Recovery Meditations: March 14th

Cease Striving

"Cease Striving – Let Go, Relax – And Know that I Am God”
. . . . Psalms 46:10


I can count on one hand the times in my life in which I’ve been able to feel truly relaxed. Our disease is often driven by our efforts to control our lives: we labor to control our emotions, our relationships, our image, and our “masks” which we wear in a valiant effort to control how other people see and respond to us.

This effort to control ourselves and our lives is a ruthless taskmaster and a double-edged sword. It cuts like a knife through our very souls and requires that we forsake who we are in a misguided – and fruitless – attempt to be who we believe we “should be.” I have worked so hard at trying to mold myself into an Acceptable Person that I have lost who I truly Am. All of my ceaseless efforts to mold myself into who I thought I Should Be have cost me my very sense of Self, and has been a painful eroding of my own Identity – it is a tragic self-imposed suicide of my Soul.

Like many of us, in order to enter recovery I had to come to the End of Myself and lose any sense of Control I had over my life. This was terrifying for me – I believed that even without a false sense of control, my life would implode and leave only ruined remnants in its place.

But I have not imploded. I have not been destroyed. With the crumbling of my masks and my frantic efforts to control everything, I have found a surprising sense of peace and safety – even in the midst of the chaos in my life. I am convinced that had God not brought me to the end of my own efforts, I would not be in a place in which I can hear His Voice. My ears would have remained deaf to His promise to never forsake me. Had He not firmly – yet gently – gotten my attention, my unsettled Mind would have continued to shout warnings and commands into my withered soul. Hitting Bottom is the best thing that could have happened to me, for I landed not in destruction, but in His eternal loving arms.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will choose to cease my own striving and efforts to control my life. I will practice being still and knowing that my Higher Power is with me at all times, in every circumstance of my life

~ Lisa

***************************************************

'Suicide of the soul"........what a perfect way to describe compulsive overeating! It's not just the intake of food that kills the spirit, but the behaviors that lead TO the food consumption that does it.

Where did I get the idea that I had to control the world? Be perfect? Expect everyone in my life to be perfect?

My history of compulsive overeating may be tied to my upbringing.........but my recovery is directly tied to the decisions I make NOW.  I can't change the past, but I CAN give Today over to God.  I can surrender my powerlessness over life and allow Him to guide me.

Hitting rock bottom was the best thing that could ever have happened to me.  The only way to go from rock bottom is UP.  I am certain that God led me to this program of recovery because without it, my soul would have been squashed. 

Developing spirituality and a direct line of communication with God has opened my eyes and changed the course of my life.

For today, I am not worried about who I 'should be'.  I am focused on being the best I CAN be and that IS good enough.  For today, I am a child of God and blessed.