Using heart learning, you practice living life and soon it will also be your WAY OF LIFE.
One of the first slogans that I heard when coming into the AA Program was “One day at a time.” This was sometimes broken down into one hour, or one minute, at a time, or even less. Especially when feeling like a punching bag. I have heard ever since to live in the moment.
Because the past is gone and the future is not here yet. Part of the reason that I was in the madness of active alcoholism was that I lived in the past and future and the present eluded me regularly.
Do you want to experience the power we have been given to create a life we enjoy living while we are in the world? If so, then we must wake up to our life as it’s happening.
Otherwise, we may find our Earth life is over and we’ve been too groggy to enjoy it! And the punching bag of life just keeps on getting hit!
I missed so much of what was going on around me, including my children growing up, that I constantly felt guilty and too mentally numb to even know why.
Jesus said in the Book of Matthew, “Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” This is using affirmative prayer.
Pray in the present now, for we still receive nothing from our pasts because it is gone and we receive nothing from our future because that is never here yet.
When it finally arrives, it is no longer the future but is the now. See how simple it all is? Of course, not easy at first to even comprehend, but it is simple. So why fight it?
We hear “One day at a time” frequently and that this is a day at a time program. Living in the now has given me the freedom to enjoy being me. What a concept from a guy who hated himself.
Why is it so that I can enjoy being me by simply living in the now? It is because the fears from the past and/or future are non-existent. My mind is attentive to what is going on right now.
This is how there is no way it can think the fearful thoughts of past or future actions or inactions. See, very simple! The difficulty comes from our lives up to the present where we lived almost everywhere but the here and now. So, no more punching bag.
But how do I know when and how to start doing this because I have done things in my life and the payment or repayment is coming due? In the now I tell myself to just do the next right thing, whatever that is, and move on.
This is another one of those things that, although simple, can be very difficult. The Big Book relates that every character defect or problem has the same root, fear. What does this mean to someone who has a lot of time around AA?
This is what tells me that when I am fearful, apprehensive, or just “not feeling right,” the root of this feeling is fear. In this case, fear is brought on by the thought of past or future events, real and imagined.
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday! Think about that for a moment and you will begin to understand this concept. Don’t stop planning for future events but just have hope and no expectation.
It is not a just rule or regulation installed by AA, churches, or any outside existence. It is an entirely new WAY OF LIFE!. We have talked before about head learning and gut or heart learning.
Don’t try to learn this like a head lesson in school where you cram for an exam and then forget it all as soon as the test is over. Using heart learning, you practice living it and soon it will also be your WAY OF LIFE.
But only if you choose to do it. My son more or less did this and was able to withstand a long prison stretch of over a dozen years in his young life, coming out a much-improved person.
What you really want determines what you really will choose and, if you did not drink or drug today, you finally do have choices. Choose wisely and you will be the champ of your own life! Thank you, God!