“Discipline imposed from the outside eventually defeats when it is not matched by desire from within.”—Dawson Trotman
Discipline is a difficult word for most of us, because it has such a peculiar history. While discipline originally meant “to absorb knowledge”, its cultural baggage was weighted by three strong traditions.
First, in medieval times, discipline was frequently associated with self-scourging as a method of self-knowledge—beat yourself, to know yourself better.
Second, historically, the military has enforced learning through the “punishment of discipline.” Only by pain, shall ye learn!
Then, there’s the pedagogical and parental correlation of “disciplining the child” with “punishing the child.” Again, the implication is that only by some form of brutal coercion, will learning happen. Spare the rod, spoil the child…
So, let’s face it, it can be hard for us to approach the concept of discipline always with the love it may deserve. Those of us in recovery, in particular, are in recovery not only from chemical abuse, but from the abuse of those who had power over us.
We would often react by rebelling against the strictures of the bullying authority. However, in the rebelling, we sometimes merely enforced the abuser’s power over us—while throwing our own lives into further shambles. We would use and abuse out of defiance. We would be deliberately undisciplined in reaction to the forced labor imposed on us by our parents, teachers, jailors, pimps, sergeant-majors, priests, police and assorted other authority figures. We ended up running afoul of our own selves—isolated, broken, fragmented, despairing.
Fortunately, in recovery we learned to strip away the punitive associations of discipline to appreciate the beauty of well-practiced discipline. We joined forces with others, because together we could achieve in friendly cooperation what had eluded us as individuals. We found joy in the discipline of a task accomplished together. For recovery is always finally a team effort, a fellowship of mutual commitment.
To fall in love with discipline, is to make an internal commitment to its worth. We have to see the point—and we have to want the outcome. We have to believe that there is salvation to be had from the consistent, determined, organized effort that it takes to triumph over any challenge. Discipline is always about sacrifice—small or large. We sacrifice our scatteredness in favor of a focused goal. We seek help, we link with others, we offer our services, we work together. With this attitude, in a fellowship of support, we can let go of discipline as punishment and embrace discipline as the creation of beauty.
Today, let’s “square our shoulders”, as a physical way to affirm our determination to face-up to discipline—and make it a joy, not a chore…
Stand with feet at shoulder-width, arms resting by your sides and your butt tucked gently forward. Circle your shoulders up, forwards, down and backwards, making a full 360-degree rotation. Repeat in the opposite direction. Do up to 20 repetitions in both directions.
Next, pull your shoulders back and down, bringing your shoulder blades together as close as possible. Keep the chest area as relaxed as possible. Tighten the muscles in the upper back and hold for five seconds. Relax. Repeat five to ten times. A
I welcome the serenity that discipline brings to my spirit.