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

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

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

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

• What are the body signals? Some possibilities are stomach pain, neck tension, or headaches.

• What are the mental signals? Perhaps you begin to have a repetitive thought pattern or begin to excessively think abou the past or future.

• What are the emotional signals? Do you detach? Or do become excessively angry?

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

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

• Perspective: the bridge between anxiety and excitement is mostly built upon bricks of opportunity.  Begin to train yourself to look for the opportunity with that causing your anxiety. 

• Medicine: once you are aware of your cues, you can use these to build tools by taking opposite actions.  For example, if your pattern is to become angry when anxious, teach yourself how to release anger with more ease.  

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

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers a harmonious approach to holistic treatment, bringing together the best of evidence-based, alternative, and 12-step therapies. Call us today for information on our transformation programs of treatment for addiction and alcoholism: 844-234-LIVE.

Tips for Managing PTSD

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

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

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

The Frozen Lemon

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

Making the Image Black and White

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

Changing the Position

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

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:

844-234-LIVE.

The Mental Cost of Eating Disorders

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:

844-234-LIVE.
 

Is There a Spiritual Side to Depression?

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.  

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:

844-234-LIVE.

Experiential Learning Makes Better Leaders, Employees, People

There are three different primary learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinetic. Some people learn best by seeing- like reading a book, while others learn best by listening, as in through a lecture. Many people learn kinetically which means they have to participate hands on in order to fully grasp the topic. Going to treatment to recover from mental health issues like addiction, depression, or impulse control problems is a learning process. Clients are learning how to get in touch with their minds and bodies to manage stress, regulate emotions, and become more independent in their decision making. Experiential learning offers a hybrid of all three learning techniques as clients are often shown how to do a task or participate in a challenge, hear instructions and suggestions, then have to get hands-on and participate. Experiential learning is proven to be more impactful to create long lasting knowledge. For those in recovery, this is priceless- drug and alcohol abuse, for example, creates cognitive impairments, which damages the ability to create and retain new knowledge.

Immersive, Experiential Learning Encourages Teamwork

Clients are thrust into a present-moment, hands-on experience in which communication, strategizing, and critical problem-solving are key. Recovery is about making connections and fostering new healthy relationships. Addiction and alcoholism can be incredibly isolating, damaging a client’s ability to make or maintain healthy relationships. Nothing brings people together like having to work together in the heat of a life experience.

Experiential Learning Inspires Realistic Reflection

A key component of experiential learning is reflection. After being in a real-time situation, clients get the opportunity to take a step back and use mindfulness techniques to become aware of their attitudes, behaviors, and actions during the experiential experience. Reflection is critical for life development because it is a sign of cognitive development and moving out of the self. Addiction and alcoholism are largely non-consequential, meaning someone who is struggling with drug and alcohol abuse has a hard time grasping the consequences of their behavior. Reflection shows insight and consideration toward what works and what doesn’t, which is essential for growth.

Life Is An Experience

Life doesn’t happen in lectures, podcasts, self-help books, and activities. Material supplements for learning are supposed to empower handling life in a real, experiential situation. Life is meant to be lived in harmonious balance, which is what we teach with our mind, body, spirit approach at Enlightened Recovery Solutions.

For information on our partial care programs for addiction and alcoholism,
call us today: 888-234-LIVE

Ways To Use The Internet To Help Someone Calm Down

There’s parts about our popular, modern culture which are often overlooked when we discuss helping someone else. We opt for more clinically sound, evidence-based forms of helping like distraction, encouragement, reminding, and helping someone breathe. What we forget to take into consideration are the nuances of mainstream internet culture which can actually be quite calming and even inspire a laugh. The next time you’re in a position to support someone experiencing anxiety, high amounts of stress, or another form of panic, try some of these approaches.

Make It Rain Cats And Dogs

There’s little arguing with the cuteness of animals, especially cats and dogs. Thankfully, the internet is full of celebrations of animals of all ages and kinds. When someone needs a reminder of all that is good in the world, there are few truths as honest as a fluffy puppy, a little kitten, or a baby animal of some other kind. Send GIF’s, moving images, memes, photos, and video montages. You might not know what to say or how to be the best support- but you’ve got the internet and the internet has a lot of animal pictures.

Let Them Know, You Know What They Meme

While you may not feel like you have the best response to what someone is going through, you can be guaranteed someone on the internet has recorded the exact facial expression on someone else who does. Memes are a popular part of internet media that use a popular image with text that creates new context for the image. Memes seem to be a way for people to express what might not be otherwise expressible, but easiest to relate to from other people. In psychology, a meme is something that is passed on from one individual to another through imitation, rather than something genetic. Memes are the new way of saying “I get it” by exchanging an imitation of “it” represented through a meme.

#NowPlaying On Spotify

Spotify, Youtube, and other streaming sources are open encyclopedias for songs and videos. On Spotify, you can choose a mood or a genre and find the perfect song to help get someone through. Through Youtube you can find songs, videos, inspirational talks, or pieces of comedy to help lighten the mood. Lyrics, sounds, narratives, and entertainment are all healthy distractions. Music can serve as music therapy which is gaining scientific recognition for being an effective way to manage stress and heal.

Enlightened Solutions brings together traditional treatment with modern and holistic treatment to provide an integrative approach to healing mind, body, and spirit. Offering hope through laughter, spiritual exploration, and calming environments, our compassionate therapy helps free the traps of addiction.

For information, call us today: 844-234-LIVE.

There are More F’s to Fight, Flight, or Freeze

Fight or flight- we’re familiar with the two part systematic response to threats, which is just our response to stress and fear. There are many more responses than just fighting or taking flight.

Fight: Our most innate response type might be fight. When we are threatened, we are inspired, if only for a moment, to fight back and do something. Many people are caught off-guard by their strong desire to fight. They take action they wouldn’t expect themselves to take. Sometimes we fight by actually, physically fighting. Other times we fight by sticking up for ourselves verbally. Whatever it is we are doing, we are doing some kind of action defensively against a real or perceived threat.

Flight: Our flight response is one of our more animalistic responses. Rabbits, for example, have evolved to be fast so they can escape quick predators like foxes, who are also evolved to be fast. When we cannot fight, or we don’t connect to another response form, we take flight, meaning, we run. People can experience in an unhealthy way when they become conflict-avoidant entirely and never stand up for themselves or fight in any way.

Freeze: Threats, real or perceived, can be shocking. Instead of fighting or running, threat can create a deer in the headlights sort of response. Another animal that uses this response, often to its own demise, is the possum. When being approached by a car or a human, a possum will fall over and play dead. Freezing is a sign that the brain cannot process what is happening so it simply goes into shock until it can decide what to do next.

Flood: Comedy movies tend to use a situation like this to make light out of a dangerous situation. A group might be held hostage or encounter a dangerous situation. Each character embodies a different response, often including one who breaks into hysterics. Catching the perpetrator off guard, the individual can’t help themselves but get overly emotional. This is the flooding effect where we are flooded with emotions which need to be released.

Fawn: As a verb, the word fawn means to act in an exaggerated way “in order to gain favor or advantage”. Fawn is most often used in this way in a statement like “They fawned over the celebrity”. For someone facing a threat, to fawn is to strategically, or perhaps subconsciously, submit to the threat and the demands of the threat. In order to avoid hurt, pain, more fear, or other consequence, fawning is an answer.

Fatigue: Lastly is the least well known response to a threat. When the body and the brain are so overwhelmed by stress, the response to fear, the body can shut down. Fatigue is total exhaustion of mind and body. Some people become very sleepy in the face of threat and feel like the only thing they can do is sleep.

Learning to live sober is one thing. Learning to thrive in recovery is another. Our integrative programs offer compassionate therapy in a comfortable and soothing environment for those who feel trapped in a life controlled by drugs and alcohol. Enlightened Solutions offers partial care programs which fully integrate spirituality, holistic healing, clinically proven therapy, and 12 step philosophy.

For information call us today, 844-234-LIVE.

5 of the Most Common, Unhealthy Ways People Cope with Grief and Loss

1. They turn to external substances/processes to heal their internal pain: Drugs and alcohol are a choice for self-medication to people in any number of circumstances. Quite literally, drugs and alcohol are anesthetics and analgesics. Meaning, many different substances like alcohol and opiates, actually numb pain. Searching for an external way to heal internal pain will always be temporary. It takes internal emotional work to heal emotional pain. Whether it is sex, drugs, gambling, risk taking, thrill seeking, spending, or other forms of self-sabotage, they will only ever temporarily heal the pain.

2. They don’t give themselves any time to process their emotions: Time heals all wounds, it is said. Grief and loss takes time, which isn’t always linear. There are days of feeling so good people think they are finally “better” than they have been, only to be disappointed by days of difficult and challenging emotions once more. People expect their emotions to run on the demands of their mind. Unfortunately, that’s not how emotions work, especially not grief and loss.

3. They isolate themselves from others who want to support them: There is a challenge in surrounding oneself by others during time of grief and loss. Initially, everyone is grieving in some way. People who are at the center of loss are often burdened with carrying everyone else’s grief. Rather than be able to heal themselves, they have to focus on consoling others. When months or years have gone by and the grief cycle hasn’t completed, it could be because one has turned to isolation in order to wallow in their grief without resolution.

4. They stop taking care of themselves: Self-care is important for every phase and occasion of life. Life is full of ups and downs, celebrations and disappointments, gains and losses. Throughout every twist and turn, self-care is a way to stay centered and stable in recovery and in all areas of life. Hygiene, eating, sleeping, health, and wellness must continue to be a priority.

5. They forget to take grief and loss one day at a time: Grief is a process with many stages that repeat, in no particular order, over and over again. Each day in the process of grieving, sometimes each hour, is an adventure and a process. Everything can change in a short amount of time. For that reason, it is important to take the process of grief just one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, and assess it all as it comes instead of trying to jump ahead. There is a saying used in recovery, stop trying to skip the struggle. Each moment of struggle is full of wisdom you need to move forward toward the next struggles to come.

Your recovery starts with you. Start your recovery with us. Enlightened Solutions offers individualized partial care treatment programs for men and women seeking to recover from drug and alcohol addiction as well as co-occurring mental health issues. Bringing a harmonious blend of holistic, clinical, and 12 step care, our programs transform mind, body, and spirit for a transcendental experience.

For information, call us today 844-234-LIVE.

Manifestations Of Depression You Might Not Know About

Depression is a globally experienced mental health condition which many live with, without knowing they have it. You might be coping with depression without knowing you’ve been living with depression if you’re acting out in some of these ways.

Instant Gratification

Living with depression can feel inescapable. The present moment is so overwhelming with feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness, melancholy, and more, that someone living with depression just wants to feel better now. This is why depression is so commonly co-occurring with drug and alcohol addiction. Though many drugs are depressants, which could make depression symptoms feel worse, the euphoria that drugs and alcohol temporarily provide is enough inspiration to continue finding that relief, until an addiction forms. People living with depression are misconceived as couch potatoes or unable to get out of bed. While this is a very common experience of depression, it is not the only experience of depression. Very active, impulsive, reckless behavior which desperately seeks instant gratification is also common in depression. Doing things to feel better, or to at least feel differently, will be given priority over any consideration of the long-run.

Anger Problems

Anger might seem too intense of an emotion to fit into the typical characterization of depression. Depression can be something to be angry out. Emotions run high in depression. When someone does not have the tools or techniques for coping with high levels of depression, they can feel burdened by their intense emotions, and act out intensely. Anger is a manifestation of misplaced sadness and fear. Living with depression means living with a heavy amount of sadness and it can also feel scary. Not having control over your emotions can get a bit maddening.

Overworking

Depression is well known for creating low energy and a lack of motivation. Lethargy, boredom, and feeling unable or uninterested in being productive is common in depression. Another way people cope with their depression is by doing the opposite. Staying busy, keeping a full schedule, and overworking are similar activities to using drugs and alcohol to cope- they offer an escape from emotion by providing a way to focus on experiencing other feelings.

Strange Emotions

“Affect” refers to “emotion or desire, especially as influencing behavior or action”. Depression can cause strange emotions or affect, meaning an inappropriate display of emotion. Most common is feeling or expressing the “wrong” emotion at the “wrong” time. Instead of displaying sadness, there might be laughter. Instead of displaying offense there might be agreeing.

If you are turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with your depression, there are other ways to heal. We know how it feels to feel completely out of control. Your recovery starts with you. Start your recovery with Enlightened Solutions in Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Our beautiful and serene campus offers integrative programs individually designed to meet the needs of mind, body, and spirit. For information, call us today: 844-234-LIVE

5 Ways to Approach Your Inner Critic with Compassion

Everyone has an inner critic with whom they either feud or forgive. Here are five ways to approach your inner critic with compassion.

1. Once you hear it, breathe it out: The appearance of the inner critic can be intimidating and overwhelming. Many of us feel abused by this voice because it tends to lean toward the negative side of life, hence the name “critic”. Our first response has been, for many years, to numb out this inner critic or act out against it. We used drugs and alcohol to prove the inner critic wrong- and to prove the inner critic right. To begin developing an approach of compassion to our inner critic, we have to begin with the breath. By beginning with the breath we can bring ourselves to a compassionate center where we are calm and steady in order to respond to our inner critic rather than react. We start to mindfully become aware of what our inner critical voice is saying and what we are hearing from it. Without judging or labeling our awareness, we can start to understand it.

2. Work with your therapist to identify the voice: We are not born with an inner critical voice. In fact, we are not born with a voice at all. We develop our consciousness and our inner narrative over time, taking cues from the people and environment around us. Our inner critical voices are usually formed by people who have criticized us in different ways. We develop a narrative of criticism based on beliefs, which are based on the actions and words of others. Themes like worthlessness are common, formed by various beliefs which have been demonstrated to us over time. Working with a therapist, we can identify the different forms the inner critic takes on- for example, the critical parent, critical teacher, or critical coach.

3. Step out of self by being of service to others: Living inside the head, the inner critical voice gains its power by keeping you trapped within your thoughts. Through recovery we learn that one of the best ways to get out of one’s head is to get into someone else’s. Meaning, being of service by listening to someone else is a good way to get out of your own thoughts while helping someone with their own. You’ll notice that you can hear the presence of another voice in other people’s woes. Being aware of your struggle with your own inner voice, you can have compassion for others’ experience with theirs, helping you in turn have more compassion for your inner voice.

4. Have a conversation with your inner critic: Most often, the inner critical voice wants something it believes it isn’t getting. Whatever the expectations are that were set by the original owner of the criticism continue living on in your head. Your experiences in recovery are teaching you acceptance by learning how to accept where you are at and what you have at any given moment.

5. Have compassion for your inner critic: Conversing with your inner critic means not shaming or blaming the voice, but showing it compassion. You know how it feels to live with high expectations which feel real. Learn to recognize that the person who that critical voice belongs to must have suffered from their own critical voice as well. Separating yourself from the voice and the potential generations of voices which created it you can have compassion for it and love it out of existence.

Enlightened Solutions wants to offer you a safe environment of compassionate healing where you start your journey to recovery with integrative care. Fusing together holistic, alternative, and clinical practices with 12 step philosophy, our partial care programs create a system for transformation and transcendence.

Call us today for more information: 844-234-LIVE

6 Natural Ways To Cope With Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural human experience which can become overwhelming without the right coping skills. Here are six ways to cope with anxiety naturally, as a normal part of life.

1. Move your body more often: Anxiety is energy caused by the production of stress hormones as part of the fight-flight-or-freeze response. Only, anxiety worsens because of this response instead of resolves. The more the brain and the body think it is in danger the worse anxiety becomes. Moving your body regularly helps use anxious energy which is constantly present. During an anxiety attack, it is helpful to walk around, jump up and down, or even dance with the limbs all loose to move the energy.

2. Use food as medicine: Food is healing. Sugary foods are stimulant foods which will make the anxious brain more hyperactive than it needs to be. Caffeine is also a stimulant which will hype up the anxious mind instead of calming it down. Both caffeine and sugar create a peak of energy followed by a crash of low energy. Anxiety is a high energy experience. Crashing into low energy can actually trigger more anxiety. Instead of processed foods which contain sugar, opt for a whole food diet which will give your body and your mind more vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Mental health disorders like anxiety are especially helped by foods which contain Omega-3 fatty acids, Turmeric (Curcumin), and Vitamin D.

3. Take vitamins and mineral supplements: Taking an extra supplement to support intake of Omegas, Vitamin D and other essential nutrients can be helpful for recovering from anxiety. Magnesium and calcium help create calm in the brain and the body, which can help with anxiety.

4. Look at more than your screen: Did you know that there is a blue light behind the screen of your phone that’s supposed to mimic daylight? Staring at your screen too much actually stimulates your brain, which can be problematic when you’re living with anxiety. Take time to look away from your phone and your computer so that your brain has a chance to reset itself.

5. Meditate: Meditation is an evidence-based practice for reducing symptoms of stress, which can include symptoms of anxiety and depression. Taking quiet time to focus on the breath and let go of thought processes helps unwind anxious thinking will creating more space for calm and centeredness.

6. Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a form of meditation but it is also separate from meditation. The practice of mindfulness includes noticing your thoughts, becoming aware of your feelings, and learning to pay attention, without judgement. Mindfulness calms down the sympathetic nervous system, which can play a role in anxiety.

If you feel that your anxiety is out of control and it is influencing an addiction to drugs or alcohol, there is healing available. We are here to meet you with empathy and compassion as you start your journey to recover. Start with partial care at Enlightened Solutions in New Jersey where we create comprehensive integrative programs combining clinical, holistic, and alternative approaches to treatment.

844-234-LIVE

Ways To Bring More Mindfulness Into Your Day

It’s about connection and coming to present gratitude with your current environment and conditions. Here are 10 ways to enhance your experience of mindfulness throughout the day, no matter where you are.

Walk Around

Even on an airplane, you have an ability to stand and walk up and down the aisle. Mindfulness can be as easy as changing your environment, even just a few feet away. By changing your immediate physical and visual fields, your mind is forced to become more present and actively notice what is going on around you. You’ll find a boost in awareness and a shift in your energy.

Get Green (Or Blue)

Green and blue energy are healing for the chakras of the heart and the mind. Neuroscientific research has found that spending a small portion of your day near any blue or green environment has a tremendous effect on reducing stress in mind and body. Trees, grass, bushes, a small pond, waterfall, lake, or even the ocean, is the perfect place to take a break from work, eat a meal, or just spend some quiet time.

Focus One Thing At A Time

In recovery there is a popular saying to take things one day at a time. For mindfulness, it is best to focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is a chronic problem in the modern world. Brain researchers have revealed that there really isn’t such a thing as multitasking in the brain, but rapid task-switching which is less effective than you think it is. Mindfully put your attention and present-awareness toward one thing at a time. You’ll notice you get more done, have more energy, and feel more aware of what you are doing.

Use Your Vocal Chords

Sound therapy is a healing modality because it uses the natural vibrations of harmonizing sound to resonate energy throughout the body. Humans are gifted with their very own sound box- their voice. Singing, reading, or talking aloud is helpful in two ways. First, you can use mindfulness to become more aware of what you’re doing. Verbalizing the thoughts in your head can make them real, instead of ideas, and often take away any stress which might be associated with them. Second, the vibrations of your voice are healing for your body.

Mindfulness is an evidence-based practice, demonstrated to reduce the symptoms of addiction and enhance recovery. Our programs for partial care encourage clients to be enlightened in their approach to life, addiction, and recovery. Blending evidence-based, healing, and alternative practices, the programs at Enlightened Solutions offer a comprehensive approach to integrative care.

For information, call us today: 844-234-LIVE

Responding To Fact, Not Feeling, When It Comes To Body Image

There is a growing movement of empowerment and awareness when it comes to discussing the fragile topic of body image. Most often, the topic of body image includes the topic of body weight. Recovery from eating disorders, addictions and other mental health issues is often a journey for the body as well as the mind. There might be weight loss or weight gain, depending on what the individual body needs to go through. For example, though cocaine is a stimulant and often creates weight loss, long term cocaine addicts tend to put on a lot of weight called “cocaine bloat”. Each body is unique and different. Supporting the physical journey of recovery as the supporter of someone on that journey can be a challenge in knowing the right thing to say.

Body image and especially comments about body image are deeply impactful on mental health. Your loved one is working hard to create healthy and supportive narratives in their mind which frame their relationship with themselves in the most positive way possible. It takes time and effort to recreate and redefine an entire vocabulary about self, body, image, weight, appearance, and more. One writer at Refinery29 puts it the most simply: there is no right way to use the triggering terms about body image. The author explains that saying something about body changes now indicates there was something negative about body-state in the past, which continues to reinforce the narrative of good vs bad, right vs wrong, and beautiful vs not beautiful regarding body and self. Instead of addressing the details, the author suggests, address the feelings.

Feelings about body image typically land in one of two areas: positive or negative. Most everyone can identify at least a small amount with both. There are days when you feel “good” about yourself and days when you feel “not good” about yourself, as manifested through the physical body. Focus on the positivity or negativity and relate empathetically to that feeling experience instead of on the physical experience. On a good day when someone is expressing pride or excitement about their body, they might use terms about feeling beautiful, skinnier, thinner, confident, or others. Offer a word of support in feeling good about feeling good and how positive it can be to feel positive, without noting anything physical. On a less positive day when someone is expressing lament toward their physical body, offer empathy and compassion to the struggle of physical changes and feeling down, without noting anything physical. This is important for your loved one’s recovery as they learn the lessons affiliated with the philosophy that fat is not a feeling. The emotional state is not dictated by the physical state. By slyly avoiding commentary on the physical state you help direct your loved one back to the emotional.

If you or someone you love is feeling controlled by body image, eating disorder, and other mental health issues, we believe there is healing available to you. Enlightened Solutions offers a path to holistic healing that is available to everyone regardless of the details. Our programs harmoniously balance clinical, holistic, alternative, and 12 step treatment, offering men and women a transformational partial care experience.

Call us today for information: 844-234-LIVE

3 Proven Methods To Reduce Anxiety When You’re In a Clutch

Anxiety can feel unmanageable when it is at its worst. For many, alcohol is a trigger for using drugs and alcohol to cope. Before turning to self destructive behaviors, try one of these three methods.

Stop What You’re Doing And Focus On Your Breath

Anxiety builds when the brain and the body lose connection to one another. As the brain continues to put forth signals of anxiety through hormone production of cortisol and adrenaline, the body reacts. Increased heart rate, dizziness, hyperventilation, and other physical symptoms can worsen the experience of anxiety until they are resolved. One of the quickest ways to resolve the physical symptoms of anxiety is to start focusing on your breath. If your anxiety is climaxing no matter what you do, stop doing anything. Focus purely on breathing. Place a hand on your abdomen and a hand on your chest to feel the rise and fall of your diaphragm as you continue to breathe. Breathing will slow down your heart, which will help your brain relax as you pump more controlled oxygen to it. You don’t have to breathe “mindfully”, though you will be inherently by focusing on your breath, and you don’t have to meditate, though it will already be a form of meditating. All you have to do is breathe until you feel your muscles start to relax.

Don’t Interact With Technology For 10 Minutes

Technology is causing more anxiety that society is truly prepared for. The blue lights behind the screens of digital devices stimulates the brain to be more awake. There are many apps for smartphones and other digital devices which are effective in anxiety management. Apps for anxiety, mood, mindfulness, and meditation can all help with anxiety. Sometimes, interacting with the app instead of the natural environment can be too much. Instead of trying to find relief through the phone, find relief through your natural environment. As you focus on your breathing, look at the sky, look at your feet on the ground, or look at a fixed object you feel safe looking at. Giving your eyes and your brain a break will help with the anxiety.

Move Your Body, Preferably Outdoors

Adrenaline and cortisol give the body all the anxious energy it needs to fight or run. Part of the fight-or-flight response, these stress hormones give the body the edge it needs to act quickly and efficiently in order to survive. During anxiety, however, they can feel paralyzing, preventing the body from doing anything. To get rid of the stagnant energy, it's important to move the body as much as possible, preferably outdoors. The combination of physical exercise and outdoors will clear your mind and release anxious energy. Being in the outdoors while you move- even just walking around, or pacing back and forth, has been proven to have a tremendous effect and makes the exercise more impactful.

You can learn to manage your anxiety. Enlightened Recovery Solutions warmly welcomes men and women with dual diagnosis anxiety and substance use disorders to our partial care programs. Our compassionate environment supports our integrative approach of holistic treatment, approaching spirit healing therapies for the whole person. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Detecting an Approaching Manic Episode? There’s an App For That, Too

Mania is a period of “great excitement, euphoria, delusions, and overactivity,” by definition. For those who experience mania as a solitary disorder or part of manic-depressive order, also known as bipolar, mania is a high, beyond the atmosphere with feelings of invincibility. Running at a thousand feet per second, other people often wonder just where the mind of someone with bipolar is going. Typically, the manic mind is going far off beyond rationalization. Coming up with big ideas and elaborate plans with sure footedness is common during a manic episode. Characterized by high energy, compulsive behaviors, and aggressive personality, mania should be seen coming from a mile away. For many with bipolar disorder, it can feel like the go to sleep depressed and wake up manic. There might be some warning signs before the shift occurs, like the way they text on their smartphones.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have created Affect, a smartphone app which analyzes a user's keystrokes in real time and detects if they are approaching or in the middle of a manic episode. Chicago Inno reports, “...the app unobtrusively analyzes keystroke dynamics such as typing speed, frequency of texting, and social media use.” According to the research, originally conducted by the University of Michigan, “...more erratic typing (such as ignoring spell check) correlates with a manic episode, while shorter messages correlate with a depressive episode.” The typing could be considered a manifestation of a common bipolar mania behavior of “jammed speech”. After a depressive episode where one might be socially withdrawn, isolated, and emotionally numb, they are chock full of thoughts, feelings, emotions, opinions, and arguments. Jammed speech refers to the unrelenting flow of verbal communication which, in the technological age, might be expressed through text. “During a manic episode, people with bipolar exhibit some common behaviors,” one researcher explains, “such as talking really, really fast, with diminished self-control and flight of ideas.” These behaviors naturally translate to technology, the researcher explains. “It is thus natural that they also exhibit similar abnormalities in non-verbal communications that are typed on their phones.”

Tracking behaviors which indicate mania and depression could be helpful in creating a great sense of self-awareness in those with bipolar as well as their family members. There is no way for someone with bipolar to stop the shift from depression to mania, however, they can learn tools for better regulating those shifts and managing themselves effectively in between.

At Enlightened Recovery Solutions, we welcome clients with bipolar and substance use disorders to our partial care programs where they can find compassionate therapy in a comfortable and soothing environment. Thriving on empathy, clients find empowerment through are alternative, clinical, and holistic therapies, designed to heal the spirit. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Finding Solidarity Among Peers With Bipolar Can Be Life Saving

This blog will mention suicide. If you are having suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideations it could be triggering for you. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline for support at 1-800-273-8255.

People who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder are thirty times more likely to commit suicide, according to a study published in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. Bipolar disorder can come in two forms, bipolar I and bipolar II. Both forms of bipolar include the rotating experience of depression and mania for extended periods of time. Switching between depressive and manic episodes can be emotionally exhausting especially when, during the experience of one, you have to cope with actions taken during the other. High likelihoods of impulsivity, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders can make having bipolar disorder a challenge.

Living with a mental illness of any kind, bipolar disorder included, can be an isolating experience for people. Though there are millions of people around the world who struggle with mental illness like bipolar but they can be separated by thousands of miles, silence about their struggles, and a pervasive stigma about mental illness. The outspoken voice mental illness is finding today on blog sites, lifestyle sites, and social media is new. Bringing more awareness to the experience of living with mental illness and recovering from it is changing the way the world views mental illnesses like bipolar. It is also bringing people with mental illness together, which, for people with bipolar, can be a revolutionary change.

For Huffington Post, one contributor who lives with bipolar describes one of his first times encountering another person with bipolar and the effect it had on his life. He writes, “When bipolar people meet, we find an immigrant intimacy, a solidarity. We share a suffering and a thrill.” Describing himself and his peers as “refugees” he explains the importance of finding like-minded people with the same struggles, the same challenges, and when they recover, the same accomplishments. “So we have a common loneliness,” he explains, “the struggle to get past ourselves. The shame of having to try.”

You are not alone in your struggles with bipolar and co-occurring substance use disorder. If you are in need of treatment, help is available. Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers compassionate therapy in a comfortable and soothing environment encouraging human connection and empowerment. Our harmonious approach to treatment fuses clinical with alternative to heal the spirit in addition to the body and the mind. For information on our programs and services, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

How an Overactive Chakra Can Negatively Interfere With Your Recovery: Part One

The chakras are a series of energetic hubs which align the body from the top of the head, through the spine, to the base of the tailbone. Each chakra has energetic meaning which can interact with how we live our recovery. Here we discuss the first three chakras and how, when they are overactive, they can negatively interfere with recovery.

Overactive Root Chakra

The root chakra is located by at the bottom of the tailbone at the very core of your being. Represented as red in color, the root chakra is associated with your sense of foundation. “Grounding” exercises commonly refer to activating and healing the root chakra to feel more connected to the chakra system, the earth beneath your feet, and the world around you. When the root chakra is overactive, it can interfere with your recovery by causing you to resist change and act with more greed. The world is constantly changing. There are changes happening every single second which are essential to our survival and would be catastrophic if they stopped changing; for example, the earth is constantly rotating on it’s axis. If the earth stopped rotating, we would lose our sense of gravity and everything would start floating around, colliding, and causing a disaster. When we become resistant to change in recovery, we become resistant to growth. Continual growth is essential for long term recovery. It is natural and acceptable to want to keep things as they are, especially when they feel so good. Holding onto to pleasure is a characteristic of addiction. The spiritual approach, however, is recognizing that this too shall pass and there is always more to come.

Overactive Sacral Chakra

The sacral chakra is located within the abdomen, by the sacrum of the spine. Represented as orange in color, the sacral chakra is associated with acceptance. Acceptance is a widely discussed theme in all of recovery, especially twelve step philosophies. The popular “serenity prayer” asks a higher power of your understanding to grant you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change. Losing your ability to be in acceptance quickly leads to resentments toward people, places, and things which you want to control, feel you need to control, but ultimately cannot. You have to accept. Feeling out of control and detached from one area of life can lead to compensating by attaching to another area of life. Too often, that can result in reattaching to drugs and alcohol.

Overactive Solar Plexus Chakra

The solar plexus chakra is located in the upper abdomen, near the stomach. Represented as yellow in color, the solar plexus chakra supports your confidence and the second part of the “serenity prayer”. After asking for the serenity to accept what you cannot change, you ask for the courage to change the things you can. Primarily, you can change yourself and take control of yourself in your own life. An overactive solar plexus chakra can result in becoming aggressive, taking too much control, and trying to change everything. As a result, you lose sight of what you truly can change. Being overactive in the solar plexus means acting out of insecurity and fear through pride instead of confidence and humility.

Integrative healing is the primary principle of treatment at Enlightened Recovery Solutions. Our mind, body, spirit approach brings together the best of clinical therapy, holistic healing, and twelve step philosophy. For information on our partial care programs for addiction, alcoholism, and dual diagnosis issues, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Relapse Prevention Is Critical For Long Term Recovery

You send a loved one with an addiction problem to treatment. They spend 30-90 days getting clean and sober, talking about their feelings, and getting healthy again. After treatment, they move back home and start to live life again. Shortly thereafter, they relapse. You might repeat this cycle three or four times. What is missing? Relapse prevention.

Treatment is not a cure for addiction. Treatment, meaning attending a clinical recovery program, is an answer comprised of many different answers for living with addiction, without using drugs and alcohol. Relapse prevention is a particular set of tools which helps those in recovery learn how to live in a way which does not trigger them to use drugs and alcohol to cope. Without relapse prevention specific methods and techniques, treatment is a mere break form a hazardous lifestyle.

Stress Management

Overall, stress management in every form is one of the most important methods for relapse prevention. Stress triggers the brain to seek relief from stress. In the addicted brain, most often that happens through some form of creating pleasure. Due to the way addiction causes learning and memory association, creating pleasure is intimately tied with drugs and alcohol or other harmful behaviors. Managing stress includes learning what causes stress, how to identify stress, how to cope with stress, and understanding how stress relates to triggers for cravings.

Self-Care

Recovering from drug and alcohol addiction can feel like having to start life over and learn everything new. Too often self-care refers to the luxurious pampering and quality time one spends with themselves to feel good. Self-care also refers to the everyday responsibilities which need to be fulfilled to take care of the self like eating, hygiene, paying bills, managing tasks, and getting enough rest. Often called “life skills” learning how to incorporate essential themes of recovery into everyday life is critical to living a new lifestyle free from dependency on drug and alcohol.

Communication

Being acknowledged, heard, and understood are core needs of every human being. For addicts and alcoholics in recovery, it couldn’t be more important. Healthy forms of communication help maintain proper boundaries, boost self-esteem, and articulate emotions, wants, and needs.

Relapse prevention is a primary focus at Enlightened Solutions where we show clients how to live along spiritual lines in a new life of recovery. For information on our partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Mindfulness And Music Go Hand In Hand

It’s easy to get lost in music. You might like the rhythm, the beat, the bass, the lyrics, or just the sound of the instruments. Music has a powerful ability to transport the mind to other places. Listening to music and making music have meditative properties which are healing to the mind, body, and spirit. Music therapy in treatment for addiction and dual diagnosis issues can help clients access emotions and memories which might otherwise be blocked. Through lyrics and emotional sounds, music helps clients become more mindful of their emotions. Mindfulness is a spiritual practice by nature which has gained clinical renown for its ability to reduce stress and symptoms of challenging mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Becoming aware of the present moment through the tasks of noticing and paying attention are the foundation of mindfulness. Until people become aware they usually aren’t aware of how unaware they have been. Why don’t we notice the world around us or the world within us more often? We simply aren’t taught to do so. Mindfulness practices help train the brain to be more aware which and keen to noticing. Music is a way to enhance mindfulness by practicing mindfulness in music oriented situations.

For men and women in recovery, music can become a powerful tool. Discovering new music tastes, finding songs which define new feelings, learning to play an instrument, and attending music shows are transformative experiences. Here are some ways to bring music and mindfulness together in your recovery:

• Go to live music shows with friends: At first it might feel intimidating to go to venues where alcohol is served and not drink. Ask for a soda or a water to have something to hold onto but mindfully focus on the music and the environment. Notice how your thoughts might drift to depression or anxiety. See if you can become aware of how often you leave the present moment and what helps you come back. Focus on your breathing and feel the vibrations of the PA system through your body. Notice how many of your sense are activated by attending a live music show.

• Listen to new kinds of music you have never explored before. What feels different and uncomfortable about it? Try to notice your thoughts and any physical tension which arises from the music.

• Pay attention to natural music. Take a walk and notice all the different sounds around you. See how many different sounds are happening at once, each at their own tempo.

• Take a walk listening to music. Have you ever noticed the way life tends to move to a beat? Create a soundtrack to your day as if it were in a movie and notice how music helps move your energy and keep it going.

Enlightened Solutions brings together the healing therapies of holistic treatment with the proven effect of alternative therapies in addition to evidence based clinical treatments. Our partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues heal mind, body, and spirit while helping clients create a new life in recovery. For more information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

The Four Flower Based Essential Oils You Need For Treating Anxiety

Essential oils are not a cure for anxiety. When you notice anxious feelings developing or find yourself in the middle of an anxiety attack, essential oils and aromatherapy can be helpful. By absorbing through the skin, the natural properties of essential oils work into the bloodstream and circulate quickly through the body. As inhaled through the nose, smell, the strongest memory recall senses, immediately alerts the brain to relax. Calming down is one important tool for getting through anxiety. Observing anxious thoughts, understanding triggers for anxiety, and creating a plan for moving forward are equally as important. Until the urgency of anxiety subsides, it is challenging to investigate more deeply into the mind. Here are four flower based essential oils which can help you return to your focus on the breath and create a state of calm during anxiety.

Jasmine Oil

Have you ever walked down a summer street and smelled a sticky sweet perfume that permeates the air? Likely, it was a kind of jasmine. Jasmine is an ancient and potent flower regarded for its perfume and its healing properties. Research has found that jasmine influences the nervous system by causing relaxation and alertness. Though anxiety can feel like being too alert in a hypervigilant manner, jasmine oil can help stimulate mindfulness by becoming alert regarding one’s own anxiety.

Lavender Oil

Lavender is often regarded as nature’s miracle flower. An antiviral, antibacterial, and deep relaxant, it is little wonder as to why almost every product sold for relaxation has lavender in it. As aromatherapy, and essential oil rubbed into the skin, or a scent in any soap or tangible product, lavender is instantly relaxing. Try using lavender in a warm cup of milk, on top of toast, or in any other dish.

Roman Chamomile

Chamomile, like lavender, is synonymous with sensual relaxation. Most popular in a tea from, chamomile is known for being relaxing and soothing. Roman chamomile has been proven to be more potent than regular chamomile as both a tea and an essential oil.

Rose Oil

The smell of roses is sweet and awe-inducing. Nature’s most perfumed product captures millions with their perfect beauty and different scents. As an essential oil, rose oil acts as an anti-depressant and a calming agent, helping to soothe the mind and the body.

Holistic treatments and alternative therapies set the partial care programs at Enlightened Solutions apart by truly focusing on healing mind, body, and spirit. For information on our programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues, call 844-234-LIVE.