It is a sense of “otherness” that keeps us from feeling at peace with ourselves and the world around us. I was recommended to your website and followed you for several years now. Many years ago I had a wonderful counselor who taught me the same path towards “healing” that you address here… that basically healing is not meant to “erase” the reality of our wounds. Healing is to learn what tools to use to cope with my wounds and care for those wounds lovingly, accepting them into my reality… “LettingGo” has not been the answer. It has only reinforced that I am not OK, that “cutting the reality away” has served no purpose except to increase my pain and suffering.
Types of Spiritual Healing (& What to Be Careful Of)
This is frequently referred to as “digest and rest” physiology although it too is much more than that. Instead of seeing spirituality as a means to correct a “flawed” character, it can be viewed as a tool to enrich life and recovery. It involves exploring personal growth, embracing self-acceptance, and finding joy in new, fulfilling spiritual malady activities that don’t involve alcohol. AA suggests that when the spiritual malady is overcome, the Higher Power creates an opportunity for recovery. This connection is believed to restore sanity and address the turmoil caused by alcohol misuse, aligning thoughts, emotions, and beliefs to overcome the spiritual unrest.
What Is the “Spiritual Malady” in AA?
It’s also important to remember that your understanding of a Higher Power can change and evolve over time. As you grow in your sobriety and learn more about yourself, you may find that your concept of a Higher Power changes as well. The most important thing is that you keep an open mind and heart as you continue on your sobriety journey.
The Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction
We have to be aware of this phenomenon in everything we do and we have to be willing to look directly at this reality to be aware and correct course. Critics argue that the term “spiritual malady” might miss the scientific nuances of addiction, which include brain chemistry alterations and cognitive distortions. Also, the concept can be seen as judgmental, focusing too much on personal flaws and moral failings as root causes of addiction. For many struggling with alcohol use disorder or alcohol addiction, the only way to overcome these feelings is to embark upon a spiritual program of action fearlessly.
- Also, the concept can be seen as judgmental, focusing too much on personal flaws and moral failings as root causes of addiction.
- Old timers and recovering people with more experience can explain in layman’s terms just what the author Bill W.
- This is one of the reasons that Big Book study groups have become so popular among recovering alcoholics.
- This includes 12-Step communities that offer meetings that can help people discover what spirituality means to them.
- The good news is that spirituality and religion do not have to overlap in recovery.
The Hour of Spiritual Awakening
Doing so will give you a better idea of how a spiritual malady affects an alcoholic. However, that does not mean addicts are confronting this spiritual ailment by themselves. While an addict’s spiritual malady triggers a compulsive need to use drugs, other people’s spiritual conflicts may take the form of a gambling problem, anxiety, depression, or eating disorder. The solution to spiritual malady offered by Alcoholics Anonymous is to affect a spiritual awakening – in essence a psychic shift or attitude adjustment.
Cultivating Connections in Recovery: Fellowship and a Higher Power
Here at The Redpoint Center, we believe in healing at the cellular level. This includes addressing the mental, physical, and spiritual elements of addiction. For example, one can engage in psychotherapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). These therapies can get to the underlying emotional issues that often lead to that first drink or drug. If you’re struggling to find a Higher Power in AA, know that you’re not alone. There are many people who have been in your shoes and have found creative ways to work around this issue.
- On page 62 the text explains that “Selfishness-self-centeredness!
- Remember to keep an open mind and heart, and eventually, you will find something (or someone) who can serve as your own personal higher power.
- It’s important to be educated and use spiritual discernment here.
- It’s a path of healing; of reuniting us with our true Spiritual Nature.
- There are a lot of physical threats that can flip our physiology into a defense state.
- They also experience an ineffable quality from becoming spiritual – one where their feelings go beyond mere words.
This could be the power of nature, the universe, or even something as simple as your cats or dogs at home – perhaps their love for you and the fact that they need you to be sober is your Higher Power. It doesn’t matter what your Higher Power is; what matters is that you believe in something that can help guide and support you on your journey to recovery. Even if you don’t believe in God right now, it’s important to keep an open mind. Things may change over time, and you never know when or how your beliefs might evolve.
What is Authentic Spiritual Healing?
Some predictive codes are inborn, instincts, but humans actually have very few instincts. Prejudice comes from the predictive codes in the shadows of the brain. We accumulate threat and trauma codes throughout a lifetime that bias the system towards threat and trigger threat physiology easily. Spiritual threats can come in the form of emotional threat or injury.
Understanding the ‘Three-Fold Illness’
These feelings can become unmanageable – more on the unmanageability of life for alcoholics below. Another way to address the spiritual malady and heal in Glenwood Springs is to connect to some of its amazing recovery communities. This includes 12-Step communities that offer meetings that can help people discover what spirituality means to them. There is also a vibrant recovery community in the nearby urban hub of Denver. Although the idea of the spiritual malady came to me through reading about Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe it is a concept any person can connect with whether or not they suffer from addiction.
When people become too self-reliant, they may stop working on their program entirely. This complacency can then lead to a sense of entitlement which is extremely dangerous for people in recovery. Entitlement leads to unrealistic expectations, which often leads to disappointment and resentment. Self-reliance can also be dangerous because it can lead to pride.
