If one of the main ways to deal with addiction is to pursue a worthy carreer and meaningful goals, we must always consider the long haul. Again if someone is fresh out of a drug or alcohol rehab, the first few weeks are filled with excitement and hope. If we are to make a permanent bahavior change and never return to alcohol or drugs again one must find a mechanism to stay focused. It is easy to stay focused in the early stages of change. The positive feedback one gets from stopping substance abuse encourages one to try harder. Everyone notices the improvement in your life an comments on it.
The comes the more difficult period. Where change comes more slowly. Maybe there are periods where there is no change at all. Normal life stresses creep back in. This is a dangerous period and if not handled properly will end up in a return to drug or alcohol abuse. Again this sets up the scenario of multiple visits to drug rehab.

A key in preventing this is to develop a focus the will motivate and lead you through these more challenging periods. That focus is the purpose of spirituality.

What is a Spiritual Life?

Spirituality can mean many things to different people
Some view it as religion
Some view it as a higher power, or God
Some view it as a universal connection to the earth and all living things
Some view it as a waste of timeâ?¦.

There is another way to look at a spiritual life. One that is still congruent with all the previous definitions, plus a lot more. One can simply say that a spiritual life is one lived on the basis of a consistent set of values that allows the pursuit of any worthwhile goal. That set of values will determine the â??whyâ?? or the purpose in a personâ??s life.
Ultimately it is your values or your personal set of beliefs that will determine your behavior.

“Spiritual intention is concerned not with short-term success but with the long-term direction of our life. Whether we attain our goal is not as important as our firm commitment to stay pointed in the right direction”
Lewis Richmond

The focus of the next series of entries will be how to develop that spiritual intention in your life. It again is work on the fundamental part of you that will reap many rewards in your addiction treatment. Fundamental change will result in a happier life, one without alcohol or durgs,

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2005 at 6:48 am and is filed under Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.