On Relapses

Today something I read made me realize that a relapse is not completely a bad thing. The reason I say that is that in order to relapse you first had to have achieved something to relapse from in the first place. Since you have already accomplished something, you have learned something you can use again. So even though you relapse you don’t have to start from scratch you can build on what you know. This means that each time you recover from a relapse and move forward, you can do so easier and go further. In some ways, we need to relapse in order to go forward. Not only that, but by relapsing we gain an appreciation of what we have accomplished. It can help us put things in perspective. We do need to be careful though. When we relapse we cannot let the feeling of failure consume us. When we look back at where we were, we cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the sight, rather we need to take pride in what we already accomplished, remind ourselves that if we did it once, we can do it again. Plus, we now know the terrain so the path is easier.