When we are living with addiction, we are often consumed with inner turmoil, conflict in our relationships and in our daily lives, and a lack of peace and tranquility within ourselves. We haven’t learned how to foster emotional balance, groundedness and centeredness for ourselves. We are susceptible to emotional imbalance and can easily be thrown off course by any trigger, stressor or difficult circumstance. We haven’t realized just how crucial it is to maintain serenity in our everyday lives in order to prevent unhealthiness and toxicity.
There are some common, everyday threats to our serenity that we often aren’t aware of. One such threat is our fear. Our fears manifest as anxiety, worry, pessimism and negative thinking. When we are easily overwhelmed and triggered by something even seemingly insignificant, it is often because there is a deeper fear we have yet to face. Our fears can derail our mental and emotional health and leave us devoid of any sense of peace or feeling of tranquility.
One of our biggest fears that taints everything in our lives is our self-doubt. We doubt ourselves and our ability to be happy, healthy people. We doubt our ability to recover from our addictions. We doubt our capacity for healing and transformation. We doubt that we’re good people. Our self-doubt can make us completely unable to access the inner stillness and spaciousness needed for serenity.
Another common threat to our serenity are the expectations we have for ourselves, for our lives, for other people, and for the world around us. We expect ourselves to be perfect. When we can’t attain perfection, we see ourselves as failures. When we have expectations for other people and they don’t fulfill those expectations, we’re so disappointed in them and in ourselves that we feel no hope for restoring our inner peace. We carry expectations that our lives should look a certain way, that we should have accomplished certain things by a certain time, that we should be doing, thinking and feeling differently from how we naturally are. We have expectations for ourselves to become something we’re not. We have expectations of the world, and when they aren’t met, we feel victimized, resentful and bitter. We carry a chip on our shoulder that eats away at our sense of peace. Learning to develop inner peace, no matter what’s going on around us or in our lives, means examining all of the everyday threats to our serenity, many of which are internal and which we can heal when we mindfully address them.
The mindfulness meditation therapy of Bayview Recovery’s treatment programs, along with the multiple other forms of helpful therapies, can help you to build a strong foundation for healing and wellness. Call 888-570-7154 today to find out more about how we can help you.
