Ease and Stability

“All you need is the willingness to make a beginning, “

Meditations from the Mat, by Rolf Gates

Mr. Gates makes things sound awfully easy. I just need the willingness to make a beginning. Yet as I reflect on my recovery, this sounds very much like Step 3 of the 12 steps of AA: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God. I have to make a decision to become willing to act. I make an act of “willingness”. This action is an opening to my relationship to God, my Higher Power, my Divinity. As I reflect further, sobriety became a reality with my act of willingness. This was truly a beginning for me. The simplicity of my willingness is a step of Divinity.

Now,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I need to ponder this for a while. This step of Divinity is the substance of my ease and stability in sobriety. I complicate the process when I get outside of my Divinity and act in isolation. As we know, isolation is the great friend of our addict. When isolated, I live in my head, which is a dangerous place for me to spend much time. This is where I rationalize and convince myself that I am OK by myself. I only have to go to Yoga Sutra II to realize the danger of being in my mind stuff. The practice of Yoga and the practice of the 12 steps is a journey inside, away from my mind stuff, to my source of Divinity. This is the source of my truth, my sobriety, my ease and stability of life.

OK! Does this seem heavy to you? It does to me. What happened to the simplicity of becoming willing to act? So here is my reality check: simplicity does not mean easy. I seek to achieve a sense of ease, not easiness. My sense of ease is the result of staying inside and hearing my sense of balance. My desire for easiness is the result of wanting to just un-wrap a package full of simplicity without the effort to become a state of ease and stability. Being lazy by nature, I’d rather un-wrap a package of easy stuff. However, having experienced the stability of sobriety, I know the blessings of my willingness to act. So, I will continue to choose to practice the acts of willingness that result in the growing experience with my Divine self. I will enjoy the ease and stability of the life of sobriety. I will return to my time beside restful waters. I will keep coming back. Namaste’