Recovery is how we respond.

God grant me serenity for the things I cannot change. This prayer refers to the fact we control very little in our world and often need help. It is how we respond that makes all the difference in life's direction. A Positive direction is incurred when we reply with a measured response to life's incursions that are beyond  our control. Control is relative to what we realize is our role in a given situation. As a active participant in a incident we can manage our response as it relates to others involved. We always must manage our emotions in any given scenario. Emotions are a enemy if not vented with control. Our emotions can be a Achilles heel when dealing with life. This is especially true when confronted with surprise situations which can have unintended reactions. Recovery demands emotional constraint and focused appraisal at all times. Listen as Trent explains why recovery is all about how we respond.

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Welcome to the Recovery is a Process of Decisions podcast. This is Trent Thomas, your recovery peer support specialist. This week's episode is entitled, Recovery is How We Respond. With life, there occurs many situations we have no control over. It remains life's mission to respond correctly to achieve the best response. It is how we respond to life circumstances that propels our life in positive or negative directions. Every choice demands a decision, and every decision creates rewards for correct decisions and consequences for incorrect decisions. We are inherently not masters of the world, but are in fact responsible for how we respond to the world we live in. In the serenity prayer, we pray for serenity to accept the things we cannot change. This by far is the greatest of all our obstacles. We must respond to the majority of things we do not control, both in their initiation or processing. We in fact control very little of the world we live in. We manage no control over the weather or environment we live in. Yet we wear extra clothing when the weather gets cold and put on less as the weather heats up. We know the seasons and thus prepare accordingly. This forecasting is how recovery works. We may not know the exact temperature the day will bring, but we know the seasons. Because we have been here long enough. Life teaches us through repetition. Our past serves us by learning from our good and bad decisions. Because we have fallen, we know what trips us up. We remember when and where we fell. What were the circumstances that led to our fall? What rock did we trip over? What dark road were we on when we crashed? We also have the benefit of others' truths. Their mistakes and bad decisions guide us on what road we should or should not travel on. We know the climate of the season that led to our downfall. Just like we learn to not go out in bad weather. We learn what environments lead to danger, so we should avoid them. Recovery is the greatest show on earth. It permits us to know better. We are what we know. When we know better, we make better decisions, less consequences, and more rewards for correct decisions. Recovery and those in recovery have a wealth of knowledge, and collectively, we know much about what not to do. When we share that knowledge, it improves everyone's chances at avoiding the slips and falls of the roads we travel on. For my own as well as others, we learn what roads to avoid altogether. We make better decisions because we know better. Wisdom is defined as the application of understanding in our everyday life. Understanding the addition of a feeling to knowledge. Knowledge is the confirmation of information. Once we confirm that something is true, we then process that knowledge by adding a feeling to it. I know my mother loves me through her actions and display of affection. I understand her love because I feel love too. And I understand what love feels like. I apply wisdom when I protect and care for my mom because she is a cherished member of my family. And she cared for me when I could not care for myself. With this definition of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, we can readily see how recovery is a process. And by successfully applying the steps of recovery, we can have and maintain a purposeful, productive, and meaningful life. Recovery is an active, self-administered self-examination of our truths and how we consistently do the next right thing repeatedly. Recovery demands we do better each and every day. By learning better from better teachers, we ultimately know better and make better decisions and get better outcomes and more rewards. Recovery is progress and self-propelling ourselves into a better future. For me, recovery promotes extreme gratitude. Grateful that I get to recover, that the God I serve permits me a new day to get to improve myself and get more rewards. The greatest reward is life itself. For the first reward for making the correct decision is that you get to make more decisions. You get to live. Recovery, first and foremost, is a decision to live and not die. Recovery is always responding by making the next right decision each and every day. This is Trent Thomas, and I would like to thank you for listening to another episode of Recovery is a process of decisions podcast. You can now subscribe to this podcast and receive rich, deep episodes for subscribers only, as well as a private personal email account to communicate directly with me for comments and show suggestions. I also would like to invite everyone to check out my ebook publication entitled Recovery: The Seven Steps to Sustain Recovery, available at Amazon.com. Written for those in recovery seeking a formula to sustain recovery. As always, your inspiring comments can be left at transnetrecover.com forward slash podcast. Please feel free to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you and have a blessed day.