The Spiritual Malady: A Hole in the Soul Sobriety Guides

Just an attempt to stimulate thought or discussion and provide information based on my study and experience. Today I look further at the disease of alcoholism focusing on it as a spiritual malady. Each time we wake up from a modus operandi state of unconscious reflexive autopilot thinking and reacting and become mindfully aware of our internal and external experience, there is an awakening of spirit. It is a spiritual awakening to realize our attitude and outlook come from within and that we have the capacity to adjust them when we make a conscious choice to do so. Just because we may have had a shitty day thus far doesn’t mean that it has to continue in that direction. If we do not get spiritually connected with meditation or prayer with a power greater than us it will bring us closer and closer to that drink or drug.

• It’s a void that we used to fill with drugs and alcohol.
• So long as we make an active effort to address our spiritual malady every day, we will find relief from it, one day at a time.
• Jung’s position was ultimately incorporated into twelve-step recovery, specifically Step Twelve.

In sobriety, it is so important to maintain conscious contact with a higher power and count our blessings. Being spiritually maladapted can come from a lack of gratitude. We must live our lives selflessly and show our gratitude to a higher power for the lives that we live and the opportunity to have a second chance at life. As we work towards this state of selflessness we find that we are slowly being relieved of the hopeless alcoholic state we once thought we were doomed to be in forever. It is constant maintenance of being spiritually connected with a god of your understanding.

Thoughts of Recovery – No.17 – The Spiritual Malady – Step 1

Finally, someone explained to me that those things are not the insanity that the Big Book talks about; nor are those things why the alcoholic’s life becomes unmanageable. What is the “elephant” in the middle of your family’s living room that everyone knows but no one talks about? Remember, you can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there. The fact is, we have a spiritual problem, and the only cure is God. Spiritual awakenings don’t necessarily happen the way we might expect, along a timeline we prefer, or in a form obvious to us.

But for food addicts—because of their body’s “allergy” to sugar or processed foods—one Christmas cookie leads to a dozen. The way humans think is on a spectrum of self-centeredness and god-centeredness. When dealing with the disease of alcoholism we are selfish and self-centered beings. We use everything and everyone, even when we stop using alcohol and drugs to cope with these feelings of being unsatisfied and uncomfortable in life. The more we focus less on ourselves we allow a god of our understanding to enter our minds and work in our lives.

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Once you open up to this idea and implement that spiritual connection, you will experience your long-awaited spiritual awakening, the answer to that pesky https://ecosoberhouse.com/ we suffer from as alcoholics. It is important that when we embark upon this quest to alleviate our spiritual malady that we are not too harsh on ourselves. No one is perfect at first when attempting to live a spiritual life, especially when we are coming back from a long spiritual hiatus. What is important though is that we strive to be a little better every single day and never give up on our spiritual journey in recovery. Our spiritual malady never just goes away and stays away on its own, it requires a constant spiritual connectivity and effort on our parts in our programs to keep it and the subsequent alcohol and drug abuse at bay.

There is no church you must attend or strict practices you must adhere to in organized worship of said higher power, it is a completely individual and personal experience. It simply means we are spiritually blocked off from the Power of God, which enables us to remain sober, happy, joyous, and free. This spiritual malady, or spiritual disconnection, is the driving force behind our addiction and self-destructive behaviors. Without addressing this spiritual malady, we have absolutely no hope for intrinsic change or recovery. It is this notion that the fellowship of AA was founded upon, and how millions of recovered alcoholics equate their success in overcoming a seemingly hopeless situation.

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But I realized I wanted the emotional payoff more than I physically craved the sugar and lard. It’s been medically proven that after a few days of not drinking, alcohol is completely processed out of the body. After a period of abstinence, the substance is physically worked out of the body.

Was trying to relay in a far more easily digestible fashion. Unless, we let Go and Let God and ask God to remove these negative emotions/sins/defects of character we end up in a futile increasingly distressed spiral of negative emotions. I can manage my spiritual malady or emotional dysfunction, I have the tools to do so. In Grace we can still experience negative emotions but God allows us to see them for what they are and not react.

The practice of compassion is a spiritual experience with a spillover benefit—compassion breeds more compassion. Scientific research provides evidence that the experience of compassion toward a single individual facilitates compassion toward others. Empirical data also demonstrates that our sense of compassion increases measurably when we can find commonality and connection with others. Compassion radiates whenever we can connect with another through shared experience. The more we can open our hearts with the awareness that suffering, failure, and imperfection are universal to the human experience, the more we are capable practicing compassion for others and for ourselves.

Also, they are passive, in the sense that people do not have an influence over the phenomenon. Alcoholics Anonymous often makes reference to the publication of WIlliam James, “The Varieties of Religious Experiences,” which was published in 1902. Almost everyone who evolves spiritually has certain key characteristics, according to the book. Below is an overview of the 12 admissions that support the 12 steps toward recovery.

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Those of you who have been in Celebrate Recovery (CR) for a while know that our 12-steps are exactly modeled on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a proven process has helped literally millions of people all over the world recover from addictions and compulsive spiritual malady behaviors. The difference with CR is that we specifically acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Higher Power that can restore us. However, no one is required to be a Christian to attend CR. If you don’t believe in Jesus, or you’re not sure what you think about Him, that’s okay.

Selfishness and self -centeredness is the root of my trouble. My troubles are of my own making and arise out my living a life run on self-will. I must be God centered instead of self centered and God directed rather than self directed . The specific directions in the first 102 pages of the book  Alcoholic Anonymous. The spiritual malady is the result of my being out of order with my higher power who I choose to call God. I was the director in the drama of life and managing the world so I could  get what I thought I needed to feel ok.