Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friend. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. Thank you. You are always welcome around my table. Last week I attended a 12 Step support group meeting. After the meeting a friend made a casual statement, that at the time, caught me off guard. He said, “So what step are you on?” Initially I was taken aback and said the 11th step.“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” To be honest with you, at the time I had not consciously been thinking about the steps or what step I was on or taking.
For a more information concerning the 12 steps please visit Part 3 of an article that I recently wrote by clicking on this link: Living with a Traumatic Brain Injury — Am I Being Manipulated? Solutions and Strategies Part 3. Although I did not give the steps much thought at the time, I have been thinking about the 12 Steps since last Wednesday evening’s meeting. This morning I worked the 12 steps on what I thought was instigating my being out of sorts. My restlessness, irritability and discontent. After processing what I thought was bothering me, I went about my day. This evening I continued to be in pain. With this awareness — of being in pain — I decided to read from a book that had helped me in the past. The book, Inner Bonding by Dr. Margaret Paul
I also decided that I needed to get to a meeting, where I knew that I would be able to process what I was experiencing and bringing about my pain.
So I drove myself to the meeting place. I intentionally arrived early, so that I could spend some time to read from the book — Inner Bonding — which I would highly recommend. As I re-read a portion of the book the concept of inner bonding spoke to me once again. The book speaks to either being in the intent to protect or the intent to learn. The intent to protect results in the abandoning our inner child. The intent to learn results in loving and in nurturing our inner child. What the pages of the book spoke to me this evening was that I needed to examine what feelings were under my feeling out of sorts. As I inventoried what had been going on in my life, I realized what I had been experiencing — under my being needy and out of sorts — depression.
I realized what I had been experiencing was depression.
After having this awareness, I decided to stop reading and go into where the meeting was to take place. I got there a little early and asked a trusted friend if I could speak with him. He said yes, and I was able to process what I had been experiencing and the awareness that I had concerning he underlining issue — depression. He listened and then I asked him what he thought about what I shared with him. He first empathized with what I was experiencing and then he kindly reminded me of some thing that I have shared many times on Second Chance to Live. He reminded me that all we can do is the footwork and then trust the outcomes to a loving God. He also reminded me that God’s will and timing for our lives is much better than our will and timing.
As I listened to him I found hope.
Please read Part 2 of this article. Here is a link to Part 2 of the article: Mindfulness and Serenity Part 2
As you listen to, watch or read my articles and questions come to mind, please send those questions to mind. All questions are good questions. In the event that you would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.To do so, please use the below contact form. I will respond to your comments and questions.
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]I look forward to hearing from you.
Craig
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