12 Tips for Early Recovery
Even the man on the street has often heard of AA’s Twelve Steps. They are the classic maxims of Alcoholics Anonymous and the stop drinking life.
Here are 12 other tidbits to ponder.
You are a winner, no matter what you think, and no matter how bad things look to you now. True beauty and the power of spirit come from within. Although a gem ceases to sparkle when the sun sets, what gives it beauty and value are not lost or changed. Your winning self is in there, in your soul, even if you can’t see it, or don’t
believe it at this moment.
Join in. Socialize. Come to meetings. Shying away from community allows us to stew in our own lone wolf, and possibly distorted, thinking. Living in “solitary confinement” leaves us alone, without anyone to double check our thinking if it is faulty. And flawed thinking can get us into trouble. The support of the group can also be super-energizing and empowering.
Be a ninja. Be strong. The world (a.k.a life) will present problems, twists and turns. That’s what life does. We must cultivate internal abilities to meet challenges, to flex, to bend, and to stretch as we adapt.
Keep an eye on you yourself, and how you behave. Knowledge of your responses to events will expand your options for dealing with, and possibly avoiding, bad times and hardships in the future.
Share yourself. Seek to be open to expressing your thoughts and feelings. If you clam up, your truest, purest, brightest inner self may not be seen by others. You may have the insight that somebody else needs to turn a difficult corner in his or her life. If you don’t share, they could continue down a dark and hopeless path. Sometimes it can be as simple as sharing a small insight or experience. Sometimes that can be all that is necessary to help another person. Share your gifts.
Get out of your own head, and focus on assisting other folks. The greater your willingness and openness is to giving, the more you will receive, gain, and grow in kind. It’s a paradox, but it’s true. By giving, you will find that you yourself will thrive and grow.
Enjoy each moment. Why? We only have so many. All men eventually face a single outcome, death. If you exist in a world of fear and avoidance, in flight from real life, that would be tremendously sad. You have the ability to choose to focus on living a
life of quality, of joy, and to spend time helping others. It’s all a matter of choice.
Learn from tough times. Some people talk up the belief that all hardship, suffering and pain can make us stronger. Huh? How could this be true? Because harsh experiences have within them lessons we can learn from (if we are paying attention). If these lessons give us insight, then we can be strengthened and benefit.
Think clearly. What and how you think creates what, how and where your feelings can take you. Clarity and acuity of thought prevent our misguided stumbling down rough, dim or dark paths of feelings.
It is what it is. There’s no use lamenting the past, and past mistakes, or past suffering. What does that accomplish? The past is behind us. Be in this moment now, and look ahead to the future.
Learn what you need to learn. Like any other expertise, recovery has a language and some lessons to be absorbed. Seek your information and answers with keen and sharp focus. Avoid external distractions. At the same time be open always to unsought, unexpected insights and revelations. These may be the answers to the questions of tomorrow you have not yet even formulated.
Show up. Actor Woody Allen is often credited with saying that 90% of success is just showing up. So (duh!), show up. That means show up to meetings. Show up when you meet with your sponsor. Show up when you don’t want to show up. Don’t worry if you think everything you hear at meetings is a crock, or if you don’t understand the information or answers at the deep level you desire. The pieces of the puzzle will eventually all fit together for you. But the first phase of it all, and of living in sober recovery, is to do the showing up part.