Sooner or Later

On Seeing Clearly ¾ Perhaps for the First Time

EXPERIENCE has taught us[1] that all who enter this territory of willing exploration and recovery have to, sooner or later, put down their devices of mood alteration. 

These devices may be some variation on chemical or substance use, or they may be activities that we do as part of our daily rituals, or they may be people with whom we are in relationships. Still, they are devices that we use either overtly or covertly to mood-alter, and they stand between us and our escape from the prison of our minds.

Feelings like anxiety, suspicion, nervousness, and apprehension are signals to the psyche … warnings for the soul to “maybe” take cover. They are messages that are interpreted as something may be amiss … in my life … or that things are about to go amiss. The key words in there are “maybe” … not are … but “maybe”.  These feelings that I so despise and fear also trigger in me my need to mood alter … to hide … to use my best mood-altering device(s) … for protection.

The interpretation and understanding of those signals is something that we all learned to do at a very young age … it was a survival trick we learned … purely out of necessity  … to respond to … not react to … but what I have found out about myself on my journey is that more often then not … in my adult life today  …  most of what stirs my warning system are the parts of my mind that are continuously rattling around in my head … my thoughts …  trying to make sense out of old thoughts, memories and especially resentments … things that really have nothing to do with my reality today … outside of the fact that I am carrying them with me each and every moment of my day … in fact at this very moment.

With the peace of God comes awareness and intuition. These you can safely substitute for any form of fear.

 The Key Is Always In The Hand Of The Seeker

For Your Journal[2]

27)  How have your compulsions affected you physically? 

28)  Mentally? 

29)  Spiritually? 

30)  Emotionally?

31)  What is the specific way in which your obsessive-compulsive behaviour has been manifesting itself most recently?

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[1] Extracted from Experience Has Taught Us – 175 Missing Pieces … number 68 … published by Bright Star Press … Neil Douglas – Tubb

[2] Questions taken from Experience Has Taught Us … The First Steps … Searching for the Willingness to Change … Steps One – Five … published by Bright Star Press … Neil Douglas-Tubb Author