Category Archives: 5 Spirituality
A Month of Addiction Recovery Stories and Spiritual Experiences
This holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas is very hard for many of us. Because I found my addiction recovery 35 years ago on Thanksgiving, I have always felt especially vigilant about helping others to find heaven on earth and give up the hell they are living in. So for this month, my posts here which I also highlight in my Facebook Fan Page, Emotional Sobriety, will be recovery and/or spiritual stories as told by the recovering person. My wish and prayer is that you will be able to indentify and join a support group to help you with your life. We all need all the help we can get.
I will be using excerpts from several sites. Today’s site I have read for years as it is a place for those of us who have had spiritual experiences to be able to read about each other’s experience.
Spiritual Experiences & Spiritualityis your source for spiritual, religious and mystical experiences, the study of spirituality, religion, enlightenment and teachers.
We are interested in stories from readers like you, if you have experienced any kind of inner awakening, personal development, growth or if you had a life transforming realization, an experience of transcendence, an inspiring story or if you have a gift on matters of spirituality, please submit it! If you want to have your own profile page, please sign up, it’s free!
It is also a powerful community for sharing with others.
Today’s selection is “The Darkness Was Crushing Me”:
“After having a deep conversation about Christianity with my boyfriend I found myself alone downstairs doing work because I had a deadline today and had a lot of work to do. But I was quite upset because he was asking me these questions and I feel like I’ve missed out on something everyone should be able to learn and decide about because I didn’t know about sinning, I feel like I’ve got no chance of being righteous I have sinned so much already… I recently had a couple of piercings too and now this has happened. I kind of feel like they are burdens for my sins.”
“About 20 past 3 I turned everything off and went to go upstairs. As soon as everything went pitch black I suddenly felt freezing cold. I felt a tremendous pressure around me and inside me. I was so shocked, I stood there for about 10 minutes just too scared to move, but then I just thought get to my room and turn on a light. It was so horrible I felt like a million things were staring at me and following me up the stairs. I ran into my room and threw the door to shut it and it stopped, leaving a tiny gap which my cat ran through all big and angry looking. So I just sat on my bed for about 20 minutes feeling the pressure. It was kind of like the darkness was crushing me, so I prayed.”
“I’ve never really been taught about Christianity but it felt like the right thing to do, and suddenly I felt warm like I’d just got out a bath the pressure went and I suddenly could not keep my eyes open.”
“I need to know what happened to me, and can you please tell me when you began to believe? Or is everyone unsure to some extent? All I know is I want to believe and I have asked for signs but I have nothing.”
Waiting For God’s Direction
mckaysavage
When I feel that God hasn’t answered my prayers and/or desires, I know that I may just not be ready for the answers at this time. So I have a list of other things to do to get out of His Way and/or to spend the waiting time in peace.
Having faith in God has rarely been a problem for these 30 years that I’ve been surrendering myself on a daily basis. Even the two years that I suffered from clinical depression, I never once felt that God was punishing me or had deserted me. I knew that I just had to be patient and continue to surrender.
Do I believe that God waited two years to tell me that I needed to see a psychiatrist? No, I believe He answers prayer immediately. But I was 10 years sober from alcohol and had learned in AA that drugs were a crutch. Eventually I did go to the doctor. (Actually I worked in a psychiatric hospital as a marketing specialist, so I told one of the doctors there that I needed to see him ASAP).
The waiting for the answer is the hardest teaching of the dedicated spiritual journey. I know that the waiting is like being a trapeze artist. When I let go of one bar and before I catch the next bar, there is a void. That void is where I am when I am waiting. During this time, I practice removing myself from fear and anxiety.
Having faith in myself to hear the answers has been a slow lesson to learn. I tend to forget that He created me in His image. I also have a battle sometimes to accept that I deserve all of God’s blessings.
Being the oldest child in a home dominated by alcoholism, I learned to not ask for anything and, worse, I taught myself to not expect much. I have shut out so many of God’s blessings by thinking I didn’t deserve them. I started working at 12 making potholders for sale and did a lot of business. Then through high school, I worked every evening in a drug store. Working hard made me feel better about myself. I believe that these experiences made me stronger. The biggest problem for children in this type of home situation is the shame of feeling as if the home situation is only happening to him/her.
Intro to Retreats
Retreats are great opportunities to learn better how to communicate with the God of your understanding. As a young person attending church camps, I always loved the early morning ritual of going into the woods alone with my Bible. I was connecting with nature as well as with my God. Buddhists have many retrests worldwide as it is a part of their spiritual life to gather together in spiritual retreat. I have collected the following retreats with the description included on each website.
1. Spirit Rock In the San Francisco area, Spirit Rock (http://www.spiritrock.org/) publlishes the complete schedule of all of its resources. Transportation is provided to the site from volunteer drivers if a worshiper needs transportation. One of the founders of Spirit Rock, Jack Kornfield, explains what mindfulness means to him in this article. Continuing education credits for trained professionals is offered a t Spirit Rock in collaboration with ISP, Institute for Spirituality and Psychology. Spirit Rock offers residental retreats, daylong programs, beginning classes, weekly classes, a diversity progam, a family program, a teen program, and a mindulness yoga and meditation training program.
2.Shambhala Mountain Center is a pristine 600 acre meditation retreat center located . The center offers beginning meditation, a yoga retreat, contempative arts as well as retreat and renewal weekends. The 2007/08 schedule is available online and includes sections in Buddhism, meditation, yoga and retreat. The schedule offers: (1) tame your mind, learn to meditate through the introductory course or the Shambhala trasining series; (2) stretch your body and mind at one of the yoga retreats experiencing OM, Ashtanga, Hatha and Anusara yoga; (3) delve into Buddhist teachings with highly regarded dharma teachers; (4) deepen your practice and transform your life in monthlong summer or winter Dathun Meditation Retreats; (5) access the healing potential of body, mind, and community, (6) explore th powerful practices of ancient traditions ; and (7) demystify and prepare yourself for the untimate letting go. The Shambhala Retreat also offers conference and group retreats and rentals. It is located two hours from the Denver International Airport in the colorado Rockies.
3. Journey of the Spirit lists spiritual retreats, journeys and women’s retreats. It provides the following links:
Zion National Park–Day of the Dead (Mexico)–Mayan Riviera–Teothihuacan, Mexico–Angkor Wat, Cambodia–Baja Mexico–Tepoztlan, Mexico–Patagonia–Egypt–Cartagena, Columbia–Costa Rica–Israel
4. Find the Divine has over 1700 retreat center and 900 conference centers. It organizes the resources as: (1) retreat centers for individuals and groups; (2) conference centers and retreat centers for groups; (3) retreats, events and workshops; (4) retreat leaders and spiritual guides; (5) retreat and confrtrncr centerds for sale; and retreat general information.
It has links for the following states/countries:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington DC
West Virginia
Wyoming
Wisconsin
Retreat Centers in Canada
Retreat Centers in Costa Rica
Retreat Centers in Belize
Retreat Centers in Mexico
Email me at changemaker.kathy@gmail.com if you would like other retreats to be added.
