First, we tumble unwittingly into the habit of over-stimulation, of doing more and more of what makes us feel good. Then some crisis happens and we’re introduced to the sober joy of under-stimulation.
Tag Archives: recovery
Dependency
Step Four in AA’s addiction recovery program invites us to make a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves. The requirement of this inventory is but minimally met if its only yield is a laggard’s list of shortcomings and missteps. The real work in Step Four is to identify and investigate our dependencies. When a dependency is discovered, the remedial act cannot be second-guessed, negotiated or dithered over. We take an axe to its root.
Like an arrow
Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart. Are you on the drunk-and-dissolute path? Do that with everything you’ve got. Are you committed to awakening? Allow no one to deter, deflect or dissuade you. The key thing is not to hop from one path to another, to mix things up. Disaster that way lies.
Notes on posture
Military posture is not good posture. Our spine is naturally curved, not ramrod straight.
The human head weighs fifteen pounds, give or take. It is supported by a complexity of ligament and bone. It rests, like a ball on a pole, on the uppermost point of the cervical spine.
When we consult a cellphone, the head falls forward. Repetitive slumping turns us C-shaped. The neck develops a compensatory musculature, a pronounced thickness extending from the base of the skull to the top of the back. We lose the ability to breathe diaphragmatically. Our internal organs are forced to function in an ever-diminishing space.
See how children walk, how regal they are. Good posture requires no effort. Old age is bad posture.
Men's Work 