Transform Your Life!
Metamorphosis Requires a Tight Cocoon
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly. ~ Richard Bach
Acknowledging the Darkness & Pain or The End of the World (as you know it)
In the course of every addiction, there comes that painful realization that things are not going to get any better and they will get worse. Call it hitting bottom or moment of clarity or running into the brick wall or whatever you want to call it. It’s complete hopeless desperation. The realization that you are stuck in the vice of addiction, the alcohol, or nicotine, or heroin or codependent behaviors, gambling or sexual compulsions have you in a death grip.
This is a holistic death. Body, mind, emotions and spirit are bankrupted, colorless, dry and hardening. For many alcoholics or addicts this realization is that they cannot go even one more day in this pain. But then often days, weeks, months or years of blackness follow. There is a solution, suffering can end. You can transform your life — but not on your own.
Surrendering — The First Step to Transform Your Life
This is how a human being can change.
Suddenly, he wakes up, call it grace, whatever, something wakes him, and he is no longer a worm.
He is the entire vineyard, and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks, a growing wisdom and joy that does not need to devour. ~ Rumi
Surrender. In our society and culture this is almost a dirty word. Well, guess what, the societal definition of surrender is killing you, and it is time to see the world in a new way. Here’s a new definition — moving to the winning side. Waving this white flag means that you get to live, not in disgrace, but in embracing celebration and joy.
Surrender means that we stop fighting. It is Step One stuff; we admit that we are powerless over the addiction, and that our lives are unmanageable. Give it up, surrender to win. Don’t try to ‘get recovery’, let ‘recovery get you’. Surrender to the process. To transform your life, you have to let go.
Facing the Bright Light
When you reach that certain stage in the cocoon, a crack appears. After being enfolded in the darkness for so long, the light can seem pretty scary.
You know that the light here really hurts my eyes. I come from a world where the light is dim. ~ April Wine
But there is a crack in your old ways of understanding and being, and the light starts to seep in. As the crack widens, the shell of your old life will fall away. In the clarifying sunlight you see how ephemeral the shell fragments are. You see the prison doors were never locked. Addiction is of your own making and this clarity will help transform your life.
Unfurling Your Wings
Have you ever seen a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis? It seems a painful process, being that cramped with wings so big. Similarly, the next phase of your process involves some struggle. Facing the truth of your past must be done. Platitudes like ‘forgive and forget’ are meaningless. There is work to be done, but it is done just one day at a time.
The transformation comes with getting honest, sharing with others the reality of the things that happened to you, and the things you did to others. No, it is not easy, but it is really simple. Having the safe environment of an inclusive and comprehensive rehab retreat with skilled, compassionate professionals can make all the difference. Exposing the darkness, then getting to lie in the hammock with the dog by your side, with a gentle breeze and the fragrance of the orange blossoms brings freedom and an opening for change and new beginnings. It is worth it.
Flight
The transformation is nothing less than astonishing. Most people that grace the doors of rehab have given up hope — and surprisingly that is a good thing. This state of hope-less-ness is what is needed for the surrender. We call it the Gift of Desperation (G.O.D.) physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
From the despair:
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. ~ Psalm 22, Hebrew Scriptures
to the miracle of recovery:
We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. ~ Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous
Are you Ready?
You need not consider yourself ‘an addict’, ‘alcoholic’, or ‘codependent‘, only desiring a life transformation to complete freedom, peace of mind and serenity. Some may call it a spiritual awakening or enlightenment. Regardless of what it is called, we will show you the way through the doors of your prison, to the launching area for your new flight. The delight of your butterfly wings will impact not just you and your loved ones, but there is an impact on the world. A spiritual shift, where each person affects the whole universe.
If you are ready to have the kind of life transformation that is nothing less than miraculous, you can change. At Serenity Vista, we don’t just help you change one aspect of your life. We help you transform your life absolutely, to one you love.
