A Purpose Driven Recovery
Getting sober was the easy part. It was a battle for sure, but the war is far from won. Coming to a place of understanding, acceptance and above all purposeful meaning is the true testament to a life lived in recovery. Learning how to put the pieces back together can be as simple as a 12 step directional process. It may be tough but it’s doable. The question after it is all together and the dust is settling is, “Now what?”
Finding a reason for why I had to go through the struggles I did is what helps guide me on my path today. Finding meaning behind every single action and interaction is what keeps me on the path. Without it, I know that the disease would be readily at my doorstep awaiting another opportunity for me to set myself up for trouble. I did not come to these insights readily. It took a lot of time spent working on myself, as well as an opportunity or two to be reminded of the bigger picture. It took an understanding that there is something far greater and far bigger than myself at play here. I can either be a hero on the journey or an extra. It’s really based on perspective.
I do things to the extreme, as most of us do. If I am going to train, I am training HARD. If I am going to love, I love to the fullest extent of my being. This creates an imbalance in the spirit. I do not see this as a good or bad thing. It is simply the way we’re made. I believe that, over time, we find balance. But I believe it is in the experience of living that we come into our true calling and our truest balanced selves. It is in that experience that we find purpose for our struggles. That purpose, ultimately, is based on perspective. How we choose to view our circumstances will create the pages of our stories and write out the paths upon which we seek enlightenment about the reasons why we suffer.
As we trudge on that road, we begin to see that everyone suffers. It is not only those who have an identifiable addiction that suffer. We can see obsessions and allergies in almost everyone. No one is exempt. There are those who take their illnesses to the brink of death and beyond. Then there are those who make a decision to actually survive and thrive. The ones who survive are given a task to mend their pasts, clean up their households and then show others how they did it. But before they can even begin to show others how they did it, they have to understand why they decided to do it themselves. Maybe you were fed up with going day to day in misery and pain. Maybe you have children you wanted to care for and you finally decided to put them first. Or maybe you were at the end of a road where the only other option was death and that just didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. Whatever the reason, you decided to do this. Now you have to understand why.
In understanding why you decided to save your life, you begin to discover who you truly are. Without learning and understanding yourself, it’s almost impossible to transmit your story to someone else. Without knowing your story, it’s almost impossible to find meaning. Without meaning, there can be no purpose. Some people are ok with living a life without purpose. They wake up, go through their day and repeat the same mundane tasks, year after year. I don’t know about you, but that is what life was like for me during active use. I wouldn’t even call it living. Being blessed with a brand new opportunity to restart and try again, I aim to utilize every opportunity and seize every piece of meaning in order to share a message. This is how I found my meaning. This is where my purpose resided.
It took me having many experiences and really digging into the core of who I am in order to lose myself and to remember who I truly am. This process is not for the faint of heart. If you’re comfortable and would like to stay that way, finding purpose for your life may not be the road you want to travel down just yet. But if things just aren’t feeling right and you’ve got some clean time under your belt, you’re ready for that next leap of faith. I beg you to jump! Make sure that your foundation is solid and the support beams are in place. If you’re ready and willing, I urge you to begin to embark down the road less traveled. The insights and the revelations you will have into your life, the lives of those you love and the world around you is, in my perspective, a part of what we came to this Earth to do. Don’t let life pass you by.
Here’s to you discovering your purpose!
Love and light fellow travelers, Adventure V