Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016
Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
In analysis, as I have known it, you are confronted by your qualities and cannot disown them, though you may try to.
-- Florida Scott Maxwell
We aren't all in formal analysis, but the Twelve Step program does introduce us to the personal inventory. In this exercise of introspection, we come to know ourselves. We often don't like who we see, but until we have acknowledged it, we are unable to change the specifics of our behavior.
Blaming other people and the "unlucky" circumstances of our lives for all our troubles is deeply rooted in who we are. But coming to believe that accepting full responsibility for ourselves will empower us, even when we are guilty of wrongdoing, is a major step forward.
Looking squarely at ourselves and owning all of who we are may not make us proud, but it does make us honest and humble. We have to be both, first, if we ever hope to forge the qualities that will make us proud.
Today I will reveal qualities that I like very much. If some that I don't like surface, I won't deny them; I will correct them.
In analysis, as I have known it, you are confronted by your qualities and cannot disown them, though you may try to.
-- Florida Scott Maxwell
We aren't all in formal analysis, but the Twelve Step program does introduce us to the personal inventory. In this exercise of introspection, we come to know ourselves. We often don't like who we see, but until we have acknowledged it, we are unable to change the specifics of our behavior.
Blaming other people and the "unlucky" circumstances of our lives for all our troubles is deeply rooted in who we are. But coming to believe that accepting full responsibility for ourselves will empower us, even when we are guilty of wrongdoing, is a major step forward.
Looking squarely at ourselves and owning all of who we are may not make us proud, but it does make us honest and humble. We have to be both, first, if we ever hope to forge the qualities that will make us proud.
Today I will reveal qualities that I like very much. If some that I don't like surface, I won't deny them; I will correct them.
You are reading from the book:
A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey. © 1994 by Hazelden Foundation
No comments:
Post a Comment