Overcoming addiction with spiritual surrender is at the heart of most recovery programs. Because addictions are locked into the mind and body, sheer will power often doesn’t work. Surrendering to your spiritual self and a higher power is what releases the tenacious grip of addiction.
Millions of people have experienced freedom and serenity by following a spiritual program such as the Twelve Steps. Admitting there is a problem can be the most difficult step, but once it is taken relief is on the way. The next two steps, “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity,” and “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him,” support a person to let go and let a wiser, higher power take over. This is where addiction recovery happens.
Spiritual surrender can be frightening from the ego’s point of view, as it believes it needs total control in order to survive. But it is the ego and its dysfunctional beliefs and unhealthy coping mechanisms that led to the addiction in the first place, so it can’t find a way out. Within each of us is spiritual being, our true authentic self, ready to lead the way.
Explore the following suggestions as a way to overcome addiction with spiritual surrender. And for an enlightened view of how the Twelve Steps and Zen’s Eightfold Path blend together to offer addiction help, read The Zen of Recovery, pictured above.
The Reality of Addiction
Having a serious addiction is a painful way to live. Even minor obsessions and cravings interfere with a balanced life. Work, food, sex, busyness, and drama have become acceptable forms of addiction, yet they erode the fabric of families, communities and societies.
In order to overcome addiction, it’s necessary to see it for what it is. For many, substance abuse and alcoholism are ways to numb out from pain; the pain of past childhood abuse and neglect, the pain of a current dysfunctional relationship, or for those who are very sensitive to the energy around them, the pain and suffering that exists in the world today. For others, overeating, staying busy, over working, and falling prey to one crisis and drama after another, distracts them from a general uneasiness or emptiness within.
No one wants to willingly feel pain or emptiness, yet addiction leads to this over time. Once a person is hooked mentally and physically into their choice of substance or behavior, they don’t know how to unhook from it. The mind and body have become caught in a downward spiral, and only the soul can lift a person out.
Overcome Addiction with Spiritual Surrender
Whatever form your addiction takes, see the reality of it. Know it is not who you are, but a trap you are caught in. Don’t try to fight it with will power, as this will only drag you into a power struggle. This is not a battle to be won, but an addictive state to be transcended. Ask the God of your heart to lift you up and beyond the battlefield.
The next time your addiction tries to knock you unconscious and run your life, try the following:
1. Practice present moment mindfulness. Center within your spiritual self and observe what is happening. Listen to the ego’s urgings, but don’t act on them. Feel the craving as sensations in your body. Go deeper and bring radical acceptance to any charged emotions. Notice how anxiety, anger and sadness diminish and release as you breathe into them. Feel your spacious true nature underneath.
2. Surrender to a higher power. Connect to the God of your heart through prayer or meditation and ask for help with your addiction. Envision your addiction as a symbol or feel it as an energy form and hand it over to God. Replace the addictive state with the essence of God; feel a loving bright presence within you and let this flow through your whole body down into the cells. Ask for spiritual guidance on what step to take next and listen to your higher intuitive wisdom.
3. Pray and meditate daily. Regular prayer and meditation will help you to be spiritually senior instead of ego driven. As you spend time turned inward in silence, you will realize you are much more than your mind and its rantings or your body and its emotions. You will touch into your true spiritual nature of peace, love and joy. This will heal old pain and replace emptiness with wholeness.
4. Enjoy healthy activities. If you are present, mindful and surrendered while doing healthy, enjoyable activities, addiction has no room to grow. Mold and mildew form in dank, dark, airless places, not in airy, sunny spaces. Spend time with people and situations that foster amusement, joy and enthusiasm as a way to stay healthy and overcome addiction.
Addiction recovery is possible with awareness, presence and surrender. Give yourself the gift of peace and freedom by surrendering to your spiritual self and higher power.
Do you have any questions or insights on overcoming addiction with spiritual surrender? Please share below.
~ Nurture Your Spiritual Life ~
A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World
Sensitive to People's Energy? ~ The Complete Empath Toolkit
11 Forgotten Laws ~ Law of Attraction
Tags: addiction help, center within, essence of God, God of your heart, higher power, love and joy, mindfulness, prayer and meditation, present moment, recovery programs, serious addiction, spiritual being, spiritual guidance, spiritual nature, surrender, twelve steps
