The Daily Llama brings you short, one-word meditations and a corresponding quote for your complete wool-being (#seewhatwedidthere?) for Monday, January 18th through Friday, January 22nd, 2021. Channel your inner peace as you tackle the craziness of the world.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18th
WORD OF THE DAY: VISIONARY
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
To call someone a dreamer is not always a compliment. The implication of being called a dreamer is that one lacks a firm grip on reality caught up in fantasies or delusion, or worse, that one is just lazy. Anybody can have a dream. Not everybody can make a dream come true.
But being called a visionary is almost always a positive thing. To be a visionary requires more than just the act of looking into the future to see what could be. It requires purpose, direction, and action. A visionary sees what could be and works to make it happen.
In recovery, we become visionaries. We understand that wishing does not make it so, and we learn that we must take action to change our lives. We are aiming toward a life we do not currently have but believe is possible for us. And if we do not believe it for ourselves, our recovery community shows faith in us until we are ready to have faith in ourselves.
But not everybody likes visionaries. These tend to be the people who continue to benefit from the status quo, the ones who benefit from keeping us precisely the same.
Be wary of people who wish to keep everything the same as it has always been.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19th
WORD OF THE DAY: SACRIFICE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
At first listen, sacrifice is not a pleasant word. It conjures up images of slaughtered animals, and it evokes uncomfortable feelings. Sacrificing something sounds violent and gory. And more importantly, when something is sacrificed, it tends not to be small or insignificant stuff. It tends to be the big stuff, the things we would like to keep.
Most of the time, we would much rather acquire something than lose something.
Yet, in recovery, we come to appreciate all that we have to gain by giving up and letting go of the things we have been holding onto tightly that have only been hurting us. At one point, we could not envision living without our alcohol or drugs, or codependent relationships.
But we eventually learn the language of letting go, and we come to see that the more we let go and give away, the richer we genuinely are.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20th
WORD OF THE DAY: DEMONSTRATE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
Sobriety is not about becoming some fictional best version of ourselves. Recovery is not some self-help makeover show where we see some awful before-footage, go through the 12 Steps, and voilà! Everything is magically better, and we are suddenly beautiful people again.
Being sober does not automatically make us more loving or less neurotic. While things in our lives can get better, and while our appearances can improve and our souls become more loving, it is not an immediate process. Perfection is never the goal.
At first, getting sober may simply be about not dying. Then we work on following through on the little things: showing up when we say we are going to be there, returning phone calls, learning to set boundaries. But it is messy, and setbacks are real (but we can keep them temporary).
Recovery invites us to be real and authentic and vulnerable and connected. But if we cannot manage all that today, that’s okay. Then we show up in other ways: by making the coffee or setting up the chairs, or speaking kindly to someone.
We don’t have to be flashy in our recovery to demonstrate that we are healing.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21st
WORD OF THE DAY: RECONCILE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
We will not be able to repair any relationship in our lives if we are not willing or able to speak or hear the truth (the whole truth, and not just our version of it). Honesty is the foundation of healing.
Reconciliation is not a requirement but a potential benefit of recovery. We are not required to remain in any relationship that demands we tell lies or keep secrets or endure ongoing abuse.
It can be a difficult thing to learn how to be honest. We may think we have so many good reasons to lie (and actually, we may have a few).
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22nd
WORD OF THE DAY: WORTHWHILE
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
MEDITATE ON THIS:
The people around you will probably have no idea how much shit you have to go through to get sober and stay sober. It is equally likely that they will sooner notice when you falter than when you do what is right. You will do so much better the sooner you accept this fact and stop getting upset when other people fail to praise you along the way.
This is your story, not their story. When it is your story, you know every word by heart. Other people only have access to the SparkNotes version of your life. They will never know your whole story as you do.
As someone wise once said, we are what we do when nobody is watching us, and most things that are worthwhile in life do not come easily. Keep moving forward. Do the next right thing. Focus on your inventory, not anybody else’s. Keep it simple, and keep it humble.
Need more meditation in your life? Make sure to swing by our Spiritual Gangster section of the site and check out other great words and quotes from The Daily Llama. Additional spiritual tools from Altar & Ego, plus everything you need to know about the planets and stars in The Sobercast with Six, astrology with a sober twist.
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