Daily Homework

We learn much of what we learn initially through repetitious exposure. It is by becoming present to something repeatedly that space is created for us to learn anew. It is by taking that which we are exposed to and bringing it forth into our life, committing it to action, that we begin to change or transform our life in some way. This is especially true with respect to the possibilities made available through transformation. The DAILY HOMEWORK is about the creation of possibilities for transformation.

The DAILY HOMEWORK is not a replacement or alternative to a person’s work in recovery. The DAILY HOMEWORK is not a replacement or alternative for the 12 Step Program. What the DAILY HOMEWORK does is support a person’s integrity and commitment with respect to recovery. The principles of the DAILY HOMEWORK are designed to a person to stay present to every day and to practice bringing forth into his life. The promise of the DAILY HOMEWORK is that the space for recovery to happen will be created if the principles are learned lived.

PRINCIPLES of the DAILY HOMEWORK

1. To take complete ownership and responsibility for your life. Understand that you have created and chosen your life the way it is occurring. You are the cause of what you experience and your life.

2. Watch your word! Stay present to what you think and say. Choose to say positive things about yourself and others. What you think and say creates your experiences of how life will occur and be for you.

3. Practice your Self Affirmations and Possibilities everyday. Say your Self Affirmations and Possibilities in the morning, throughout the day and before bedtime.

4. What is your Intention? Plan your Intention each morning upon awakening and stay present to it throughout the day. What are you committed to today? What are you committed to now? What is it that you want to create in your life? What is it that you want to create now?

5. Develop your RECOVERY PLAN. Plan your work. Your RECOVERY PLAN is about your life. Your RECOVERY PLAN is about your Integrity. Integrity is the bottom line. Are you in integrity with your RECOVERY PLAN. Are you in Integrity with your life?

6. Develop your DAILY ACTION PLAN. Work your plan. Do it everyday! Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about your commitment and integrity with respect to your RECOVERY PLAN. Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about fulfilling on your intention and commitments. Your DAILY ACTION PLAN is about keeping your RECOVERY PLAN in existence!

7. Acknowledge yourself and others daily. Acknowledge the miracles in your life. Practice affirming that every moment of your life is a miracle.

8. Practice patience! Remember that you are doing the best you can. At the moment that we do we do the best we can. When you know more, you will do things differently. Do this in regards to others too.

9. Share with others what you are getting out of your recovery.

10. STAY HUNGRY FOR YOUR RECOVERY!

For transformation and recovery to take place, it is important for us to get it that we are responsible for our life, that such responsibility is generated from our thoughts and word, that life can be transformed through the creation of possibilities, that it is important for us to become intentional about our creating, that we can support such a creative action through structure and repetition, that it is important to acknowledge ourselves through the process while being patient with the journey, that it is vital to the very nature of our transformation for us to share our possibilities with others through enrollment and for us to remain hungry for transformation.

As a licensed psychotherapist at the Holistic Addiction Treatment Program in North Miami Beach, Florida, and in my private practice I am committed to generating the space to have a conversation about the principles of the DAILY HOMEWORK. It is in the space that is created for this conversation for transformation that possibilities can be created for a person’s recovery and life. The conversation is about enrolling one into creating a possibility for their life, a possibility that did not exist before the conversation. The DAILY HOMEWORK is given to clients everyday to support their transformation and recovery from drugs and alcohol. The conversations within group counseling sessions and individual psychotherapy are conducted from the principles of the DAILY HOMEWORK. Eventually these conversations are about becoming committed to a new way of life, a life of sobriety, and giving up an old and familiar way of being and the counter commitments to recovery. The commitment to transformation and recovery is about making a choice to live fully as opposed to one of dying.

Harry Henshaw, Ed.D., LMHC

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