Our addictions and mental health issues bring us a great deal of stress, turmoil and anxiety. We can be consumed by the negativity and toxicity of our harmful patterns, our difficult relationships and our challenging circumstances. We can find ourselves feeling so overwhelmed that we react with intense panic, anger or volatility. We can find it impossible to stay calm when under so much pressure. We become highly reactive, and our emotional responses can add to our stress, our confusion and our overwhelm. How does it help us to stay calm instead?
When faced with an obstacle of any kind, whether pertaining to our thoughts, feelings or daily lives, reacting with fear never helps us. Our fear creates an energy of resistance. We often will try to avoid the issue at hand, or run from it, but doing so only worsens the hold it has over us. It only compounds the issues and keeps us from being able to resolve them. When we choose to stay calm instead, we carry an energy of faith rather than fear – faith that everything will work out, faith that we have the strength and the skill to get through this challenge, faith that we won’t be overpowered, hurt or completely taken under by it. We can choose to be calm even when there is pain involved. We can see the lessons in our struggles, the wisdom to be gained from our spiritual tests.
When we’re calm instead of reactive, we create the energetic space for solutions to present themselves. Confusion, conflict and turmoil block us from receiving the guidance of our inner voice and intuition. They keep us stuck, trapped in detrimental recurring cycles, hyper-focused on the problem rather than the resolution. Being calm soothes us, comforts us and nurtures us, and our energy radiates outward to everyone involved. When we’re calm, the other people affected by the difficult situation are energetically compelled to remain calm as well. They’re inspired by our faith, our resilience in the face of adversity, and our willingness to stay positive and optimistic when difficulty strikes. We’re that much more likely to be able to move through the challenges with grace and ease. We’re that much more likely to be able to lessen our stress and anxiety, making it easier for us to cope with all the issues at hand. We’re also much more likely to avoid incurring more of the pain and turmoil that can fuel our addictive patterns, and our being calm can make us move gracefully towards helpful solutions and coping skills, and away from using our drugs of choice to try to solve our problems.
Riverside Recovery is committed to helping you uncover the issues fueling your addictions. Our treatment programs include multiple forms of therapy, family workshops and mindfulness-based relapse prevention education. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information.