Patience is a virtue. It is not a virtue that many addicts and alcoholics in recovery are blessed with. Instant gratification is sometimes described as a disease of a generation. Living in the modern digital age, everything is available immediately. Long gone are the days of waiting to develop pictures, using dial up to get online, or having to wait until the cheaper times of day to make a long distance phone call. Wifi is everywhere, pictures are instant, and we are more connected at a high speed ever than before.
We are also the most stressed we have been in a long time. We have greater struggles with cancer, mental health, and emotional health. Spiritually, many critics claim, we are sick. Our spiritual sickness comes when we aren’t able to practice patience and be in acceptance of our lives. When we live an active spiritual lifestyle of recovery one day at a time, we practice the highest form of patience and our stress melts away. “The Big Book” tells us, “You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience, and labor.”
It is often the lack of patience and the chemical need for instant gratification that puts addicts and alcoholics in recovery in a difficult spot. “Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today” one contributor to “The Big Book” famously wrote. Life has conditions which we have to meet everyday. The sun rises. The sun sets. The earth spins on its axis. We have social responsibilities, financial responsibilities, emotional responsibilities and spiritual responsibilities. Building our resilience and learning to endure, we face all of our responsibilities with patience, because we learn that life only happens one day at a time.
Our practice of patience is priceless because we fight against abandoning what matters to us most- our sobriety. We take life one day at a time because it simply doesn’t come any faster than that. We have patience to deal with what we have to deal with today and patiently accept that we cannot deal with tomorrow until it comes. Additionally, we learn to wait things out until they pass because we learn this too shall pass. When we experience cravings or obsessive, intrusive thoughts about using, our practice in patience for taking it one day at a time helps us hold on to our sobriety. Apathy toward staying sober and enduring tough times is no longer part of our condition.
You can come out victorious in the fight against addiction. Design For Change offers a refuge to those seeking to recover from addiction. Our unique treatment programs provide the hope and freedom recovery promises by showing clients how to change their lives one step at a time, one day at a time. For information, call us today: (877) 267-3646
