For me personally, I didn't turn to Zen or recovery because everything was going well. I was driven by a sense of restlessness, irritability, disconnection, and discontent. These feelings let me know that I wasn't at peace within my own skin or mind.
In practicing both Zen and recovery, I have experienced a progressive unfolding, like reverse origami, that has allowed me to experience my authentic nature with clarity. This is sometimes referred to in Japanese as Jīkō or Buddha nature... the Universal Identity of Loving Presence.
However, if I start to follow the mind's tendency to distort things into categories such as right and wrong, ultra-shitty, terrible, less terrible, better, good, and best, instead of focusing on healing, then I find myself back where I started: restless, irritable, disconnected, and discontent.
Watch out! The mind can be quite deceptive.
Letting go of mind's competitive thinking mindset and nature can be beneficial to sustaining my process healing and ability to be content. It's not an Olympic sport. We could be friendlier in our heart and head in This Way.
一 Dignity and Grace