spirituality

Drinking. It’s a virtual rite of passage for young men and such an ingrained part of our culture that its related societal ills are casually disregarded. So it should come as no surprise that business entities interested in increasing the sales of alcoholic beverages take full advantage of this fact. William Grant & Sons does this better than most with their latest website hawking a new (cheap) whiskey, The Knot, obviously geared toward young men and idiots.

I’ll have to hand it to their marketing department, this website is pretty cool. It has everything from a guide to manly drinking to a foul mouthed virtual drinking buddy. There is no doubt that when I was an oft inebriated teen this site would have made a great impact on me. Now I just find it mildly entertaining on a superficial level, but rather disturbing when I think about the young men who take this sort of drivel to heart.

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Being more by becoming less would be a good way to explain my definition of spirituality. Helping others without any ulterior motive other than the fact it makes one feel good, yeah its sounds easy but for the diseased selfish mind of an alcoholic or addict it is a very foreign concept.

Even after years of sobriety and good deeds, the “becoming less” part of the equation can be elusive. By this I mean taking oneself out of the picture totally, becoming the disappearing alcoholic. Doing something without looking for a reward from the person helped or those that notice- instead generating that reward, good feeling from within. That’s spirituality… something I had replaced many years ago with alcohol. It’s a huge part of my recovery process now, but still something that for me comes less than naturally.

Those who work the twelve steps would consider it the last, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts and alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” For me it’s less about carrying the message (even though my name tag reads Discovering Alcoholic) as it is following through with the practice of selfless service. I know selfless service may sound like an awful lofty goal, but for those of us who battle addictions it should be considered one of the benchmarks for recovery. It’s evolution, moving from the quest of seeking reward from external substances and sources to enjoying a spirituality that we personally create through our thoughts and actions.

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Read more from Erin at What Winners Do...

Now, I get kind of embarrassed when I think of this but I'll tell you anyway. I bought a stone from a "spiritually enlightened" store for $20.00 so that it would bring good vibes to me. Sadly, this was not while I was actively using drugs, if it were I would have an excuse for this behavior. I was stone cold sober (pun intended).

It was once told to me that a certain type of stone could attract good vibes. If you carried this stone on your person and you focused on this stone's energy, you would benefit from it. Let me break that down for you: I walked around with a rock in my pocket. A rock that I could have just picked up outside off the ground for free, but chose to pay someone $20.00 for.

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