WILLINGNESS
/Edition 2 Issue #17
If willingness is a ‘cheerful readiness to do something’ then this is the willingness we need use, to bring about change. (read our blog on CHANGE in the January, 14, 2015 edition of our newsletter be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly to your inbox) In bringing about the required shift in mindset to relieve addiction, alcoholism, co-dependency, or whatever other destructive behavior we are hanging onto, we must first embrace willingness: Willingness to do something differently.
Becoming truly willing to let go, willingness to allow the Spirit of the Universe to enter, and the healing to commence, is the great shift we need to embrace. I will, as I do in so many of my blog posts, refer to Albert Einstein and one of his great quotes: “No problem can ever be solved at the level of awareness at which it was created.” Therefore having willingness to change is elemental to developing the new life we see so many free spirits embrace as a result of a program of recovery, or a set of goals which will allow the change to occur. Raise you consciousness.
Now you may ask “how do I set the right goals to allow myself to bring about this change you speak of?” So many of us want to change, we thing we have the will to change, we attempt to use our free will to remove dangerous, harmful and/or hurtful behaviors. Yet it doesn’t work for a great many of us. The use of free will alone is not enough, we need to set goals and have the discipline to follow through. This is very difficult for most people, unless you spent most of your life in the military learning drills over and over until you have the disciple and habit of true focus; the chances of success on your own are slim. I have people who have asked me: “How do I change, I’ve tried everything?” And my answer is the solution which worked for me: the twelve step of Alcoholics Anonymous! (I recently came across a blog at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) on fifteen Positive-Thinking books, at number 12 (kinda fitting since it describes the 12 Step program in the first 164 pages.) is the book ‘ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS’; you may want to read them all.) And all who say to me: “But I’m not an alcoholic!” - I say to you, read it anyway! Just do it! Read it, and if you think it may be helpful to set these goals as a new way for approaching life through the set of Spiritual Principles which are clearly laid down, and the instructions to change are there. Then read it again! Get someone who has done this course of instruction to help you. Do it NOW! Your life may very well depend on it. These are set goals for change, once you have clearly embraces the willingness to do so. And again, for those who are not alcoholics, are not drug addicts, you can still embrace change through the 12 step program with the help of this, and other books. The world services offices of AA in New York has identified there have been over 300 spin-offs of the AA program throughout the world since its inception about 80 years ago. Go figure, if there have been so many who use the 12 Steps for other than alcoholism, there must be something to it.
GOD
How can we become totally willing and surrender to the Greater Good, or a Power Greater than ourselves, whom I chose to call GOD, or the GOD of my understanding: An all loving God. This may be the Universal God as a mixture of the doctrine pantheism (monistic belief in Nature as Universal Mind), with the duality of body and Spirit being separate entities (comment below on your thoughts…). Whatever or whichever your concept of GOD may be, it is OK. We all have different perspectives. And Free Will has promised this. I have heard so many different personal belief systems. One of my all-time favorites is in the book: THE SHACK , by William P Young. The author here sues a vison, or analogy of GOD as a black woman whom he calls “PAPA”. I found this so useful and recommend it for those who are atheist, and those who have been negatively influenced by organized religions. Gives a whole new perspective to the entity some of us chose to call GOD.
Red Road: image by author © Copyright 2015 www.beyondthe12th.com
SURRENDER
To completely become willing to surrender, (read our blog on “SURRENDER” March 25, 2015; be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly to your inbox) becoming willing, having willingness is the first step to moving forward in hope and wellness. When I became willing to let go of my set of beliefs, because you know before this I knew everything. Being an all knowing being was the root of my problem. I was unteachable, was unable to be helped because I could not understand the willingness required to embrace humility. I didn’t even know what humility was! I was familiar with humiliation, first as a gang member causing fear, pain and humiliation to others. As I went through life as a bully, causing havoc and harm to all those in my oath, humiliating people was part of my life. I didn’t know any better, this was all I know and thought it was ok, and this was my normal, when I first started my AA meetings, my dear friend Scotty used to say: “You do what you do, because you know what you know! If there is no change; there is no change!” I get it today, unless I embrace the willingness to change, become teachable, and listen and learn, there is no hope for me. Hence Einstein’s quote from above: “No problem can ever be solved at the level of awareness at which it was created.” So unless I embrace the willingness, unless I am completely willing to release and let go of the things I desperately hold onto, which are killing me. Another quote of Scotty: “For years I held on, for dear life, to the things that were killing me!” So here, I also, was holding onto false beliefs, false world views, a paradigm based on use and abuse of the people around me; because this is all I knew.
BECOMING TEACHABLE
So it is here, as I embrace a willingness to change, as I finally identified the problem was the way I was thinking. My paradigm was faulty: The way I learned to deal with life, the way I learned to deal with other human beings was faulty, I had to become teachable. And it is with this, becoming teachable, that I learned humility, for the first me in my life I understood humility (look for our future edition on “HUMILITY”, June 3, 2015; be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly to your inbox.) I learned humility was not a weakness, but strength. Humility is one of the many strength of great men, all great leaders are humble, are good listeners and this is a condition which makes us want to be led by them. As I became teachable I learned humility. Now I spend my life’s work to learn to listen, to engage and embrace my fellow human beings, rather than using and abusing relationships to my personal gain.
EMBRACE CHANGE
So in closing today I wish we can all embrace change: By becoming willing to change. To be open to opportunity, to hold positive outlooks on life and embrace change while understanding the human condition inherently resists change, not matter how badly it is needed. From my experience; my life was a total downhill spiral for the last few years of my drunken life. I am an alcoholic and an addict of the ‘seemingly hopeless variety’. I could not change my drunken behavior and lowered the bar and my circle of friends for many years to be able to continue my behavior with others “interfering” with my choices. I knew I couldn’t go on any longer, yet I couldn’t stay ‘stopped’ no matter how much I promised, how much I needed to for the job, or the girlfriend, or the important. I just wasn’t able to do it on my own, of my own free will.
I finally asked for help and embraced a program of recovery which included the 12 Step work in AA, a sponsor, a home group, service in AA and in my community. These are the things which helped me to embrace the much needed help. I couldn’t do it on my own, and I read in the big book, ‘we are an undisciplined lot’ referring to alcoholics and addicts having issues with discipline to keep to the program, unless we keep close ties to the whole of the program, and especially a sponsor who will help us get through the challenging step work.. So simple, yet a deep resolve is need to do the soul searching required to complete give yourselves to this simple program.
Look for next week’s edition on “EMPATHY”. And be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive it directly you won’t miss a beat.
© Copyright 2015 www.beyondthe12th.com
