Motivational Meditation Monday: Keep Calm and Let Go
April 8, 2013

“Forgiveness means letting go of the past.”

Gerald G. Jampolsky

Meditation:

It’s usually easy to practice patience, love, tolerance, and understanding when life is just moving by smoothly. It’s a little more difficult to practice when we are around people that tend to bring out the worst in us. Letting go and practicing principles in all our affairs can sometimes be really difficult to do; not impossible, but certainly difficult. There are times we handle ourselves with excellence, and other times we have a slip of the tongue. If we are trying our hardest to build our spiritual foundation we will find it gets easier with time to handle and cope with those situations.

If the addict or alcoholic is spiritually fit, they usually are able to handle these difficult situations that may have previously aroused feelings such as anger, resentment, and fear. No matter how long someone has in recovery, there is always the temptation to react as we always have. It is much more comfortable to kick, scream, and cry than to just let go and walk away. When we are around someone or some place that brings memories of hurt, anger, or resentment, we must bring our Higher Power even more so into the situation. We must forgive our past and the situation for exactly what it is, because we find that we are the ones who are really suffering. We are the ones that overreact when that person opens their mouth, it’s almost like we are looking for them to mess up so we can just stick it to them. Ultimately, it gets us nowhere but feelings of more pain.

What happens when our reactions and anger are justified but they don’t play along spiritual lines? We get sick. Plain and simple, we get spiritually sick. We feel even more hurt and pain. Sometimes, it’s followed by guilt and shame because now that we have found this new way of life we think to ourselves, “Ugh, I shouldn’t be acting like this. I am too clean/sober to behave this way,” followed by, “Why didn’t I keep my big mouth shut.” This is normal, even for non-alcoholics or addicts. The only difference is, the addict or alcoholic will obsess over these thoughts and actions until it causes enough pain to make amends to do the right thing, or drink/use. The choice is up to us. When we make a firm resolution with our hearts and with our higher power to forgive, or bring forgiveness into our hearts, we are already becoming free. When we let go of all that anger, fear, and resentment of not just the past, but also the present and what we think the future will be, we will know exactly what true peace feels like. We practice doing this more and more because that peace is more addicting than the drug or alcohol we loved so dearly. We do this because inner peace is really that buzz or high that we have been chasing for our whole lives, and it can begin with the simple action of letting go. 

Written By: Recovery Gal