Taking Care of Ourselves Emotionally

[MajestyJo]

The Language Of Letting Go.

Taking Care of Ourselves Emotionally

What does it mean to take care of myself emotionally? I recognize when I'm feeling angry, and I accept that feeling without shame or blame.

I recognize when I'm feeling hurt, and I accept those feelings without attempting to punish the source of my pain. I recognize and feel fear when that emotion presents itself.

I allow myself to feel happiness, joy, and love when those emotions are available. Taking care of myself means I've made a decision that it's okay to feel.

Taking care of my emotions means I allow myself to stay with the feeling until it's time to release it and go on to the next one.

I recognize that sometimes my feelings can help point me toward reality, but sometimes my feelings are deceptive. They are important, but I do not have to let them control me. I can feel, and think too.

I talk to people about my feelings when that's appropriate and safe.

I reach out for help or guidance if I get stuck in a particular emotion.

I'm open to the lessons my emotions may be trying to teach me. After I feel, accept, and release the feeling, I ask myself what it is I want or need to do to take care of myself.

Taking care of myself emotionally means I value, treasure, explore, and cherish the emotional part of myself.

Today, I will take care of myself emotionally. I will be open to, and accepting of, the emotional part of myself and other people. I will strive for balance by combining emotions with reason, but I will not allow intellect to push the emotional part of myself away.

Whatever I am thinking right now is creating how I am feeling. I turn to positive and loving thoughts because I choose to feel good.

--Ruth Fishel

The program gives us freedom of choice. Freedom what each 24 hours of the day as to how I will feel about each hour of that day. Sometimes, I have to take it minute by minute. It is good that a day can start any time.

[MajestyJo]

In the new year, I will live one day at a time. I will make each day one of preparation for better things ahead. I will not dwell on the past or the future, only on the present. I will bury every fear of the future, all thoughts of unkindness and bitterness, all my dislikes, my resentments, my sense of failure, and my disappointments in others and in myself, my gloom and despondency. I will leave all these things buried and go forward, in this new year, into a new life.

Look to this Day by Alan L. Roeck

This may be true in a new year, but I think it applies to every day in sobriety, because it is just for today.

So many times we make promises to ourselves and break them. We set ourselves up for failure. When we live this life, one day at a time, turn our day over to our Higher Power and ask for His/Her direction, then we can move forward into a new way of living and thinking.

I can't think my way into good living, I have to live my way into good thinking. All I have to do is try, the failure is in the not trying. It is not about meeting our expectations and that of others.

The holidays are just another day. It is another day that I need to choose recovery and do the do things I need to stay clean and sober. I need to remember it is a spiritual program, and my God can get me through all the challenges and keep me safe, if I remember H.O.W. it works.

[MajestyJo]

If we think -- truly think -- our lives will become manageable, and if we thank God who made this thinking possible for us, then our lives are almost sure to remain manageable. We can contain our entire philosophy in these two words THINK and THANK.

Think before you take that first *drink, then thank your God that you didn't.
You are reading from the book:

The Eye Opener by Anonymous

*It says drink here, yet for me, I can substitute lots of words in here which can take me onto a road of insanity and pain.

i.e. Unhealthy food, unhealthy and abusive relationships, addicting drugs, addicting computer habits, excessive work and exercise habits, and the list goes on and on....

Posted on my site The Five As in 2005.

[MajestyJo]

PERSONAL WORTH:

No matter how intelligent, attractive, or talented you may be - to the degree you doubt your worthiness you tend to sabotage your recovery efforts and undermine your relationships. Life is full of gifts and opportunities; you will open to receive and enjoy them to the degree that you begin to appreciate your innate worth, and to offer to yourself the same compassion and respect that you would give to others. Discovering your worth sets your spirit free.

Many factors shape our lives, including beliefs, support systems, motivation, relationships, family dynamics, fate, karma. But the central premise is that our sense of self-worth is the single most important determinant of the health, abundance, and joy we allow into our lives. Discovering your Worth is no more or less important than other potentials but only when you recognize your personal worth will you be open to other life potentials. Discovering your worth provides a foundation from which to build, one potential at a time, a new way of life. Finding your worth is the first step in creating enlightenment and enhancing your recovery work.

At its core, your level of self-worth is your answer to a single internal question: "How deserving am I?" Or, to put it more directly as it pertains to your daily life: "How good can I stand it today?" If you observe your life very closely, you will discover that you don't necessarily get what you deserve. Your addictions or life problems has not diminished your worth as a person. Only to the degree that you appreciate your innate human worthiness will your subconscious mind open up to life's gifts. Sucess involves talent, effort, and creativity, but first of all, it requires a willingness to receive. Do you feel worthy of being well? When a window of opportunity appears, do you pull down the shade? Each of us has a specific degree of pleasure that feels right and appropriate. If that level is exceeded it makes us anxious. Many recovering people fear success because they do not feel worthy.

Because many people assume that self-esteem and self-worth mean the same thing, it seems important for me to note the distinction between the two. Self-worth (associated with self-respect) refers to your overall sense of value, worth, goodness, and deservedness. Your sense of worth can change over time based upon your actions. For example, my sense of self-worth has increased over time as I gradually learned to be a responsible person, loving father, a good friend and partner, my work as a therapist, and whatever minor assistance I bring to Dynamics Of Recovery or other services that I become involved in.

Self-esteem (associated with self-confidence) refers to liking or feeling good about yourself, your appearance, or your abilities. Your sense of self-esteem may change moment to moment, based on appearance, ability or situation. For example, as a clinical therapist I feel high self-esteem (confidence) in therapeutic situations, but less self-esteem at parties or social gatherings.

The central theme of this lesson/posting is that you "subconsciously" choose or attract into your life those people and experiences you believe you deserve! In everyday life pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional - a by-product of poor choices. Get it? Want to argue the point? Your sense of worth or deserving shapes your life by creating tendencies. If you feel unworthy and undeserving, you tend to make destructive or limiting choices. Do you see why this is the first lesson?

At each and every crossroads you are free to choose the high road - by being kind to others, working hard, finding supportive partners, and following good role models. Or you may choose the low road - by burning your bridges, practicing addictive behaviors, or choosing destructive relationships. Your sense of self-worth tends to influence whether you choose to learn easy lessons or difficult ones, to strive or to struggle, to cave in to difficulties or rise above them. Such choices determine your educational and income level, your health habits - even your longevity. Those of us with a strong sense of self-worth are less likely to get caught up in self-destructive habits with addictions or other abberant behaviors..

There is a danger of studying self-worth from a distance - exploring the issue the way some people explore a territory from an airconditioned bus. Keeping a safe distance is more comfortable but far less useful than feeling its impact on your life right now. Remember that your sense of self-worth - of deservedness - is related to your perception of your relative goodness.

Self-worth is not a thing; it is a perception. The first step is to realize that you are not alone. We have all made mistakes as part of our life and growth. We have all said, thought, felt, and done things we regret. Our worth is not dependent upon being perfect. If we can stop judging our mistakes so harshly, we can also stop ourselves from reactively engaging in the negative behaviors.

The second realization is that no matter what your behavior, you have done the best you could every day of your life. You may not agree with this. So before we tackle that question, consider this principle in relation to your parents or other caregivers: Whether they were kind or abusive, they were doing the best they knew how in light of their own limitations, wounds, beliefs, fears, values, and anxieties. Their best may have been wonderful, or terrible, or somewhere in between. In the same way, even though you have certainly fallen short of your ideal many times and made mistakes, you have also done the very best you were capable of at the time.

Most of us have replayed in our minds an incident we wish we could do over. Maybe we could have done better on a job interview, an exam, or a performance. You cannot change past mistakes, but you can avoid repeating them. The past no longer exists except as a set of memories and impressions you keep alive in the present. By focusing on doing what you can do now - by reviewing your mistakes with eyes of compassion and asking for forgiveness - you do much to heal your fragmented sense of worth.

Trust the process. The next time you feel that something good can't last, remind yourself that evolution moves in an upward spiral and that life can, and usually does, get better over time. You live and learn, stumble and fall, fail and grow, expand, and progress.

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

-Alice Mackenzie Swaim

Originally posted at Dynamics of Recovery and taken from my group Star Choices

In order to get our needs met, we need to find self-worth and self-awareness. Our God supplies our needs, but sometimes, we forget to stop and pick them up or ignore them until it is convenient.

[MajestyJo]

DAILY OM

A Place For Worries
Surrender Box



There are times when our minds become too full. Our to-do lists, worries, plans, and dreams may be so crowded together in our heads that we don't have room to think. We may believe that we are somehow taking care of our desires and concerns by keeping them at the forefront of our minds. In maintaining our mental hold on every detail, however, we may actually delay the realization of our dreams and the resolution of our worries because we won't let them go. At times such as these, we may want to use a surrender box.

A surrender box allows us to let go of our worries and desires so the universe can take care of them for us. We write down what we want or need to happen and then place the note into a box. By writing and placing our thoughts in the box, we are taking action and letting the universe know we need help and are willing to surrender our feelings. We give ourselves permission to not concern ourselves with that problem any longer and trust that the universe is taking care of it. You may even want to decorate your box and place it in a special place. Your surrender box is a sacred
container for your worries. Not only do you free up space in your mind by letting go of our worries and desires and dropping them into your surrender box, but you are giving your burden over to a higher power. Once we drop our worries and desires into the surrender box, we free our minds so we can be fully present in each moment.

Surrendering our worries and concerns and placing them in the hands of the universe doesn't mean that we've given up or have been defeated. Instead, we are releasing the realization of our desires and the resolution of our worries and no longer concerning ourselves with their outcomes. It's always fun to go back and pull the slips of paper out of the box once your requests have been granted. And it's amazing how quickly problems go away and dreams come true when we finally let go and allow a higher power to help us.

www.dailyom.com

[MajestyJo]

WISDOM

"...we need to abandon the idea that wisdom is knowing everything-the whys, the wherefores, the how-tos. Wisdom is often more subtle, both far simpler and exceedingly more complex. For wisdom requires the discerning, the listening to, the acknowledgement of nudges and notions, of senses and sensations, of the minute and what we often mistakenly assume is the mundane. Wisdom means listening to the still, small voice, the whisper that can be easily lost in the whirlwind of busyness, expectations, and conventions of the world...."
-- Jean M. Blomquist

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time."
-- Dale Dauten

"To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

[MajestyJo]

I is for Insanity. I couldn't see it. Then when I got self-honesty, it was glaringly apparent.

The longer I stayed sober, the crazier I got, just not the insanity of when I was using. I had to pray and ask for the healing of my sense of humor. It was a real gift to be able to laugh at myself, and not beat myself up for my insane moments. Just because I make a mistake doesn't mean I am one.

Step Two says that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Any substance is an inanimate object until such a time as I make the decision to ingest it, inject it, intellectualize it, intimidate it, and get intimate with it.

[MajestyJo]

Bible Verses About Strength - The Bible offers many valuable quotes and verses on strength and encourages us to be strong in our faith and our daily walk with Christ. Read Bible verses about strength and how we must be strong in our walk with God, Jesus Christ, and our Christian faith.

Bible Verses About Strength - The Bible offers many valuable quotes and verses on strength and encourages us to be strong in our faith and our daily walk with Christ. Read Bible verses about strength and how we must be strong in our walk with God, Jesus Christ, and our Christian faith.

Use our bible verses by topic page listing popular verses from the Old and New Testament.

Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Isaiah 40:29
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Psalm 119:28
My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.

Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Isaiah 40:31
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Mark 12:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble

We all have our own Higher Power, no matter what you call your God, call on Him/Her for strength in difficult times.