One of the things that I’ve seen to be key to others' transformation in recovery is that we not treat them like they are broken. Not like they are suffering from an incurable malady. In the West, we have gotten really good at looking for what’s wrong. You could call it looking for a pathology. Webster’s defines pathology as, “The study of diseases and of the changes that they cause.”This is a good thing to study. We need to know what’s going wrong in the body, mind and spirit. That’s why we have X-Rays, MRI’s, Mammograms and all kinds of other tests that are designed to go looking for things that may be wrong.The problem isn’t that we are looking for what’s wrong. The problem is that we can very easily slip into only looking for what’s wrong. This is true in any healing arena. Medical, psychological, emotional or spiritual.At some point, once we understand what’s wrong, we must begin to take action to correct the error. The problem is, the action we tend to take these days isn’t the action that will best serve us.What we really need is a vision of how we want life to be.The Good Book said it best: Without vision the people perish.
Time and time again, I will work with membership friends who have been told what’s wrong with them in step four. But they don’t know what’s right with them. It’s so easy to focus on what’s wrong, and as I said, it's still important. But you can’t dwell there. There has to be action out into the unknown. And that, my friend, is why I think we get stuck on the problem so much. We can find tremendous amounts of comfort in talking about our problems. Because if we talk about them and focus on them, then we aren’t talking about or focused on taking action towards a solution. Because that action can often be scary, we decide to focus on the problem and not rock the boat too much. So – what is your vision? Have you spent so much time focused on what’s wrong that you can’t see what’s right? Do you trust life enough to allow you to be brand new in this moment?
Time and time again, I will work with membership friends who have been told what’s wrong with them in step four. But they don’t know what’s right with them. It’s so easy to focus on what’s wrong, and as I said, it's still important. But you can’t dwell there. There has to be action out into the unknown. And that, my friend, is why I think we get stuck on the problem so much. We can find tremendous amounts of comfort in talking about our problems. Because if we talk about them and focus on them, then we aren’t talking about or focused on taking action towards a solution. Because that action can often be scary, we decide to focus on the problem and not rock the boat too much. So – what is your vision? Have you spent so much time focused on what’s wrong that you can’t see what’s right? Do you trust life enough to allow you to be brand new in this moment?
Post a Comment
Post a Comment