Letting Go
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 3,550
Letting Go
Long ago, when I was in the early stages of recovery, an alcoholics counselor told me an old story about how to catch a monkey:
Take a cocoanut, bore a hole in it the size of a monkey’s fist. Pour out the cocoanut oil and put something inside which a monkey likes, such as rice. Fasten the cocoanut to a stake in the ground. When the monkey finds it he will reach in to grab the rice, clench his fist to remove it and be trapped. If he doesn’t let go of the rice he will be anchored to the cocoanut.
The moral of the tale is that if you’re an acoholic or substance abuser, you are trapped by your inner nature, your addicted brain, your own worst enemy. Some folk say, “You’ve got a monkey on your back”. You won’t begin recovery until you let go. AA calls it the “First Step”. Whether you’re in AA or something else, there’s a lot of truth in this old story.
W.
Take a cocoanut, bore a hole in it the size of a monkey’s fist. Pour out the cocoanut oil and put something inside which a monkey likes, such as rice. Fasten the cocoanut to a stake in the ground. When the monkey finds it he will reach in to grab the rice, clench his fist to remove it and be trapped. If he doesn’t let go of the rice he will be anchored to the cocoanut.
The moral of the tale is that if you’re an acoholic or substance abuser, you are trapped by your inner nature, your addicted brain, your own worst enemy. Some folk say, “You’ve got a monkey on your back”. You won’t begin recovery until you let go. AA calls it the “First Step”. Whether you’re in AA or something else, there’s a lot of truth in this old story.
W.
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