Wisdom and Anecdotes for Recovery

[Alexa]

Thoughts? Teachings? What teachings speak to you on your recovery journey? Whatever you'd like to share, post it here.

[Alexa]

The Butterfly


A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.



So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.


The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.



What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.


Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

[Alexa]

An illness can get our ego out of the way in order for us to really heal what our soul wants to repair. It can be that release of the ego which allows us to reach states of enlightenment.

It has been my experience that the only path to wholeness is to embrace our whole selves. That includes the parts of us that have been wounded, separate, and afraid to express. (The fear was usually for good reason. None-the-less, we must face these feelings in order to be healed.)

We all want to share and show our greatness. But nothing is greater than the person who loves themselves enough to share their vulnerabilities and humanity too. That is what authenticity is. It is the path of the warrior and it takes great courage. But it is the only way to be real and thus whole.

[Eric]

When I first started my journey toward awakening and recovery, a man I know told me "get on your knees everyday. Say "please" in the morning and "thank you" at night and make your bed everyday."

[Alexa]

"It was not your attention to the lack of wellness that made you sick. Instead, it was your attention to the lack of many things that you desire. Chronic attention to unwanted things holds you in a place of disallowing your physical well-being, as well as disallowing the solutions to other subjects you are focused upon."

-From their latest book, Money and the Law of Attraction (which is more about joy and health than money, really, a great read) by Abraham-Hicks

[Alexa]

All I can say about the above passage is that when I read it today, I realized I have been focusing on what I "lack" from my family - safety, comfort, understanding, support, probably all my life. I wanted a safe, healthy family growing up, and I didn't even realize I was doing it, or that this was a 'bad' thing. It wasn't. It just was what it was. Perfectly natural really.

I realize now however that continuing to focus on the lack is just keeping me stuck, and sick. It is an addictive thinking/feeling pattern. I realize I developed this b/c of my dysfunctional family system, so I forgive myself. I understand that it was unconscious.

But now it is conscious. And I choose to change it. I choose to be free to think and feel in healthy ways. Angels/HigherPower, help me to shift and heal addictive thought and emotional reaction patterns that keep me in resistance to what I am wanting: greater wellness and a return to radiant health. Help me to release what needs to be released, resistance, and to allow the Light and wellness to flow in.

And help me to focus on what I do have. I have a wonderful marriage, to my dream husband, our happy great life, all of the abundance we enjoy, with love, and our dogs, and our beautiful home. Help me to be able to be present in the Now.

[Rhonda]

THE DIFFICULT TIMES IN MY LIFE ARE BRIEF, QUICKLY REPLACED BY GOOD TIMES AND HAPPY MOMENTS. I use this affirmation when I am having a troubling day, and it really does work. My stress or worries seem to dissipate the more I repeat it.
Many people think that affirmations are nothing but brain washing !!!! I guess simply they really are. We do have to re-program the way we think and feel. Negativity is every where and we as people seem to concentrate on the bad things everyday. And it takes some extra training to re wire our thoughts to go the other way and concentrate on the good!

[Alexa]

"I've started to realize that waiting is an art, that waiting achieves things. Waiting can be very, very powerful. Time is a valuable thing. If you can wait two years, you can sometimes achieve something that you could not achieve today, however hard you worked, however much money you threw up in the air, however many times you banged your head against the wall..."

from The Courage to Change by Dennis Wholey

[searcher]

Thank you for the inspiring messages here. Another light bulb moment after just writing a lengthy post in the introdction thread. I have learnt so much about myself through my illness, I have moved forward so much, probably more so than if I hadn't become ill. I cared about everybody else but me, I looked after everybody but me, I was there for everybody else but me. Finding out just how much I was cared for and loved was a very humbling experience.
Now it is MY time.

jan

[Bridget Ann Orman]

hello loving life enjoyed reading the info on the butterfly thank you dear sister for sharing it with us

[Alexa]

"Don't care what people say.
Just follow your own way.
That's the return to Yourself.
The Return to Innocence."
Enigma

[Alexa]

A man was drowning, and he called out to God: "God, please save me!"

A boat came by and someone threw the man a rope: "Here, take this rope!"

But the man replied: "Thanks. But I am waiting for God to save me."

Another boat came by and someone again threw the man a rope: "Here, man!, take this rope!"

But the man replied: "Thanks. But I know God is going to save me."

The man drowned.

When he got to Heaven, he met with God. He asked: "God, why didn't you save me?"

And God replied, shrugging His shoulders: "I sent you two boats!...."

[Eric]

Here's one of my favorite recovery ones:

A man fell down a hole and couldn't get out.
He shouted and yelled loudly, hoping to attract some help.

A priest walked past and looked down at him.

"Father, father, help me out of here." cried the man
"I can't help you my son, I don't have a ladder." and the priest walked on.

A rabbi walked past and looked down at him.

"Rabbi, Rabbi, help me get out of here." he cried.
"How can I help you, I don't have a rope." and the rabbi walked on.

A bedraggled tramp came upon the hole.
"What's the matter?" he asked the man in the hole.

"Go get help, I'm stuck here." the man called back.

The tramp jumped into the hole.
"What are you doing?" cried the first man in disbelief.

"Don't worry" the tramp told the man. "I've been down here before and I know the way out."

For me, it's about trust and help from unexpected places.