Learning More About Recovery

Learning More About Recovery

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

—Desmond Tutu.

I remember attending the Episcopal Recovery Conference in Asheville, North Carolina, some years ago, where I learned so much more about addiction recovery. First, I realized that the longer I am in recovery, the more I think I know and that I have heard it all. Today I am disabused of that thought. I know very little. That is why it is essential to continue attending gatherings like this.

One speaker, Chris Budnick, executive director of Healing Transitions in Raleigh, talks about how we think others' recovery should look like ours. That is not true. Recovery from addiction is not a cookie-cutter process. We share our experience, strength, and hope, but we must not expect others to have the same experience, strength, and hope. Perhaps we can see this more clearly in our spiritual life. We each have a spiritual connection to God, but it is different for each of us. Likewise, our response to recovery and our individual path to achieving it are different. 

I learned another lesson that day. We often talk about someone not coming to recovery because they “have not hit bottom.” That means the person hasn’t reached a level of pain that allows openness to change. The speaker gave examples of others who changed because people in recovery kept telling them there was hope for freedom from addiction. Hope for an alternative life.

Mentors in recovery consistently convey that those who are farther along in recovery care about them, recognize what they are going through, and believe there is hope. Those caught in addiction may glimpse new life in the person in recovery who seems to care about them. 

This is another way those in recovery can carry the message to those still suffering: by continuing to reach out and offer hope.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Transforming Anger, Giving Anger to God

Transforming Anger, Giving Anger to God

“[Destructive] anger crucifies Christ. Destructive anger is our sickness. Our medicine is God’s taking our anger. If we do not give it to God, we are not healed of it. We are in bondage to our anger and are not free until our resentment is buried in God. Yes, as shocking as it sounds, we worship God by expressing our honest anger at God.”—C. FitzSimons Allison, Guilt, Anger, and God (Seabury, 1972).

Anger is one of our highest-energy sources. For generations, women were taught they could not express it. They kept it in, and this repression sometimes did terrible things to their bodies and souls, as well as to anyone who came into contact with them. Men were similarly harmed when they were unable to cry, leaving their grief unexpressed.

The key, of course, is channeling this energy into constructive use, just as plants transform energy from sunlight, along with carbon dioxide, our waste product, and water, into sugar for plant food. Through this process, they release oxygen, the essential element for our survival. 

The plant world is our role model. We are to photosynthesize our anger, our “carbon dioxide,” which, if retained in our bodies, can be deadly.

It is amazing how simply going outside and being near plants as our mentors is one of the best ways to initiate transformation. Waiting is part of the process. When we are first responders to a disaster or other cataclysmic event, the energy scatters through the atmosphere, bumping into the closest survivors—often those we love most. Very few know how to be well-trained first responders to anger. 

Other transformative processes for anger include walking, music, and writing. I have had so many angry moments that have been transformed by my harp strings.

Daily, sometimes hourly or even more often, prayer can be a life-altering spiritual practice. We can offer our anger to God for transformation by using a constant prayer mantra, such as the Jesus Prayer. In the past, when I was seeking a surgical remedy, this prayer was often my personal offering to God.

Thich Nhat Hanh suggests meditations that can transform anger. Simply pausing before acting on anger can be a game changer, preventing us from saying or doing things we will regret. Breathing exercises can be an immediate way to quiet anger until it is manageable.

We begin to see signs of healing from the damage anger can inflict on our souls when we express compassion for others, often those who were injured alongside us. We also change by being part of a community where we can safely share our difficulties and learn from role models who have undergone transformation.

We rise out of bed and are called to action that will lead to greater compassion. In my experience, one such icon was the Women’s March on January 21, 2017, after the Inauguration. 

The true test of the transformation comes when we begin to feel even the slightest compassion for those who injured us and others, the ones who provoked the anger. We acknowledge that this happened because they also suffered and never knew the transformative process whose byproduct is lifesaving love. 

Transformation of anger is also known as Resurrection.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com.

Faith and Prayers of Women in Community

Faith and Prayers of Women in Community

“I am grateful to God, whom I worship … as my ancestors did, when I remember you constantly in my prayers. … Recalling your tears … I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” —2 Timothy 1:3-6.

Is it true that our faith can be transferred from one person to another, or from one generation to another? There are times when I feel that the faith of my mother and my grandmothers was holding me up in difficult times.

 However, we all have our own unique faith journeys. It is a connection to the God of our understanding, the aspect of God that we may feel we alone have experienced. I do believe that we often find the God, the Christ, within ourselves by first seeing the Christ in another. Then that love of Christ is reflected back, enabling us to see the Christ in ourselves. Some people do not call it Christ. They call it divine or unconditional love.

Our community influences us so much. If we want to experience this love, Recovery groups tell us to “stick with the winners.” People in discernment of gifts would tell us to be around those we most admire, because they carry a part of us we have not yet recognized. C. S. Lewis would tell us to “act as if.” We will know how to “act as if” only if we are around others who have what we are seeking. 

My experience is that we often find God in our community. Others around me show me the love of God. They share their faith. Of course, we always have the option of whether or not to receive it.

Today I share a community of women who are united in prayer and service, seeking a stronger faith through fellowship with one another. This is part of the Grace Chapter of Daughters of the King at St. Mark’s. I learn about love from each of them every day and am filled with gratitude for their continued presence. These are six women who recently took a vow of service and prayer as they joined this group. We will now learn more from them.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com