GIVING - THANKS SCREEN: MODEL # 3 (Post 111)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018
Post 111
GIVING - THANKS SCREEN: MODEL # 3
As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, my reviewing-the-year-thoughts have started in earnest. Asking myself what progress has been made on personal goals and new year’s resolutions (made months ago), the idea to reformat a diagnostic tool into a Giving-Thanks Screen began to take shape.
That was seven years ago – 2011 – and there was very positive feedback from the recovering community. Last fall, in Post 100, I wrote, “Recently, it has crossed my mind that being thankful, as well as proactively looking for reasons to be thankful, provide very effective antidotes for maintaining recovery-strength and serenity.” Indeed, gratitude is recognizing both the little (immediate) and the big (wider range) pictures. Being thankful keeps us balanced between an ever-present search for satisfaction/comfort/happiness and a perpetual sense of fear/anger/hopelessness.
At the Mid-Central Disordered Gambling Symposium held last month in Indiana, the focus was on the family. Over two days, we continued to hear not only recovery testimonies from gamblers but also from family members, who have their own recovery journeys. Now with Thanksgiving Day rapidly approaching, I offer a third Giving-Thanks Screen.
This time, the inspiration for such a model comes from lessons-learned and wisdom-gained by veteran Gam-Anon members. Definitely, the loved ones, friends, and associates of persons with disordered gambling are impacted, as well, by the controls of a world caught in and ruled by another’s addiction. Obviously, finances need to be addressed and restructured. However, self-image, lifestyle, and personal responses can, also, become severely affected. Still, the good news is that there is hope and there is real help for recovery too!
Thus Model #3 of the Giving-Thanks Screen tests the responses of those impacted by another’s gambling addiction. Realistically, being co-dependent with a disordered gambler calls for serious recovery work … but it is do-able! Gam-Anon members share encouragement and ways to find strength, peace, confidence - and yes, security and stability.
Once more, the following items are formatted as thankfulness questions. As I have said before: prayerfully, each will not only provide progress-assessments, but also measurable reasons to give thanks!
1. Do you give thanks for having recognizable – and do-able – priorities?
2. Are you thankful for days and nights not controlled by fear?
3. Are you grateful for Gam-Anon Meetings wherein you can learn from others and share your own lessons-learned, as well?
4. Do you, thankfully, practice letting go of the things you cannot change?
5. Are you thankful for the growing relationship you have with your Higher Power?
6. Is your day spent in a mode of thanks-living now that you are experiencing a better sense of balance and control in your life?
7. Do you experience thankfulness for new-found ways of honestly expressing yourself and having the assurance and courage to speak your own opinions?
8. Are you grateful for ways in which you are caring for yourself in body, mind, and spirit?
9. Do you feel thankful for active experiences in new involvements outside of your home?
10. Do you give thanks for moments of humor, times of glass-full optimism, and a growing sense of peace?
11. Are you grateful for being able to accept the acceptance of what you can change and what you cannot?
Once again, do you tell yourself THANK YOU!
for saying
YES to RECOVERY?
MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING
BE ABUNDANTLY BLESSED!!!
Blessings,
Rev. Janet Jacobs, CCGSO
Founding Director
Gambling Recovery Ministries
https://www.grmumc.org/
For more information on problem gambling and recovery issues, visit:
www.indianaproblemgambling.org
www.ipgap.indiana.edu
www.mdproblemgambling.com
www.gamblersanonymous.org
www.gam-anon.org
www.kycpg.org
www.pgnohio.org
www.calproblemgambling.org
www.christsd.com
www.masscompulsivegambling.org
www.mentalhealthministries.net
Posted by Gambling Recovery Ministries at 9:58 PM