sobriety

Nature and Mental Health at Harmony

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Mental Health and Nature

On any given day at Harmony you can witness life’s challenges and know that a compassionate soul is there to help along the path of healing. The mental health professionals are part of a team at Harmony and work with clients in a way that combines the natural beauty of our campus with the intrinsic values of each client.

To further explain how we know being in nature can help heal, I’d like to share a study out of Stanford University which suggests that time spent in natural settings may improve brain health.

“As more and more of us live in cities, we spend less time in natural settings, including parks. Studies also show that people in urban settings without access to green spaces have higher levels of psychological problems than those with access to green spaces. Is there a definitive connection between time spent in green spaces and mental health? The answer is yes. In a series of two studies, Stanford researchers believe there is a connection between time spent in green spaces and a decrease in “morbid rumination,” what is more commonly thought of as brooding over the negative aspects of our lives.”

“This study investigated the impact of nature experience on affect and cognition. We randomly assigned sixty participants to a 50-min walk in either a natural or an urban environment in and around Stanford, California. Before and after their walk, participants completed a series of psychological assessments of affective and cognitive functioning. Compared to the urban walk, the nature walk resulted in affective benefits (decreased anxiety, rumination, and negative affect, and preservation of positive affect) as well as cognitive benefits (increased working memory performance). This study extends previous research by demonstrating additional benefits of nature experience on affect and cognition through assessments of anxiety, rumination, and a complex measure of working memory (operation span task). These findings further our understanding of the influence of relatively brief nature experiences on affect and cognition, and help to lay the foundation for future research on the mechanisms underlying these effects.”

The study further asks, what does this mean for everyone?

1. “Spend Time in Natural Settings – What can it hurt to take a daily walk in the park or spend time sitting on your back porch looking at the creek (if you’re lucky enough to have that situation)? Take your lunch to a natural setting and spend vacation time at least partially in the outdoors. Doing so will immediately improve your mental health.
2. Move – Movement is good for us. No doctor in the world says that it’s healthy to sit at home and do nothing. But instead of going to the gym, find a nature trail to hike or bike, golf, or take a stroll in the green belt. Even if you don’t get your heart rate up to aerobic activity levels, you’ll still mentally benefit from the movement.”

The healing journey for a client at Harmony can include a client expressing their emotions in a calmly lit room, moving forward on a walk to the river at Rocky Mountain National Park or learning a really cool coping skill. One of many examples of coping skills taught to clients is called 5,4,3,2,1 where one is taught to evoke all five senses. This is a great coping skill where a client is taught to tap into all 5 senses within as a viable resource. Another experience often happening at Harmony is witnessing clients as well as staff simply spending time with Cooper, our therapy dog.

As a mental health provider at Harmony, I have noticed clients seemingly more calm during sessions when we are taking a walk together in nature. I believe they appreciate the fact we are walking and talking side by side as opposed to sitting across from one another. Clients have stated, “Wow, this is better than sitting in an office, this is a nice place to get treatment.”

Since Harmony offers outings each week at an indoor climbing gym or hike in the park, depending on the weather, clients are able to take advantage of the natural beauty and the healing attributes of moving Harmony has to offer.

Harmony is a special place that helps client’s feel safe, accepted and cared about. For some on their path of healing it is a beginning, for others it is a renewal; for all whose path includes a stay at Harmony, it is a step toward healing in the arms of nature’s embrace.

Kelly Baker, MA, LAC, LPC, NCC
Mental Health Professional, Harmony Foundation, Inc.

References:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/how-nature-changes-the-brain/?mwrsm=Facebook&fb_ref=Default&_r=0
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/28/8567.abstract
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204615000286
http://www.girlscouts.org/

Does Treatment Work? Why Outcomes Matter…

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Does Treatment Work

by Dr. Annie Peters: Harmony Foundation’s Chief Clinical Officer

Harmony has been helping people who are struggling with addiction to find recovery since 1969. While Harmony is well-known in Colorado for providing clients and families with support and quality services for many decades, reputation means little without demonstrating that people do, in fact, get better.

Defining what recovery is, and demonstrating that people who use Harmony’s services begin finding recovery, are essential components to the provision of ethical and effective care. Harmony’s mission is to provide the foundation for recovery from the diseases of drug and alcohol addiction. If clients leave treatment and begin re-developing lives of purpose, satisfaction, and rewarding relationships, we know we have helped to provide the foundation for a journey toward wellness.

Harmony contracts with an external research organization, OMNI Institute, to examine treatment outcomes regarding substance use, psychological well-being, and improvement in life satisfaction.
Data collection for the most recent outcomes study performed by OMNI began in March 2015, and the study was finalized in 2017. One hundred and forty eight (148) Harmony clients were assessed upon admission, at discharge, and at 1, 6, and 12 months post-discharge. The percentage of clients who responded at these time points were, respectively, 100%, 94%, 63%, 61%, and 64%. While results cannot be generalized to clients who were unable to be reached for follow up, a number of statistically significant findings can be reported and provide valuable information about the effectiveness of care provided at Harmony.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Understanding the people we serve helps us provide the highest quality of care by tailoring treatment interventions to the specific needs of our clients. In this study, the average age of clients was 38, with a range from 18-65. Sixty-four percent (64%) of clients identified as male, and 36% identified as female. All clients were asked to identify their “primary drug.” The majority of clients (74%) identified this as alcohol, followed by heroin (10%), methamphetamine (6%), other opiates/painkillers (5%), and marijuana (3%).

Clients under the age of 25 typically used more substances – the average number was four. The primary drug differed by age as well; clients under 25 identified heroin or alcohol (38% for each), followed by marijuana (13%).

REASONS FOR DRUG/ALCOHOL USE

Clients were asked about the reasons they used alcohol and drugs, and their responses help us understand how to help people better. Many clients (30%) said they used substances for “self-medication” or emotional pain/mental illness (28%). Other common answers were using for pleasure (22%), to escape reality (15%), habit (13%), or pain (5%).

PREVIOUS TREATMENT AND REASONS FOR SEEKING TREATMENT
About a third of clients had been to a detox treatment before, and about a third reported a prior treatment for substance use. Another third reported never having any treatment for drug or alcohol use.

About half of clients surveyed reported a prior diagnosis of a mental health disorder, with the most common diagnoses being depression (37%), anxiety (25%), ADHD (11%), PTSD (7%), and bipolar disorder (6%).

Most clients said that coming to treatment was a personal decision (71%). Other common reasons given for seeking treatment were a family situation, health reasons, a legal situation, or a job-related reason.

POST TREATMENT OUTCOMES

After leaving Harmony, clients were asked at 1, 6, and 12 months about their drug and alcohol use. They were asked whether they had been continuously abstinent from drugs/alcohol since discharge, and they were also asked if they had been clean/sober for the previous 30 days. As can be seen in the table below, over half of clients at one year post-discharge had been continuously abstinent since coming to Harmony, and 71% of them had been abstinent for the past 30 days.
Follow-up     %Abstinent for      %Continuously Abstinent
     Time            Past 30 Days                   since Discharge
1-month           77% (n=88)                            68% (n=91)
6-month           64% (n=90)                           57% (n=91)
12-month          71% (n=90)                            54% (n=95)

Abstinence since treatment is not the only outcome that demonstrates that clients are recovering and have improved their lives. In this study, we also wanted to determine how quality of life had improved for people who had come to Harmony. So all those surveyed were asked questions about relationships with family and friends, physical/emotional health, and other factors. Clients reported significant improvements over time in their family relationships, friendships, spiritual connection, physical health, emotional health. They also reported significant positive changes in their ability to handle finances and handling problems or conflicts, as well as improvements in self-respect. There were also significant reductions in arrests and other legal problems post-discharge, as well as improvements in employment status.

Because so many of our clients have co-occurring mental health issues, we also asked questions about symptoms of anxiety and depression. There were statistically significant reductions in symptoms such as hopelessness, fatigue, nervousness, restlessness, sadness, and feelings of worthlessness.

WHAT PREDICTS ABSTINENCE

In order to continuously improve Harmony’s services, we wanted to determine if there were factors that were associated with post-treatment abstinence. For example, do older clients have better abstinence rates than younger clients? Is primary drug related to abstinence rates, such that clients who primarily used alcohol do better than clients who primarily used heroin?

Interestingly, the only variable that predicted abstinence was the reduction in mental health symptoms during treatment. In other words, the more clients’ symptoms of depression and anxiety decreased during their time at Harmony, the more likely they were to remain abstinent after leaving treatment.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

One of the most compelling and recurrent themes in this study was the importance of mental health care and support. As mentioned above, self-medication of emotional pain and mental health issues were primary reasons clients reported for using drugs and alcohol. Half of our clients had co-occurring mental health diagnoses. And the single best predictor of post-treatment abstinence was the reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety that clients reported during their treatment at Harmony. For the past few years, Harmony has worked to improve the quantity and quality of support provided for mental health issues. We have added mindfulness groups, a trauma coping skills group, and education groups on a variety of mental health topics. Clients can receive both addiction-specific counseling at Harmony and counseling specific to psychological issues. Given the results of this study, Harmony plans to continue enhancing the services provided to help people recover not just from chemical use, but from underlying emotional issues that can increase risk for relapse.

While the results of this study show that Harmony clients do, overall, have improved lives and decreased drug and alcohol use, we want to help more individuals and more families to recover, with more significant reductions in substance problems and more improvement in life functioning. Harmony is committed to continuous improvement in our services to provide even better care and help more people find their way to recovery. Studies such as this one remind us why this work is so important and why we need to always examine ourselves and find areas for improvement.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

At the end of each survey, clients were asked if they had any feedback about the Harmony experience. Common answers were that they appreciated the support provided by staff as well as the community they built with the other clients. While data can provide us with important feedback on who we serve and how we can continually do better at helping people find recovery, it is these comments that remind us why we do what we do at Harmony:

“I have come to better understand myself, my need to use, and what I am struggling with so that I won’t need to turn to drugs and alcohol to deal with my problems.”

“I’m really grateful to Harmony…it helped me a lot… I was in really bad shape. If I would have went somewhere else, I probably wouldn’t still be clean.”

“The staff here was absolutely amazing and seemed to truly care about me and my recovery. They were instrumental to my time here and truly helped me recognize qualities and worth in myself that make my sobriety worth fighting for.”

 

Listening to the Seen and the Unseen

Posted on by Christy Weeks

— Carol O’Dowd, MPA, M.Div, RP President, Colorado Association of Psychotherapists

Recovery, whether from addiction or a difficult situation, is aided by listening to the seen and the unseen. Often, how we listen causes us to not see what is in front of us. Have you ever walked into a familiar room to meet with family, friends or business associates and someone points to a new decoration or a piece of furniture in the room? You sat there wondering, “How did that get there?” Sometimes objects go for days being unseen. Our ancestors go unseen flowing as DNA in our veins while being powerful forces making us, us. Some of us grew up in households where we were trained to be addicted whether to alcohol or other substances. We learned to be pawns in a game with our unseen emotions.

Another option is to listen and notice the messages we hold and consciously choose which ones we want to play with instead of letting them play us. When the voice in our head is an old message from Mom, Dad or a memory of destructive family argument from long ago, we can create space between us and the message. We can take a moment to breathe in and hold in our fist the ghoul of anger, fear, frustration or the voice crying out “Go get a drink.” We can then set down the unseen emotion, unclasp our fist and release it. We can breathe out lovingkindness into our pain and sorrow. We can breathe in lovingkindness that we send to that space in our body where we held the destructive emotion. We can tell that portion of our body to relax. We can breathe out lovingkindness to the ghoul in front of us and tell it, “I do not need you right now. Please stay here. For the next 20 minutes I have a project to do a without you.”

Yes, those unseen emotions and old tapes can be so powerful, they keep returning. The practice is to listen carefully so that you can choose the ones you want to influence you. Seeing them as thoughts or emotions gone awry, you can put them inside a doll, rock, pencil holder or other object. Then pick them up and set them aside. If only for a moment, you can walk away without them. Although they may return, each time, they do so with less force. You can listen instead to acts of kindness from those in your past. In one moment you can listen to messages from the unseen to guide you to see more of the world right in front of you. You can consciously choose to spend time with people, animals and spirit beings who inspire you to live in a world of peace.

Go to www.coloradopsychotherapists.com for the mental health services offered by a wide diversity of mental health professionals.
Contact me at president@coloradopsychotherapists.com if you want to join a group that will be exploring the practice of deep listening on Sunday mornings starting in February.

Goal Setting: Measurable Motivation

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Setting Goals

By: Khara Brindle

With the closing of 2017, you may be looking to the new year to create resolution or revisit goals in the hope of change. It’s a time to explore goals that are measurable and attainable; it’s a time to create small steps to build self-confidence to remain motivated and hopeful. Perhaps you say “I want to join a gym to help my depression.” You want to work out every day to help your mood but aren’t currently working out on a consistent basis, and not at a gym. So, you find it important to explore your motivation as well as the perceived strengths and challenges of reaching your goal. You learn that smaller steps can support success and agree to working on short-term goals to build confidence and to move towards your long-term goal of working out daily.

Monitoring Motivation

Why is it important to explore motivation around a goal? Research tells us goals around fitness and gym attendance peak in January and dramatically decline by February and March every year. Additional research tells us that we must do something consistently for a minimum of 30 days for it to become a habit. What this conveys to us as human beings is that we need to see results or progress to continue to work hard at a goal. You may normalize this for yourself in understanding the pattern of motivation. You may also explore research on the Stages of Change from Motivational Interviewing as a visual to support yourself in identifying strengths and barriers to change. By being open and honest with yourself, you will be setting yourself up for success. Ask yourself the following questions to fully discover where your motivation lies (and note the Stages of Change in parentheses):

• What do you want to change? (Pre-contemplation to Contemplation)
• What makes that a problem for you? (Contemplation)
• Is it a big enough problem to want something different? (Contemplation)
• How would you achieve the desired change? (Preparation)
• What do you need to support change? (Preparation)
• What would help you to begin? (Action)
• How will you know when you are ready for change? (Action)
• What would help you keep going? (Maintenance)
• Who/What would hold you accountable?
• What would happen if you don’t succeed?

By exploring these questions, you can identify any current strengths or barriers to succeeding and further explore what is needed to progress through the Stages of Change.

Make it Measurable

It isn’t uncommon for someone to identify a goal but not know how to attain it, thus remaining in the stage of contemplation. It becomes our responsibility to break down a long-term or larger goal into measurable, smaller pieces for it to feel worthwhile. Here are some examples of how to make it measurable when identifying a larger, more abstract goal:

I want to be healthy. Logging daily exercise, keeping a food journal, using a mood tracking app
I want to work out. Identifying current exercise habits, exploring interests to increase exercise gradually such as walking at your lunch hour, walking the dog, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator
I want to be more confident. Exploring times in your life you’ve felt confident, gathering meaningful quotes, engaging in values exercises or creating a vision board
I want to be happy. Defining what happy could look like, gratitude journaling, and/or pleasant activities scheduled

Smaller, more measurable efforts can support short-term goals blending into long-term goals over time. By identifying and writing down goals that are measurable, can be reviewed regularly, and can be celebrated when attained, the effort it takes to achieve these goals can feel validated and encourage motivation for the long-term work as well.

Accountability Buddy

Motivation can be internal such as, “I can do this” or external, “she said I can do this.” Identifying a trusted support as an Accountability Buddy can help you achieve your goals. Accountability Buddies are selected as a support person who is aware of your goals and holds you accountable by remaining in regular contact with you on your progress. They may meet with you weekly, monthly or on whatever schedule can help you remain focused and present on the goals you are working towards. Sometimes Accountability Buddies have a similar goal and may participate alongside you, such as going to the gym with you three times per week. Not having to work towards a goal alone can serve as an incentive in absorbing someone else’s positivity when you begin to question your own motivation. You may struggle to recognize the small but important shifts in progress and begin to question why you are working so hard for minimal results. Perhaps they help you recognize the smaller changes that have taken place when you feel the seeds of doubt are planted, thus preventing you from giving up on a goal that is supporting healthy change. By identifying an Accountability Buddy that is supportive throughout the process, you can experience motivation and recognize goal progression, allowing the ongoing growth and change you desire.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama.

Khara Croswaite Brindle, MA, LPC, ACS, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Lowry Neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. She received her Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Denver with a focus on community based mental health. Khara has experience working with at-risk youth and families, including collaboration with detention, probation, and the Department of Human Services. Khara enjoys working with young adults experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, relational conflict, self-esteem challenges, and life transitions.

 

Should You Put Recovery on Your List of New Year’s Resolutions?

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Future

By Michael Rass

About forty percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions around this time. They typically resolve to live healthier in the new year or improve their lifestyle in other ways. Popular resolutions include staying fit and healthy, losing weight, enjoying life to the fullest, getting organized, and traveling more.

The good intentions listed above all share the same problem: they are rather vague. That is probably why most people give up on their resolutions by February. Most resolutions are not kept. As Nielsen.com notes, “43 percent of Americans say they plan to lose weight by making healthier food choices, but 76 percent said they did not follow a weight loss or diet program in 2014.”

So, if you have a substance use disorder, should you put recovery on the list? Should fighting a serious disease like addiction be a New Year’s resolution?

Don’t Set Yourself Up for Failure

Yes and no. It’s not a bad idea to have goals for the new year, but they should be SMART—specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and time based. In other words, your resolution should not be “drink less” or “cut back on smoking marijuana,” because those intentions have no time frame and cannot be measured effectively.

Goals are important to achieving recovery but ideally they are objectives agreed with a therapist or sponsor as part of a treatment program. They should not be the vague declarations of intent that New Year’s resolutions tend to be.

Goal-Setting Can Make You Heal Faster

When done right, setting specific goals can be surprisingly effective. In his 2012 book, The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg describes a Scottish study that examined the power of goal setting for patients recovering from knee or hip surgery. Mobilization and exercise are very important for these patients but the pain can be so extreme that many skip rehab sessions and refuse to get on their feet. Participants in the study had to set weekly goals, writing down exactly what they were going to do. Patients in a control group did not have to set any goals.

“It seems absurd to think that giving people a few pieces of blank paper might make a difference in how they recover from surgery,” writes Duhigg. “But when the researcher visited the patients three months later, she found a striking difference between the two groups.The patients who had written plans in their booklets had started walking almost twice as fast as the ones who had not. They had started getting in and out of their chairs, unassisted, almost three times as fast.”

Goal-setting is an important tool in addiction treatment as well. The right goals formulated in small achievable steps combined with appropriate therapy can improve clients’ chances of a successful recovery, but they should not just settle for a generic “I want to be sober.” They should formulate specific steps on how to achieve sobriety on a day-to-day basis.

For many people with addiction, pledges like “I will never use drugs again” often seem frighteningly daunting in early recovery. It is mentally easier for them to commit to the much more modest “I will not use today” and have that same goal every day. One patient in the Scottish study had the goal always to take a second step and not sit back down after the excruciatingly painful first step when getting up. Presumably, that was more effective for him than “keep walking.”

New Year’s resolutions like “enjoying life to the fullest” fail because they are too global. You wouldn’t even know at what point you have achieved it.

No Need to Wait

New Year’s resolutions also involve the risk of delay. Drugs and alcohol can kill you, often sooner than later, and waiting for New Year’s Day to come along to get better can be dangerous.

If you are battling a severe substance use disorder, your recovery should start as soon as possible.

Don’t resolve to quit drinking or using drugs next year and then go on a binge before New Year’s Eve. There is absolutely no need to wait until New Year before enjoying sobriety. The time to quit is right now. Get help before it is too late. Your life depends on it.

Conrada “Bunni” Jauregui Shares Her Gift of Recovery

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Gift of Recovery

After being “out there” for many years, running amuck with my addiction, turning my back on “life and my family” it was time to turn my life around and what better time than the holidays. It was the perfect “gift” I could give myself and my family. Holidays were not always festive when I was in my active addiction. I spent little time with my family and more time with friends drinking and using.

My “norm” became a bottomless pit of darkness, I couldn’t see anything but black surrounding me and my addiction was putting me in harm’s way. I needed help. I needed “to change” no matter what. So when the opportunity came up for me to go to treatment, I went willingly.

I entered treatment at Harmony on December 16th a few weeks before the holiday season. I was excited to leave California and go to Colorado. Even though I was “high” when I arrived in Colorado, I remember the beauty of the mountains and the snow and how I felt like I could get better here. I knew that it was going to require sacrifice if I was going to get better, including letting go of Thanksgiving, Christmas and even New Years. This was my time to get well, and my family’s time to rest and know I was someplace safe.

Being in treatment during the holidays wasn’t so bad. Harmony made the experience special. They provided us with presents on Christmas morning, we decorated and I shared my early recovery with new friends.

My family is important to me but I needed to feel and learn that I was most important. Everyone’s road to recovery is different. Making this decision to stay in treatment was a rare opportunity for me to turn my life around. So I surrendered to all my short comings, the time away from my family, and decided to become the most important reason to get sober.

Today, my sobriety is the reason why my life is so rich and vibrant. My willingness to look back at the short-term sacrifice of being in treatment during the holidays contributed to helping me get my family back again. This year, I can celebrate the joy of the season healthy and full of gratitude, knowing that this gift of recovery continues to bless me and all those I love.

As we approach the holiday season and you are reading this testimonial, know that you are worth every bit of happiness “sobriety” offers. Don’t wait until after Thanksgiving, Christmas or the New Year to make this change in your life. Do it now so that you can experience the countless holidays to come that are free from the pain and suffering of addiction. Give that gift of recovery to yourself and to your family. I did and it was the best gift ever!

Recovery during the Holidays. Watch one woman’s story of hope.

Opiate Addiction & Recalibrating the Brain’s Reward System

Posted on by Christy Weeks

The reward system of a person’s brain while they are in active opiate addiction is similar to an intense roller coaster ride. When the user takes opiates, they peak during the high and fall after the effects wear off. After prolonged use, the peak isn’t as high, and the low spots seem to go lower than before. This leads the user to increase the dose and/or frequency with which they take opiates.

This heightened dependence on opiates leads to the individual losing the ability to stimulate the brain’s reward system with other life activities. Eating a good meal, watching a good movie, and even hanging out with friends or loved ones doesn’t provide the same level of happiness for an individual who is abusing opiates as it does for a substance free healthy person. All aspects of life, outside of drugs, start to lose value as the addiction progresses.

This impact on the activity of the brain’s reward system lingers into sobriety. Studies have found those those who are still detoxing and those who have been clean for 1-2 weeks from opiates still show a heightened reaction within the brain’s reward system to images that relate to opiate abuse (such as pills). These individuals also showed a declined response from the brains reward system in such things that would typically stimulate happiness like tasty food or people having fun. The same studies found that individuals who were 2-3 months removed from active opiate addiction showed a lesser response from the brain’s reward system when showed drug related images and a near normal response to images that people typically associate with happiness.

This further strengthens the case for residential treatment as the route to long-term sobriety. Detoxing from the substance only removes the drug safely from your body. For the first month or two, the brain still performs similar to the way it did in active addiction. The time to fully heal, and fully enjoy life again, requires a timeframe of sobriety that is much easier to attain with residential treatment than it is by simply detoxing.

Harmony Foundation offers both men’s residential treatment and women’s residential treatment, as well as an Aftercare Program for those who complete our Residential or Family Programs. Both programs offer premier addiction treatment services that will help ensure that your recovery, and outlook on life, are successful.

Importance Of Meditation

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Lotus Flower

Meditation is one of the most important tools in recovery, but many people skip this step, or feel they don’t have time for it.

When we meditate, we can relieve some of the stresses in our lives. Stress negatively affects our health, bodies, and minds. We become frustrated, unhappy, and impatient. Stress is also one of the main reasons people turn back to drugs or alcohol.

Taking time to meditate can save us from making a disastrous mistake. Meditation can give us balance and calm our minds. We can transform our thinking from negative to positive, disturbed to serene.

It takes practice to meditate. When I entered rehab and participated in meditation, I felt like my head was going to pop off my body. The silence and sitting still almost drove me crazy. However, after a couple of days of practice, I actually felt better and more comfortable.

When our minds are not at peace, finding happiness is almost impossible. If we train our minds to meditate, we can learn how to quiet our heads, and eventually know peace even in the most challenging times.

Many times it is hard to control our minds. Our mind is like a sheet blowing in the wind, blowing everywhere from external situations. If things go as planned for us, we are happy. If a wrench is thrown into our plans, we are instantly unhappy. Our mood fluctuates because many of us are tied to external situations.

When we train to meditate, we create inner peace, so we can eventually control our minds no matter how bad the external situation becomes. Eventually, we will become balanced, instead of constantly being pulled from happiness to sadness.

There are a plethora of ways to meditate to find peace. Of course there are the more traditional ways to meditate with breathing exercises and meditating on compassion, peace, and love, but there are also other ways to clear your mind.

I like to take a long drive. There’s something about taking a long drive that clears my head. I can just focus on the road, and clear my mind. I don’t have to talk to anyone, listen to anyone, or do anything except drive. It’s cleansing for me.

Some people recommend taking walks. Getting outside the office or house and into fresh air has healing properties.

Many people pray to their Higher Power when they meditate. The power of prayer can be extremely healing.

Journaling is an excellent way to meditate. Putting thoughts and emotions onto paper gives you more perspective. If something is bothering you, writing it down and actually seeing it in front of you can help you work it out. Writing a gratitude list is also helpful. Focusing on positive things can also change your perspective.

Yoga or exercise is also a great way to rid yourself of negative feelings. Exercising produces serotonin, a chemical responsible for mood balance.

I also meditate through cleaning. I always feel better after spending a few hours cleaning my home. I feel like my mind is cleansed as well as my home. There’s something about sitting in a clean house that is especially healing for me.

Meditation and prayer ties into the 11th step in Alcoholics Anonymous. The step tells us, “sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”

Prayer can take many forms. If you are not comfortable with “God” in the dominant religious sense, don’t let that throw you off. “God” can be defined as your Higher Power, whatever you choose that to be.

You can pray to your Higher Power by asking for guidance, speaking out loud to Him or Her, or just expressing gratitude for living today.

Here at Harmony Foundation, we believe in the 12 Steps of recovery. If you are ready to start a new life and find peace in a life of sobriety, our treatment center is the perfect place for you. We have been successful in helping many people live 100% addiction free lives.

Meth Addicts Going to Great Lengths Poaching Redwoods

Posted on by Christy Weeks

People in active addiction to powerful drugs like heroin or meth often lose their moral compass in pursuit of their next high. They often do things they wouldn’t normally do, going against their own morals and deeply rooted belief systems. This is when addiction is real and all encompassing and drug addiction help is needed.

According to forest rangers in Northern California, methamphetamine addicts are losing their moral compass by engaging in theft and contributing to environmental degradation through poaching burl from redwood trees. Burl is the wood that grows in knobs on redwood trees and used for household items from coffee tables to decorative clocks. Addicts are reportedly poaching this rare material and selling it to craftsmen at cheaper prices. The considerable markdown of $2-$3 a pound is tempting for the craftsmen who are struggling in the current economy and used to paying much higher prices. According to the rangers patrolling Redwood National and State Parks they have known of burl poachers for awhile, but recently it has become such a growing problem that they have shut down the main parkway running through the 133,000 acre forest at night.

Burl from a redwood, used to clone another redwood 

According to Jeff Denny a Park Supervisor, “Originally there were 2 million acres of old growth forest that spanned the coast of Northern California…95 percent of that original forest has been cut. The only remaining old growth forest in existence now is almost entirely within the Redwood national park and the state parks.” The burl on redwoods are essential to growing more redwoods, as they part of the tree that sprouts a clone before dying. Poaching therefore threatens what is left of the redwoods.

In our residential addiction treatment programs we encourage those in recovery to go to great lengths for their sobriety. We remind them the lengths they went to in active addiction to attain their next high. Driving out into the redwoods on ATVs with chainsaws and contributing to degradation of redwoods for just $2-$3 a pounds is certainly an example of a great length that we hope some of these addicts will learn to channel toward their recovery from addiction.

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Why Lindsay Lohan is Right

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Why Lindsay Lohan is Right
Lindsay Lohan on Oprah, photo via 

When anything on Lindsay Lohan is written in newspapers or tabloids people’s eyes have grown accustomed to skimming or glossing over – because it is often the same story with slightly varied details about jails, rehabs, arrests, accidents and so forth.

However, in her interview this week on Oprah’s Next Chapter, Lohan sings a different tune, a tune that is actually right on the mark with regard to recovery – that others in early recovery from addiction can  resonate with.

The following excerpts are from Oprah’s 1st of many scheduled interviews with Lohan that aired this week :

Lohan: “I need to shut up and listen”

Why it is right: This self deprecating phrases is often considered essential for newcomers in 12 step meetings. It is not to say that the newcomer doesn’t have a voice, but rather they have a lot to learn. The way they have been living their lives – according to their will and their way, hasn’t worked. With this humble realization comes the greater realization that another way, not theirs, might be better – such as the way of those with more time in recovery, that newcomers can “shut up and listen” to.

Lohan: “I’m willing to do whatever it takes…and [to do] whatever people that have more experience than me in their recovery [have done]…”

Why it is right: Addicts do whatever it takes to get their drugs and alcohol. They go to great lengths to get high. When they become serious about their recovery, they do whatever it takes to stay sober. When an addict in early recovery says this, they are often held accountable by their own words, agreeing to take the suggestions of their sponsor, counselors or others in their recovery circle. This statement is bold and often represents a real surrendering to recovery. The bittersweet reality of this proclamation is that what it takes to stay sober is often enjoyable, such as showing up to meetings, communicating with others and being of service to others – often much more favorable than the conditions it took to score drugs.

Lohan: “I’ve been lucky and blessed enough to have been given a gift to share with other people…”

Why it is right: Those who live through their addiction and are able to make it to recovery, be it treatment or 12 step rooms, are blessed to be there. It is a gift, as there were so many circumstances and situations that could’ve taken their lives – from driving under the influence to the over consumption of substances. Those that have made it through and grasped recovery, realize it is a gift because many, many try to get sober and fail – and this motivates those that have the gift to share it with others.

We give Kudos to Lohan to have grasped these concepts and to be doing whatever it takes, including listening and being of service to others, to stay sober.

But there is something all-powerful that rules over the verbiage and vernacular of recovery or 12 step-meeting rooms – and that is action. After all is said and done, recovery is a program of action.

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