Addiction Recovery & Continuing Care Network

Recovery with the Medicine Wheel

The Medicine Wheel is a profound healing model for addictions of all sorts. The wheel will especially help those who are having difficulty with connecting with 12 Steps or are long time sober and are ready to actually go beyond sobriety.

Tags: medicine, recovery, wheel

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Cameron on March 13, 2011 at 1:28pm

I have found this to be a useful tool. I don't tend to use it in my every day life, but every time I dip into its many versions I get something out it. Very thought-provoking. While in treatment at Top of the World Ranch I had the opportunity to experience a snow labyrinth created by one of the PA's, Mike (thank you Mike, you are a treasure). At first, I didn't get it. Thought to myself, "Why the hell am I walking around in circles here? This is pointless." But, as I walked, it really did come to me how much the labyrinth was a metaphor for life. We walk, alone (because you must walk single file on the path), but with others before you, or coming after you. It is a long journey, but you can choose to jump the paths and get out of the circle. There are many corners to turn that sometimes take you back to where you think you've been, and that you are getting nowhere, but then you find you had to be there to go forward. I thought of the corners as changes in my life. Eventually, you reach the middle where there is an opportunity to reflect upon the four corners of the medicine wheel. There is peace in the middle, and there is no pressure to keep going forward. I thought of this as being centred in myself.

So, yeah, a medicine wheel, I've found, to be a great tool if you give it a chance and use its messages. Found in many cultures, with many difference interpretations. The circle of life. Hmmmmmm.