H.A.L.T.

Recov­ery groups gen­er­ate a lot of wis­dom. They have dis­cov­ered that the final stage of heal­ing is philo­sophic. When you are able to look back at a crazy era in your life and pon­der it con­struc­tively, then you are heal­ing or per­haps you have com­pletely healed. If you can look back at your own fool­ish actions and smile, then you have risen above what­ever or who has been the problem.

In ther­apy and sup­port groups, they remind each other of things to watch for. HALT! It is a warn­ing and an acronym for: Hun­gry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Those are the four states in which a per­son is most likely to resort to his or her addic­tion of choice. When you think about it, there is a lot of wis­dom in this. Think back. When are you most likely to “fall off the wagon” with one of your behav­iors? More than likely, it begins to hap­pen when you are hun­gry, angry, lonely, or tired.

Tak­ing care of your­self is your first pri­or­ity. If you do not func­tion prop­erly, then you can­not be there for oth­ers. Cheat­ing your­self on behalf of oth­ers will put you in a worse sit­u­a­tion. The life­guard must be the best swimmer.

Every so often, I look up and real­ize that all four neg­a­tives are in my life. That is when I dis­ap­pear for a few hours — some­times right in the mid­dle of the busiest day. Self-care is some­thing Jesus did. Every so often, he headed for the hills alone. He put a halt to what­ever was hap­pen­ing and recon­nected to his Divine Source. If that is what he had to do, then that is what we have to do too. Never for­get that you are the animal/angel called human. Your spirit may want to soar con­tin­u­ally, but it resides in a body that has to eat, unplug, have non-demanding friends, and some rest. (Learn from your dog or your cat. They have this down perfectly.)