Recovery

1. You like Che Guevera
   
   2. it's about as well proven as Dan Schneider that you've regularly touched Children and still do most likely (of course it's not been publicly proven if it was you'd probably be acquitted within a few days with all your bail paid)
   
   I Wouldn't read this if someone pointed a gun at my face
   
   with this paper made turd in the other hand

I started this book to understand addiction. I finished this book understanding myself (1% more).

Yep. Changed my life. Holy moly.

Yes - grain of salt - yes - but that's with anything...Could probably skip the whole anecdote in step 6...

but other than that I was really really impressed with how this managed to communicate that it's OK and it's Human to make mistakes, to give in to the monkey mind, to choose the wrong ‘program' to solve our darkest, deepest woes - it's human to suffer in this way.

But it's also human to believe in something greater within, and this is one of the many ways to find that.

Some quotes:
‘The inner condition is what we must address.
When you start to eat, drink, wank, spend, obsess, you have lost connection to the great power within you and others. The power around all things. There is something speaking to you and you don't understand it because you don't speak its language - so you try to palm it off with porn but it's your spirit and it craves connection.
Spend time alone. Write. Pray. Meditate. This is where we learn the language.'

“If we all feel we are alone then how alone are we? If we all feel worthless then who is the currency of our worth being measured against?”

“We are all here suffering together. Our job is to help and love eachother”

“I think it's part of being human. To carry a wound. A flaw. And again, paradoxically, it is only by facing it that we can progress”

++++ for Alfred the way he speaks of Meditation & solitude.

PS my favourite quote from the book, and a reminder of how much we are changed by everyone we interact with:

‘In chemistry, when two substances are introduced, if either component reacts at all then both are changed forever'

This is one of the most powerful, winsome books on personal growth and change. It shows us that the 12 steps are for all who feel some sort of ache that they are not who they want to be–in other words, all of us. Through beautiful and profound insights, narratives, and a whole workbook section, Brand shows us that there is hope, however like hell it'll feel like to get there. Amazing. Can't recommend it enough.