Our sense of self-worth is often extremely fragile and precarious when we’re struggling with addiction and mental illness. We don’t view ourselves with love and compassion. We tend to deny ourselves forgiveness and understanding, especially surrounding the mistakes and regrets we can’t seem to live down. We have a hard time accepting ourselves for who we are, we struggle with intense insecurities and feelings of self-hate and self-rejection, and we see our addictions as being just more proof of our inadequacy and worthlessness.
As a result of how we feel about ourselves internally, we tend to attract relationships and circumstances into our lives that reflect this lack of self-worth and that makes us feel even worse about ourselves. Our feelings of worthiness become linked to how other people treat us and how we allow them to make us feel. In a sense, we give up the autonomy to create our own self-worth and hand it over to other people. We allow them to dictate what is valuable and good about us, and what isn’t. We allow them to beat us down with their words and actions. We allow their judgments to become our own opinions of ourselves. How can we reclaim our self-worth and our power?
The vast majority of our beliefs come from the programming stored in our subconscious mind, where our emotional information, our fears, memories, and wounds are all housed. The subconscious directs most of our behaviors, actions, choices, and decisions, along with our thoughts and feelings. Therefore, when we’re holding onto limiting beliefs about our self-worth, we will manifest lives that reflect that because that is the energy with which we are conducting our lives and operating in the world.
We can reclaim our self-worth by practicing believing new beliefs that empower us and that bolster our confidence and self-worth. We can repeat affirmations that tell ourselves new truths – we are capable, we are strong, we are worthy, we are valuable, we are powerful. We are more than good enough. We have the power to create our own identities. We can tell ourselves over and over again that we love and accept ourselves until we begin to believe it. We can also write down our affirmations because the subconscious mind responds not only to repetition but also to the written word. Over time, the more we practice thinking these new thought patterns, the more they become ingrained in our consciousness and inform how we feel about ourselves. The more we work to believe these new truths, and to shed our self-doubt and the fears that naturally come up for us, the more they will shape how we genuinely view ourselves. Soon we will have reclaimed our self-worth from the addictions and unhealthy relationships that have robbed us of our power for so long.
Riverside Recovery is committed to helping you get back the life you love. Our treatment programs include multiple forms of therapy, family workshops, and mindfulness-based relapse prevention education. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information.