- Alcohol
- Drugs
Like so many, Greg chose to drink and take drugs to avoid feeling. Today, he’s using the skills he has learned in recovery to help others on their journeys.
Addiction brought separation, but sobriety has brought him a new clarity and a career in the treatment field. For a year now, Greg has also run a Meditation in Recovery group in California. It was an intentional pursuit after he realized that, while the 12 steps are great, they get you to a certain point and then there’s more beyond that. “There’s a need to have that conscious contact to maintain sobriety,” Greg says. “Early on in recovery, I became a seeker. On my own path, every process that I would seek out always came back to being still. I kept seeing this gap.” His weekly group is a resource for the recovery community as a whole, providing an alternative for those who feel they’ve plateaued in meetings.
As he recently celebrated his four-year sober anniversary, he put the following words down to mark the occasion:
“Today, like every day, I am grateful for the way my life has evolved and for the people who helped me along the way. I celebrate four years clean and sober. A series of events happened in my life that caused a separation between me and everyone else. Without having the proper skills to address these events, I chose to numb myself by drinking and drugging and to not feel the emotions that came with those events. I did this for many years and it created consequences. I knew I was not living to my potential and had to give life one more go. I innately knew that I could not have conscious contact with my higher power as long as I had the blockage of substance. This time, I would put full measures into my recovery, as I had never done before, since things came fairly easy to me.
I followed suggestions and went to more than 90 meetings in 90 days. I got a sponsor and worked the steps. I achieved a level of change with the 12 steps that I honestly believe I could not have any other way. After my first year of being clean and sober, I went back to work and eventually got off disability. I am now working in the recovery field, where I have purpose and passion about what I do. I found that when I did the right thing and took the next indicated step, things just lined up for me.
Today, I show up for my family and have them back in my life. I’m still engaged in the program, have a sponsor, am a sponsor and carry the message every day of my life. I also maintain my sobriety with outside spiritual venues. I realized that all processes lead back to being still and being present in the here and now. This is where peace lives.
I may be a late bloomer but I am really blossoming into a productive member of society and decent spiritual being having a human experience. Life never ceases to amaze me in what is available to me. If I stay present without judgment, detach from the outcome and allow in non-resistance, divine right action always prevails. For this and many other blessings, I am forever grateful.”