Acceptance and gratitude through routine and structure
How do we step into the journey of acceptance and gratitude?
How do we let go of the damage and negative imprints of the past?
Because our feelings ARE dictated from past experiences and resultant behaviours.
My own experience has shown me that the journey has to be logical and planned.
However, we are attuned as spiritual beings to believe that the solution to emotional stability exists in the emotional.
Yet, my learning and observation from thousands of other alcoholics and addicts has shown me otherwise.
As much as it may annoy, the solution firmly sits in structure and discipline.
It is a mathematical equation.
And for those of us who would rather wallow in the comfort of regret and remorse, the mere suggestion that we have to be disciplined sends shivers down our spine.
Yet shiver we must, as the shivers form the steel rod that stiffens the spine.
The shivers gives us the resolve to face another day.
Come what may.
And when we face each day with resolve, we realize via daily repetition that our attitude dictates the day we experience, not what the day delivers.
In many ways we control our destiny by how we perceive and react to stimulus from people, places and things.
It comes down to freedom of choice.
Aren’t we funny creatures?
Human beings will accept the rigor and recovery of a physical ailment.
We will spend six months in a gym and a pool to strengthen a shoulder after a reconstruction, but push back on a recovery for the mental or emotional.
We will work a fifty hour week, week in week out, year in year out, just to receive a promotion that gives us more money but longer obligation.
Yes, our Western system is given to tedium and structure but when we apply the same discipline to anxiety or addiction, or plain old melancholy, we revolt.
Why?
Do we see it as a sign of weakness or are we geared to believe that the solution has to be thought out, or delivered on a platter by God?
A Northern Thai Buddhist monk will spend three years meditating in a jungle cave before he receives the peace and purity to take his message to the people.
And when these monks come back to the people they know that people need food, water, work and shelter to be happy.
And when people lead an ordered, safe life with a fully belly they are more likely to turn to the spiritual for further support and serenity.
The solution is in the simple not the mystical.
We need daily order, not a book case full of self help books, to live a life of meaning and passion.
We need to accept simplicity before we can go to the Master.
I have a firm belief in a divine being.
I have an intimate relationship with my Catholic boyhood God, but our relationship did not blossom until I finally accepted the rigour of a healthy day.
Daily rituals.
- Nightly meditation
- Sleep
- Morning prayer
- Good food
- Lots of clean water
- No alcohol (it’s a poison)
- Daily stretching and exercise
- Family and community
- Work with passion
And when I have a fully belly and I am rested and hydrated, my morning meditation and prayer works.
And when my prayer and meditation kicks in, I am ready to face the day with a measure of calm resolve.
And when I sit in calm resolve, I am much more loveable and likeable, and guess what?
I think of others.
So, when I am thinking of others I am not sitting in self and I become a friendly and useful human being.
And lo and behold, my family and friends like me even more.
It’s a daily miracle!
Acceptance and gratitude through routine and structure.
Who would have thought?!
Need to read more?
Here is an excerpt from One Day One Life:P. 10-16. One Day One Life
