Having a comfortable life is important for people who are living in one day at a time recovery. Comfortable life does not mean that we will have all the bells and whistles afforded to those living with upper class incomes. Comfortable living means that we can be content with what we have and that we don’t have to stress ourselves so much that we will become ill or dissatisfied with our lives. It is important that we learn and appreciate this as a gift that our recovery has brought us. Even those of us who have a limited income are capable of finding comfortable living (though it does need to be adequate enough to meet our necessities). Having a comfortable living means we are healthy. It also means that we are reasonable and reasonably happy. And this means we can be happy, joyous, and free. Not perfect but comfortable. Life will have its struggles but we will do well. One day at a time we learn the joy of comfortable living.
People who live in one day at a time recovery from mental health disorders and addiction know that when life gets hard we reach out for help. We do not have to face our struggles alone. The first thing we do is we need to take a breath and recognize we need help. It doesn’t matter how long we have been in recovery, when we need help and we don’t reach out, we can make mistakes. Mistakes make life difficult, and when life gets difficult, we can be resentful. Here is a reality check – resentful people don’t have much gratitude or contentment. It could even lead us into thinking we need a buzz or that we need to get wasted. This alone is a good enough reason to reach out. We need to let go of fear. If we don’t over-tax the good grace of people, most people like to help. Especially when they know we need it. With the help of other people we can do what was too difficult for us to do alone. When life gets hard we reach out. One day at a time.
There is a common delusion many people share which is that we can only be happy when we find Utopia. This is because we believe that Utopia is a place where all of our desires and dreams will be fulfilled. Such a place is the vision of people in bondage. It is the hopes of people in pain. Such is the pain of people living with concurrent disorders. The delusion we share is that we need perfection to be happy not the idea of does Utopia exist. If we believe that Utopia is a state of being, rather than a place to live, we will have moments of Utopian peace. And we can have a lot of serenity, happiness, and joy. It happens one day at a time. This is when we experience freedom from the bondage that active addiction places on us. We can be free from the delusion that happiness is anything other than the happy, joyous, and free lives recovering people live. Our pain is real. We can acknowledge that. When we are reasonable about what Utopia is, which is the freedom for people in bondage, we have the gift of gratitude and the gifts brought to us when we escape our delusions which some call the bondage of self. Thank you for reading.
Can the truth of desperation ever change a person’s heart
With the loss of childhood’s innocence when your soul is torn apart
In frustration of the daily climb born to fall and fall again
When you want to walk and hold the sky but you don’t know how or when
And you often saw the mountain peak for it appeared but ran away
While stars would dance as the clouds would pass while the moon would often say
That we are deaf to vague vague words of love and hope and trust
And we would often hear those God damned words from dust to dust to dust
And our torn and tattered souls will bow as dust to dust begins
And a jester sort of cries a tear and a jester sort of grins
While our souls have found the mountain peaks as they walk and hold the sky
While a jester weeps a happy tear with a soft and grateful sigh
And betwixt our desperation is the greatest gift we’ve found
It’s the silence when we’re torn apart with a calming raging sound
And you know that you’re a child of God from this deep and desperate start
When you feel the gift of gratitude and you have found the human heart
Some people are creative driven people. Often when we seek to create something we are trying to express our feelings and our beliefs. Often we are sharing our values, and our intentions to participate in this journey that we call life. When we create we often can be exposed to a touch of humility. When being a creative person we will understand that life is not a competition. We accept this when we realize that creation is not merely an endeavor to inflate our egos. We understand that creativity is a part of our being. In my case it is a component of one day at a time recovery. Good, bad, or indifferent, creativity helps us all belong. If we step out of our egos we can all identify. Thank you for reading.
When we have been in one day at a time recovery we begin to have new beginnings. I believe I am beginning to not only wake up after a sleep, I am awakened in a new beginning. Grace has made it so. And to some of us this grace, this awakening, is a God thing. These beginnings of new beginnings seem to happen every five to eight years. Sometimes sooner – sometimes longer. These new beginnings change so like the developing seasons of life. The idea is to go with them and to pay attention to the grace that comes with them. These new beginnings do not make us better, smarter, healthier, or more spiritually fit than others. We simply begin to recognize these new beginnings with gratitude. And at these new beginnings we know grace and we know love. When calm and not stressed we see the frailties of the ego and we see the ego does not consume us. We can spend time alone much better than we could before. This is part of the beginning of new beginnings. Not perfection, but new beginnings. We know we are awakened by grace each and every day.
It is important for those who live with concurrent disorders to live life this day. This is the beginning of recovery and one of the main factors in retaining it. This way of life has been a prominent ideal in humanity’s existence for many centuries. We know we cannot live in the past because it keeps us from the gift of this day. We know we cannot live in the future because it also keeps from the gift of this day. The past can keep us living in regret and remorse. Living in the future can cause fear and anxiety. These dimensions of existence need for us to give ourselves, other people, and also institutions, the gift of grace. In doing so maybe we will find the gift of the present moment, and in this moment we will find the gift of this day. We know that we will remember, but perhaps we will find the gift of hope. We know we will worry, but perhaps we will find gift of being at ease. And in this we find the gift of recovery, living in this day, one day at a time.
Those of us who live in one day at a time recovery know about emotional pain. We know we live in great pain being held captive by the bondage of self while in our addiction. In this pain we became alone. Others just didn’t see it. Our smiles, our laughter, our jokes, and perhaps then, our real isolation. The pain of alone. We had to reach out for help. So we did. Then we met the paradox of pain. We began the imperfect journey of life and recovery. We put down the booze, the pot, or whatever. Our treatment plans were constructed with the help of professionals. We stopped bullshitting the doctors and others who wanted to help us. We became responsible again. Some of us found happiness, freedom and joy for the first time. The rest of us found it again. Please reach out. You are worth it.
It is a huge commitment to live in one day at a time recovery from mental health conditions and addiction. Many of us know that it is a worthwhile endeavor. We know this for certain. Some of us start the morning with medication. Then in prayer we ask for help to keep this a clean and sober day. The God thing is important to us because our disorders completely defeated us. We knew we were out of control and we reached out. We remembered the panic and the desperation when we were frustrated and frightened pleading, “God help me!” Today we see that the desperation we experienced was a gift. Today it could be something as simple as, “God help me to stay clean, sober, and healthy today. Help me to stay committed to my recovery.” Some days our morning thoughts bounce all over the place but we ask for help anyways. It helps us realize we all need help. Someone, or something, has got us this far. We know that staying committed to participate in a healthy life is quite a responsibility. With a little help we can do this. We are worth it.
Those of us who have been living in one day at a time recovery, think of other people with gratitude. Those who we learn to trust are simply gifts for us. They can take us out of our problems, or at the very least, be a sounding board. And when we see their faults and flaws, we see that they too, just like us, are human. Should we criticize them, we are probably seeing our own shortcomings. We need remember that faults, flaws, and shortcomings are not failings. They are a part of being a human being. Human beings who are living beings. Beings who are as important to us as the air we breathe. Often when in panic, they calm us, and help us find our breath. And they want nothing in return. These beautiful caring imperfect people do this because they care. We are learning, one day at a time, the gift of other people.