52 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned in Recovery

Auteur

Dr. Lisa A. Stanton, PhD is a social psychologist, writer, and presenter with a specialization in behavior change theory and applications. During her time as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota one of Lisa's many accomplishments was being named the student advisory council chair for division 38 of the American Psychological Association. She then spent two years as a fellow of the National Cancer Institute, which she spent researching behavioral cancer prevention at Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago. Over the past several years Lisa also taught numerous college courses, co-authored over thirty academic publications, and presented at conferences in four countries.

Currently, she helps her thousands of followers through her media and workshops about recovering from addiction. 52 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned in Recovery is her debut book, detailing her spiritual journey to recovery from addiction. Lisa currently lives with her husband in Minnesota.

Karen Casey, Ph.D. is a bestselling author specializing in self-recovery titles that focus on mindfulness and meditation for healing purposes. Having graduated from the University of Minnesota and becoming director of a publishing house, Casey rediscovered her love for connecting with readers through her work and became a full-time author. She is most known for her 1982 debut book, Each Day a New Beginning, which sold over 3.5 million copies. Since then, Casey has published 28 more books about her healing process through powerful affirmations so that other men and women can find their own serenity in quitting addiction. She has published other recognizable titles such as Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, Getting Unstuck, and 52 Ways to Live the Course of Miracles. Casey currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Texte du rabat

Healing from addiction isn’t a straightforward cure, but a journey of spiritual self-discovery. Follow social psychologist Dr. Lisa Stanton as she shares the 52 divine lessons that can help you.

Résumé
Healing from addiction isn't a straightforward cure, but a journey of spiritual self-discovery. Follow social psychologist Dr. Lisa Stanton as she shares the 52 divine lessons that can help you.

Échantillon de lecture

Excerpt from Lesson 1:



 When I hit rock bottom, I was twenty-nine years old, and my life looked like a success on paper. I was a researcher at a well-known school of medicine. I had authored publications that appeared in prominent scientific journals. I had finished my PhD in psychology when I was twenty-eight years old. My expertise was in behavior change. I had been the graduate student council chair of the health psychology division of the American Psychological Association where I sat on the board. I had been a finalist for a prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship. Before that, I graduated near the top of my class from an east coast university where I had been a Division I athlete and served as the scholarship chair of my sorority. I was a certified yoga instructor. I volunteered regularly for various community groups. Although I was single at the time, I generally had long-term boyfriends, all of whom were successful athletes or entrepreneurs. 
 
 At the time that I hit rock bottom, I also blacked out almost every time I drank, which was nearly every day. I drank before I went out, I drank while I was out, I drank after I got home, and I drank when I wasn’t going out. I was sweating through my sheets and often peeing my bed. I was chewing up my time-release ADHD medication. I took my public speaking anxiety medication just to calm the intense pain of daily living. I was going on dates and sleeping with men to feel less alone, and occasionally peeing their beds. None of my recent relationships had been very long-lasting. I had strained relationships with most of my friends. I had also been diagnosed with various mental health conditions throughout my life ranging from ADHD to eating disorders to depression to panic and anxiety disorders. I had also been diagnosed with various unexplained physiological conditions ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to food intolerances to spinal compression, and alopecia areata, which at its worst, manifested as six large bald spots that covered nearly 30 percent of my head. 


 * 

 On Christmas morning, after almost seven months of trying to do recovery my way, I walked into a recovery meeting in the most unlikely part of town and into a room full of joyful, friendly people, who were laughing and joking with one another. I didn’t understand. Did these people not realize how serious this was? As it turns out, they did, and they had found a solution that gave them a whole lot more than abstinence from alcohol and drugs. It was through this group that I found faith and a mentor who had a spiritual awakening and lived in spiritual principles. These people weren’t perfect, nor did they pretend to be, but they understood that God is love, that God is forgiving, and they too were aimed at being unconditionally loving and forgiving. We cannot transmit something that we don’t have, and God walked me right into the arms of a group where faith was alive, well, and ready to be transmitted. 




Contenu

Contents
Introduction: My Story 

 Part I: Spiritual Diagnostics 


• Self-Control Won’t Keep You Sober

• The Opposite of Addiction Is Not Connection

• The Truth about Admitting You Are Powerless over Alcohol (Or Anything Else…)

• What Is an Eating Disorder?

• What a Craving Is Really Like and What I Do About It

• Why Another Day of Sobriety Is Not My Goal


• The Difference between a Spiritual Mentor and a Therapist

 Part II: Stepping Away from Secular Spirituality 


• Trusting God Isn’t Trendy, but the New Age Left Me Empty

• Artificial Versus Organic Gratitude

• Self-Love Is Not My Goal

• How I Stopped My Negative Thoughts Once and for All

• What if Your Triggers Are Just Sins You Haven’t Confessed?

• The Real Secret to Happiness (and the Delusion of Unhappiness)

• So, You Think You Want to Be Confident

• Is Expressing Emotions to Other People Actually Healing?


• The Truth about Low Self-Esteem

 Part III: Coming to Believe 


• Don’t Believe in God? Try Prayer

• Do you Live in Faith or Just Believe in God? (The Grocery Store Metaphor)

• How Deep Do You Need to Go?

• How Do You Know That God is Real?

• Why I Stopped Trying to Change My Behavior


• The Outcomes Are Up to God, Not Me (No More “Magic Pillow Cure”)

 Part IV: Denial and Guilt 


• Guilt Is Not a Feeling

• Are You in Denial?

• Your Pain Is Not Their Fault

• You Aren’t Actually Angry at Yourself

• Are You Guilty of Splitting Your Guilt?

• Connect with the Whispers of Your Conscience and You Won’t Have to Hear the Screams

• If No One Else Will Get Hurt, Is It Still Wrong?


• The Importance of Pulling the Root

 Part IV: Forgiveness 


• A Story of Radical Forgiveness

• I Let Go of the Past and Stopped Saying — “They Did the Best They Could”

• You Might Have Forgiveness All Wrong

• The Resentment Paradox

• How to Get Rid of Resentment


• I Stopped Trying to Rationalize and Justify Other’s Behavior and This Happened…

 Part V: Prayer and Everyday Miracles 


• A Way to Pray

• The Story of the Blue Truck

• Learning to Differentiate God’s Plan from My Plan

• If Life Feels Hard, Lack of H…