Achieving Harmony (good reading)

[clean42day]

Achieving Harmony

When a pianist learns a new piece of music, he or she does not sit down
and instantly play it perfectly. A pianist often needs to practice each
hand's work separately to learn the feel, to learn the sound. One hand
picks out a part until there is a rhythm and ease in playing what is
difficult. Then, the musician practices with the other hand, picking
through the notes, one by one, until that hand learns its tasks. When
each had has learned its part, the sound, the feel, the rhythm, the
tones, then both hands can play together.

During the time of practice, the music may not sound like much. It may
sound disconnected, not particularly beautiful. But when both hands are
ready to play together, music is created, a whole piece comes together
in harmony and beauty.

When we begin recovery, it may feel like we spend months, even years,
practicing individual, seemingly disconnected behaviors in the separate
parts of our life.

We take our new skills into our work, our career, and begin to apply
them slowly, making our work relationships healthier for us. We take our
skills into our relationships, sometimes one relationship at a time. We
struggle through our new behaviors in our love relationships.

One part at a time, we practice our new music note by note.

We work on our relationship with our HP, our spirituality. We work at
loving ourselves. We work at believing we deserve the best. We work on
our finances. On our recreation. Sometimes on our appearance. Sometimes
on our home.

We work on feelings. On beliefs. On behaviors. Letting go of the old,
acquiring the new. We work and work and work. We practice. We struggle
through. We go from one extreme to the other, and sometimes back through
the course again. We make a little progress, go backward, and then go
forward again.

It may all seem disconnected. It may not sound like a harmonious,
beautiful piece of music, just isolated notes. Then one day, something
happens. We become ready to play with both hands, to put the music
together.

What we have been working toward, note by note, becomes a song. That
song is a whole life, a complete life, a life in harmony.

The music will come together in our life if we keep practicing the
parts.

Melody Beattie - The Language of Letting Go.

light and love

Gail

[clean42day]

I really liked this reading, it gave me a new perspective, inspiration, and gave me hope to really want to keep moving forward.

I play piano and I can really relate to the dicipline, effort, and practice it takes to keep repeating what I know works - following directions and the written music. eventually as one hand learns the keys, it becomes second nature, and my fingers remember the actions. even times when my mind is not present....my fingers still remember. They remember the reach, the curve, the timming, and the position. I can close my eyes and my fingers do not forget.

I know that for me.....actions in recovery that were really very unfamiliar in the beginning and even uncomfortable, have now become automatic and second nature. The things I thought back then that seemed impossible to achieve, I now do on a daily basis without thought.

A counselor once told me that most people (normies) have a thought, they experience feelings, and then they take an action.

In addict/alcoholic's he said it is backwards......we take the action, (we drink or drug), then we get the desired result (the feeling) and then the thought follows (that was good).

he said since we have repeated that experientail learning process over the over again....that It becomes a habitual patterned part of our brains chemestry.

In order to break the pattern....we must use this backwards learning to our advantage and take contrary actions. we take the recovery action,(don't drink) we have a feeling, and then we think or have a thought about it.

we keep taking recovery actions based on the program and we re-program our brain and our feelings and our thoughts and feelings follow.

we create new memory pathways that grove in new ways and we produce a new and different result.

Made sense to me!

even though this was explained to me in Class, it doesn't matter if I understand all the mumbo jumbo in technical terms of how neurons jump from one synopsis and axis to another.....all I know is it works and I like the results so far.

being able to get through one day without the thought of drinking or using is a gift and a freedom that is precious. and I am not going to give it up.

one day at a time, faced with new experiences, I apply recovery principals and it miraculously works.

it just takes practice in actions over and over and over until I could do it in my sleep.

we will intuitively know how to handle situations that use to baffle us.....I have experienced this and want to experience more of it too.

The journey never ends....but it does get easier to handle.

and the whole point is to learn to

light and love

Gail