Posture of Service
At Ranch House Recovery, we believe being of service is an important part of bringing meaning to a once meaningless life. Why is it that in so many traditions, cultures, and belief systems there is a call to be of service in all aspects of our lives? We believe it is because we gain so much more as a giver than as a receiver. Service helps build our self-esteem and our confidence. Service instills faith and belief in oneself. The better we feel about ourselves, the more likely we will completely care for ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically. These feelings also translate into how we experience our environment, our home, our community, and our world. The age-old saying of, “what goes around, comes around” tells us that what we put forth into the world is what we get back. If we put good out into the world, good comes back.
Every Saturday, the guys at Ranch House engage in Service Work Saturday. Changing the stigma of addiction is an important part of our program. By engaging with the local community, we show that people struggling with addiction are no different than anyone else. Mistakes are a part of life and owning them and moving froward is critical in bringing about personal transformation.
Service work includes:
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Helping local families with yard clean up
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Assisting local non-profits
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Working with the parks and Rec department with various projects
If we can approach every aspect of our day as a spiritual practice, there becomes no separation within our life. It is our intent to offer RHR clients an opportunity to practice this. Therefore, every aspect of their day and work at RHR is an opportunity to grow their spiritual capacity towards personal growth.
The following can be offered as a “posture of work.” This is the way in which we approach work and the filter through which we observe our experience.
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Taking joy in serving others
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Treating each thing as a spiritual offering or teaching.
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What is being offered to me at this moment?
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What teaching or lesson is embedded in the potential trigger, stretch, or even the monotony of the moment?
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What does ritual and repetition offer the system?
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Where are opportunities for attunement and refinement
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Refusing to Be Pushed About by Judgments and Preferences
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Embodiment of mindfulness in every moment of our lives
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Creation of new neural pathways to attune our mind towards gratitude “i get to do this”
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Doing the Best Job You Possibly Can
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What other option is there? We work towards living a life of excellence for the sake of being an epic community contributor and inspiring this quality in others
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You can work anywhere from this posture and still change the world
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Becoming One with Your Activity, or Getting in “the Zone”
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How can meditation exist even in traffic?
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This approach and posture trains the system to view life as a spiritual practice and opportunity for growth. It heals separation and the divide/assumption that there are specified times for meditation and spiritual connection-- your life is a living map towards god, in every moment-- that is already true and here, we are just working to attune the eye to see it. Where your attention goes, energy flows.
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