Saturday, August 31, 2019

Truth Mining


Truth Mining



When a miner digs for gold, sometimes he finds fool’s gold and sometimes he finds the real thing. He may have to take an extra few seconds to examine any gold shiny rocks to know the difference. In order to do that the minor must pay attention to anything that shines like gold with an open mind considering that he may have found the real thing. Only after inspection will he throw away a piece of fool’s gold or keep the gold if its real.

Truth mining is similar. It involves digging in your head to find little nuggets of truth, however, it may take a little bit of time to inspect each “nugget” you find. If you keep digging you will eventually reveal some truth.

Warning: Not everyone has what it take to be successful at truth mining as it can be very challenging. In order to be successful at it an individual needs the following qualities:

Ø  Open mindedness – You need to be able to open to the fact that some things you may find are true, even if it is uncomfortable. If you are the type of person who cannot handle a little discomfort or if you are just quick to deny anything that you may not like hearing, then truth mining will not work

Ø  Insight – You need to be able to “look inside”. Truth mining is an exercise in insightfulness so if you are not the type of person is ready to “dig” and learn a little more than truth mining may be difficult

Ø  Self-Honesty – For truth mining to work, you need to be honest with yourself rather than make excuses for uncomfortable truths



Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Values and Priorities


VALUES, PRIORITIES and SUBSTANCE USE ISSUES



Values and Priorities -
Almost everyone would agree that there are many people, ideas, goals, and other things that we value and are important to us. We tend to direct our mind (mental focus, attention, thinking) and our heart (feelings, desires, passion) toward the things that we value – (See diagram below)

Ø  We all have a limited amount of time and energy. When we are functioning well, we divide up our resources to make sure we are prioritizing our areas of value such as family, work, health, recreation, hobbies, etc.



Values, Priorities and Problematic Substance Use – When someone is misusing substances that does not mean that values necessarily change right away. Often what happens is that when substance use becomes more and more problematic, the substance use can hijacks some of what we set our mind and our heart on.

Ø  When substance use becomes a problem, it can steal some of the time, energy and other resources we may have used for other more important life areas.

Ø  The worse a substance use problem gets, the more it may take from other more important life areas. A “functioning addict” is able to use substances and still save something for other areas but this can get harder to do as addiction progresses with time




The Role of Values and Priorities during the Process of Changing and Healing

Re-prioritizing our values is an incredibly important part of the change process when healing from a substance use issue. Escaping a lifestyle damaged by addiction involves getting back to what is most important in life.
However, this is not automatic. Just because a person stops using or abusing substances, that does not mean that it is easy to just jump back in to life. To understand this better, consider the illustration below which involves thinking about when you were a student in school. Think about and discuss the following:


  • ·         Did you ever stay out of school for an extended period because of being sick? What was it like to come back after being out?

p    Most people would agree that getting back into the routine of going to school, learning, and studying is a challenge after being out sick for a while. Usually the longer someone is out, the harder it can be to get back into the healthy routine of school again.


The same can be true with addiction. The farther that addiction takes and individual away from the “normal” day to day concerns, values and priorities, the harder it can be to come back. That is why it is a process that takes time. That’s why it is okay if it may be taking a while to get your priorities in order, early in the change process when dealing with addiction. What you can do each day is make sure to stay focused on re-prioritizing your values in a positive way and then work on making the changes you need. It’s a process. 





Creating Creating a V-MAP - Values Motivational Action Plan


Your values can serve as the driving force to keep you motivated in a positive direction. One way to keep your values and priorities in front of you and in your daily consciousness is to have a Values Motivational Action Plan.


ALSO -