All in the Mind

 "I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." Mark Twain

The line above has been one of my favorite sayings ever since I got sober in 1991.

Why?  Because it summarizes in a short sentence the addict's dilemma. 

For years I was ruled by my emotions:  mostly frustration and anger.  And the way I overcame those things was to bury them with drugs and alcohol.  And that worked, of course, until it didn't and my life became a trainwreck.

But stop and think about how many catastrophes we've been through in our lives that later turned out to only be our fear-based thinking.  So-called thinking that caused us to make rash decisions based solely upon how we felt at the time.

So, how do we escape these fears and anxieties that cause us to make terrible decisions, feelings that sometimes cause us to think that life is really unbearable?

Well, I've found that one way is to pay attention to our thinking and realize that our thoughts most of the time have little basis in reality - especially when it comes to our fears about what might occur in the future.

Another means of escape is to learn to live in this moment.  And realize that life is a journey and not a destination where we'll find a life that is without problems.

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Repetition

 When one writes a blog about recovery it might seem as if the subject matter becomes somewhat repetitious after a while. After all, this blog has over three thousand three hundred entries - and surely I've covered the same subject a number of times.

But when one stands back and takes a look at it, recovery is a lifestyle that must become repetitious if it's to succeed in the long term.  And even though we talk in 12-step meetings about "one day at a time," if we repeat these sober days one after the other we soon will have a few years - then even decades.

The reality of recovery is that it must be repetitious.  There can be no breaks.  No days off to imbibe our favorite beverage or smoke a joint.  That is, unless we want to start over.

There are times when I have to dig deep to find a topic that is different from the one I wrote about before.  But I've found that it's okay to write about the same thing because staying sober is a daily project for those of us who want to succeed.  And we must repeat the things that have kept us sober thus far.

Does that mean we must attend a 12-step meeting each day?  Not necessarily.  But it does mean that we must stay in touch with who we are.  By that, I mean we must stay in touch with our emotions as much as possible.  We can't walk around full of anger, or sadness, or depression without eventually addressing it.

And the AA literature has many examples of how we successfully navigate the tough times that everyone experiences at some point or the other. Even if you've read the Big Book 20 times you can always learn something new.So, we keep repeating what has worked.  

And as we do that we find fulfilling lives.

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