The Five Keys

The Five Keys to freedom and recovery

1. I admit to constructing a “Core Belief System” that does not supported me living through my Artistic Self, my authenticity.

2. I commit to exploring my “Core Belief System” and come to an understanding of the beliefs that support my integrity (sobriety) and living through my Artistic Self and those that do not and are false.

3. I choose to live through those “Core Beliefs” that support my sobriety and living through my Artistic Self

4. I accept and forgive past choices and actions that may have brought harm to others or our self

5. I choose to embrace humanity and support others in their sobriety, their integrity and living through their Artistic Self.

To unlock the treasures of Sobriety and our intrinsic Integrity, we use the Five Keys to open our hearts and transform our minds. To further this journey on the path to self-discovery and heighten awareness, the Five Keys become an important tool to direct our intent and act as a guide through the process. The Five Keys are the steps we take to again awareness and transform our CORE Belief System. Each Key has exercises that correspond to the statements contained within each Key.
Accountability and responsibility are important to the internalization of the Five Keys, the Victim and the Critic are most likely not going to be very happy that you are taking responsibility for your healing and personal growth . The Victim would prefer that you blame other people, places and things for who you are and what you have become, especially your feelings. To begin this journey through the Five Keys, be patient and take accountability and realize that freedom from all our suffering and pain, doubt, shame and fear are possible by implementing this simple process and steps into your life.
Here are the Five Keys and a brief explanation of each. When working with the Five Keys it is important to spend enough time with each so as to grasp and understand how they apply to your CORE. It is recommended that you work with a spiritual advisor, life coach, mentor, sponsor or counselor to help facilitate a deeper level of awareness as you venture through these steps, but it is not necessary. This process can begin and be full and rich when we reach out to others, avoiding the pitfalls of isolation and martyrism.
Finally, the term sobriety means more then the abstinence from the substances, addictions and behaviors that have been used to medicate and feed our addictive minds. The term sobriety in the Five Keys means the integrity of our hearts and minds. Sobriety is a state of being, not something that we do. When we are sober we have an understanding of our Artistic Self, we accept responsibility for our lives, our fulfillment and our freedom.

1. I admit to constructing a “Core Belief System” that does not supported me living through my Artistic Self, my authenticity.

When we enter the first stages of sobriety and recovery, we are looking to create awareness. Nothing can change in our lives, if we are not aware of what needs changing. Thus, the first Key comes into practice. “I admit to constructing a ‘Core Belief System’…is the first part of this key. We have all created a Core Belief System. The Core Belief System is made up of our “beliefs” our “ dreams ” and our “Structure of Goals”. We had help creating this Core Belief System from our family , friends, advisors, teachers, spiritual leaders and communities. For the most part, we took the creation of this Core Belief System for granted. For our healing and recovery, we cannot take the structure and contents of our Core Belief System for granted any more!

When we admit to creating our Core Belief System, with help from others, it gives us the power to change it. Without taking this responsibility, we do not empower ourselves with the ability to change our Core Belief System. Admitting to its existence and our part in its creation is the first element of the this key. This does require that we address the structure and nature of our denial and defense mechanism that prevented us from seeing the distorted temperament of our CORE Belief System.

The second part of first key is that the Core Belief System we created has not supported us living from our Artistic Self or our inherent Authenticity or the intrinsic Spiritual part of our being. We will need a certain level of awareness to understand what our Artistic Self is and how many of our beliefs and goals have not supported us living through this powerful creative force that is at the heart of our being. This is the first and most important step to beginning our road to personal healing and recovery. It requires that we accept responsibility for creating and changing our life and world. We are the only one who has the power and ability to change us. Many have tried, but all have failed unless we were willing to go along with their plans, even so we still needed to agree to make those changes. We always agree to making changes, otherwise we would not change. We may think that we had not choice, but we always do. We may choose between different outcomes or consequences for the choices that we make, but we are still choosing. So begin, take responsibility and embrace your inherent power and choose awareness.

2. I commit to exploring my “Core Belief System” and come to an understanding of the beliefs that support my integrity (sobriety) and living through my Artistic Self and those that do not and are false.

After we have admitted to the creation of the Core Belief System, the next part of our journey toward recovery and freedom is creating a great awareness of the vast library of beliefs, agreements and goals that filled our Core Belief System. Each of us has thousands of agreements, contracts and beliefs, many of which have not support us living a life of sobriety and integrity. We often perpetuated a lifestyle, which left us feeling false and disconnected from our Artistic Self, our authenticity.

The first part of the second key is where “I commit to exploring our Core Belief System.” Here we make a choice to create awareness of the vast series of beliefs and contracts which make up our Core Belief System. It is important to remember that not all the beliefs in our Core Belief System are necessarily false; some may represent our authenticity, our Artistic Self. Learning to identify which “beliefs support my sobriety and living through the Artistic Self and those that do not and are false,” is the second part of this second key.

Many of us do not know or understand which way to turn when identifying the source of our belief system. We have just taken for granted that we have our beliefs. Often we took on the beliefs of others seeking or needing acceptance or because we inherently trusted the source of the information. When we were young we took on the beliefs of our authority figures in our life because we were taught to do so, or we may have felt safe in doing this. Sometimes we may not be certain whether the beliefs and agreements we programmed into our Core Belief System were true or not. We may have had an underlying feeling that what someone was telling us or instilling in us was not true for us, but we went along with it because we thought we were suppose to or because we may have feared what might happen if we didn’t take on the belief or agreement. For some of us, we took on beliefs out of fear. If we took on beliefs out of fear, then we will continue to make decisions and make choices out of fear.

Most importantly, as we begin to identify the source and truth behind our Core Belief System we must not become victimized by it. Our recovery and personal growth depend on taking accountability for “who” and “what” we have become. Our goal is a sense of well-being that comes from living from our own truth. Not being a victim of the past is a vital component of living from our truth, the Artistic Self. Patience is another key component to coming to understand which of Core Beliefs support our recovery and which do not. When working this Key we will make inventories and list of our belief and identify which support our recovery, or sobriety and which support the addictive mind and our falseness.

3. I choose to live through those “Core Beliefs” that support my sobriety and living through my Artistic Self

In the third key, we are making a “choice to live through the ‘Core Beliefs’ that support my sobriety and living through my Artistic Self”. At this point in our journey of sobriety, we are consciously engaging in the second stage of personal growth and recovery, the “ Transformation ” stage. In the second key, we committed to exploring our “Core Belief System” and come to understand which beliefs support our personal growth and which support our falseness and addictions. We made inventories of our beliefs and goals and with willingness and an open heart we identified whether our beliefs supported the Artistic Self.

With this new awareness, we choose to practice the beliefs and goals, which support our sobriety. We embrace and welcome these new beliefs and goals into our “Core Belief System,” and integrate them with those beliefs and goals that we may have abandoned, but did speak from our authenticity, our Artistic Self. Through the domestication process, we choose to abandon some of the beliefs, values and goals that did resonate with our Artistic Self. In this third Key, we will look at what beliefs we may have abandoned or invalidated because they did not fit the life or belief systems that we were expected to live by.

The third key is important to our continued transformation and the goal of living through the Artistic Self. Here we will embrace and practice the beliefs and action steps necessary for our healing and recovery. We will do our best, day to day and moment to moment. Most importantly, we will do our best to remain open, accepting and honest. We will connect to a clear inner drive and motivation when working this Key. We will live true to ourselves and navigate a natural direction or course. There are always a number of paths to take, and to stay true to our path of sobriety we must remain open and listen to world around us, our Artistic Self and learn to trust again. We will choose to be with people that support us living in integrity with the world and ourselves. This may mean that we choose out of relationships that do not speak to or understand the nature of our sobriety and living through the Artistic Self. Often these choices are hard, but vital to our personal growth and well-being.

When we choose live through our truths, we consciously are coming from accountability, taking responsibility for our choices and our actions. We are not playing ‘Victim’ to another person, place or thing. We begin to experience Love, Abundance and Freedom. We find a deeper meaning in the simple things, the little things that often occupy our days. We begin the important process of self-acceptance.

4. I accept and forgive past choices and actions that may have brought harm to others or our self.

In the forth key, we step further into the process of letting go of our past by consciously choosing to “accept and forgive past choices and actions that may have brought harm to others or our self.” For our personal recovery and transformation, we must continually practice the necessary process of forgiveness and acceptance. To do this we complete an accurate and thorough forgiveness and personal inventory.
Our inventories allow us to take complete responsibility and accountability for our past actions and choices. Without this necessary Key, we will flounder in despair of being the Victim and continually blame others for our problems and circumstances. We are and always have been the creators of our destiny, and this important Key will allow us to take ownership for our lives and our recovery. Without ownership there is no recovery, there is no integrity.

Equally, without forgiveness, there is not sustainable state of sobriety or healing. Forgiveness allows us to detach from the past events of our lives and live more fully in the present. We must let go of those who may have brought harm to us. We cannot change what actions another person has done to us, and for that matter, what we have witness happen to other family , friends or colleagues. What we can do is forgive and accept those actions and not perpetuate the memories in a shadow of helplessness and victimization. When we do perpetuate the memories from a place of victimization, we do not allow for healing to take place in ourselves or in others. We must take accountability for healing our wounds through the transformational practice of forgiveness and acceptance. Our sobriety depends on our ability to live in the present and to accept the process of grief and loss that will release us from the past.

Another important component to working this Key is transformation of the voice of the Critic. The Critic is constantly operating from a place of fault and judgment. In sobriety, we do our best not expend our energy criticizing others. This is not sobriety. Foundational to sobriety is accountability, and being on the prowl to find fault or attack others is not working our program of recovery. It becomes part of our defense mechanism when we divert from our program to focus on the problems or struggles of others in a judgmental way.

Most importantly is the practice of self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. When we become able to accept ourselves for who we are, for our past choices we further the process of recovery and the goal of living through our Artistic Self. In addition to the acceptance of our past is acceptance of what our potentiality is. We embrace the miraculous possibilities of what we can become that previously have been limited by a distorted CORE Belief System.

5. I choose to embrace humanity and support others in their sobriety, their integrity and living through their Artistic Self.

The fifth and final key is our true commitment and choice to “embrace humanity.” When we live through our Artistic Self, we embrace and accept all the diverse aspects of humanity, whether we agree with them or not. Accepting the different aspects of humanity does not mean that we support or enable others in behavior or activities that do not support their sobriety, especially if know someone is acting out, we have a responsibility to not enable others as part of our sobriety. We come to understand that we only have control over our choices and our actions, not others. We also have the awareness that accepting or respecting someone who has a different view of the life does not mean that we agree with their beliefs. When we live through the Artistic Self we are able to detach from our view of the world and open ourselves to other people’s perspectives, values and goals. We do not take on other people’s beliefs, but we are able to have and understanding and empathy for how they live and feel.

Embracing humanity requires that we have clear boundaries; we know where we stand, where we begin and where we end, and we also come to know where others begin and end, not projecting ourselves into other people. We live from our authenticity. We are able to support others through honest and open relationships in their personal recovery and living through their Artistic Self. We ask questions when we need clarification. We give straight answers when we are asked. We look for the similarities between people and not focus on the differences. We embrace others through truth, their Artistic Self. We remember that the world is often a mirror, often reflecting back who we are, and what we need.

We represent ourselves with integrity; which means that we are accountable for what we feel, think and act on. We are honest, open and willing to help others if we are asked to. We do not place our matters where they are not wanted and refrain from wanting the world to agree with our beliefs. Again, we respect and present clear boundaries. We embrace life by living through our Artistic Self, and we support others in doing the same. We live life on life’s terms and support others in doing the same.

The Fifth Key is our opportunity to give back all the gifts that come from living a life of sobriety and integrity. We share unconditionally our love and acceptance. We listen to those around us without judgment, but with compassion and objectivity, not personalizing what another person does and thinks. We own our feelings, beliefs and actions. We are living through the heart, with honesty and impeccability.

Author's Bio: 

Paul Stiles Randak is the founder and co-owner of the Institute of Change, a holistic treatment center for substance abuse, chemical dependency and dual diagnosis conditions. Paul has a degree in social work from University of Utah and is currently completing a doctorate in psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Paul has a private Life Coaching and Spirit Counseling practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. You can contact paul@spagyric.org