Letting Go - from the Health and Healing Series at SupportNet.ca - Resources for Your Recovery

Recovery is learning to enjoy life - without the use of alcohol or drugs that alter mind or mood.

It is treatment for the condition of addiction - an approach to the challenges of life - and a path to personal growth.

Recovery requires us to learn - about the true nature of addiction.

It may be personalized - but it has its necessary Principles and its Ways.

The Principles of Recovery provide direction - to the choices that we face each day.

The Ways of Recovery provide us with tools - that help us to heal - and to enjoy life on life’s terms.

This Learning Seminar introduces the topic of Letting Go -

How we hold on to sickness - and importance of accepting our boundaries.

What You Need to Know

A great deal of the stress that we experience in life - is created by our own unhealthy habits of mind, body and feeling.

Impulsive Choices - Assumptions - Tangled Boundaries - Reactive Feelings and a Scattered Mind.

Most often - we do not see how the vulnerabilities of our person - impact the course of our life.

But even in moments of insight - we hold to the ways that we know - in fear of letting go.

This is true for the addicted person - who is locked in a struggle for control - with a condition impossible to control.

Pride, fear and misdirected power of will - find those in addiction making the same mistakes over and again - but each time expecting a different result.

A bottom - is a moment of insight - into the powerlessness of self will over addiction.

It is a letting go of struggle - and openness - to consider that there must be another way.

Those in recovery say - If I always do what I always did - I’ll always get what I always got.

Recovery recognizes the need to change - to let go of old ways - and to do things differently today.

It is in letting go - that we are truly empowered - because it is in letting go that we learn to face our fear of uncertainty.

Lessons in Letting Go

The first lesson of letting go is acceptance - that things are as they are - and not as we imagine they are supposed to be.

People - Work - Health - Family - Finances - Relationships.

Letting go is to see our life less as we want or need it to be - and more as it truly is right now.

Notice the times you are stressed - because things are not as they should be right now.

Question the beliefs - the expectations and assumptions - that you hold in your mind.

Learn to let go of the stuff in your head - and to sit with things as they are.

Talk with your self - Ask for help - Journal Write - Learn about meditation - Recall the Serenity Prayer.

Acceptance is honesty plus openness. It allows us to see - the best next steps to take in our life.

A second lesson of letting go - is that there are things not ours to change right now.

People do what they will. Stuff happens. Time passes - and Feelings come and go.

A great deal of stress comes from our struggle - to control things not ours to control right now.

The Serenity Prayer helps to remind us of healthy boundaries.

Grant me Serenity - to Accept the things I cannot change - Courage to change the things that I can - and Wisdom to know the difference.

The things that we can change are the thoughts on our mind - the choices that we make - and the things that we do right now.

Power does not come from a struggle - with people and things not ours to control.

To let go is to learn boundaries - and to grow in power as we learn to face our fear of uncertainty.

A third lesson of letting go - is that learning to let go is a process.

We find our head full of worry - and we do what we need to do.

We repeat the Serenity Prayer - take a breath deeply to our belly - let go of our breath and worry - both at the same time.

But the worry sits on the edge of our mind. It pulls at us. It pops back to our mind later in the day. It wants us to attend to the importance of its concern.

Learning to let go of worry is not something that happens quickly. It is an ongoing process - one moment and one thought at a time.

Practice letting go - during breaks in your day - when you find yourself stressed - and during times set aside for meditation.

Ask for help in letting go - and then do your part - to occupy your mind with a calming phrase or reassuring talk.

Letting go helps us to ground our self now - in acceptance and insight of things as they are.

In Summary

We hold to the ways that we know - in fear of letting go.

But it is in letting go - that we are truly empowered - because it is in letting go that we learn to face our fear of uncertainty.

You have now reached the end of Letting Go.

Look for this and other Learning Seminars at www.SupportNet.ca - Resources for Your Recovery.