Category: Higher Power

A Spiritual Cure for Spiritual Pain

Recovery almost always requires allowing the spiritual side of us to have more say in our lives. For many of us, to stay sober we’ve needed to completely surrender the course of our lives to God, Spirit, the Universe, our own Higher Selves – whatever name we use to refer to the deepest dimension of ourselves, where we are deeply at peace and connected with all of life.

This makes more sense if we understand that the negative ego (the part of us in charge before we decide to put spirit in charge) is always going to attract addictions. The negative ego is not a completely bad character but has some baked-in problems, namely that when we are too encapsulated within ego’s confines then we are doomed to a life of painful separation and alienation.

Negative Ego Attracts Addictions

The psychological structure we call the negative ego was formed in reaction to pain, as a kind of stop gap mechanism for defending us against intrusive forces that invaded our beings and threatened our lives. It also served to keep us all in one place, psychologically. 

Egos are a developmental necessity. To grow into who we are, we do need lines around us that keep out the things that don’t belong inside of us, and to keep that which does belong to us, inside of us. 

The trouble with ego is that it creates separation, often to point of no longer being able to contact our deeper, sweeter, and wilder natures. Therefore we experience a thorough, heartbreaking loneliness owing to our state of disconnection. 

Only when we are in good-enough reunification with ourselves, with God, with Spirit, are we really happy. We need to have God filling us up from within, not only to feel good but also to feel safe. If we don’t have that, we will have the kind of psychological pain inside that drives a person to look for solutions in all the wrong places.

In other words, ego, as well-intentioned as it is, the manager part of our personality who runs our life every day, is the same reason we feel disconnected, shut off and in pain. That condition, as a chronic state, is a breeding ground for addiction. 

Spirit is Our Ruby Slippers

What we need to replace the negative ego with is a kind of boundary keeper and protector structure around us, a benevolence that can stop us from being harmed and overwhelmed by oceanic psychic forces, but does not violently tear us from life, nor wall us off in loneliness.

How can that happen? There is one aspect of our own nature who can do that, and that is our spiritual side. Spirit can simultaneously keep us safe, and keep us filled up, replenished and restored, held safe and sound in deep and comfortable companionship. 

Spirit has a higher level perspective that can help guide us in all kinds of scenarios that our normal mind has no way of truly understanding. Spirit, in other words, is our ruby slippers, the pot of gold we’ve been sitting on this whole time. 

How Our Own Spirit Heals Addiction

Addiction attaches to us because we like what it gives us, at least in the beginning. To replace the powerful function it has had in our lives, we need an even stronger force providing an even better solution.

Spirit, infusing us from the inside, can make contact with all the alienated trauma states that live hidden in different rooms inside the mansions of our psyches. Like a perfume that fills the whole structure, Spirit can softly go into all of the walled off sections of our being and create unity out of fracture. Spirit creates the self-reunification that cures all sicknesses of heart. 

Spirit is our fierce protector, as well as a nurturer, guide, and companion. Our perennial witness and comforting friend, the one who laughs hardest at our jokes and stands up for us when no one else will. 

Recovery is Ours for the Asking

If we genuinely and consistently ask our own highest nature to remove our addiction, recovery can be ours.

This works in part because if we really want to be freed of addiction we will reorder our lives to match that intention. We will do everything we can. This means we will go to meetings, stay away from friends who use, give up all we have been attached to that runs counter to the presence of Spirit. 

But most of all it means we are ready to meet our own whole nature again. This is the beginning of the end of psychological pain. 

If you or an important woman in your life are struggling with substance use and are taking steps towards recovery, reach out to us today to learn more about how our treatment programs incorporate healing of the soul. Call (866) 950-0648 to learn more. 

Introducing Higher Power

The thing I love most about 12 Step is that it recognizes the vital importance of each person having their own direct and very personal relationship with God. 

When I say God, I don’t mean any particular religion’s definition of God. You can substitute many words for God – Source, Spirit, the Universe – to refer to the eternal, loving presence dwelling in us. 

In 12 Step circles, people traditionally say “Higher Power” – two words chosen for their relevance to what exactly we need to be able to recover in a more permanent fashion. We need a benevolent force that is an authority above our egos, and it needs to have power superior to our own. 

A Power Greater than Ourselves can be All Our Own

It was in 12 Step that I was introduced to the idea that I didn’t have to follow what anyone else told me about what God is like, nor do I necessarily have to take on the common ideas of how I am supposed to be in order to be worthy of a relationship with God. 

Rather, the idea of God was summed up with the irreverent anecdote that you can pick anything as long as it’s not your ego or your addiction-even a doorknob can be your Higher Power. If you start praying sincerely to a doorknob to take away your addiction, that’s enough to begin the journey of extracting pain and misery out of your life splinter by splinter. 

How do you feel about God, Source, Spirit, the Universe? How do you think God feels about you? 

If you’re not sure you like your Higher Power, or you’re not sure your Higher Power likes you, I would gently suggest that looking a little harder for the Just-Right Higher Power for you could be a rewarding endeavor.

A Call for Spirit

An exercise that I wholly endorse is to make a Higher Power want ad, exactly as if you were going to take out an ad to look for someone specific. 

Seeking personal Higher Power. Must be loving, patient, and know how to take away addictions. Must be able to help with burdens and struggles of daily life. 

My Higher Power has a great sense of humor, is hugely affectionate, and cares about the same things I care about, like the beauty of nature and the tender innocence of all human hearts.

My Higher Power has endless patience to listen to me express my feelings, even when I’m angry, dark, or self-destructive. My Higher Power is kind and soft, but also has a great, sunny disposition and a keen sense of celebration and fun. My Higher Power holds the answer to any question I may ask, and can bring me practical solutions to any real world conundrum that has me stymied. 

It’s not an accident that my Higher Power is just what I, personally, need – my Higher Power showed up in my life as a response to my very ardent and heartfelt call for a Higher Power who could really help me.

The Higher Power You Need

Your Higher Power will be the exact right one for you. God has many faces. We may resonate with, connect with, or need certain sides of God at certain times. We are allowed to connect with different sides of God, to look for what we most need in God. My God is what I need God to be – your God will be what you deeply and most desperately need.

Those of us who need more of a loving mother energy to come to us may do best with a feminine expression of God, one who holds us patiently in warmth, safety and softness. At other times, we may crave the fortitude and protection of a paternal warrior presence, a fierceness who will blast his fiery breath to blow away all the things that hurt us. 

In my personal relationship with God, it is ok to express anything, including anger, towards God. God doesn’t mind if I am resentful, afraid, rebellious. That’s because the aspect of God I connect with has a deep and total understanding of trauma and what it does to the human being. My Higher Power knows exactly how much I need to be heard and understood, witnessed and allowed to say all I have to say about what life on planet earth has been for me.

Finding one’s own relationship to a Higher Power is a sacred journey. I would say it’s THE journey we’re all on, one way or another. To be conscious of the fact that we are on that journey at all times, lends a sweetness to life that is otherwise missing. Safe travels, friend. 

If you or an important woman in your life are setting out on a recovery journey and want to know more about Villa Kali Ma’s holistic mind, body and spirit treatment program, reach out to us today. Call (866) 950-0648 to learn more.