A Recovery Blog

This blog is about my continuing recovery from severe mental illness and addiction. I celebrate this recovery by continuing to write, by sharing my music and artwork and by exploring Buddhist and 12 Step ideas and concepts. I claim that the yin/yang symbol is representative of all of us because I have found that even in the midst of acute psychosis there is still sense, method and even a kind of balance. We are more resilient than we think. We can cross beyond the edge of the sane world and return to tell the tale. A deeper kind of balance takes hold when we get honest, when we reach out for help, when we tell our stories.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Self-Acceptance

"Stop trying so hard to do better, be better, be more.  Who we are and the way we do things is good enough for today.  Who we were and the way we did things yesterday was good enough for that day.  Ease up on ourselves.  Let go.  Stop trying so hard."
                                                                    Language Of Letting Go, July 27


Over and over I have read in support books that it is essential to accept myself as I am.  That is the starting point for healing.  I have also just read in the Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families big book that adult children are extremely hard on themselves.  Adult children internalize the Inner Critical Parent.  The way to heal that part of the self is to cultivate an Inner Loving Parent.  ACA suggests incorporating spoken affirmations into one's daily practice.  It helps me to say to myself "Who I am is good enough for today."  It helps me to say to myself "I am doing the best I can."

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