Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul Daily Inspirations (Chicken Soup for the Soul) (13 page)

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t is one of themost difficult things you can do. And yet, it is very simple, easy and effortless. It is one of the most powerful things you can do. And yet, when you do it you give up the need and the desire for power. What is it? It is letting go of your own ego. When you can bring yourself to get beyond your own ego, you raise yourself to a whole new level of awareness, experience and effectiveness. When you can think, live and act unconstrained by the limitations of your ego, the possibilities are truly endless. Your worries, your fears, your doubts, anxieties, disappointments and hesitation to move forward are all sustained by your ego. Imagine the power of leaving all those limitations behind.

Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual University

Flexibility means being able to make problems into teachers.

Brahma Kumaris

Footnotes for Life

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17

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y past is no longer here. My present is today. My future is waiting and I will start planning now. I will treat myself with love, make each day a positive one and not allow self-pity to control me.

It is survival of the fittest and I challenge myself to focus not on what others do for me but what I can do with my disorder to help other people.

Stacey Chillemi

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

Abraham Lincoln

Footnotes for Life

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18

V
ague feelings of discontent or twinges of restlessness are discomforts we have difficulty identifying and they can be disconcerting. Often we are able to handle the obvious problem areas in our recovery but struggle with the subtle pitfalls. Without realizing it, we can choose the wrong things to fill the empty void created by our boredom. It might be as simple as choosing a handful of cookies when a walk would be a better choice. Part of recovery is making wise choices.

Joyce McDonald Hoskins

Expectations are the thief of God’s blessings.

Constance K. Hardy

Footnotes for Life

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19

Y
ou are enough, you have enough. Everything you
need is within you.
Maybe for others I believed that, but not myself. I’ve always felt lacking and wanting. I needed more, something was missing. Should I change jobs? Go back to school? Move? Move on? That “not enough” feeling was always there.

Suddenly, today I understood that “not enough” meant love. That “more” meant love. That thing “missing” was love. Self-love. As I embrace that idea, I recognize and appreciate that I do have enough and I am enough. What a gift to give oneself!

Deb Sellars Karpek

If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything.

Mrs. Ernest Hemingway

Footnotes for Life

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20

A
s a teenager I chased after better living through chemicals believing that if you had my troubles, you too would drink and drug. Now that I’ve learned that most of my troubles came from the drinking and drugging, when I come to a fork in the road I know how to make a sober choice and reap the significant rewards. I remember many nights sitting on a bar stool yakking away about being an artist. Now that I’m in recovery I know how to show up for life and work hard. I am successful. I run my own business. I set goals. I achieve them. I’m not all talk. That’s what self-esteem is made of!

Dorri Olds

Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.

Van Wyck Brooks

Footnotes for Life

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21

I
spent many years unsuccessfully struggling to change the size and shape of my body. Therein lay the spark for change, the point of departure. The new idea, the only fad I hadn’t tried, was to love and accept my body unconditionally at the size and shape I was. This newfound acceptance was the revolutionary act that led me to unprecedented freedom from obsession and dangerous behaviors. My bottom line is I no longer harm myself with food or exercise and I no longer use food or exercise to try to change the size or shape of my body. I’ve finally come to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing wrong with me. Nothing needs to be changed.

Rachel Caplin

It is the mind that makes the body.

Sojourner Truth

Footnotes for Life

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22

T
here have been times in my recovery when my life feels dull. That sense of exhilaration and newness isn’t present anymore. As a recovering “excitement junkie,” I need to practice being comfortable with the stability of a more even existence. Consistency can actually be a comfortable state of being once I get past the old messages about “doing” rather than “being.” I can also remember that new and exciting experiences will come my way when it’s time. While I’m calmly waiting, I can ask my Higher Power for inspiration and direction on the next chapter of my life.