addiction Archives - Page 24 of 27 - Enlightened Solutions

Acceptance

Written by enlightened solutions on September 28, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

Acceptance is the beginning of the journey of recovery from addiction. It is where we begin to live on the actual canvas of the life that is ours for living. By staying inside the space of our own life, we are able to be in partnership with the flow of life, supported by the whole of life and give up swimming against the tide.

However, for many people in addiction, acceptance can be hard-won. In some cases, people find acceptance in a moment and live inside of that perspective from one point forward. In other cases, people have a relationship with acceptance that involves a regular and necessary pattern of renewal. While permanent acceptance may appear desirable, it is important to consider both patterns of acceptance ‘normal’ to the recovery journey.

The other side of acceptance is denial and denial is at the heart of addiction. It is through denial that many people stay in their addiction long after it is apparent that their behavioral choices are devastating their lives and stealing the potential of their beautiful life. Denial is very cunning in that it is obvious to those on the outside of it. Within the person in denial, it is very foggy and fuzzy often with an authoritative voice to the self. Denial can sound compassionate, analytical or even sound like justified indignation. With many unique voices, denial is often challenging to pin denial down. Since denial changes forms so rapidly, once we have cornered it, it may simply appear again in a different costume.

However, once we are on our journey of recovery for some time, we will learn which costumes that our particular denial boogey-man usually likes to wear. This will help us cue into when denial is seeping back in and do the awareness work necessary to come back into a position of acceptance.

Acceptance is simply one stage of recovery and needs to be honored as such. There are people who can find acceptance for the fact that they are an addict without discovering the willingness to embrace a recovery process and lifestyle. However, simply arriving at acceptance beyond the stage of denial is progress and we want to acknowledge it as such.

Beyond acceptance, it is hoped that person who needs recovery can find a place within themselves to surrender to a recovery process and lifestyle. The experience of surrender is like being in the ocean and fighting against the waves and then suddenly finding the moment where you breathe deeply, relax your body and let it float to the surface of the water. Surrender is when you give up the fight and allow the recovery community around you to buoy you to the safety of oxygen at the surface of the water.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers a harmonious approach to holistic treatment, bringing together the best of evidence-based, alternative, and 12-step therapies. Call us today for information on our transformation programs of treatment for addiction and alcoholism: 833-801-5483.

Relapse Prevention

Written by enlightened solutions on September 27, 2017. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Drugs & Alcohol. Leave a Comment

In the beginning of the recovery journey, it is important to become aware of the primary focal points for the recovery process to ensure lasting recovery. In the dominant model, Alcoholic Anonymous, the primary focal points are unity, service and recovery. These focal points are intended to keep those in recovery grounded in the core principles while also bringing attention to maintaining tension between these three focal points. It is thought that a balance between these objectives bring some measure of assurance in lasting recovery.

The words unity, service and recovery when lived in a balanced tension with one another will bring forward a recovery lifestyle. This lifestyle will contain intimately connected relationship with other alcoholics (unity), a consistent practice of carrying the message to other people in recovery (service) and recovery through an ongoing self-reflection process through the 12 Steps of the program (recovery). However, for many people in recovery, especially those with some continuous sober time, these practices can become rote. So in addition to doing all of these actions, there must be an honest reflection about whether these practices feel alive or if they have become rote.

Beyond the practices mentioned and assessing the aliveness of them, it is important to cultivate relationships that the addict feels safe in being fully transparent. In AA, for some, this shared transparency will only occur in the sponsorship relationship. However, it is valuable to cultivate more than one relationship where absolute transparency feels safe, so that you have a network of support. It is also important to recognize that being fully transparent in all of your relationships is not necessarily healthy either. It is part of the recovery journey for many addicts to learn how much to disclose in each relationship according to the social context of the relationship.

Finally, the goal is for recovery to become a lifestyle. In the beginning, it can be overwhelming to take on so much change yet we must move towards these goals with daily actions. As time goes on, recovery needs to begin to feel like an integrated essence across all facets of our life rather than being a siloed compartment of our life. Yet, it takes time for this transformation to occur and it is imperative to support the addict with being focused on the goal while also gentle with the process.

Why Drugs and Alcohol Block the “Sunlight of the Spirit”

Written by enlightened solutions on September 26, 2017. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction, Drugs & Alcohol. Leave a Comment

The expression ‘Sunlight of the Spirit’ comes from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and refers to a state of being that occurs when we are free from our resentments. Resentments are sometimes referred to as the re-feeling of an experience. Put another way, it is when we continue to have feelings about situations or people that are not occurring in the present moment. The process of writing an inventory is a wonderful opportunity to get present to all the ways that you are not fully living in the present! It is through this process that we become the sunlight of the spirit.

When we are living life in resentments, we are not living life in the present moment. If we are to live a recovered life, in a state free from being beholden to our addiction, then we must do the daily work necessary to live in the present moment. This state is accessible through the 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, particularly the inventory steps 4-9 in combination with Step 10. Steps 4-9 allow us to become clear of the past and Step 10 allows to stay clear as we live our life forward from our initial clearing.

It is this process of becoming clear and staying clear that allows us to become the Sunlight of the Spirit. It allows us to become a channel of the divine as we are now clear to listen for the guidance of our Higher Power and to serve as this power directs us. As we live in this essence of being fully present and being a channel of the divine, it is then that we are able to carry the message to others and to remain free from our addiction.

The expression, Sunlight of the Spirit, is a tremendously accurate metaphor for the ongoing work of a successful recovery model. As the sun must rise and set each day, so must we both be connected internally to our source of inspiration and also share outwardly with others. So to fully embrace the sunlight of the spirit in our lives, we must find this daily flow of spiritual connection and service to others.

Coping Skills

Written by enlightened solutions on September 25, 2017. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Addiction is the process of finding external substances to resolve internal conflicts. Commonly, when hearing an addict share the story of how addiction was born in their life, one will hear a story of someone who was uncomfortable within themselves. Then, they discovered an external substance that mask these feelings of discomfort and allow them the delusion of being connected in their communities in spite of this internal dis-ease. At some point, the coping ceased being effective and their lives became a vicious cycle of self-destructive behaviors. Then, the addict will hit some kind of bottom and an awakening, sometimes immediate, other times gradual, will occur. Recovery begins.

The natural orientation for many addicts during this early phase of recovery is self-loathing for all of the time and opportunity lost. Yet, there is another perspective available. The addict survived to the point of finding recovery due to the engagement of unhealthy coping. They made it to the point in life that new possibilities opened for their life. Without the unhealthy coping of addiction, who can know how these intense internal experiences of self may have been dealt with. One can look at this survival as a beautiful gift of opportunity to live a life that may not have been otherwise available.

Beyond celebrating the miracle of making it to the point of recovery, it can also be honored that coping is a mastered skill. Now, it is simply the journey of learning how to apply the coping techniques to healthy behaviors. For many people in recovery, there is a period of transferring very unhealthy coping to less unhealthy coping before arriving at healthy coping. For example, cocaine and whiskey may be exchanged for coffee and cigarettes. A great step in the healthy direction but then, these are exchanged for excessive exercise and a vigilant focus on healthy foods. All of these are stages of the coping release journey and each transition can be celebrated as progress.

Eventually, we hope that the addict will come to the place where they live each day, fully present, engaging recovery tools and a full vital life. The goal is for all of this to manifest without the need to mask the life experience with an obsessive focus on anything, whether a mind-altering substance or a health-promoting substance. The addict has arrived at the recovery mecca, a state of balance.

Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on September 22, 2017. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Family Recovery, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Recovery, to recover, is the journey from the loss of connection to the authentic and whole self. Some say that addiction forms when there is a fracture or a schism that occurs in the self. The coping with substances and other addictions is the attempt to create a bridge to between these two places. This bridge, though, is built on a shaky foundation and with faulty architecture. Recovery is the process of bringing the entire structure down, usually in an act of self-demolition, and mending the schism so that a bridge is no longer needed.

Returning to a state of wholeness is a reality that many addicts have difficulty imagining is truly possible. Even when they can grasp this as possible for others, there are internal psychological mechanisms that block their ability to trust that it could be possible for themselves. They must learn to let this internal dialogue exist while also taking the actions that others have taken to become free. It is often only through the journey of doing recovery actions and experiencing the results when trust in the process emerges.

The journey of recovery is a multi-pronged journey, involving healing on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual planes. The initial process of opening oneself to new ways of living on all of these planes can sometimes be an overwhelming experience. The way of becoming recovered is to begin to know and understand that some suffering, in the case of overwhelm, leads to evolution. Drawing on the image of a baby bird emerging from an egg, embrace the discomfort of breaking out of the shell of addiction so that you may fly free in the blue sky.

There will come a point that the addict will arrive at a place of being recovered. The healing will happen on all of these planes and then, they will continue on the path of recovery by walking this journey with others who need to heal. The point of being recovered is both a peak to a mountain and a plateau. The choice then is to continue onward and deepen in the new life that has been created.

How Anxiety Can be a Motivating Force Instead of a Debilitating One

Written by enlightened solutions on September 21, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Anxiety is often discussed in terms of being one side of a two-sided coin. The other side is excitement. It a short journey to harness the power that is accessible to a person in recovery through the experience of anxiety. There is tremendous opportunity in learning how to transmute anxiety into excitement.

The first opportunity in this journey is by beginning to use anxiety as a cue. This is a pathway to increasing your awareness about your emotional presence throughout your day. Anxiety is more manageable when you can observe it in its beginning stages. As you move beyond the beginning stages, it gains momentum and power. So, beginning to learn the signals as to when it has begun will be a great tool.

In order to be able to identify anxiety, you will first need to cultivate awareness about how it shows up in your life.

What are the body signals? Some possibilities are stomach pain, neck tension, or headaches.
What are the mental signals? Perhaps you begin to have a repetitive thought pattern or begin to excessively think abou the past or future.
What are the emotional signals? Do you detach? Or do become excessively angry?

These are just two possibilities. Learn what your mind, body and emotions do at the beginning of an anxiety cycle and begin to use these as guides to develop tools to harness the power of anxiety. Once you have cultivated awareness of your early stages of anxiety, you can begin to develop tools to harness this energy and transform it into excitement about your life!

There’s a bit of a bridge between being spun out on anxiety and arriving to a place of excitement. Remember to be kind and compassionate with yourself. You can begin to develop some tools using the following suggestions and guidelines:

Perspective: the bridge between anxiety and excitement is mostly built upon bricks of opportunity. Begin to train yourself to look for the opportunity with that causing your anxiety.
Medicine: once you are aware of your cues, you can use these to build tools by taking opposite actions. For example, if your pattern is to become angry when anxious, teach yourself how to release anger with more ease.

Remember, this is a journey. Allow yourself to blossom within it!

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers a harmonious approach to holistic treatment, bringing together the best of evidence-based, alternative, and 12-step therapies. Contact us today for information on our transformation programs of treatment for addiction and alcoholism.

Living Sober

Written by enlightened solutions on September 20, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Drugs & Alcohol. Leave a Comment

Sobriety is a new world to those who find their way into it. Living life without substances is unimaginable to many addicts. They arrive at this life that they are unprepared for and the concept of a blank canvas comes suddenly alive.

In the early days of recovery, living sober is often about living in opposition to the way you once lived. It is sometimes spoken in terms of avoiding people, places and things that you used to engage with and is often said that you must change everything to find a way of living sober. This is true for many people as their old lifestyles become triggers for their substances use by virtue of habit. So, success in breaking the habit of addiction, often means surrendering to letting many aspects of our lives also change.

There is a crossroads in how this level of dramatic change can be oriented to: it can be viewed as a devastating loss or it can be viewed as a creative opportunity. Sometimes, it may be a process to shift from one perspective to another. The truth is that living sober and change many of the significant elements of your life truly does give you a creative opportunity to re-craft your life in the image that you desire.

In some cases, people give up certain experiences and relationships temporarily while they build the foundation of their recovery. It is later an important part of their recovery to rejoin these elements and explore how to relate to them differently. In other cases, some people will commit to not doing any of the activities they did in their using life, ever. The way that addiction overtakes the lives of different individuals is vastly different, so these different expressions of sober life are all valid.

One key practice to a successful sober life is to learn from others who have restructured their life successfully. Find others who have a life that you would like to emulate and ask them to guide you. Similarly, when you have arrived at this place of a truly sober life, be willing to share your experience as to make the journey more accessible to those behind you on the path.

5 Critical Reasons for Taking a Holistic Approach to Treatment

Written by enlightened solutions on September 19, 2017. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

In many ways, the journey from the prison of addiction to the authentic self is inherently holistic. Addicts have lost their internal sense of belonging because they have become excessively focused on self. The pathway to recovery is paved with methods for returning as an integrated member of their communities, our families, circles of friends and professional associations. They heal by getting out of the cycle of physical dependencies and taking actions to be reunited with others. Holistic approaches can support these challenges with greater success by bolstering the recovery process.

Recovery is really hard, so why not do it once.
Getting clean and sober is one of life’s greatest challenges. Holistic treatment can support greater success in staying clean and sober at the first attempt.
Getting beyond survival and into thriving.
When the whole person is not considered, recovery can sometimes become about getting back to grind. With holistic approaches, the patients are given access to the wholeness of their internal self. They can engage with their creative and visionary self, creating a more fulfilling life for their recovered self.
Every person is here for a reason, so live it.
Fundamentally, every person is born to live out some certain societal contribution. When we get lost in an addictive cycle, we lose touch our purpose. A holistic model can support you in getting free from the addictive cycle. It can also support reconnection to this deeper sense of purpose that lives in the union of body, mind and spirit.
There’s a lot to make up for, so go for the greatest vitality.
Many people in recovery have lived in their addictive cycles for a long time. Holistic models of treatment offer the opportunity to elevate the health and well-being to previously unknown levels. In many ways, this part of recovery, as we make amends to all aspects of ourselves.
There’s one life, that we know of, so live it as fully as possible.
In many cases, when someone enters recovery, they are not only discovering freedom from addiction, they are also on the journey of breaking intergenerational cycles. Holistic models offer opportunities to re-learn some of the core behaviors that have been learned in our families, facilitating new possibilities for future generations as those in recovery teach what they learned.

10 Foods that Feed Mind, Body, Spirit

Written by enlightened solutions on September 18, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Food can tend to multiple needs simultaneously – emotional, physical and mental. Learn to consider what is healthful from a perspective of adaptability – every food choice may nourish us in different ways! Some things to consider about food is that our bodies’ needs may change over time based on where we are in our recovery journey or where we are in our life journey. With this groundwork of the context of our life considered, we can then look at some specific healthy foods choices:

Water: this a key first priority, especially when detoxifying. It is our natural state and can bring forward fluidness in our spirit.
Avocado: This green beauty is a powerhouse of a nutritional meal! Avocado’s are full of good fat which improves the health of your heart and the sustenance will last a long time.
Dates: sugary and comfort foods can be a way to sooth the emotional healing process in recovery and dates are a great plant-based source of sweet. Combine with nut butters to slow down the metabolization for a snack that sustains longer.
Raw Nuts: a great snack to have on the go! When you find yourself in a state of hungry-angry-lonely-tired (HALT), you have a healthy snack on hand to bring your physical body back into center.
Goji Berries: these are a powerful food that satisfy the desire for sweet and offer detoxification support to the liver. Play with eating one berry at a time and fully experiencing it with all of the sensation of your mouth!
Passion fruit: remember, it isn’t ready to eat until the outer shell is wrinkled. Once it arrives at this place, you can open it and empty the fruit into your belly. Mix with almond milk and freeze for a fun spin on ice cream.
Millet: this powerful grain cooks much quicker than other whole grains and has a bread-like texture that can satisfy the desire for comfort foods.
Greens: this means a lot of different foods: lettuces, spinach, kale, chard and more! These foods are fabulous for their mineral content and positive impact on your digestive system.
Beets: these lovely Fall root veggies are sweet and easy to prepare! You can wrap them in tin foil, whole, and pop them in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Allow them to support you in becoming rooted in your purpose.
Chia pudding: this delicious food can be dessert while also working as a fiber to carry toxins out of the digestive system.

Tips for Managing PTSD

Written by enlightened solutions on September 14, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) is very common with individuals who are in recovery from addiction. It is an experience of reliving a traumatic life-event that has occurred in the past. PTSD is most commonly associated with combat veterans but can also occur with a myriad of other experiences, including, but not limited to, physical fights and rape, car accidents, natural disasters, unusual health challenges, naming just a few.

When dealing with PTSD, it is very important to be aware of the principle of trauma-informed, especially when choosing a therapeutic practitioner. To be trauma-informed is the recognition of the effects of trauma on a person’s reactions and life experiences. This is a critical awareness when dealing with PTSD to mitigate the false beliefs that can form about the self of the person dealing with PTSD. To be trauma-informed about PTSD is to recognize that the experiences of PTSD is not who the sufferer is.

Once some foundational work has been done with a therapeutic practitioner, individuals can be an active participate in their own ongoing healing from PTSD through the practice of mindfulness. Once the baseline awareness of a PTSD response has been established, the person with PTSD can be cued to recognize when they will need to access mindfulness tools.

The Frozen Lemon

It can be supportive to use a frozen lemon to break a PTSD episode. This simple tool is very powerful for bringing the person experiencing PTSD out of the mind and back into the body. By holding a frozen lemon in one’s hand and closing the fist around it, the intensity of sensation lessens the hold of the mind on the past experience, bringing it down to a level of manageability.

Making the Image Black and White

When the PTSD takes someone into a critical moment of the traumatic experience, use the imagination to turn the image into black and white. Many people find that this will reduce the intensity of the experience.

Changing the Position

When the PTSD memory involves another person, the person experiencing it can engage the imagination to change the position of placement of themselves and the other in the memory. For example, if someone is standing over the person with PTSD and it makes them seem more powerful, the imagination can be engaged to make them stand below you, minimizing the power that they hold in the memory.

Tag: addiction