A New Design for Living

We have to learn a new design for living. At the foundation of our Recovery is learning to surrender and let go.

I actually have had first hand experience with the necessity - yes, the necessity of letting go - not just as a good attitude in life - but in fact to save my life!!

I'm referring to the experience I had when I was trained to be a private pilot and learned to fly airplanes. This experience was not only thrilling but something that I will remember the rest of my life.

Over the course of my training, the flight instructor had to teach me how to respond in "emergency situations." The instructor would intentionally force the plane into a "stall" and into a "spin." This means that he tilted the nose up and we lost airspeed until the plane lost its "lift" and starting falling straight down towards the earth. Then the plane started twisting like a corkscrew plunging over 2,000 feet in seconds!! (Prior to this training, the instructor told me that if we didn't regain control of the plane within four spins, we would crash nose first into the ground!!)

You can imagine that when we entered the spin, my instinct (besides yelling at the top of my lungs) was to grab the control stick and hold on for dear life!

But guess what the instructor demanded of me - not just to test my ability to listen to him - but to literally save my life? THE INSTRUCTION I HAD TO LEARN WAS TO LET GO OF THE STICK.

The plane was designed in such a way that if you allow it, the plane will literally self-correct itself back into a safe position to continue flight. BUT, if you fight it, the plane will over-respond and lose all control until it plummets to the ground! You just simply have to let go of the stick.

So too with our addiction, our instinct tells us that when our life starts to stall or spin out of control - we need to grab hold and use all our might and willpower to regain control. But as we all know, this never had - and never will - work.