Self-doubt isn't alien to addicts, only the personal details are. It's one of the primary tools used by the addiction mind to keep us living small. We have hope, but not too much hope. Rather than accepting the full course meal, we're more than willing to settle for the crumbs, getting fed but still starving, and so malnourished. We understand the comfort of the old familiar pain of living stuck, and the anxiety of making changes, not knowing how things will turn out. We can be terrified disappointment is our "Normal," because the truth is that we know what it is to reach, try, and fail, with self-doubt showered on us by the disease; wondering what's going to be different this time, then the last time.
Recovery requires courage and bravery... to surrender... to stop fighting the help, and accept the gifts of friendship, kindness, compassion, and support of those who live on the pathway of healing in the team sport of recovery, without sabotaging it. Recovery requires courage and bravery... to sit down, and write down who we are... facing ourselves without pretending our experiences away so that we can understand our own story, cause we oftentimes don't understand who we truly are. Recovery requires courage and bravery... to sit in front of someone, make ourselves vulnerable and get honest without holding back because we understand anything we leave on the table for addiction-mind to use against us it will. The disease never misses an opportunity to take us for rides it wants us to go on, against our True nature. Without courage and bravery, recovery doesn't happen. It's just a fact. Courage and bravery, along with abstinence are the foundation of our freedom, that our life rests upon.
In This one eternal moment, spiritual principles and my values grant me the ability to accept the things I can't change, the courage and bravery to change the things I can, and the wisdom to notice the difference.
Note regarding calligraphy: 勇 in Japanese is profound Yū, carrying the meaning fierce courage and bravery.
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