October 18

”It has long be an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

My addict used to like things complicated. The more an event could be turned into a big affair, the stronger the emotional reaction I would have and want to suppress and the bigger the reward I needed to seek to compensate. Talk about living in insanity. Life is complex, certainly. Things happen that are not always simple. Yet I don’t need to add artificial complexity to life to support those behaviours that will cause me to overreact in unhealthy ways. My life now is more about giving things their proper perspective, assessing them more realistically and then acting accordingly. I don’t need my old coping mechanisms and it’s rare that my instinct pulls me in that direction. Even when my thoughts start to lead me astray, I am aware and can stop and let them pass. If they persist, I choose to pick up a tool of recovery or reach out for support to keep making the healthier choices. The other realization has been that many of the things which are too complicated are events that I can do little to change. So in turning them over to the care of my Higher Power I free myself to live more simply.

Affirmation I will choose not to overburden myself with things I cannot control, nor overcomplicate what can remain simple.

July 4

”A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Confucius

Stop. Breathe. Listen. Look. Feel. Some days I need to break down tasks into very simple, basic steps. I am not able to do more than that. This is part of my way to block and filter out all the distractions of the outside world, all the directions that I seem to be pulled in. It’s a protective wall to help keep me focused on the present so I can maintain a shred of sanity. I am thankful there are not too many days where I feel this overwhelmed and need to micro-manage every tiny act. In the larger scheme of things, I am learning to live by taking small incremental steps. In reducing my focus into tasks that I can view easily, comprehend fully and know that I can accomplish I am better able to links several actions together to do something more complex. I know if I tried to tackle the entire problem all at once I would likely have gone nowhere at all. For me it’s another form of one of the well-known slogans, First Things First. Putting on my jacket before my shirt is not going to be overly productive. The program reminds me often that the real goal is progress and not perfection. I need to keep breaking problems into manageable and achievable steps so that I continue moving in a positive direction. I am more interested in the journey than the destination.

Affirmation I will practice breaking task down into steps that I can manage. I still walk forward a single step at a time.