WEEKLY MEDITATION
Gratitude is the wine of the soul. Go on. Get drunk.
-Rumi
That which become our addictions start out as behaviors that inspire feelings of fulfillment. Although it is important to learn to live without the substances or behaviors that became destructive habits in our lives, this is often where the emphasis of traditional recovery stops. But we don’t get addicted primarily by accident, through genetics, or because of peer pressure. We get addicted because we felt fulfilled when we indulged and the desire to pursue this fulfillment slowly took precedence over more and more of our lives. The bad news is that our addictions never actually provided fulfillment, only something that felt enough like it that we settled for it long enough for the mechanics of addiction to establish themselves. The good news is that in recovery we don’t have to give up on pursuing the very same things we pursued through our addictions. Recovery, in fact, is the process of finding an even deeper sense of fulfillment. Although we may have to give up on using destructive means of intoxication, we can and should pursue the type of growth that provide us with deep feelings of connection and fulfillment. And, yes, we can safely remain drunk on these conditions for our lifetime.
