Keeping it simple may seem pretty, well, simple for the average human being, but for us alcoholics and addicts, it can be anything but. We just have a way of complicating the most uncomplicated things. Things like: working, driving and even food shopping become daunting because that’s what we do. Where this becomes a danger is when we complicate our sobriety. Complicating life complicates our sobriety.
I was at a meeting last night and one of the gentlemen there used this phrase. I wrote it in my little notebook because I felt like, “yeah, I want to talk about this.”
When I first got sober, I did not keep it simple. I would create drama, over-analyze things and make problems out to be bigger than they actually were. I was still stuck in the, “Poor me, look what I have to deal with! Why can’t everything just be easy?” phase.
Living life on life’s terms is definitely a struggle for someone who always escaped with drugs and alcohol. The reality of an active alcoholic/addict is that they abhor reality. The cycle is: we screw up, we get drunk, we feel resentment, we screw up, we get drunk and we wind up doing dumb stuff.
I am no longer new to sobriety, and yeah, in the beginning I was trying to hold onto the old way of thinking (complicated) while maintaining my sobriety.
When I realized keeping things simple made my life simple, I started catching on.
Ways to keep things simple:
Plan ahead
Write up a budget
Go to work
Tell the truth
Do the next right thing
Taking a break
Keeping it simple isn’t just for people in recovery. What are some ways you keep it simple?
Darlene A. McGarrity 