September is National Recovery Month.
My blogs will focus throughout September on addiction and its life-destroying tendencies. The writings derive from my experiences of battling addiction and living a life of recovery. My latest book, “Victory Over Opiates,” is a fifty-day chronicle of my recovery journey. Click the link if you’d like to check it out.
For the next few days, I will focus on the acknowledgment stage of the acronym ACT.
ACT leads to sobriety…
A – Acknowledge you have a problem, are powerless over it, and need help.
CÂ – Connect with a power greater than you and people with solutions to help you conquer your problem.
T – Take positive, recovery-oriented action every day.
Today’s blog is a continuation of my September 4th post.
Pride Shame Guilt
So how did I tackle the three feelings (pride, shame, and guilt) that were destroying me?
It was through divine intervention…literally.
12 Steps
The 2nd Step of the 12 Steps is: “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
I am grateful the 12 Steps were in place when I jumped on the road to recovery. I was turned off by religion at a young age, but I knew God was the answer to my problems. The 12 Steps led me to experience a spiritual awakening with a God of my understanding…more on my spiritual transformation later in the month.
When I read the 2nd Step, I saw three essential parts:
CAME TO- Meant I was out of it. I was, in some ways, unconscious. If I was going to get better, I needed to “come to.”
POWER GREATER- Meant there was a power greater than me that could take the key elements of insanity (pride, shame, and guilt) away from me and restore my sanity.
SANITY- To be restored to sanity, I first had to admit I was living in a state of insanity.
This may not be very clear for some, but the 2nd Step gave me hope. I acknowledged that my addiction had made me insane and was willing to trust a power greater than me to restore my sanity.
But I was hoping a quick prayer to God would take care of my problems…it wasn’t that easy.
More on this tomorrow.
Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch.com
