Spiritual Healing in Recovery: Listening to Your Inner Voice

Why connecting to spirit matters for sobriety, resilience, and peace.

The Story: “Nancy” and Higher Power

Recently, a friend told me about someone she met who calls her Higher Power “Nancy.” We both laughed—especially me, since I have a sister named Nancy who I’m quite sure isn’t my Higher Power! But later, I thought about how difficult it can be for people to talk about spirituality at all. Even in recovery circles, where Higher Power is a familiar phrase, there’s often hesitation—a feeling of not quite knowing what or who we’re supposed to connect with, or if we’re even doing it “right.”

I love the term Higher Power for exactly that reason. It’s open, inviting, and lets everyone meet their own spiritual support on their own terms.

Me? I’m pretty old school; I call Him God, and sometimes I imagine Him as the wise, caring Father I always wanted. Other times, I picture my Higher Power as a river—the River of Life. I love the feeling that, when I trust and flow with that universal force of love, faith, and trust, life carries me to places I never would have dreamed of. But when I fight the current—when I try to control everything and go against the flow—life gets hard, choppy, and exhausting.

Body, Mind, and Spirit: The Three Sides of Alignment

In Women in the Rooms, we’ve been talking about what it really means to be in alignment — body, mind, and spirit working together. Over the last few weeks, we’ve touched the mind and the body, and this week we went deeper into spirit.

When I think of alignment, I picture it like tuning an instrument. If one string is off, the whole song feels wrong. Harbhajan Singh Yogi put it this way: “Your mind, emotions, and body are instruments, and the way you align and tune them determines how well you play life.”

In recovery, alignment isn’t just a nice idea — it’s what gives us steadiness, peace, and the ability to keep showing up.

Why Is It So Hard to Talk About Spirituality?

I've found that for many people, spirituality can feel loaded—with old wounds, confusion, or memories of being told exactly what to believe. Some of us grew up in strict religious households; some had no spiritual guidance at all. It’s normal to feel awkward or resistant at first.

And science backs my findings up: connecting to something greater than ourselves has real, tangible benefits. It helps us recover faster from setbacks, lowers anxiety, and gives us a stronger sense of purpose.

Dr. Lisa Miller, author of The Spiritual Child, writes: “A strong spiritual foundation is the single best predictor of resilience and thriving across the lifespan—far more than social class, IQ, or genetics.”

Addiction recovery pioneer Craig Nakken explains it like this: “Recovery from addiction is essentially the movement away from dependency on a negative spiritual framework for life and toward the adoption of positive spiritual principles, until these values reshape our lives.”

And Bessel van der Kolk, in The Body Keeps the Score, reminds us: “Connection is the foundation of recovery.” Meaning, belonging, and spiritual connection are as vital as physical sobriety.

Trusting the “River” Within

In recovery, I’ve learned to listen for my own “River of Life” voice—even when it feels quiet or when fear wants to take the wheel. “There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen,” says the poet Rumi. That’s what alignment is: instead of letting my mind spiral into self-doubt, or letting my body hold all the tension, I can pause and drop down to that core place of connection.

This isn’t magic, and it’s not perfect. Sometimes my mind still shouts, or my old beliefs crowd out my inner knowing. But the more I practice, the more I feel steady—like the river is always there below the surface, even when I forget to notice it.

Me and Frisco down by the river

How to Begin: Reflection Practices

If you’re longing to connect more deeply with your own inner guide, here are gentle starting points:

• Set aside a quiet moment. Ask, “What does my spirit need today?” and just listen, without judgment.

  
  

• Notice what brings peace. Pay attention to when you feel calm or “in flow.” Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with?

  
  

• Write to your Higher Power. Address a letter to God, the river, your intuition—whatever feels right—and see what comes up.

  
  

• Practice surrender. When you feel the urge to control, breathe and picture yourself stepping into the river, letting yourself be carried for a while.

You’re Not Alone

If talking about spirituality feels awkward or risky, remember you’re not alone. In the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

In my recovery community, vulnerability is our greatest strength. So many of us carry stories of former disconnection, only to find, with time and gentle practice, that there’s a wise, loving voice inside us, waiting to guide us home.

Closing Invitation

True healing isn’t just about fixing our minds or caring for our bodies. It’s about making space—every day—for that quiet, powerful, loving voice within.

And here’s the truth: so often, that voice gets buried under the stories we tell ourselves — stories that say we’re not enough, that we’re broken, that we have to control everything to be okay.

That’s why I created the Reveal the Story Workshop on September 17th (6–7:30 p.m. ET). 

Together, we’ll uncover the stories that are shaping your life, see which ones are rooted in fear instead of truth, and practice rewriting them into stories of strength, hope, and freedom.

✨ If you’ve ever wondered why you feel stuck, or if your “inner voice” is hard to hear, this workshop will help you clear the noise so you can connect to your true guide — your spirit, your Higher Power, your still, small voice.

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