Serenity
 

Recovery from alcoholism, which is a two fold disease/illness which will kill you whilst at the same time telling you, you haven't got it. The only respite from which is abstinence, isn't easy....

As Joe McQuany said,' The secret to life is perhaps not life itself but how you manage life itself.'

By this, I'd suggest based on my own hard won experience, a day at a time my own recovery, done to still my 'monkey mind' is to practice 'mindfulness'... so that as I go through each and every day I REACT to events, in a calm, measured, objective, indifferent (though not without compassion) way, rather than simply REACTING to them. So that I preserve my SERENITY in a manner which as Joe said, helps me manage life itself, in a constructive way rather as opposed to that which I did in my 'drinking days'...which often only worsened the situation.

As Sun Tzu said in his famous book,'The Art of War', which is about life itself really,'You must control events otherwise events will control you.'

Serenity in mine or anyone else's recovery is, I think one of the prime objectives for us all. Learning to practise mindfulness, just like breathing, is as necessary to recovery, done in the manner I've described not only assists but strengthens , just like breathing our SERENITY. Without either the consequences can be fatal, with it they can be life affirming ... just a thought...

Mindfulness- I do it well some days, and stink at it others. BUT it is always there- I often call it 'mindful crap' in so far as me- not it.
Marcus would be proud.

I like that, thanks for the post.
My serenity was so hard to come by that I refuse to sell it cheap. In other words, I won't allow ppl to get under my skin and disrupt my serenity, especially not over trivial things like traffic

I admire and respect that...
 

In admire and respect that attitude in anyone, well done...an example of which is, for me anyway, the musician Eric Clapton. Not for his musical ability, great though it is. Not for being a recovering alcoholic or for being a founder of the Crossroads Institute but in the few times I've seen him, usually in documentaries it's quite apparent that anyone or anything he perceives as prejudicing his, of likely to prejudice his serenity he dismisses out of hand.

I also take the view no serenity, no me. I'm not going to risk everything I've gone through either side of my drinking history for someone or something that runs the risk of throwing it all away especially as, in sobriety there's every chance something better will come along!