Peace,serenity and equanimity..
 

I've often pondered as at first the days turned to wees,the weeks then turned to months and finally, unbelievably years what recovery would bring me?

For two primary reasons, the first and most obvious being it saw an end to my 'alcohell', the second that, in terms of what is normally considered 'the path to recovery' I did it free from human,in the main, intervention but very much in the company of 'the God of my understanding'. All of which has brought me peace,serenity and equanimity.

Qualities which rarely, if ever existed in my 'drinking days', allowing me,quite favourably to,adopt ,as the Stoics would say,of 'preferential indifference' to those people and things,including alcohol and all that surrounds it,that are of no intrinsic moral value and which I once not only prized so highly but didn't think I'd go without... as many of those of us in recovery once thought.

Peace, serenity, and equanimity... I think every human is searching for that. That search is what causes us to become alcoholics or addicts in the first place. We search everywhere externally for it, without realizing it's been right inside of us the entire time.

It reminds me of a story either from Eckhart Tolle or a zen master or somebody like that--a man spent his entire life searching for gold. He was sitting on a box. The gold was inside the box. It never occurred to him to look INSIDE.

It's all inside you...
 

As Marcus Aurelius said,'It's easy to live a happy life, it's all inside you. In your way of thinking.'

The object of Stoic philosophy, which is linked to the Serenity Prayer, is to transform your emotions. The goal of which is to gain equanimity...