Wisdom Of The Rooms - 2018

[bluidkiti]

September 24

Quote of the Week

"The degree of my anxiety is a measure of my distance from God."

Anxiety used to be the master of my life. Without a relationship with God, I faced life alone and was in constant fear of not getting my needs met or of losing something I had so desperately fought to get. The past was a constant source of regret and shame, and the future was filled with countless unknown dangers that would surely overwhelm me. All of this made the present intolerable.

When I entered recovery, I brought my constant obsession with the past and future into the rooms with me. Thankfully, my sponsor taught me about living one day at a time, and he showed me that this was where I would find God—today, right here, right now. He told me that if I could get present, and thus be in the presence of God, my anxiety would go away.​​​​​

This was simple advice, but not so easy to follow. The more I worked at practicing it, though, the more I found it to be true. Over the years, I’ve discovered that the more I use the tools of the program—prayer and meditation, pausing and asking for God’s guidance, and acknowledging in the moment that God is here—the more I find myself in the peace and serenity of God’s presence. Today, I use the degree of my anxiety to measure my distance from God.