All We Have Is Now

[MajestyJo]

Monday, November 12, 2012

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Don't Anticipate

We wear ourselves out unnecessarily when we spend our energy anticipating the future rather than living in the present. To anticipate bad things is obviously detrimental to our serenity. It is also needless, since most of the things we worry about never happen. Even if some of them do occur, it is easier by far to deal with real disasters than with imagined ones.

Anticipating future satisfactions can also be detrimental to our serenity. If we are living for an event or condition, which is yet to come, we are not completely alive to what is here now. We may build up some future pleasure in our minds to such an unrealistic pitch that the actual event is bound to be disappointing.

Accepting the here and now is what ensures our sanity and our serenity. Reality is never more than we can manage, with the help of our Higher Power. It is our anticipation of the future, which is unreal and dangerous.

May I live today and leave the future to You.

We look at all the holidays coming up, and forget that this is one day at a time program. Thanksgiving isn't here yet even though I started using pumpkins in my posts. One day at a time, and living in today. I got called on projecting into the future by my spiritual adviser, she said that I was being too pessimistic and projecting into the future and getting angry about it before it happens.

I am reminded of something I heard in early recovery, why look into the future when all I have is the past experiences to draw on to make my choices. I am not that person in today. I also have a Higher Power that I can take with me or leave Him/Her at home.

Expecting the worse is negative thinking and we draw that energy to us. So what we expect, is often what we get, because we have attracted it to us. A negative and a negative, makes for negative energy. A positive and a positive, make for positive energy. A positive and a negative, brings one down and more than often, the negative doesn't come up far enough to meet in the middle.

What I put out, I get back!

Going to OA isn't putting AA on a back burner. If OA is your priority right now, Then we need to look at first things first. I spent years in AA, but took time outs for what I needed for my sobriety. I went to NA and Al-Anon. In today, Al-Anon is still my main focus and I go to an AA meeting when I need it.

I never went to OA for my eating disorder. I dealt with a lot of the thinking and issues with my first sponsor. Recently I realized that I was slipping back in my eating thinking, and wasn't making healthy choices.