Planning for a better future does not mean being ungrateful for the present. It is about doing “the things I can” to build on the gifts of recovery that you have already received.
This planner is not a Fourth- or Tenth-Step inventory guide. Rather than looking back at past mistakes and character defects you need to address, you will be identifying your wishes, hopes, and dreams for the future. You will lay out a vision of your future and discover for yourself the steps you need to take to make that future a reality. It’s a beautiful thing to look forward to living life beyond your wildest dreams; but first, it’s important to identify and clarify what those dreams really are. This journal can help.
List the wildest dreams you have right now. Don’t be too analytical or hypercritical. There’s no right or wrong answer; think of this as a sort of “benchmark” for future reference.
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As human beings we are endowed with four aspects of our natures that can be categorized as the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual parts of our existence. In recovery, we first begin to heal physically, as toxins are removed from our bodies. As our thoughts become clearer, we start to heal mentally. Emotional healing begins as the mask of addiction wears away and we begin to connect with our feelings again. Finally, we heal spiritually as we seek a connection with our Higher Power. This is not a prescribed, but rather a descriptive progression, based on the experiences of many people in recovery. Your progression may differ, but will likely include these four “recoveries” within your recovery.
As we seek to align these four points of balance, we build and maintain a strong foundation. While we will never master perfect balance, this is the ideal that we strive toward.
Finding harmony and peace of mind in life is one of the goals of recovery.
Too much focus on any one point will throw us out of kilter. For example, many of us enter recovery in terrible physical condition and wish to improve our health and fitness, which is a laudable goal. However, an overemphasis on physical exercise or extreme dieting, especially in early recovery, will leave little energy for attention to the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of our lives. Similarly, an overemphasis on spiritual development might impede our emotional growth if we focus too intently on prayer, meditation, worship, or other solitary spiritual practices to the detriment of our emotional lives with family and friends. Being overly emotional may tend to cloud our thoughtful, mental reactions to life events, and so on. This journal, which you will begin to create for yourself on the following pages, will help you focus equally on each of the four points of balance in your five-year recovery plan.
What does balance mean to you?
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What actions can you take right now to help you find balance in your recovery and life?
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What do you think your recovery and life will look like in five years?
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USING THE “SERENITY PRAYER” AS A RESOURCE
Members of twelve-step recovery fellowships are familiar with a short devotion known as the “Serenity Prayer.” In its most common form, it asks a Higher Power to…
“. . . grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, and
The wisdom to know the difference.”
In this form, it is attributed to German theologian Reinhold Neibuhr, although as he himself said, he may have encountered the prayer or some variant of it years earlier. It’s true that there are many similar prayers found in many different traditions dating back to antiquity. It was introduced into twelve-step recovery by a member who had encountered it and found it helpful. The “Serenity Prayer” soon became one of the favorite prayers of persons in recovery and today is recited at many twelve-step meetings.
One solution to restore balance in your daily experience of life is to consciously separate what you may want from the reality of the situation. It’s normal, natural, and understandable to want things the way you want them, but recovery requires an ability to accept the things you cannot change. Applying the “Serenity Prayer” and focusing consciously on identifying the things you cannot change, as well as what you can do to better accept those things, will make noticeable, positive, and healthy differences in your experience of life. It is essential to remember that one thing you can always change is how you respond to the people, events, and situations in your life.
You can incorporate the “Serenity Prayer” into your recovery and into the exercises in this five-year planner. People, places, and things—even some things about yourself—will not change for you. In some