Recovery Archives - Page 7 of 35 - Enlightened Solutions

Prayer for Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on November 8, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

Prayer can be a helpful healing tool, whether or not we consider ourselves to be religious people. We can pray to any higher power, and what we call that higher power matters much less than how we can connect to it. If we believe our higher power created us, then we are a manifestation of it. That power is within us. We have the power to heal ourselves, to create the lives we want for ourselves. Accessing our inner higher power allows us to do that, and prayer is a helpful way to connect to it.

Prayer is not something that is limited to people who attend church. Anyone can pray, and you can pray to whatever higher entity brings you comfort. You can pray to your inner self, which has all the strength and wisdom of your higher power.

Prayer can take any form as long as it resonates with us. We sometimes think of praying as asking for what we want, but prayer can also be communicating with our higher power. We can release our pent-up emotions and we can share our distressing thoughts, knowing our higher power already knows all of it. We can ask for guidance, we can ask for strength. We can ask to be lifted through our struggles. We can pray for forgiveness when we’re struggling with shame and anger, we can pray for healing when we’re in pain.

This process can bring us enormous peace. It can help us feel calmed, soothed, comforted and nurtured. It can make us feel rejuvenated in our faith and purpose. We’re reminded we’re never alone. We are being supported, protected and guided. When we pray, we allow ourselves to surrender- to a power bigger than us, to the idea that we’re not operating our lives alone. We don’t have to feel isolated in our pain.

Prayer is something we can also do with our loved ones. We can pray together and allow it to bring us together. We can strengthen our connections with each other and our higher power. Many families make prayer a regular practice, before meals, before bedtime, during difficult challenges.

Prayer, like meditation, allows us to connect to our inner voice, our higher power and higher consciousness. When we are open to it, we can receive signs, messages and tangible guidance that we can interpret to help us along our way. We aren’t alone in our healing.

Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Depression Thought Patterns

Written by enlightened solutions on November 7, 2018. Posted in Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Depression can take over our lives, in many of the same ways addiction can. In a sense, many of us with depression are addicted, not necessarily to substances, but to certain thought patterns. Here are some common ones we share and suggestions for how to transform them.

Pessimism

Many of us default to thinking about the negative, in any given situation. We think in worst-case scenarios. We anticipate the outcomes we don’t want. Oftentimes we live with an overarching feeling of dread. We are so accustomed to this way of thinking that for many of us, it can be obsessive or neurotic.

We can begin to reprogram our subconscious minds with new thought patterns. Practice repeating affirmations such as “I choose to see the good. I allow good things to happen for me. I can manifest the outcomes I want.”

Over-worrying

We are human. We worry. We are always going to be concerned, and we are always going to care, about the things and people that matter to us. Over-worrying is taking that concern and allowing to go haywire. The energy of worry is an energy of fear. Fear can paralyze us, keep us stuck and make us act in irrational ways. When we are consumed by fear, we have a harder time accessing our intuition, hearing guidance from our higher power, and following our instincts.

We can transform our heightened anxious over-worrying energy to one of faith and hope. We can allow our concern and love to guide us rather than our fear. Meditate with affirmations like “Everything happens as it’s meant to. Everything in divine timing. I am hopeful. I have faith. Things are always working for our highest good.”

As we focus on thinking positively and hopefully, we are attracting what we want. When we allow ourselves to get lost in worry, we attract what we don’t want.

Insecurity

When we are depressed, we often don’t feel grounded or centered- in our purpose, our sense of self, our direction in life. We can feel insecure about any aspect of our lives- our personality, our past, our illnesses. We suffer from wounded egos and low self-esteem. We are self-conscious, we seek external validation, and at the root of it, we do not love ourselves.

Self-hate is factor in so many of our problems, including depression. We can start the crucial work of loving ourselves by talking to ourselves differently and consciously choosing thoughts of self-empowerment. “I love you. I believe in you. You are strong. You are capable. You can make your dreams come true.”

We have been defaulting to our painful thought patterns for most of our lives. Undoing them takes time and effort. Practice, practice, practice. We can heal our depression, and retraining our minds is an important step.

At Enlightened Solutions, we offer therapy, mentoring, recovery planning and more. Call (833) 801-LIVE for more information.

Exposure Response Prevention for Dealing with Fear

Written by enlightened solutions on November 5, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

Fear is a common factor in addiction, depression, anxiety, and anxiety disorders like OCD. How we deal with our fear is a major contributor to these issues. We often have a hard time facing our fears head on and instead use our addictive behaviors and thought patterns as means of escape. To confront our fears, we can use a technique called Exposure Response Prevention, or ERP.

To really benefit from ERP, we can start by figuring out what our fears actually are. Common fears many of us share are fears of abandonment, failure, inadequacy and inferiority, fears of being replaced, betrayed, hurt or violated, fear of loss, fear of being alone. As we do some soul searching and go beneath the surface of our symptoms, we become more conscious of our fears and fear responses.

ERP is a relatively simple exercise, but it can bring up intense emotions, so you may want to do it with a therapist or other supportive person. With ERP we expose ourselves to our triggering fear and then prevent our usual go-to responses such as our compulsions and addictive behaviors. This requires willpower and the determination not to engage in our usual fear response coping mechanisms. ERP is essentially a meditation on our fears, and just like with any form of meditation, it is practicing over time that yields the most results. You might feel an immediate change in your thoughts and emotions, but for continued healing, keep practicing.

Let’s use a common anxiety-inducing thought pattern as an example. Many of us with addictions and mental health issues are anxious about our recovery process. We are worried we will relapse. We’re terrified of disappointing our loved ones. We’re afraid of causing even more damage and destruction to ourselves and those around us. With ERP, we will expose ourselves intentionally and consciously to our fears. “I’m afraid I will fail. I’m afraid I will always be suffering. I’m afraid of hurting other people. I’m afraid people won’t love me anymore.”

Meditate on your fears. As we sit with them, we begin to have acceptance, which helps reduce the negative energy we’ve been building up with our resistance. As we allow ourselves to feel the fears, their powerful hold over us starts to fade. Then we consciously choose not to follow up with our drug of choice, our toxic relationship pattern, or our self-destructive compulsion. With time and practice, our fears don’t feel so overpowering and debilitating because we have faced them head on. We start to realize just how strong we actually are for continuing to live our lives and not letting our fears destroy us.

We can help you to explore different healing techniques and find the ones that help you most. Call Enlightened Solutions (833) 801-LIVE.

Steps You Can Take to Recover from Depression

Written by enlightened solutions on November 2, 2018. Posted in Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Recovery can be extremely difficult and can feel impossible, but we can take steps that bring us closer to healing. Here are a few suggestions.

Try Therapy.

When we are depressed and in crisis, the thought of finding a therapist can be overwhelming, daunting and scary. Muster the strength, ask for help, seek out support, because finding the right therapist can help you immensely on your healing journey. Therapists have years of experience dealing with similar issues, emotional problems and life circumstances. And unlike with our loved ones, with a therapist we can speak freely without worrying about judgment or bias.

Walk.

Any kind of exercise is helpful for depression. It releases endorphins in our bodies which help us to feel happy, naturally. Sometimes when we’re depressed, we find it extremely hard to motivate ourselves to practice self-care, and vigorous exercise might be too much for us, but walking can come more naturally to us and can be easier to will ourselves to do. Walking can help you clear your mind, calm your anxiety, and process and organize your thoughts. Walking can be used as a form of meditation. Try focusing on your breathing, or on a mantra or affirmation while you walk. It can help you quiet and still your mind, which is so crucial for depression as we are often consumed by our painful thoughts.

Spend time with people who care about you.

This can be especially hard when we’re depressed. We isolate. We feel afraid of people. We avoid having to interacting with anyone. Try to spend time with someone who cares about you, even for just a little while. Take time to talk to them about your feelings and let them offer you support and encouragement. We often get advice, guidance and wisdom from our loved ones, often when we need it the most but weren’t necessarily looking for it.

Let yourself enjoy doing something fun.

Get out of your normal routine, which might be contributing to your depression. Do something different you’ve never done, or something you used to enjoy doing. Any time we can give our minds some much needed rest from our depressive thoughts, we are taking a step in our recovery. Having fun, changing our routine, venturing out into the world can feel like the last things we would want to do when we’re depressed, but if we can give ourselves a gentle push, it can mean the difference between staying stuck in our depression and moving forward.

You don’t have to figure out recovery alone. We’re here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Functional Depression

Written by enlightened solutions on November 1, 2018. Posted in Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Depression manifests differently in everyone. We have vastly different experiences with varied symptoms, patterns and cycles. Depression has multiple biochemical and social causes, making each person’s experience with depression totally unique. Many people who are suffering from depression can still go about their lives normally, but they are deeply unhappy, often struggling with addictions, and very often suffering in silence. This kind of depression is referred to as “functional depression” or “high-functioning depression.”

People with functional depression can maintain regular schedules and can sustain their jobs, finances and relationships as they normally do. They may or may not identify with being depressed. They may not call it depression. They may not ever tell anyone how they feel. On top of their depression, they have to deal with people not believing them when they tell them they are depressed. To other people they “seem fine.” Oftentimes no one in their lives suspects they have a problem, because they don’t outwardly show any signs.

Functional depression is sometimes characterized as lasting for years at a time. People might have lived with this depression for so long they don’t remember what their “normal” was, how they felt before they got depressed. People with functional depression often experience many of the same feelings associated with major depression.

Anxiety

Fear, panic, nervousness, worry. People with depression often live with intense anxiety, and the same is true for those with functional depression. Their anxiety can be related to any and every aspect of their lives and can be all-consuming.

Sadness

This may be an obvious one, but sadness is often the most pervasive emotion we experience with depression. We feel sadness about our past, from which we often carry a lot of shame, regret and remorse. We feel sadness and dread about our uncertain and bleak future. We carry sadness about our traumatic experiences, our losses, our current circumstances, our relationships, our self-esteem.

Hopelessness

People with depression of all kinds, including functional depression, often feel despair and hopelessness, on a regular basis. They experience suicidal thoughts, ideation and behavior, and as we know, many take their lives. We find ourselves surprised when people take their own lives who seemed happy, whose lives seemed perfect- they may have been living with functional depression and not shown any warning signs to the people in their lives.

We all need support, nurturing and care. Let’s make it a point to check on our loved ones as often as we can, whether or not they have already exhibited signs of depression. It can make all the difference.

The community at Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Choosing Faith Over Fear

Written by enlightened solutions on October 30, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Alternative Therapy. Leave a Comment

Our addictions and mental health issues are often related to our relationship to fear. When we become addicted to a behavior or thought pattern, it is often because we are looking for ways to suppress, bury or otherwise escape our fears. Many of us have experienced trauma in our lives, and our trauma can impact how we deal with fear. Anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses can be a manifestation of our built-up fears. We are often so afraid of our fears that we make them worse. We develop neuroses, complexes, obsessions and phobias. Our responses to fear, the ways we think about and deal with our fear, can have a lot to do with our addictions and mental/emotional health problems.

We find ourselves living in fear, and it can be a painful, distressing way to live. How can we change our response to fear and live with more peace, clarity and hope? We can start by making a conscious decision to choose faith instead of fear.

Having faith in our recovery means having faith in our higher power, faith in ourselves, faith in our ability to heal. Faith in the idea that we’re being supported on our journey, and that healing is in fact possible. Faith that we are more than our addiction and depression. Faith that we will find our way, that we will be able to live our truth and find fulfillment.

How do we actively choose faith? We can work on growing our faith by using affirmations, visualization and meditation. We can repeat statements affirming, “I have faith. I trust in my higher power. I have faith I will heal. I believe in myself. I believe in my recovery.” We can visualize ourselves being at peace, feeling trusting and confident, being sure and certain of our recovery. We can meditate using these affirmations and visualizations while holding our hands over our hearts and activating their powerful healing energy.

Changing our fear responses takes time and practice. We won’t rid ourselves of our fears immediately. When we are hit with anxiety and fearful thoughts, we can make a choice each time whether to respond to them with more anxiety and fear, or to reroute our thoughts to more positive, affirming ones instead. As we become more conscious of our thoughts and practice meditation, we realize we have more power to control the direction of our thoughts than we often think we do. Meditation also allows us to quiet the panic and noise in our minds and to prioritize feelings of wellbeing.

Our recovery can really benefit from holistic healing methods, and at Enlightened Solutions we’re here to help you find the ones that work for you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Enabling Each Other

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

Those of us who have lived with addiction in our homes or relationships know how hard it can be to deal with someone else’s addiction. We often enable addicts’ behaviors, even though we care about them and want them to get better. Why do we do enable each other?

It often comes down to fear. Sometimes we’re afraid of how the person will react if we try to stop them from using. When the relationship is abusive, they might threaten us with violence if we don’t do as they ask- sometimes when we are being abused, we try to placate them as much as possible.

Sometimes we are embroiled in our own addictions and can’t extricate ourselves from them, let alone help someone else to. Often our relationships are codependent and addictive in nature. Many of us are love/sex addicts. In continuing our patterns, we’re often enabling multiple addictions at the same time.

When in these kinds of relationships, we might know we’re in an unhealthy situation but are afraid to let go. The idea of no longer having them in our lives can feel excruciating, and we’re so afraid of losing them that we enable their addictive behaviors to keep the relationship.

Addictions in relationships often go hand in hand with mental health issues. We might be dealing with multiple illnesses at the same time. When we are in this place, we don’t necessarily have the clarity we would have otherwise. We feel lost, confused, sad and in distress. It can feel virtually impossible to help others quit their addictions when we’re suffering ourselves. When we stay in these toxic situations, our mental health often deteriorates, and our addictions grow worse.

What are some of the ways we enable each other?

You might buy your partner his drug of choice when he demands it. You might choose to go out drinking with him, and even let him drive drunk. You might turn a blind eye and be in denial about his problems. You might choose to stay in the relationship while he continues to disrespect you, allowing him to take advantage of your support.

We enable other people when we allow them to continue hurting us and themselves, when we allow them to lie to us, manipulate, coerce, or otherwise control us. When they continue to cross our boundaries and we keep letting them, we are enabling them. Enabling is anything that we do that allows, perpetuates, exacerbates or contributes to addicts’ continuing their addictive behavior.

Coping with addictions means dealing with all kinds of interpersonal issues. We’re here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

One Day at a Time

Written by enlightened solutions on October 24, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Our addictions, emotional challenges and mental health issues can be so damaging and destructive that we become consumed with fear, especially fear of the future. We experience anxiety and panic about the unknown. Being unable to live with uncertainty can be paralyzing. We dread what’s to come and often think in terms of worst-case scenarios. “Will I ever recover? Will I always hurt the people I love? Will I ever get out of this?”

When our mindset is based in negativity and fear, it can feel impossible to be hopeful and optimistic. People use all kinds of sayings to help themselves get through life’s challenges, and one we commonly hear is “One day at a time.” When we are filled with anxiety, how do we implement this idea, and how can it help us?

It starts with a conscious choice to choose to take things day by day, and to bring our focus back to that concept over and over again. Every time our minds leap to fears about the future, we can repeat “one day at a time” as an affirmation to help calm and soothe ourselves. We can remember that as much as we might try to plan, life will always throw us unexpected curveballs. It is up to us to take each challenge in stride with as much grace, patience and flexibility as possible, one day at a time.

This new mentality helps us to live in the moment and appreciate the small, beautiful everyday things in life that we often take for granted. Taking the time to watch the sunset, choosing to be present and attentive with a loved one rather than rushing through a conversation, giving energy to gratitude throughout our day- all of these can help us to stay grounded and centered in the present moment. This can drastically reduce our anxiety, panic and overwhelm. It helps us to focus on individual moments of happiness, which helps us manifest more happiness and grow our sense of wellbeing.

Taking things one day at a time requires that we practice consciously choosing faith. Can we choose to have faith in the unfolding of our lives? Can we choose to trust in divine timing? Can we choose to believe that our higher power is working with us for our highest good? This can be a challenge for many of us who are accustomed to letting our fearful anxiety dictate our thoughts, choices and actions. When we relax into our faith, we allow the flow of healing to come to us. When we act out of fear, we block that healing.

Learning new coping strategies is an important part of recovery. Enlightened Solutions can help you find techniques that work for you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

How Do We Forgive?

Written by enlightened solutions on October 23, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Choosing to forgive people who have hurt us may seem like a monumental task that is easier said than done. We might know it’s important to forgive because we don’t want to hold onto the anger that is poisoning us and making us sick, but how do we go about forgiving? Choosing to forgive others can be especially hard when they are still hurting us, when they are no longer in our lives, or when we have a hard time connecting with them because the conflict feels insurmountable. Here are a few suggestions you can implement in your efforts to forgive.

Compassion

When we hurt others, it is usually because we are in pain ourselves. Can we choose to see the suffering inside the person who hurt us? Pain is something we all share. The people who have hurt us are no exception. Try to remind yourself that their pain is likely what caused them to act in hurtful ways in the first place. When we believe in the interconnectedness of humanity, we know that having compassion for other people’s pain goes a long way in healing the division between us.

Understanding

Along with compassion comes understanding. We can try to understand what caused people to behave in the ways they did. We can try to put ourselves in their shoes. Even if we are convinced we would never do what they did, we can remember that we all have made mistakes and hurt the people we care about. This is a universal truth, and no one is exempt from it. Instead of focusing intently on how they hurt us, we can choose to look at their pain and understand that their pain drove them to do things they might not have done otherwise.

Love

The people we are most hurt by are often the people we love the most. We’re not nearly as affected by the hurtful actions of people with whom we have no connection. While we are working to forgive, can we focus on the love we share rather than the conflict in question? Try to recall happy memories you shared. Conjure up the love you felt. Hold onto that feeling and meditate on it. Yes this person hurt you, and it might still hurt just thinking about it, but can you allow your love to be your primary focus instead?

Directing our energy towards compassion, understanding and love can transform us from the inside out, make it easier to forgive those who’ve wronged us, and bring us a sense of peace.

Forgiveness is an important part of our healing. The staff at Enlightened Solutions has years of experience helping people work through the various issues that come up in recovery. Call (833) 801-LIVE for more information on how we can support you.

How Denial Holds Us Back from Healing

Written by enlightened solutions on October 22, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

When we deny any part of ourselves, we hold ourselves back from experiencing the fullness of our life experience. The same is true for our pain. Being in denial about our fears, traumas and pain means we cut off entire parts of ourselves. Our difficulties help inform our life paths and are part of what makes us who we are. When we deny them, we essentially deny ourselves.

We can’t experience real healing and transformation when we’re denying who we are. In order to move out of our pain, we have to be able to accept it. Accepting something allows us to surrender to it, and both acceptance and surrender are alchemical processes that can transform our pain into peace. Coming to terms with our most painful thoughts and emotions brings us a sense of peace that we cannot find if we are fighting them. Resisting our pain amplifies it, gives it strength and adds more momentum for it to continue to hurt us. Denial is a form of resistance. If we can accept our challenges as part of who we are, we can incorporate them into the light of our inner strength. If we can’t accept them and continue to deny them, they are essentially excluded from that light and never have the opportunity to heal.

Accepting our addictions and mental health issues might be one of the hardest things we’ll ever do, but it’s a crucial step in our recovery process. How can we heal ourselves when we don’t accept entire parts of who we are? The answer is, we can’t. We have to find a way to embrace self-acceptance if we want to move forward, otherwise we remain stuck. We continue our self-destructive patterns. We stay in our unhealthy relationships. We perpetuate our toxic cycles.

Denial might feel easier at first. “Ignorance is bliss.” When it comes to our thoughts and emotions, however, we come to learn that we can’t run from them forever, and trying to hide from them only tightens their grip on us. Our addictive behaviors, thought patterns and limiting beliefs are a manifestation of our fears and also feed off of our fears for as long as we allow them to. When we face our fears, we starve them of the oxygen they use to breathe (our denial), and eventually the light of our courage extinguishes them.

Choosing recovery is one of the hardest, best things you’ll ever do for yourself. The community at Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Tag: Recovery