Balance – CM Athy (Reflection)

It’s Saturday today in the Mothership. Family & Friends are visiting today and I’m all alone. It’s one of the downfalls of being so far from Galway. At least I don’t have the temptation to run away with my Mum. I’m also too far away to call a taxi. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about balance and the four pillars of the Cuan Mhuire programme. I’m also aware that as everyday goes by my ‘imaginative function’ increases. Yesterday I wanted to be an addiction counsellor, today I want to work for my brother, I have the art of distraction down to a tee. If I want to remain sober, not only do I have to start believing that I am a good person, I also need to find a good balance. A balance of work, self development, recreation, family and meetings.

The four pillars of the Cuan Mhuire programme are Spirituality, Work, Recreation and Therapy. I remember my addiction counsellor Tom once comparing recovery to a bowl of soup. If you keep changing the ingredients you’ll eventually create a beautiful recipe to live life by. I believe I’m as close as I’ll ever be to that recipe. In Atomic Habits they write about stacking habits. It is the process of combining many good habits together. For me I can stack different areas of my recovery. For example if I was to work for my brother I’m ticking both the ‘work’ and ‘family’ boxes. For ‘therapy’ I will see a psychologist and go to two to five meetings a week. I’m enjoying meditation too, in Atomic Habits they also talk about making good habits easy. People think I would be mad to take a job with a daily five hour commute, for me it will be five hours a day where I can focus on myself and my websites. On the commute I could integrate meditation, check in and out with myself daily, I could journal more and work on this website too. It would all become part of my daily routine.