🎧 Listen to:
Spiritual Practices That Help Ground You in Recovery
Summary: Spiritual practices are practical tools for grounding and stability in recovery. They focus on connection, purpose, and inner peace, achieved through intentional breathing (resetting the nervous system), gratitude and acceptance (shifting perspective), and community and service (combating isolation).
In the beginning phases of recovery, it can be hard to figure out what’s going on. A lot of people feel disoriented when they suddenly have to stop using a substance. They are attempting to find peace in the middle of all the feelings and cravings. This is when spiritual practices become crucial tools for keeping your feet on the ground.
At Comfort Recovery, we believe that spirituality in recovery isn’t about following specific religious rules. It’s about connecting deeply with your purpose, your community, and something more than yourself. These habits provide you a strong foundation so you can deal with life’s issues without turning back to old ways of coping.
Here are three spiritual things you may do that might help you stay sober and centered.
1. Breathing with intent and concentrating prayer
When you’re stressed or hungry, breathing is the fastest way to get back in control. Intentional breathing, which is usually done with simple meditation or centering prayer, is like hitting the reset button on your brain right away.
This exercise helps you connect with your body and spirit by focusing on the present moment, which is where peace lives. Every morning, spend five minutes taking slow, deep breaths. This can help you pay more attention to the calm strength inside you than to the noise in your thoughts. This exercise helps you learn how to be calm no matter what is going on around you.
2. Being grateful and open every day
One of the most profound spiritual adjustments you can make while recovering is to shift how you see your reality.
Gratitude: Addiction makes you focus on what you don’t have and what hurts. No matter how small, writing down three things you are glad for every day makes your brain look for the good. This method alters the way you think from not having enough to having enough.
Acceptance: Being accepting implies being able to say things like “I’m having a hard time today” or “I can’t control my addiction.” This stops the laborious fight against “what is,” which gives you a lot of energy to make beneficial changes. Acceptance is not giving up; it is giving in to the moment.
3. Making connections through community and service
When people are alone, their addiction gets worse. When people are together, their recovery gets better. A lot of individuals don’t find spirituality in being alone, but in the fact that we are all human.
Community: Talking about your experiences with people you trust (such in therapy or 12-step meetings) makes you feel stable. This feeling of being totally seen and understood connects you to the problems and triumphs of everyone.
Service: Helping others, like carrying chairs at a meeting, mentoring a new person, or volunteering, is a very spiritual thing to do. It reminds you that you matter and can make a difference, which makes you feel less useless and alone.
Spiritual practices are the things you do every day that help you feel better and more stable as you go through the ups and downs of recovery. They help you find the strength you need to stay sober and live a life that matters.
