Grey Book Reflection
Our willingness to try new ideas and possible solutions to problems will help open the doors to recovery.
Gray Book, p. 83 (Chapter Five, Lines 6-8)
If the above statement is True, then the opposite would also have to be True. Being closed-minded will close the door to Recovery.
A closed drain won't allow anything to go down, therefore, will spoil from being stagnant. Throughout our active addiction many of us experienced this spoiling process. What we were doing wasn't working, but we were incapable of trying something new.
Our denial had closed our minds, and the drugs just put a lock on it. Since you can't graft a new idea on a closed mind, an opening must be made somehow. Hitting bottom to the point of desperation was that opening we needed to Surrender to Narcotics Anonymous. Step One tells us that when we Admit our powerlessness and inability to manage our own lives, we open that door to Recovery.
Beaten into submission in Step One, was a conditional Surrender. Our Second Step had to be a Surrender motivated by Hope, and Open-mindedness was that key. Our Basic Text says that, "Open-mindedness leads us to the very insights that have eluded us during our lives. " Without Willingness our minds begin to close, and we shut that door again. Narcotics Anonymous is an Action Program; it consists of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
The Steps are the HOW and the Traditions are the WHY. We find that the lack of any one of the three main Principles, Honesty, Open-mindedness, or Willingness, can cease the Recovery Process. Relapse has its beginning at the end of that Process.
Our Recovery and our Truths about ourselves, others and the world, is subject to revision. We must use Recovery as the filter, for that now open drain.
When we get stuck, we can call on the God of Our Understanding, 24/7.
We will remain open to recognize that if we're not the problem, there's no Solution.