Friday, July 17, 2020
Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
A spirituality that is divorced from the body becomes an abstraction, just as a body denied its spirituality becomes an object. — Alexander Lowen
When we were acting out, we often treated other people as objects. We chose partners or relationships based on externals: Was she beautiful? Was he handsome? Was the person someone we’d want on our arm at a party? And, of course, the most important criterion: could we possibly act out with this person?
We treated ourselves as objects, too, caring more about how we looked or what people thought of us than what we thought of ourselves. We had no genuine sense of dignity because we were locked in a fantasy world, looking for the perfect experience.
As we recover, we have realized we are not just a body, and our body is not an object. Each of us is a human being with feelings, needs, and a point of view. We deserve to treat ourselves and others with respect, remembering our common dignity as people.
I am seeing myself as a whole person, which helps me see other people that way, too.
Hazelden Foundation
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