WEEKLY MEDITATION
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough.
-Melody Beattie
Addictions establish themselves when a destructive set of substances or behaviors successfully create an experience of life that is satisfying where their absence is not. To be clear, addictions are successful when they satisfy our inner experience of life. So our recovery must also strive for a comfortable inner experience of life, satisfying the same powerful forces they are trying to replace. In the beginning, this may take the form of logistic convalescence—getting physically healthy, stabilizing finances, repairing relationships, etc. But once the basic parts of life have been put in place, we may need to learn to examine and reframe our inner lives. Since there is a tendency to project inner feelings of inadequacy outward onto the external world, there is a respondent tendency to assume that it is actually the outside world that needs changing. But if we can learn to own these inner feelings, if we can safely challenge and transform them into an appreciation for what we do have, the outside world will seem to change in response. Suddenly, by changing our relationship to what we do have, we can have enough.
