The Holidays are not everyone’s favorite time of the year. Check out our previous articles: Surviving the Winter Bluesand Staying Sober This Christmas. The days are short, social obligations extensive, and Christmas bills are due. Old family wounds can push all our buttons, or reawaken the grief of having lost someone special in the past twelve months. Many of us are exercising less, eating more sugar, or leaning on unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol or unregulated screen time. As a result, we feel stressed and depleted. Though the holiday blues are not the same as mental illness, a majority of people with mental health issues report a worsening of their conditions over these late December days. [1]
Well-being consists of body, soul, and spirit operating in healthy cooperation. Therefore, our response to challenging times should include practical, social, and spiritual remedies. Some of the practice steps we can take have been elaborated on in the articles above. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services also offers eight succinct practical tips. However, today we wanted to share some of the tried-and-true spiritual advice from Celebrate Recovery’s Eight Principles of Recovery. These principles aren’t just for addicts. They are spiritual principles derived from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, reconnecting all of us to God as our source of life and sustenance.
EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY
STEP 1: Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. “Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor” (Matthew 5:3a).
STEP 2: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me (recover). “Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
STEP 3: Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. “Happy are the meek” (Matthew 5:5a).
STEP 4: Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. “Happy are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8a).
STEP 5: Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask him to remove my character defects. “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires” (Matthew 5:6a).
STEP 6: Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others when possible, except when to do so would harm them or others. “Happy are the merciful” (Matthew 5:7a); “Happy are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9).
STEP 7: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and his will for my life and to gain the power to follow his will.
STEP 8: Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and my words. “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires” (Matthew 5:10).
With God and through the help of others, we can navigate the unwelcome stress that often accompanies the holiday season. God’s timeless blessing in Numbers 6:36 is all too appropriate for this dismal time of winter, “May the light of his face shine upon you.” Amen.
[1] National Alliance on Mental Health, November 19, 2014. https://www.nami.org/press-releases/mental-health-and-the-holiday-blues/
Tags: examine, depression, relationships, recovery, social, stress, addition, winter, holidays
