Humans have emotions both on a personal level (fear, stress, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, etc) and on a social level (love, anger, shame, pride, loneliness, etc). They occur in varying degrees throughout life mediated by your level of maturity at the time. Your ability to express your feelings and control the expression of them is a function of your self-concept willingness to self-regulate. It's your daily decisions that determine the reality of your desired change, and it is your identity that withstands attacks against your well-being (Páez-Gallego, J., Gallardo-López, J. A., López-Noguero, F., & Rodrigo-Moriche, M. P. (2020)). Intentionality and regulation are guard rails for behavior and these dictate your expressions. Your psycho-social balance is achieved when your thoughts and behavior are grounded by faith in God and projected into a social world. (Psycho-your identity in Christ; + Social-your affiliation with a group of Christian believers = Christian Cognitive Consistency.  

• Read more here about how to use emotional feelings "as an innate guidance system that is essential to optimal human health, psychosocial development, moral conscience, and even spiritual experiences" (Peil-Kauffman, K. 2020)).

• Take the self quizzes in the "Capture your Vision" tab to try to determine what's really driving your daily decisions?

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The answers to your self-reflective quizzes are meant to have you think about whether or not you do things that line up with your longer-term goals. Addiction recovery is a lofty goal and its success is made up of daily decisions that shape your future. Whether you notice that you have been making short-term, self-pleasing decisions that fall short of your goals is not the point of the exercises. The point is, as Alcoholics Anonymous also points out, you need to depend on a God, a "Higher Power", to overcome addiction. When you choose the Christian God, you can overcome your missteps and move on.

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With heartfelt repentance you gain a sure hope. If you decide to add to your faith, you become knowledgeable about the true nature of God and see that while your faith is deeply personal, it ls not discriminatory (Joel 2:12-14, 23, Matthew 5:43-45, 2 Peter 1:5-8). Your sure Christian hope keeps you grounded in reality but makes you resilient. Resiliency is the name for the trait that shows your capacity to recover quickly from unwelcome life events. That's because if you are resilient, you aren't tempted to abandon your goal because of missteps or obstacles. 

 

Your identity in Christ means that you can have a sure hope when you implement God's Word because you have the Holy Spirit. (The Holy Spirit is like a never ending supply of wood or coals that are needed to fuel a fire; you just have to take the wood and put it on the fire.) Long-term relief from addiction comes when you are willing to trade your own will power (your own A, B, C’s), for the Spirit infused power, D and then do your part, A + B = C so He can do His to empower your steps C  . When you are willing to trade self-reliance for Christ’s sufficiency, you will be equipped with the power to overcome, but it doesn't reveal itself until you take the physical steps of faith necessary to make it happen (1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 3:5, Hebrews 11:1, 8, Matthew 14:29, Galatians 6:9). Your faith gives you the reason to persevere. Confidence and strength comes from your acceptance of and dependence on Christ because of your free-will decision to trade your old self for a new identity, hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:1-3).

• Read more at Appendix 1J; Prove God, Take Loving Action.

 

Research Professor Brown declares "When your needs for love, belongingness, and worthiness” are met you gain courage. When you realize that these needs are met by God, unconditionally, you gain the wherewithal you need to endure trials. This confidence attracts healthy relationships that will support your new habits along the journey through life (Brown, B., 2012, p. 217, Haslam, et al, 2009). When you choose to trust Christ, your Attitude and Behaviors are infused by the power of the Holy Spirit so your Consequences reflect your faith; D(A+B) = C   (Joshua 1:7-9). Your new identity in Christ, the Holy Spirit in you (D), steers your problem-solving, decision-making and resulting actions because you have the mind of Christ, which enables you to approach situations from God's perspective (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

• More from Bren`e Brown @ https://brenebrown.com/about/ 

 

Hope, courage* and resiliency are yours when your thoughts are founded on and grounded in an identity in Christ (Matthew 7:24-25). Dependence on yourself or anybody else is futile-it’s like spinning your wheels while expecting to arrive at your destination (2 Corinthians 12:10, Philippians 4:19).​ People who make Godly, confident decisions gain a new perspective. When trouble from this world arises, they don’t say to themselves “why me”

instead, they say, “why not me”? Renewing your mind to God's truth is the basis for an optimistic attitude because when you make up your mind to hope in Christ, you believe that no matter what circumstances come your way, you can persevere because of God and your knowledgeable Christian faith (Philippians 4:12-13,8, 3:14, Romans 5:3-5, 12:12, 2 Peter 1:2-3).​ A conscientious and humble Christian can see and wants to choose a Godly action so they voluntarily put limits on and accept limits imposed on their behavior by authority - both God’s and man’s (Romans 13:1, 1 Samuel 26:21-24, 1 John 2:5-6). 

Will you use choose to believe in the character of God and voluntarily impose boundaries on yourself

(the ability to judge and discern truth) so that what you say you want, you do (1 Peter 3:10, Matthew 5:37)?

• There is freedom that comes with knowing it is your choice to live inside the boundaries of God's principles,  summarized in Appendix 1G and applied in Appendix 2H.

• *Courage is defined here from a Christian perspective; the voluntary desire and accompanying action to implement long-term, self-sacrificial decisions.   

• Read Philippians 3:3-30. Do you possess and express attitude of Christ?

• Some scriptures to motivate the courage and confidence you gain with an identity in Christ:  John 1:12, 1 Corinthians 6:17, 27, Romans 6:6, Ephesians 1:4-6, Galatians 3:27-28, 1 Peter 2:9-10, Philippians 4:13, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Colossians 3:1-3, Ephesians 5:1, 2, 15-21. ​