My Top 3 Tools for Life: Part 2 — Embracing the Power of Reaching Out
This is part two of my series about the top three tools for managing life that I gained from 12-step recovery. If you missed part one of “Mastering the Art of Pausing” you can read that here.
Today’s topic is reaching out for help and support. For me, that means both reaching out to other humans as well as reaching out to my Higher Power. I was incapable of reaching asking for help and support, even from God, before I got into recovery. This is despite the fact that by then, I identified as a very spiritual woman.
Reaching out to other people
I somehow internalized the notion that I had to do everything myself. I wasn’t “allowed” or not supposed to reach out to others to ask for help. It just wasn’t an option for me. I was the helper, the fixer, the rescuer. Recovery taught me the absolute necessity of reaching out and accepting help from others and my HP.
We are wired for connection, and we’re pack animals. We need each other. I recently heard someone say that there are many ways to build a community, but there’s one way to annihilate a community: be self-sufficient. If everyone is self-sufficient, we don’t need each other. And that’s simply not the truth.
