When it comes to our addictions and mental health issues, many of the problems we experience are due to the fact that we are afraid to face the truth. We are in denial about how severe our problems are. We may not have come to terms yet with the challenges we are facing. Recovery from our deep-rooted issues means finding the courage to be honest with ourselves.
When we are struggling internally, we sometimes tend to focus outwardly because our pain can be too much to bear. We blame our issues on other people in our lives, our traumatic childhoods, or past experiences. We distract ourselves from our inner turmoil with our drugs of choice, addictive behaviors and thought patterns, and relationships. We transfer our hurt onto other situations and people in our lives. Healing requires that we be able to look inward and focus on healing our inner world. This can be terrifying. We’re up against fears and traumas that have been causing us pain for much of our lives. How do we muster the courage?
We can start by changing the limiting belief we have that our pain is unbearable. It might feel unbearable, but we are strong enough to get through it. We have to believe in our strength to overcome our challenges and in our power to heal. We are capable of transcending anything and everything that limits us. Oftentimes what holds us back most are our own thoughts and beliefs about ourselves. Let’s start affirming that we are stronger than our pain. To create new beliefs for ourselves that are self-affirming and self-empowering, we can repeat affirmations such as “I am strong. I am brave. I have the power to heal myself.”
We can also begin to question the beliefs we’ve carried about ourselves that we are weak and unable to cope. Just because we’ve struggled with addictions and mental health issues does not mean we are not strong. It means we have been given unique, difficult challenges that are ours to overcome when we find our strength. The default thought patterns of our thinking minds are often so negative, self-critical and self-hating that we have come to believe what they tell us. We can choose to focus our attention on the messages from our hearts and spirits instead. Our higher power, and its power manifested within us, knows we possess the strength and courage to heal ourselves.
Give yourself the gift of support during your recovery. Let Enlightened Recovery be part of your support team. Call (833) 801-LIVE.