When we’re struggling with addiction, we can be so consumed by the challenges of our everyday lives, the logistics of just making it through the day, the tough issues, circumstances and relationships we find ourselves struggling with, that we don’t make time for our spiritual development. We neglect the health of our spirits in muchRead More
When we are embroiled in our addictions and consumed by our mental illnesses, self-love can feel impossible to achieve. It can feel like that elusive quality we often hear about, and we know how important it is, but we feel unable to experience it for ourselves. We feel self-love is reserved for those among usRead More
Many of us feel that our work dominates our lives, and we struggle to find a balance between our work and our family obligations. We feel as though we never get to see our loved ones. We feel like we’re always on the go, and we have little to no time for self-care, relaxation, enjoymentRead More
When struggling with mental illness, our triggers are the things we’re most sensitive to, the things that bring out the most intense emotional reactions, and the things that cause us the most pain. When a trigger hits us, we feel overcome with an onslaught of difficult emotions – sadness, fear, panic, anger, bitterness. We reactRead More
When living with addiction, many of us have a tendency to place more importance on our romantic relationships than on our own well-being, and we often will prioritize them over our own recovery. It can be nearly impossible to focus on ourselves and to do what we need to do in order to get betterRead More
Ordinarily we tend to think of our flaws and imperfections as things we should be ashamed of, as deficiencies in our character, as evidence of our unworthiness and inadequacy. We see them as moral failings, as reasons to hate ourselves. We reject the parts of ourselves that we think aren’t good enough. We become self-deprecating,Read More
As we work to understand more about our addictions, we come to realize that there are certain factors in our lives that have been contributing to our mental health issues and to the development of our addictions. Our financial stability, or lack thereof, can play a major role in how unhappy we feel on aRead More
Recovering from addiction is a transformational process that invites us to challenge the many thoughts, emotions and behaviors that are hurting us and driving us towards our addictive patterns. When we are filled with pain we haven’t healed from, when we’re consumed by issues we haven’t resolved, we’re far more likely to turn to addictiveRead More
When we’re struggling with addiction and mental illness, we often develop toxic mental and emotional patterns that hurt us, that limit us and that impede our growth. One of the most common is our tendency to compare ourselves to other people and to compare our recovery journeys to theirs. We feel competitive with other people.Read More
Those of us struggling with addiction are no strangers to feeling defeated, disheartened, lost and confused. We feel disappointed in ourselves, ashamed, regretful and remorseful. We feel so down on ourselves we feel like giving up. We’ve lost hope. We find it impossible to be positive let alone have faith in ourselves or our recovery.Read More