Acceptance

Acceptance is the beginning of the journey of recovery from addiction.  It is where we begin to live on the actual canvas of the life that is ours for living.  By staying inside the space of our own life, we are able to be in partnership with the flow of life, supported by the whole of life and give up swimming against the tide.

However, for many people in addiction, acceptance can be hard-won.  In some cases, people find acceptance in a moment and live inside of that perspective from one point forward.  In other cases, people have a relationship with acceptance that involves a regular and necessary pattern of renewal.  While permanent acceptance may appear desirable, it is important to consider both patterns of acceptance ‘normal’ to the recovery journey.  

The other side of acceptance is denial and denial is at the heart of addiction.  It is through denial that many people stay in their addiction long after it is apparent that their behavioral choices are devastating their lives and stealing the potential of their beautiful life.  Denial is very cunning in that it is obvious to those on the outside of it. Within the person in denial, it is very foggy and fuzzy often with an authoritative voice to the self.  Denial can sound compassionate, analytical or even sound like justified indignation.  With many unique voices, denial is often challenging to pin denial down. Since denial changes forms so rapidly, once we have cornered it, it may simply appear again in a different costume.  

However, once we are on our journey of recovery for some time, we will learn which costumes that our particular denial boogey-man usually likes to wear.  This will help us cue into when denial is seeping back in and do the awareness work necessary to come back into a position of acceptance.  

Acceptance is simply one stage of recovery and needs to be honored as such.  There are people who can find acceptance for the fact that they are an addict without discovering the willingness to embrace a recovery process and lifestyle.  However, simply arriving at acceptance beyond the stage of denial is progress and we want to acknowledge it as such.  

Beyond acceptance, it is hoped that person who needs recovery can find a place within themselves to surrender to a recovery process and lifestyle.  The experience of surrender is like being in the ocean and fighting against the waves and then suddenly finding the moment where you breathe deeply, relax your body and let it float to the surface of the water.  Surrender is when you give up the fight and allow the recovery community around you to buoy you to the safety of oxygen at the surface of the water.  

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.
 

Relapse Prevention

In the beginning of the recovery journey, it is important to become aware of the primary focal points for the recovery process to ensure lasting recovery.  In the dominant model, Alcoholic Anonymous, the primary focal points are unity, service and recovery. These focal points are intended to keep those in recovery grounded in the core principles while also bringing attention to maintaining tension between these three focal points.  It is thought that a balance between these objectives bring some measure of assurance in lasting recovery.  

The words unity, service and recovery when lived in a balanced tension with one another will bring forward a recovery lifestyle.  This lifestyle will contain intimately connected relationship with other alcoholics (unity), a consistent practice of carrying the message to other people in recovery (service) and recovery through an ongoing self-reflection process through the 12 Steps of the program (recovery).  However, for many people in recovery, especially those with some continuous sober time, these practices can become rote.  So in addition to doing all of these actions, there must be an honest reflection about whether these practices feel alive or if they have become rote.  

Beyond the practices mentioned and assessing the aliveness of them, it is important to cultivate relationships that the addict feels safe in being fully transparent.  In AA, for some, this shared transparency will only occur in the sponsorship relationship.  However, it is valuable to cultivate more than one relationship where absolute transparency feels safe, so that you have a network of support.  It is also important to recognize that being fully transparent in all of your relationships is not necessarily healthy either.  It is part of the recovery journey for many addicts to learn how much to disclose in each relationship according to the social context of the relationship.  

Finally, the goal is for recovery to become a lifestyle.  In the beginning, it can be overwhelming to take on so much change yet we must move towards these goals with daily actions.  As time goes on, recovery needs to begin to feel like an integrated essence across all facets of our life rather than being a siloed compartment of our life.  Yet, it takes time for this transformation to occur and it is imperative to support the addict with being focused on the goal while also gentle with the process.

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.

Why Drugs and Alcohol Block the "Sunlight of the Spirit"

The expression ‘Sunlight of the Spirit’ comes from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and refers to a state of being that occurs when we are free from our resentments.  Resentments are sometimes referred to as the re-feeling of an experience.  Put another way, it is when we continue to have feelings about situations or people that are not occurring in the present moment.  The process of writing an inventory is a wonderful opportunity to get present to all the ways that you are not fully living in the present! It is through this process that we become the sunlight of the spirit.  

When we are living life in resentments, we are not living life in the present moment.  If we are to live a recovered life, in a state free from being beholden to our addiction, then we must do the daily work necessary to live in the present moment.  This state is accessible through the 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, particularly the inventory steps 4-9 in combination with Step 10.  Steps 4-9 allow us to become clear of the past and Step 10 allows to stay clear as we live our life forward from our initial clearing.  

It is this process of becoming clear and staying clear that allows us to become the Sunlight of the Spirit.  It allows us to become a channel of the divine as we are now clear to listen for the guidance of our Higher Power and to serve as this power directs us.  As we live in this essence of being fully present and being a channel of the divine, it is then that we are able to carry the message to others and to remain free from our addiction.  

The expression, Sunlight of the Spirit, is a tremendously accurate metaphor for the ongoing work of a successful recovery model.  As the sun must rise and set each day, so must we both be connected internally to our source of inspiration and also share outwardly with others.  So to fully embrace the sunlight of the spirit in our lives, we must find this daily flow of spiritual connection and service to others.  
 

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.

Coping Skills

Addiction is the process of finding external substances to resolve internal conflicts.  Commonly, when hearing an addict share the story of how addiction was born in their life, one will hear a story of someone who was uncomfortable within themselves.  Then, they discovered an external substance that mask these feelings of discomfort and allow them the delusion of being connected in their communities in spite of this internal dis-ease.  At some point, the coping ceased being effective and their lives became a vicious cycle of self-destructive behaviors. Then, the addict will hit some kind of bottom and an awakening, sometimes immediate, other times gradual, will occur.   Recovery begins.

The natural orientation for many addicts during this early phase of recovery is self-loathing for all of the time and opportunity lost.  Yet, there is another perspective available.  The addict survived to the point of finding recovery due to the engagement of unhealthy coping.  They made it to the point in life that new possibilities opened for their life.  Without the unhealthy coping of addiction, who can know how these intense internal experiences of self may have been dealt with.  One can look at this survival as a beautiful gift of opportunity to live a life that may not have been otherwise available.

Beyond celebrating the miracle of making it to the point of recovery, it can also be honored that coping is a mastered skill.  Now, it is simply the journey of learning how to apply the coping techniques to healthy behaviors.  For many people in recovery, there is a period of transferring very unhealthy coping to less unhealthy coping before arriving at healthy coping.  For example, cocaine and whiskey may be exchanged for coffee and cigarettes.  A great step in the healthy direction but then, these are exchanged for excessive exercise and a vigilant focus on healthy foods.  All of these are stages of the coping release journey and each transition can be celebrated as progress.  

Eventually, we hope that the addict will come to the place where they live each day, fully present, engaging recovery tools and a full vital life.  The goal is for all of this to manifest without the need to mask the life experience with an obsessive focus on anything, whether a mind-altering substance or a health-promoting substance.  The addict has arrived at the recovery mecca, a state of balance.  

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.

Recovery

Recovery, to recover, is the journey from the loss of connection to the authentic and whole self.  Some say that addiction forms when there is a fracture or a schism that occurs in the self.  The coping with substances and other addictions is the attempt to create a bridge to between these two places.  This bridge, though, is built on a shaky foundation and with faulty architecture.  Recovery is the process of bringing the entire structure down, usually in an act of self-demolition, and mending the schism so that a bridge is no longer needed.  

Returning to a state of wholeness is a reality that many addicts have difficulty imagining is truly possible.  Even when they can grasp this as possible for others, there are internal psychological mechanisms that block their ability to trust that it could be possible for themselves.  They must learn to let this internal dialogue exist while also taking the actions that others have taken to become free.  It is often only through the journey of doing recovery actions and experiencing the results when trust in the process emerges.  

The journey of recovery is a multi-pronged journey, involving healing on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual planes.  The initial process of opening oneself to new ways of living on all of these planes can sometimes be an overwhelming experience.  The way of becoming recovered is to begin to know and understand that some suffering, in the case of overwhelm, leads to evolution.  Drawing on the image of a baby bird emerging from an egg, embrace the discomfort of breaking out of the shell of addiction so that you may fly free in the blue sky.  

There will come a point that the addict will arrive at a place of being recovered.  The healing will happen on all of these planes and then, they will continue on the path of recovery by walking this journey with others who need to heal.  The point of being recovered is both a peak to a mountain and a plateau.  The choice then is to continue onward and deepen in the new life that has been created.

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.

Lavender Should be Everywhere in Early Recovery

Lavender is an vital herbal support for anyone in early recovery.  It can bolster early recovery process through medicinal, self-care, mindfulness and spiritual applications.  Like many herbs, it can be explored in its living plant form, dried herbal form or also as an essential oil.  When engaging the essential oil, remember to mix it in a carrier oil, such as coconut or almond, to avoid sensitive skin reactions.  

Medicinally, lavender can support many of the physiological challenges that the body faces as it begins to detox and restore itself.  Some of the medicinal properties of lavender are anxiety reduction, digestive support and as a support to insomnia. In herbalist terms, lavender is an analgesic, anti-allergenic, antibacterial, antirheumatic, antispasmodic and a central nervous system sedative.  

Lavender can also be engaged in soothing self-care practices which are essential to early recovery.  A significant layer to the healing journey of the addict is to learn to be peacefully with their internal self and self-care practices are a safe way to explore this. Self-care practices that can be engaged with lavender are to take a warm bath with some drops of lavender essential oil. Another application can be to mix some drops of lavender oil in with some oil and practice self-massage.  Massaging the feet can be especially powerful to support the grounding and calming effect of lavender.  

Lavender as an essential oil can become a mindfulness practice.  Mindfulness is the practice of slowing or stopping the mental chatter and more fully occupying your body and senses in the present moment.  The simple act of smelling the lavender essential oil will expand your mindful presence.  It is powerful bridge to our mindfulness that we may not be able to access without this important tool.  

If possible, also get to know lavender in its living plant form.  There are many varieties and they often have some kind of beautiful soft lavender bud on a gentle green stem.  Sometimes, the buds will have tiny, darker purple flowers on them and are velvety to touch.Lavender represents the softness that we seek on this healing journey and models powerfully the practice of pruning and new growth that is available through 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.

Why You Should Consider Eating Organic if You're in Recovery

Recovery is a challenging yet beautiful quest to returning to one’s wholeness.  It is a journey of physical, emotional and spiritual healing.  All of these layers of healing are critical to arrive to a state of true recovery.  Yet, in early recovery, it is valuable to bring some extra attention to physical healing as it is the foundation necessary to have the resources for the intense process that is engaged in emotional healing and spiritual discovery.

The recovery process can be intense for many people on the physical plane.  In many cases, the body has been subjected to long-term and often daily ingestion of toxins through the addict’s drug and alcohol use.  When this ingestion stops, the body will undergo a multi-phased process of healing itself.  It has an extraordinary capacity to heal itself, given time and adequate resources, to complete the healing process.  It is critical to understand that the body has a finite amount of resources to both, continue sustaining itself and to heal itself.  It can be helpful to think of this as an energy currency.  

When we make the decision to heal, we can empower the body with more resources for the healing process by choosing what we ingest for our food resources.  Our bodies require a certain amount of currency to run the daily systems to sustain life from one day to the next.  The food choices we make more resources available for the actual healing process.  This is especially true with organic foods.  Organics do not have pesticides and other toxins that non-organics contain.  The absence of chemicals in the food means that there is less work for your liver, kidneys and digestive system to do in making nutrients available for the rest of your bodies functions.  It creates more resources for your body to heal itself.   

Organics are sometimes more expensive than non-organic foods due to the absence of toxicity and what this means to the cost to farmers in the agriculture process.  If cost prohibits one in purchasing organics, consider purchasing organics on foods that do not have a thick outer peel or shell.  For example, lettuce, berries, etc are more exposed to toxins than an avocado or banana.  Organics will support someone in early recovery in feeling better sooner and lay a solid foundation for the life-changing emotional work that lies ahead.  

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.
 

Monkey See, Monkey Do: Social Cognitive Therapy and Sponsorship in 12 Step Programs

We are told to stick with the winners in recovery. We look for the people who stay “in the middle of the herd”, go to meetings, regularly work on themselves and have what we want in our recovery. Most often we don’t know what we want in recovery within those first six months. We know that we’d really rather not relapse, but we are still learning how to make sure that doesn’t happen, one day at a time. We’re told to ask questions, take suggestions, and have a minimal amount of our own ideas, because they aren’t quite sharp enough yet to be helpful. Instead, we look to others. We watch their behaviors and observe their mannerisms.

Carefully, we listen to what they see and interpret their perspective of recovery. Some people we really enjoy and are inspired by. Other people we really do not enjoy and are quite turned off by. In response to the people we find inspiring, we take on some of their recovery behaviors and start to mirror them. By watching them and observing them we learn about what they do and how they do it. Without much else knowledge we start to mirror those behaviors, like a monkey see, monkey do. After a short amount of time we find that we feel better in these behaviors and that they have helped us change and grow.

Part of this is based on social cognitive theory. In the rooms of 12-step recovery, we change and we grow according to learning from others or “old timers”. Treatment programs like our program at Enlightened Recovery Solutions includes sponsorship and guidance among program participants. Participants a phase ahead lead the way and mentor those behind them. Each client leads an example and blazes a path for those to follow and so forth.

Social cognitive therapy uses the idea of learning from behavior and environment to create change in oneself and one’s environment. At Enlightened Recovery, we have an environmental culture of nature and adventure where clients learn to work together and problem solve in real time. Learning from their mentors and peers, they are able to observe and adopt behaviors which work for recovery.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions is a 12 step focused holistic health treatment program bringing together the best of clinical and alternative healing. Our treatment programs are the perfect extended care option for men and women seeking progress and transformation.

For information on our healing programs, call 888-234-LIVE today.

Seeing Addiction as Trauma, Recovery as Post-Traumatic Growth

Approximately 75% of living beings on earth will experience trauma in their lifetime. First person, second person, and third person trauma perspectives can leave a lasting impact on someone’s mental health. Research even suggests that trauma can change people genetically, right down to their microbiome. Trauma is, in all ways, a life changing experience. Coming back from trauma includes a long journey of recovery which could also include a long journey of recovering from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Few people who experience trauma will experience the full development of PTSD. Many people who experience trauma will experience some symptoms, to a mild degree, of PTSD. Others will experience something called post-traumatic growth instead.

Post-traumatic growth is the idea that a traumatic experience can create a positive impact on someone’s life instead of a negative one. Even in the face of dramatic loss, someone still finds hope and purpose in the fact that they have survived the trauma. The Posttraumatic Growth Research Group working out of the University Of North Carolina at Charlotte explains that “It is a positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or traumatic event.” The group cites that as many as 90% of those who experience trauma or a major life crisis experience this positive change.

Experiencing addiction, in all of it’s forms, is traumatizing. Coming to “hit rock bottom” with one’s addiction is a major life crisis. Addicts and alcoholics in their active addiction are thriving in a major life crisis, an ongoing trauma caused by drugs and alcohol. The decision to get sober, and whatever necessitates that decision, is a major turn of life events. Rather than be discouraged by the experience of addiction and never fight for recovery, addicts and alcoholics everywhere make the life changing decision to turn their traumatizing experiences of addiction into a positive lifestyle of recovery which they use to heal themselves and inspire others. Recovery is post-traumatic growth. People who survive addiction survive a lot more than the use of drugs and alcohol. Their recovery is a testament to taking something negative and life-altering and turning it into a positive life-alteration instead. Changes of such magnitude don’t happen without effort. Practices of mindfulness, gratitude, therapy, and spiritual development aid the process which turns into a lifetime of growth and healing.

You can overcome the disease of addiction which is taking away your control in life. Our compassionate partial care programs offer a path to enlightenment in recovery, creating a harmonious balanced of therapy approaches for a comprehensive and integrative program. For information on our programs of care for men and women seeking transformation from addiction, call Enlightened Solutions today: 844-234-LIVE

The Relationship Between Anxiety and Alcoholism

Many of the physical and psychological effects of alcohol can produce anxiety. The relationship between anxiety and alcohol, in addition to alcoholism, might be more complicated than many realize. Refinery29 reports on the relationship between drinking and alcoholism but frames the article for active drinkers. For those seeking recovery from alcoholism, their lifestyle will include abstinence from alcohol. Learning to cope with anxiety without alcohol is a challenge because of the way the relationship between the two become deeply ingrained in the brain.

Change In Hormone Production

Alcohol changes the way the brain functions, which is why alcohol can cause sensations like euphoria, relaxation, and impair judgment. The way alcohol achieves these changes is by interacting with hormone and neurotransmitter production. Dopamine, for example, is commonly discussed when examining alcohol’s effect on the brain because it is a primary way alcohol creates change. Mind altering substances like alcohol create an overproduction of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter sometimes called the “happy hormone”. A surplus of dopamine has effect in other areas of the brain while also creating the sense of euphoria alcohol initially creates. Serotonin is another neurotransmitter more involved in mood and anxiety. Depression, for example, is a lack of serotonin. Alcohol consumption can cause a disruption in the production of serotonin, which results in anxiety. In addition, alcohol can increase the production of cortisol, a hormone for stress. When the body and mind enter fight-or-flight mode, which is a chronic for anxiety, cortisol is released. Cortisol puts the body on edge and prepares it to fight against a perceived threat. Interestingly, alcohol could be the perceived threat but also feel like a solution to anxiety.

Chemical Dependency Increases Anxiety

Using alcohol as a means to cope with anxiety can increase anxiety and thereby increase chemical dependency on alcohol to cope with anxiety. The relationship of alcohol addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders can be unruly, creating a vicious cycle. Drinking to cope with anxiety creates a memory association in the brain which, accompanied by the disruptions in neurotransmitter as well as hormone production, can become problematic. Instead of turning to other coping mechanisms, the body and the brain learn to turn to alcohol. Eventually the brain might realize that alcohol creates more anxiety than it gets rid of. Being chemically dependent on alcohol, the inability to choose differently will continue to cause anxiety.

The partial care programs at Enlightened Recovery Solutions are dual diagnosis, focusing on the holistic treatment of substance use and mental health disorders. Providing a compassionate environment of whole person care, our integrative programs utilize alternative therapies designed to heal the soul. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

5 Tools For a Recovery Toolbox You Can Use Everyday

Recovery is a choice, a commitment, a discovery, and a lifestyle. Each day you will learn more about yourself and your personal program of recovery. As you start to define how your life in recovery will look, here are five tools you can use in your toolbox every day.

1. Name your daily essentials and use them, daily: What are the things you need as a human being everyday? What are the things you personally need every day? In the beginning of recovery, it can be difficult for addicts and alcoholics to define their needs. For many years, all they needed were more drugs and alcohol. Now that substances are no longer the picture, they can realize that lifestyle isn’t sustainable. It’s important to meet the daily needs of life like eating food, drinking water, and getting sleep. Those are the bare essentials every human being needs. After meeting essential needs, there are more personal needs to be met which you will have to define for yourself. As you continue to recover you will notice more and more what you need. We will discuss some more here.

2. Spiritual Activities: Spirituality can become a major part of recovery and of life for many people. The twelve step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous run on spiritual principles and advocate a spiritual experience. Spiritually based, but scientifically backed practices like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and breathing exercises can all become important as well. You might discover that a day without your spiritual practices doesn’t feel like a normal day. Getting into a daily routine of meditation or mindfulness can be a challenge. Breathing, however, is something you have to do every day to survive. By making focusing on your breathing a priority, you can bring in more attention to meditation, mindfulness, yoga or any other spiritual activity you discover.

3. Getting Outside: Stepping into the sunshine and the fresh air is more essential than people realize to their wellness. Human beings were made to roam the earth, through all elements. Getting outside is part of our genetic makeup. Perhaps all you need for your recovery toolbox is a quick step out the door for a deep breath before burrowing back inside. Or, you might find that you need to spend at least an hour outside, walking, exercising, or gardening. Spending time outdoors is proven to enhance your feelings of wellness psychologically as well as physically.

4. Connecting With Others: Making phone calls to friends, family, peers in recovery, a sponsor, or a newcomer in need of support is part of many people’s recovery toolbox. Connection is an antidote to addiction.

5. Connecting With Yourself: Everything you do as part of your recovery toolbox will be helpful in connecting you with yourself. There are other ways to spend quality time with yourself that is just for you. You might find your best alone time while exercising, cooking, cleaning, taking a shower, doing something creative, or another activity. Making time for yourself is important because you’re the longest relationship you will ever have.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers partial care programs for addiction, alcoholism, and dual diagnosis issues to men and women seeking transformative healing. Our integrative approach to treatment brings together the best of clinical therapy, holistic treatment, and twelve step philosophy. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

What It Means When a Loved One Goes Silent In Recovery

Josh Billings once said that “Silence is the hardest argument to refute”. Though, as Lao Tzu would say, “silence is a source of great strength,” silence can also be “..one of the great arts of conversation,” as Marcus Tullius Cicero said. Silence isn’t always comfortable. When you are supporting someone in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, silence an be an eerie reminder of days past. You would lose track of your loved one, go days without hearing from them, only to receive a desperate call for help some day later. You are rightfully concerned when your loved one goes silent. However, silence is a tool they are learning to use in order to effectively regulate their emotions. Silence is an opportunity for reflection, introspection, integration, and restoration. Learning to communicate the need for personal quiet time can take time, which isn’t a convenience to you. Here are some things to keep in mind when your loved one goes silent in recovery:

Silence could mean:

• Your loved one has relapsed and doesn’t know how to tell you

• Your loved one is thinking about relapse and doesn’t want to tell you

• Your loved one has experienced something traumatic and isn’t able to talk about it yet

• Your loved one is working through old resentments which could involve you and they need to create some distance

• Your loved one is isolating in order to avoid interaction because they do not want to feel intimate or close to others. This can be a warning sign of relapse.

• Your loved one is losing sight of reality and could be struggling with their dual diagnosis issues

It’s Important To Remember That:

• Your loved one doesn’t have to tell you everything about their lives, all the time

• Your loved one is entitled to their privacy and alone time

• Your loved one might need a period of isolation and introversion in order to reboot themselves

• Your loved one can have their own emotional experiences without your interjection

• Your loved one does know the right thing to do

• Your loved one simply needs to know you are there for them when they need you

Try To Avoid:

• Pushing your loved one to talk if they aren’t ready

• Making threats in order to get your loved one to talk because you’re uncomfortable with their silence

• Turning the focus of your loved one’s silence on you and how it makes you feel

• Telling your loved one that they are going to relapse if they don’t talk

• Proposing ultimatums which include that you will not be available to talk once your loved one finally is

Instead, Try To:

• Take care of your own needs rather than put all of your energy into your loved one

• Examine any discomfort about your loved one’s silence with a therapist

• Recognize your limitations in supporting your loved one

• Accept the things about your loved one you cannot change

• Lovingly let your loved one know they can come to you any time

The family can heal. At Enlightened Recovery Solutions, we encourage family healing through family therapy and family weekends where everyone can be involved in recovery. For information on our integrative partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

The Benefits Behind Talking It Out and How It Shaped Recovery

Modern day recovery and treatment for addiction is built on talking. Talk therapy is nothing new. When Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous met on a fateful night they were not revolutionizing the power of talking. They were revolutionizing the power talking had in keep two alcoholics sober. Bill Wilson had been sober for over six months. After years of coming close to death, losing jobs, and punishing his family, he had found a program which worked for him and helped him stay sober.

The original “steps” came from the Oxford Group, which included many of the modern 12 steps known today. After having a “spiritual experience” and commencing to take certain steps, Bill Wilson was able to find sobriety. One night as he was traveling for business he found himself in the lobby of his hotel in Ohio anxiously eyeing the bar. He was shocked by the power of his alcoholism. After hard work and abstinence he had gotten his life back on track, saved his marriage, and had no need to pick up a drink. Yet, here he was faced with temptation and craving, a war between the rational and irrational happening in his head. Wilson was struck with a thought that only another alcoholic could understand him. Who could he call?

After rifling through the phone book, he decided upon a priest and asked if he knew of an alcoholic with whom Bill could speak. This, Bill was introduced to Dr. Bob, who was not sober. The two men spoke at length about the good ol’ days, the bad times, and the challenge of sobriety. Bill shared his experiences and Bob wanted to know more. Showing Bob the way of the steps, the two men realized they had discovered something profound: one alcoholic talking to another and showing them the spiritual path of the steps, works. Together they founded Alcoholics Anonymous which has been helping millions around the world and serves as the foundation for most addiction treatment.

Part of going to treatment for drug and alcohol addiction is working with a therapist and talking about underlying issues behind drinking and using. Another part is developing the many skills, tools, and techniques for staying sober after treatment. Working with a therapist is one of those tools. Connecting with other recovering addicts, as well as alcoholics, is another tool, because with them, you can always talk. Talking it out is a first resort and a last resort when faced with temptation, challenge, or difficulty in recovery.

Nobody can understand the personal and intimate experience of chemical dependency the way somebody else who has been chemically dependent can. Often, just the act of talking can relieve the stress and tension being caused by whatever the problem is. Not talking in recovery can be dangerous. Letting the stress and tension pile up in addition to the overwhelming responsibility of feeling like everything has to be done alone can lead to an emotional shutdown, which is a danger zone for the addicted mind. The minute you start talking, you take away some of that power and start the healing process. When in doubt, talk it out. It’s how recovery started, how recovery sustains, and how you will stay sober.

We’re here to talk with you. You are not alone. Enlightened Recovery Solutions offers partial care programs for addiction, alcoholism, and dual diagnosis issues to men and women seeking transformative healing care. Bringing together the best of holistic healing and clinical therapy, our twelve step inspired treatment seeks to help clients thrive in lifelong recovery. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

How An Overactive Chakra Can Negatively Interfere With Your Recovery: Part Two

Here we discuss the final chakras and how they can negatively interfere with your recovery when they are overactivated. There are many ways to heal the chakras through yoga, meditation, reiki, alternative healing, and even food therapy.

Overactive Heart Chakra

The heart chakra is located in the center of the chest at the sternum, right above the heart. Represented as green in color, the heart chakra embodies everything about your ability to give love, receive love, and be loving. Love is a wonderful part of life and in recovery. Many addicts and alcoholics have experienced pain- pain of loss, pain of trauma, pain of abuse. Pain can make it difficult to love. Love for many is equated with vulnerability. Vulnerability for many is equated with weakness or danger. To be loving does not have to mean being weak. Vulnerability is a form of strength. Love can be a gift, as well as a tool for manipulation. An overactive heart chakra can mean using love in the wrong ways to get what you want. Manipulation is a character liability which puts you at risk for toxic relationships. Recovery involves building healthy relationships which serve all who are involved.

Overactive Throat Chakra

The throat chakra is located in the middle of the throat and throughout the esophagus. Represented as light blue in color, the throat chakra represents your voice and communication. Developing a voice in recovery is essential to developing a relationship to the self and to others. Your voice can be a tool for change and for healing. With an overactive throat chakra, your voice can become a tool for hurt and harm. Words carry abundant energy and meaning. An overactive throat chakra can result in using your words aggressively, selfishly, and manipulatively. When the throat chakra is overactive, it means you’re doing more speaking than listening. Developing healthy communication skills in recovery is important for healing as well as interacting with life. Communication is a two way street. Everyone has a need to be heard, acknowledged, and understood.

Overactive Third Eye Chakra

The third eye chakra is located just above the center of the brows. Represented as indigo in color, the third eye chakra is your source of imagination, creativity, clarity, and the ability to see beyond immediate circumstances. Addiction and alcoholism are disorders of instant gratification. The way dopamine, a happiness hormone, is overproduced in the brain changes brain chemistry to lean more toward feeling any kind of pleasure as much as possible as soon as possible. Delayed gratification and accepting the need to wait is a challenge, but a necessary skill most addicts and alcoholics in recovery must develop. The ability to be present is an ability to be accepting of circumstances as they are. There are many ways to detach from the present in order to avoid accepting it. An overactive third eye chakra will result in daydreaming, fantasizing, and living in the future. Often, this is a coping mechanism to avoid confronting the present as it is. For addicts and alcoholics in recovery, this can be detrimental. Daydreaming about drug and alcohol use, called euphoric recall, can trigger the brain to create disturbing signals of craving. Living in euphoric recall can lead to relapse.

Overactive Crown Chakra

The crown chakra sits at the top of the head. Represented as purple, or sometimes white, in color, the crown chakra is the apex of your spirituality. Recovery is a spiritual experience. Addiction and alcoholism, in addition to dual diagnosis mental health issues, affect the mind, the body, and the spirit. Your crown chakra is the connection to spirituality and your open-mindedness to mystical ideas and philosophies. Open-mindedness about spirituality is an essential for making the most out of treatment and recovery. There is science behind the mechanism of faith and spirituality, which can reduce stress, increase wellbeing, and create a sense of connectivity which is counterproductive to the tendency toward isolation in addiction.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions takes an integrative approach to recovery by bringing together the best of clinical, alternative, and holistic healing. For information on our partial care programs for recovery, 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.

Why Yoga Teachers Use Reiki During Practice

At the beginning of a practice, or a yoga class, a teacher might let everyone know that they will be coming around to make adjustments. Helping students get into the right position, or asana, during yoga is essential to maximizing the benefit of that position. Yoga positions are specific, activating muscles to be stretched, strengthened, and to release the energy they hold within them. The healing, energetic touch of a yoga teacher can be relaxing to a struggling student and help them settle more comfortably into a position.

Touch during yoga practice can also be a practice for reiki. Reiki is another eastern alternative practice, with roots in Japanese culture. By interacting with the seven chakras and the body’s energy systems, reiki, through light touch or hovering above the body, helps move energy. Clearing unwanted blockages, reiki can help release the flow of energy. Releasing the flow of energy results in better health, reduced stress, deep relaxation, and more emotional regulation.

Combining reiki and yoga can create a powerful, healing experience, especially for those experiencing yoga as well as reiki for the first time in treatment. Addiction, alcoholism, and dual diagnosis mental health issues live within the mind as well as the body and have an impact on the spirit. Drugs and alcohol are often a way to cope with difficult emotions and emotional experience. By drowning the emotions with mind altering substances, one is led to believe that the feelings simply go away. Although emotions cannot be seen or felt to the physical touch, they are energetic experiences which just don’t disappear when they are taken away from the forefront of the mind. All emotion is energy. Using drugs, alcohol, or any other harmful behavior to stuff or hide emotions only compresses them, creating stuck, stagnant energy which blocks the natural flow. Treatment is focused on identifying this energy and the specific emotional experiences which created it.

The only way for this emotional energy to be released is for it to actually be released. However, after years of avoiding feeling, acknowledging feelings, and coming to terms with feelings, it can be difficult to release that energy. A combination of reiki and yoga can not only aid in releasing plugged up emotional energy but create deep relaxation and calm for the process. Healing touch helps those in treatment feel safe within their own emotional experience, an essential tool for lifelong recovery.

Our integrative approach to treatment brings together the best in alternative holistic healing, proven clinical therapy, and the spiritual foundation of twelve step philosophy. We want to see you thrive in recovery with ease. For information on our partial care programs for alcoholism, addiction, and dual diagnosis issues, call Enlightened Recovery Solutions today at 844-234-LIVE.

When A 12 Step Group Becomes Your Higher Power

Twelve step programs advocate for a spiritual experience. By the time one reaches the twelfth step they should have had a “spiritual awakening” as a result, empowering them to carry the message to other alcoholics. The term “God” is used throughout texts, steps, and literature for twelve step groups like the founding group Alcoholics Anonymous. “God” is the “group consciousness” of a Higher Power which everyone is meant to define for themselves in their own understanding. Coming to define a higher power which one might call God takes time. For some it is an uncomfortable journey which could be described more as a struggle. Fully turning to and believing in a God of one’s own understanding is a process. Throughout that process, one continues to go to meetings, listen to other more experienced alcoholics or addicts in recovery, and get a sense of their higher power and relationship to it. In the beginning months of recovery, twelve step groups act as many people’s higher power. Going to meetings, talking with others, sharing about their experience- it’s something they can see, touch, hear, and believe in. “GOD” becomes a symbol for: Group Of Drunks.

Attending meetings is meant to be part of someone’s life and part of their recovery. Recovery is a multifaceted lifestyle which should confront all three areas of necessary healing: mind, body, and spirit. Twelve step meetings can have such a profound effect on people that they make it a priority. Whatever you put before your recovery, it is often said, you are going to lose. People tend to take this too literally and put their recovery, specifically their twelve step group program, above everything else. While this “keeps” them sober, keeps them involved, and keeps them away from harmful behaviors which could lead to relapse, it can also keep them away from other important areas of life. Recovery is not meant to be about living in fear of relapse or the many things which could inspire relapse. After all, anyone could walk into a twelve step meeting and offer up a drink or a drug. The true purpose of recovery is to be equipped to live life one life’s terms. Life’s largest term and greatest demand is simply to be lived.

Is there a psychological problem or any major risk when a twelve step program becomes someone’s higher power? Compared to the alternatives, no. However, there is more to life than twelve step meetings and more that recovery has to offer.

We want to help you heal through an integrative treatment program which approaches mind, body, and spirit. Our intentions at Enlightened Recovery Solutions is to prepare you to walk a spiritual path to absolute abundance in all areas of life, free from mind altering substances. Call us today for more information 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.

3 Qualities You Should Look For In A Healthy Sponsor

Finding a sponsor quickly in early recovery can help you get started on the twelve steps as soon as possible. Choosing the right sponsor is easy by looking for these three qualities about the way they sponsor people. In addition, they should be someone you feel you relate to, whose life in recovery is something you admire, and who you feel you can trust.

1. They Are Generous With Time And Knowledge: Once upon a time your sponsor was in the same position as you. New to recovery, uncomfortable with feelings and cravings, not sure how to make it through another day sober. A sponsor reached out to them offer generous amounts of time and knowledge about recovery, the Big Book, the twelve steps, and more. Sponsors in a relationship with a sponsee are supposed to give their time and knowledge generously as it was given to them. If a sponsor is holding back or creating requirements to “earn” what they know, they are not the right person.

2. They Do Not Sugar Coat Things For You: A sponsor does not have to be rigid, rude, and confrontational on the borderline of emotionally abusive. Likewise, a sponsor does not have to be gentle, soft, cooing, and affectionate. Ideally, a sponsor should have a healthy balance of realism and optimism, compassion and empathy, with some healthy boundary settings. Your sponsor is not your therapist or your parent. Your sponsor is someone who dedicates their time to showing you how to live a clean and sober lifestyle of recovery. As a result, they should be realistic and assertive with you when necessary. Addiction is a sneaky disease which can quickly turn the brain. Sponsors are there to help you realize when your thinking has gone astray and put it back on track.

3. They Are Loyal And Maintain Confidence: Going through the twelve steps with a sponsor means that individual will b getting to know you on a deep and intimate level. Sharing your fourth step, your moral inventory, with your sponsor means going through some of your darkest moments together. A sponsor should be committed to your relationship with them, not anything else. Too often, sponsors have a tendency to talk about their sponsees and what their sponsees are going through to other people. Understand, your sponsor is not a perfect person. At times, they will need to seek outside advice so they can best guide you in their recovery. This is an important quality which teaches you that it is always okay to ask for help.

Enlightened Solutions believes in the spiritual principles and lifestyle of the twelve steps. Our partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues bring together the twelve step philosophy with proven clinical treatments and holistic healing modalities. For more information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.