Share an inspiring or motivating quote

[PnorkelPW]

"I never lose, I either win or I learn" - Nelson Mandela

Another great choice of quote @Peace Dove


I've sat on this for a while..............there's always a lesson

I don't believe in failure. No matter whether a goal is achieved, a lesson is learnt. Recovery is like that and it's something a friend of mine is going through at the moment. She's had a number of setbacks and is getting closer and closer to breaking point. I don't mean breaking point where they give up, I mean breaking point where they finally start to listen and do things differently...........I hope. They haven't won yet............but they are learning.

My many failed attempts to stop using taught me many lessons. So did my many attempts to start using safely again. I couldn't see it at the time though.........I always felt like a failure. I always felt like I lost the battle. Something eventually clicked though and when I was at one of the lowest points in my life I started to look at things differently. I started to realise that all the times I thought I'd failed were examples of what not to do next time.

Every day when I journal I look at what I might do differently next time............and what I might do the same. If I can just get up the next daya dn face up to the world again I'm a winner. It might not be the greatest day of my life but I'll learn something about what I'm capable of...........or what I'm not and how that might affect my outlook moving forwards. Because moving forwards is what life is about and you can't move forwards effectively if you're always looking behind you.

I don't look at decisions as right or wrong because I never actually get to find out what would have happened if I'd gone the other way. It's all speculation in the end. What I look at is how I might do things differently next time.............and therein lies the lesson.

[PnorkelPW]

I've been including quotes in a daily email I'm sending at work............I found one I really liked the other day

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Eddison

That was me in active addiction. I just thought life should be easier. I avoided the hard work. I worked hard...........but I avoided the hard work. In recovery I've learned that by working through the tough times and facing my fears, the rewards come. I understand now that if I commit to things and do whatever is necessary, more opportunities come.

Recovery has taught me this and this is how I've got recovery.

[PnorkelPW]

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." — Michael Altshuler


Sure things may not have gone to plan but it doesn't mean that you have to stay on that flight path. What are you going to do to change course and reach your destination???

[Lhiver]

Okay everyone I thought this week we could come together and share some quotes that have inspired us over the years!

My favourite quote is one of Oscar Wilde's

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

While very tongue in cheek I think it also makes a good point. It is incredibly hard to move forward when we hold onto anger, either at others around us but also towards ourselves. Forgiveness can take many forms. If someone has hurt us and doesn't take responsibility, or we feel that someone maybe isn't a good influence in our lives we can still separate ourselves from them, while also recognising they are their own person who will hopefully grow and learn on their own. That in and of itself is forgiveness, recognising how people have affected us, and finding a way to move forward that isn't leaving us filled with negativity. Clinging to the wrongs people have done to us doesn't help as much as giving ourselves time and space to process and then come to an appropriate solution.

So how about everyone else? What quote resonate with you?

@ScorpionPW @PnorkelPW @dizzyrhino @Judas @SunflowerSeed @654321Dcba @smaireew @ale27 @Ai1985 @1amAnonymous

[PnorkelPW]

Love this @Lhiver............great quote you identified. I know when i stopped resenting and started forgiving my life changed for the better. Forgiving myself as well as other people was when things really turned around.

One of my favourite quotes is by Rumi.................."As you start to walk on the way, the way appears"

I often feel a bit lost and can get overwhelmed by too many choices. I start to overanalyse and think of all the different combinations, permutations, outcomes, possibilities.............

There are times when I just get stuck and don't know what to do. This is the quote that comes to mind and allows me to get started. There are no right or wrong decisions...........only the decisions we make and if I just make one decision it allows me to make the next one. I'm about to renovate my kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and toilet and have been trying to come up with colours and designs. I was overwhelmed By all the choices and started to feel panicked because the deadline for beginning is getting closer. By just going to a bathroom shop and a tile shop I was able to see some of those choices. I started to build a picture and I'm closer to final decisions but there's still a long way to go. What's happened though is I've started to walk the way and the way is appearing.

If I just get started................things get easier. This has been a massive lesson for me along the way and has helped start to ease me in times of high anxiety.

[ScorpionPW]

I love that @PnorkelPW, it's so true that being overwhelmed by something can make it so hard to get started. Then once you actually just take a step towards something, begin the action and allow things to fall into place, making the next right choice then it makes for a lot less anxiety. A really critical part of this stuff for me is letting go of control which is alot easier said than done sometimes!

I think you raise an interesting point @Lhiver and there is definitely some truth to it.

I know that if I am harbouring resentment then I'm the one who is suffering, not the person I am angry with. No matter how I feel they have wronged me it only harms me to allow the anger to fester. In my experience forgiveness is about alleviating things for myself, not allowing the person that I feel anger towards to have power over me or to live rent free in my head any longer. Whether I think they deserve to be forgiven or not, it's for me not for them.

This segues well into one of my favourite quotes which I heard in a NA meeting once but not sure where it originates:

"Harbouring resentment is like swallowing poison and expecting somebody else to get poisoned"

[PnorkelPW]

Yeah I love that one @ScorpionPW .................I hate to think how much poison I swallowed and kept in my system before I realised I could just let go of it all. It's amazing how much better I started to feel

[Judas]

If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love someone else. Can I get an amen?
- Rupaul

[ScorpionPW]

Love this one @Judas,

It took me a long time to learn how to love, respect and care for myself. Since learning how to accept and love myself, all of the relationships with people close to me are more genuine and I find that the love and generosity that I give doesn't come from an empty place.

Thanks for sharing!

[Lhiver]

Hi everyone! This week I wanted to post a quote from author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

It really spoke to me as someone who often goes to bed at night ruminating on what I did or didn't achieve as opposed to thinking of how the actions of my day will set me up for success not just tomorrow but every day after that. It can be really easy to forget that not everything you're working towards will happen at once, especially in recovery. Each day you take new steps towards your goal, it doesn't happen immediately, but every day you're planting those seeds of change and recovery.

How about everyone else? Any quotes that have resonated with you recently?

@Lone drinker @VJB @XT @PnorkelPW @ScorpionPW @Gary2015 @Emski @G88 @Sicko

[XT]

When im dwelling on negative things..
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." KJV

[PnorkelPW]

Great quotes @Lhiver and @XT

After reading I got to thinking about goals and something I try to get people thinking about.............it doesn't matter if you achieve your goals.

I've come to a place of acceptance these days that no day is ever going to go completely to plan. There'll always be something that needs adjustment, needs to be put off till another time, or needs to be forgotten about all together. I think what's important is working towards something. We'll never achieve every goal we set but we can learn lessons along the way. Sometimes it's only through working towards a goal that we realise we don't want to actually achieve it...........what's important is the lessons we learn along the way.

You're right too @Lhiver about recovery goals. I remember just wanting to be "better" or "recovered" and all I kept hearing was "Just take it a day at a time" and it gave me the absolute s#@%s............over time I came to understand what that meant. By taking it a day at a time I ended up in a good space and these days I class myself as "in recovery" because I'm always working on it. I know now that if I go to bed at night and get to sleep without having succumbed to my addictions then it's been a good day and that's the simple goal I work on each day.

I come back to this quote a lot............well it's a question and answer more than a quote: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

In early recovery it can be really helpful to just keep it simple and work on one thing at a time.

[ScorpionPW]

So nice to read these quotes @Lhiver, @XT and @PnorkelPW.

All of these resonated with me in some way...

Something I heard that has stuck with me ever since the first time I heard it is "Everybodies recovery is as individual as their fingerprint". I heard it from somebody in a NA meeting years ago, so I'm not 100% sure where it originates.

It is an important reminder for me that all because something has worked for me, it doesn't mean it will necessarily work the same way for somebody else. All I can do is share my experience and empower others to discover what path is right for them.

Remembering this helps me to focus on connecting with people, walking alongside them and allowing them to make their own mistakes as opposed to trying to impose my way of doing things or what I think the best solution might be on to them when it is not called for or not asked for...This also goes beyond recovery and into all situations/relationships in life.

[ScorpionPW]

I wanted to share another one of my favourite quotes that I was reminded of today when I was replying to a post by @Iwillbeok...

"Rarely does a response make something better" - Brene Brown.

This is always a reminder of the true nature of empathy for me. That empathy is a choice, and a vulnerable choice. Empathising is feeling with people. To truly empathise with somebody we must connect to a part of ourselves that understands what they are feeling because we have felt the same way before.

It's also a reminder of the power of true empathy, that to just be validated in a painful experience can be so much more powerful than any solutions or sympathy offered. Just being heard and understood, having somebody who is willing to sit, to offer a hand so that somebody is not alone in their pain and simply letting them know they are there is something that has been so incredibly powerful and important for me on my journey.

I would love to hear how this resonates with others

[redbeanbillee]

Hi friends,

I feel like if i could put quote marks around everything Brene Brown has written or said, I'd pop it here for words of inspiration.

Strongly resonate with everything she says.

I also happen to love, forgive me if already mentioned,

"the opposite of addiction is connection"

Will almost always be my fave, and a reminder to check my bio psycho SOCIAL signs and symptoms and well-being. Who do I need to pick up the phone and connect to, or who haven't I had dinner with for a while?