Recovery Meditations: October 27th

Living in the Present

“As long as you are seeking to find happiness somewhere,
you are overlooking where true happiness is.”
Gangaji

Happiness is always somewhere else, isn’t it? It is all too human to put off our happiness until a more appropriate or perfect time. Ideally, we know that happiness is not a matter of timing; it is a state of mind caused by even the smallest actions that we take (or fail to take) each day. However, I often used to remark to others that, “One day I will be happy when I get thin.” I got much thinner, but never thin enough, it seems. “One day I will take a night course.” I was so busy working, “on-call”, and doing things for others that I never managed to find the time.

“One day I will start this new food Plan,” I’d promised myself. It had worked for others. I truly wanted to give myself a chance to see if it could work for me too, yet I approached it haphazardly, at first. On paper, any food plan is just a diet, unless, you have a Sponsor, use the Tools, and work the Steps! I’d been told this over and over, and later--lived the actual experience of doing it my way. As long as I told myself, “One day I will find the time for me,” it didn’t come about!

One day at a time...
I now realize that as long as I keep looking to the future in order to allot myself wonderful challenges and small joys, I am choosing to postpone my happiness until my life is perfect, which is never in the realm of reality. I believe that this is why those who have gone before us in recovery suggest that we live life on life’s terms to the best of our ability just “One day at a time.”

~ January K.

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Ah, living for the moment when I will be thin & life will be perfect..........what compulsive overeater/professional dieter cannot relate to this mentality??

 

Over the course of my lifetime, I've lost a lot of weight but when I got to the 'magic number', life was still pretty much the same.  Nope, there was not pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; I still had myself and my issues to deal with, even when my body was at a 'normal' weight.

 

Nowadays, I realize the importance of allowing myself to feel happy right NOW, no matter what the number on the scale says.  If I wait for the perfect time to allow such happiness, it will NEVER come.  I've stopped using the words 'one day', 'forever' and 'never', and instead, I live in the present moment.  Today is the best day I can possibly have, and I choose to accept the gifts that are laid at my feet.

 

For today, I will not dwell on what lies ahead, but only on what lies in front of me for the next 24 hours.  For 24 hours, I can be happy; I can stick to my food plan; and I can enjoy each moment for what it IS!