The Global Conversation

Tag: conversations with god on recovery

  • With arms wide open

    “As long as the ties that bind us together are stronger than those which will tear us apart, all will be well.”   Narcotics Anonymous literature

    Conversations with God, along with countless other spiritual and religious institutions, mention that we are all one.  Many of us, myself included, would nod their heads in approval not truly knowing what this means, or if we really even believe it to be true.  I mean, how can the guy who nearly ran me off the interstate today truly be one in the same with me and my God?  You see, my God is loving and caring and compassionate, and always considerate!  My eyes tell me we are not one in the same.

    Ah, now there is the rub.  We are one, just not the same, by design.  We are one on our journey of self-improvement, evolution, and struggle to overcome what our eyes tell us we are separate from.  We are cut from the same cloth of God and we come here to experience the grandness of life.  Many times we become entrenched with the conflict between what our heart feels and what our senses pick up from external sources.  Resistance and opposition are viewed as negatives while offering us the grandest of all gifts – contrast.

    When I first began my sober life, I was fortunate to meet people who welcomed me in and identified with me.  In fact, I was told that I was the most important person in the room that day.  This was because the people who were already there needed to see that their old ways were not working. I was the gift for them that day; I was the contrast.

    Together we are in this physical plane of life where we require a contextual field to provide us with a definition of ourselves.  Without all of you, I have no way of knowing anything about me.  God has given us this life, indeed.  He has joined with us in this physical vessel we call our bodies so that she, too, may know the grand nature of his-herself.

    The first thing that brought comfort to me when I entered the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous was the togetherness, the oneness, the comfort in knowing that I was not alone in my dis-ease.  The 12 steps are the same regardless of which program you enter.  The wording only changes slightly, but the meaning stays the same.  So the reason there are so many different programs available is simple. We are all seeking like-minded people.  We feel comfort around those who know what we have been through by their own experience.

    Recovery in the purest sense is not possible without incorporating others into our healing process.  Healing cannot take place without the help, support, and encouragement of others.  This is not to say people can’t stop using on their own.  They can and do.  Recovery is a completely different than simply being abstinent; recovery is a state of being.

    When in recovery, we are a light unto the darkness that others suffering with similar dis-ease can be drawn to.  Our energy is shifted from that of reaction, to a place of creation.  Each day brings about an opportunity to consciously observe and create our self in a more grand way.  We look at areas of shortcomings and recognize the need for change.  In moments of enlightenment, we can admit to others that we behaved in ways that we were not proud of and express our intention to make every attempt to correct our behavior.

    Doing these things brings about a sense of pride in ourselves that we have not experienced in a very long time.  We share with others our struggles and our victories.  We ask each other for help in our times of weakness and we lend our shoulder to others when they experience theirs.

    The sober/recovering person is a gift to the community and inspiration to those still suffering.  In this state of beingness, one invites others into the dark corners of their life and does not hide behind excuses any longer.

    Isolation is the partner of dis-ease.  Experience tells us that where two or more are gathered, God is made flesh.  Many years have gone by since I was greeted that fateful day.  I owe a debt of gratitude to that room of people who opened their arms and welcomed me in. I have long since moved away from that room of people, but I have taken the gift they gave with me.  It is now my place in recovery to welcome newcomers into the room, and tell them they are not alone anymore.

    Join us Path to Peace recovery retreat in Orlando, Florida, October 24 – 27th.  JR Westen and myself are taking the messages found within the ”Conversations with God”  Cosmology, along with our combined 53 years of personal recovery from alcohol, drug, and food addictions, and offering these retreats as a means of returning people to their authentic selves.  We understand the difficulty people face with overcoming these challenges in life and offer a simple, compassionate, and effective means of living a happy, joyous, and free life. These retreats are not simply a weekend long reprieve from our troubles.  Each attendee will be introduced to past and future participants through our community Facebook page.  In addition, any past participant can attend any future P2P retreat for any donation they wish to make.  You read that right – any donation, from $1 to infinity.  We have seen the lives of people change and remain changed from these retreats.  If this is for you, click here to register.

    We understand that there may be financial hardships keeping you from attending this retreat.  If you feel you would benefit from this retreat but cannot afford it, please contact Will@cwg.org and ask about our scholarships.  It is our deepest desire to help those who truly seek change and we want nothing to stand in the way of that.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist.  He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Societal ills

     “No persons do anything inappropriate, given their model of the world.”

    It is not difficult for any of us to look around and find something we deem wrong with our fellow travelers’ behaviors and beliefs.  Our mind many times cannot wrap itself around the inhumane things people say and do.  Thankfully, this says a whole lot about us — we are getting there.

    Where is it we getting to?  I would like to think that at some point each of us will be more concerned with how the Whole was doing rather than how the Self was doing.  I do think that with each visible transgression we humans perpetrate on each other, more and more people decide to become willing to choose compassion over aggression.

    With the social media era in full swing, we now are exposed to worldly events the instant they happen.  We have multiple sources covering every angle of every story, and the funny thing is, we all interpret these events differently.  This should clearly show us that there is no such thing as Ultimate Reality here in the physical world.  Understanding this great truth should free us to more easily accept those who do not agree with our point of view.

    “Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way.”

    On September 11th, 2001, many of us here in the U.S. were faced with an extreme contrast to our way of life.  We witnessed the inhumanity of man on our own soil.  Fear, sorrow, anguish, and suffering were felt across this land as well as abroad.  But at the same time, empathy and compassion were expressed as never before.  Many people were shocked out of complacency and stepped right into a state of being most of us do not experience in life: unselfish, unconditional love.

    With the yearly anniversary remembrance behind us, my thoughts have moved to some of the other societal ills that plague man.  These are, of course, my opinion of what “ills” are.

    In the light of recent events in Syria, I have determined that as a collective majority we are fairly comfortable with letting people kill each other in the name of war; we just have certain guidelines as to how it should be done.  I am, however, proud that we were able to, at the very least, postpone correcting unacceptable behavior (the use of chemical weapons) with the use of unacceptable behavior (launching missiles). This tells me that we may be seeing a little more of the light of compassion than we have in previous years.

    Moving to something a little less dramatic, yet nonetheless what I would call a societal shortcoming, we have designer Brian Lichtenberg.  Brian is the man behind the controversial “prescription” t-shirts.  Brian is trying to capitalize on society’s obsession with, and in a lot of cases addiction to, prescription pain medication.  His money-making idea was to create t-shirts like sports jersey’s with the name of a drug such as Adderall, Vicodin, Xanax, to name a few, on the back, with a number below, emulating sports apparel.

    Brian, like many people, is a business man. He is trying to do what we are taught from a very early age is the ultimate goal for a human – make a lot of money.  One of the things we don’t teach is to do so without causing harm wherever possible.  Brian’s creation, although creative, is turning out to be offensive to many and he is now feeling the crunch.  Many have spoken out against him and now the drug-makers themselves are considering suing him to cease and desist.

    While drug use did not go up or down in relation to this event, our collective conscience did experience a shift. Many spoke their minds and found themselves supported by their communities.  Each experience we have of standing in our authentic truth and being supported encourages people to become willing to do so.

    Much like the events in Syria that brought us to the brink of yet another war, Brian Lichtenberg has ushered in a new era of people rising up against what they believe is behavior not becoming of 21st Century humans. His view of the world was narrow, and the masses have stepped into authenticity and said we will not stand by quietly and let you do this.

    The point of this article is to show that we, as individuals, have more power over worldly events than we believe, as well as making the compassionate comparison to how we go about expressing our power.  Man has typically chosen raw power as the first means of expressing our opposition to those thoughts or actions we feel strongly about. It is becoming clear that what Einstein is so famously quoted as saying is true, “You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.”  The younger generation and the social media outlets are providing a forum for many people to express their ideas, beliefs, and opinions about these worldly events.  This is moving the stick of our evolution at an ever-increasing speed.

    “When people know better, they do better.”  ~ Maya Angelou

    We may be the toddlers of the universe, and all that means is that we are growing up. And it may seem like it was just a short time ago that we would stand, stumble, trip and fall, but now we are starting to walk.  We may not be ready to run and we may still lose our balance, but we are growing up fast.  Each day provides us opportunities to express our authentic self.  Many times we are still going to say and do things that are not in alignment with that, but we are aware. And with each time that we do take a deep breath of courage and stand in our truth, we are empowered to continue to do so.  When we act consciously and collectively, our strength is multiplied.

    With all eyes on our societal shortcomings, we see where we came from.  We express our opposition in healthy ways and remain committed to peace and serenity being the guiding force in our lives. Imagine the world our children and their children will live in with hope and pride.  There is nothing to fear about the future because each new generation is enriched with the mistakes of previous generations for which to decide how they will make their own. So far, it is working perfectly.

    Just another reminder to those wishing to change the direction of your own life or helping another to get out of the rut of addictive behaviors, our Path to Peace recovery retreats are just the place to do that.  JR Westen and myself are taking the messages found within the ”Conversations with God”  Cosmology, along with our combined 53 years of personal recovery from alcohol, drug, and food addictions, and offering these retreats as a means of returning people to their authentic selves.  We understand the difficulty people face with overcoming these challenges in life and offer a simple, compassionate, and effective means of living a happy, joyous and free life. These retreats are not simply a weekend long reprieve from our troubles.  Each attendee will be introduced to past and future participants through our community Facebook page.  In addition, any past participant can attend any future P2P retreat for any donation they wish to make.  You read that right, any donation, from $1 to infinity.  We have seen the lives of people change and remain changed from these retreats.  If this is for you, click here to register.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Came to believe

    Just about everybody knows someone who is addicted to something, and I am not talking about the soft addictions that limit our connection to our highest self.  I am talking about hard core addictions that are affecting the lives of not only the addict, but also many lives around them.  Addiction takes no prisoners and it spares no lives. Families are torn apart, friendships are dissolved, businesses go bankrupt and employees lose their jobs.  Children are left without parents and parents lose children to drug related tragedies.

    Many of us have been asked to help someone who is in need of treatment, only to find that after a few days of sobriety the person has returned to their past behaviors.  I know of one person who has spent over $200,000.00 on treatment programs for his son only to have him end up using after all was said and done.

    Addicts are not soulless-bad people who willingly harm others for the sake of doing so.  They are suffering with a disease that affects their mind, body and spirit.  They are doing what they feel they need to do in order to survive and they live in fear of having to change their way of life.  They are afraid because the disease of addiction strikes at the center of the brain that operates through our subconscious; the same part of the brain that controls our heart beat and our breathing as well as many other survival functions.

    If you have ever watched the television shows such as; Addicted, Intervention, or even My Strange Addiction, you will see the cold hard truth of what it is like to be under the spell of addiction.  You will see, “Continued use, in spite of negative consequences” up close and personal.  Still, without having the experience yourself, you can never truly understand what is going on in those persons thoughts. The behavior appears to be completely insane, and it is.

    Insanity is defined:  Repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.  The addict truly thinks that the next drug is going to fix them and they will never need to use again, hence the term “get my fix.”

    What I have found in my experience, as well as in the experience of others, is that insanity is temporary. The second step of the Twelve Step programs is; Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.  So how do we do this? How do we come to believe?  How did you come to believe?   Have you always believed? Do you still not believe?

    When I first came to sobriety, and was confronted with this step, I did what many others have done; I went on faith.  If it worked for others it could work for me – unless they were lying!  Yes, I didn’t believe yet, but I was willing to give it a try.  What I have come to understand over the years of being clean is that to be fully sane, is a lifelong process. I return to sanity in bits and pieces only to awaken to other areas of insanity.  Through the enlightenment of unhelpful behavior patterns exposed in my life, my level of joy and freedom are increased.

    To be fully sane, is a lifelong process.

    Faith is simply taking someone’s word for something and being willing to give it a try. It doesn’t mean just trust me and don’t question me.  Faith is not going blindly on what others say.  Faith is temporarily putting aside current beliefs to experience another way of doing things.  Faith, with experience, turns to belief.  Belief, with experience and awareness, turns to knowing.  When you get to a place of knowing something to be true, you have found peace.

    So this is what I am here for, to help others to take a leap of faith, and support them through their process of coming to believe, and then walking beside them as they get to know, who they really are and what they wish to do.  This is life in recovery.  This is the path to peace.

    In June we kicked off our first in a series of CWG on recovery retreats.  A small group of people all shared a life-changing event.  If you are in recovery and not experiencing great joy and freedom or are still suffering with addictions, please consider giving yourself this experience.   Our next retreat will held in San Jose, California, Sept 19 -22nd, 2013.  On October 24 – 27th, 2013, we will have another retreat in Orlando Florida.  Click here for more information on these life-changing retreats.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)