Hello Everyone,
This week we read up to pg 153 The Three Elements of Samadhi so we'll begin there next week. We discussed Step Seven as letting go and the Antidotes to the 5 Hindrances.
kevin said "Step Seven may be the crux of the whole recovery process....it embodies what recovery is all about, letting go." p150
He also said that letting go isn't really a passive activity... it's an intensely engaged, challenging and energetic act." p149
How do you feel about letting go as an energetic act? Can you relate to this in your own recovery?
I know for me that the process of letting go required me to do quite a lot of things...I only let go of my using by going to rehab and a halfway house...I only let go of my misery by working the twelve steps and going to a lot of meetings and working with a sponsor and doing prayer and meditation and service...yes, a lot of activity. There was and is nothing passive about my "letting go" of my disease or my behaviors. It is a continual process and one that I need to stay actively engaged in or old negative thinking can creep back in.
What about you?
Before program, I was using. I let go of my substances of choice, and I took my time before taking step 7. I have never been a fan of creditors charging me unfairly, or of cutting off services, whether I neglected to pay them on time or not. Early in my recovery, I was paying all of my utility bills on time, and my electricity went out. I was enraged at my power company, even more so of this happening in recovery, after I had paid the bill! I called them and had a self-righteous fit. But, at the end of the day,, when I reviewed myself, I realized that I was having dry drunk behavior. I did not even have the name of the poor customer service person who had been the object of my wrath.. I turned it over to my sponsor first, and became willing to have that defect of character removed, along with all of the others. Honestly, it comes back some times; I feel it growing when I am wronged. But at least today, I have a grip on it, recognize it early, and manage myself in such a way that I rarely have to make amends. When I do need to make them, I do it promptly before the day is over.