Recovery vs. Sobriety

There is a difference in choosing sobriety over quitting drinking. And there is a difference in choosing recovery over sobriety.

For me there was a big shift when I went from saying, I’ve eliminated alcohol from my diet to saying I’m Tammy and I’m an alcoholic. Eliminating it from my diet always left an opening to bring it back in.

For example, I’ve eliminated dairy from my diet but there is always the possibility that I will take a bite of your cheesecake just for the shear blissful moment of taste and texture. I can get away with a bite. I can also eat an entire piece and suffer the consequences of having sinus congestion and a probably a headache. This will all be gone in about 24 hours and life goes on.

With alcohol, I can’t have a sip or just one drink. It doesn’t work that way. And I have to remember that to avoid going down a path that could literally end my life. That is sobriety.

Recovery however, is being sober and recovering the lost aspects of myself. It’s about learning to live in a new way and being in a perpetual state of growth and development.

It’s learning to think in a new way. It’s about having fun on a soul level and getting in touch with the magical and mysterious aspects of myself. Recovery is a never ending rave for the soul. It’s like taking a hit of Ecstasy without the consequences. It’s lightning bolts on the cellular level. Recovery is nothing like what I imagined.

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Resist or Yield

I am continuing to read Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” and stimulate my thinking, which I think is the exact opposite of what it should be doing.  But anyway…  I am interested in the idea of resisting or yielding.  E.T. says when tragic loss occurs we can either resist or yield and of course each choice will take us down a totally different path of living.

As I was thinking about this, I realized we have multiple opportunities every day (every hour) to make the choice to resist or yield and what a difference that can make not only in our “day to day” life, but it is also preparation and practice for the biggies when they occur (because they will).

If I can practice accepting what is, rather than resisting and fighting it, there is much more flow in my life.   In recovery we use the Serenity Prayer to accomplish this task of yielding.  The key is discerning what I can change and what I can’t.  And then to have the courage to change the things I can.  Because sometimes it’s just easier to complain than actually make a change.  And the things I can’t change, I must let them go.  Some days that’s my mantra.  Let it go, let it go, let it go.  Often easier chanted than done.