A Daily Meditation from
One in the Spirit : Meditation Course for Recovering Couples
Challenge:
For those of you who have holiday ghosts that haunt your plans for changing your emotional scrapbook, consider challenging the painful memories that attempt to leave you fearful of celebrations yet to come. “But how,” you ask, “can I get out from underneath the shadow of the horrors that I have experienced?” For those with holiday ghosts related to religious and secular holidays, it can be difficult to smile because the ghosts are likely to remind us of what we have failed to achieve or receive during a time of year when others appear to be celebrating. Our holiday celebrations or religious observances sometimes fail to offer the freedom from our trials we seek. They can be commercial times of expected gift giving and resolutions that will never be kept. Some ask, “Why bother? The holidays are to be endured, not enjoyed.”
Reflection:
The horrors you have known derive their power to ruin your future holidays from the pain and resentment you still feel for the experiences you have endured. For many, those holiday memories are tragic, but they need not control our present or future. Share the pain with those you love and resolve the painful memories as a way for making joyful ones. The pain in the past is real, but it will have been for nothing if we do not use it to make changes. Creating new memories requires that we embrace the past for what it was rather than keeping it hidden. We need to let it remind us of how easily a child’s dream can be broken. If we remember how fragile it is, we will take great care to make holidays special for someone else. When we take those actions to make memories for others, our own pictures are replaced.
Prayer:
God, help me to paint holiday pictures with the colors of hope, willingness, and acceptance.
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One in the Spirit: Meditation Course for Recovering Couples
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About the Authors
Elaine and John Leadem are the co-founders of Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services, P.C. (LCCS) and share a combined tenure in the addiction treatment field of over 69 years. They have authored and published a variety of titles designed to aid recovering addicts and their treatment providers in developing a comprehensive set of therapeutic resources from meditation guides for recovering couples to course material for developing individualized relapse prevention plans.
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