Tag: spirituality

What Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Message Teaches Us About Addiction Recovery and Universal Truth

Addiction is far more than just a dependence on substances. It’s an experience loaded with spiritual significance, and one that can serve as an important entry point into your journey of self-discovery and universal love. Seeing it in this context helps us understand why holistic addiction recovery is such a profoundly transformative experience – something internationally acclaimed author and presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has recently been bringing to national attention.   A Course in Miracles and Sobriety Many parallels have been drawn between Marianne Williamson’s teachings, A Course in Miracles (ACIM), and AA’s 12 Steps. “Many people in recovery who were attracted to ACIM,” Williamson explains, “first because the principles are the same; and secondly, because the eleventh step—to seek through prayer and meditation a conscious contact with God—is something ACIM helps accomplish.” While, in behavioral terms, addiction can be seen as…

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Addiction Problems – Recovery Solutions

Addiction Problems Grow and are Complex. Serenity Vista offers solutions, alcoholism, drug rehab centers

Sick & Tired Addiction Creates Many Problems Alcoholism and drug addiction problems grow as the disease progresses. Anyone struggling with addiction will readily describe a host of mounting problems in their life. Family members living with an addict will agree. There is a negative impact on all aspects of the alcoholic or addict’s life. The disease is chronic, progressive. If untreated, it is potentially fatal. This short article only briefly touches upon the extent of addiction’s negative consequences. A more comprehensive review may be found here. Addiction warps the mind, distorts life, and destroys relationships. Physical addiction itself is a major problem with a host of medical consequences. There are numerous secondary problems that are just as detrimental. Multiple Addictions Addictions often lead to and exacerbate other addictions. When the alcoholic is in the throws of a drinking binge, she…

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Father’s Day and Addiction Recovery

Father's Day and Addiction Recovery at Serenity Vista Drug Rehab

Addiction Recovery Father’s Day is a special day of celebration and reverence for most. A time set aside to honor that magical relationship between a father and his cherished children. Addiction Changes Everything Sadly though, many families today live with the pain of alcoholism or substance abuse. For these unfortunate souls, Father’s Day opens old wounds and recalls memories of abuse and sadness. For children living with an alcoholic or drug-addict dad, Father’s Day is an emotional struggle. A struggle wrought with confusion, resent, and pain. People who grow up in the presence of addicted dads endure a lifetime of suffering. The dysfunction can span those formative years as children, through adolescence and up to the socially sensitive teen years. These are important years as they seek to establish their identities. Into adulthood, they themselves often become addicts modeled after their…

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Spring into Full Addiction Recovery

Full addiction recovery rehab for your fresh start at life transformation and renewal.

The Renewal of Spring: Starting Afresh with Addiction Recovery! Spring has arrived! After another long and dark winter, the ice is finally melting and rivers are flowing again. The days are becoming longer and lighter, and parades of migrating birds signal brighter times ahead. When alcohol or other drugs have been a problem, this is your time to spring into full recovery! Spring is an invigorating season for most everyone. For those struggling with drug addiction or alcoholism, it is an especially exciting time of renewal and a perfect metaphor for the possibility of healing, renewal, and a new life in recovery. Awaken to possibility Spring is a season of change and new beginnings, and a time for awakening. Look around. As your senses awaken, you’ll see the world around you also stirring to life. There is a rush of real…

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Letting Go in Addiction Recovery…to be Happy, Joyous and Free!

let go and let god

15 Things to Let Go Of   Here’s a list of 15 things to learn to ‘let go’ of, if you want to be truly happy. Letting go can be simple and straightforward, but difficult to consistently apply to our lives. We need to practice them, over and over, so that the newly learned pattern becomes the default, standard behavior. Remind yourself, over and over, to let go of…. 1. Your need to always be right. “Would I rather be right, or happy?” 2. Control 3. Blame 4. Self-defeating self-talk 5. Limiting beliefs about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. “A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” 6. Complaining. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking. 7. Criticism. Give up your need to…

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Winter Blues? Sad? Struggling with Addiction?

Hibiscus flower at drug rehab

Struggling with Addiction this Winter? It’s dark in the morning and dark in the afternoon. The holidays are over and spring is way off in the far too-distant future. It’s cold. This is the season when depression sets in deep. As if compulsive drug use, drug addiction, drinking alcohol and alcoholism aren’t difficult enough, this time of year makes struggling with addiction extra unbearable. Winter blues (or seasonal affective disorder, SAD), pill taking, depression, alcoholic drinking and addiction often go hand in hand. This is also an especially trying time for anyone in recovery to be prone to relapse. Dark and cold days give way to long and icy nights. For anyone recovering or suffering from alcoholism or other addiction, this time of year is fraught with the temptation to try to escape with drugs and alcohol. If this sounds familiar…

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Spending Christmas In Rehab? Yes!

Christmas-in-rehab - Serenity Vista private international holistic rehab

It May Be Your Best Idea Yet to Spend Christmas in Rehab! We wish you a Merry Christmas. Bah Humbug! That’s a sentiment expressed by many people at this time of year. The pressures can be unbearable for such a joyous time, even more so for addicts and alcoholics, even if they are sober in recovery. But Why? Old Wounds Cut Deep Let’s forget about the stresses of buying gifts and how much to spend and cooking and baking and finding the time to do it all. Instead, look deeper into the issues of why Christmas is such a difficult time for the active addict or alcoholic, or the clean and sober addict in recovery. Often addiction has its roots in the family. Whether your family is ‘picture perfect’, or there is some past abuse, trauma, or conflict, Christmas means…

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California Wildfires Highlight the Need for More Oversight of Rehab Facilities

California Wildfires Rehab

Wildfires in California Spotlight the Rehab Riviera The recent wildfires that tore through California further underscored the need for better oversight of addiction treatment facilities in the area. The human cost was high all over the state, but the fires in Southern California have harmed an especially vulnerable group of people: people in the midst of their addiction treatment. The Woolsey fire in Southern California hit LA hard: Malibu was put under a mandatory evacuation order, which included all sober living and treatment facilities in the area. Malibu has about one sober living or treatment center per square mile, and as the fires raged on, it became clear that many of them were underprepared for a natural disaster. The centers struggled to hold onto clients rather than refer them to other facilities, putting people in the early stages of recovery…

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Relapse Again. Now What?

Addiction Problems Grow and are Complex. Serenity Vista offers solutions, alcoholism, drug rehab centers

Relapse Again Now What? You’ve had a relapse again. Now what? The word relapse is perhaps the most ominous word in the addiction recovery vocabulary. Why? Because regardless if you have been sober one month or 20 years, relapse again is a possibility every addict or alcoholic faces. Does a relapse mean that it was all for nothing, that you’re a failure? Absolutely not! But what’s next? The Emotional Turmoil A relapse is possibly the most devastating blow to a person’s recovery. The emotional stress can seem unbearable. You’re feeling shame and guilt. You’re embarrassed. An overwhelming, gut-wrenching, all-consuming sense of failure fills you to the core. Your body aches with misery. You want to hide away from the public shaming and ridicule you are positive will follow if anyone found out. What you’re feeling is normal. It’s what you…

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