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What is Hope in Recovery?

Hope in Recovery is a non-profit outreach ministry with the sole purpose of sharing hope and healing to the hurting, especially those confronted with various forms of mental illness or substance abuse/dependence. It is recognized that these individuals are not the only ones affected by their challenges; they are not in this journey alone. They are a part of families and other social networks. These other networks are an integral part of the individual’s life and recovery and as such should be considered and included in the recovery process.

Hope in Recovery Vision Statement

To develop and maintain a collaborative community of consumers and providers of mental health and/or substance abuse services, in order to create an environment that promotes hope, recovery and personal growth.

I’ll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD.

Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly.

Free those who are abused! Isaiah 58:6 (CEV)

Hope in Recovery Organizational Mission Statement

Hope in Recovery is a non-profit outreach ministry with the sole purpose of sharing hope and healing to the hurting, especially those confronted with various forms of mental illness or substance abuse/dependence. It is recognized that these individuals are not the only ones affected by their challenges; they are not in this journey alone. They are a part of families and other social networks. These other networks are an integral part of the individual’s life and recovery and as such should be considered and included in the recovery process.

This sharing of “hope and healing” is characterized by the following foundational principles:

Enlighten: to share information with others so as to teach them something that they did not previously know, or to assist them in recall of previously known information, in order to allow them to improve the state of their lives.

Encourage: To give help or to inspire with courage. In other words, offering a hand to another whom has slipped and fallen along their way and helping them to get back to their feet.

Inspire: To influence, exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on, to spur on or motivate. Continuing from the previous thought, once the individual has gotten back on their feet; to inspire is to walk alongside and urge them on in their journey, rooting them on saying “you can do it”.

Instill Hope: To give, to share or impart hope. Hope is the belief that something good will happen and success is possible.

Empower: To promote the realization of the strength and courage that resides within, so as to believe in themselves and their potential for success.

This goal is achieved through a number of different avenues and techniques including, but not limited to the following:

• Written materials
• Motivational Speaking
• Educational Workshops and Seminars
• Personal Interactions – Face to Face, Telephone and Virtual (E-mail, Chat, Social Networks, etc.)

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I am still working at getting the name changes done for Hope in Recovery. In the process I have found out that many of them are not going to be as easy as I had hoped. In the process I have completed the transfer of the files from the R2R blog, posts comments etc. I plan to go “Live” with it this evening and all future post will be made on the “Hope in Recovery”. https://hopenrecovery.wordpress.com/

UNFORTUNATELY I was not able to import my subscription list. That being said, if you wish to continue to receive updates by e-mail of new posts, PLEASE hit either the “Follow” button (at the top) if you are a WordPress user or the “Follow” on the left hand column if you want to receive it by e-mail. Either way, PLEASE do one or the other, or you will no longer be informed of updates or new posts.

Another note regarding the overall name change process, The Facebook Group has been changed, and the FB profile that was R2R now simply has my name at this time. FB is not allowing me to use any combination to get to “Hope In Recovery”. In addition, the FB page will not allow for a name change. Therefore at the present time it will continue active as is, but information on it will point to “HIR”.

Twitter has been updated and now is @hopeinrecovery.

 http://twitter.com/hopenrecovery

On a side note, I took another step forward and submitted my first article to EzineArticels.com.  I should know if it is approved sometime in the next week.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

There is HOPE in RECOVERY!

As always, one breath, one step, one day at a time,

Gary

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So the transition begins.

Well, my friends and faithful followers, the time has come and a decision has been made. I am will be over the coming days and weeks transitioning “Road to Recovery” to “Hope in Recovery”.

I actually have mixed feelings regarding this change. I have actually come rather attached to “Road”. However, I have sensed for sometime that I very near to some kind of significant breakthrough on this journey. It may just be that this transition is the very thing that opens that door. I don’t know.

PLEASE be patient with me during this time as it will take sometime to “rebrand” all of my accounts and profiles with the new logo and to acquire appropriate usernames.

In the mean time, “Road” travels on.

I know it has been a while, if it all, since I shared all the R2R links in the same place, but here they are:

Primary Website (A work in progress) – http://rd2recovery.info/

R2R Blog –  http://rd2recovery.wordpress.com/

Primary R2R Facebook Profile –http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002152340858

R2R Facebook Group –http://www.facebook.com/home.php?  sk=group_114328891971667&ap=1

 Twitter -(@rd2recovery) http://twitter.com/rd2recovery

 Youtube – http://youtube.com/rd2recovery

 E-MAIL – rdtorecovery@gmail.com

I have a few other accounts floating around, but I am not as active on them as the ones listed here. I hope you will stick with me. In the midst of the transition, I do have some pieces that are in the works, so be watching.

Even I don’t know when an inspiration is going to hit me in the back of the head just waiting to expressed!

In close, I want to take just a moment to simply say “THANK YOU”.  I am truly humbled and honored that you feel that my words are worth reading. Each day I hope and pray that I can simply be used as a vessel sharing the hope, healing and peace that the Spirit offers. I pray that even in my personal broken state that His love and mercy would be  heard and felt in these words.

Many blessings to you all,

Humbly his servant, 

Gary

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“Baby Steps” a Lesson in Self-Esteem

After some recent interactions I feel that this is a good time to revisit this concept. It is such a struggle for so many. I actually heard someone say “I don’t feel worthy of getting better.” How much clearer can this epidemic be expressed?

I Hope and pray that your are encouraged and inspired to fight the good fight and take those first challenging “Baby Steps” of reclaiming your self-esteem.

As always, your comments and feedback are welcome and ENCOURAGED

One Breath, One Step, One Day at a Time!

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Self-Esteem is probably one of the most important yet difficult issues faced by any human being whether you are challenged with a mental illness or substance abuse or not. This is even truer for those that are traveling along this journey of Recovery battling these issues.

It has been my experience that Self-Esteem is so difficult for some of us that we avoid even talking about the issue completely, including ways to work to improve it. I believe that we do this because we are fully aware of the minimal amount of esteem that we have for ourselves. This low-self-esteem is a great obstacle in our recovery.

We will often sabotage our potential and possibility of success, by not fully investing ourselves and thus not giving our very best effort. Why? We do this because we are “Sure” that we are going to fail again. If we are honest with ourselves, then we often unconsciously and at times consciously choose to fail rather than succeed. I believe that we do so for a couple of different reasons.

1. Though it is painful, failure is actually comfortable and familiar. Though it hurts, we know where we are and what is going to happen next.

It is sad but true but, many of us, despite the pain and suffering we will often choose to remain in a state dysfunction out of comfort and familiarity.  On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to succeed, then there is a whole new world of unknowns that we must navigate. Once we start experiencing even the smallest of victories, then we are faced with all new expectations of success placed on us by ourselves and by others. Here again, we had rather fail now rather than fail later and let ourselves or more importantly (to us at the time) someone else.

2. Through our past and experiences, we have grown to believe, “I don’t deserve to be successful and happy”

For many of us we initially heard the negative messages from others, parents, teachers, others kids at school, etc. Messages like: “You’re good for nothing”, ”You’ll never amount to anything”, “I don’t even know why you try”, “ All you are is a screw-up”. These “tapes” have played in our heads for so long that we grow to believe that we really are “worthless” and do not deserve to have anything good happen in our lives. When something does happen to our benefit, we attribute it to “luck” or to the actions to someone else and refuse to accept any personal recognition or satisfaction for the effort which we put forth in order to reach that point of success, no matter how great or how small.

 3. We have developed a since of learned helplessness.

Similarly, we grow to accept and take on these same negative messages and thus believe that we truly are not capable of succeeding.  Therefore, when faced with an opportunity for success, we either consciously or unconsciously sabotage it, insuring that we fail. There by strengthening our belief in our helplessness. I believe that this is where the concept of the “self-fulfilling prophecy” comes in.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is at the beginning, a false belief about a situation which evokes a new behavior which makes the original false conception come ‘true’. Thus the individual will cite the actual course of events as proof that he/she was right from the very beginning

Much of what I have shared thus for is not new to any of you, in fact my guess is that as many of you have read, you have said to yourself, “Oh, that is why I do that”. Well now that we have a little bit of an idea, of how we got to where we are, and why we have stayed here, lets look at some ways to get moving in the right direction.

Most, if not all of us, have been hindered at least to some degree by before mentioned learned helplessness. There is one good thing about learned helplessness… it is LEARNED. If it is learned, then it can be unlearned and something new, different, better can be learned in its place.  We can learn “hopefulness”.  Hopefulness essentially is the opposite of helplessness.

Hopefulness is “Believing, despite what I see in my circumstances, I am capable and worthy of being successful.”

Of course, getting to that point is much easier said than done. Many of us have been hopeless and helpless for so long, we struggle with even the possibility of hope.

Self-Esteem has to be build from the ground up and learning to walking in it really is a step by step process. Let me borrow from a life experience and lesson that we have ALL learned from.

When a child learns to walk, he/she does not turn 10-months old and just start walking independently. There are MANY smaller steps that have occurred over the months leading up to day.  He/she rolled over, scooted, crawled, pulled up to stand, etc. He/she took one “baby step” after another until he/she got to the point of taking those first steps. Even then, once he/she starts walking, there are going to be falls, bumps, and bruises.  Does the child give up? NO. He/she cries for a bit, but then gets up and tries again. Slowly but surely, he/she gets better and better, more stable, and ultimately more and more confident.

We must translate these same “baby steps” into our recovery. As we start out, we slowly put one foot in front of the other, a little wobbly at first and reaching out and relying on our support systems to a degree. We begin with simple say day to day challenges: getting out of bed, taking a shower, eating, going to support groups or meetings. If faced with more difficult decisions we seek counsel from among our peers and support. As we grow more confident and stable in making these simple day to day decisions and solving problems, we gradually start taking on more difficult ones. Again, we are becoming more and more confident in the process. Just as with the child learning to walk, we are learning that there is hope, we can be successful and it really is not as scary a place as we thought that it was. We have learned to be hopeful, seeing ourselves and our circumstances from a optimistic perspective, seeing the good that our lives can be and how we can be an asset to those around us.

I want to leave you with a few practical exercises to help as you begin “crawling” in your self-esteem:

1.  List 5 positive things that other people have said about you.
2.  List 5 positive things about yourself.(Attributes or accomplishments)
3. Share a compliment with 5 other people.
4. Do something unrepentantly kind for someone that you perceive to be  “worse off” than you.

As you complete each “step” take out a pen and journal about how completing the activity made you feel. Take note to how you feel about your self before and after each activity.

 “We have to walk before we can run!”

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 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; James 1:19

 QUICK to LISTEN

Listen without delay and sensitively in all interactions.

         SLOW to SPEAK

          Take your time to speak, Think first.

                SLOWER to ANGER

                    When we listen thoroughly and reply thoughtfully,

                    we will quite naturally not be so easily angered.

(PLEASE Click the image or HERE for Fullsize image)

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This is quite a simple and I believe straight forward post, but none the less I hope it encourages and inspires you in reading as much as it as me in writing it!

No matter where we are in our lives: Good times, going through the motions and just existing or in the pit of loss and despair, the Lord God Almighty is there with us. “He has our back”. Well I guess that is not quite entirely true, He does not JUST have our back, He has our front, top, bottom, left, right, inside and out! He SURROUNDS us!

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We may be overcome with anxiety and fear or secure in peace and security.

           but He is there!

We may be dining at the finest restaurant or eating out of a trash can.

          but He is there!

We maybe fighting the demons within or singing with the angels.

         but He is there!

We may be warm and comfortable or restless and freezing,

        but He is there!

No matter where we are, the condition of our inside or the condition of our outside –

       He is there!

No matter of our emotional status or our state of mind,

      He is there!

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Psalm 23:4,6 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,	Psalm 91:11-15 11For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. 12They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 13Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample underfoot. 14″Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. 15He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
Psalm 139: 1-3,5,7-9 1You have searched me, LORD,   and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise;   you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down;   you are familiar with all my ways. 5You hem me in behind and before,   and you lay your hand upon me. 7Where can I go from your Spirit?   Where can I flee from your presence? 8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,   if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10even there your hand will guide me,   your right hand will hold me fast.	Romans 8:35,38-39 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  JEREMIAH 29:11

It is NOT in our Heavenly Father’s plan for us to have to endure pain and suffering. He does NOT harm us. However, because we are human with a free will to choose and to do what we think is best for us at any given moment in time, and because we live among others with the same free will, we have experienced that same pain and suffering, BUT no matter our past pain and suffering or poor and destructive choices HE declares: 

“I have a plan for you, you have a purpose, it is for good and not for harm. I have seen you destiny and it full oh hope and I will meet EVERY need that you have along the way”

But how do we get there? Simply – Just like he called the first disciples when he said, “Come follow me.”

 “This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name:  ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:2-3

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There are only two ways to truly fail: Fail to try and fail to try again.

To fail and try again shows even more strength and courage

than to have never failed at all.