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Living In The Solution

Posted 7/10/2008 @ 4:32:43 pm by recoverymonologue.com

One of the phrases my sponsor uses often is about "living in the solution." When I was in active addiction I thought the solution was to get deeper into my addiction, this would bring me to utopia. What I failed to see was that the deeper I got into my addiction the more problems were arrising in my life. The fact was I had isolated myself to the point of becoming a recluse. I became a drug user, I was a liar and a thief. And I thought I had found nirvana. Today I live a totally different life. My hours are spent working on productive activities. If I'm tired, I sleep. If I'm hungry, I eat. If something is on my mind I'll call someone and share my issue. This is healthy living. Doing the next right thing. Moving myself forward towards a solution. If I look long and hard enough I generally can resolve a situation. When I'm stumped, I have my sponsor. His experience and wisdom sheds light onto my darkness. I use my tools each and every day. I'm so grateful for the tools that I have and the tools I don't know about that with experience I will learn to use. This is living in the solution for me, constantly looking for the right way to walk, talk or act in a healthy environment. The solution is sometimes as easy as just saying, "no." We each have our own paths and the solutions for each of us may vary, however the end results are the same, we're all looking for that peace and serenity. I love living in the solution.

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Comments (9):

  • Ted @ 07/11/2008 ( 7:07:15 PM )
    Living in the solution is easy, except when it is hard. I can live in the solution all day, but I need to remember to live in the solution even when I get overwhelmed, upset, triggered, and emotional. At this point in my recovery, even a small slip is still a feeling stuffed or an issue avoided and that is unacceptable. I need to stay in the solution for every possible situation and feeling that I have and that is my final frontier in this disease.
  • Steve @ 07/15/2008 ( 2:35:14 PM )
    I've gotten pretty good at identifying the feelings that might lead to acting out. Identifying the solution to these feelings is of course, the tricky part. Although I'm not acting out, I know that I have to keep working towards living in the solution. That is because even if I avoid the addictive behaviors, my bad feelings can still drag me down, slowing my inertia in day to day living.

    My life has been pretty crazy lately and I've managed by realizing that the solution is not out there, but in here, in my head. The solution is not in situations, places or things, but in the way we deal with them with the help and strength of our higher power.

    The mere fact that I'm not acting out, and not replacing it with other addictive behaviors (other than occasionally smoking too many cigars), I do feel like I am more in the solution than I have ever been before and for that I am grateful.
  • Ted @ 07/15/2008 ( 6:43:46 PM )
    Don't mind if I double dip. I feel like living in the solution again today. I have had a good week so far. I am getting a lot of things off of my plate that have been on it and I feel good. I have kept the TV off more than usual and I got up this morning and went for a walk which is part of my solution. You see, for me, staying in the solutoin also means TAKING CARE OF MYSELF. What, taking care of myself? Did I just say that? Yes, I did. I need to take care of myself as part of my program and when I do, other things seem to fall into place and guess what, I usually don't slip. Funny how that works. I feel great right now and this blog is part of staying in the solution for me.
  • Ally @ 07/17/2008 ( 6:37:49 AM )
    Even after a relapse I am finding the solution closer and closer. I don't know the purpose of my relapses right now other than the gut wrentching pain, but I DO know that FINALLY I can reach out and ask other people/addicts for help and share my pain and it does get a little smaller. For me that is my living in the solution to make my pain just a little bit smaller so I can move more deeply and meaningfully into the solution.

    Ally
  • Tom @ 10/12/2008 ( 8:23:10 AM )
    The word solution sounds too complete to me at this point, too much like the word cure. I am working on my first thirty days of sobriety in the program. The word antidote seems to be a the more accurate description for me at this time; the SAA meetings, sharing, phone calls, contacting my sponsor, meditation, journal writing, starting first step work and seeing a therapist, all of these combined feel like an antidote to my disease that keeps me from acting out. When I admitted that I have a problem and that I needed help and I was surrending to that help, including a higher power as I know it, I thought that was the first step. Of course I am learning that there is more to completing the first step than that. Being positive, and celebrating small victories along the way, I do like to think that I have taken a big step toward completing the first step.
  • John K @ 09/21/2009 ( 12:45:58 PM )
    A solution is; an answer to a problem or a liquid with a solid dissolved in it.

    In my case my problem is the addiction that has a hold of my soul. My solution is my program which is simple. Now simple is not the same as easy. The simplicity of the program is go to meetings, use the tools such as reading books, using a sponcer and the most important of all use the phone. The phone is a lifeline in recovery. I have often seen how simple it is to work this program but it is not easy. It takes WORK! Work in the form of first and foremost dedication. How much I want sobriaty will determine how much I will work this program.
  • Rick S @ 12/05/2009 ( 12:15:33 PM )
    It's funny that I believed my addiction was the solution to my problems. How far from reality I had strayed. Living in the lie of addiction nearly ruined my life.

    Today I am choosing to live in the solution: recovery.

    I find that I have to begin every day acknowledging the fact that I am an addict. Otherwise I may choose to lie to myself, and say everything is OK, don't worry about a thing. I need to tell myself this each and every day. Doing so puts me on guard against the things that may trigger me and cause me to fall. Each and every day. One day at a time. It is humbling, and I am not a humble man. To be humble is painful for me. It is painful to tell myself each and every day that I have a flaw. However, it is also affirming, because each and every day I choose to live in reality and not lie to myself. I choose to live in the solution.

    I was at group this morning, and found that I could relate to much of what was said by all who shared. I felt all the pain of their failures, and reveled in their successes. Hoping for my own success at sobriety.

    Today my recovery feels different. The only way it can be successful is if I live it every day. The same way that I lived my addiction every day. This thought is courtesy of my brothers from group. Very simple, yet completely incomprehensible to an active addict. Today I understand that thought; therefore, I am in recovery and living in the solution.
  • Phil @ 12/27/2009 ( 3:25:27 PM )
    Living in the solution is new to me. If I were nibbling at a pizza, my experience of it would have been so far just a few bites of the crust. I have avoided acting out sexually, and have been much better at being truthful and setting appropriate boundaries. But in a way, these are like the elementary steps along the way to a different type of living. A style of living that is positive, not just a list of avoiding the things that I must not do. It seems to me that the real goals of recovery are joy in living, love of others, a moral and ethical higher standard, a higher spiritual path and authentic intimacy with another person.

    I can't wait to get to the pepperoni and mushrooms!
  • Ted N @ 02/17/2010 ( 10:46:49 PM )
    Living in the solution is something that I am trying to do one day at a time every day. Sounds redundant, but I mean it to say that I work on this for the day that I am in and I don’t worry about the next day yet. And I also mean that I try to do that every day. Does it always work, for the most part. It is all contingent on the daily maintenance of my spiritual condition. The more that I venture into new things and new venues the more I need to focus on staying in the solution so that I don’t allow myself to get triggered and to relapse. I do this by employing the tools of the programming: bookending my trips downtown, going certain places only when I am with someone, praying and asking for help, etc… The more I do to keep myself safe, the better I feel and the more likely I am to stay safe. So for me I know that as long as I work my program on a daily basis that I am living in the solution and I am less likely to act out or relapse and that is what I need to do to keep moving forward in my recovery.
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