Incorporating Spirituality Into Treatment

Embracing a spiritual component while guiding patients through their journey to sobriety can be incredibly profound. However, spirituality is enigmatic, manifesting in myriad forms and playing many roles throughout recovery. Effectively incorporating a spiritual component into one’s treatment plan can be instrumental in creating a newfound perspective on sobriety. Embracing the malleable forms of spirituality can help each patient at a center for alcohol and drug treatment find the most effective form.

Addiction can ravage every aspect of an individual’s life, from physical and mental health to finances, relationships, and worldview. The difficulties of recovery stem from the overwhelming changes that need to be made when addressing these different dimensions of one’s life. Spirituality seeks to address each of these elements by changing the way one feels and perceives themselves in the world and their priorities therein.

Spirituality is a personal experience, and while it is closely tied to religious experiences and denominations, spirituality is separate from religion as a whole, and maintaining any specific religious belief is not necessary to embrace a spiritual component to one’s recovery.

Spirituality is an internal feeling of peace and belonging and a way in which each individual can frame their view of the world and the others that occupy it. It can also help define one’s role in this newly constructed worldview. 

Incorporating a spiritual component can provide guidance along a patient’s newfound lifestyle while creating a sense of agency and belonging, concurrently promoting a feeling of security in oneself and their interests. Spirituality can also be expanded to act as a catalyst to further explore one’s identity, the values that one wants to embody, and the person one strives to be in the future rather than dwelling on past mistakes.

As spirituality isn’t tied to any particular religious practice, it is something that is malleable for each individual. Every patient’s experiences with their own definition of spirituality can be curated for their success.

Many patients may come from a religious background, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or Wiccan covens, facilitating a bridge to a spiritual understanding of oneself and addiction recovery. However, others may build a perspective of spirituality from the ground up based on their own understanding, and there is no better or worse way to embrace spirituality.

Mantras can be incredibly important throughout addiction recovery, providing a profound metric to gauge one’s thoughts and actions while informing one’s decisions for their sober future. Introducing the concept early and adapting one’s mantra alongside their progress can be essential for embracing spirituality.

Artistic expression can be an excellent catalyst for spiritual understanding. The ability to give form to one’s emotions, desires, beliefs, and changes is a very spiritual experience, prompting patients to look internally at their own goals and feelings and manifest them into a tangible piece. Drawing, painting, writing, or any other artistic endeavors carry a spiritual component that is wholly unique based on one’s perspective of a certain influence.

Nature is often connected to spirituality — the energies of the earth, its pulls and tides, its mana. Finding a spiritual connection with the earth can inform one’s own sense of agency and importance. Incorporating natural elements into one’s recovery, from nature walks to regular imagery, can inform a spiritual connection with the ground beneath one’s feet. Reforming even the act of breathing into an idea of a wholly interconnected world — an exchange of life that facilitates a feeling of belonging and importance — can birth new spiritual perspectives.

While one’s spirituality is a metaphysical set of beliefs, it still incorporates ones’ body. Meditation, mindfulness practices, exercise, dancing, and more all require both physical and spiritual awareness. Providing these options for patients to explore can create an active engagement with spirituality while each patient determines their own spiritual center, beliefs, and goals.

Peace is a powerful, if difficult to define, term. While spirituality seeks to introduce an idea of internal peace and harmony between one’s body and mind, it is also a stepping stone to the most profound aspects of addiction recovery. Anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, and more can all be commonplace, and spirituality is the bridge not just between oneself and a transformed future but is also the catalyst on which forgiveness can be built. Forgiving oneself and others, finding love, and finding one’s own goals for their life are all foundational acts of transformation that profoundly affect not just one’s current situation in addiction recovery but also the form one’s future may still take. 

Embracing a spiritual component in recovery can be the cornerstone of profound, lasting change. At Hawaii Island Recovery, we understand the need to incorporate a spiritual component into our patient’s recovery. A patient’s time with us is spent personalizing their own path to sobriety, with many options made available for them to explore. With individual and group therapy, yoga, meditation, Dharma programs, and a connection to ones’ natural environment unrivaled in our experiential and cultural programming, we are prepared to help each individual tackle addiction with their whole being. We curate an understanding and safe atmosphere of peers and professionals to help each patient understand and overcome their vulnerabilities in recovery while celebrating their strengths and successes, unified in like-minded goals. For more information on our Big Island substance abuse center or to speak to a caring, trained staff member about referral options, call Hawaii Island Recovery today at (866) 390-5070.