Choose Your Battles In Recovery

“Play It Through” “Choose YOUR Battles” from https://recoveryfarmhouse.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DAILY-MEDITATIONS-FROM-THE-HEART-OF-RECOVERY.pdf
Here are two very good recovery survival skills that they teach in rehabs and 12 Step
Programs alike. The first; “Play it through” means that before we pick up that drink, drug,


cake, scratch-off, addictive sexual encounter or harmful relationship behavior we start with
the happy thought of getting what we want…our forbidden fruit. But we don’t stop there since
we know ourselves well enough to be in recovery we can play out the harmful consequences of
our actions in our mind like a horrible b movie. We watch as the phenomena of craving takes
over our will. We stand still as we watch our hard earned money dwindle down the drain. We
observe as our children cry and scream “I want my mommy!” or “I am hungry”. We are
sickened by the guilt feelings that we know will consume us followed by the sabotage of the
self-esteem we worked so hard to build, we watch as it crashes. We stand in horror and shame
while our new found friends look at us picking up yet another white key-tag or chip.
Ok now what do we do? That was a horrible gut wrenching movie and we are now grateful
we did not drink. Next we move a muscle change a thought. We call someone, we go to a
meeting, we work on our ninth step amends and write a letter to our children…not about how
we will never hurt them again or never drink again, and we have not earned their trust, YET.
But instead we acknowledge our wrongs, we tell them we are so, so, sorry with NO BUTS after
it. We journal the intense feelings that are coming up in us that are the reason we wanted to
drink and drug to begin with.
We are in recovery, we don’t let anybody tell us we should not feel pain or remorse we have
survived Hell and there is no wrong feeling in our hearts because they are from our
experience. Actions are the only things that can be labeled right or wrong. We have hurt
people we love and we are sick about it. The solutions are in the steps, we need not only the
people that will call us on our BS we also need those that will allow us to feel our pain, talk
about it, express it well with feeling, then let it go. We need someone we can tell anything to
who will listen without judgment.
We are on the road to a new life! We know what drugging will bring us, yes we know it well.
However we have no idea what wonderful and exciting blessings sobriety has in store for us.
We do not know the future but we do know that we are not going to drink today and we have
learned another useful tool.
As for the lesson: “Choose your battles”, we can make a battle out of anything anybody says or
does or we can choose to just let it go. We ask ourselves; HOW IMPORTANT IS IT? We then
laugh at ourselves because we remember rule #62 which is; “Don’t take yourself so seriously.”
Our recovery life is a journey in which we have way more choices than we thought we did. We
are learning that we can choose to not pick up a battle to fight because right now we don’t
have time for that bullshit. Instead we are picking up a new life, we are chosen, we have
survived hell, we are more important than we know, we have spiritual gifts, it is time to
explore those gifts and step in to who we really are! WE NO LONGER FEAR OUR FEELING
TO THE POINT THAT WE LET THEM RULE US! WE ARE NOT ALONE

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