It's Monday Only in Your Mind
You Are Not Your Thoughts
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The twelve steps I offer in this book are an interpretation developed to help anyone who sees a need to change the way he or she has been living. These are a tool to be used to help identify why you do the things you do and a step-by-step model of what can be done, if you want to change. It is all contingent on the willingness of the individual to want to change. The steps are not magical.
See how little control you have over things that occur in life. What you can learn to control is the way you respond to what happens to you. Most of us were never given a guide to help us understand this process, nor were we ever taught how to do this.
If you become addicted to a substance or behavior, then you can attend a twelve-step program. But what if you don’t necessarily have a clear-cut addiction, but are looking to enhance and understand your life? Maybe you are looking to fill a void or be more at peace. There are many different tools a person can use to foster change, and you may find these steps useful. They can be used to investigate your perspective of life, and if you choose, to do the things necessary to become aware of your Conditioned Mind Patterns and change that perspective.
As I grew up I did not have control over many things that happened to me, but I could have reacted differently had I properly learned how to process my reactions and emotions. Instead, I became conditioned. By going along unconsciously I was at the mercy of any number of outside influences and inner repercussions. Unconsciously, I become attached to external things and controlled by them. Reaction don’t just happen by themselves, something provokes them. By understanding and utilizing these steps, you can become increasingly aware of your unconsciousness and learn how to be in control of your life — instead of allowing things to control you.
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About the Book
MICHAEL CUPO thought he had everything he’d always wanted: a beautiful wife, two wonderful children, a nice house, and a great job. By all outward appearances, he’d made it. He should have been one very happy person.
But Michael felt he was not good enough, ever since he was a child, and as an adult, he found himself addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling—and his behavior was killing him and harming those he loved.
In this inspirational book, Michael shares the story of his journey of inner discoveries—with all its false starts, roadblocks, relapsing, and ultimately, an overwhelmingly uplifting state of surrender, acceptance, grace, and personal peace.
Equal parts memoir and easy-to-follow guide for personal growth, It’s Monday Only in Your Mind offers a startling, fresh interpretation of the Twelve Steps used by many programs. Here is a valuable toolkit for anyone interested in enhancing their spiritual life, repairing their relationships, finding calm, and attaining an inner sense of well-being.
Included also are dozens of Michael Cupo’s original Daily Messages, which he shares via text message and e-mail with his ever-expanding circle of support, a growing community of fellow seekers around the world.
It’s Monday Only in Your Mind explores life’s deepest questions (as well as recognizable real-life issues) facing everyone, whether you want to enhance your spiritual life or not. It holds the vital power to transform all of our lives each day in the most profound of ways.
About the Author
I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, one of six children. I have been married for 21 years. I own a home, and I have two children. I have been at the same job for 24 years. I am the happiest I have ever been and it is all because of the Love that has always been in my life. I attribute all that has happened to me to that Love. None of what has transpired in the last five years of my life has anything to do with any accomplishments on my part.
There was always a lot of love in our home as I grew up, but for reasons unknown to me at the time I was always in trouble. I was at the top of my brother-in-law’s “Who My Sister Shouldn’t Marry” list. I drank alcoholically, gambled, abused drugs and painkillers. I bounced from relationship to relationship. Even after I stopped abusing alcohol and drugs in 1987, my so-called outer troubles stopped, but my self-centered behavior never changed. All I did was substitute one compulsion for another. Although my addiction became more respectable—taking the form of material possessions—I was still trapped, migrating restlessly from one obsession to another.
I went to Twelve Step meetings, derived some benefit from them, and then fell away. My loved ones got me into de-tox and rehab programs. But once I was released, the cycle of insatiable craving started all over again. This cycle seemed to work for me . . . until it didn’t. And then my life changed — not instantly or magically, but profoundly.
I share this change in It’s Monday Only in Your Mind: You Are Not Your Thoughts. I discovered that I wasn’t dependent upon a substance or activity, but ruled by my ego. My need to reach outside myself for fulfillment was created by a false perception of deficiency. If this sense of lack didn’t exist in me, there wouldn’t have been a need to reach and grasp.
My credentials for writing this book are simply that I live this change each day. My view of life is so different from the way it used to be. Through the practice outlined in my book, I have learned to quiet my mind enough to allow my heart to open. The quieter my mind becomes, the more Love becomes the default setting of my life. This is truly a modern-day miracle, a miracle that can happen to anyone who has the desire to change.
—M. C.