Sometimes the biggest block to our recovery can be the lack of fulfillment we feel in our lives and the confusion we feel around our place in the world. We don’t know who we are or what we’re meant to do. We don’t know what gifts we’re meant to share with the world or how we’re supposed to be of service to others. This can be a sad and lonely place, and is frightening because we fear we’ll never be happy. We’re afraid we’ll never be able to figure it out. We fear we don’t deserve happiness and fulfillment.
Fears of Inadequacy and Inferiority
When we see other people with successful careers and happy families, seemingly not struggling with addiction and mental illness in the same debilitating ways that we are, we often envy their happiness. We feel inferior to them because we assume they’ve discovered their place in the world and are content and fulfilled knowing their place. All of our feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, and unworthiness, all the ways in which we feel we don’t deserve fulfillment, can all block us from being at peace within ourselves and from finding our place in the world. They can contribute to our mental and emotional unwellness and can be triggers for our addictions.
Our Sense of Shame
When we don’t feel self-assured and when we lack confidence, the result can be a deep sense of dissatisfaction with ourselves. We feel ashamed of and disappointed in ourselves. This pervasive sense of shame taints everything in our lives, our sense of self, our outlook on the world, the ways in which we relate to others. It fuels our mental health issues and our addictions. We use our drugs of choice to try and escape the pain we feel. Not knowing our place in the world, not feeling a sense of purpose, not having a clear direction in life can all be emotional triggers for our addictive patterns, our depressions, and other mental health challenges. We never quite feel at peace within ourselves. We feel as though we’re always searching but never making any fruitful discoveries.
We Give Up On Ourselves
Many of us give up on ourselves. We give up believing we’ll ever find our place. We become convinced that maybe feeling fulfilled in our purpose is something that’s not meant for us. It might be meant for other people, but it’s unattainable and unrealistic for us. We feel unworthy of happiness and self-satisfaction. We tell ourselves to stop reaching for more than we deserve. We feel as though the world has turned its back on us. We feel abandoned by our higher power, by our destiny, by life. We think that maybe somewhere along the way, we took a wrong turn and ended here, in this place of deep emptiness. We feel devoid of passion and motivation. Our hope is gone. We feel inconsolable. We convince ourselves that this is it for us, this existence that feels meaningless to us.
Carving Out a Place For Ourselves
The truth is, it’s never too late to make discoveries about ourselves and to find a place in the world. For many of us, that place might not yet exist. Our gifts and talents are unique, and we might have to carve out a place for ourselves in the world that isn’t there yet. We might feel called to spiritual work, entrepreneurship or another calling that doesn’t fit the mold of conventional careers. We might find that we have to travel, live somewhere new, try new things, and somehow push ourselves out of our comfort zone to find our place. We might need to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves, to recreate and redefine ourselves.
A Unique Journey For Each of Us
We may feel as though we’re reaching a place of fulfillment later than other people. We might feel behind the curve. We might feel as though we’re lagging behind others and not achieving the same level of success that they are, or that we’re working so hard to attain things that others seem to do so effortlessly. We learn, though, that there is no timeline to self-discovery. Each of us is on a unique path of exploration, examination, and inquiry. We can’t possibly all undergo this very personal journey in the same exact timeframe. We want to be as patient with ourselves as we can. We want to release this notion that we are in competition with other people. The place we find for ourselves in the world is uniquely ours. It is for us and us alone, based on our strengths, our wisdom, our life experience. Competition is, in fact, an illusion, and we feed into that illusion when we’re not confident and grounded within ourselves when we don’t realize our own brilliance. When we compete with others, we are actually blocking ourselves from finding our place in the world because we’re busy focusing on other people, envying them, comparing ourselves to them, and begrudging them their blessings, instead of turning our focus and energy inward to cultivate our blessings and carve our own path.
Recovery and Fulfillment
The process of finding our place in the world and the process of recovering from our addictions and mental illnesses go hand in hand. Our sense of fulfillment and our mental and emotional health are inextricably linked and interconnected. It is very difficult to have one without the other. The more at peace we feel within ourselves, the more we’ve shed our dependence issues and worked to heal our pain, the more we align with the truth of our inner selves, the easier it is to find our way. Similarly, the more fulfilled we feel in our daily lives, the easier it is to keep ourselves well mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. The more established we feel within our place in the world, the easier it is for us to stay away from our drugs of choice and stop our addictive patterns for good.
At The Guest House Ocala, we are uniquely equipped to help our guests heal from trauma-induced substance abuse, process addiction, anxiety and depression in a safe, comfortable and confidential setting.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488