Thursday, July 2nd
Being sober does not insulate me from life’s difficulties and obstacles, but I can approach these challenges with sanity.
As recovering sexual compulsives, sobriety may signify more than staying on our plan or not acting out. We might have spent many hours in our compulsive state, trying to escape negative feelings and choosing to disconnect from unpleasant realities. In recovery, we seek to reconnect with the world around us and with ourselves.
At meetings, we may hear such positive words as honesty, openness, and willingness — or awareness, acceptance, and action. Together, these words express a progression: by being honest, open, and willing, we gradually experience awareness and acceptance. These give us the courage and strength to take needed actions.
Living the Steps enables us to discover how these positive actions and other tools can help achieve spiritual growth. By learning to love and show compassion to ourselves and by forgiving our past, we can accept living in the present. We can then share this love, compassion, and acceptance with others.
Our lives become much more than the compelling need for our next sexual encounter, fix of validation, or the distraction of a new obsession. We can focus on our personal growth and set goals and boundaries for living in recovery.
As my life expands, I experience contentment and serenity