God, Higher Power, Great Mystery - How is Your Relationship with a Spiritual Being?

Chapters

• 0:01 Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Recovery
• 8:23 Goals, Support, and Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Christmas and the days before and after, we get to invest and think about God. Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast, where we get to laugh every day. Work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in your relationships, work hard in your jobs or in school, or if you work for someone or you own a business, just work and to love unconditionally. Put more love out there and let all that love come back to you tenfold More than you give out. Just love, love, love. Remember recovery is beautiful. You cannot outthink an emotional issue and your EQ is your IQ. Now what we encourage people to do is to join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle. It is a community where everybody gets to share in recovery group Recovery Freedom Circle. It is a community where everybody gets to share in recovery. Talk about the steps, healing, growth, something motivational, inspirational could be a quote, could be a question, could be where you're at, could be some type of accomplishment, could be some type of disappointment where you're trying to get a feel for what you need to do differently and better next time. Everybody gets a chance to chime in, gets a chance to add so we can all live our best life. Because that's what we're doing. We're trying to get total freedom from our addictions and we're trying to live our best life. Now let's jump into this week's episode, as we are ending 2024, the day right after Christmas.

Speaker 1: 1:47

If you're from the UK, or from some of the UK colonies, you are very familiar with Boxing Day. You know there's always holidays around the world, but for a lot of people, it's just the day after Christmas. You may be depending on where the Jewish calendar is. You may be in the middle of right now, you're in Hanukkah. A lot of times, this is after Hanukkah and it's also the beginning of Kwanzaa. You know the seven different principles that Kwanzaas like to talk about each and every day, what they focus on. So this time of year is always a time of reflection. It's a time of where you are. How did you end up this year, this particular year in 2024? Was it a good year? Was it a decent year? Was it an average year? Was it a bad year? Was it a really challenging year? And also to look forward on what you're going to do either the same or better in 2025. That's why it's so beneficial to have holidays like Christmas, hanukkah, kwanzaa just even just being in the Christmas spirit in the winter, as we're almost like hibernating, hibernating and thinking about what is next.

Speaker 1: 3:04

What is next in your life? That really starts with having this relationship with what I call God, higher power, the great mystery. You can also call it Yahweh, jesus Christ, allah, any other form of significance that something is bigger and greater than you. It could be the force, it could be something incredible, but we kind of need to connect because we need to build our spiritual relationship. We need to build our own idea of what spirituality means to us. A lot of people will say that 12 Steps are a spiritual relationship. We need to build our own idea of what spirituality means to us.

Speaker 1: 3:46

A lot of people will say that 12 steps are a spiritual program. They are, but you need more than just turn your will over to a higher power, like they encourage you to do in step three. The thing is, is that is not enough. You cannot turn your will over to a higher power. Or, like Christians or evangelicals like to say, I've turned my will over to Jesus Christ. Or if you're a Muslim, they talk about turning their will over to Allah and you know, give all praise to Allah. Or if you're talking with Jewish people. You know, they reference Yahweh, god and and a lot of people say that I've turned this wheel, I have a lot more peace, and my thing is is that a person that's either in addiction or an early recovery or in really, let's say, long-term recovery, that means they haven't actually done their addiction in multiple years at least five more, really more than 10 plus years is that you still have those feelings that we really try to grapple with Fear, stress, anxiety, depression Because even though I have what I consider an incredible relationship where I feel God in my blood, I can still get stressful, fearful, anxiety, depressed, and that is also what's kind of going on in my life, especially as a small business owner, starting a second company a lot of different new relationships.

Speaker 1: 5:27

There's a lot that can be concerned, but there's also should be. You should feel energized, like me, feeling energized, excited, motivated, inspired, happy, joyful, peaceful, serene. You know, all these things that bring us into these elevated positive feelings. Here's the thing us into these elevated positive feelings. Here's the thing Even if you have this incredible relationship with God, higher power, you still have to be in constant awareness of your emotional intelligence, each and every day, each and every moment, because it will always be fluctuating and a lot of things can get us up, can get us down, can get us moving in all kinds of different directions. That is why it's so important, as we develop a spiritual relationship, you start writing down what you want in a higher power Also what works for you, and be able to vocalize that not only to yourself but to the people that are really close to you, so then they understand what you need to fill yourself up spiritually. It's the same thing that you would want to know what fills other people.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Some other people just love going to church. They love being in certain types of prayer or meditation, listening to gospel music, reading the Bible or other some type of spiritual book music, reading the Bible or other some type of a spiritual book. You know that has, you know, some type of uplifting message could be. A lot of people have like a day of a time where it's like a quote and a thought of a day and a reflection. There's a lot of things out there I like to push like a daily recovery tip. That's part of Life, is Wonderful and that's what I also try to get into the Recovery Freedom Circle to answer the questions, because it's not enough just to have a strong spiritual relationship and then, all of a sudden, you're not going to go back to your addiction. That is not my experience. That's not what I've seen.

Speaker 1: 7:28

True, total recovery includes spiritual help as well as spiritual recovery, spiritual relationships, but it's also the emotional intelligence. That's the basis. But you also have to be focused on your mental health, your physical health, your social health and your financial health. All of that will give you that total freedom where you feel that you now understand your life better and how to live the life that you have chosen, that you have now got either the people or the skills or the knowledge necessary for you to feel fulfilled, because, in the end, life is not only about connections, it's about contentment and fulfillment. Buddha said it about contentment.

Speaker 1: 8:23

I am big also on fulfillment. That's like why you have to write down your dreams and your goals and then you work towards them, because then they become a reality. Once they're written down. You see them on the paper, you see them in the computer and then you go after it.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Big ones, mediums and small ones, they're all types of goals and dreams and there's all types of habits that you need to do each and every day and just become almost engrossed in what you need and then to find the people and, yeah, the hardest thing to do is sometimes to find the people that are supportive in each and every area that you need. So I encourage you during this time to search out, to improve your relationship with a higher power, with God, with a great mystery, and to really understand where you are, what happened this past year here in 2024. Because 2025 can be just a marvelous, magical year and you get to keep moving forward and doing what you need to do for you. So, with that, I want you to keep working hard these last few days of this year. Keep pushing forward and remember the Recovery Freedom Circle is a community and is there for you. With that, we are going to conclude this episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast.