इ ऍम इम्पोर्तंत !

I AM IMPORTANT!
I can well remember the first meeting I had with a recovery professional back in 1994.
He asked me about myself, and I quickly gave him a list of my personal, athletic, business and community volunteer leadership roles. Man, I was important!
I was quickly told that I was self centered and had an ego as big as Ontario (truly I had no self-esteem left). I had a need to be right and was very sensitive to criticism. Can you relate?
Call it self importance, call it ego, call it false pride; I have now accepted the defects I have, who I am and can handle criticism when it is merited and take responsibility for my own mistakes. (I certainly have not become a doormat).
Self importance certainly delayed my start to a life transformation and journey of life recovery.
From Hazelden:
Self importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellowmen. Our self importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.
--Carlos Castaneda

“Were we offended by someone yesterday? Do we harbour resentment for remarks, oversights, or unpleasant mannerisms? Do we feel tense or uneasy about how someone else has treated us? We can probably make a good case to justify our reactions. Perhaps we are in the right and they are in the wrong.

Yet, even if we are justified, it doesn't matter. We may be puffing ourselves up and wasting energy. When we are oversensitive, we take a self-righteous position which leads us far from our path of spiritual awakening. Our strength is diminished.

How much better it is to let go of the lightness, let go of our grandiosity, and accept the imperfections in others. We need to accept our own imperfections too. When we do, we are better for it, and our strength and energy can be focused on richer goals.

I will accept others' imperfections; I do not need to be right. “
Appreciate that self importance is holding you back in having the life you want? If we can help you to develop an action plan with realistic goals, please contact through www.hopeserenity.ca.

होलिस्टिक हैल्थ/BALANCE

HOLISTIC HEALTH/BALANCE
“Health is wholeness and balance, an inner resilience that allows you to meet the demands of living without being overwhelmed.”
— Andrew Weil, MD
Health is wholeness, and health is multi-faceted. When major areas of health are addressed, balance results.
With an MD such as Dr. Weil, physical health is of primary importance. Keys are proper eating, exercise and rest and all in moderation. To co-creatively ensure your physical well being, regular check-ups are a key. On top of the check with your MD, following his/her advice and actually doing follow-up testing, and following suggestions including taking meds as advised is required action.
As important is your mental health.
More and more about mental health is being made available. The shame associated with depression and other "mental" issues is dissipating as more and more well known figures go public with issues they have faced. Included in this area are addictions, definitely a mental health issue.
For me, following Doctors suggestions and practising the principles of the 12 steps is a key to good mental hygiene. It took a great deal of intestinal fortitude for me to accept I had mental health issues, and courage to address them.
Finally, for me to optimize life balance, I had to bring a spiritual, not religious, component into my life. This helped me realize that my self will had gone amuck and that I was not all powerful. The adding of a spiritual element into my life was assisted by "others", and I had to release many of the "religious" ideas that I had. Within me I became very aware of a spirit of good, knowing and acting upon what I knew to be right and acting in an increasing basis on these feelings. Many of these actions went against what had become my norm, but by increasing conscious contact with the divine spirit within, my spirituality constantly increase. Conscious contact, including both prayer and meditation are a part of my "daily balance".
All of these "balance" components were done with help beyond me, whether it is human or otherwise.
From one of my "outside" sources, I was given a daily checklist. When I incorporate it into a daily set of activities (and record these on the check list), my life seems to remain fairly balanced on a daily basis. If you would like a free copy of this check list, please request it by emailing khbray@hopeserenity.ca; no strings attached.
The Co-Creative Process of Life Recovery is the basis of my daily living. It was developed through a collaborative effort with people who have and are walking a path of life recovery and whose lives have transformed over an extended period of time. Each of us faced different challenges. Each of us enjoys a much more abundant life than we imagined; each of us, using Co-Creative Recovery has experienced life transformation in keeping with their own goals; each of us has holistically recovered and continue to work at recovery; and each of us, although facing our own individual challenges, have done the same basic work with help from outside.
Interested in regaining a balanced life, I would be pleased to share with you what has worked for me and millions of others.
It's thanksgiving this weekend in Canada, and a great time to give thanks for what co-creative, holistic recovery has given to me!