Have you ever woken in the morning feeling totally down, struggling to start your day? I’ve had quite a few of those in recent years, mainly due to the state of my health. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned on my spiritual journey when days like this occur, it’s to face life, even when it hurts, and do the things I’d normally do.
I faced this very thing just the other morning in fact when I awoke and felt an overall level of hopelessness and frustration. The only thing I had planned for the day was to go to my home group in AA and then meet with one of my sponsees to do some step work. In all actuality, the way I ended up handling it was a complete 180 turn from how I used to. It really wasn’t that long ago where I’d easily have made the decision to skip the meeting, reschedule the appointment with my sponsee for another time, and remain at home the entire day. But in the long run, I always found those decisions to make me feel even worse. After all, sitting around my house feeling sorry for myself never made me feel any better whatsoever.
It was my first sponsor in AA who told me how critical it was to get out of the house and out of myself when days like this should happen. Of course it took me not listening to her and feeling my misery again and again to finally make a change. When I did, I began noticing in doing so that my perception of the day usually turned around by the time it ended, which is indeed what happened to me after following this path the other morning.
I began it by doing my morning spiritual routine, got showered and dressed, and then attended my AA home group. While there, I even chaired the meeting. Afterwards, I met with my sponsee and spent even longer of a time with them than I normally might have. Following that, I went to a store to get a picture professionally framed of my nephews that I had been putting off doing. Upon leaving the store, I decided to buy a surprise for dinner for my partner later that night. I was already starting to feel better by then and chose to enhance it by reaching out to someone else from my life of recovery over the phone. When the call was done, I occupied the rest of my evening composing an uplifting entry for a future blog posting, watching positive programming on the television, sharing closeness with my partner, writing in my gratitude journal, doing my affirmations, meditating and then praying before hitting the hay. And by the time my head was finally resting back on my pillow, I truly did feel 100% better from how I had felt that morning upon waking.
So I have to say I really do believe it’s far better to face life, even when it hurts, especially on those mornings when I awake feeling blue. I think it’s critical to keep on living our lives, our recovery, or whatever we do, on the days we want to, but more importantly, even on the days we don’t. I’m honestly just grateful how much healthier my life has become in doing so….
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson