Responsibility...Melody Beattie

[clean42day]

Responsibility 10 June

Self-care means taking responsibility for ourselves. Taking
responsibility for ourselves includes assuming our true responsibilities
to others.

Sometimes, when we begin recovery, we're worn down from feeling
responsible for so many other people. Learning that we need only take
responsibility for ourselves may be such a great relief that, for a
time, we disown our responsibilities to others.

The goal in recovery is to find the balance: we take responsibility for
ourselves, and we identify our true responsibilities to others.

This may take some sorting through, especially if we have functioned for
years on distorted notions about our responsibilities to others. We may
be responsible to one person as a friend or as an employee; to another
person, we're responsible as an employer or as a spouse. With each
person, we have certain responsibilities. When we tend to those true
responsibilities, we'll find balance in our life.

We are also learning that while others aren't responsible for us, they
are
accountable to us in certain ways.

We can learn to discern our true responsibilities for ourselves, and to
others. We can allow others to be responsible for themselves and expect
them to be appropriately responsible to us.

We'll need to be gentle with ourselves while we learn. .....M.B.