I came across a new blog the other day, Craig over at Inward Bloom. His post, Right now you don’t have any problems, reminded me of how important staying in the moment was early in my recovery. Hang on, let me rephrase that, to say the power of staying in the moment was important is an understatement, more precisely it was critical, crucial, possibly life saving. Even today the ability to bring myself back into the moment is a vital ingredient of my inner-peace, serenity, and spiritual growth. For in this moment, everything is OK, it’s the projections I spin out into the future or regrets of the past that compromise my serenity.

Once a month for the last three years, I have been blessed with the chance to return to the alcohol treatment center where I was a patient and share my experience, strength, and hope with the current patients. One of the things I share is the importance and power of staying in the moment. Let me tell you, it is one of the hardest things to learn how to do. I remember counselors telling me over and over, “you think too much Jared, you need to stay out of your head.” Well that’s great advice and all, but how the heck do I do that? One nugget of simple advice I remember which did help, and was something I could take action on was, “if you do go in your head, don’t stay long and take someone with you.” [Read more…]