Written by Merv Malish

Recovery from addiction involves the process of creating a personal bridge from conscious separation to conscious connection with one’s true spiritual nature (higher power). Following the acceptance of powerlessness over addiction, one begins a recovery journey down a new pathway. Driven by a growing spiritual thirst, priority becomes a search for inner consciousness and peace of mind.

People going through spiritual change (seekers) often serve as an example to others. With genuine interest, an observer feels energy drawing them to ask the seeker questions, and to pay attention to what he/she says and does. They become witness to an indisputable process of change.

In the process of change through spiritual experience, one must discard old beliefs that stand in the way of progress. Preoccupation with problems (comparing one’s problems to the problems of others, daily accumulation of problem thinking) must be discarded. For awhile early in recovery, understanding and accepting that a problem first occurs in one’s own mind, may seem like too big a hurdle. Yet, finding a solution to an unmanageable state of mind begins with understanding there is only one real problem to overcome.

Consider that problems in the mind are really only made of air. And that ego, built in self-centredness, is the basis of creating internal separation and the feeling of aloneness. Accumulation of negative emotions will always weigh heavily in preventing peace of mind. And the more one dwells on problem-filled thoughts, the heavier and more unmanageable their life becomes. So…the solution lies in correcting the one real problem responsible for all other problems; that being, conscious separation from God. In process, this leads to the one solution – that being, conscious connection with God. The desire for a spiritual awakening in the journey of recovery becomes the pathway to progress and a new source of power.

LOOKING AT ADDICTION

Addictions are driven by attempts to reconnect with one’s original nature through unnatural means (through drugs, through alcohol, through sex, through gambling, through over eating, through obsessions). Addiction represents the occurrence of a deep hunger and thirst for spiritual union. And at the heart of this experience is the missing connection to God. Not knowing one is missing God, attempts to fill this void takes one down alternate pathways. There are many driving forces…greed in seeking financial security, fear of being alone, power and control in seeking prestige or status – believing that self-serving goals will create happiness and fulfillment. And what manifests is more separation from life and being led into more self-centeredness and deeper aloneness. Every addiction can be broken down into erroneous pathways to spiritual freedom. Searches often pursued into the hallways of insanity and death.

TOWARD A SOLUTION

Living in the solution requires the dismantling of a false world created by preoccupation with continued failures in trying to control addiction. Ego, built in self-centredness created separation from God from self and from others. Becoming God-centred (higher power), is where one’s world truly begins looking totally different. What seemed previously to be problems cease to exist. While the real problem, separateness, is now replaced with connectedness. The road of recovery and spiritual progress reconnects to what was there all along, giving way to healing and fulfillment within.