Self Recovery

from

alcohol, drugs

and

negative behaviors.

One decision at a time

A true gift of love and hope

for those seeking positive life change.

Michael K. Hensley, BSW, BCh.M

Comeback Power Recovery

Contact author/ publisher for orders/ comments etc.

www.substanceabuserecovery.web.officelive.com

www.facebook.com/comebackpower

emailmike2003@yahoo.com

First edition

First Printing January 2010

Published in Waterford Michigan

The United States of America

ISBN# 978-0-615-33910-8

© 2009 Michael K. Hensley

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Control Number 2009912781

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, including photocopy, recording or storage and retrieval system, without author’s written permission.

Disclaimer:  Comeback Power Recovery (CPR) is a personal self help guide to be used individually, or to supplement other helping programs. It is to help raise awareness of the importance of personal decisions, responsibility and self talk in breaking the bondages of learned and addictive behaviors.

CPR is not a medical supplement and should not be treated as such as dependency and addiction are serious conditions which need to be treated under the guidance of a qualified physician who can help with the often dangerous withdrawal symptoms associated with dependency and addiction.

CPR

Eliminating negative thinking and behaviors

CPR has been created to be used by and for the individual, yet it may also be used to start or supplement other helping groups or programs. It can be used as is as a standalone 40 (day) to life program to implement changes in personal individualized thinking processes, or may be modified to implement shorter or longer life program needs and goals and may be modified to fit the needs of those seeking to be better and to be more productive positive influences in their own lives, as well as in a society that truly needs them and needs them at their best, whatever that may be according to personal needs and desires.

CPR understands the need for citizens, community’s and programs to be willing and capable of working together to get the most out of the program and the best out of the person and also understands that the individual is the most important part of the equation and as such, the individual must be taught that in order to change one’s life through changing one’s thinking and behaviors that they must learn to accept and implement positive productive changes and these changes must start now.

So even if you are still using, remember that you are not seeking help to learn to function with a problem, you are seeking to eliminate the problem and by seeking this help your journey has begun. So be proud of yourself for who you are now willing to become as you make these decisions to change, because you will change and you will keep changing, one decision at a time, as you learn to live beyond your feelings and others opinions and to stand by your new positive productive life truths.

It is now time for you to prepare to find the life that you have been seeking and C.P.R. is going to walk with you, as you find the good that is waiting to spring forth in your new thinking and your new life. Remember as you move through C.P.R. that you have nothing to lose and everything good, about you and life to gain.

Forward:

When seeking to change negative life behaviors and/ or to end addiction the individual needs a plan and a path for finding and building on the personal responsibilities, strengths and life goals, needed to effectively achieve productive life recovery. CPR will help in this life change, as the individual works towards recovery through the repetition of good positive thoughts and productive decision making skills, while also working to eliminate negative thoughts and behaviors that have been hindering one’s own chance at “the good life”. CPR will work with, guide and strengthen the individual while teaching how to achieve recovery in the now, as the objective of recovery is the building up of personal strengths, skills and responsibilities, through today’s decision making efforts. Throughout CPR you will find that positive, productive current life goals will guide the life change process and that this change will become possible, through hard work and believing in oneself, while taking hold of one’s life changing recovery decisions.

The individual will now have a viable chance at full recovery, through responsible decision making, while realizing that past decisions hold no bearing on the power of good decision making in the now. The individual will be changing thoughts, behaviors and distorted ways of thinking away from yesterday’s, oppressive, addiction thinking and towards a more powerful, self actualized, now thinking, as recovery is a decision by and for the individual and it is the individual that holds the keys to that decision.

It is time to see that the responsibility for your actions is yours and though alcohol and drugs may have affected your thought processes, you are still responsible for your decisions and it is by these decisions that life will be changed, one decision at a time.

With CPR you will use your desire to change and your drive to do better, as you learn to eliminate the negative behaviors of addiction and the excuses that reinforce them; as this is a program of behavior, thought and life change, through finding and building on one’s personal inherent individual strengths and powers, which you do possess.

Comeback Power Recovery (CPR) is a personal, positive, productive, life enhancing, self-recovery program to assist individuals in living a life free from the negative thoughts, behaviors and burdensome costly weights of past programming brought on by the bad decision making, distorted thinking and faulty societal misconceptions associated with the negative behavioral conditioning of addiction. CPR offers the individual a chance of self recovery and a new plan for a controlled now life, while emphasizing the importance of the positive, productive, inherent abilities of each person, as well as the importance of the personal choices, actions and responsibilities which will used to secure a foundation of self-actualization.

It is time to better understand the decision making skills that you possess and which you will be using to help build your CPR recovery life. You will find that though it is you that is doing this for yourself, that you are not doing it by yourself and you will need to learn to start working your interdependent role in the community, as you come to understand the interactive norms of the social networks that pertain to you as an interdependent member of society. You can be assured that you will be gaining and not giving up power through these interdependencies, as it will take all of your good inherent powers to break these binds that have been hindering your life.               

You are going to find that you harness much more of this needed power than you realize, which will become self evident, as you start using your personal CPR decisions productively, which starts as a decision to end negative behaviors, to change bad thinking and to start living responsibly, as you move into victory over addiction through complete thinking and behavior changes.

This life change is a decision which has to be made by you, for you and about you, as no one except you, can force you to become a better person to or for yourself. Your recovery must be a personal decision to no longer reside in past thinking or addiction, as you cannot live in the past and thrive in the present at the same time and now is the time to decide on a new beginning, with a new hope, for a new and better now life, as you come to see that no matter how troubled your past or your present life feels, you have survived, maybe not unscathed, but more alive and stronger than you realize, due to your will, power and quest for a better life.

This is your personal victory that you are moving into and it is time to realize that the power that you possess over life, addiction and the past is the power of your decisions and now is the time for new decisions, about new life and now life, as life is now and it is meant to be lived in the now. It takes enough work to live for and to be happy for today, so stop dragging the past around and instead of wishing for a better yesterday and hoping for a better tomorrow, learn how to start working on your next good decisions for a better now, today.

It is also time to realize that being liked by others is nice, but it is not a life sustaining necessity; where being loved by oneself is. So if you want change in your life, than you must start realizing that you are going to need to be open to new ideas; including learning to like and love yourself, for the person that you are and that you are becoming.

CPR is based on individual strengths, needs and desires, as well as personal experience, true knowledge, logical thinking and research and though it is not a substitute for professional medical services, it will promote an awareness of how to break the bonds of addiction, compulsive behaviors and bad decisions, through teaching individuals how to change destructive thinking habits, while showing how to find a new hope for a productive life.

Be sure to read study and work the plans with each new day, as this is how life change works. Also be sure to welcome repetition as a positive learning tool, in retraining and socializing your mind, as your positive affirmations, productive actions and self talk will be strengthened through the repetition of good thoughts.

So do not just read the plans and expect them to work for you, as you must learn to work with them, read them and reread them and then work them and rework them, know them and understand them, as hearing the right things over and over will work to retrain your conscious and unconscious thinking and thought processes.

1.0 Time for change   

          It is time to realize that whatever you think about the current condition of your life, that you are not “too far gone” to benefit from the positive life change that will come as a result of working through your CPR recovery plans. You do have the power of change within your grasp, if you will work for and accept it wholeheartedly, while implementing the positive productive life changes needed for you to build a stronger and better recovery life for your today, one good decision at a time.

          As with any life change program, you must be willing to grow and to hear things differently than you may be used to and you must be willing to start taking responsibility for and doing your full part in your recovery. You will start by paying closer attention to your responsibilities, decisions and self talk, as you quit making excuses for your past ways of thinking and living, because the past does not need excuses, it needs forgiven, by you.          

          It is also time to stop hiding behind misinformation and to see that self-recovery and a better life is for all who are willing to work for it, including the first time or casual drinker who mistakenly thinks that they can be responsible drinkers, or the 20 year compulsive drinker that knows better, too the foolish new drug experimenter trying to fit in to be cool, or the chronic addict trying to get out before they are cold, it is for those who are tired of old ways of thinking and who want to see change in their lives and those who are willing to learn and grow and realize that all people need and are capable of true life change.          

          If you drink, or use drugs, or just live miserably through entertaining learned negative behavioral conditions than you need to realize that the decisions about your life that you made this morning, yesterday and over the years, has nothing to do with your next decision, your today, your recovery, or your life in the now. So stop dragging these bad decisions, bad thoughts and bad pasts around and letting them influence or oppress your good decisions, as it is time to realize that the past is like an ice cube sitting in the desert; it disappears fast and is gone forever.  Now you can start digging for it, you can drag its memory around and can complain about it all day long, but it is not coming back, you cannot change it and it will never do anything more for you, so do not bury it to be dug up again later, learn from it, forgive it and throw it away, to melt away and be gone forever.

          You must learn to make your next decisions wisely, regardless of the past, as you are now looking forwards, not backwards and you must let your past melt away within self forgiveness, as it is time to see that torturing yourself will not fix the past, nor help the now. So make amends when feasible, but not at the expense of harming your now life, as now is the time to heal, forgive and stop dragging any hard times around with you.          

          You do not have to wait until you cannot stand anymore pain to make the decision to change directions, stand up and face what is ahead. It becomes a matter of realizing that the mind thrives on what you feed it, so start feeding it well and it will do well, but keep feeding it poison and it will become poisoned.

          So make the decision to eliminate poisonous thinking and do not keep reaffirming, “the bad days”, bad thoughts and bad feelings, while wondering why you cannot get feeling better; because bad days are created, they do not just happen; though bad moments and bad decisions may, but dragging them around or dragging yourself through them will not help your day get better. Walk through them with the right attitude, change them if you can, dispose of them as you must and move on with your new day, which starts right now.           

          Remember to continue your positive productive self-talk, as you cannot start a new day reinforcing negative thoughts and feelings and then expect the day to be a positive event, but you can take control of it and feel good through your own thought processes and decision to do so.

          So change your thought processes and choose your words and attitude carefully, as it is time to start making conscious decisions about taking control of your present condition and realizing that your next decisions are the life decisions that will affect your life and continuing recovery in the now.

(Day 1) 1.1 Erasing old programming

          It is time for you to start using your ability to think more effectively, while eliminating the negative oppressive thinking that has kept you from becoming the person that you are capable of becoming. As you start working to eliminate negative thinking and preparing for self-recovery, you will realize that much of life is lived in your thoughts and that no matter where your life seems to be heading there is a better place within your reach, even if it has become hidden in the thoughts that you have been entertaining through the life that you have been enduring.

          You will find this new recovery to be like a seed, buried in the dark, underneath a ton of oppressive dirt and yet waiting for the chance to spring forth with new chances at new life. There will be battles along the way, but by staying moving in the right direction, just like that seed, you will shake off this oppressive life dirt and grow stronger every day.

          So keep striving for change through the powers of your decisions, as now is the time to become responsible and to move away from the addictive thinking that has buried your mind under this ton of oppressive pity party dirt.  It is time to see that you cannot wait until tomorrow to do better today, as you must learn to live and grow in the now, while remembering that mistakes and all that you are deserving of a life free from addiction and negative behaviors and that it will be through your hard work and your decisions that you will find this new life.

          This change that you seek will come through brain retraining, recognizing negative thought patterns and eliminating the false knowledge that has been holding your mind captive. You will be standing on new truths and will find that it is not only okay to talk to yourself, but that it is a skill which needs perfected, while being mindful of what you are saying, as your brain will believe, feel, or use, whatever you teach it, which includes, not just the positive affirmations and uplifting thoughts that you need to guide you towards victory, but also all the negative words, attitudes, actions, thoughts and persecutions that you speak, hear, see and continuously allow into your life and mind.

          You must not waste any more time on these negative thoughts and behaviors, as it is time to erase the bad programming that has engulfed your confidence and imprisoned your true powers of recovery and to wipe the slate clean of past bad decisions and make room for new positive learning, as you start reclaiming control of your life, thoughts and behaviors.

          You will come to see that though alcohol can affect your thinking, it is still under your will, your power and your decisions that you operate and you can spend life lying to yourself and blaming everything else for your actions, but to learn to live life positively you must become honest and take responsibility for life and then and only then will you find your true powers working for you, as you find that it is you that exerts the power and makes the final decisions for your actions.

          So now it is time to own up to your life decisions and reactions for all that they are, bad behaviors, from bad decisions and to realize that these behaviors are learned and as such, they can be unlearned, through changing your daily input and output, by becoming mindful of your self-talk (input), as well as your true powers of decision and attitudes (output).

          You must realize that you have the right to make good decisions about your life and to tell your brain good things about yourself and then make a commitment to start replacing all your negative talk and behaviors, with positive thoughts and actions. Remember that your mind only knows what you teach it and only acts on what you tell it, so if you teach yourself to get mad every time a leaf falls off a tree, in time that is exactly what will happen. Now teach your mind that life is good, even with its trials and tribulations and in time you will see that life can be good where it matters the most, in your thoughts, your mind and your decisions.

          So be honest with yourself, control your thoughts and work through the plans to discover who you truly can be, as well as what you truly believe and what you can do to make your life a positive productive event, one plan and one decision at a time, because you and your life are worth all your efforts.

(Day 1b) 1.1 #1 study thought. Erasing old programming

 It is time to stop viewing yourself, others and life in terms of “good or bad” as you learn to separate the person from the deed and realize that everyone is capable of and deserves positive life change if they are willing to take the initiative for that change.

I believe that I am a ____ person?  Why do you believe this way?

It is time to think of yourself in terms of a person and not by the deeds that you have done, as you are not a good or bad person; you are “a person”, who has done good/ bad deeds? But a person.

So what do you think or honestly know about your person?

What do others know or believe about you?

Do you know the difference in believing and knowing?

Do you know that belief does not create truth?

So do you believe or know that you are capable of life change?

Are you willing to accept changes in your thinking and life?

What kind of logical changes in your thinking, thoughts, behaviors and life would you like to see?

What do you need, or are you willing to do, to start this change?

I could do better if (or by) _______? If what? By doing what?

So why not eliminate the excuses and reasoning and start doing better just because of your decision to do so?

What is stopping you from doing all that you can do, to become a better person to/ for yourself? How can and will you change this?

I am willing to work on becoming a ________person! How? Why? What will you do? What can you start doing right now with your next decision to start becoming that person that you need to be?

Others say that I am a __ person? Why do they feel this way?

Do you want to change how others feel about you? Why?  How will you do this? Will it help your recovery? Remember that it may be important what others think, but it is more important what you know and believe about you and your thinking as this is about true change in your life, not others beliefs about your life!

What do you know about the thoughts, moods and attitudes that you take in and carry with you throughout your daily living?

How many negative, thoughts, words, feelings “they’re just words”, “don’t mean a thing”,  and I can not’s, do not, should not, could not, did not’s, do you ingest every day? along with all the hearsay, gossip, complaining, vulgar words and pity thoughts e.g. nobody cares?, I’m no good at, could have, never could, why me, why not me, what about me, whatever, I don’t care, not my problem, I’m depressed, life’s not fair, it sucks, the worlds against me, no one cares, plus all the derogatory statements used in jest, or quick temperedness e.g. that was stupid, I can be so dumb, what is wrong with ?  and all the trash talk taken in from negative people, television, radio, music, magazines and all the places that breed negativity, bad attitudes, hate, drinking thinking etc.

So again, how many negatives do you stuff into your mind each day? 100’s? 1000’s? and how do you think that these could hinder your life and recovery chances? Because they are not just words, they are thoughts that you allow into your mind and as you fill your mind with these thoughts, you need to realize that you are forming opinions about life that may work against you!

So could you learn to use some positive thoughts to change the negative ones, before they change you anymore?

Remember that you are not working to fix a drinking, or drug problem, you are working to change a thinking pattern and behavioral condition. To do this you must learn where your thinking patterns stem from, remembering that deeds and conditions do not define a person, e.g. a person with a medical condition is a person and not a condition; a person who suffers with a behavioral condition is a person, with a condition;  a person from another culture is a person and not an ethnicity;  so you are always a person first and it is time to stop your mind from believing everything that you hear in regards to what or who you are, as it is time to start recognizing the positive truth about all that you are becoming, as well as all that you can do to advance your new positive thinking life. Your life, is about your choices.