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How To Change A Behavior In 5 Simple Steps

Addiction and alcoholism are often referred to as behavioral disorders, along with many disorders which can be co-occurring. Behaviors are not permanent defects of character but challenges to be changed and overcome.

  1. Become Aware Of What Needs To Change:Our behaviors are multifaceted and multilayered. Few things about human beings, what they do, how they feel, and the ways they behave, are surface level. We are complex beings who are being imprinted upon from the moment they are conceived. You can probably recognize on the surface what needs to change in your life. Frustratingly, you try to change it time and again to no avail. Trying to change a tree by cutting off its leaves will never work. You have to uproot the tree and plant an entirely new one. Such is the case with changing a behavior. Simply trimming around the surface of the behavior won’t get to the root of the problem where the true change can take place. Take time to investigate what this behavior is, where you think it came from, and why you’ve held onto it for so long. Often, behaviors, even negative ones, have some kind of a reward. Despite the fact that these behaviors cause us harm and hurt in some way, we persist in continuing to execute them. Working with a therapist can help you identify these behaviors and conduct a thorough investigation into them.
  2. Challenge The Behavior As It Is:Using the example of the tree, without heavy machinery, it is hard to uproot an entire tree. Before you start digging, take a look at the tree as it is and start to challenge it. Though you’ll have to get to the roots, pulling the tree apart will be effective in changing it entirely, as a step by step process. Start with the words you use, the reactions you have, the feelings you notice before, during, and after this behavior. One branch at a time, you’ll dissect the behavior and begin to change.
  3. Synthesize Your Intentions With Your Actions:Unbeknownst to most who engage in self-help or life-changing books, programs, and even recovery, is that intentions are equally important to change as the actions. Without an authentic and concise intention, you’ll be doing all this work for the wrong reasons. When there isn’t a solid connection between intention and action, the action tends to fall short of its potential. What are your intentions about changing this behavior? Is it self-centered or is it for the better good of everyone in your life? Are you making this change for yourself or are you making it for someone else? Do you feel you need to change because someone told you or because you recognize a fault in your character?
  4. Make The Change:Change doesn’t happen all at once, but action does. You can spend months, even years, talking about making a change, investigating a behavior, and lamenting about how badly this behavioral change needs to occur. It will only start to change once you start to change it.
  5. Reflect On What Happens When You Take Action:The results will commence immediately once you start to take action with your behaviors. Remember how resistant you were to change? How hard you thought it might be? Your fears about never really changing? Reflect on how drastically you have seen changes in yourself and keep in mind that you have the capacity to grow, change, and evolve.

Are you ready to make a change in your life? Addiction and alcoholism can become dangerous behaviors if they continue to grow. It is possible to make this change. Enlightened Recovery has the way. For information on our partial care programs for men and women, contact us today.

A Balanced Diet Is A Balanced Life

According to a UK mental health website, “Nearly two thirds of those who do not report daily mental health problems eat fresh fruit or fruit juice every day, compared with less than half of those who do report daily mental health problems. This pattern is similar for fresh vegetables and salad.” Those who experience adverse mental health issues on a daily basis are eating unhealthy foods high in saturated fats, unhealthy oils, and tons of sugar.

The brain, the body, and even the soul run on food. If you don’t believe the soul enjoys food, pay attention the next time you feel as though you’ve walked through cloud nine after eating a favorite comfort food. Food is a sensual experience which integrates all the senses and perspectives. You think food, you feel food, you experience food, you remember food. You also completely rely upon food. Food is more than calories, flavors, and recipes. Food is the fuel to the body’s engine. Without food, the body will not survive. What we give our bodies in food is what we have to work with, to live off of, and use to grow. Would you water a plant with a sugary, carbonated soda? Feed your garden potato chips and chocolate cookies? What we grow is food, and food nourishes us. Yet, we wouldn’t feed what feeds us what we often feed ourselves!

It is because of this imbalance that the brain often suffers. Essential nutrients like omega acids, amino acids, and fatty acids only come from food. The brain needs healthy oils, fats, and acids to recover and function at its highest capacity. When our diets are full of unhealthy foods, our brain is not capable at doing its best, which translates through us in many different ways.

Ongoing evidence shows that a healthy diet is critical for long term recovery. Depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other co-occurring mental health conditions can be supplemented with specific diets. For example, avocado, eggs, and whole grains give depression the fats and oils needed to balance mood and regulate emotions. High amounts of protein help sustain ADHD and create more focus. Addiction needs a full spectrum of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and complex carbohydrates to replenish malnourished bodies. Chemical dependency tends to set priorities on the consumption of drugs and alcohol rather than fruits and vegetables.

Food is healing. Learning how to heal the mind, body, and spirit with food is a lifetime tool for recovery. Enlightened Recovery emphasizes the importance of personal nutrition and healthy living through organic meals, cooking classes, and experiential learning with budgeting, grocery shopping, and more. For more information on our treatment programs for addiction, alcoholism, and co-occurring mental health disorders, call 833-801-5483.

Changing The Inner Narrative

Adopting an inner narrative means that we learn to say things to ourselves which we pick up from other people. Mostly, these statements come from an “I” point of view. For example, “I can’t do anything right,” or, “I am not lovable anyway,” or, “I am worthless.” Though we may not hear these statements directly, we might hear them indirectly. However we are saying them to ourselves, they are always an “I” statement. If other people were to say the things to us we say to ourselves, they would likely hurt a lot more. Part of the reason we say negative statements to ourselves is because we were hurt so deeply when someone said them to us.

An important part of change is awareness. Awareness means noticing and paying attention. In the case of negative inner narrative statements, awareness would mean becoming aware of these statements when they arise and noticing how they sound, who they sound like, and how they make you feel.It might be challenging to catch them at first. Every now and then when you do catch a negative narrative statement, quickly change it to a “you” statement. Pretend you are someone on the outside directing that statement towards you. Is that something you would want to hear from someone else? Notice how uncomfortable that situation feels. Pay attention to the shift in energy and your feelings. Next, take the exercise a step further and imagine turning that “you” statement toward someone else, like your dearest friend or favorite family member. Imagine their face as you would say that to them. They would likely be hurt and you would feel guilty for putting such toxic energy on them.

This exercise isn’t about creating guilt or making you feel guilty for what is going on inside your head.Everyone has an inner voice and everyone experiences it negatively until they learn to change it.

Identifying the origin of the narrative

Negative behaviors like a punishing inner narrative can quickly become habit. Habits become so routine that we adopt them as normal. Until we start to become aware of our negative inner narrative, we assume them to be normal. As you start to notice more about your negative thoughts and become more familiar with them, pay attention to anything that sounds familiar. You might notice a tone of voice- yes, our inner narratives have a tone of voice!- that sounds eerily like one of your parents, a schoolteacher, or maybe even a bully from the past. Quickly, you’ll find that these negative perspectives were not of your own making, but originate from a negative experience in life. Unraveling the mystery of your inner narrative, you can let go of them piece by piece to create a more compassionate, kind, and loving, voice.

There is a way to love yourself again. Enlightened Recovery has a way. Bringing together proven clinical therapy methods with holistic healing and a twelve step philosophy, the partial care programs at Enlightened Recovery are ideal for healing mind, body, and spirit. For more information, call 833-801-5483.

10 Relaxation Techniques To Get You Through A Difficult Time

  1. Breathing: Breath is the source of life. Connecting the breath is an immediate way to calm down. It’s little coincidence that when we’re having an anxiety attack, getting all out of sorts and hyperventilating, someone tells us to breathe. Trying to take deep breaths on your own can be difficult when your head is running a hundred miles a minute. Look to an anxiety management, meditation, or mindfulness app to help you with breathing techniques. Pacifica even has a track that breathes with you.
  2. Meditation: Meditation will settle down any difficulty in as little as two minutes. Headspace has a great “SOS” series of 2-3 minute meditations designed to help you get situated. Focus on the breath, quiet your thoughts, scan your thoughts and your body. You’ll feel more relaxed.
  3. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a practice that can be applied anywhere. Mindfulness can be practiced through a meditation, through an activity, or just in your own thoughts. Bringing your attention and awareness to specific things will help you to stop obsessing over whatever difficulties you are facing and connect to peacefulness.
  4. Take A Walk: Movement is good for the soul. If you can take a walk, swinging your arms back and forth across your body, you’re engaging your brain in active bilateral stimulation which helps the nervous system calm down when it is activated.
  5. Stand In The Sunshine: The sun gives an energy that only the sun can. Mindfully notice it’s warmth, the way it glows through your eyelids when they’re shut, and how it makes you feel. Let the cozy heat envelop you like a blanket, soothing your fears and anxieties.
  6. Dance Around: Dancing is an ancient practice. Make light of a heavy situation by turning on your favorite song, or even just dancing to yourself. Five to ten minutes of non stop movement will help get the blood pumping and focus your energy somewhere other than your emotions.
  7. Color: Grab a notepad, a sketchbook, a canvas, a coloring book, and your favorite medium. Connecting to the strokes of painting, drawing, or sketching is like an instant meditation and form of relaxation.
  8. Go For A Run: Running helps produce endorphins, which are good for positive feelings and clearing the mind. Tie up your favorite runners and hit a path. You don’t have to run for very long to feel more relaxed.
  9. Call A Friend: Sometimes you just need to talk. Call up a friend who you know has a willing ear and just let it all out.
  10. Journal: When a friend isn’t available, the next best place is a journal. If you can’t talk it out, write it out. You might discover things you weren’t aware of before.

Enlightened Recovery is a dual diagnosis treatment facility offering partial care programs to men and women who want to experience healing transformation in mind, body, and spirit. For more information, contact us today.

woman focusing on developing healthy eating habits

Eating For Your Chakras?

The chakras are seven spiritual portals or centers in the body which interact with different emotions and functions. Aligning the chakras in a healthy and balanced way is said to help the body optimize energy flow, bringing someone fully into the present, as well as to enlightenment. Spiritual work, therapeutic work, yoga, meditation and diet, can all help support the chakras.

Root Chakra

Location: Base of spine
Connected to: Security, feeling grounded, feeling safe
Eating for the Root Chakra: Collective Evolution explains that the root chakra’s symbolic color is red. Red foods or foods with a strong red pigment will help recharge and balance your root chakra. Avoid red dyes and artificially colored foods. Instead, opt for whole foods like red fruits (think strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate, and cherry) and red vegetables (red bell pepper, beets). Red meat is a powerful protein that can help with healing in this area.

Sacral Chakra

Location: Below the naval
Connected to: Creativity, Passion, Commitment, Lower Back
Eating for the Sacral Chakra: The color for the sacral chakra is orange. Deeply orange fruits like oranges, tangerines, and most citrus as well as mangoes will be good for bringing balance to the sacral chakra. Vegetables like carrot, squashes, yams, and pumpkins will help as well.

Solar Plexus Chakra

Location: Above the naval
Connected to: Self-Esteem
Eating for the Solar Plexus Chakra: The solar plexus embodies your personal power and sense of self. Eating for this chakra helps you feel strong and connected to who you are. Yellow is the color for this chakra. Look for bananas, pineapple, yellow bell peppers, lemons, yellow lentils, and even oats

Heart Chakra

Location: Center of the chest
Connected to: Love, Gratitude, Joy, Compassion
Eating for the Heart Chakra: A balanced heart chakra is the difference between jealousy and contentment, codependency, and healthy boundaries. To balance and heal the heart chakra, opt for green foods, the color of the chakra. All of your leafy greens, green vegetables, and green fruits like apples and kiwis will help.

Throat Chakra

Location: Center of the throat
Connected to: Speaking, Expression, Voice
Eating for the Throat Chakra: Ever get a lump in your throat? When you can’t express yourself or speak your truth, you lose your voice- literally! Supporting the throat chakra with food can help open that channel and help you express yourself. The color for this chakra is light blue. Blueberries are a powerful antioxidant and great food for this chakra. Try the ancient fig as well.

Third Eye Chakra

Location: Between your eyes, above your brow line
Connected to: Critical thinking, Clarity, Seeing the Truth
Eating for the Third Eye Chakra: Being disillusioned by lies can block the third eye. In recovery, you are gaining wisdom each day by learning to discern between what is real and what is not real, what can be controlled or changed and what cannot. To support your third eye chakra, eat darker blue foods that are almost purple like purple versions of normally other color vegetables (broccoli, kale, carrots, green beans), eggplant, plums, and grapes.

Crown Chakra

Location: Top of the head
Connected to: Enlightenment
Eating for the Crown Chakra: Having a balanced crown chakra is a culmination of personal recovery. You are able to recognize your true inner self and view the world in an enlightened way. Collective Evolution suggests light fruits and vegetables that are connected to roots for the crown. To truly nourish your crown chakra, spend time outside, drink lots of water, and get plenty of sunshine.

Enlightened Recovery believes that holistic healing therapies can be a key to success in healing mental health and addiction disorders. Our program combines spiritual healing modalities with clinical therapy and twelve step philosophy to provide total transformation. For more information, call 833-801-5483.

Sounds Are Healing For Recovery

Sounds and noises influence us from the moment we start developing in the womb. There is a reason mothers put headphones over their stomach bumps for the baby to hear. Parents start talking to their baby months before birth is due because the growing child will hear what is happening outside. Inside the womb there are all kinds of noises- the beating heart, the swoosh and gush of fluids, the movement in organs. Outside the womb there are all the noises of life, voices, music, and more.

Certain vibrations and collections of notes or sounds are calming while others induce anxiety. Metal rock, for example, has been proven to actually relax people, as has classical music and other forms of music. Our bodies react naturally to vibrations and sounds. Naturally, then, music or sound therapy makes sense as a healing modality.

What is Sound Therapy?

According to MNN, the Mother Nature Network, sound therapy is a form of holistic healing which “…can benefit the well-being of our bodies and minds, helping the body heal from mental stress and even physical pain.” The article explains that sound therapy is helpful for mind, spirit, and body. “Various studies have shown that the use of low-frequency sounds can lessen the pain and anxiety associated with fibromyalgia…”

How Is Sound Therapy Conducted?

All sound therapy needs to happen is sound. Sound therapy could include the use of specific instruments like acoustic guitar, violin, or Tibetan singing bowls, as well as the soundtrack to various natural sounds like birds, gurgling creeks, or the wind. “White noise” apps have a soundboard available to mixx all kinds of sounds to create the most perfect combination. Sound therapy is about helping clients get lost into a relaxing sensation of sound. Sometimes, clients can participate in creating that sound. Bringing treatment into the process can look like a sound therapy practitioner asking the clients about how they feel before and after the sound therapy, what kinds of feelings the sound therapy produces, and more. Sound can help balance the brain and the mind-body connection, bringing someone more into the present with themselves.

Why Is Relaxation Important For Addiction Treatment?

Cravings are high during the treatment phase of addiction recovery. Nerves and anxiety are usually coupled with cravings, as can depression. Relaxation is helpful for detaching the association between relief and one’s substance of choice. The more one relaxes, the more they can go with the flow of their feelings and experiences in treatment, without returning to old coping behaviors like substance abuse.

Enlightened Recovery has created a holistic healing program of treatment which utilizes spiritual modalities with proven clinical treatment. Start your recovery with us. 833-801-5483.

Changing Your Approach To Body Image

Body image is important for recovery. Anyone can struggle with poor body image. Having a low sense of self and self-perception can damage the way you have relationships and engage in intimacy throughout your life. Here are a few suggestions for changing your approach to your body image.

Make Sure Your Beliefs Are Consistent

You think you might see some kind of flaw in the mirror. Oh no, you think to yourself, I cannot have this! This makes me unattractive. Yet, you see it in a friend and think they’re so beautiful it doesn’t matter. Or, even more problematically you might think they aren’t very beautiful anyway, so it doesn’t matter. Your beliefs about yourself and about others have to be consistent. Most importantly, they consistently need to look something like this:

Everyone is beautiful.
All bodies are beautiful.
It’s okay to be okay with yourself and how  you look
Take A Healthy Look At Your Eating Behaviors

Paying attention to eating behaviors might sound like the opposite thing you need to do to shift body image from negative to positive. Food shouldn’t be assigned labels or emotions. There shouldn’t be “bad” foods and “good” foods which you either feel okay about or completely guilty about. Identifying the way you label and judge your food, as well as yourself when you eat, is important. What you eat directly influences how you feel. You either have to change the food you’re eating in a healthy and balanced way or change the way you feel about the food you’re eating.

Embrace the “All Food” and “All Exercise” Philosophy

What if there was a world where you didn’t have to do a certain workout for a certain number of time followed by a certain protein shake with certain ingredients? Imagine a life where you just ate, in a healthy and balanced way, and got at least 20 minutes of exercise, in a healthy and balanced way. That world is possible and you can create it. Obsessing over doing everything right in regards to diet and exercise can drive you crazy, cause you to be sick, and thwart your positive body image. Let the reins loose a little bit and enjoy the way you live your life, not punish yourself for it.

Give Yourself The Same Love You Give Others

When you compliment and admire someone for the way they look, turn those sentiments back toward yourself. Positive affirmations are a powerful tool for helping you build a more positive self-image and higher sense of self-esteem.

Enlightened Recovery offers holistic partial care programs designed to treat issues of body image and eating disorders in addition to any dual diagnosis issues with substance abuse. We have a solution. It starts with you. Start by calling us today for more information at 833-801-5483.

Bringing Arts, Crafts, And Self-Care Together: The Self-Care Box

Designing a regimen for self-care could be too much. Trying to pick from all the many different options which help you to feel nourished, relaxed, and rejuvenated can be overwhelming. Self-care isn’t meant to be overwhelming. Quite the opposite, self-care is a time to drop out of the world outside and drop into the world inside. Tending to your needs, helping yourself feel taken care of, this is the point of self-care. If only you could just pull self-care off a shelf and put it on like a fuzzy robe. Psychotherapist Jennifer Rollin suggests creating a self-care box as a compact way to create a go-to source for all your self-care needs. Rollins points out that a self-care box can be relatively inconspicuous, meaning you can have one at home or at work. Storing a few quick self-care items in a small caddy for the car isn’t a terrible idea either.

Here are some of the things Rollins suggests, mixed in with some of our favorites:

  • Essential Oils Room Spray: you can store this at home, at work, and in your car. Look for a soothing blend using lavender and bergamot or chamomile to create a sense of purifying calm immediately in your space. You can even buy an oil diffuser which attaches to your air vents.
  • A small bottle of thick hand lotion: don’t over-lotion your hands, because they will dry out. In a moment of self-care, giving yourself a little reflexology massage that is also moisturizing can be quite the treat. Get in between your fingers, rub around your wrists, and release some tension
  • Inspirational Books: You can buy cute little versions of book sin additions to regular size books. Keep your favorite self-help, spiritual, or inspirational book in your kit for a moment of encouragement when you need it.
  • A Busy Toy: silly putty, play dough, kinetic sand, or a fidget cube is a good way to keep your hand busy and your brain focused during self-care. Self-care isn’t always all “ooo’s” and “aahh’s”. Sometimes it can be really hard to let go and relax.
  • Calming Music: on your phone, your computer, or a playlist on Spotify, load up on all that yoga studio, massage room, spa music that gets you feeling zen and relaxed.

Enlightened Recovery Solutions wants to help you learn how to take care of yourself in a healthy, holistic way for the rest of your life. Lifetime recovery is possible. We have the solution. Call us today for more information, at 833-801-5483.

Laughing Yoga? Using The Breath And Humor For A Good (Healing) Time

Laughter yoga has a simple goal: to make you laugh. Laughter is good for the soul. According to research, it’s also good for the heart, the body, and the mind. Voluntary laughter is a practice of getting yourself to laugh for an extended period of time. For laughter yoga sessions, the goal is usually about an hour. Laughter requires a lot of air intake, either in short spurts or long breaths. In between hysterics there are usually pauses of taking a deep breath, to replenish the lungs. This is the hidden benefit of laughter yoga: oxygen.

One certified laughter yoga practitioner explains that “laughter leads to deep breathing, which sends ample oxygen to the brain When the brain has obtained proper oxygen levels, it functions at peak capacity.” The breath is critically important. Basic physiological science teaches us that breath is a matter of life or death. Once we stop breathing, oxygen stops flowing to the brain. The brain needs oxygen to survive. The brain needs to survive so that it can tell other organs to keep working- like the heart. When we are sad, depressed, or not focused, we breathe in a very shallow manner. Short, shallow breaths cut off oxygen to the brain. It’s because of the amount of oxygen we take in during laughter that makes us feel so good. After a good laugh we might as well say “I need all that oxygen!” rather than say “I needed a good laugh”. A healthy brain is an oxygenated brain. An oxygenated brain is one that feels more positivity and releases higher levels of dopamine, serotonin, and influences production of endorphins.

The Spiritual Undertones Of Laughter Yoga

Forced or voluntary laughter is a way to create more authentic laughter. Laughter can be uncomfortable when we are taking life very seriously. Breaking through the ice is what laughter yoga does. Through a series of exercises, the laughter yoga coach creates forced laughter. Soon, everyone bursts out into real laughter and can’t stop laughing. The philosophy behind this exercise is about letting go, surrendering, and realizing that sometimes you have to laugh. There is a famous saying in recovery “don’t take yourself too seriously”.

Recovery starts with you. Start your recovery with Enlightened Recovery. We know that addiction is no laughing matter. Recovery will bring a smile to your face again. If you are ready to heal, call us today for more information on our partial care programs at 833-801-5483.

3 Important Things You Need To Understand About Body Image

Body image issues are not gender specific. Both men and women can struggle with the way they perceive themselves and what they believe that means. You are worth more than how you look, no matter how you look. Your body is the only one you get. Learning to make peace with your physical form is an important part of spiritual healing.

  1. The Media Is Lying To You: That includes social media, as well. Pictures can be digitally altered from a smartphone now, to create what others will see as “perfect”. Currently, there are no regulations for American media when it comes to model BMI, digital alterations, or anything having to do with beauty. Largely that is because beauty companies, cosmetic companies, and fashion companies have a lot of money to spend on lobbying. Ex-executives and lawyers make up federal boards which continue to allow the media to sell the ideals of “perfect” “beautiful” and attractive. For men and women, what you see in print and on screen is often fake. Bodies which seem to be perfectly sculpted have a very particular life. They are paid to spend hours in the gym, training, exercising, and using sponsored nutritional supplements to support them. Most people don’t have that kind of time and certainly aren’t paid to have it.
  2. You’ll Never Be Perfect: Perfect doesn’t exist. If you’re trying to live up to fake images and ideals, you’ll never reach them. Most problematically, if you develop an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder along the way you won’t be able to see (or accept) your body for what it is. Thin will never be thin enough, sculpted will never be sculpted enough, and so forth.
  3. Diet And Exercise Are Parts Of A Whole, Not The Whole Part: You are not defined by what you eat, how you eat it, or how you exercise or how often. You are defined by the unique things about you which come from within: your character, your personality, your integrity, your spirit. Diet and exercise are not really lifestyle trends. They can be part of your lifestyle. An unhealthy obsession with either one is not a sign of a healthy lifestyle but an unhealthy one. There should always be room for indulgence, laziness, relaxation, and enjoying your life without rigid routine and restriction.

Enlightened Recovery is an integrative treatment program, providing partial care programs to men and women who are seeking recovery. Combining clinical therapy with holistic healing and 12 step philosophy, we provide a well balanced program for mind, body, and spirit. For more information, call us today at 833-801-5483.