When working an active recovery program, it is important to maintain your focus on certain basic ideas. Quite a few of the slogans and sayings in the recovery community come from this need to keep grounded in where we come from, and where we are trying to get to.

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The first three steps in a nutshell...

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After we get a little recovery time under our belt, and start participating in life again, a lot of recovering people have a tendency to forget what the pain of their addiction or compulsion was really like. When life happens, it is very easy to get caught up in it. Another rat in the race....

But remember step 1? "Came to believe I was powerless...." - I can't

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Life is going to happen

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This is what we forget, especially early on, if we have been in a state of withdrawal from life. If we have been living in a drunken or drug induced stupor, or letting depression hold us in it's grip for a long period of time, it is easy to forget that there is real life and real living to be had. You can insert whatever problem you want here, overeating, sex, whatever, if we have allowed it to control our life, when we finally give it up, we can be amazed at how quickly life can become "Normal" again.

Be careful!

Remember step 2? "Came to believe..." - He can.

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Beware the pitfall!

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Forgetting the past can be lethal to someone in recovery. To quote the "Big Book" of A.A. "We do not wish to forget the past, nor shut the door on it" instead we want to give it the respect it deserves, and use it as a tool to keep our head in the game.

We don't have to do it ourselves.

Remember step 3? "Made a decision to turn our will and lives over..." - I think I will let him.

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Stay grounded.

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The 12 steps of recovery are not ever meant to be 'Completed" recovery is not a destination, but a journey, and as such, we need to work it actively every day. Remembering the steps we have already taken, and keeping them in our thinking daily is very important. We have to do steps 1, 2 and 3 every day. A very easy way to remember them is the saying...

I Can't, He Can, I Think I will Let Him!

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Thank you and God Bless!

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