Everything we go through in our daily lives can potentially serve as attacks on our sense of peace, knocking us off our center and causing us to feel unhappy, anxious and unsettled. As we’re working towards recovery, we realize that we have to start prioritizing inner peace if we want to enable ourselves to stay sober and achieve happiness in our lives. Without inner peace, we might always be tempted to use our drug of choice whenever we’re stressed out, whenever we find something challenging or troubling. Without inner peace, we’re far more susceptible to our debilitating cycles of addiction and the overpowering waves of depressive episodes and anxiety we tend to experience.
Intentional Practice
Cultivating inner peace is a practice. It’s something we must actively work on. We can’t simply say we want our lives to be peaceful and then magically find them to be so. We have to create a regular practice that prioritizes and fosters peace, calm, faith and optimism. We have to set the intention to create peace within ourselves, in our relationships and in our daily lives. We have to be strong in the face of anything that threatens our peace, and we have to create energetic protection around ourselves to offset the challenges that come our way.
Daily Techniques
One way to create more inner peace is to make the conscious choice not to let the small things, or the big things, overwhelm us. This is easier said than done, when we find ourselves getting frustrated and anxious about the slightest thing, from excessive traffic on our way home, to someone being rude to us in the grocery store. Then there are the bigger things that can interrupt our peace and cause us to feel stress, sadness, worry and anger, from a misunderstanding between friends, to difficult challenges at work. In order to keep ourselves from getting overwhelmed, we can remind ourselves that nothing is so important that we should let it rob us of our inner peace. We can repeat positive affirmations as part of our daily centering practice. We can practice calming breathing techniques. We can do energy healing exercises. We can use journaling, creativity and self-expression to foster daily feelings of wellness and wholeness. We can work with a therapist or coach to process our feelings of stress and overwhelm.
Our addictions are a classic sign of our lack of inner peace. When we’re at peace within ourselves, we don’t need an external source of comfort or validation to make us feel at ease. We have our own internal resources of self-love, gratitude and hope to make ourselves feel better if we’re upset, to remind us of our worthiness, and to make us feel whole.
At The Guest House Ocala, our experience with addiction and recovery makes us uniquely equipped to be able to understand the struggles you’re experiencing. We’re here to help. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs. theguesthouseocala.com 3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488