Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth explores the value and power of cultivating an attitude of gratitude as a cornerstone of recovery from addiction. Addiction, among other things is a form of "Soul Sickness" and spiritual practice opens us up to a spiritual experience that can help us heal. Gratitude is the most sincere form of prayer and teaches us to: Look for the Gift - Look for the Good – and it teaches us to ask better questions What could be good about this?

It was suggested to me that I start with gratitude, start acknowledging the things I felt grateful about on a daily basis. I started a daily practice of listing ten things I was grateful for and why. Up until then I had spent a lot of time thinking of everything that had gone wrong, how wrong others had treated me and how hard my life seemed to be. People who acknowledge gifts and blessings tend to experience more of the good things in life.

I’m my companies top sales person, I have to drink with my clients, it is practically required and besides, I deserve a drink after all that hard work, and I don’t drink nearly as much as Bob, so I must not be that bad. I am a big fan of the 12 step groups that address codependent patterns as It is often the case that when the co-dependent starts to see reality and starts to make healthy changes within themselves that is when the addict/alcoholic’s denial shatters and they will want real help. A coping skill that most people develop when they live with a person with untreated alcoholism or drug addiction, is the heightened sense of “reading a room” and/or reading peoples emotional states. When dealing with someone I care about in the throes of addiction I have to remind myself that they are a sick person not a bad person and that this is about chemistry not character.

If it’s always someone else’s fault and you don’t feel great about your life you might want to consider the following ideas. So if I blame my boss for my problems at work, or my partner for the problems in our relationship or my friends for any conflict or my parents for my life problems etc. This limiting belief created an ongoing dialogue of the self-pity that  kept me stuck in what I now know to be “learned helplessness”. Life and especially love is a contact sport, we all hurt and get hurt at some point.