Healing Addiction with The 9-Step Soul Recovery Process: Break Free from What No Longer Serves You

In this episode I am talking about addiction—not just the big, obvious ones like alcohol, but the subtle, often socially accepted habits like sugar, scrolling, shopping, or constant busyness that keep us disconnected from our wholeness. Even after more than seven years of sobriety from alcohol, I’m still looking at behaviors and uncovering patterns that no longer serve me… and that’s what Soul Recovery is all about.

I walk you through the full 9-Step Soul Recovery Process and share how I’m using it—right now—to address my own sugar addiction from a spiritual perspective. This isn’t about shame or discipline. It’s about curiosity, compassion, and the willingness to see what we’ve been using to protect ourselves and begin to make new choices that support our highest good.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a behavior you know isn’t serving you… if you’ve made promises to yourself and broken them… if you’re longing to feel more alive, more aligned, and more at peace with your body, mind, and spirit I hope you will find inspiration and a process for healing with Soul Recovery.

Ready to take your Soul Recovery journey deeper?

Join Rev. Rachel in person for a transformative in-person weekend retreat—July 19–20 in Lafayette, Colorado, or September 13–14 in Asheville, North Carolina.  Learn more and reserve your spot.

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison or guests. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Chapters

• 0:45 Using Soul Recovery for Addiction
• 10:49 Addiction as Protection Mechanism
• 21:43 My Sugar Addiction Journey
• 31:46 Step 1-3: Awakening and Beliefs
• 41:25 Step 4-6: Co-Creating with Spirit
• 49:20 Step 7-9: New Perception and Light

Transcript

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:00

Today I'm going to use the nine step soul recovery process to walk through how you can use it to heal from and to be able to understand more about yourself from a spiritual level for maybe an addiction or a habit or a behavior that is not serving you. I know for me. I've been working on my sugar addiction and, even though I've been sober from alcohol for over seven years now addiction and even though I've been sober from alcohol for over seven years now I know that I want more for myself in my body, mind and soul. And this is a next step for me. So we're going to talk about how to use the nine steps for recovery from addiction. Enjoy the episode.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:38

Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. My name is Reverend Rachel Harrison. I started Recover your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and soul recovery to help others transform their lives, as mine was transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances, we need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our inner change and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast and community. I'm Rev Rachel and I'm so grateful that you are choosing in on your path to a happy and healthy life with me.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 1:29

Today I'm just going to jump right in because I want to do this episode that I've been preparing for and thinking about for a while. That is around addiction and even though most of you have come here because addiction affects you in some way maybe you came because of Al-Anon or you were searching for words and codependence or people pleasing this path to a happy and healthy life that is, soul recovery has like this elephant in the room, which is addiction. But when you come here, you walk through a door and you realize, oh, I actually want to take care of myself, I want to heal myself so that I can do something about the elephant in the room in a new way, to be able to be your most full, authentic, healed self. And if you have somebody around you who has addiction, you can stop trying to change them, trying to save them, and really remember that we have to heal ourselves first and foremost. That's our number one job.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 2:31

But maybe, like me, you're recognizing that you have some behaviors or some things that you are ingesting or taking that aren't great for you and even though I healed from my recovery of alcoholism seven years ago, I still have some compulsive behaviors that I'm recognizing in my healing don't benefit me. They don't benefit me at all. The one of the main ones is continuing to have sugar, a lot of sweets and sugar. I love sweets and sugar and it's interesting because, as I was reading the definition of what is addiction, which reads a compulsive, chronic physiological or psychological need for a habit forming substance, behavior or activity having harmful physical or psychological or social effects and typically causing well-defined symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, tremors or nausea upon the withdrawal of the substances or the state of being addicted. So that's the official definition of addiction.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 3:39

When I look at that for myself in terms of like the compulsive behaviors that I had when I was drinking, it definitely is not like that, but it's something that as I'm doing it, I'm thinking to myself there's a much better choice. You know this isn't good for you. I have pretty substantial arthritis in my hands in particular and it makes my hands hurt and it doesn't feel good, and I know that my body doesn't feel good. I know it's causing inflammation. I know that I would be happier with my weight and I would have more physical energy if I wasn't consuming sugar and sweets. But I make that choice to do that and so you could look at the same thing in terms of scrolling on your phone. You could look at maybe shopping or binging on TV.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 4:28

We could start looking at our own behaviors and how they are affecting our well being, especially as we get healthier and healthier and healthier in our soul, recovered state and are turning the attention to ourselves and not putting all that energy on the people around us to get better so that we can finally be better. But then we're looking at ourselves now and we're going hmm, maybe I need to take a look at am I having a glass of wine every day? And even though that's not an addiction, does it benefit me? Is it helping me? Maybe you've been smoking pot forever or something that is an, even a substance, a drug or alcohols that isn't as bad as the people in your life who are in like level 10 addiction and you're looking at yourself and saying maybe I want to do something about it. And I also just want to say I do not want to become an addiction expert, which is super interesting, since I have a podcast that has so much to do around addiction.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 5:32

I don't know as much as many fabulous, wonderful teachers and scientists and people out there that are really sharing really informative and important information about substances and how they work in your brain and how they work in your body and how they were formed, and I don't want to be the person that gives you all that information. There are other people that can do that. I suggest Gabor Mate. He has a wonderful book called Hungry Ghosts that has incredible information about how that high level of addiction can be formed within people. He has a spiritual way of looking at it. Annie Grace is amazing with this naked mind talking about how alcohol works in your brain and what those systems are.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 6:19

There's plenty of resources that are out there on how it goes into your body and how it can really form these intense attachments that that take work to be able to release, and so I don't want to be the one to talk about those things because I am not an expert in that. I want to talk about it from the soul recovery perspective and how we can use the nine step soul recovery process and how I intend to use it for myself to really tackle this sweets and sugar addiction that I have. So that's what I want to work with and walk you through today. I also want to say again, as I say in many of the podcasts, take what you need and leave the rest. If I say something that you're like, well, that's not really how I see addiction or that's not really where I've heard it before. I'm not trying to say that this way that I'm talking about it is the only way and, again, I am no expert in the physiological, psychological part of how it works in our brain. I want to look at it from a spiritual perspective. So just lean in with me and let's talk about it from that spiritual perspective. Are you ready to step into your soul recovery? Visit the website recoveryoursoulnet to learn more about the nine step soul recovery process. I hope that you'll join us the first Monday of every month for the free soul recovery support group on zoom, where we learn more about soul recovery and connect with each other. If you'd like to work directly with me to move through the nine-step soul recovery process, I'm here for you, but you can also choose to work the steps on your own, with individual modules intended to support you to work at your own pace and on your own time. And if you want even more soul recovery, join us for the Recover your Soul bonus podcast for Patreon members and Apple podcast subscribers, where I interview amazing people sharing soul recovery tips for us and also do spiritual book studies. You can also find daily inspiration on Facebook and Instagram and join our private Facebook community. Visit the website for more information, links and registration for everything.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 8:26

Back to the episode, what I think about addiction and when I look at it outside of this, this traditional realm, and I look at it from the spiritual end, which it is a protector, and it seems strange to say that it's a protector, but it's really protecting us from discomfort. So if you think about let's go with food, for example, which a lot of people have food addictions, not just sugar, but like food addictions. When you're younger and you have a lot of things in your life that are either complicated or painful or needs that aren't being met, there is food. So it's an immediate, immediate way to get something that feels comforting, that feels like you have control over it. A lot of people who were out of control in other places in their lives they found food is the place where they could control. And it's interesting, just as a caveat, that this is also where sometimes withdrawal from food happens.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 10:36

When I was anorexic in high school, I was specifically anorexic that I can remember these feelings, which was I felt very out of control about my home life with my dad and my stepmom and my stepbrother, about my home life with my dad and my stepmom and my stepbrother, and when I went to their house it was very painful for me and I didn't eat while I was there and that was my way of handling the stress from that, and then I would come back home and then I would get a lot of praise for being thinner and it actually became a control mechanism. So it wasn't necessarily for reasons that one might think, but when I got to the place where I understood what it was, luckily when I was around 16 or 17 years old, I was able to handle that part and say, oh, this is actually a pain response. This is a mechanism for how I can handle my pain, and so it makes sense that when I turned 21 and I really started drinking in earnest, it was again this ability to deal with the discomfort. And when you're scrolling on your phone or you're shopping or you're doing something, there's a dopamine hit that comes. That is a soothing comfort. So here we are.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 11:53

We've been given food as kids and drugs and alcohol in our teen and growing up years and as adults, and now we have all these other mechanisms that really keep us protected and they're keeping us from really handling or dealing with the very chaotic, very complicated world that's around us. There is more and more and more stimulation all the time, and it feels more and more overwhelming and unmanageable and out of control. So of course we're going to look for something to give us some sort of hit of how we can feel better. And so I think that's the piece to really understand. Is that the quote unquote addiction or our compulsive habit isn't weakness. It's really about a longing. It's an aching for something that's lost or maybe even was never given. And soul recovery isn't about fighting that. It's about listening to it, honoring it and transforming it. It's about using the process to really touch in with yourself and understand more about yourself.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 13:01

And I have this strong knowing, as I continue to heal my full body, mind and soul through my soul recovery work, that I want to be the best self that I can be. I want to be healthy, not for anybody else, but for me, because if I'm going to be here for a while longer, I certainly don't want to have the level of aches and pains that I have in my body that I know that right now. The level of sugar that I'm consuming is only adding to that, because when I do make that choice in my life to eat healthier, 90% of this incredible inflammation and pain that I have in my arthritis and in my bones gets better. So don't I deserve that for myself? So it's a process of really meeting yourself with compassion and clarity, and each step that we do in soul recovery is really a gentle guide to turn within and to remember our wholeness that's always been there within us. This is what we're calling for.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 14:10

So I'm going to walk through the nine step soul recovery process as if you're using it to be able to look at some sort of behavior or some sort of habit or some sort of compulsion, or maybe an addiction. However you're seeing it, to use it as a tool to begin to turn within and to ask yourself some questions that will help you to want to move into a more healed state. I also would recommend that, if you are in a situation like I was, when I was trying to quit drinking, I couldn't have done it without 12 step Walking into those rooms and having other people give me information and literally just having to show up somewhere every day and say guess what I didn't drink today was imperative for my healing. So this isn't to take the place of if you feel called to go into some sort of a program. My hope is that it is an addition to and if you're dealing with something that you wouldn't label as an addiction but you know no longer serves you, this might be a great place to start.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 15:18

So step one in soul recovery is ready for awakening, and this is the place where we say to ourselves I am ready for healing. This is where it begins. You recognize, you recognize, you see with clarity in your life that this behavior, this addiction, this habit, however it's showing up, is costing you something that is something that you don't like. Maybe it's your peace, maybe it's your vitality, maybe it's being your authentic whole self, your most healed self, and you don't minimize it right. You really look at it for what is and you stop thinking you're the exception. I love that from one of the books that I was reading and now I'm not going to remember what it was that said that oh, I think it was the Mel Robbins book that we all think that we're the exception, right. Like, oh, it's okay that other people might die from heart disease or you know, whatever it is, but not me, because I'm good. We're actually looking at whatever our situation is and we're seeing that it is harming us today.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 16:26

If I continue to not choose to eat cleanly and healthily, I will have physical effects down the road that I don't want. There's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it, right? So are you willing to look at what you've been avoiding? Are you ready to choose yourself? Are you ready to stop judging yourself as failing and say, okay, this isn't about failing, this is about grace and asking yourself am I ready to do something about it? Because the number one strength that you can have in your spiritual journey is to make a choice and a decision to do something different. If you think about it, a belief is just a continued choice. So I can continue to believe something that isn't going to be good for me and make that choice, or I can make a solid decision and choice for what is going to benefit me and who I know I want to be.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 17:29

When I was drinking, I think about how it definitely moved from a choice of I'm going to have fun or I'm going to check out, or you know. There was definitely plenty of times that really were legitimately fun and then plenty of times that were legitimately awful and I'm continuing to take in this substance that I can feel is a poison. I can feel it. It was like drinking rubbing alcohol by the time I got to the end of my addiction and I would tell myself I wasn't going to drink and then I would be drinking, but the minute I walked into the AA room on February 10th 2018, it's going to make me cry. I made a decision to save my life and I may tell myself that sugar is not as bad as alcohol and on some level that might be true, but on another level, it's the same, because if I am going to save my soul, if I'm going to save who I am at the depth of my being, I have to make as strong of a decision to take care of myself, to love myself enough to make choices that are going to give me the most longevity they're going to give me the most health. They're going to allow my body to work its magic.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 18:58

Our bodies are magic and so when you think about how everything works within our bodies and how our systems are, the more that we don't have constant dopamine hits in scroll, scroll, scroll scrolling or shopping, or, you know, just numbing watching shows that are giving us all this information. Or eating, food or porn or drugs and alcohol or whatever it is. You're actually inviting balance and restoring your system to live in its most harmonious state, and you deserve that. So to make a decision is the strongest choice that you can make and that's what Ready for Awakening is is to make a decision for yourself. It's a sacred moment where you awaken from the spell of your self abandonment and tell yourself enough, enough, I am not going to live like this anymore. I deserve more, you deserve more.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 19:59

And then you move into step two, which is letting go of control, which is founded on step one in AA, which is admit that you're powerless over the addiction. So, in soul recovery speak, we are seeing that we can surrender to the illusion that we can manage this through just our willpower, manage this through just our willpower. Right that we begin to really see that we are indeed powerless over whatever that compulsion or that sugar craving or the scrolling or the shopping, or you allow yourself to really see what it is doing to you, that it is making the decision for you instead of you making the choice about it, that it is a compulsive behavior. So one of the things I think about when I'm looking at how I want to change my life right now, when I finish eating, maybe I'll eat like a really clean, beautiful salad, right, totally so delicious, so good. And almost immediately afterwards I get this hit that's like oh, you got some dessert, you got some chocolate somewhere, you got a cookie somewhere. Did you get any ice cream, rachel? Right, like it is so intense.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 21:19

And yet, if I just sit with it, and yet if I just sit with it, if I just sit with it and I allow myself to say I'm powerless over this intense craving that my body has. My gut now has all this mitochondria or whatever it's called in there that might even be the right word whatever the gut juice is that has little bugs and beings in there that are hungry for sugar, and I'm powerless over the fact that that's its response, but I'm not powerless over whether I compulsively go to it and when I make the choice and admit that I'm powerless over the substance, right Like I will never drink alcohol again because I know for a fact, after 48 years of experimenting with it, that as soon as I have alcohol, my body wants more. And the truth is, if I cannot play into the sugar craving after a meal, it actually goes away quickly, if I'm honest. But if I play into it and I go and I go, I'm just going to have a cookie, five cookies later. I've played into the part that I'm actually powerless over it because it's feeding me, it's telling me what to do. Now I'm in my compulsive behavior. Or if you get on your phone and you're like I'm just going to check my Facebook for a second, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna check my Facebook for a second, you know, I'm just gonna couple couple posts and half an hour later you have just dove in and lost yourself in it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 22:54

This is that place where we're looking at that we're powerless. What is the fantasy that we have that we can control it, when it is actually controlling you and what is it trying to soothe? That's the part that's so interesting when we look at it from the two sides. What's the biological, physical hit? That is it calling for us? And then there's this other side where it's saying I'm trying to get something that I need. Is it covering pain? Is it trying to soothe in some way? What is it doing? What is this that we are powerless over? And what is it saying to us? You can quit blaming yourself or thinking that you're not, you know, strong enough or that there's something wrong with you. You can just recognize that this is an actual truth, that you're powerless over how this affects you, how this hits you, and that that in itself is so freeing.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 23:58

Because when I truly admitted that I was powerless over drinking and I decided I'm never going to drink again, then it quit taunting me Now with sugar. I watch myself go back and forth between the part that says I'm going to do absolutely no sugar, I'm going to go hard in. For the rest of my life, no sugar, and the part of me is like, oh really, are you going to? Can you just cut back? And I can feel that powerlessness. Can you just cut back? And I can feel that powerlessness and I'm going to have to work on that. I can't give you an answer right now. But what I do know is I want to feel better and I'm going to make a substantial shift and change in what I'm ingesting into my body and I'm making that commitment right. I no longer want to fight this. I want to ask spirit to work with me, to help me, to guide me. I want to hand over and surrender to it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 24:51

Step three in soul recovery is discover beliefs, patterns and stories, and here's where we explore the wounds and the false beliefs that our addiction is really trying to numb or hide. When I am in a not great place and I'm having habitual sugar. It is definitely a checkout, it is absolutely a checkout mechanism, and it's interesting to watch myself do that when I feel like I'm so awake in so many other areas. I recently went to a baby shower that was really sweet and it was a tea party, and so they had those beautiful three tiers with the little tiny little sandwiches and then scones and sweets on the top, and I overate sweets. I watched myself compulsively overeat the sweets that were available, as if it had been an open bar of wine, and that was a fascinating thing to look at myself right. So that is a pattern.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 25:55

And what is that pattern? And it's that something, that it's trying to give me something. It's a false hit. You know the thing about all of these behaviors or things that we do, or shopping it's all falsely giving us the thing that we really want in our life. It's an empty promise. For two seconds the dessert is delicious, and then, as I was driving home, I was so full and I felt so yucky and over sugared. I knew that it wasn't good for me. And isn't that interesting, like we do this thing that we know isn't good for us. So in this one we're looking at what is the pattern? You know, it's not random to have these compulsions or these addictions or these habits. It's rooted in survival. The protection mechanism is so profound and we begin to unearth the stories that are driving the behavior. It's like am I not good enough? Is that what's really underneath, that I have to behave a certain way, or I have to look a certain way, or that food's the only thing that can comfort me, or sugar's, you know my special sweet treat. This is something I can control, or this is mine. This is how I take care of myself, or I'm just doing it because everyone else like what are the stories? What are the deep down stories For me, one of the things that I recognize in sugar addiction for myself is that I didn't have a lot of sugar when I was growing up because we were hippies and we didn't have very much money and my mom was really trying to be health conscious as well, and so one of her stories that she tells us that when I was like three or four years old, we went to someone's house that had white sugar and white flour and I had never seen white sugar or white flour before.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 27:46

And sweet treats for me were that we would go to the health food store and get pressed carrot juice and that was like the sweetest treat that I could have. And by the time I got older and discovered candy, it was almost like this compulsive. It was almost like this compulsive. I wanted it because I couldn't have it. And I wonder if that has a piece of that, like the story that I tell myself that there's some younger part of myself that that wants for that. It actually is. I'm thinking about it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 28:18

It's very similar to to clothing. I didn't have very much clothes growing up, and so when I got to the place where I could start to buy my own clothes. I always wanted to make sure that I had lots to choose from. Same with food in my house. I grew up with some food insecurity Not that my parents would actually say that that's what they think that we had, but as a little girl I remember that there was not much to choose from, and so at my house my pantries are full. So when you look at those behaviors if I'm living from those behaviors of that like compulsion, like I've got to get another piece of clothes or I've got to make sure my refrigerator is packed or I've got to have sweets on hand, that's not a healthy way of being. That's actually the fear, that's the protection of survival. And those are the parts that we're looking at.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 29:10

And again, in soul recovery, it's not judgment, we're looking at them from compassion and grace. But to be able to see where those come from gives us the ability to step more further into the process. So then we move to step four, which is open to co-creating with a higher power or spirit or God, or whatever you want to call it. This is where you invite your higher power as a loving co-creator into your own healing. And it's not about fixing, it's a partnership right, we're not having them fix it for us or that there's something wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with us. We're just being able to see it from a new way. We're recognizing how we're using this protection mechanism in a way that no longer serves us. Maybe it never served us, but at this point it definitely doesn't serve us and we want to be healed. We want to be whole. We want to be our fullest, most authentic, healed, happy, whole selves.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 30:12

When you work with your higher power and partnership, you recognize that you've been trying to do it by yourself. You know a lot of pain comes from the belief that you're all alone. I had somebody the other day say you come in alone and you die alone and I said I don't believe that. I think we come in with source and God and spirit and higher power surrounding us, higher consciousness, and it is with us the entire time and with us when we leave, wherever we may go. I don't think we're ever alone, but when you're alone and you feel alone, it becomes easier to habitually move into unhealthy behaviors, unhealthy ways of treating your body, and we want to be treating ourselves well.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 31:01

So when you're connected to your higher power, you recognize that you're always being held, you're always being offered guidance and love and support, and you don't have to force through anything. You can just open and ask for help. Spirit, help me see myself with love, help me make different choices, help me feel what I need, to feel safely. And when I do this, when I step into that place and I know that I'm being called to eat a different way, it's because that love, that wholeness, that part of me that wants to fully embrace everything so well, wants to be able to not have pain, wants to have a body that works well, that feels good, and that is the number one thing. And I don't have to do it alone.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 31:55

So then, in step five in soul recovery, we are releasing the patterns that don't serve us. Here's where you bless what you are letting go of. We're not rejecting it, we're not judging it, we're not saying that we did something wrong, we're not condemning ourselves. You don't shame your addiction In a way you want to thank it in my life, where I was in my drinking and my life was so painful and so difficult that those moments where I could be checked out saved my life, and I think that that's sometimes a hard concept for people to understand, because there's always this opportunity for people to step into their authentic and awakened and whole selves. But we also can't possibly understand where people are in terms of their own healing journey and the pain that they feel within themselves.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 32:55

So to release patterns and stories that no longer serve us isn't easy. You have to actually have a level of compassion and courage and a willingness to step fully into an entirely new way of being. Part of that is to thank the protectors, the ways that we saw the world, because that's what kept us safe at whatever time it was. Because that's what kept us safe at whatever time it was and we've talked about this a lot in codependency, healing from our people, pleasing and control addiction. Now we're looking at it in something that we might be doing as a behavior or as a drugs and alcohol, putting it into our body and how it's affecting us. Can we thank it for the protection that it offered us when we didn't have different tools? Now we're going to give ourselves different tools and now we just love it. Love it and release it. See that it felt like the only way maybe to get something that you needed or wanted.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 34:02

When I'm scrolling sort of just mindlessly scrolling on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or whatever. There's a piece where I recognize that I'm getting the kind of connection when you're in that space where you're hearing people's stories. That's a connection that I long for, and so when I see that that's the part of me longing for connection, I can thank the part of me that's searching for it, and I know that I want to search for it in different ways, that there are other, more healthy ways for me to be able to access that. And the other thing that I think is so important is we give ourselves grace that sometimes it feels like being numb was the best choice, or being checked out, or using these mechanisms to get the reward that we thought that we needed.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 34:58

And what if you're really at this place in your life where you're ready to not be numb, you're ready to feel, you're ready to not be numb, you're ready to feel, you're ready to heal? This is an incredible step of transmutation. This is where your pain becomes your light. This is where your shame becomes your grace. To release what doesn't serve you, to release those beliefs that this is the only way or that there's something wrong with me or I'm not enough or I can't control this to truly just gracefully and openly be willing to let them go, because then we move into step six, which is embracing new beliefs and rewriting your story. I love the nine steps whole recovery process as it has come in to me over the last year and a half. I could not have more gratitude for how it continues to deepen and as I work on the books and have more work with people and I'm doing the modules on the steps on the website, it's like it's blossoming like a beautiful flower right and we get to create a new way of being.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 36:09

We are free to choose and make a decision. We are making a decision to choose a different path. You know why? Because you are given free will and when you co-create with the higher power of your understanding, you're actually being opened up to this unlimited possibility of a life beyond your wildest dreams, that you're being resourced with everything that you need to embrace the truth of who you are to be in a narrative that isn't those old limiting beliefs, but a narrative that's like I'm safe to be in my body, I'm allowed to enjoy life without these behaviors or whatever it is that you're doing. I am safe here, I am happy here. I'm enough Just as I am.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 36:58

I don't need to treat my body this way. I don't need to shop, I don't need to have porn, I don't need to scroll, I don't need to eat sugar, because I'm going to make a choice that benefits me. And I want to be healthy. I want to be whole. As a matter of fact, I am healthy, happy and whole and free. You're claiming it in a new way and you're shifting from I have to fix myself, there's something wrong with me to I am becoming who I am here to be. I'm opening to the fullness of myself and I can be free of these compulsive behaviors. I can be free of it and you start to really recognize that this is the truth of who you are, which is why we move into step seven, aligning with a new perception. You can begin to live from your spiritual truth, not the old programming, not the old fears, not the old beliefs. You're living in your decision to truly step into your authentic self, your whole, healed self.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 38:10

And when I think about that for myself, I want to make food decisions that make my body healthy, that make my body healthy, strong, fit, that give my systems the best ability to do the miraculous work that they do to really allow myself to have all the energy and vitality that I want in my life. And I know that I feel like crap when I overeat sugar in every way. And I know that the truth of who I am, in my new perception, is that I don't want to live like that, nor do I have to. And this is where you begin to notice and have awareness, without the shame, without the blame, without the feeling guilty. So, instead of being in the place where you recognize, maybe you're starting to scroll or you're noticing that you're on Amazon again, you know, or you're back into having sugar, what you know, whatever those things are. Maybe you're doing something like drinking, maybe you're looking at like drinking, maybe you're looking at, wow, like I'm having another glass of wine.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 39:25

We're having an awareness of what the trigger is and we're having a compassionate dialogue within ourselves. This is where I talk to myself, and I do it all the time. I'm constantly having these lovely conversations with myself inside, because I used to have really critical conversations with myself inside and now I've made friends with myself and I love myself. So I'll have an awareness. I'll be like oh really, what's that about. Okay, so you're having the powerless over a sugar craving, but you're wanting to lean into it. Is there something else going on? Yeah, well, I'm actually feeling kind of bored and lonely right now. Oh, okay, you're feeling bored and lonely, so what else could you do right now to take care of that? Well, I could call a friend or I could go for a walk, or yeah, that'd be a really good idea.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 40:18

You're recognizing that you can live within your own boundaries, that you're setting for yourself, that support your healing, and you live more from your higher self and not from your survival self. In this step You're aligning with your new perception. Perception is how we are seeing the world from a new lens, and when you see yourself from the lens of healed, loving, beautiful, wonderful wholeness, it becomes harder and harder and harder to want to make choices that are harmful to you, regardless of what those are. And that that is the entire gift of living in a spiritual. That is the entire gift of living in a spiritual, whole, happy space where we're choosing for ourself because we love ourself enough to make choices that align with the truth of who we are and who we are showing up to be in our lives today.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 41:17

So step eight is deepening your spiritual practice day. So step eight is deepening your spiritual practice, and this is where you begin to truly create rituals and rhythms that nourish your soul, instead of the compulsive behavior, addiction. This is where you are nourishing your wholeness, instead of those old behaviors. This is where you place right and I think this is such a foundational part of 12-step as well, which is 12-step is a spiritual journey. The end of 12-step is having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 41:50

Right, you are replacing what seemed like the solution with a new solution, and this new solution is a connection to the higher power of your understanding, and the new solution is a connection to your whole being, to your wholeness, to the beauty of who you are, and you don't, you know, demean or or judge yourself about whatever these behaviors or habits are. You love yourself. You fill it with light, with love, compassion. We're just filling, flooding ourselves with this tenderness, with this kindness, with this. Of course this was the way that I thought that I could get what I needed, or, of course, this was the most soothing thing. But now I have better tools, now I see myself more, and when you deepen your spiritual practice. You're replacing those mechanisms.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 42:48

So maybe you're doing more morning meditation to connect with source. Maybe you're journaling or praying instead of scrolling on your phone, right, maybe you're using movement or meditation instead of ingesting something that will, you think, give you some sort of reaction where I know for me, my favorite place to be is in meditation. That is where I feel the most aligned with myself and everything. And it's funny because then you go out in the world and you leave the meditation and then that's where we get our triggers and then that's where some of those compulsions come to try to manage or soothe those triggers. But the more that I do this work, the more I want to actually just meditate or pray instead. You're choosing community instead of isolation. You're finding like-minded people. So if you are working on sugar, like I am, I'm certainly not going to go hang out at a patisserie. I'm not going to go have coffee with somebody someplace where there's an entire case filled with delicious treats. I'm going to ask someone to meet me in a place where it's going to be better. It's like alcoholics. Don't go hang out in bars. That much, right.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 44:02

So you become someone who honors your nervous system, your intuition, your energy fields, your co-creating and connecting with your higher power more deeply, more readily, as the choice, the decision of how to be in your daily life. And then step nine is shine your light. And this is where you're sharing your yourself, your journey, your authenticity, your compassion, knowing that just being a light in the world does reflect out and could possibly help others. We're not here to fix or change or save anyone, but the more that we put our energy on ourself, the more that we actually are healthy and free body, mind, soul the more we actually radiate light and energy in a frequency that is positive and beneficial that will affect change in the world around us. And you don't have to be completely healed or perfect to shine or to help others. This isn't about some sort of perfection. This is about you authentically living in your best self and letting that light shine just so beautifully.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 45:21

You know, one of the things I think about is I don't go around and tell people that no one should drink or no one should have sugar, or no one should be on their phones, or you know that's that judgment. But the more that I am in this space that I am so grateful for, so so grateful for everything in my life seems to shake out and be easier, that there's more depth of connection with people, that my family has had such a healing, that my relationship with my husband is so much better, that I have friends that resonate with what is going on with me and we all shine our light for each other. It's not that we're, it's not that we're doing this to make them be better. We're doing this because we deserve to be better. But when we shine our light, we give others inspiration and hope that they too can make that choice, especially especially when we do it with humility and grace and compassion and forgiveness and we're just allowing others to be in their experience and seeing. Yeah, that's hard. That person's making those choices, but we're not condemning and you walk in the light, not because you're trying to make anyone else be a certain way, but because you are. You are the light. You are the light. That is the truth of who you are and this is really.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 46:53

I love this because this process the nine steps soul recovery process, recovery process gives us tools to do the big picture walk, but it also is a spiral of how to be in the world that we can just keep coming back and back and back and back, because every day I have an opportunity to look at how can I deepen my healing, how can I come more fully into my full, authentic, healed, incredible self? How can I use these tools, these principles, this process to understand more about myself? And stuff comes up. Every single day something comes up. There is absolutely more work to be done. More will be revealed, as they say, in 12-step, so I can come back to am I using something in an unhealthy way? Am I ready for awakening? Am I ready to admit that I'm suffering and something needs to change? And that process. Then I go back into the process. So Rich keeps teasing me and saying so, are we doing the sugar thing? And I keep saying I'm getting really close. I'm getting really close and I'm getting closer and closer to making a very drastic change in what's happening with it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 48:06

But I want my mind to be right. I don't want to do it from a place of reactivity and I don't want to do in a place that's around pleasing him, because I want this to be a lifelong change and not just something that I do for 30 days. I want it to be like it is for drinking for me. I want this to be a true shift in how I treat food in my body, so that my body, mind, spirit, all of my being is as healthy and full as it can be.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 48:38

So I encourage you to take a look at what is a behavior or a. Maybe it's a substance, or maybe it's something that you're doing that maybe you didn't even realize. Scrolling or shopping, what is something that you're using in your life right now that is a protection that isn't serving you, that you want to be able to step more into a healed self and allow this to be one more level of your soul recovery. That is, giving you information about how you can transform and transmute those habitual patterns and fully embrace the wholeness and the beauty of who you are. For any of you who are interested in joining me on this journey, I'm going to set up maybe a challenge or a support for us to see what are these behaviors that we're looking at in our own lives and be able to talk about them on the Facebook group, the Private Recover your Soul Facebook group, which you are all welcome to join. So meet me over there and let's do this together, because together we can do the work that will recover your soul. Until next time, namaste.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 49:55

Thank you for listening and I hope that that helps support your soul recovery process. Just a reminder that every Friday is the Recover your Soul bonus podcast. This podcast is for Patreon members and Apple podcast subscribers, and not only do you get an incredible interview or book study that comes with being part of that community, but your subscribing helps support this podcast and the Recover your Soul community. If you want to listen to those bonus episodes but can't subscribe right now, do know that you can be a free Patreon member and have access for limited time to new episodes. Visit the website RecoverYourSoulnet or check out the show links below for coupons and information for upcoming events. I thank you for sharing this podcast with your friends and family. I thank you for giving it five stars, and the reviews that are left bring tears to my eyes. I am honored to be part of your life. Together we can do the work that will recover your soul.