Focus

"...instead of always allowing your thoughts and behaviors to be spontaneous and random, why not, at least occasionally, consciously focus on and practice a value instead?" Melody Beattie. 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact.

One of the MAJOR things I'm grateful for learning in my recovery program, is that I'm responsible for what I think about. And that what I think about, to a large degree, determines how I feel and what I do. I was completely amazed to learn this! I thought that thoughts and emotions were just something that happened to us and were outside our control.

The first thing they taught me was that when I was scaring myself by what I was thinking about, I could say the Serenity Prayer over and over instead. What an amazing difference just that one small change made. Since 1996 I've been doing a class where one of the assignments is to monitor our thinking every day and change it when it's negative. That makes an incredible difference too. Now here's another idea: Focus on a value and practice it - that could be fun - especially in the holiday season. Maybe the value of lightheartedness would be a good one - replacing stress and worry and hurry. "Tis the season to be jolly", etc.