Originally Posted by
courage2 
This is interesting. How do you know that you're moving forward? Or reaching backward to help someone move forward but not getting pulled backward? Can you rest but not stop recovering? How can you tell direction? It all seems pretty dark in front of me.
Great questions.
It's late for me and I'm tired. I will say this for now: moving forward is all about creating positive momentum. Momentum is created when we struggle with whatever. Struggles are either positive or negative in outcome relative to our plans and purposes. Quitting drinking is positive. Suffering while quitting is negative. Alcohol was abused by me to relief suffering even as it created more suffering, for which I would just drink even more, and this moved me in to the realm of blackout drinking. To stay quit, I must resolve myself to not use short term relief for my suffering. This is *different* then me choosing to not use alcohol. It is important I don't use *any kind* of short term relief. I need long term relief, or I will eventually fail in my quit.
So, this allows me to be free of not just alcohol, but also all the lousy short cuts I was taking with my drunken lifestyle so as to keep me drinking. Long term relief requires me to create opportunities to embrace lasting solutions. Drinking is a total short term relief, so this simplistic choice takes drinking right off the table.
As I struggle to adapt to these long term solutions, I'm creating momentum away from my past sufferings since I'm now moving into a life of purpose and change. Suffering is not struggling. Suffering is useless. Struggling is a choice made.
With practice, one can soon enough distinguish enough between struggling and suffering to know which way is forward and which is backward.
I have more on this, but I'm out of steam, lol.
Later.
Night everybody and good morning to those just waking up!