Monthly Archives: August 2010

Recovery involves being able to deal with Breakdowns.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw
Success in recovery, or rather, staying in recovery, is dependent upon a variety of factors.   For example, it appears that attending daily NA or AA meetings and staying in communication with ones chosen sponsor will definitely assist an individual in successfully implementing his recovery plan.  Getting and staying committed to working the 12 Step Program also appears to increase the probability of the person staying abstinent from drugs and alcohol.  While the above-mentioned elements of a persons overall recovery plan are crucial to his recovery, another major factor that will greatly influence an individual’s continued abstinence is how he is able to handle the breakdowns that happen in life.
Knowing about breakdowns, what they are and how to manage them, is absolutely necessary for one to stay committed to his recovery plan.  Breakdowns are what brought an individual into treatment and eventually created the space for him to begin his recovery.  Breakdowns also happen while a person is in treatment and will continue to take place after he leaves.  Even after successfully completing a treatment program, breakdowns are almost certain to happen as one returns to the community from which he came.  In fact, both the client and his counselor should expect breakdowns to occur after treatment.  It is for this reason that knowledge of the structure of breakdowns and how to transform them is very important if not crucial for the individual wanting recovery.

Positive Affirmations for Creating a Positive Body Image

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

Positive affirmations can be of help to transform your life.  Positive affirmations can also assist you in creating a positive body image.

1.  I am perfect, whole and complete.

2.  I love and accept myself exactly as I am now.

3.  I love everything about myself.

4.  i love and approve of myself.

5.  I let go of the past.  I ive life in and from the present moment.

6.  I joyously forgive others and myself and I set myself free from the past.  I am at peace.

7.  My body restores itself now to its natural state of good health.

8.  I always take good care of myself.

9.  I have and maintain my ideal, natural and healthy weight.

10.  I respect and always take good care of my body.

11.  My body is healthy and filled with energy.

12.  I have and maintain the weight that I want.

13.  I am safe and protected at all times.

14.  I can, I am able and I will.  I always do my very best.

15.  I am good enough just as I am.

You can transform your life with positive affirmations.

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The Process of Saying Goodbye through Acceptance.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

It has been eight weeks now since my mother has passed.  While I think of her every day that goes by, the process of saying goodbye is just that, a process.  I am coming to accept, slowly as it may be, that she is gone and that I will never speak to or be with her ever again.  While in many ways I do not believe that I have fully come to terms with what has happened, I am finding comfort in a concept that I was introduced to to in recovery, that of acceptance.  My work is to stand in the space of acceptance.

While the process of saying goodbye is still painful it is assisted by accepting that what happened did happen in the way that it was supposed to happen.  It was perfect, perfect cause it happened in God’s world.  My work, as difficult as it may be at times, is about coming to terms with what happened, of learning to accept it fully, not make anything wrong about the process and knowing that it happened as it was intended to happen.  Acceptance is about accepting that my mother passed in the way that she did and that it could not have been any other way.

Everyday is about saying goodbye to my mother, being gratitude that she brought me into the world, that she was there for me in so many ways and that she loved me without condition.

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Ten Principles for Transformation in Recovery.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw
The ten principles listed below can be of assistance to a person who is in recovery.  While they are not to be confused as the actual work in recovery they will provide a frame or structure from which to do recovery.
1. To take complete ownership and responsibility for your life. Understand that you have created and chosen your life the way it is occurring. You are the cause of what you experience and your life.
2. Watch your word! Stay present to what you think and say. Choose to say positive things about yourself and others. What you think and say creates your experiences of how life will occur and be for you.
3. Practice your Self Affirmations and Possibilities everyday. Say your Self Affirmations and Possibilities in the morning, throughout the day and before bedtime.
4. What is your Intention? Plan your Intention each morning upon awakening and stay present to it throughout the day. What are you committed to today? What are you committed to now? What is it that you want to create in your life? What is it that you want to create now?
5. Develop your RECOVERY PLAN. Plan your work. Your RECOVERY PLAN is about your life. Your RECOVERY PLAN is about your Integrity. Integrity is the bottom line. Are you in integrity with your RECOVERY PLAN. Are you in Integrity with your life?
6. Develop your DAILY ACTION PLAN. Work your plan. Do it everyday! Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about your commitment and integrity with respect to your RECOVERY PLAN. Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about fulfilling on your intention and commitments. Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about keeping your RECOVERY PLAN in existence!
7. Acknowledge yourself and others daily. Acknowledge the miracles in your life. Practice affirming that every moment of your life is a miracle.
8. Practice patience! Remember that you are doing the best you can. At the moment that we do we do the best we can. When you know more, you will do things differently. Do this in regards to others too.
9. Share with others what you are getting out of your recovery.
10. STAY HUNGRY FOR YOUR RECOVERY!

The Acceptance of a Passing.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

On July 1st my mother passed.  I was there to witness it, to witness her taking her last breathe.  I feel honored to have been there.  This is was loving woman, my mother, who brought me into the world.  I had the honor of witnessing her leaving it.

The emotions and feelings over the past seven weeks have been many.  I miss her, I am sad beyond words.  I at times will call her house, and leave a message on the answering machine as if she will answer it, knowing full well she will not.  I know it is about my grieving process and I know that this is what I have to do to heal myself.  The loss is, along with the passing of my father, one the biggest things that I have ever experienced.

While difficult as it may be, I know that I will come to accept it, to know that it happened in divine order.  The passing of my mother is the way that it was meant to be, and my work is to accept it completely.  My acceptance will not take away the love I have for her, that will remain with me forever.  My work is simply to surrender to her passing, as I eventually must to my own when it happens.

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Positive Affirmations for Letting Go of Smoking.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

Positive Affirmations can help to support your desire to give up smoking, to be done with in your life.  Below are listed 10 positive affirmations for supporting effort be recover from smoking.

1.  I always take good care of myself.

2.  I love and accept myself exactly as I am now.

3.  I breathe slowly and deeply.

4.  I enjoy the feeling of breathing clean, fresh air.

5.  I joyously release the past.  I live my life in the present moment.  I am at peace.

6.  I shoose to be healthy and to treat my body with complete respect and love.

7.  I choose to breathe clean, fresh air into my lungs.

8.  I am relaxed, calm and peaceful.

9.  With each breathe that I take of clean, fresh air I become more and more relaxed.

10.  I am perfect, whole and complete.

Part of the work of letting go of smoking is to improve your self image, learn to relax, and let go of the past and the stress that gets generated.

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The Use of Therapeutic Relaxation Music in Counseling.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

Music has always been a very important part of our lives.  As a part of our experience, music can have both a physiological and psychological affect upon us as human beings.  Music also has many therapeutic qualities and has been utilized in promoting a variety of healings throughout the ages.  As we know further, music can be a very powerful medium for altering our state, of changing how we actually feel.  Music can be very effective in producing a very deep and healing state of relaxation and in the process, reduce stress and even promote sleep. Music can also be used to assist one in improving his or her self-esteem and furthering an individualís personal growth and development, transformation.

As a therapist I have always used relaxation music in my clinical and counseling work with others.  I have found that when I use relaxation music during both an individual and group counseling session that my clients do more productive work, are able to focus more effectively on themselves and the issues that they are becoming present to because they are more relaxed, focused and centered and as a result, better able to concentrate.  Being relaxed during the counseling process, at least initially always tends to generate more productive results for the individual being counseled.  Relaxation music can be a very effective and powerful aid for assisting a client to reach resolution with respect to that which he or she is working on with their counselor.

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The Work of Generating Positive Language and Words.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

The work of transformation is about creating a new life, about creating a new self.  This self, as we know, exists in language.  Who we are is our thought, our beliefs and what we say, our Word.  To transform, to alter our existence has to be done on the level of our Word, what we say and put out into the world, as that is what will come back to us, what will show up as our experience.

This work that I refer to is exactly that, work.  At first the work will be merely an idea that we are contemplating, not necessarily doing.  Then we will take on doing it, saying positive words, putting them out into the world.  Shortly after we generate positive words we will probably go back to what we did in the past.  The tendency in the beginning of the transformation is to keep what we have in existence, to not give it up immediately.  It is only through constant staying with this work of generating positive language, of continuing to generate positive words, even when we go back to being negative, that the work actually starts to happen, that actually starts to show up in our life.

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Positive Affirmations for Creating a Bright Future.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

Positive Affirmations can be utilized to help a person create the positive future that they want.  Below are some positive affirmations that can be of assistance in this process.

1.  My future is positive and bright.

2.  I always do my very best.

3.  I am grateful for what I have in my life.

4.  I joyously forgive others and myself and I set myself free from the past.  I am at peace.

5.  I am responsible for everything that I think, say, feel and do.

6.  I create my future by being present in the moment, in the Now.

7.  I am perfect, whole and complete.

8.  I love and accept myself exactly as I am now.

9.  I am intelligent and creative.

10.  I am confident and courageous.

Consistent use of these positive affirmations can make a difference in your life.

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Comments about the Power of Intention.

Posted on by Dr Harry Henshaw

I am currently reading a book by Wayne Dyer, The Power of Intention.  This is a very powerful book.  Its application to all human beings interested in transforming their lives is very direct, including those in recovery.  All of our problems are the result of us being “disconnected” from our source, from intention or God.

While I believe that positive affirmation can help to transform a person’s life, to help them feel better, ultimately this transformation has to led to reestablishing that union that Dr Dyer talks about.  Without the connection we live our life from ego, and with this comes the problems and struggles of life.  It appears that meditation is part of this process for reconnecting.

The two modalities are important, positive affirmations and meditation.  Ester and Jerry Hicks wrote about the power of affirmations and meditation for transforming a person’s life and way of being.  When these two modalities are put together the therapeutic result can be very powerful.

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