Wisconsin has long been recognized for one of the worst records in the country for alcoholism and drunken driving. We are the only state in the county that doesn’t criminalize drinking and driving. The result of drunkeness and binge drinking is many needless deaths of innocent drivers and their passengers, as well as friends and family. It also costs taxpayers billions according to The Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. How many times have you tried to make a change to better your health and then reverted back to behaviors you know to be wrong? I know I have. The article below by Anna Bowness Park in the Vancouver Sun gives an example of a young person gaining freedom from alcoholism by changing what she believes about herself Perhaps a deeper connection to a higher Being can help where penalties and policies have failed. Read an excerpt here:
…One day, though, she got into conversation with a new friend who just said simply, “You need to change the basis of how you view yourself. When you do that, you won’t need to leave the drinking. The desire to drink will leave you.” Sadie was stunned. She had never thought about it that way. Her friend went on and shared one simple statement from the Jewish prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” That one verse from the Bible, which she had rarely read, revolutionized Sadie’s ideas about who she was. It reformed the basis of her thoughts and beliefs about herself. She had never considered a God that was divine Love, or that she could begin to see herself the way that Love did, and to listen to this influence.
This was Sadie’s “spiritual spark.” It started her on a journey that was so absorbing to her that a week or two passed before she realized she had not had a single drink. The best part of Sadie’s story is that she never felt the desire to drink again – a period of over 20 years now. And she doesn’t consider herself to be a “recovering alcoholic,” trying to manage her exposure to alcohol. Rather, she sees herself as free, whole and uninfluenced by anything but the Divine.
Whether, like Sadie we are dealing with addiction, or with weight issues, chronic pain or the myriad other health problems in our lives, changing the basis of what we believe about ourselves to one that includes feeling wholly and divinely loved and connected, makes us change-makers and brings results.
For Sadie, a spiritually changed view of herself literally saved her life. What might “turning on your spark,” and being a change-maker do for your health?