The Gratitude List "We focus on anything that isn't going our way and ignore all the beauty in our lives." Basic Text, page 77
It's easy to be grateful when everything runs smoothly. If we get a raise at work, we're grateful. If we get married, we're grateful. If someone surprises us with a nice present or an unasked favor, we're grateful. But if we get fired, divorced, or disappointed, gratitude flies out the window. We find ourselves becoming obsessed with the things that are wrong, even though everything else may be wonderful.
This is where we can use a gratitude list. We sit down with a pen and paper and list the people for whom we are grateful. We all have people who've supported us through life's upheavals. We list the spiritual assets we have attained, for we know we could never make it through our present circumstances without them. Last, but not least, we list our recovery itself. Whatever we have that we are grateful for goes on the list.
We're sure to find that we have literally hundreds of things in our lives that inspire our gratitude. Even those of us who are suffering from an illness or who have lost all material wealth will find blessings of a spiritual nature for which we can be thankful. An awakening of the spirit is the most valuable gift an addict can receive.
Just for today: I will write a list of things, both material and spiritual, for which I am grateful. pg. 229
One of the most interesting and rewarding concepts of NA recovery for me in the last few months... The Gratitude list...
I've been part of a mailing list called "Men's Attitude Of Gratitude List" for the last few months. In the beginning, I took it lightly thinking that it's just another one of those things that works for many addicts but I don't think it will benefit for me. How wrong I was!
Being part of this mailing list where everyday many addicts from across the world keep sharing the things that they felt grateful for on a daily basis with me rubbed off on me eventually. Whenever I found these gratitude lists mails in my inbox and went through them, it was very hard for me to not think about what would be the things that I could be grateful for in the course of that day... As a result, I started thinking about the day, count the blessings and share them with others on this mailing list... As a result, many things that I never had considered as gifts in my recovery before came into the light. The list was endless everyday. And here I was complaining about what did not go right in my day, what went wrong and what I could not do, what I don't have and so on... What a shift it was to have to focus on the positives of the day instead, for a change
This morning, I woke up late, not feeling okay in my body and mind at all... The energy was low, my thinking was skewed, I had body ache all over... I ended up leaving the bed very late in the day... could not show up for work... a perfect recipe for an addict like me to take my whip out and indulge in self-flagellation and get obsessed with self-pity and frustration through out the day... Instead I sat on the couch and asked myself "what would my loving Higher Power want me do now?"... As soon as I asked this to myself, I was into action...
I closed my eyes, folded my hands together and said the Serenity Prayer and the Third Step Prayer. Then read the JFT and reflected on the topic of Prayer and Meditation. As I did that, I got the drive to try out a Yoga exercise that I was taught at my treatment center many years back. I did that, all my body ache started subsiding as a result. I spent half an hour on the phone with another member sharing and caring. Read some literature on the Twelve Steps. Got a call from a member who needed some help in buying refreshments for his NA B'day celebration at the meeting. Went out, helped him out, chaired the recovery meeting at my homegroup, spent some quality time with one of my sponsees at the cafe, had a good dinner with my wife at home... What a day it turned out to be... And to think that I could easily have destroyed it all with my chronic dissatisfaction with self at the start of the day... Thank God, I can allow myself to feel grateful today instead of being hateful I have a choice...
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"If we do an honest examination of exactly what we are giving, we are better able to evaluate the results we are getting."Chapter 10 - Emotional Pain - NA Way of Life.
