I used to live
Snarf Snarf
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: ATL
Posts: 835
Thanks, Neo. When I was drinking, I would look at the wreckage I had caused (the past) and it would cause me great worry and anger. I would think of events yet to come (the future) and I would get so wrapped up in anxiety and fear. Today was not even a thought; I was too consumed by the past and the future and "today" was taken up with drinking all the pain away (yeah right).
At 11:00 tonight I'll hit the 2-week mark. The past is there, it has happened. Nothing I can do to change it, but I can look at the past and not make the same mistakes I once made. The future will come, but I can't focus on things that haven't happened yet because I'm causing myself anxiety over what I THINK may happen, and I don't know what will happen nor can I control most of what will occur. By focusing on the present, however, I can lay the groundwork for a healthy and productive future, one that will probably resemble nothing like the bleak picture I had painted in my head. It will likely be better than I ever imagined.
But that only happens if I keep my sobriety in the present. The future doesn't come if I pick up a drink today. If that happens, the future is death. The second part of the Serenity prayer, "...Courage to change the things that I can," I believe refers to myself in this moment, and that's it. The only thing I can really change is my thoughts and actions at this exact moment. And as long as I remember that each and every moment that I think of booze or am tempted with a drink, that future has a chance. But nothing happens without the correct actions in the Now.
Thanks, Neo. This thread was a good way to start my day.
At 11:00 tonight I'll hit the 2-week mark. The past is there, it has happened. Nothing I can do to change it, but I can look at the past and not make the same mistakes I once made. The future will come, but I can't focus on things that haven't happened yet because I'm causing myself anxiety over what I THINK may happen, and I don't know what will happen nor can I control most of what will occur. By focusing on the present, however, I can lay the groundwork for a healthy and productive future, one that will probably resemble nothing like the bleak picture I had painted in my head. It will likely be better than I ever imagined.
But that only happens if I keep my sobriety in the present. The future doesn't come if I pick up a drink today. If that happens, the future is death. The second part of the Serenity prayer, "...Courage to change the things that I can," I believe refers to myself in this moment, and that's it. The only thing I can really change is my thoughts and actions at this exact moment. And as long as I remember that each and every moment that I think of booze or am tempted with a drink, that future has a chance. But nothing happens without the correct actions in the Now.
Thanks, Neo. This thread was a good way to start my day.
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