Nurturing Self Care
...there isn't a guidebook for setting boundaries. Each of us has our own guide inside ourselves. If we continue to work at recovery, our boundaries will develop. They will get healthy and sensitive. Our selves will tell us what we need to know, and we'll love ourselves enough to listen.
—Beyond Codependency
What do we need to do to take care of ourselves?
Listen to that voice inside. What makes you angry? What have you had enough of? What don't you trust? What doesn't feel right? What can't you stand? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you want? Need? What don't you want and need? What do you like? What would feel good?
In recovery, we learn that self care leads us on the path to God's will and plan for our life. Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.
Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever present. Listen to, trust, and nurture that guide.
Today, I will affirm that l am a gift to the Universe and myself. I will remember that nurturing self care delivers that gift in its highest form.
From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.
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Getting to know myself............after decades of hiding behind fat, booze........and even cigarettes. Getting to know the real ME, who is not practicing addictive behaviors of any kind........is a new experience, even after 55 years of being alive.
The voice inside of me must be heard........I CAN rely on my intuitions because they never lead me astray. The 'voice' that tells me to resume my addictive behaviors is something else entirely. That 'voice' is my addict MIND at work...........my brain trying to trick me into using again. That 'voice' is just a series of thoughts, over which I have control. I squash those deceitful thoughts as soon as they pop up, and remind myself that I do NOT have to make a THOUGHT into a REALITY. Period.
For today, I will listen to my voice. I will get to know myself, love myself, and accept myself exactly as I AM.
For today, I may BE an addict but I do NOT have to behave like one. If need be, I will fake it till I feel it!
I am struggling to even hear or feel my intuitions because I have tuned them out for so long. Instead, I tried to do what I thought would gain approval and love from others.
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