Working the Daily Homework is about transforming your life. The first idea to get is that your are responsible completely. To take complete ownership and responsibility for your life. Understand that you have created and chosen your life the way it is occurring. You are the cause of what you experience and your life. The second idea is to become present to how you create. Watch your word. Stay present to what you think and say. Choose to say positive things about yourself and others. What you think and say creates your experiences of how life will occur and be for you. The third idea is to practice transforming your life. Practice your self affirmations and possibilities everyday. Say your self affirmations and possibilties in the morning, throughout the day and before bedtime.
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Red Flags for Recovery
A person will either resist or surrender to the process of recovery. The dance between the two will continue. Knowing or becoming aware of when a person is resisting can assist him in staying in recovery and not relapsing. The Red Flags for Recovery was created to assist those in recovery to be able to check out their behavior, what they are doing that would indicate that they are creating the process that will eventually end in relapse. One of the Red Flags is being out of communication with a person’s sponsor or counselor. Staying in touch or communication with a sponsor is vital to the person recovery. Such a Red Flag will also appear as missing or being late for calls with a sponsor or counselor.
The Peaceful Warrior – Five More Distinctions
There are five more distinctions that are important and of use to those in recovery. The sixth distinction is to consider giving something up, something that you are holding onto that keeps you stuck in your life and addiction. This is a conversation about attachments. The seventh distinction is about taking on a state of mind of not knowing, of getting it that you do not know, a space that will allow you to learn. The eighth distinction is about practing that there are no ordinary moment, that there is always something going on. The ninth distinction is about giving up judgments, that there is a right/wrong, good/bad that exists in the world. Finally, the tenth distinction is about getting it that happiness is to be found in the journey and not the destination. The coachiing for one in recovery is to read the book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior and begin to practice the distinctions that Millman puts out to the world.
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Dan Millman’s book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” is another book that is showing up in recovery. Once read you will understand why. There are several distinctions that are very powerful for one in recovery. The first is the distinction between Knowledge and Wisdom, between knowing something and doing it. For the Warrior, the second distinction, the highest purpose of a human is to be of service to another human. The third distinction, taking out the trash, is about the trash in your mind that keeps you out of the present moment, your true point of power. The fourth distinction that Millman talks about is the fact that we are afraid of what is inside us and that the only place to find what you need is inside you. The fifth distinction is about making sure you are paying attention to your addiction. Many in recovery do not pay attention to what is going on, to what they are experiencing.
Transformation and the Use of Positive Affirmations
One of the fundamental ideas in Transformation is that your thinking directs your life, how you feel and what you do. The most important thought you have in your mind is the one that you have about yourself. Unfortunately we create a negative view of ourselves early in life and from that point take on trying to fix ourselves. We try to fix ourselves by doing and having things, both of which will never work. The reason they do not work is that they are not connected to the fundamental cause of our experiences. Our thinking is connected in that it is our thinking that is the cause of our experiences and that which we are attempting to fix. Given that the most important thought or belief we have is the one we have about ourselves, using affirmations to alter or transform our inner view can be very effective. The negative view that we have about ourselves, that is causing our upsets and experiences, is an affirmation. Using and practicing positive affirmations can truly transform a person’s life because they will begin to alter the very core beliefs that a person has about himself. The work of Lousie Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, is very important for learning about this work.
The Four Agreements and Recovery
A book that is showing up more and more in recovery is The Four Agreements. The book was written by don Miguel Ruiz. The utilization and practice of the four agreements can aid, if not transform, ones recovery process. Part of the power of this book is that it puts the work of transformation, and recovery, back with the person himself, making it the person’s total and complete responsibility. It is not about other people, places or things, but about the individual. It is about being impeccable with his word, never taking anything personal, not making assumptions and doing his very best.
The Use of Therapeutic Music in Counseling
I have used therapeutic relaxation music for several years in both individual and group counseling sessions. I have found that if the right music is used the client will do better work in the session regardless of whether it is individually or in a group setting. The use of therapeutic relaxaton music allows the client to relax and thereby be able to share more about what is going on with him or her. If a therapist were to incorporate hypnotic work in his or her session the presence of therapeutic relaxation music would make the transition very smooth and very natural.
Being Easily Influenced as a Source of Concern
Some in recovery complain that they are easily influenced and that this is and has been a problem for them. It is as though they believe that others have some control or power over them and that they are easily influenced in what they do and think in life. The truth is that being easily influenced is a cover up for what is really going on. Being easily influenced is about wanting and trying to please other people, inorder to get the other person to like the person who does the pleasing. Doing what the other person wants, requests or demands inorder to get them to like and accept the person is what being eaily influcenced is really about. Pleasing others is not about the other person but more about the person himself, about fixing the person. If I am easily influenced then I am really trying to please another person, inorder to fix myself, to feel good about me. It is all about me regardless of whether I say so or not.
Power of Thought and Recovery
Those in recovery begin to transform their lives when they start to get the power of their thought. When they start to get that their thinking is the true cause of much of what they are experiencing. The difficulty for some in getting this, and using it, is that they have to begin to give up blame and start to assume responsibility for their life. The feel of success will keep them from transforming their life. The belief that they are not good enough will keep them from true transformation and happiness. When one believes that he or she is not good enough there will be no experience of a connection with God or spirit.
