Brian McAlister - Full Recovery: The Recovering Persons Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Power

Authors note: The information given in this book is designed to help you make informed decisions about your recovery. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment program. Treatment is available at Full Recovery Wellness Center, Fairfield, NJ. This book presents principles widely accepted by all theologies and civilizations, but rarely understood or utilized.

The events described in this book are real. In the spirit of anonymity, all namesexcluding the authorsand locations have been changed to protect the privacy of the people discussed.

Published by MacSimum Publishing Company

Hampton, New Jersey

Copyright 2015 Brian McAlister

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group and Bumpy Design

Cover design by MacSimum Publishing LLC and Rory McAlister

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data is available.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9823948-3-0

eBook Edition

Other Edition(s):

Print ISBN: 978-0-9823948-2-3 (Third Edition)

Originally published as 978-0-9823948-0-9

MacSimum Publishing, Newton, New Jersey, 2008

To my son, Rory, and my beautiful wife, Paula, your continuous love and support allow me to experience my full potential. Mom, Dad, Eddie, and Elaine, your encouragement means more than you know. Thanks to Uncle Matt, Brian Ford, Bill Agne, Lynda and Ben Kinsley, and Laurie Kessler for your constructive feedback; Sheila, Tommy, Carl, Aunt Margaret, Uncle Charles, and everyone else who helps me remember where I came from. Bobby U., I love your enthusiasm. My sister Sharon, and all the others who didnt make it: you are missed... and lastly my grandmother, Mary OBrien, the endless prayers from your lips to Gods ears helped keep me alive long enough to get sober.

I love you all.

What you need to know about how life really works. Every act rewards itself. Setbacks are the prelude to success. The relationship between adversity and opportunity. Turn hope into faith.

Separate your talents and assets from your fantasies and defects. Understand the power of choice and the consequences of not choosing. Learn how to ask better questions in order to receive better answers.

Living in fear is seductive and habit-forming. Fear wears many masks and hides behind many emotions. Learn ways of overcoming fear, negativity, and rejection.

The ego can distort reality and your beliefs can influence your perceptions. Question long-standing beliefs. Learn common roadblocks to full recovery, springboards to abundance, and reprogram your mind for success.

Understand the pain/pleasure principle and how you can use it to instantly improve your life. Create new empowering habits. You become what you think about.

Define your own concept of abundance: love, health, sobriety, family, money, peace of mind. Prayer and meditation are essential to raising your consciousness. More service to others equals more personal success in your life.

Being grateful shifts your reality. Learn easy ways to break unproductive thinking patterns. Discover the difference between wants and needs. Determine what you want and why you really want it.

Turn your God-given desires into reality. Tap into your creativity and find solutions to your own and our shared societal problems. Move beyond self-imposed limitations.

Learn how to avoid the dangers of an ego-driven life and realize the power in your words. Through knowledge, education, and effective communication skills, you can leverage this power.

Turn your character defects into assets. Learn how to turn goals into reality. Huge goals create huge inspiration.

Choose one life-affirming project. Explore the character traits needed for long-term success in recovery. Key concepts: enthusiasm, commitment, perseverance, and accomplishment.

Move your dreams of an abundant, full recovery onto the broad highway of success through action. Be a problem solver rather than being a manipulator. Overcome obstacles, schedule appointments, market your ideas, close the deal, and respect your customer/audience.

Explains how the spiritual and material worlds are interconnected. Call it grace, a hunch, a gut feeling, or premonitionswe all have contact with the universal consciousness. Will you answer yes to life?

Today, you are beginning a life-changing experience. You may be in a recovery program or simply wish to make positive changes, but are you struggling to take the next step and experience life in all its richness? This book will show you how to take that step and realize your dreams.

Your dreams of abundance will become reality if you simply make a commitment to listen and take action. My definition of abundance goes far beyond money and material wealth. It includes love, truth, health, spiritual prosperity, and peace of mind. You will be given the tools to awaken within you the ability to create a compelling future and achieve your destiny.

Addiction of any kind is the opposite of freedom and in no way resembles abundant living. It is a habit rooted in self-deception and fear. Addiction occupies your focus and hijacks your consciousness. It deludes you into believing you can deceive yourself and others. Duplicity promotes anxiety and fear that mutates into depression and guilt. Addiction interferes with your creative impulses. It prohibits you from being able to organize your good ideas in any meaningful way. You are unable to stay productive or exercise any rational choice regarding your actions or enterprise because your focus is constantly being drawn away from your dreams and toward your addiction.

The paradox of addiction is that in your attempt to empower yourself through artificial means, you actually give up your free will to those outside forces you turned to for empowerment. The very thing you use to grant yourself control over your unpleasant internal state becomes the cause of your internal distress.

The reality is that although fear and addiction can destroy your connection with your creativity, they cannot destroy your potential to do great things. Your potential is a freely given birthright and part of your destiny. Your ability to create and achieve is a choice. As with creativity, recovery is also a choice. It is right thinking. It is soundness of thought and action. Recovery allows you to realign the misguided perception of the material world, which your ego has created, with the true nature of the universe in all its splendor.

The suggestions I offer in this book are designed to take you beyond abstinence and give you the personal insight needed to realign those misguided perceptions that have been holding you back.

You will learn the skills needed to trade addiction for inspiration. By answering the thought-provoking questions I pose in each chapter, you will gain the awareness and introspection needed to reach your full potential. By picking up this book, you have made a choice to embark on a life of unlimited possibilities.

I would venture a guess that this is not the first time you have heard about reaching your full potential, but what does that statement actually mean? The word potential is derived from the root word