PATIENCE
Oct 21, from “Strengthening My Recovery” daily reader
”Rebuilding, or building, our lives takes time. It takes patience and steady focus.” BRB p. 431
“Many of us never knew what focus or patience really looked like until we came to ACA. We had spent our lives moving frantically from one thing to another.
As we began practicing new behaviors, we started by first being consistent in our attendance at meetings. We then began reaching out by making phone calls and asking for help to stay focused. When we became willing to take on service roles in meetings, it was to both feed our own recovery and to give back. We were searching for balance, realizing it took patience to recover from the years of dysfunction we’d experienced.
We learned to take care of our physical needs, resting when we were tired and eating healthy food to nurture our bodies and minds. We began retiring our compulsive behaviors as we became more aware of them.
Now we see our efforts paying off as we experience serenity. We have learned to ask for what we need in our jobs, friendships and romantic relationships because we know we’re worth it. If others don’t hear us, we move on. We have walked courageously into the light of recovery, feeling safe, perhaps for the first time.
On this day I pray for patience, and value the opportunities that present themselves. I ask for the guidance I need to stay focused on my needs.”
My experience:
Patience, what I strong word. I used to just do things because they appeared to need to be done. What I am finding now is that everything does not need to be done right now and that if I have patience I can better assess and move forward as I need to. Perhaps I decide, “it’s not my monkey, not my circus.” Maybe I give the “problem” to someone else, or maybe as I take the time I need, I come up with a better way to tackle the problem. That of course applies to anything that I do. So instead of getting anxious, sad, bitter, mad, etc. about something, I chalk it up to my Higher Power wanting me to learn something as I navigate the situation. Perhaps, it is simply patience that is being taught, but it could be a number of other things that are being taught as well, like delving into myself to really feel my feelings, or allowing my mind to wander to come up with a solution that is unlike the snap solutions I would have made in the past. Whatever it is, I am learning to have patience and knowing that everything will turn out the way it is supposed to. Whew!!
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