Live

Every night I do a quick meditation when I lay down to sleep. On the "in" breath my mantra is "compassion for self", the exhale is "compassion for others". I have another for letting go. I hold my hands out palms up, imagine the letting go as smoke rising from my palms, I blow it away and it dissipates and disappears. The more I practice, the better it works.

I love sociology and watch all kinds of documentaries. Went on a binge last night. I watched a history of Bill W. For a couple of minutes I thought about ordering the Big Book for my neighbor, as I have never seen anyone so far gone in alcoholism. Then I immediately knew it was a bad idea, for a whole bunch of reasons. He doesn't want help and if he did want to get sober, he can seek it out himself; that is the only way. Plus being involved with him violates the compassion for myself. even if it were anonymously sending a book. & I am not going to carry him around with me in my head and heart.

Then I watched "Sunshine Hotel". It is a flophouse in the Bowry. Very well done and won numerous awards. It looked to me like all were dual diagnosis, ie, substance abuse and mental illness. Did the substance abuse cause the mental illness or vice versa? Reminded me of the mythological "All ye who enter here abandon all hope". these people hit bottom a long long time ago and this has become their normal. They just survive from day to day until they die. Even when they have family members offering them a new start. I recommend it if you have the stomach for it.

MyGirlGracie

Live, thanks for the reviews and recommendations... I would like to check them out. Also, thanks for the meditation reveal... that sounds awesome!

MGG

Live

I hope the meditation helps. It sure does for me. The in breath is slow thro the nose, the exhale thro the mouth. It almost hypnotizes me to sleep. a peaceful, positive sleep.

I have another that has also been super. Before the above meditation, I list 5 things I am grateful for and 5 things I am looking forward to. It is very powerful.

Both of them work in our subconcious as we sleep.

Carlotta

I am into meditation myself and I absolutely LOVE this.

I watched Sunshine Hotel and it was beautifully made and heart wrenching.

I don't have any active alcoholics or addicts in my life anymore. It is part of my self care/self compassion.

A decade ago, I had a good friend who went off the deep end going from drinking a bit too much beer on the weekend to smoking crack with his girlfriend (now wife).

I really tried to help them. I bought him the Big Book and when he told me he didn't like it, I got him a copy of Jack Trimpey's Rational Recovery which is the antithesis of AA.
Well he didn't like it either. I guess he didn't like anything having to do with quitting!

His girlfriend went to rehab and I was her temporary sponsor (I am a double winner). This didn't last long and I was not about to run after someone who wants to do whatever. regardless of how much I like them.

Finally, I just had to let the friendship go lovingly even though neither of them harmed me. Ann really guided me through this. I still think of my friends fondly and I hope that they are both ok and got clean wherever they are.

I also know I don't want to bring those kind of energies into my life.