“Service keeps you sober”
- Cliché’
“A generous heart. Kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things that renew humanity. They are key to a happy life.”
- Buddah
Finding purpose in recovery is a key to staying sober, avoiding relapse, and general happiness. Purpose comes in many forms, almost all include service. Let’s take a minute and define service.
Defenition:
Service: an act of helpful activity; help; aid:
Service can really look different for everyone, it comes down to making sure the activity fits the very broad definition above, then just do it. No one is out there keeping score for you, this is something that will not work unless it comes from inside you. Now maybe the assignment came from someone else, just keep in mind, if you do it, but you don’t want to do it, then it is not really the right kind of service. The irony about the right kind of service is it serves us as well as others.
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
There are some real keys in the 12th step, it requires honesty and it requires action. . What does a spiritual awakening feel like? I think we better discuss this. Here is a thought starter, once you are spiritually awake it is like a fire that burns inside you, in order to feed the fire, you must be of service to yourself and others it is the only way, as long as that fire burns in me, I am the safest I can be by feeding the fire. This then becomes my clearly defined purpose. The side effects of a Spiritual awakening are not to be ignored. Happiness, laughter, lightheartedness, giving and receiving love, caring, real happiness, real sorrow, feelings of empathy. I could go on and on. If feeding the fire is about service then finding ways to serve is critical to our recovery.
In Jail my co-host Shane had an amazing spiritual awakening, it was rooted in the realization that helping other addicts provided a higher purpose for his life. When he found this level of happiness this level of contentment it became a marker on his map. His life map of happiness. At that point anything that points his compass in the direction of that marker becomes a journey in happiness. He knows where it leads, it equals fulfillment, that hole he has tried to fill with drugs, disappears or becomes much smaller. Your map must be full of new markers. As you set markers your recovery will get stronger and stronger. The formula is simple! Service = connection to higher power & other humans. This becomes the basis for a spiritual awakening, and maintaining a life of positive connection.
There are those who struggle and those who cannot see the light even when it shines right in there face, that is okay, there is still a solution, and even if it goes unrecognized it is still part of your spiritual awakening. Which is really to say the moment you can feel true love for yourself and share that true love with anyone without cost.
You plus me = a power greater than myself. I cannot tether my sobriety to someone else, but my connection to someone else can be that power. Once again finding purpose and fulfillment in service to another human being boom you have a marker on your map, something to keep you driving forward and staying clean. Having found this, life takes on new meaning, no longer something to be endured, it becomes a purpose filled journey.
Often times the thought of service is far harder than the actual service, this is a normal response to the idea of giving up the time and energy that is yours, however it is important to remember recovery is about you. As we recover we often talk about our selfishness as an addict, then we launch out to fix all of the relationships we have damaged, when really all we have to do is live clean and sober, the lives we have effected negatively, immediately fix themselves, our recovery is all about us, but effects every human connection we have had. We cannot talk our way out of something we behaved our way into, we must become a living breathing amends.
Now with all this said there is an un-measurable amount of benefit to our service that goes far beyond our personal addiction. If your service alters one life for the better then you are walking an elite and spiritual path. In this day and age just caring about other human beings can be monumental.
Your addiction is about unhappiness, your recovery should be about happiness. As a user you were not always unhappy and in recovery you will not always be happy. You will however be on the map for happiness, you will be able to set and identify markers on your map. Your spiritual mind awake your higher power will begin to manifest things in your life, put people in the right places, and move you to better and better versions of yourself. It will not always be easy but it will definitely be worth it.