Consciousness is Contagious – Catch The Consciousness of Recovery!

The old adage goes: You can judge a person by the company they keep.  Let’s amend that to read: “You can judge the consciousness and happiness of a person by the company they keep.” To varying degrees, we are all susceptible to the positive and negative influence of others.  When we are young in sobriety and often for a long time afterwards, this susceptibility is pronounced.  In 12 step programs, they say “stick with the winners” and “hang around the people who have what you want.”  Indeed, this is good counsel.  To be around people who are in support of each other as a group, but also in support of each other as individuals is a rare thing to find.  At their best, 12-step meetings work this way.

Consciousness is not usually something you just get.  It has to be caught. (There are exceptions to this rule.  I’ve met some of them.  They seem to gravitate intuitively toward the higher frequency and their path is not the path of addiction recovery.) We catch the higher frequency in places where it congregates such as 12-step meetings, meditation centers, yoga centers and spiritual retreat centers.  

On the shadow side of this, it is easy to catch the lower vibration in our world. It happens anywhere (like in your living room in front of the television) but especially in places that prey upon human weakness and addiction.  Of course, Las Vegas is one of those places – Strip clubs, Casinos, Bars, but darkness exists anywhere people are caught up in ego without a teacher or teachers to guide them out of it.  I was one of those people and I got into very serious trouble. Fortunately for me, I was blessed to find many great teachers and with their guidance I was able “to catch” the consciousness of true recovery.

Having a great teacher who can take you from darkness into light is the greatest gift. If you have been blessed with such a person in your life, you have an opportunity to grow in leaps and bounds, and here’s the best part, once you are lifted up, you will be free, not indebted.  A great teacher liberates people, but with no price attached.  You will likely be inspired to go out and help other people as you have been helped, but there will have been no agenda on the part of your teacher to control you or your actions in any way.   This is the mark of a truly exceptional teacher and I have been blessed to have several such as this.   Unfortunately, there are also misguided teachers in the world and I’ve had a few of those along the way as well.  

The point here is that if you want to develop as a person, it is helpful to be around other people with that interest and who carry the consciousness you want to move toward.