Recovery Archives - Page 32 of 35 - Enlightened Solutions

The Mental Cost of Eating Disorders

Written by enlightened solutions on September 7, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Eating disorders can express in a variety of ways: anorexia, bulimia, overeating, just to name a few of the expressions that this condition can take on. The manifestation of eating disorders will typically involve obsessions about food, about the body and being able to become free from these obsessions.

Culturally, it can be easy to minimize eating disorders as less serious addictions than those struggling with substance abuse addictions. However, the deeper truth is that individuals struggling with eating disorders are living with the same loss of authentic self as those struggling with other addictions. The vacillation between obsession and compulsion is a loss of choice which can lead to profound health consequences, even including the loss of the physical life. At its heart, the loss of the spirit is present in this loss of choice, regardless of what substance or behavior the choice is related to.

The natural rhythm of providing our bodies with food is an opportunity to discern at each interval what nutrients will provide us with the stamina needed to live our life purpose. When these intervals become cycles of feeding an obsession, we have lost our authentic selves to an eating disorder. Whether it is focused on consuming specific foods, performing ritual practices around foods, or a focus on how to mitigate the harmful choices through exercise or purging, the intervals have become about checking out rather than checking in.

Commonly, individuals struggling with eating disorders are aware that these behaviors are considered ‘not normal’ and hide these patterns. The result is that they become isolated from their social communities to conceal their behaviors. Becoming a divided person, they , show only parts of themselves to the people who love them while hiding the most vulnerable parts of themselves, the parts that most need to be seen and accepted.

We can all look at our relationship to food to discover where it is serving the life that we were born to live and where it has taken over our life to block our spiritual purpose. The more that we can become transparent about our journey, moving our relationship to one of positivity and contribution, the more we can support others in doing the same.

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.

Healing the Physical Effects of Addiction with Eastern Practices

Written by enlightened solutions on September 6, 2017. Posted in Addiction Recovery, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

The eastern world largely refers to Asia and India in terms of spirituality. In contrast, the concept of the western world is referring to the US and the culture birthed as it was settled. Each of these worlds has unique gifts to offer and it is valuable in recovery to learn how to harness and integrate them in their lives.

In many ways, the eastern hold the most ancient spiritual wisdom. The spiritual practices of this region have sustained themselves over many hundreds, even thousands, of years. The practices are the very essence of the idea of tradition. The spiritual practices of the western culture, much younger,have shorter lives before evolving into something new. They bring forward spirit of innovation.

These principles, tradition and innovation, bolster our recovery as we integrate them into our lives. As we embark on the healing of our individual life from addiction, we are the settlers traveling to a new, unknown land. We feel as though we are leaving our ancient selves behind and sailing for new territory. Some aspects of who we were will always be present, although, those parts of us will express in entirely new ways.

With this invitation of a new journey, carrying forward the tradition of the past, and allowing it to evolve into a new form, play with one of these practices:

Chakra meditation

The chakras are seven energy centers, root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown, in your body. To explore one, find a seated position and connect to the center of your chest to your heart. Envision a pulsing green light beginning as a small circumference, the size of your fist. With each inhalation, imagine a contraction. With each exhalation, an expansion leading to a greater circumference. Continue this practice until you have filled the room with a pulsing green light.

Earthing

This indigenous practice is the ancient wisdom of the western world pre-settlement. It can be as simple as allowing yourself to be led to a tree, ideally in bare feet. Placing a hand on the tree and breathing in cohesion with this life-sustaining member of the natural world.

Chanting

This practice also comes from the ancient world and some people engage changes in the ancient languages from these practices. However, you can also apply this practice to mantras in your own language. Often, it is ideal to choose a simple mantra that can be matched to inhalation and exhalation. For example, Thy Will (inhale), My Will (exhale).

8 Ways Addiction Hurts The Body

Written by enlightened solutions on September 5, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Addiction is known to be a complex medical issue which causes suffering on the physical, emotional and spiritual planes. There are many different types of addiction and they all have an impact on all three of these aspects of the human life. It is valuable to recognize that while the forms of addiction may have different consequences on the body, they all require that the physical healing occur before the internal resources become available for the depth recovery that is necessary on the emotional and spiritual planes.

The following are some possible harms that the body may experience as an outcome of addictive behaviors. There is some variance according to substance but these impacts are generally present in the early stages of recovery. .

Brain: there are many impacts by addiction, including memory, the natural chemical balances and communications of the brain with the rest of the body, and the brain’s role in motivating the person to healthy self-preservation activities.
Central Nervous system: the addictive ingestion of toxins causes a continuous state of fight-or-flight, causing the rest of the body to operate as if it is in a continuous state of danger.
Weight fluctuations: fluctuations may be up or down, but both changes can have serious long-term effects on the quality of health and life expectancy.
Liver: the role of this organ is to filter and metabolize toxins. When an excessive amount of toxins are present, it becomes over-used and susceptible to disease. It also plays a role with digestion and impacts to its optimal function also impact nutrient intake.
Kidneys: play a critical role in removing toxins from the body and the cleansing of blood. These functions are impacted by addictive substances.
Mental health issues: sometimes people are using addiction as a coping for existing mental health issues and other times, the use of substances actives mental health issues that they were predisposed to.
Accelerated aging: in many cases, addiction of all kinds simply accelerates the aging process by speeding up the process of cell death. This process is a natural process yet, our addiction will speed up the timeline and take our vitality sooner than would naturally occur.
Digestion issues: addictions impact the ability of this system to uptake nutrients and can result in malnutrition.

Is There A Spiritual Side To Depression?

Written by enlightened solutions on September 4, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Living with depression is a challenging life experience. The experience of depression can feel like the attempt to run through waist-deep tar. Even though you long to sprint through the day, every breath, every step, every thought is moving through the sticky toxicity of depression. The dualism of depression is that there is a deep longing to be released from it, yet its very nature can block an individual from taking actions that will shift it.

As we consider how to work with this dualism, it is important to acknowledge that two basic kinds of depression exist. These are depression that is contextually induced and depression that is clinical or chemical in nature. In the following discussion, we are exploring actions that may influence change with contextual depression.

The definition of the word ‘depress’ is to be in a lower state and when speaking in spiritual terms, the spiritual life can sometimes be discussed as the pursuit of the ‘higher’ self. In these terms, the remedy for being relieved of depress-ion is to pursuit elevation of the self. The self can be elevated by pursuing higher expressions of it self.

Becoming elevated can be accessible by simply choosing to look at our depression differently. When an individual is dealing with depression, it may be natural and comfortable to look at the circumstances of life as happening to you. Whether the context is a job loss, relationship ending or the bottom of an addiction, it can be easy to feel like a victim for those circumstances. However, one can begin to choose our higher self when they pause and ask themselves what actions they might take to create a new situation for their lives.

Sometimes, depression can begin the process of shifting even by simply asking ourselves this question, even if we do not yet have the next right action to take. The question allows an individual to embrace the possibility that they have access to the internal resources to change their experience and this is an un-depressed perspective. Once one is willing to ask the question, the higher self will begin to emerge leading the lower part of you to the actions necessary to change the context of your life.

Art Therapy Is More Than Arts And Crafts For Rehab

Written by enlightened solutions on April 18, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Drugs & Alcohol, Mental Health, Recovery, Sober Living. Leave a Comment

Art is an expression beyond the confines of language represented by words. Art is a language of its own, using the symbols of expression to communicate metaphor, emotion, transition, and meaning. One of the only static communications styles to be so dynamic, art can create movement without moving. A painting can encompass a lifetime, a sculpture can encompass transformation. What is put into art is transitory, which makes the modality of art therapy so important. Everything is changing in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. From one minute to the next, the brain is healing, the body is healing, and the soul is being rejuvenated. Art therapy is a way to move beyond traditional talking or packets and put that experience into different forms.

Though an art piece might be static, the process of making art is not. Art therapy might seem to symbolic to be realistic to some. However, there is importance in the symbology. For example, building up a sculpture with clay to represent pain, resentment, or trauma, then smashing that sculpture down into a blob is a transformative experience. Feelings, thoughts, emotions, judgments, pain, trauma, are all intangible. We feel them in many different ways as they manifest in our lives, but we can not simply grab anger by the handful, throw it across the room and pronounce it gone. With art therapy, the intangible becomes tangible, malleable, and useful.

Treatment for drug and alcohol addiction is full of talking, processing, analyzing, and reflecting, all of which are important tools and methods. Art therapy is an opportunity to engage in a different kind of processing which doesn’t require as much brain power as it does soul power. Using two different sides of the brain during treatment is important to helping the brain grow strong and find more balance.

An art therapist and specified art therapy groups are not required to do art therapy. You can bring art therapy home with you through very simple routines:

Use coloring books
Buy art supplies and create a designated time to just create
Create gifts for people with crafting rather than buy new things
Lookup art therapy activities online, which can include a narration

Art therapy is becoming a more relied upon model of treatment for addiction recovery. We employ alternative and holistic treatment methods as part of our integrative approach to healing addiction in mind, body, and spirit. Enlightened Solutions believes that there is an answer to addiction. For more information, contact us today.

10 Relaxation Techniques To Get You Through A Difficult Time

Written by enlightened solutions on March 30, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Breathing: Breath is the source of life. Connecting the breath is an immediate way to calm down. It’s little coincidence that when we’re having an anxiety attack, getting all out of sorts and hyperventilating, someone tells us to breathe. Trying to take deep breaths on your own can be difficult when your head is running a hundred miles a minute. Look to an anxiety management, meditation, or mindfulness app to help you with breathing techniques. Pacifica even has a track that breathes with you.
Meditation: Meditation will settle down any difficulty in as little as two minutes. Headspace has a great “SOS” series of 2-3 minute meditations designed to help you get situated. Focus on the breath, quiet your thoughts, scan your thoughts and your body. You’ll feel more relaxed.
Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a practice that can be applied anywhere. Mindfulness can be practiced through a meditation, through an activity, or just in your own thoughts. Bringing your attention and awareness to specific things will help you to stop obsessing over whatever difficulties you are facing and connect to peacefulness.
Take A Walk: Movement is good for the soul. If you can take a walk, swinging your arms back and forth across your body, you’re engaging your brain in active bilateral stimulation which helps the nervous system calm down when it is activated.
Stand In The Sunshine: The sun gives an energy that only the sun can. Mindfully notice it’s warmth, the way it glows through your eyelids when they’re shut, and how it makes you feel. Let the cozy heat envelop you like a blanket, soothing your fears and anxieties.
Dance Around: Dancing is an ancient practice. Make light of a heavy situation by turning on your favorite song, or even just dancing to yourself. Five to ten minutes of non stop movement will help get the blood pumping and focus your energy somewhere other than your emotions.
Color: Grab a notepad, a sketchbook, a canvas, a coloring book, and your favorite medium. Connecting to the strokes of painting, drawing, or sketching is like an instant meditation and form of relaxation.
Go For A Run: Running helps produce endorphins, which are good for positive feelings and clearing the mind. Tie up your favorite runners and hit a path. You don’t have to run for very long to feel more relaxed.
Call A Friend: Sometimes you just need to talk. Call up a friend who you know has a willing ear and just let it all out.
Journal: When a friend isn’t available, the next best place is a journal. If you can’t talk it out, write it out. You might discover things you weren’t aware of before.

Enlightened Solutions is a dual diagnosis treatment facility offering partial care programs to men and women who want to experience healing transformation in mind, body, and spirit. For more information, contact us today.

Changing Your Approach To Body Image

Written by enlightened solutions on March 26, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Body image is important for recovery. Anyone can struggle with poor body image. Having a low sense of self and self-perception can damage the way you have relationships and engage in intimacy throughout your life. Here are a few suggestions for changing your approach to your body image.

Make Sure Your Beliefs Are Consistent

You think you might see some kind of flaw in the mirror. Oh no, you think to yourself, I cannot have this! This makes me unattractive. Yet, you see it in a friend and think they’re so beautiful it doesn’t matter. Or, even more problematically you might think they aren’t very beautiful anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Your beliefs about yourself and about others have to be consistent. Most importantly, they consistently need to look something like this:

Everyone is beautiful.
All bodies are beautiful.
It’s okay to be okay with yourself and how you look
Take A Healthy Look At Your Eating Behaviors

Paying attention to eating behaviors might sound like the opposite thing you need to do to shift body image from negative to positive. Food shouldn’t be assigned labels or emotions. There shouldn’t be “bad” foods and “good” foods which you either feel okay about or completely guilty about. Identifying the way you label and judge your food, as well as yourself when you eat, is important. What you eat directly influences how you feel. You either have to change the food you’re eating in a healthy and balanced way or change the way you feel about the food you’re eating.

Embrace the “All Food” and “All Exercise” Philosophy

What if there was a world where you didn’t have to do a certain workout for a certain number of time followed by a certain protein shake with certain ingredients? Imagine a life where you just ate, in a healthy and balanced way, and got at least 20 minutes of exercise, in a healthy and balanced way. That world is possible and you can create it. Obsessing over doing everything right in regards to diet and exercise can drive you crazy, cause you to be sick, and thwart your positive body image. Let the reins loose a little bit and enjoy the way you live your life, not punish yourself for it.

Give Yourself The Same Love You Give Others

When you compliment and admire someone for the way they look, turn those sentiments back toward yourself. Positive affirmations are a powerful tool for helping you build a more positive self-image and higher sense of self-esteem.

Enlightened Solutions offers holistic partial care programs designed to treat issues of body image and eating disorders in addition to any dual diagnosis issues with substance abuse. We have a solution. It starts with you. Start by calling us today for more information at 833-801-5483.

What To Do (And Not To Do) When You Have Cravings

Written by enlightened solutions on March 20, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Recovery, Sober Living. Leave a Comment

Cravings are a natural part of recovery because they are such an intrinsic part of addiction. From day two to year twenty five, cravings can come on at any moment. It’s important to understand what your cravings are, where they are coming from, and how to handle them when they occur.

Don’t Panic

Cravings are normal. As recovery goes along and you earn more and more time sober, there will be a greater distance between episodes of cravings. It’s easy to fall into the false belief that experiencing cravings means you are somehow failing in recovery. Unfortunately, most people run with this fear and believe that cravings will never go away and mean they are going to relapse. Then, many people do. Cravings can come on subtly, happen like a flash of lightning, or appear through a using dream. When cravings come on, don’t panic. Remember that addiction is a disease that lives in the brain causing strange and irregular chemical reactions. Despite your hard work in recovery and the monumental changes you are making to your behaviors, the amount of time your brain has been sober compared to the amount of time it spent intoxicated is small. It’s like worrying a baby will never walk if they fall down once in awhile. Cravings are sometimes nothing more than the brain working out some kinks as you train it to live a recovery lifestyle.

To Investigate

Try not to hyper analyze the meaning of your cravings- leave that to your therapy sessions. In the moment your cravings hit, try to take a minute of mindfulness. Settle yourself down and connect yourself with a few deep breaths. After quickly doing a body scan to notice any tension, turn your attention inward. Is there anything happening in this moment, in the last few hours, or maybe the last few days that was particularly triggering? Remember, that your addictive behaviors were usually a response to challenging situations and painful emotions. Though you are learning to handle things differently the chemical responses in your brain are still catching up. Your cravings might be the result of enduring something you haven’t had to in a while.

Recovery is possible. It starts with you! Enlightened Solutions is here to provide an integrative approach to treatment which fuses clinically proven treatments with holistic healing modalities grounded in a spiritual 12 step philosophy. For more information, call us today at 833-801-5483

3 Crystals You Need For Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on March 16, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Crystal healing is an ancient spiritual practice. Beautiful crystals, gemstones, and minerals live within the depths of our planet. Beneath the surface of the ground, hidden within caves and stones, are stunning, energy harnessing crystals. Using crystals for healing in recovery is a holistic treatment method which relies on energy. Eastern philosophies of the body believe that we store energy in specific areas of the body, which creates stress. Within our bodies are natural channels and pathways for the energy to flow. Emotions, pain, grief, trauma, stress, and other negative factors can block these meridians causing both psychological and physical side effects. Crystals, along with other holistic treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic, help move or release that energy. Crystals can also provide pain relief, enhance creativity, sharpen focus, or bring good social connections.

For Goop, certified shamanic energy medicine practitioner Colleen McCann shares some of her essential crystals and some of their properties for healing. We’ll include why they’re helpful during the recovery treatment process.

Black Obsidian
Good for: grounding
Chakra: first (root)
Recovery: Anxiety is a highly occurring dual diagnosis with substance use disorders and can commonly be a side effect of withdrawals, as well as coping with difficult emotional work. Anxiety sets off the fight or flight mode, causing us to feel disconnected. Grounding is an important practice for being rooted in the present moment.

Rose Quartz
Good for: positivity and love
Chakra: fourth (heart)
Recovery: McCann writes that rose quartz “enhances all types of love: self-love, love for others, and unconditional love.” Love and compassion are essential for recovery. Helping with self esteem, confidence, emotional regulation and more, rose quartz gives extra support in recovery.

Lapis Lazuli
Good for: communication
Chakra: fifth (throat)
Recovery: The first step in recovery is admitting we have a problem. Speaking our truth starts us on the path to recovery and carries us through as we learn to live by the suggestions of a program which “demands rigorous honesty” as The Big Book emphasizes. Maintaining honesty through open, healthy communication is an essential part of growth within recovery.

Enlightened Solutions offers a holistic treatment program which utilizes alternative eastern treatment methods in addition to evidence based proven western clinical modalities. For information on our partial care programs of treatment call 833-801-5483.

The Importance Of Honesty In Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on March 14, 2017. Posted in Addiction, Healthy Living, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Recovery begins with honesty. The Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous describes the first step this way: “We learned that we had to fully conceded to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.” To concede means to “admit something that is true or valid after first denying or resisting it.” It also means to “surrender or yield”. Honesty is part of the first step of recovery because we have to admit that we are struggling with addiction and/or alcoholism. Often, we have been back and forth with ourselves about this part of our lives. We denied it in many ways, sometimes for many years. We resisted coming to the truth because we knew once we did, we would have to stop drinking and using, being forced to reckon with ourselves. Yet, we learned that we had to make a concession to our efforts. Honesty regarding our addiction is not something that just comes naturally. If we were suddenly enlightened with the idea that all we had to do was tell the truth about our struggles, recovery would look much different. The truth is, we were probably given the lesson over and over again. To learn doesn’t mean to just know. Learning is a process of gaining information. Overtime, we learned that there was going to be no other way to go about it. We had to get honest. We had to face the consequences.

Honesty is an integral part of recovery. We have to be honest about how we feel every day in treatment, or we lose an opportunity to heal. We have to be honest about our cravings and obsessive thoughts about using or else we risk relapse. We have to be honest about our fears and insecurities or we might fall into false pride and become delusional once again.

Addiction, in and of itself, is a lie. Addiction tells us that another hit, another pill, another dose, another drink, will make everything better. Addiction never bothers to be honest, letting us know that the next one will never be enough, that there is always going to be a next one. Honesty puts an end to the madness. It creates sanity where sanity has been lost. Recovery is your opportunity to find yourself and be found.

Start with honesty. If you or a loved one are struggling with alcoholism and addiction and are ready for help, Enlightened Solutions has an answer. Call us today for information on our integrative treatment programs for men and women, 833-801-5483.

Tag: Recovery