Author: Andrew Arthur Dawson

A teacher of meditation, a motivational speaker, a reader of numerology, and a writer by trade, Andrew Arthur Dawson is a spiritual man devoted to serving his Higher Power and bringing a lot more light and love into this world. This blog, www.thetwelfthstep.com is just one of those ways...

The “Just One More Time” Syndrome

Many active alcoholics and drug addicts often feel like they are invincible. To them it’s as if there’s nothing in the world that could ever go wrong from having just one more time of drinking or drugging. Then there’s those who have already discovered their addictions and are working on their recovery. But even many of them fall off the wagon to go back out for just one more night of partying. Unfortunately, in both cases, the majority of them find out the hard way what can happen with the “just one more time” syndrome.

I have accepted today in my life that I don’t have “just one more time” of drinking or drugging. With all the people lately that are dropping like flies due to tragic DUIs and overdoses, and with all those sustaining permanent life changing injuries or conditions due to the consumption of alcohol or drugs, I’m not willing to take the chance.

We hear it all the time in the news these days where someone famous has overdosed from one more night of partying like Cory Montief, Heath Ledger, and Chris Farley did. Then there’s the less prominent ones many of us have experienced lately where friends and loved ones have passed away just as suddenly from going out just one more time to party. For the “lucky ones” who’s lives don’t expire from the “just one more time” syndrome, there are things such as DUIs and other terrible accidents that can happen too. A good example of this is with a friend of mine who relapsed one night after a period of sobriety a few years ago because he wanted to have that one more time of partying. That evening he fell off a balcony and became permanently paralyzed from the waist down. I’ve also known of those who have gotten into major car accidents during that night of drinking or drugging and have ended up killing someone else. The result? Many, many years spent in jail. Ask any of those people who were the “lucky ones” if the “just one more time” was worth it. I’m sure each of them would say no very profoundly. For me, it’s not worth the risk to go out and have any substance, be it alcohol or drug, ever again just to get that feeling of ease and comfort for one more time. I’m 100% positive I wouldn’t make it back into recovery as it would either kill me or land me in jail.

If you have had a problem with alcohol or drugs, the next time you are thinking of going out for “just one more time”, take a moment, breathe, and ask yourself if it’s worth the risk of you or someone else dying or becoming permanently injured because of it. In that moment of doubt, do what you can to seek help from a recovery program, a clean and sober friend, or from a Higher Power such as God. Any of those actions will probably end up saving your life for doing so.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Paying It Forward

I own a rather large and diverse collection of DVD’s that have been inspirational to me over the years. One of those happens to be a movie entitled “Pay It Forward”, which stars Kevin Spacey (as Eugene) and a young Haley Joel Osment (as Trevor). The movie’s concept is simple. Trevor is given a class assignment by his social studies teacher, Eugene, to come up with a plan to change the world through direct action. On his way home from school one day, Trevor befriends a homeless man named Jerry, who is played by Jim Caviezel. Through that interaction, Trevor manifests the idea to “pay it forward” by doing a good deed for three people, who in turn must do good deeds for three other people, thus creating a charitable pyramid scheme. The rest of the movie revolves around Trevor’s execution of this plan and the interconnectivity to how it all eventually comes together. Quite frankly, our world desperately needs something like Trevor’s plan to be implemented immediately.

Anger and self-centeredness appears to be on the rise everywhere in our world these days. There is major unrest in Egypt and many unnecessary deaths occurring there. It seems as if people are “going postal” daily and murdering too many innocent lives. And even on a smaller level, I observe many people these days focusing solely on their own needs, wants, and desires, and caring less about the rest of the state of the world. It’s sad and unfortunate that this is happening but it doesn’t have to be. Each of us have the power to turn it around and bring more light and love on this planet by doing our own actions of “paying it forward”.

There are so many opportunities for doing this and yet too many of us rarely make a single attempt to move in this direction. Instead, people appear to be doing the exact opposite like throwing trash out car windows or leaving it behind for someone else to take care of in public places. There’s those who are constantly cutting others off or not let others in on roads that they’re driving in. Some aren’t doing an action as simple as holding a door open for someone following right behind themselves. Others watch as people are short on change or a few dollars to make a purchase in front of them when they have the amount in their own pocket to contribute. All of this is just plain selfishness and self-centeredness. We let our brains tell us we don’t have the time, money, or energy to help out or we allow our constant state of stress and anger to leave us in the state of mind to not giving a crap about anyone else.

Ironically, all of this can be turned around in a millisecond by doing a few random acts of kindness every single day. They don’t have to be as pronounced as Trevor did in Pay It Forward either. It can be as simple as cleaning up that trash left behind by someone else. This is one of the things I try to do quite often, such as in a public bathroom, when I see paper towels strewn across the floor, I take the time to clean the mess up. People notice these types of actions and it affects their own hearts, minds, and souls where it often inspires them to doing the exact same thing.

Try doing anything that is a random act of kindness. Buy a person’s coffee in front or behind you in a line that you are waiting in, even if you only have a small amount of money on you. Place that loose change or even a dollar or two in that homeless person’s cup regardless of what you think about them. Allow a person in a store to go ahead of you in a line even when you’re brain tells you that your in a rush. Take the time to ask someone crying near you, even if you don’t know them, if they need any help or even better, a hug. What this world truly needs is for all of us to begin paying it forward by doing things like this. Every kind act that any of us ever do is always being noticed regardless if we are seeing it or not. I believe God constantly keeps a watchful eye out for things things like this and puts things along our path all the time that could use our charity.

I encourage any of you reading this to take a moment, breathe, and try to do one random act of kindness today that can begin your own path of paying it forward. Trevor believed and committed deeply in his soul to his quest in doing so, and you can to. Begin to do your own version of paying it forward and not only will you feel better, but the world will move one step closer to being a more loving and peaceful place to exist in.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Be Still

Have you ever been in a position where you didn’t know what action to take for something you were facing? Or have you ever encountered a dilemma where there were multiple paths you could go down but didn’t know which of them to follow? Sometimes, the best decision in those situations is to take an action that many overlook as even an action at all and that’s to be still.

Being still requires patience and that’s a trait too many of us seem to lack. It’s one I’ve been trying to learn a lot more about over the past few years. But enduring the high pain levels I’ve been going through daily for several years now has often led my brain to taking headstrong actions. And unfortunately, for each of those ego-based actions I took, there were re-actions that brought on a new level of stress. So deciding to take some medication to numb the pain usually sent me down the path that caused even more pain to occur and prevented the source of it from ever healing. There were times too that those headstrong actions led me to trying new healing modalities that did nothing for me but detour me for months and months and drained me financially. Thankfully, those experiences led me to the place where I found the action of being still to be a much better one to follow. It’s one where I wait patiently now for clear direction to come from my spirit and from God.

Recently, my sister’s family went through one of these experiences where they didn’t remain still and wait patiently for things to happen as they were meant to. Her husband had gotten a new job out of state that was going to require their family to move again. There were several more months left in the school year for their sons and their first reaction was to remain where they were until the end of the school year, sell their house, and then move. But certain conditions came up that brought about some fears within them. This led to actions that were swiftly taken to move them out of state before either the school year ended and before their house had sold. For the next four months that followed, their family lived in quite a bit of chaos and ironically, when all the dust had settled, their original house had sold just after their kids school year would have ended. The point here is that if they had just been still and waited patiently as they originally had intended, there’s a good chance their stress levels would have been drastically less during that period of time.

The example with my sister’s family is one I often reflect on when I think about trying to do something abruptly to curb my level of pain these days. And truthfully, the last thing I want to do is complicate my healing process anymore than it’s already been over the past few years. Too often in my life I’ve jumped head first into doing things without being still and suffered the consequences in doing so. So being still has become a much healthier action for me to take. It’s one where I simply just wait patiently for the answers to come. And even when they do, I still continue to be still until my spirit says the time is right to take any actions that came from those answers. Don’t get me wrong, being still is extremely challenging, especially for someone like me who is a go-getter and a Type A personality. But I am finding my life isn’t filled with an abundance of poor decisions anymore that did nothing but lead me down many dead-end paths.

So the next time you are facing your own dilemma and don’t know what to do…you might want to take a moment, breathe, and realize that being still really is one of the actions you could take to deal with this situation. Instead of making an irrational decision from your ego that could do nothing but bring you regret, try this path of patience and I’m sure you may find yourself experiencing a lot less stress.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson