“With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.”—Zig Ziglar
We patted our pockets. We patted them again. We got worried. We turned our pockets inside out. Nope, not a single dime of integrity to be found. We were integrity-bankrupt. Skint, not only in that department, but in the related department of honor. For how can honor survive when integrity has fled the house? For, through the weaseling and the machinations and the skullduggery of our chemical abuse, we had bartered away our higher selves in favor of the low life.
When we entered recovery, we took inventory and were certainly dismayed when we reviewed the status of our integrity and our sense of honor. And it was not as if we could borrow a bunch of integrity to display in pretense, while we labored to accumulate our own for real. We discovered that we had to build our integrity back up using this initially painful formula: make a promise based on our new values—and keep it. Repeat and grow. As we keep our value-based promises, the world recognizes those promises kept—and rewards us slowly with trust and respect.
Today, let’s reflect on a worthwhile promise we are ready to make and keep. It doesn’t have to be large to be worthwhile, right? In keeping with our gentle program of renewal, we take on what we can manage to take on without counterproductive stress.
It takes guts, often, to tread the path of integrity and honor. But that path leads to a nobility of being we may have lost when we were in the throes of our addiction.
Speaking of guts, then, let’s do a simple but powerful exercise to tone the stomach area. One caveat: if you ate a large meal recently, you may want to wait a while to perform this most excellent move:
Stand with the legs in a hip-width stance. Bend at the knees, so the thighs are at about a forty-five degree angle. Lean your torso forwards, also at approximately a forty-five degree angle. Support your position by placing your palms on your thighs. Take a very deep inhale then exhale with vigor. Hold your breath out while you start to pump your stomach in and out, in and out. Suck your stomach back toward your spine, creating a cave where once there was a mound. Release and repeat, release and repeat.
You may find this very wonderful exercise tough to perform at first. Please do persist! It will be so worth it. We promise! Ten reps is good, twenty reps is better. Consider doing another set or two, if you are up for it.
It’s a relief and a pleasure to enjoys the fruits of making and keeping a worthwhile promise.