Life Issues
Anyone who doesn’t carve out time for their physical, spiritual, and personal time will burn out, bum out, and—eventually—act out. Is it possible to prevent burnout and acting out from happening? Thankfully, yes!
Prevent exhaustion by forming healthy habits such as getting enough sleep, learning to say no, spending time with the Lord every day, and not taking on too much. However, there are two must-haves for finding balance: boundaries and accountability.
One can only take care of themselves by setting boundaries with their time and energy. There must be enough time for priorities such as getting plenty of rest, checking in with an accountability partner or sponsor, and going to a Life Recovery Group weekly. It is important to decide that rest, self-care, spiritual health, and personal time are non-negotiable. So, if there is a crisis such as a death in the family, job loss, or divorce, self-care is still done daily. (more…)
Life Issues
“I blew it.” “I’m a failure.” “I’ll never amount to much.
Sound familiar? Voices like these are how many people talk to themselves. It is important to note that everyone has self-talk. But sadly, most people talk to themselves negatively.
Every person talks to themselves throughout the day by planning, acting, evaluating, and judging their behavior. Because this is so much a part of a person’s life, it becomes essential that everyone monitors their self-talk just as they would their bank account.
Psychologists say that it takes seven positive comments for someone to erase one negative word. It’s also valid for how a person speaks to themselves—one negative thought such as “I’m unworthy of love,” and there will need to have seven positive self-talk statements to erase it! (more…)
Addiction/Recovery
What’s the key to overcoming addiction and anxiety? Acceptance! Let’s say someone is trying to self-medicate from anxiety using drugs, alcohol, or something else. They must accept that addiction is not the answer for their anxiety and get into recovery. Dr. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, put it this way, “Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.”
Once in recovery, an individual must also accept anxiety and learn how to deal with it in healthy ways. If not, fear will destroy their efforts to recover completely, and they’re likely to relapse. Scripture confirms that anxiety can wreak havoc when it says, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up” (Proverbs 12:25, NIV).
Anxiety can be such a burden that it’ll cause a person to do anything to find relief. One central fear is that of the unknown. (more…)
Addiction/Recovery
Healing and recovery are often progressive because it requires changes in a person’s character and actions. The way to cope with emotional pain must change if the decision is to no longer eat (drink, or any other addictive reaction) through the pain.
Keeping a record of what one does when one becomes emotionally upset is an excellent way to watch progress occur, perhaps in a journal. The journey to finding new alternatives to eating might look like this: “I received an upsetting phone call from my ex. This made me feel hurt, so I went to the refrigerator and opened the door to eat.” Now, think of a new way to cope with that feeling. What could be a substitute for eating? One recommendation is calling a friend to pray. Here’s another example: “I heard someone gossip about me at church. This made me feel angry, so I stopped for fries at a fast-food restaurant.” A good alternative would be to gently confront the person who did the gossiping rather than feed the feelings. (more…)
Faith/Spiritual
What’s one of the biggest challenges in trying to overcome addiction? It’s when the person suffering from addiction believes they know what is best for themselves. So, they detach from others because they don’t want anyone telling them what to do. As a result, they continue blindly down the same road of destruction that brought them under the power of dependency.
To get off the road to destruction, a person must recover accountability in their lives. The Webster’s Dictionary defines accountability as: “the quality or state of being held accountable: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.” In other words, it involves a willingness to be held accountable to an expressed outcome—purity and integrity.
Accountability is when individuals struggling with addiction and dependency connect to others so they can fight against something that, at least for a moment, is more powerful than they are. Ultimately, it provides support in a battle to be fought together. (more…)
