July 18

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 18: “Embodiment of any of these principles is likely a lifetime’s work, and it is also true that the small steps we take in that direction often yield substantial increases in connection.”― Bonnie Badenoch

Interesting quote. I am familiar with this person as a therapist and teacher of neurobiology in therapy. It is funny, but she is NOT referring to the principles of the 12 steps, although it is a custom-made reference, or so it seems.

Whenever we are dealing with spiritual principles, they are also the principles applied to healing in any aspect. This quote was new to me, and I loved it because it is so applicable to the conversation being had here about recovery.

She is talking about healing the brain responses to trauma, but there are a lot of similarities, as I weave into the writings most of the time.

Healing is healing. That is the truth of this whole path. When we heal mentally, we heal emotionally and physically as well. The body, mind, and spirit are all in ill health, so we begin a healing path and find that they are always connected.

My thinking about all of this is that we get to see the healing manifest in every arena of our lives. Only Ego believes they are disconnected from one-another. My health absolutely reflects my mental and emotional state, and so on.

And all of it takes a lifetime of work. When we think we are resting with the work that we have done, we find that we have slipped back into a space where we thought we had “recovered” 10 years ago! I love that, it makes me laugh and laugh. Believing we have overcome any of our old ways of thinking or that we are “done” with any of this work is hilarious! And we cannot see how sick we are when we are in that space. Trust me, the rest of the Universe can and does though. Isn’t that fun?

Step 7 is about knowing that no matter how much “work” I do, I am never, ever done, because it is also a partnership with Universal Power that creates new patterns of belief and behavior. That is not a finite situation, but a flowing and fluid one. And I will never be an “ex-junkie” but always one tiny decision away from self-destruction and creating a huge mess in my life…that is also fun…right?