Spiritual Awakening: Exploring Spirituality in Recovery

Antonio Matta.

In this edition of Recovery Dialogues and Sober Stories, we delve into the profound impact of spirituality on addiction recovery. Join us as we explore the transformative journey of those who have found solace and strength in spiritual practices. The path of recovery for those grappling with addiction can be complex and intimidating. What if a method existed to access a greater force and discover the internal fortitude and perseverance required to conquer addiction. Spirituality plays a significant role in this context. This episode will take a close look at the role that spirituality plays in addiction treatment. We'll also hear from professionals and those who have personally seen its profoundly life-altering effects. We'll look at all the many ways spirituality may support people on their roads of recovery and sobriety. From discovering meaning and purpose in life to connecting with a higher force, prepare yourself for a life-changing voyage of feeling, healing, and spiritual development. My special guest for this episode is Lee Yava. Lee is a full-blooded Hopi from Sungopavi, Arizona, and the CEO of Scottsdale Recovery Center. With 18 years of recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, Nii has become a respected expert in addiction treatment, combining his personal experience with his extensive knowledge of behavioral health. Nii's unique cultural perspective and deep understanding of spirituality make him the perfect guest to share his insights on the role of spirituality in recovery. So let's talk. How has spirituality been a source of strength, guidance, and comfort for the people you have worked with in addiction recovery?

Spiritual maturity allows us to access balance between the seen and the unseen in early recovery. The imbalance that we see all around us in the physical is in disarray, so finding that balance is very difficult in the beginning, but the spiritual strength that is required to be able to find faith and belief is to be able to see ourselves in this disarray, but also recognize the fact that with each step in the right direction, spiritual strength will allow us navigational tools to be able to access periods of life that were untouchable, unseen, things that we failed to experience or things that we weren't able to access. And so throughout that process, day by day, with every step in the right direction, we're able to find spiritual strength. Spiritual guidance is very much the same. The reverence in it will allow us to manifest itself in conjunction with every step in the right direction as well, allowing accessibility to spiritual guidance and trusting what they say. Trust the process is not really trust the process, but it's trusting your process, trusting the innate quality that you have and that you possess to be able to make the decisions that come innately to you and will help manifest all recovery objectives and life objectives for that matter. Comfort is found in spirituality because it is an innate process. It must be birthed internally before it can manifest externally. Internal manifestation can produce an external connection with self that will transcend the invisible and make all things possible. Everything starts in the spirit world before it manifests in this physical world. As an individual in recovery myself, there were so many opportunities and things that I wished that I had the capacity to acquire, but having limited access to a visual perception of what that looked like was something that I had to be able to navigate independently. Finding the strength and the fortitude to find that was something that I was incapable of. So when we're talking about strength, I think that spiritual strength was something that again was so imbalanced internally that I had to find an internal recognition to be able to give that over to a spiritual connection so that way it could carry that burden. I didn't have the capacity to do it. I didn't have any living, breathing examples of what that looked like, but it was also because I wasn't looking. When I finally stepped into the spiritual component of my recovery process, and much like a lot of the individuals that we serve, the spiritual guidance manifested itself because I started looking for the people that had the things that I didn't possess. They had the spiritual connection that I craved. They had the strength, the the dedication, the commitment that I failed to produce over and over again. And so much like many other people in the recovery process, strength, guidance, and comfort is found in the spiritual connection, even in its most infant stages of personal development in the recovery process. And when you have that moment of clarity to be able to recognize that you are burdened by incapacity and the inability to produce the things that you see all around you, and it seems like people have accessibility and opportunities that aren't available to you. But when you have and you relinquish the power of personal conviction and you turn that over to your spirituality, everything becomes possible. The opportunities that have been bestowed upon me since my introduction to the recovery process have been profound, but I've also seen it manifest in other people. And so When I think about the spiritual component as it relates to recovery, I've been bear witness to some miraculous things that have happened throughout the recovery process and the injection of spirituality.

Can you share some examples of how incorporating spirituality into the recovery process has been transformative for your clients?

The transformative process in our clients is miraculous. It's one of those things that I really love about the industry and the ability to navigate this in conjunction with the, uh, individuals that we serve. But before we get into the transformation process, I, I like to recognize that the distinction between faith and hope— faith is complete trust and confidence in the ability to apprehend rather than to prove. So that's where I believe spirituality lives. Hope is a feeling or expectation or desire. To be able to recognize the distinction between both is just as important as recognizing the distinction between recovery and sobriety. Throughout this process of transformation, one really has to learn how to acquire trust and conviction in oneself, and the only way to be able to get that is through spirituality. The transformation process, it's so painful in the beginning to be able to recognize and to have firsthand experience looking back in the rearview mirror to be able to see how your past decisions, behavior, words, language, all of it has left a trail of destruction. And when you look back at everything that has been damaged throughout the course of your addiction, it's very hard to have a sense of faith or belief. But at the same time, as you look at that and you take steps in, in, in your process of evolution into recovery, things become a little bit more clear in the transformation process. Because if you If you were to listen to a phone call with any of our residents and they make first contact, initial contact with the family member, and even though they have not seen them, they haven't talked to them, and after that 7-day period, which is the structure in our program, they have that first interaction through telephone, and when they do, one of the first things that the family member always says is, "You sound so good." And that's a point of recognition to be able to recognize that the transformation process is beginning. And little by little, it's almost like the process of development in infancy. In the very beginning, when somebody comes off of the addictive process and they are in detox and they're slowly beginning to transform, they might have an unsteady gait, they might have trouble sitting up, staying awake, eating, sleeping. But after a while, it starts to unfold and they'll start to be a little bit more mobile. They'll start to gain some quality and character back, and people will recognize that in them, and they'll start to tell them that they're so funny, that they're very smart, they're intelligent. And when they're doing that, what they're doing is they're allowing the internal qualities, the innate qualities of who they are, to manifest themselves all over again. And so in that process, you're able to see the transformation take place right before your very eyes. It's a miraculous process to be able to witness because in the infancy stages of development and recovery, it's almost like a rebirth. You're reborn again to be able to recognize opportunities, to be able to learn how to walk, a very distinct process that takes place in recognizing that you stand up straighter, you walk taller, you walk with pride and conviction, a certain sense of identity and purpose that is developed through this process of recognition about the innate qualities that have always been there but have been suppressed through addictive behavior. And so in that, you're able to go through the pain, but you're able to acquire the power, and you're able to turn the trauma into triumph and to be able to become victorious in life. The spiritual components of these are all very important, but I think that as you continue to transform, there's areas of your life that we're not necessarily prepared for, and we're very uncertain about what what they— what the purpose or the, uh, presentation represents. But as you continue to push forward, spirituality gives you a certain sense of, uh, conviction about the fact that it's going somewhere. You might not know where it's going, you might not know where it's leading you, but the transformation process is obviously in a position to where you're going to be able to recognize that when it's time for you to see it.

In your experience, what are some of the most damaging misconceptions about spirituality in addiction recovery and how can they be addressed?

Some of the most damaging misconceptions about spirituality in relation to addiction recovery are that a lot of times we meet people that have been influenced in a way that they believe that spirituality, prayer, religion can remove the ailment. And in a lot of cases, that's not true. It needs to be in conjunction with a recovery process, with behavioral health professionals, with sometimes medications, certain things that in the spiritual or in the religious realm are not necessarily conducive to the way that those teachings are brought about. But With the integration of best practices and spirituality, religion, those kind of things can produce anticipated results. But a lot of times we see people, and these are things that have been developed through years and years of practice, so those things are ingrained to us. Even as a Native American, there's a lot of times where a lot of people will have this belief that we're enacting certain behavior because we're not following with the innate production of Native practices, the things that we're intended to do, the way that we're intended to behave, the way that we're intended to carry ourselves. We're not doing that, and as a result, this is the reason why we're behaving the way that we are. And that might be true to a certain degree, but there's also certain areas that they may be trauma-induced, or there might be certain things about the personality that are conflicting with religious, spiritual, or cultural values. There's certain things that as we evolve as people those are things and areas that have to be recognized and have to be able to be challenged to a certain degree. And the only way that they can be challenged is placing yourself within the confines of an environment that will challenge them, that will challenge the preconceived notions about spirituality or cultural aspects of who we are in our development. And I do support 100% spiritual and cultural convictions about, uh, especially as it relates to identity. But at the same time, there's certain things that influence us to a degree that they can't just be prayed away, they can't be undone. Those things have to be remedied through therapy, through some sort of therapeutic interventions in conjunction with spirituality. And those two things brought together can produce anticipated results in healing.

How has spirituality helped your clients go beyond abstaining from substance use and find more profound meaning and purpose in their lives?

If I could speak personally to that, um, the profoundness of my personal experience in recovery is one that I see all the time. When I first came into recovery, I had absolutely no intention of working in behavioral health addiction treatment at all. But what I had come to recognize is that throughout that process, we have a tendency to throw up our arms and say, why does this have to happen to me? Why is this my life? Why do these things have to be a part of my existence? But in reality, when I look back at everything that had been everything that I had gone through, everything that I felt, and this is a similar experience that we share with all of our clients, everyone that is going through the recovery process, they come to find that all of these things didn't happen to us, they happened for us. It's a matter of transformation, and it's a matter of being able to recognize that in that pain you can produce power, but it's only by utilizing those experiences, those things that have cultivated themselves in addictive behavior can be manifested to produce power and to produce authority, knowledge, and information about how one can navigate this process by utilizing those exact same experiences. So it's not uncommon for people to be in a completely different industry and to come through recovery and then tell me, "One day I want to work here. One day I want to be able to work in this industry. I have aspirations of going back to school to be a therapist, to be a counselor, to, uh, work in addiction services. So I think that throughout this process, all of the things that I had been through, I always tell people all the time, there isn't anything that I can't speak on. Incarcerations, homelessness, drug abuse, poverty, homicide, suicide, I have a relationship with all of them. And so for me, what I used to use as diminishing qualities about self-worth or value I've been able to transform, but so has a lot of other people. And those are the exact same tools and components that they utilize to help other people navigate the exact same thing because addiction is very much universal. Everybody to a degree has the same experience of selfless or hopelessness, self-worth, trauma, and having gone through those experiences and coming out clean on the other end, you have the capacity to now navigate and to help people navigate that. And so when you have that opportunity, there's there's so much power that is instilled within each individual that has the ability to do this, that you in turn start to utilize all of this pain and every experience that you've gone through to start supporting other people in navigating their own process of evolution into recovery. And so when we talk about the profoundness of recovery and spirituality and all of these things, and I look back and I recognize that all it was was a preparation stage for me to get to this position in life and to be able to help navigate people through the recovery process. That is something that has given me profound meaning and has given me purpose in life that I couldn't have found anywhere else. I don't believe that I would be working in any other industry and feel the exact same feeling that I have now. And I tell people all the time, there isn't a day that I work in my life working at Scottsdale Recovery Center because what I do, I have a passion for. I was, I have purpose. I have conviction about the way that I help navigate the recovery process, whether it be independently or collectively. With other people in the same position. But what it is, is it's given me a profound sense of purpose. And people that acclimate to the industry also start to share the same thing. They start to share the same feeling about how profound this experience is and how they can give back and how they can help navigate periods of people's recovery process that they've been through. And it's a mirror image of oneself. But it also brings about a certain sense of humility because as you're watching these people in the infancy stages of development in recovery, you almost put yourself back in that position because you can relate. You know what it feels like. You know that person and where they're at in the recovery process. But what it'll allow you to do is to continue to utilize that purpose and that conviction to help navigate people to their identified objectives and become the people that they were intended to be.

As people progress in their recovery journey, How have you seen their relationship with spirituality transform and deepen, and what role has it played in their continued growth and healing?

I think that as it relates to spirituality and the recovery process, I think the natural transformation and the gravity of the spiritual connection and utilization of spirituality and its components just further solidifies the relationship with self. And when I think about the journey that people take on and that deeper spiritual connection, it's very innate. And so when I watch this happen with individuals in our care, that spiritual component just continues to get deeper and deeper, and it really creates and solidifies an opportunity to recognize the balance between the seen and the unseen. And when they have that opportunity, it's— everything kind of comes to fruition gradually. And they will talk about things in the very beginning about how they would like to get their families back, how they would like to get their children back, how they'd like to be able to get an occupation back. And they'll continue to move forward. And when they start to acquire these things, that resolve becomes deeper. They start to trust and believe more. They start to have more faith. They start to have more of a spiritual connection because what they're producing internally is starting to produce itself externally, and they're starting to see the manifestation or the fruits of their labor. And when they're able to have it and it's tangible, it deepens that connection with oneself. And as you continue to acclimate in your recovery process, you continuously acquire new positions, new opportunities, things that you'd never imagined possible. And when those families reunite and when those children run back into their arms, it's continues to solidify that conviction about the spirituality or the components thereof that help manifest this to even become possible. And so when I think about the continued growth and the healing, it's an ever-present part of our evolution into recovery. And the more that we deepen that relationship with self, the stronger the spirituality gets. It's an opportunity for us to truly navigate this with calm, certainty, comfort, and conviction about the fact that we might not always know where we're going, but whatever is happening in our present day, it's going to produce exactly what it's supposed to. And the only way that we can find that trust or that safety or solace and comfort in navigating this process, even with things that are beyond our control, it allows us the opportunity to just step back and let a greater good, a greater being, take over and produce within time and within reason of what we're able and what we're responsible to manage. A lot of times when we're producing these things independently and driving it with so much force, when we get there, we don't have the exact same feeling that we would as if things just happen naturally or organically. And when we get there, there's so much more gratitude and humility as opposed to driving for something so hard that when you get it, it doesn't feel the same. And so when, when you have that connection, it starts to develop internally, but the results of that become eternal. And that relationship with spirituality provides us an opportunity to truly connect with self in a much more deeper and meaningful way. And I think that as we continue to heal and progress in recovery, that really allows us the opportunity to just trust in our process, the process that we develop with self, the— with the identified objectives that we have in front of us and just kind of allow spiritual— the spiritual components to be able to have access to our inner thoughts and our inner being. The ability to trust and to have faith and to believe that everything that we're going to do and everything that we are doing is going to manifest itself in the physical form, where at the beginning it was just a thought, a dream, an idea, a belief. And once it starts doing that, the only thing that really can happen after that is a deeper relationship and a connection with spirituality that will will continue to produce anticipated results over and over and over again. And so that in itself will continue to prompt growth and healing.

Thank you, Lee, for your time, insights, and expertise. As we end this episode, I hope you have gained valuable insights into the transformative power of spirituality in addiction recovery, from finding inner strength and purpose to connecting with a higher power. We have explored how spirituality can help individuals on their journey to healing and sobriety. I want to take this time to thank our sponsor, Wish Recovery, for their unwavering commitment to providing comprehensive and holistic addiction treatment that focuses on each individual's mind, body, and soul. Their approach recognizes that proper recovery involves a deep and meaningful exploration of one's inner world, and they provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals to do just that. Thank you for joining me today on this journey of recovery and spiritual growth. Remember, no matter where you are on your path to healing, There is always hope. Keep moving forward one step at a time. See you next time on Recovery Dialogues and Sober Stories.