Paul was procrastinating this morning, feeling sorry for himself as he had a heap of admin for work that needed to be done by last Friday that he had to do today. This situation was made even more galling by the fact that if he had done this admin on the day that it needed to be done, it would have been a 20-minute job per day over 7 or 8 days.

But no...

Again he makes something simple into a freaking task. Did he get into it and smash it out this morning? No. He sits in his good chair (by the bay window), stares into space and lets his head give his self esteem a good old kicking ...

"I'm useless. I can't get anything done. I'm totally useless, unemployable and unlikeable."

Total lies. Paul has said before, "No one talks as badly to me as I do." This is where procrastination takes Paul, to a self-loathing, self-pitying place, which I am sure a lot of you know can be a dangerous place for someone in addiction Recovery.

So, Paul takes action, starting small, recognising the benefits of taking action ... just starting. From the sludge of inaction, something stirs ... Paul shares a quote from French artist Henri Matisse, about taking action. He then pulls scripture from the Bible and marries it up with the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius and Chinese Philosopher, writer and founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, allowing Paul to break the bonds of self.

The Tao Te Ching is seen as one of the great philosophical works. The name translates to "the way of integrity". A PDF version of the book can be found here: https://www.unl.edu/prodmgr/NRT/Tao%20Te%20Ching%20-%20trans.%20by%20J.H..%20McDonald.pdf

Links to support over the net

https://virtual-na.org   - Virtual NA Meetings Online & by Phone "Bringing Narcotics Anonymous Meetings to Remote or Isolated Addicts from around the world who may, for whatever reason, be unable to attend local face to face meetings."

https://www.navic.net.au/meetings - Virtual NA meetings in Melbourne Australia

If you have any tips to share in regards to Recovery and lockdown, or just generally regarding making lockdown easier, please get on The ARC - Addiction Recovery Cast Facebook page and send us a message. 

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