What Winners Do - An Addiction Recovery Blog » spirituality

Spirituality In Addiction Recovery: This Little Light Of Mine…I’m Going To Let It Shine

Erin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:37:27 +0000

Well if you've been paying attention at all to my ramblings you know that I have not really found religion in my addiction recovery. I have however grown a greater sense of spirituality in my addiction recovery.

For me, this spirituality is sometimes intertwined with a belief in god and other times...not so much. But I just wanted to share with you a belief that I have formed in my recovery and share with you something that just made it even stronger.

I feel that everyone is born a pure spirit or soul. This spirit is so pure that it shines like a light inside of us all. I don't go for that original sin stuff that would lead us to believe that we are born with a mark already on our souls. I believe our souls are new and shining and pure.

Our main goals in life should be to keep that light lit inside all of us. We have to guard it from stuff that is going to crap it all up. Like, oh I don't know...using drugs everyday. Stuff like that.

I also don't believe that once your spirit is dimmed it has to stay that way. Not at all, you can always get back on track with keeping it lit. It just takes work.

What got me thinking about my belief was a comment on Discovering Recovering's site. The comment was left by Jay. The post was about not understanding or being able to accept god (I can identify there) and the comment that was made went on to explain a story.

It's a Kabbalist story that says: In the beginning, there was God and there was the schechinah. God made a clay vessel to contain the schechinah, and it broke, shattering the divine spirit into innumerable pieces. In that instant, God created the world and all human beings, so that each of us could hold one of those pieces of schechinah.

This fits in so well with what my beliefs are about our spirits that I thought I would retell the story on my site. By keeping our own spirits shining in ourselves, we in turn are helping others keep theirs shining. Kind of like helping others by helping ourselves...sound familiar?

Protecting our spirit is not an easy thing, as most of us have come to realize. It definitely takes some work and from time to time we can find ourselves caught in a bad way where it is almost impossible for our spirits to shine. Like, I don't know...stuffing drugs up my nose everyday.

Obviously I don't believe that there is an actual light inside of my body but it's a great way of explaining my belief. I am the protector of my spirit. I am responsible for keeping it safe, nurturing it, and helping it grow stronger. By doing that in myself I will be helping others as well.

Spirituality In Addiction Recovery

Erin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:14:58 +0000

It has been said that addicts who enter into recovery are actually fortunate for they are forced to take a look at themselves and their spirituality. By self-examination, recovering addicts are able to realize that their lack of spirituality is partly the cause of their distress.

It seems that many people are incapable of tolerating themselves because they have a negative feelings about themselves. They start to have a distorted self image which leads them to go to great lengths to escape or deny their identity as they perceive it. All of these things make discovering spirituality impossible.

I have always called it self-inventory when I take stock of where I am in life and how I feel about where I am. Sadly, years started to pile up where I was avoiding performing self-inventory due to fear and disgust. I had neglected my spirit for so long that I was truly afraid of what I would find if I looked. So I didn't look.

A very important component of spirituality is self improvement. But, it is impossible to embark on self improvement without knowing where your starting point is. To get a starting point, you need to do a self-inventory and find out what your assets are and in what areas that you need work.

Like I said, for years I hid from myself and refused to perform a self inventory. There for I never made any self improvements and since self improvement is such a huge component of spirituality I was void of spirituality.

It was not until I entered into addiction recovery that I was forced to take a good look at myself. I can honestly say that I'm thankful for where my recovery has taken me. I have been able to accept the fact that spirituality seems to be more about questions than it is about answers.

Different people have different ideas of what spirituality entails. I can't even begin to explain to you in words what my idea of spirituality is, I just know it when I feel it.

How Is Addiction Recovery Like Baseball?

Erin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:10:26 +0000

When you think of addiction recovery you usually don't associate this with baseball BUT after reading the following quote I think you will agree that in our addiction recovery and in our spiritual lives we should be striving to be more like the game of baseball.

"Baseball teaches us, or has taught most of us, how to deal with failure. We learn at a very young age that failure is the norm in baseball and, precisely because we have failed, we hold in high regard those who fail less often - those who hit safely in one out of three chances and become star players. I also find it fascinating that baseball, alone in sport, considers errors to be part of the game, part of it's rigorous truth."

-Francis T. Vincent, Jr., Commissioner of Baseball

It is very easy in life to lose perspective and think that you should somehow strive for perfection. This can do a real number on your self-esteem which can leave you with internal pain and...looking for a way to numb that pain.

There is a book that I've talked about before called The Spirituality Of Imperfection from which I got this quote. This book is all about examining spirituality and it's ties to the understanding that human perfection does not exist.

From time to time I can get caught up in some pretty odd thinking that has me feeling bad about myself because my house isn't perfect, my diet isn't perfect, my money situation isn't perfect, etc., etc. It's like creating an unobtainable goal for myself and actually feeling bad when it is not met.

To me, this type of thinking is irrational and left unchecked has the potential to lead me back into my old addictive thinking patterns and you know what comes after that...the dreaded relapse.

To me, it is very important to work on and constantly question my spirituality. To me, spirituality goes hand in hand with my recovery. Without spirituality I am less than whole and look for outside sources to fill the void. This never works.

So, last night while I was reading The Spirituality of Imperfection for the, oh I don't know, fifth time I realized what type of connection this "spirituality of imperfection" has to do with recovery. By sharing our shortcomings with others and identifying with others as they share their shortcomings with us, we are constantly being reminded that there is no such thing as perfection.

Just like listening to stories and telling stories helped our ancestors live humanly, it can do so for us.

So how is addiction recovery and spirituality like baseball? They all accept errors to be par for the course. They don't try to pretend that it doesn't happen. They are not striving for perfection but rather striving for greatness.