The spiritual space we’re trying to find and maintain in meditation practice is the sacred place in each of us. - Melody Beattie

Imagine All the Possibilities Think of all the possibilities for your life — for love, for work, for growth. Think of all the possibilities for adventure, for fun, and for service. This day, this week, this month, this year abounds with possibilities. Each task you have to do, each problem you encounter and need to solve abounds with possibilities. Your life abounds with possibilities. For a long time, we only saw some of the possibilities life held. We’d look at a situation and see the possibilities for guilt, victimization, sadness, and despair. We’d tell ourselves there was only one choice, or no choice, or that something had to be done in a particular way — the hardest and dreariest way possible. We’d neglect to envision the other options — the choices for joy, for making any event more fun, more pleasant, more enjoyable.

Many codependents: have lived through events and with people that were out of control, causing the codependents sorrow and disappointment. become afraid to let other people be who they are and allow events to happen naturally. don’t see or deal with their fear of loss of control. think they know best how things should turn out and how people should behave. try to control events and people through helplessness, guilt, coercion, threats, advice-giving, manipulation, or domination. eventually fail in their efforts or provoke people’s anger. get frustrated and angry. feel controlled by events and people. DENIAL

Here’s another quirk some of us have. We’re able to demonstrate a lot of compassion for other people. We can understand why they did the things they did. But when we look in that mirror, we can’t seem to muster up any compassion, forgiveness, or understanding for ourselves.