healing Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Enlightened Solutions

Our Subconscious Blocks to Healing and Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on October 1, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

Many of us who experience addiction and mental health issues have beliefs stored in our subconscious minds that are blocking us from healing. We have often been fueling and deepening these beliefs for many years. It takes a change in our consciousness to undo the subconscious programming holding us back from recovery and inner peace.

Here are some of the limiting beliefs we tend to perpetuate with the ways in which we think and speak about our challenges.

“Once an addict, always an addict.”

Many of us are in recovery and are living proof that it is possible to create a new life for yourself. This is not to say that recovery is easy, or that once in recovery you’ll never relapse, but when we believe recovery is impossible, we cut ourselves off from having the faith in ourselves we need in order to get better.

“I can do it alone. I don’t need help.”

Sometimes we are afraid to ask for support because we’re ashamed of ourselves. Sometimes we’re prideful and embarrassed and don’t want anyone to know how bad our issues have become. Sometimes we naïvely think we don’t need the support of other people. We come to learn that there is no shame in asking for help, and that getting support can mean the difference between drowning in our problems and saving ourselves.

“I don’t deserve to live. I want to die.”

Our addictions and depression are often accompanied by suicidal thoughts, Over time our thoughts form our beliefs, and many of us have come to believe that we are inadequate and unworthy of love, that our shame and regrets mean we don’t deserve to live. We don’t feel we deserve help. Sometimes we are in so much pain we see suicide as the only way to escape it.

It can help to remember that our thoughts are not the entirety of our consciousness. Our thinking minds are just one part of who we are. We also have our hearts, bodies, souls and spirits, all of which store valuable healing information for us if we are open to receiving it. When we believe in our inner power, we start to see through the illusions of our limiting beliefs. We start to transcend the human challenges we thought we would always struggle with.

Healing requires tackling the limiting beliefs we’ve allowed to hold us back. The community at Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Setting Goals for our Healing and Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on September 26, 2018. Posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

Creating goals for ourselves can be a very helpful tool in our recovery process. We often are so consumed with our addictive thoughts and behaviors that we don’t know how to go about planning for recovery or seeking help. Thinking of the process in terms of setting and achieving goals can be therapeutic and can help us motivate ourselves to take the steps to get better.

Set small, manageable goals. The idea is to prevent getting overwhelmed by breaking things down into actionable steps. We don’t want to try to do everything at once, that can be intimidating and can cause us to give up before we even try, or to keep procrastinating on our recovery.

Your end goal might be to stay sober or abstinent, and more generally, to achieve inner peace. What does that feel and look like for you? What healthier behaviors would you adopt, such as regular exercise and meditation? What things and people would you avoid, aside from your drug of choice? Start thinking about how you can implement changes to both your routine and your mentality.

Here are some ideas for goals you can try for yourself.

Goals:

To spend time with the people in my life who want to help me and who encourage my recovery, rather than those who enable or contribute to my addictive behaviors.
To find new activities I enjoy, that feed my soul and creativity, that make me happy, that don’t include using my drugs of choice or engaging in my addictive behaviors.
To make time for meditation, prayer or other form of spiritual practice.
To create space between myself and my unhealthy relationships, in order to focus on my healing.
To start a day count for every day I stay away from my drug of choice, unhealthy behavior, or toxic relationship.
To create affirmations around my healing and recovery that I can write, repeat out loud, record and then listen to, and meditate with. “I am at peace within myself. I am strong enough to do what’s best for myself.”

7a. Find a local meeting or support group and get more information on it.

7b. Attend a meeting.

7c. Choose a sponsor.

7d. Pick a meeting schedule and stick to it.

Thinking about the whole recovery process can be daunting and scary, but when we break it down into small steps that we can take for ourselves every day, the process can be easier to manage. As we take the steps, our faith in our ability to heal grows, and we’re on our way.

The community at Enlightened Solutions has years of experience helping people in recovery and can help you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

How Trauma Can Affect Our Behavior

Written by enlightened solutions on September 14, 2018. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Trauma is something we are deeply affected by, often long after the initial traumatic experience. We store the emotional memory of our trauma within our subconscious mind, which then directs the majority of our thoughts and actions. Our behavior, therefore, can be greatly impacted by our traumatic experiences.

Many of us develop strong fears, phobias, neuroses, complexes and sensitivities as a result of trauma. When we have been hurt or scared in a certain way, we might then be easily triggered by anything that is similar or reminiscent. We might find ourselves being reactive or agitated. We might be easily frightened, disturbed or angered. We may react to other people with defensiveness. We may behave in erratic or volatile ways. Some of us may escalate and become aggressive, even violent.

The people who come into contact with us might be confused by our behavior. They might be overwhelmed, surprised or alarmed by it. To them our behavior might seem irrational or illogical. We might make them uncomfortable. Our behaviors may be extremely bothersome or even scary to other people, especially if they don’t know where they are coming from, or if they don’t have prior knowledge of our trauma and trauma responses. If we become violent, we often scare the people around us, who may fear for their safety as well as ours.

Trauma can cause us to develop behaviors that we use to distract ourselves from our pain, to try to forget, to numb ourselves. These behaviors often become addictive, and we struggle to heal not only our initial trauma but all the residual trauma incurred by our addictions. We can also develop toxic thought patterns as a result of our trauma, such as limiting beliefs about ourselves. These thought patterns can cause us to behave in all sorts of harmful ways, such as lashing out at other people or isolating ourselves.

When we’ve been traumatized, our behavior can have destructive effects on our relationships. It can cause us to separate and distance ourselves from other people. It can also cause them to want or need to separate themselves from us.

When we are working to heal from our addictions and mental health issues, there are many factors at play, our behaviors being one of them. The more we learn about ourselves and our behaviors, the more we can help ourselves heal.

To help you and your loved ones deal with the many effects of trauma, the community at Enlightened Solutions offers therapy, mentoring, intervention services and more. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Healing From Our Fears

Written by enlightened solutions on September 10, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

When we are struggling with addictions and mental health issues, we can find ourselves consumed by fear. We often use our addictive behaviors and thought patterns to bury our fears, whether consciously or subconsciously. We distract ourselves from our fears and try to run from them. We self-medicate to numb ourselves and to avoid having to really look at our fears. For some of us, it’s our relationship to fear that is a major contributor to our mental health problems and addictions in the first place.

How do we heal from our fears? This is a fundamental, very real, very challenging part of the healing process. When we’re working to recover from our addictions and mental health issues, we can’t ignore the underlying fears that we may or not be conscious of. When we look at the fears head on, we can address them and allow ourselves to experience real healing.

Instead of only focusing on the surface symptoms such as anxiety, nervousness, and restlessness, let’s dig deeper at what fears those feelings represent. This can take time, patience and soul searching. Sometimes we become so mired in our repetitive thought patterns and addictive behaviors that we need the help of an outside person such as a therapist, mentor, spiritual guide or trusted friend.

Meditate, still your thoughts, and get quiet. Give your inner voice the space to communicate with you. Allow the guidance of your higher power to come through. Sometimes we consume ourselves so much with our recurring thoughts, worries, problems and issues that we disconnect ourselves from our higher truths.

Give yourself time and space. Relationships of any kind can make it more difficult to connect with our inner selves.

Ask yourself, “what am I afraid of? What are my fears?” Some common ones many of us share are fear of failure and fear of success, fear of being judged by other people, fear of inadequacy, fear of being abandoned or replaced, fear of being alone. Name your fears.

Imagine the fear is already healed, and you’re no longer suffering from it. How would you feel? List these things for yourself. Examples include feeling at peace, grounded, secure, stable, confident, strong, powerful, brave, fearless.

Imagine you’ve conquered that fear. How would that feel? You’d be proud of yourself. You’d feel like you can transcend anything. You’d feel relieved, empowered and grateful to have healed your suffering.

What affirmations can you say to reflect those feelings? Write and repeat statements for yourself from the perspective of having freed yourself from your fears. “I am at peace within myself. I am healed. I am brave. I am confident. I am powerful.”

Fear is a part of life for all of us. Facing our fears and working through them, rather than running from them, is crucial to our healing.

Sometimes we need support to face our fears. Let the community at Enlightened Solutions help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Changing Our Energy for Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on August 29, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

It’s so important when we’re working towards our healing and recovery to have an energy of hope, optimism and faith, rather than one of fear. This is far from easy. Here are some suggestions.

Focus on the solutions more than the problems.

When we’re struggling with addiction, depression or any other mental or emotional challenge, we tend to be focused on the problems we’re experiencing, the bad feelings we feel, the fears we have. How would it feel to give more time and energy to the solutions instead? When we learn about tools and techniques to aid in our recovery, such as support groups, exercise, meditation and creating a spiritual practice, we could choose to focus more of our energy implementing them. Focus on the beautiful possibilities of the future more than you focus on the pain of the current circumstances which are temporary and can be changed. We have the power to change ourselves and our realities. We could focus on the pain of what we don’t want, or we can focus on the manifestation of what we do want. What we focus on, we amplify. The more our focus lies on our recovery, the more likely we are to achieve it.

Believe in your recovery.

When we are in the midst of our struggles, we often don’t think recovery is possible. Believe you can get better, and then embody that belief. Allow yourself to imagine what it would feel like to be in recovery. What would you be doing? Where would you be? Who would you be with? What feelings would you be feeling? What thoughts would you be thinking? Visualize yourself recovered, allow your imagination to take over, and let yourself feel it as though it’s already here, as though you’re already healed. Return to that feeling as much as possible. Imagine you feel light, happy, free, and at peace. Visualize yourself having restored your relationships, having made amends, and you feel redeemed. Maybe you’re sitting in the sunshine without the pressing weight of your addiction keeping you down. Maybe you’re thinking about your future plans, no longer consumed by the need to get high. Feel your recovery as though it’s already happening, and your energy will help to manifest it.

Keep affirming yourself no matter what.

Self-doubt is part of the recovery process. Fear is part of the process. You might fall down, you might relapse. You might have to start from the beginning, all over again. Keep believing in yourself, in your capacity for growth, and in your power to change. Tell yourself you are proud of yourself for every small change, and when you slip up, forgive yourself. Keep affirming that you can recover, because you can. When you believe, you will.

The recovery process means undoing the years of damage the limiting beliefs we hold about ourselves can cause. Enlightened Solutions can help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Traumatic Time of Year

Written by enlightened solutions on December 6, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Traumatic events occur in the lives of everyone, and there must be a point made to heal for there to be any kind of growth. Often times people use an addiction to mask painful experiences from the past- a form of denial. Being in denial is extremely common. Denial can take on different looks in different people. Those who are resisting the pain, are simply putting it off. Over time, this will backfire and become an excuse for unhealthy behavior time after time. Taking responsibility for an addiction is similar to taking responsibility for pain. No one goes through life without feeling emotional pain. What needs to be understood is that from this pain, there is room for growth. Those who try to control pain by numbing it, will stall emotional growth from that point forward until they practice acceptance of this fact.

Proper healing involves different freeing techniques to move forward. Coming to a treatment facility will give those with addiction a safe place to let emotions run freely with a therapist who offers confidentiality and comfortability. Post-traumatic stress disorder can lead anyone down a road to isolation, which can many times coincide with addiction. People who don’t know of healthy ways to cope will almost always resort to addictive behavior. It’s easier to let distractions become the only way to get through uncomfortable feelings. The addict mind will justify and rationalize why it’s okay to act out in harmful ways, even when they hadn’t worked out well various times in the past..

Coming into the different scenarios, such as the holiday season, trigger traumatic emotions. Without the knowledge of alternative, healthy options for the addict, there will not be a strong enough amount of resistance against drinking or using. Things may even get worse as time goes on. Trauma can also become passed down from generation to generation if not taken care. The mind can get complicated with traumatic events. Sometimes trauma will be hidden and only therapy specifically geared towards the issue will result in becoming free from its bondage. There’s no reason for trauma to control life when there is help available.

If you are struggling with addiction, there is a solution! Enlightened Solution’s holistic, clinical and 12-step approach can improve the mind, body, and soul. Start growing and moving forward in life! Call us in New Jersey today: 833-801-5483.

Different Kinds of Energy Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on October 26, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

There are many types of healing modalities that you can engage to influence the energetic field that contains your life. The idea that every person has a circle of energy that surround them beyond the solid matter of their body is crucial to deeply understanding the potential impact of holistic modalities. Embedded in this concept is the acknowledgement that individuals can influence the lives of each other simply by how they are being in life. This is found in the spaces where our energetic fields overlap with each other. If you regard this concept as true, you likely agree that practicing energy hygiene, or the cleansing of the energetic field, on a regular basis is just as important as tending to the physical and emotional aspects. There are many different modalities and practices to engage daily maintenance of your energetic or auric field:

Chakras: the chakras are 7 energy centers along the centerline of the body from the root at the pelvis to just above the crown of the head. Each chakra has unique properties and they can be enhanced or muted engaging a variety of practices. Some practices include: chakra holds – place hands at different chakras in specific combinations; gems can be engaged to influence chakras in different ways.
Sound and Light: these carriers of energy can be engaged to influence the state of the field. Both move through wavelengths and these can be harnessed to shift the quality of the energetic field.
Visualizations: By engaging a visualization that soothes the emotional state, the quality of the energetic field can be transmuted.
Movement: as with sound, the energetic field can be transmuted simply by engaging any kind of movement. The vibration will create movement in the energetic field and transform its current state.
Aromatherapy: this involves taking the oil of a plant and diffusing its properties into your field. The qualities of the plant become integrated into an individual’s energetic field and transmute the state of it.
Earthing: this can be many things that involve engaging the natural world to alchemize the state of your energetic field. Common examples are feet on the ground or in the sea for a brief period of time.

If you are struggling with addiction, alcoholism, and/or mental health, know that there is hope. There is a solution. Harmoniously fusing together the best elements of clinical care, holistic healing, and 12-step philosophy, Enlightened Solutions has created a program of total transformation for men and women seeking recovery. Call 833-801-5483 today for information on our partial care programs in New Jersey.

How Sound Therapy Works

Written by enlightened solutions on October 16, 2017. Posted in Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

Sound therapy is rooted in the concept of energetic vibrations. To understand the power of sound therapy, consider this in the context of each person’s energetic field. This is the idea that each person has a circle of energy that extends beyond the solid matter of their own body. Since every person is surrounded by their own energetic field, it is understood that these fields, permeable matter, overlap with the fields of others. It is through this overlap that the interconnection of life can be explored.

Sound therapy is the exploration of how different frequencies of sound can influence the quality of a person’s energetic field. There is an optimal frequency state for each individual associated with their balanced state of physical, emotional and spiritual presence. This frequency may be different for different people. When a given person is out of balance in any one of these states, physical emotional or spiritual, the energetic field is also affected. Since there is an overlap between people, when one individual is out of balance, their energetic field may influence the field of those people with whom they come into contact. The frequency of sound is one method to calibrate your field to its optimal frequency. This application of sound therapy, and other practices, is sometimes referred to as ‘energy hygiene’.

When you begin your journey with sound therapy, remember that individuals function at different frequencies, so the different frequencies of sound my influence some people positively and some people negatively. It is advantageous to explore sounds when in a neutral state to discover which sounds are soothing. This discovery process from a neutral state allows one to identify which sounds will be most effective when a distressing incident occurs.

Making Sound Therapy Work For You

The process of identifying advantageous sounds to support an individual’s equilibrium reflects the journey that different individuals take in recovery to discover a higher power of their own understanding. While some people have a higher power that does not resonate with other people in recovery, the process of building a relationship with that power is replicable in spite of the difference in concepts. The same is true for the sound journey – surrender to the exploration of sound and discover which audible vibrations are soothing. Trust these sounds in your spiritual toolkit, even if they do not have the same impact for others.

5 Reasons You Should Learn to Love Your Body

Written by enlightened solutions on October 10, 2017. Posted in Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

The journey of returning to wholeness from the perspective of mind, body and spirit can be the adventure of a lifetime. It makes sense that such an adventure would have both glorious celebrations and significant challenges. The prospect of truly being embodied, fully occupying the body that is yours, and yours alone, can be a daunting call to action if you are healing from body image issues. In moments of doubt, return to the possibility of what potential your body offers your life.

It is the only body you have

At the core, the primary reason to love your body is that is is the only one that you have. While it has mystical capacity to heal itself, it is also finite in its support of your ability to stay on the epic quest of life.

It is your ancestral lineage

Your body descended from a lineage of people, each who found the other and formed a tribe, and created new life. Your body carries DNA of all of those who came before you and you carry forward the purpose they found in creating the lineage that they did.

It is your eco-system

Through this body, you are part of the larger eco-system. You have some tribe, chosen or family, and the way that you are part of this interconnection is primarily through your body. The spirit and the emotion stem from the body as foundation and without it, they lose the channel for distribution.

It is your pathway to unconditional love with all beings

By being fully embodied in your present self and discovering unconditional love of your physical home, you learn the ways of unconditional love. As you learn to be in this relationship with your body, you can extend this love to your inner self, emotional and spiritual. This leads to the mastery necessary to love others unconditionally.

It is the vehicle for your purpose

Every life exists for a reason, to offer a unique gift to the collective human experience. You are no different. Your body makes this possible for your spirit. Care for it and honor it as your precious vehicle for your precious life.

Healing Alcoholism Heals the Whole Body

Written by enlightened solutions on October 6, 2017. Posted in Alcoholism, Recovery. Leave a Comment

The human body is an extraordinary network of systems that seamlessly work together to support life. It is through the interdependencies of these systems that makes living possible for all humans. Each system influences the health of others and when the health of one suffers, they all suffer. When alcohol is consumed addictively, the entire network of systems that make the human physical experience possible becomes toxic. Yet, the same powerful systemic leverage becomes possible when an alcoholic chooses the health and vitality that is available through recovery.

The process of restoration begins on the first day of recovery. The body has innate wisdom to contend with environmental toxins. During active alcoholism, the body is in an escalated state of toxin processing. The resources necessary to mitigate the harm from alcohol takes away from the body’s ability to sustain vitality.

The concept of cell death is key in healing from alcoholism. The body has finite resources for processing material of all kinds. When adding unnecessary material, especially of a toxic nature, all of the body’s cell matter is used at an accelerated rate. The simple act of avoiding the ingestion of extraneous materials is supporting the body in its most optimal functioning.

The liver and kidneys work together to detoxify the body. They are designed to process naturally occurring environmental toxins. When an alcoholic adds unnecessary toxins through excessive alcohol consumption, the body does not have capacity to deal with the cumulative toxins. The simple act of reducing overall toxins empowers the body to eliminate more of the natural toxins, generating increased vitality for the entire system.

When the liver and kidneys are restored, the body’s ability to adequately carry oxygen through the blood system is also restored. This means that every cell in your body is breathing in a deeper, fuller way. This is akin to a person realizing they have spent hours breathing short, shallow breaths. Then, they choose to pause, close their eyes and take 10 full breaths. They then experience physical, emotional and spiritual transformation through this deeper breathing. The body of the recovering alcoholic experiences this same transformation.

These are only a few examples of the interconnected systems and their capacity to heal through the cessation of alcohol consumption. The body is inherently designed to heal itself and it is prepared to do this at any moment it is provided the opportunity.

Tag: healing