Bluidkiti's Alcohol and Drug Addictions Recovery Help/Support Forums

Quote:

You are reading from the book The Language Of Letting Go.

Good Feelings

When we talk about feelings in recovery, we often focus on the troublesome trio - pain, fear, and anger. But there are other feelings available in the emotional realm - happiness, joy, peace, contentment, love, closeness, and excitement.

It's okay to let ourselves feel pleasurable feelings too.

We don't have to worry when we experience good feelings; we don't have to scare ourselves out of them; we don't have to sabotage our happiness. We do that, sometimes, to get to the more familiar, less joyous terrain.

It's okay to feel good. We don't have to analyze, judge, or justify. We don't have to bring ourselves down, or let others bring us down, by injecting negativity.

We can let ourselves feel good.

Today, I will remind myself that it is my right to feel as good as I can. I can have many moments of feeling good; I can find a balanced place of feeling content, peaceful, and good.

Some times we have too keep those good feelings to ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy them. It is good to express them. Like the not so good feelings, we don't have to act on them just because we have them, but we can enjoy them for what they are. A good example was my son mentioning detox before Christmas. That gave me a good feeling. I didn't say anything although I wanted to do a little dance. He hasn't made it there yet, but I am hoping and praying that 2018 will be a very good year for both of us..

Shared at my group how in the beginning, my feelings came up and because I started life early shutting down and internalizing my anger, I didn't know what my feeling were, and I found that under all that anger, was rejection, abandonment, resentments, hurt, and many more that I had to feel before I could let go.

Not sure if it was when I had a birthmark removed at 1 year old, I was badly burnt and hospitalized when I was 18 months old, saw my brother killed when I was 3 and he was 2, and/or when our house was struck by lightning when I was 5 years old. I know I had a big fear of fire all my life until I could deal with my feelings. Now I can stand on my balcony and watch it. The gifts of recovery, they are priceless.