Bruce Baker

One of the challenges in recovery is moving forward without creating obstacles to stop progress. These are almost always mental obstacles: I can’t do that – I don’t have time – I don’t like that – Not my cup of tea – or the catch-all, there’ s nothing I can do about it.

I don’t know about you, but I have a natural resistance to change. That doesn’t mean I don’t change, it just means I need to really build up momentum to finally push through that wall of resistance. It’s ironic really. I know I need change; I know change will make things better – yet that resistance still holds me back any time I need to make a major shift. Somehow the promise of something better with the change does not break down the wall immediately like you’d think it would.

I sometimes think it’s a bit of laziness, but then I’m a very productive person, hardly lazy. Then I think it’s fear: what if the change doesn’t deliver what I expect? But I’ve made some pretty fearless decisions in my life. I think it might be more about comfort and familiarity: it’s a feeling like walking into a room full of strangers and you aren’t sure they are going to accept you. The only way to walk into that room is to say: if they don’t accept me, I’ll at least know I need to find a different room – if I don’t try, I’ll never find the right room for me.

via Creating Mental Obstacles | Addiction Recovery.

This little ad ditty always appealed to me – I wonder why? But it is so the truth for me. Sometimes I really feel like a nut, and, well, sometimes I don’t. I used to have this voice in my head that said “I hate my life.” Even when life was good, one bad thing happened, there was that family meme repeating itself. At some point I had to find a counter to it – something that made it more reasonable. That was the only way to get away from the disaster mentality. If I couldn’t stop my mind from saying it, I could sure create a response!

I don’t really hate my life, I just don’t like what happened and I don’t handle frustration very well.

I don’t hate my life, I just hate how I handled that situation and I want to figure out how to handle it better in the future.

I don’t hate my life, I hate how I overreact to setbacks that are just a part of life – it really wasn’t that big a deal. Every little setback isn’t a catastrophe!

I think it’s important to identify the times we feel like a nut and recognize overreactions, overgeneralizations, and catastrophization of life events. Bad stuff happens. Semi-bad stuff happens. Good stuff happens too.

via Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut… | Addiction Recovery.