Please read Part 1 for context. Thank you.
“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” Step 10 of the 12 Steps. For more information please read my article,Traumatic Brain Injury — What Empowers Me to Go and Make it a good Day — On the Road to Healing — Empowerment — Part 10.
I am so glad that I am encouraged — when ever I am restless, irritable or discontent — to pause and quiet myself. By pausing and quieting myself, I allow the uncomfortable feelings to pass. By doing so I am able to step back from being subjective to being objective. By pausing and quieting myself I am able to be honest with myself. By doing so I am able to focus on the solution.
My sponsor reminds me of this spiritual axiom when I am restless, irritable or discontent.
“It is a spiritual axiom that whenever we are disturbed no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us and our first task is to quiet the disturbance. Then we need to take the focus off of others and find out why I am disturbed and then what do I need to do to take care of that disturbance. That is the solution to getting beyond the way we feel”. From the book 12 and 12.
The 10 step as well as the spiritual axiom relieves me of the unrealistic burden of needing to be perfect — for we proclaim spiritual progress, rather than spiritual perfection.
By pausing and quieting myself — after speaking with my Mom during our brief conversation — I was able to take the focus off of my Mom and to examine why I was disturbed. By examining why I was disturbed I was able to then take steps to take care of that disturbance. When I realized that I was irritable and that I had reacted to my Mom I decided to call her back and make an amends for reacting and being unkind to her.
Through making an amends to my Mom I was able to make peace with her and with myself.
Receive more articles like this one simply by clicking on Subscribe to Second Chance to Live by email.
All material presented on Second Chance to Live is copyright and cannot be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any way without the express, written consent of Craig J. Phillips, MRC, BA
Leave a Reply