April 28

HONESTY: DAY 28: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ― Socrates

I don’t want to live in ignorance. The most important information about life is who I am and what I am really up to.

If I believe only lies about Me, then I am living life in a world that doesn’t exist. I hear what people say about themselves and am sometimes quite surprised at how little insight they have into the truth. We can all see others far more clearly than we see ourselves.

The work it takes to become more self-enlightened is here…Step 4 is the jumping off place for that to happen. I want to know the truth, and I want to keep it in a context that does not separate me from the rest of the world. I want to be in truth, but not be the only one who has that particular view of it.

I love to talk to people. I love to discuss ideas and things we all think we know and understand. There are so many concepts in this world that are assumed. I love to explode the fallacy of them! I love to discover my own beliefs and explode them as well.

It is important to examine, continuously, what I am believing about life. What are my concepts? Where did I get them? Why do they feel right for me? What do I gain by believing these things? I truly believe a thorough and fearless inventory of myself would include these questions as well.

If we travel through those questions and examine one single idea every day, it can shift us into a whole new way of thinking. That will shift us into a whole new way of believing. That will shift us into a whole new way of behaving. That is what recovery IS.

A new paradigm for doing life. Without fear, without resentment, without anger… because these are all byproducts of the ego and its belief that life is “doing us wrong.” It isn’t. Life has no agenda, no plan of attack, no “getting over on” anyone to perform. Life is neutral; we get to pick how we embrace or discard it; and that is directly linked to what we believe about it.

There is no plot, no plan, no conspiracy. There is nothing to “get” except what you are thinking and how that creates this painful and fearful space where you live.

So, I say look at all of it. Take it apart, see what works and what you are being crippled by. It ain’t the drugs and the booze. It is the things that you believe about life, about all of it. It is the things you THINK that are keeping you an arm’s length from happiness.

It is the conditions YOU placed on life that will never allow you to be successful as a human being. It is the stuff that you carry in that 500-pound bag of shit you insist on keeping with you at all times. Let it all go! It has no purpose, except to make your ego all warm and cozy.

There is no “secret” to any of it. It is all about paying attention to the crazy, screaming purple monkeys and NOT grabbing the shit they are throwing at you! It is in NOT believing what they yell. It is in REALLY taking inventory of those beliefs you have created so many rules around.

You made it ALL up. You can let it ALL go. Life will fill you with wonder, awe, beauty, whatever you want to shift your focus to see. It is up to you…all the good cards are yours to play. When do you want to start?