Many people living in one day at a time recovery have experienced, and will experience, the fearful me. The fearful me is part of our conditioning that happened during past trauma and does happen because of current triggers or stressors. What most of us discover is the fearful me, even after many years of recovery, can still be a part of our life and our recovery. The anxiety we feel is often difficult to deal with but we do our best and often we do deal with it. It’s not always easy but we usually do okay. We all might not be heroes but we do participate in life, and recovery, the best we can. It’s all about the doing and the continuing to do. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery know when it’s raining. It tends to happen when we are not at our best and we are struggling and anxious. When this happens we are probably unhealthy, and we are bit less flexible. We discover we are probably having a hard time adapting to the stressors that are at hand because of this anxiety. Control issues occur at these times. It’s a reality that affects many of us. When we see this we know it is raining. Focusing on a realistic solution can get us out of the rain and when we put a workable solution into action we can become a healthier model of ourselves. Often we need help. Perhaps then we can breathe. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery believe it is a bitter reality when we don’t believe there is a power greater than ourselves that is working in our lives and that can restore us to the sanity often found in recovery. For many of us that sanity is that there is a God and we are not him, her or it. In our real reality we find that many of us were actually prodigal children who thoughtlessly spent our lives with no concern for anyone but ourselves. We bottomed out and we bottomed out and in the spirit of desperation we reached out, like many prodigal children do, and pleaded, “God help me!” Our reality is this God did and will continue help. We just have to become sane enough to believe. Peace.
What many of us living in one day at a time recovery eventually come to understand is that we are nothing more than humble addicts. It’s our inner-most reality whether we are living in recovery or not. It is our reality when we admit to our brokenness and we reach out for help. It’s the foolish ones among us who think that we can be spiritually fit enough to be preachers or gurus. Even those among us who believe that all recovering people are inextricably connected with each other, and that it is grace alone that has brought us into recovery. What we discover is it is the gift of desperation that brings us together even though it might take us many years to really understand. When we understand this, we understand grace. It’s our humble reality. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery know the reality of focusing on the task at hand or, living in the present moment. Such action can be a tool to help us deal with anxiety based on future events. Some of us call it an important part of living one day at a time. Doing what is right in front of us not only helps us by occupying our minds but it might be taking care of what needs to be taken care of for the future. This is the reality of one step, or one action, leading into another causing a progression of actions helping the next step to be done. If this cannot be done, living in the present moment by focusing on the task at hand is at the very least a distraction. Most of the time it works. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery live our lives speckled with tiny bits of mirth. We have experienced this gift in the humorous realities shared and told of within the rooms of recovery. Laughter is a reality. If life and living in one day at a time recovery were a play we might call some of our stories comic relief. We need this. Our recovery depends on it. With this we get to understand we appreciate that we don’t have to be a glum lot who are forever serious constantly struggling in adversity and hardship. We are meant to be free. We are meant to laugh. And we are meant to feel joy. Peace.
Some people who have lived in one day at a time recovery for a fairly substantial amount of time know the reality of having found ourselves. What we discover after finding ourselves is that both recovery and the reality of finding ourselves are gifts. They were done to us through the reality of grace from God, the spirit or the universe, one day at a time, day after day, in the realities of present spiritual awakenings. It only happens when it happens, and we come to understand we are no more or no less than any other person especially in regards to spiritual wisdom or fitness. The sad thing is losing our innocence is the price we pay in finding ourselves and living our lives as people who understand the meaning of living life one day at a time. At times it is a truly humbling and difficult endeavor which most of us will discover happens without our knowledge or our permission. It’s the really real and its darkness eats a hole in our souls. Acceptance is our only deliverer. It brings us much joy and much freedom. Peace.
Most of us living in one day at a time recovery know what it is like to be tangled amongst the reeds of emptiness. Our reality is another busy, gray, or melancholic day becomes real, and in our reality we want to throw in the towel in order to escape the reeds. Often we do so by prioritizing our responsibilities and very often our priority is for us to do something we enjoy because we are capable of understanding that being tangled amongst the reeds can be an empty lonely place. We need not to construct a home in the reeds. What some of us discover is when we let go of our emptiness by prioritizing our responsibilities, we find our way out of the reeds. If such self-efforts don’t untangle us, we reach out for help. We need not face these days alone. This is what coffee shops, kitchen tables, mentors and counsellors’ offices are for. It’s the brave thing to do. Peace.
Some people living in one day at a time recovery spend much time writing, talking, and doing, while trying to prove that they are worthy of the title worthwhile productive human beings who are in all reality worthy of being, and deserve the realities of love and belonging. This is especially true of those of us who lack the reality of financially beneficial marketable skills. In others words disabled enough to the degree that we cannot maintain gainful employment. Such a condition in and of itself can cause enough anxiety that we can become opposed to the opinions and suggestions of others even though we might benefit from their experience. Life can become an extremely difficult endeavor when we cannot listen, and not being able to listen is disabling in itself. With a bit of humility we get to understand opposing views are not always wrong. It’s reality. Peace.
What many people living in one day at a time recovery come to understand is that when we grow in recovery we are actually stumbling to our feet. As we stumble to our feet we are not only seeing our wayward excursions or our self-centered survival beliefs, we see the reality of our faith. Such faith is as individuals we have stumbled and risen many times not only in active addiction but during our one day at a time recovery as well. This is what life is all about. Not only in our stumbling but in our stumbling so badly that we rise to our feet. This becomes the reality of our growth one day at a time. As Richard Rohr would say – we have fallen upward. Hang on and experience the growth and watch the joy begin. Not only in ourselves but in everyone else as well. It’s a continuing journey. Peace.