Recovery Archives - Page 8 of 35 - Enlightened Solutions

Choosing Forgiveness for Our Own Peace of Mind

Written by enlightened solutions on October 19, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

Addiction and mental health issues bring along with them all kinds of other challenges that are connected and related- conflicts, toxic relationships, unhealthy interpersonal dynamics. Because we experience a great deal of inner turmoil, we manifest relationships and experiences that reflect that turmoil back to us and that create even more turmoil. We have all kinds of problems with the people in our lives, and we can find ourselves feeling anger on a regular basis. We hold onto resentment and bitterness. We hold grudges. We have a very hard time letting go of the ways in which people have hurt or offended us. We obsess, fixate, and replay the difficult memories even when we know that causes us more distress. We are consumed with anger.

Forgiving something doesn’t mean we condone it, and forgiving other people doesn’t mean we excuse their behavior. It means we make the choice to be at peace with what happened, rather than continuing to carry it. We often let the painful energy of anger fester within us, sometimes because it feels better to be angry than to be sad, sometimes because anger is our go-to emotional response. We might never have learned how to resolve conflict and instinctively choose anger over reconciliation. Sometimes we hold onto anger for years rather than deal with the anxiety that can come with confrontation. We choose silence, we choose to cut people off, we choose to hate them.

How much lighter and more liberated would we feel if we chose to forgive instead? Choosing forgiveness means we take the bitterness and anger that were festering inside us and replace them with peace. This process brings space to the issues at hand, and in that space we are able to find healthy detachment and release. We’re able to finally let go. We are no longer consumed and tormented by the painful weight of our anger. The constant mental replay of the conflict starts to subside.

All that energy that once went to resentment is freed up to focus on joy and healing. Whether or not we ever reconcile the situation or resolve the conflict, we are giving ourselves love and care when we choose forgiveness. We are prioritizing our inner peace. We are choosing to be happy. As our energy shifts, we manifest more of the same- more relationships and experiences that make us happy. Making the choice to forgive is one of the best things we can do for our mental and emotional wellbeing.

We all need support during the recovery process. At Enlightened Solutions, we offer therapy, mentoring, trauma healing, recovery planning, and more. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Counting Our Blessings

Written by enlightened solutions on October 18, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

One of the major factors contributing to our mental health issues is our mindset. We often direct our energy towards thinking and feeling the things that cause us the most pain and fear. We can even become fixated on them. Examples include our tendency to dwell on the things we want but don’t have, the ways in which other people’s lives are better than ours, the situations in our lives we’re unhappy about. We engage in thought patterns that deplete us of our energy, bring us down and block our ability to think positively. We instinctively hold ourselves back and close ourselves off to happiness and healing.

Our subconscious minds are designed to keep us safe, but this sometimes translates into keeping us confined to the habitual thought patterns of lack and negativity, to keep us from expanding and pushing out of our comfort zones in search of something more. What would happen if instead of focusing on all that is wrong or difficult in our lives, we gave more energy to thinking about everything that is life-affirming, positive and beautiful?

We may have heard the advice to “count your blessings,” but we often pass this over or forget it altogether when we are struggling and caught up in our painful thoughts. Sometimes when we are depressed, we almost instinctively want to stay depressed, because it can be easier to stay in that place than to do the difficult work of tackling the mindsets that are keeping us stuck.

When we are ready to start pulling ourselves out of that place, we can implement changes that may seem small but which have hugely transformational effects. Counting our blessings is one of these tools that we can introduce to start changing our mentalities. You woke up today. That is a blessing. If your mind responds with thoughts like “well, I wish I hadn’t woken up at all, I wish I weren’t alive,” try to counter those thoughts with affirming reminders that you have the capability to heal. It takes time and practice, but it is so worth it. Did you have enough food to eat today? That is a blessing. Were you able to see the sky, the sun, trees, birds flying? Those are blessings.

We can choose to see anything in our lives as blessings, including our challenges. Depression is a blessing in that it forces us to heal our pain. Without depression, we might just ignore our pain and live an emotionless life. We could choose to see it as a catalyst for deeper healing.

Listing our blessings can ease our anxiety, help us to think more positively, and allow us to live in gratitude.

Changing our thought patterns is a powerful, effective tool for holistic healing. Call (833) 801-LIVE to get the support you need.

Self-Love – Not Sold in Stores

Written by enlightened solutions on October 17, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Healthy Living. Leave a Comment

Our addictions and mental health challenges are often a result of a deep self-hatred and painful feelings of inadequacy, shame and unworthiness. When we are working to recover from our issues, our focus is often on abstaining from our addictive behaviors and drugs of choice, but we’re missing a hugely important element of recovery if we don’t address our damaged self-esteem and chronic self-loathing.

When we’re trying to heal, one of the first things many of us try are pharmaceutical medications. While these can help balance the chemicals in our minds and get us out of crisis mode, they don’t heal the wounds that make us hate ourselves, wounds that are often contributing factors in our addictions and mental health problems in the first place. No pill can make us address the reasons why we feel so inadequate and unworthy. We have to do that for ourselves.

Therapy, writing and having a spiritual practice are all tools that can help us along our self-love journey. They allow us to connect with our real selves, our inner strength, the dreams and goals we had for ourselves before our problems made us forget them.

Medication is one of the many things we buy when we’re struggling to recover. We also spend money and energy accumulating beauty products, clothing, shoes, gadgets, even extra homes and cars, with the hope that the rush we get from them will help assuage our recurring feelings of self-doubt and self-hate. We hide behind makeup and status symbols. We go out partying too much. We spend frivolously. We use “retail therapy” to try to feel better when we are in pain.

Nothing we buy will make us love ourselves. No material object can make us feel good about ourselves. That work has to come from us. We have to be willing to really look at ourselves and our issues, with honesty and openness. We have to become more conscious of our thought patterns and life cycles. We have to address all of the factors that made us hate ourselves in the first place.

When it comes to our issues, whether it’s old stuff or new- lingering fears from childhood trauma, or a recent breakup- all of it impacts our feelings of self-worth. We might be tempted to try to skip the difficult part of recovery, because it can be painful and scary to look at ourselves and our lives honestly, and we might find ourselves using material goods as a crutch or distraction. As we learn more about recovery and what that means for our lives, we realize our self-worth has to come from within. When we’re ready to do the work, we experience healing that is far more liberating than anything we can buy.

We’re never totally alone in our recovery. Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Writing to Cope with Anxiety

Written by enlightened solutions on October 16, 2018. Posted in Alternative Therapy, Mental Health. Leave a Comment

An important part of our recovery process is learning how to handle our anxiety. Many of us with addictions and mental health issues experience anxiety on a regular basis. Our addictive behaviors are often an attempt to relieve our anxiety, and when we have go-to coping mechanisms, it is often anxiety we’re trying to cope with.

Writing is a very effective, therapeutic tool to help calm our anxiety. There is no right or wrong way to go about it. Use a journal, notebook, phone or computer to write everything that comes to mind- everything you’re worried about, all the pent-up fears you’re holding onto, all the anxious recurring thoughts you’re having a hard time letting go of.

As we write, we allow the energy to flow freely, energy that we have been storing in our minds, hearts and bodies for years. When this negative energy is stuck within us, it creates all kinds of blockages. Anxiety is one of the many symptoms of our energy blockages.

If you pay attention to how anxiety feels in your body, you might notice that the energy feels like restless tension, nervousness or panic fluttering through your body. Our normal coping mechanisms such as our drugs of choice and addictive behaviors don’t make these feelings actually go away, they just provide us with a temporary distraction from our anxiety. All the while it’s still within us, growing stronger the more we don’t face it head on. When we allow this energy to flow in healthy ways on the other hand, we loosen its grip on us, and we give ourselves a chance to let the painful symptoms recede naturally.

Writing is an actual coping mechanism in that it can actually help us to cope. We aren’t burying our anxiety, distracting ourselves from it, numbing it, or self-medicating to avoid it. We are consciously dealing with it, which allows us the opportunity to heal it.

Writing is a meditative process. It allows us to connect with our inner voice and higher power. As we write, we often feel a sense of calm come over us. When we are filled with anxiety, our minds can be filled with noise and clutter, limiting beliefs and painful thought patterns. Writing can help quiet all of that. It is in that quiet space that healing energy can come to us. When we allow ourselves to be open to that healing, it flows through us, and writing is a powerful tool to help in that process.

Enlightened Solutions can help you explore healing tools that will support you in your recovery. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Finding Our Passions – Illuminating Our Recovery

Written by enlightened solutions on October 15, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction Recovery. Leave a Comment

Sometimes when we’re struggling with addictions and mental health issues we understandably are super focused on the addictions and issues themselves- our drugs of choice, our depression and anxiety, our relapses and failed attempts to quit. What we focus our attention on, however, we tend to amplify with our energy. If we are consumed with thoughts of using, it becomes increasingly difficult to stop thinking about using. If we are obsessed with relapsing, we become more likely to relapse.

One approach we can include in our recovery is switching focus from the behaviors we don’t want to continue to new behaviors that serve us better. We are more apt to stay away from things that are unhealthy and self-destructive when we have other things to replace them.

When we have spent years of our lives embroiled in our addictive cycles and mental illnesses, we can feel totally lost and confused. We don’t know what our future holds, and that can be scary and overwhelming. We have a hard time remembering who we used to be before our difficulties took hold of our lives. How do we find new replacement behaviors that make us happy? How do we figure out what our passions are?

What makes your soul sing and your heart smile? What makes you feel like you’ve come alive, like you’re glad to be alive, like you’re excited to live? It can be hard to figure out when we’re inundated with painful, fearful thoughts and feelings, but we owe it to ourselves to try. Dig deep.

What do you love about yourself? What did you love to do before the issues took over? We all have unique gifts and talents. They don’t disappear just because we are struggling. In fact, our pain can help lead us back to our gifts because they very often are therapeutic and help us to cope. What kinds of things could you do that make you feel empowered, that make you happy, that bring light and peace to your heart?

Start reintroducing these things into your life. Allow yourself to give yourself that gift. Maybe you love being around animals or spending time in nature. Maybe you love music, art or dance. Maybe you love being of service to other people. Whatever it is, you can find a class, group, online resource or volunteer opportunity that helps you to explore it further.

The more we feed our passions and prioritize things that make us genuinely feel good, the easier it is to replace our addictive and self-destructive behaviors with these healthier things. This can be powerfully transformative for our healing and recovery.

A main focus in recovery at Enlightened Solutions is the idea of holistic healing. Call (833) 801-LIVE for more information.

Listening to Our Inner Voice

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

When we are ready to stop our self-destructive cycles, we choose to prioritize our wellbeing and finally listen to the voice inside of us that has been trying to guide us in that direction all along. This means strengthening our intuition and strengthening our connection to our higher power and its power within us. Listening to our inner voice is so important for our healing.

One way to listen for it and recognize it is to feel a connection to our hearts and spirits. Our inner voice is our higher power speaking through us. We will feel instinctively when it’s speaking to us because it will feel like a higher truth, a reflection of our best self. It will carry with it love, compassion and understanding. It will feel separate and different from the fearful thoughts of the limiting beliefs stored in our subconscious minds. It will feel like a strong, resonant energy directing us in a positive, self-loving direction. Sometimes we can differentiate our intuition from our fears because the latter tend to deplete our energy while our inner voice often energizes us. It provides clarity, guidance and strength, while our fears make us feel confused, overwhelmed, sad and afraid. It is filled with the light of our higher power, and that light is within us no matter how much we might diminish it with our addictive thoughts and behaviors.

Our intuition is strengthened every time we practice listening for it. Meditation helps with this process immensely. It allows us to quiet all the conflicting, overwhelming, distracting noise of our ego minds so that we can more easily listen for the truth of our hearts and spirits. Our inner voice is associated with our third eye chakra, located between and slightly above our two eyes. Try imagining there is an actual eye located in this spot, and visualize it opening. You can also try visualizing healing light emanating from your third eye and extending to the rest of your being, as well as entering your third eye from your higher power. These visualization exercises can help us to open our third eye which is often closed due to all the emotional and psychological blockages we experience. The more we meditate and learn to quiet our minds, the stronger our inner voice becomes.

We also strengthen our intuition when we choose to follow the messages it is sending us. All too often we ignore this important guidance, but every time we choose to follow it instead, it grows stronger and clearer. With time, hearing our intuition with clarity and following it decisively becomes second nature.

There is so much holistic wisdom we can learn to help us along in our recovery. At Enlightened Solutions we have years of experience supporting people, and we want to help you. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Ignoring Our Inner Voice

Written by enlightened solutions on October 11, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction. Leave a Comment

As people struggling with addictions and mental health issues, so much of what we do on a regular basis drowns out our connection to our intuition or inner voice. Oftentimes we are covering it up with our drugs of choice and addictive behaviors. Our addictive thought patterns and limiting beliefs can be so loud and disturbing that they essentially overpower our inner voice. Oftentimes it is really difficult to hear our inner voice, other times we choose to ignore it. Sometimes we’re in denial or prideful. Sometimes we’re naïve and haven’t yet learned how vital it is not to ignore our instincts. Sometimes we’re so embarrassed and ashamed of our addictions and mental health issues that we don’t want to hear what our inner voice has to say. Sometimes we’re simply afraid to face our truth.

It can be hard to recognize our inner voice amongst all the competing thoughts in our minds, most of which can be negative and self-destructive. We find ourselves totally preoccupied with criticizing ourselves and others, passing judgments and beating ourselves up. Our minds have a tendency to be dominated by thoughts of our worst fears. We develop limiting beliefs that reinforce these fears and convince us that they are true.

When we are caught in cycles of addiction, depression, anxiety and/or abuse, our intuition will sometimes feel like a persistent, nagging voice constantly reminding us of the harsh realities of what we’re going through, and imploring us to do what is best for ourselves. We might hear it telling us to get help, to leave that person who is abusing us, to prioritize our safety, to quit using. We tend to ignore it because it contradicts what we think we want in that moment- the drug or relationship or compulsion that we have become dependent upon.

Over time that voice gets louder and more forcefully persistent. The more we ignore it, the more depressed we become. We know we’re avoiding the truth, and we often feel a growing sense of fear and dread anticipating the moment when the truth finally catches up with us. We might feel frustrated with ourselves for being in this situation. We often feel a combination of all kinds of difficult emotions, including but not limited to sadness, shame, overwhelm and confusion, all of which can make us to want to ignore our inner voice even more because we’re not yet willing to face the painful truth.

If you’re living with addictions and mental health issues, it can be hard to know where to turn for support. Enlightened Solutions has years of experience helping people recover. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Growing in Self-Love

Written by enlightened solutions on October 10, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction. Leave a Comment

Those of us struggling with addictions and mental health issues often have in common a belief that we are inadequate, shameful and unworthy. Oftentimes we are filled with self-hatred that compounds, perpetuates and exacerbates our difficulties. We hear about self-love and maybe we know we ought to love ourselves, but how do we go about finding self-love?

We are not just our addictions, our drugs of choice, our behaviors and thoughts. We are not just our mistakes and wrongdoings. Underneath all of that, and including all that, we are beautiful manifestations of our higher power in human form. Before and after we became addicts and/or mentally ill, we were unique, special, strong and powerful. We have unique gifts and talents to share with the world, whether or not we are conscious yet of what they are. One way to grow in self-love is to focus our energy on finding that beautiful soul within us. Our souls are the essence of who we are. Our fears and pain don’t destroy our souls, in fact they can be a source of strength and empowerment if we allow them to be.

How can we strengthen and empower ourselves? With self-love. Every day, as often as possible, tell yourself things like “I love you. I believe in you. You are strong. You are resilient. You are healing.” Look in the mirror and repeat these words. This can be hard to do. When we hate ourselves, sometimes we can’t stand to even look at our own reflection. Give these exercises as much of your energy as you can. Try to infuse your energy with hope, faith and optimism. Start to work to shed the limiting beliefs you have about yourself. Use positive, self-loving affirmations to reprogram your subconscious mind.

See your addictions and mental health issues as one part of yourself, not the entirety of your identity. Love yourself for all of it, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Love yourself for not giving up. Love yourself for still trying. Love yourself for seeking help. Love yourself for getting out of bed today. Love and forgive yourself for your shortcomings, mistakes and wrongs. All of it makes up the wholeness of who you are, and you deserve love because of it, not despite it. You survived to tell the stories, and every day is a chance to learn, do better and move forward.

See yourself the way your higher power sees you, a flawed human being who is perfectly imperfect but perfect nonetheless. Finding ways to love ourselves unconditionally, and to love all the parts of ourselves, is crucial to our healing and recovery.

We’re here to help you along your healing journey. Call Enlightened Solutions at (833) 801-LIVE.

Depression is a Form of Trauma

Written by enlightened solutions on October 9, 2018. Posted in Mental Health, Recovery. Leave a Comment

Sometimes we think of our trauma as specific incidents from our past such as painful childhood experiences, injuries we’ve sustained, or abusive relationships we’ve survived. We might not think of our depressions as a form of trauma, but they definitely are. Many of us experience recurring depressions, cyclical depression and bipolar depression. Every occurrence of depression, even one isolated episode, can be extremely traumatic and destabilizing.

Depression is often accompanied by intense anxiety and panic. Our fears can cause us considerable pain and distress and are traumatic in and of themselves. When we are consumed with fear, we often adopt a fear-based perspective about everything- our thoughts, who we are as people, the world around us, our future. We can find ourselves afraid to leave our homes, venture out into the world, and be around other people. We isolate ourselves out of fear. We don’t necessarily question our fears and whether or not they are rational because they can be all-consuming, and we come to believe them to be true. This accumulation of fear can be traumatizing. The isolation we feel, the lack of support we so desperately need, and our disconnection from other people can all be traumatizing.

Because we attract things into our lives with the energy we carry, when we are depressed, we are manifesting with an energy of sadness and fear. We therefore find ourselves attracting more thoughts, feelings, relationships and experiences that reflect this painful energy. We often respond to these new manifestations with the same sadness and fear- we panic, we feel like we’re being hit from all sides, like we’re being kicked when we’re down. We feel like we’ll never be able to dig ourselves out of the hole. This build-up of more and more difficult challenges can be traumatizing.

We often come to believe that our addictions and mental health issues are proof that we are inadequate, weak, pathetic, and destined to suffer. We create all kinds of limiting beliefs about ourselves, and our painful thought patterns reflecting these beliefs can be so relentless we feel like we can’t escape the pain of our own minds. Our psyches are in distress. We might panic at the thought of having to live within these minds for the rest of our lives. All of this can be traumatic.

As we embark on our healing journeys, we can choose to feel compassion and understanding for ourselves and for the suffering we’ve experienced, rather than belittling or dismissing just how traumatic our depressions can be.

We offer therapy, mentoring, recovery planning and more at Enlightened Solutions. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Finding the Courage to be Honest with Ourselves

Written by enlightened solutions on October 8, 2018. Posted in 12 Step Program, Addiction. Leave a Comment

When it comes to our addictions and mental health issues, many of the problems we experience are due to the fact that we are afraid to face the truth. We are in denial about how severe our problems are. We may not have come to terms yet with the challenges we are facing. Recovery from our deep-rooted issues means finding the courage to be honest with ourselves.

When we are struggling internally, we sometimes tend to focus outwardly because our pain can be too much to bear. We blame our issues on other people in our lives, our traumatic childhoods, or past experiences. We distract ourselves from our inner turmoil with our drugs of choice, addictive behaviors and thought patterns, and relationships. We transfer our hurt onto other situations and people in our lives. Healing requires that we be able to look inward and focus on healing our inner world. This can be terrifying. We’re up against fears and traumas that have been causing us pain for much of our lives. How do we muster the courage?

We can start by changing the limiting belief we have that our pain is unbearable. It might feel unbearable, but we are strong enough to get through it. We have to believe in our strength to overcome our challenges and in our power to heal. We are capable of transcending anything and everything that limits us. Oftentimes what holds us back most are our own thoughts and beliefs about ourselves. Let’s start affirming that we are stronger than our pain. To create new beliefs for ourselves that are self-affirming and self-empowering, we can repeat affirmations such as “I am strong. I am brave. I have the power to heal myself.”

We can also begin to question the beliefs we’ve carried about ourselves that we are weak and unable to cope. Just because we’ve struggled with addictions and mental health issues does not mean we are not strong. It means we have been given unique, difficult challenges that are ours to overcome when we find our strength. The default thought patterns of our thinking minds are often so negative, self-critical and self-hating that we have come to believe what they tell us. We can choose to focus our attention on the messages from our hearts and spirits instead. Our higher power, and its power manifested within us, knows we possess the strength and courage to heal ourselves.

Give yourself the gift of support during your recovery. Let Enlightened Solutions be part of your support team. Call (833) 801-LIVE.

Tag: Recovery