MINDFULNESS OVER MERLOT
Spirituality & Health|July/August 2022
It's time to update our attitudes towards recovery. ADRIENNE VAN DER VALK explains why-and how.
ADRIENNE VAN DER VALK
MINDFULNESS OVER MERLOT

IF YOU'VE EVER woken up with a pounding head and a vague memory of saying something embarrassing the night before, you may have told yourself, "I really overdid it. Better keep it to two drinks next time!"

For some people, that reminder will be enough to enforce a new limit. But for others, two drinks always becomes three or four or more. The broken boundary becomes a painful reminder that the commitments we make before alcohol starts flowing often don't align with the decisions we make after.

I say "we" because I am one of those people. Before I quit drinking, I made and broke rules constantly. Even when I didn't drink every day, I always drank more than I meant to, and my inability to moderate made me feel terrible about myself. I exercised self-discipline in other areas of my life. Why wasn't I able to rein it in when it came to alcohol?

One of the many things that confused me about my drinking was a culturally inherited belief that there were only two kinds of drinkers: alcoholics and "normal" people. In my mind, alcoholics were unable to function without booze, and certainly unable to go days at a time without drinking. This belief left me without a framework to understand my own situation. I was not physically addicted to alcohol, but when I did drink (which was often), my consumption was definitely not normal. So, was I an alcoholic or not?

Scientist, educator, and podcast host Gill Tietz asked herself this question for years while she struggled with problem drinking. On her popular podcast and YouTube channel Sober Powered, Tietz continues to look for answers in research studies while summarizing her findings for her listeners. One important discovery she shares is that disordered drinking falls across a spectrum, meaning the term "alcoholic" isn't very useful as a descriptor.

Denne historien er fra July/August 2022-utgaven av Spirituality & Health.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra July/August 2022-utgaven av Spirituality & Health.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA SPIRITUALITY & HEALTHSe alt
Let's Not Limit Nature- According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, nature is first defined as "the external world in its entirety," with etymological roots from multiple cultures and originating meanings
Spirituality & Health

Let's Not Limit Nature- According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, nature is first defined as "the external world in its entirety," with etymological roots from multiple cultures and originating meanings

The ancient Greeks had no word for art. Many indigenous people have no word for religion. Art and religion were inherent to human life until outsiders needed to critique and study these concepts-so they named them. The legacy of the word nature is similar. We speak about nature as if we are separate from itas if, like a starkly delineated shadow on a sidewalk, you can stand with one foot in nature and one foot outside of it.

time-read
3 mins  |
July/August 2024
Recognizing and Tuning Into Medical Intuition- How one woman learned to trust her instincts and heal her body
Spirituality & Health

Recognizing and Tuning Into Medical Intuition- How one woman learned to trust her instincts and heal her body

How one woman learned to trust her instincts and heal her body. According to Wendie Colter, founder of The Practical Path (a trademarked intuitive development program for health professionals) and author of Essentials of Medical Intuition: A Visionary Path to Wellness, intuition permeates every aspect of our lives. Some call it a gut instinct. Others call it a hunch. Still others receive messages from their higher self. But whatever the name, that sense of knowing, feeling, or sensing can guide us toward healing.

time-read
7 mins  |
July/August 2024
The Neuroscience of Getting What You Want - Manifesting is a process whereby you utilize the power within yourself to have an intention occur that ultimately is not pure self-interest,"
Spirituality & Health

The Neuroscience of Getting What You Want - Manifesting is a process whereby you utilize the power within yourself to have an intention occur that ultimately is not pure self-interest,"

Manifesting is a process whereby you utilize the power within yourself to have an intention occur that ultimately is not pure self-interest," .What it takes to hit all your goals is a fierce dedication to your quest over time and that means sinking your goals so deep into your subconscious that your conscious mind automatically tracks paths to take you to those goals like a bloodhound on the scent of synchronicities.

time-read
7 mins  |
July/August 2024
TIME TO TAKE THE RISK
Spirituality & Health

TIME TO TAKE THE RISK

We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.-Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-century Benedictine mystic, medical practitioner, writer, and composer

time-read
2 mins  |
July/August 2024
The Essence of FRIENDSHIP
Spirituality & Health

The Essence of FRIENDSHIP

A DEEP DIVE INTO WHAT MAKES THE BEST FRIENDSHIPS

time-read
7 mins  |
July/August 2024
QUEEN DIAMBI KABATUSUILA SHEDS A NEW LIGHT ON AFRICA
Spirituality & Health

QUEEN DIAMBI KABATUSUILA SHEDS A NEW LIGHT ON AFRICA

In 2016, before she became queen of the Bakwa Luntu people of the Dimbelenge territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Queen Diambi Kabatusuila was a 48-year-old therapist going through a difficult divorce, living in Boca Raton, Florida, and having a recurring dream about an old woman in an African village.

time-read
5 mins  |
July/August 2024
Over the MOON About Helping Animals (and Their People)
Spirituality & Health

Over the MOON About Helping Animals (and Their People)

Since I was a child, I've had a ritual: Every night, I go outside and search the sky for the moon and stars. I marvel at the magnificence of a dark, crisp, clear, midnight blue sky and its symphony of constellations, occasional meteors, and the glorious moon herself-each illuminating the vastness. This simple practice always gives me the deepest peace and centeredness. It aligns my internal compass every night before bed.

time-read
6 mins  |
July/August 2024
ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVES: AMANDLA STENBERG CHANNELS 'THE FORCE'
Spirituality & Health

ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVES: AMANDLA STENBERG CHANNELS 'THE FORCE'

Journalist KAREN BRAILSFORD was over the moon when actress and musician AMANDLA STENBERG agreed to meet her over Zoom for this heart-to-heart about spiritual matters for Spirituality & Health: A Unity Publication. Brailsford, a lifelong seeker who feels blessed to be Stenberg's mother, once captioned an Instagram photo of her daughter with Michael Bernard Beckwith of the Agape International Spiritual Center: \"When your master teachers run into one another at a Hollywood event.\" Brailsford says she has learned a great deal from each one.

time-read
10 mins  |
July/August 2024
Unlikely Lightworkers from Liverpool
Spirituality & Health

Unlikely Lightworkers from Liverpool

The Beatles were more than musical masters-they were spiritual pioneers.

time-read
6 mins  |
July/August 2024
ANTI-RACISM IS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Spirituality & Health

ANTI-RACISM IS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

GROWING UP in very charismatic and evangelical Christian spaces, I was told that the Devil's greatest trick was convincing us that he didn't exist. I feel a similar vibe when it comes to the big three systems of oppression-capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy-in New Thought and other spiritual spaces. These systems managed to convince some of us that they don't exist, we are immune from them, talking about them isn't helpful, or we will overcome them just by doing our spiritual practices.

time-read
2 mins  |
July/August 2024