OUR PAST IS AN ASSET

August 10, from “Strengthening My Recovery” daily reader

“Our experience tells us that our past can be our greatest asset if we are willing to ask for help and do the work to find out what happened.” BRB p. 153

“We sometimes wonder how differently we could have turned out had we been raised without the problems of alcoholism or family dysfunction. While it is normal for us to consider “what ifs,” we know that when we work through the abuse and hardship of our childhoods, we can come out so much better on the other side.

But what can possibly make our past an asset? In recovery, we see that all we’ve been through provides us a unique opportunity to look deeper at our lives than we might have otherwise. We take on the task of untangling the web of our history, knowing that greater peace will result. We revisit old wounds so that we may finally heal the hurt and better understand our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors today. We are able to reclaim our inner strength and learn from our struggles.

In ACA we don’t do all of this work alone. We may have been alone as children, but now we have our fellow travelers. We hear them share the same pain, and see the wisdom and knowledge they have gained in their own recovery. This same wisdom and knowledge is becoming part of who we are, also.

On this day I recognize that my past provides a unique opportunity to grow in self-actualization. I look forward to the continual wisdom recovery offers.”

My Experience:

I survived.  You survived.  That in of itself provides many assets.  We know how to get through things and make things happen when we now choose to, not need to.  We know how to get along with difficult people, again when we choose to.  It allows us to examine our thoughts and feelings and make adjustments to those when we identify them as negative traits that allowed us to survive.  We get to examine our past and identify those traits that if correctly honed could turn into positive traits for us going forward.  There is of course some pain in this examination, let me tell you there was an incredible amount of pain for me, but when you come out of the other side, you are stronger and have identified some characteristics about yourself that you can now hold onto and value with love and gentleness.

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