I have been in “Wellness Recovery” for a decade now, and I have learned so much in my new normal.
And, at the foundation of my recovery from prescription drug addiction and mental health disorders is my deep spiritual practice.
I have observed that I have the ability to successfully, with deep meaning, do the following with spiritual guidance and a loving support system:
-Engage in the most challenging and uncomfortable conversations.
-Take the road less traveled.
-Choose to go way out of my comfort zone and try the scary option rather than the safe option in order to allow myself to learn and to evolve.
-To have an ongoing dialogue about mental health and my personal journey even in my community where I live and work without apologizing for the disorders that nearly took my life, and in fact, use my lived experience and my work experience in the field to serve my community, locally and globally.
And I have observed that:
-I am brave.
-I have stared adversity in the eye, and kept going anyway.
-I have become empowered and have freed myself from the past.
-I have created a new, healthy lifestyle that has indeed been life changing.
-I have had thousands of opportunities, and embraced those opportunities to serve others.
These last 10 years in recovery through my self created Integrative Approach to Wellness in Recovery has taught me discipline, courage and self trust, and MOST importantly to “sit” and just “be” comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. It always works out because God is ever present. Each situation is teaching me faith, discipline and grit.
It has taught me how to feel safe and secure even when I am feeling lonely and afraid. To make the choices that will best serve me in wellness, albeit that some of these choices have forced me to work harder in my recovery to foster and build my resilience and grit, leaving behind people, places and situations that I believed were once in my best interest.
Lastly, I have learned that choosing to do the right thing, i.e., the healthiest thing for myself may require me to make choices that are unpopular with others, and that I am perfectly at peace with it all.
As I write in my book, Write Pray Recover:A Journey to Wellness through Spiritual Solutions and Self Care, “I will no longer go into “debt” energetically for anyone else at the expense of my own wellness. I practice self-care first. If something that I am being asked to do is going to jeopardize my wellness, or expend and deplete my energy, the answer is “no.” No regrets. No apologies. Those who are coming from a good and loving place support and respect my boundaries. If they do not support my boundaries, they are not meant to be aligned on my path.”
I am incredibly proud of my healing, and of all of my work. I am so humbled by the experiences that have shaped the woman who I have become, and whom I love and respect.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Write Pray Recover 