Only You Can Be the Super Hero of Your Own Life: Form Your Own Avengers Team!

Here is a recent photo of me at Disneyland, talking with Captain America. In the United States, we have had a longtime fascination with Super Heroes. In many ways, I think these heroes have become representations of the God (Higher Power) that none of us can visually see. 

Many people claim to live by faith in a God, or Higher Power that they cannot visually see or verbally talk with in their daily lives. We, as recovering addicts, claim that we believe in a "Power greater than ourselves who can restore us to sanity." And yet we often want that Higher Power to rescue or save us from ourselves and all of the chaos in our lives. And we want that without having to do our part in making our lives manageable.

Certainly, as a recovering codependent, I always looked to someone, some other person, to be my savior, or Higher Power. I wanted that person to be my Captain America, or Thor, or Wonder Woman. I wanted someone tangible that I could talk to, touch, hear and interact with through my senses.

Recovery has taught me two things: 1) Yes, there is a Higher Power who can help restore me to sanity, but that Power is not visible and can never be another human being, not even Spiderman. And 2) that if I want a visible super hero to assist me in my recovery, I need to look in the mirror. 

No one person is coming to save me. No one person is coming to save you. There are people outside of ourselves who can assist us with our recovery, but none of them can save us. We have to be 100% responsible for ourselves. But being 100% responsible for ourselves, doesn't mean we go it alone. We already know that we cannot control life or fix ourselves without support. 

But we also know that we have to be the FIRST person to support us. Once we choose to take full responsibility for our lives by doing all that we can do to love and help ourselves, then we can turn to a Higher Power to do for us what we are not capable of doing for ourselves. And we can turn to other trusted people who can hear our story, helps us to clear out our heads and develop a sense of peace in our hearts.

Recovery starts with "me" and that is universally true for all of us. So if we are still looking for another person to be our Super Hero, to rescue us from ourselves, we are in deep trouble. No one can do that outside of ourselves. We have to be the Super Hero of our own lives. And we can be by loving and helping ourselves first, and then accepting help from our Higher Power and from trusted individuals.

In this way, working together, we become like the Avengers who conquer our personal demons, addictive behaviors!