Many of us struggling with addiction and mental illness are dealing with energies of self-destructiveness, self-sabotage and self-betrayal, energies that are directing and informing everything going on in our lives. When we’re self-betraying, we don’t love and accept ourselves for who we are. We’re betraying ourselves in all kinds of ways, both big and small, doing things to hurt ourselves that we’re consciously aware of and other subconscious things that we don’t even notice. We don’t have self-compassion or self-forgiveness. We don’t treat ourselves with patience and understanding. This energy of self-betrayal can cause us to hinder our progress in recovery and sabotage our efforts to get well. How does self-betrayal manifest in our lives?
Examples of Self-Betrayal
When we do things that we know are harmful for us, we are betraying ourselves. Our addictions are a clear act of self-betrayal, but other examples are staying in toxic relationships where we’re being mistreated or disrespected, clinging to bad habits that hold us back in our lives, and avoiding getting the help we need for our mental health issues. We might procrastinate on finding a treatment center, for example, thinking we’re just being lazy, not realizing that self-betrayal might be one of the underlying causes of our resistance.
Feelings of Inadequacy
We often come to develop patterns of betraying ourselves because deep down we believe we’re inadequate and unworthy. We might feel bad about ourselves because we’re addicts. We might feel insecure and self-hating because of past traumatic experiences. We might have endured abuse, internalizing it to mean it was our fault. Our feelings of unworthiness and self-hatred can make us turn against ourselves and do things that are harmful to us. Our instincts to protect and nurture ourselves become corrupted, and we become self-betraying in our daily lives.
Becoming More Self-Compassionate
We want to foster more compassion for ourselves, so that we can shift our relationship with ourselves to be self-loving rather than self-betraying. We want to start thinking and speaking of ourselves in ways that are encouraging and kind. We want to soothe ourselves when we’re hurting rather than judging ourselves for being hurt. We want to comfort ourselves when we’re stressed rather than unleashing more anxiety on ourselves. We can set the intention to look at how we’re treating ourselves on a daily basis, so that we can make changes to our relationship with ourselves and shed the self-betraying patterns we’ve adopted over the years.
At The Guest House Ocala, you will be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488