have been distributed in English. The book is also available in 67 languages around the world. What that means is people of all different colors, languages, cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, find support from the twelve steps. It works for people because they work the steps.

The program has been unchanged for almost 80 years: Alcoholics Anonymous was published in 1939, but the program of Alcoholics Anonymous was around long before the book was published. Since the book’s publication nearly 80 years ago hardly any changes have been made. No changes have ever been made to the twelve steps. What that means is that the same book and the same program has worked for millions of people around the world, generation and generation over. When one trendy diet works for a few thousand people at best, everybody wants a piece of it. The twelve steps have so far stood the test of time.

If you are seeking transformation and looking for a dual-diagnosis treatment, our facility’s amazing program could be the answer you’ve been searching for! Enlightened Solutions offers a clinical, holistic and 12-step approach for the addiction recovery process. For more information call today: 844-234-LIVE.

Why You Should Do The Twelve Steps: Part One

Written by enlightened solutions on March 26, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction. Leave a Comment

The twelve steps of anonymous groups like Alcoholics Anonymous are world famous. Since the 1930s, the twelve step program has served millions around the world. Here are three reasons why you should do the twelve steps and embrace twelve step culture as part of your recovery:

Why not? If you have hit “bottom” in your addiction or alcoholism, you’re looking for a way back up. Before there was “rehab” and treatment options like there are today, men and women were sent to hospitals, “health farms” and mental wards. It wasn’t until the twelve steps were created that a widespread solution for unstoppable alcoholism was available. People come up with all kinds of arguments as to why they don’t want to do the twelve steps. When you have nothing left to lose other than your sobriety date, there is no reason not to do the twelve steps. Take a few weeks to a few months out of your life and dedicate some of that time to working with a sponsor. See what happens next.

Nothing else has worked: “Here are some of the methods we have tried” reads “The Big Book”, Alcoholics Anonymous before listing a number of attempts alcoholics have made to manage and control their drinking. Addicts and alcoholics can go to great lengths to try and quit on their own before turning to something like the twelve steps which has proven to be successful. Doing the twelve steps is a matter of being willing to try something you haven’t tried yet. If you want what the people in AA meetings have, you are ready to take certain steps– twelve of them.

Your treatment program requires it: Many treatment programs, like the ones we offer at Enlightened Recovery Solutions, are twelve step based or heavily influenced by the twelve step program. During your time in treatment, your program may require you to go to meetings, find a sponsor, and work the twelve steps before you graduate. The twelve steps are not a clinical practice or therapy treatment. Doing the twelve steps can act as a supplement to your treatment program. Being part of a twelve step program is a fantastic way to structure your life and your time after treatment.

What If I Want To Break Up With My Sponsor?

Written by enlightened solutions on March 23, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Alcoholism, QA. Leave a Comment

A sponsor is a volunteer position. People who offer sponsorship in twelve step programs are not professionals. They are neither therapists nor counselors in this position, though they may be licensed in life outside ‘the program’. Sponsors are volunteers who have completed the twelve steps and who have maintained sobriety consistently for a long period of time. You do not sign a contract with a sponsor and you are not obligated to them in your relationship with them in any way. The primary purpose of your relationship with your sponsor is twofold. First, they are to successfully guide you through the twelve steps and help advise you on staying sober. Second, they are to equip you with the tools you need to guide another individual through the steps so you can become someone else’s sponsor. Once you have completed the steps with your sponsor, there is no need to continue a close relationship with them, according to the original format of Alcoholics Anonymous. Many people maintain a relationship with their sponsor for years, doing the steps with them repeatedly, and seeking advice from them when needed. Sponsors can offer accountability, insight, and guidance from their experience and wisdom gained through their years in the program.

Sponsors are, however, just people. Moreover, sponsors are addicts and alcoholics in recovery, meaning they are still prone to their imperfections and character deficits. There may come a time when your relationship with your sponsor no longer serves you and you are ready to move on. Mistakenly, people refer to this as “breaking up” with your sponsor, which automatically creates an assumption of guilt. There is nothing to feel guilty about if you decide to move onto another sponsor. Unless, that is, you do it in a disrespectful way.

What to say to your sponsor

You want to arrange a time to talk, either on the phone or in person. Sponsors tend to be keen on when someone they are sponsoring is going to transition out of the relationship. Let them know that you are grateful for the time and energy they willingly gave to you. Describe to them the difference they have made in your life and what you have learned from them. Express your gratitude for the experience of your relationship. Then simply let them know it is your wish to move on and continue your recovery. When you see them at meetings, be friendly and cordial, always be grateful, and never feel that you have to be ashamed of moving on from that relationship.

Grounding Techniques For Spring

Written by enlightened solutions on March 22, 2018. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Grounding is a practice for connecting to the earth. The earth is beneath us all the time. Yet, when we are bustling through our lives, on floors, in cars, wearing shoes, we can forget that the earth is right there waiting to connect with us. Grounding helps us cut through the distractions of everyday life and connect to our natural selves by connecting to planet earth.

Get into a garden

Connecting with the earth directly is the best way to practice grounding. Dirt has energy. Digging your hands in the soil and working with the subtle miracles of nature, like planting seeds or pulling up a harvest, is being involved with the cycle of life. Nothing brings you back down to earth like getting tangibly involved with the earth. Springtime is primetime for gardening. Winter crops are blossoming. Spring flowers are blooming. If spring is coming late, there is still an opportunity to plant for late spring or summer crops. Even if there is still snow on the ground, you can tend to a garden. When temperatures are subzero, build a garden insight. Growing your own herbs and tomatoes is easy to do indoors as is keeping flowers and plants.

Walk around barefoot

On those warmer days when winter is transitioning into spring, take off your shoes and socks. Connecting to the earth through your feet is connecting to an ancient practice. Our ancestors didn’t have shoes, sidewalks, or modern living. They were completely connected to and dependent upon the earth. An efficient way to get grounded is to just connect your feet to the ground, whatever kind of ground it is. You’ll find that your energy shifts, your nervous system relaxes, and your spine even settles differently.

Take a hike

Depending on how much rain there has been through the winter, wildflowers could start to appear as early as march. Local hikes offer you a glimpse of the beautiful changing of the seasons. Seedlings and small flowers peek through the frozen ground, triumphant in their metamorphosis despite winter conditions. Though your feet aren’t touching the ground, you’re surrounded by nature which instantly helps you ground. Breathe in the fresh air and take in the elements. All of it is connected to you in this very moment.

How To Handle Trauma On TV

Written by enlightened solutions on March 21, 2018. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

On Valentine’s Day, February 2018, tragedy struck our nation once again. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a town called Parkland, Florida, was the site of another school shooting. A young man opened fire on his previous campus with an assault rifle, taking the lives of 17 people. Many more were injured. Hundreds of students were deeply traumatized. The tragedy has maintained headlines and news for weeks as the young people of the school have become focal points of not just the event but a growing revolution in talking about gun control, policy reform, and trauma. The teenagers and parents involved in the tragedy have spoken outright about their experiences coping with the shooting and the trauma they are facing.

People who go through a tragedy like a school shooting are not the only ones who face symptoms of trauma. When live video, carnage, tears, details, and information are being broadcast 24/7, viewers at home can suffer trauma as well. Research has found that trauma can be third party. Consuming large amounts of media regarding mass shootings can induce symptoms of trauma in people. Difficulty sleeping, disturbing thoughts, anxiety, depression, and more manifest as a result of trying to process something unfathomable. Empathy is critical for doing what one can to try and help a situation out of their control. When empathy becomes problematic and weighs on your mental or physical health, it is time to take a step back.

Professionals suggest doing a social media and news “detox” to limit your intake. Avoid the news for a few days or a week altogether. If you feel you must stay up to date, do so in small segments. Set a timer, set restrictions on your smart devices, and abide by your limitations.

Talk to your loved ones and support network about what is coming up for you. You may have experienced trauma in your life which is not yet resolved. Seeing others suffer can be triggering. There may be themes of the trauma which trigger other untouched themes from underlying issues in your life. Open up to those around you and be honest about your experience.

Spend extra time in self-care wherever possible. Survivor’s guilt is a common symptom of trauma. Even though you weren’t there, you might feel guilty that other people have to live through such horrible tragedies. As is the case with the Stoneman Douglas shooting, there are numerous ways to get involved and support the survivors. However, it is important to recognize you can only do so much from where you are. In order to do anything, including maintaining the responsibilities of your own life, you have to be in good health. Take care of your mind, body, and spirit, through self-care practices which keep you centered, grounded, and balanced. Get plenty of sleep, eat a healthy and balanced diet, and do the things you love to do.

Feel Your Heart Beating?

Written by enlightened solutions on March 20, 2018. Posted in Addiction, QA. Leave a Comment

Why are you alive today? If we struggle with depression, anxiety, addiction, any kind of mental illness, or just the sheer enigma of human existence, we might wake up and ask ourselves that question. Why? Why are we here? Why are we alive? We don’t always get a clear answer as to why. Moving past the why, we start to fall into the what. Our what usually has to do with our why and it falls under the word purpose. What is your purpose? We can assume that we are alive for some reason and that reason must have a purpose if it is not our purpose entirely. In the days when we wake up and ask ourselves why or ask ourselves what all we have to do is put our hand on our chest to feel our heart beating. Yes, we are alive. Yes, there is some purpose. Our heart is beating. We are alive. There is a reason for that because there is a reason for everything.

Our humanity is plagued with existential crisis. Men and women who have lived with addiction know the struggle personally, especially in the first stages of their recovery. Addiction is a purpose for many men and women. Having lost connection to other parts of their life, many a man or woman found themselves wondering if they had a purpose outside of addiction. What if, they wonder, this is it for me? What if this is all that I am? All that I am meant to be? What if this is the role I am meant to fulfill? What is this is my purpose? As soon as they realize they can make a decision to get sober and seek help all of the negative and hopeless perspective of addiction changes. Something else is possible.

As long as we are alive, we have possibilities. We have potential even when we don’t have a plan. It is always possible to get sober. It is always possible to seek help. It is always possible to find and change your purpose.

Your purpose on earth is not suffering and being sick. Your purpose on earth is to find and strive to achieve your potential along with all of its possibilities.

Everybody’s Got Something

Written by enlightened solutions on March 19, 2018. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

We use a term in treatment and recovery called “underlying issues”. Addiction is never just about addiction. There are few people in the entirety of the world who simply had a drug or alcohol problem without having a single other issue in their life. As a result of their drinking or drug use they might have developed problems in their life. Until then, however, things were relatively normal. For most, on the other hand, this is not the case. Most everybody in recovery has some kind of something that they experienced, that they felt, or who they were, which contributed to their drinkings. Anything from ADHD to a parent’s divorce, from getting bullied to feeling a pressure to be perfect, the tiny little “flaws” in a person’s history and make up predisposed them to addiction. Years of our life might be spent thinking we’re the only ones to have these life experiences. Through treatment, therapy, and recovery, we learn that everybody’s got something.

Discovering underlying issues is considered a necessary part of the treatment and recovery process. If there were a leak in the house that was causing the floor to flood would you merely lay down some towels or would you find the source of the leaking water? Underlying issues are like breaks in the pipes. Some might be small and cause a tiny leak while others are large and significant, causing big leaks. Since addiction is addiction and comes with a wealth of shame, stigma, and stereotype, the leaks get ignored. For too many years, treatment programs have focused on the flood on the floor- that is, the most obvious issue at hand. Treating the addiction alone left people with leaks, breakages in mind, body, and spirit. Sadly, many people relapse because they never confront their underlying issues.

Addiction is easy to blame. Drugs and alcohol are easy to pinpoint. “The Big Book”, Alcoholics Anonymous, best describes underlying issues when it states that for alcoholics, “our liquor was but a symptom.” We uncover our recovery, our true recovery, when we uncover our underlying issues. Recovery is, as the metaphor goes, like peeling back the layers of an onion. The more layers we peel back, the further away from addiction we get.

Ways You Can Do Music Therapy At Home: Part One

Written by enlightened solutions on March 15, 2018. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

Music therapy is as simple as listening to music and getting lost in the sounds. Professional music therapists are trained to guide a music therapy session over time and help their clients move through certain emotional barriers. Alone, however, music therapy can do the same thing because music is transformational. Music and the words in lyrics can help you learn about yourself, other people’s lives, and more.

Listen to music: Listening to music not only helps you with insight, but the vibrations from music help you heal energetically. Different kinds of music have different kinds of energy. Choose music to meet your mood or choose music to get you out of your mood. You’ll be surprised what different kinds of music can do for your state of mind. While listening to music, tune into your mindfulness. Notice how the music makes you feel. What thoughts come up? Do your muscles tense or relax? Do you feel like dancing or does the music bring out emotions like crying? If you cry, is it pain, sadness, happiness, or grief? Pay attention to how the music affects you and notice any patterns. You can learn from this experience and curate your music listening therapy more specifically next time.

Play music: Playing a musical instrument is described as meditation for many people. Playing music has beats and rhythms, chords and harmonies. When you play an instrument, the instrument emits energy and vibrations through the soundwaves which go right into your body. Playing music also helps take you out of your head. You have to focus fully on what you’re doing and how you’re playing. If you’re distracted, you won’t be fully present with what you’re playing. Find anything to play music on. If you are familiar with an instrument, turn to that. If you are learning an instrument brand new, have patience and enjoy the process of picking up a new talent.

Dance to music: Dancing is a music therapy and an expressive arts therapy. Ancient cultures have been using dancing for therapy for thousands of years as a way to heal, celebrate, mourn, detox, pray, and more. Dancing to music does the same thing that music does and more. You workup your heart rate, you break a sweat, and you internalize the energy. Dancing is vulnerable. You have to be comfortable to let yourself dance with yourself and in front of others. The process results in you feeling more liberated, having a great time, and cutting loose.

Enlightened Solutions offers a clinical, holistic and 12-step approach to the road to recovery. If you’re struggling with addiction and/or mental illness, our program is specialized in dual-diagnosis treatments. Don’t hesitate and call today: 844-234-LIVE.

Aromatherapy: What You Need To Know Before You Start Your Own Practice

Written by enlightened solutions on March 14, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Aromatherapy is all the craze in 2018 for a good reason. Essential oils have healing properties powerful enough to adjust mood and heal wounds. Here are three things you need to know about essential oils before you start your own aromatherapy practice.

Not all aromatherapy oils are created equal:

Hidden beneath a labyrinth of layers from the products you see on the shelf is an entire industry and science dedicate to smell. Smells can be created from synthetic chemicals and mirror the real thing almost identically. Many ‘aromatherapy’ companies use synthetic smells and advertise them as essential oils. Rubbing these chemical laden oils into your skin or breathing in the vapor after using them in a diffuser can be dangerous for your health and certainly has none of the healing properties essential oils has. Do your research before you make your purchase. Aromatherapy is popular these days and many companies are trying to profit. Google their name, check reviews, and be willing to spend a little more for real essential oils.

Essential oils aren’t regulated by the FDA:

One of the ways you can sort out the fake essential oils from the real ones is by the way they are marketed. You might see terminology like “medical grade” or “therapeutic quality”. These are nonsense claims. All essential oils, in their natural state, can act as medicine and they are therapeutic. The reason essential oils are so popular and have been relied upon for so many years is due to their medicinal and therapeutic properties. Lavender oil, for example, is considered a “wonder drug” of nature. Essential oils can be antiviral, antifungal, antiseptic, and much more. However, the FDA does not currently have a say on essential oils. Any terminology which infers the contrary should be a product well avoided.

Aromatherapy is not a replacement for other medical or psychological therapies:

In an anxious situation, lavender oil can help instantaneously calm your nerves. Does that mean you should cease to see your therapist who is helping you work on your anxiety? No. When you are congested in your sinuses, eucalyptus oil can help clear your nasal passageway and help you breath. Should you avoid seeing your doctor to make sure you don’t have a sinus infection? No. Aromatherapy is not a replacement for professional therapies. Aromatherapy can act as a supplement to these treatments and aid the therapeutic process. For example, lavender oil can help with a therapy session which brings up a lot of anxiety. Eucalyptus oil can help soothe the symptoms of a cold while other remedies help remove a virus.

Bathing In Sound For Transformational Meditation

Written by enlightened solutions on March 13, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Sound bathing is a practice more than 2,000 years old and is regaining popularity in the holistic health movement of the new age. Bathing in sound is something we actually do all the time. At the beginning of every Headspace meditation, Andy, your mindfulness guide, encourages you to take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. He asks you how much you can hear and how far away. You quickly realize that there are sounds happening all around you all day that you don’t notice because you aren’t mindful of them. Sometimes we are unintentionally bathing in sound. Too often, that sound is cacophonous rather than harmonious.

The battling sounds of everyday life provide a certain ambience, but can confuse and excite our energy. There is a distinct difference between listening to the noises outside during traffic and listening to the intentionally tuned hum of a Tibetan Singing bowl. Sound bathing is the practice of using intentional sound like singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, and more, to bathe the body in harmonized, balancing, invigorating energy. The wavelengths created by the vibrations of sound bathing penetrate the body and restore a flow to the body. Participants in sound bathing simply lie on the floor or on a massage table and let the sound bath practitioner wash over them with sounds and vibrations. Recipients of sound bathing have reported feeling less anxiety, reduced stress, improved mental clarity, more energy, deeper sleep, and a greater sense of wellness.

You can go to a yoga studio or a sound bathing event to participate in sound bathing or you can set up a sound bathing session yourself. Many sound bathing sessions or musics are recorded. Online, you can find a wealth of recordings that are just the sounds of Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls, “Om” chants, gongs, and more. You can also find recordings created with specific binaural beats, curated to tune into the wavelengths of your brain and promote calm.

Create a quiet, comfortable space for yourself and find a laying down position. To set the mood, light some incense or put a calming essential oil, like lavender, into a diffuser. Turn off the lights and choose ambient lighting like candles or Himalayan salt lamps. Turn on the music and start focusing on your breath taking deep inhales then releasing deep exhales. Don’t worry if you fall asleep The sounds are still creating the vibrations your body needs to heal.

Tag: addiction