Honesty - Meet a Tree

From time to time when playing Meet a Tree, some of the participants would point out to me that so and so is cheating, they are looking under their blindfold to see where they are going. At which point I would ask them to be quite and say nothing, some would get upset with me for not challenging them.

When the person who was looking under their blindfold returned to the start point I would ask them how did they get on, did they find their tree? And they would answer yes no problems, excellent I would say. Again I made no attempt to challenge them about cheating. However, other members of the group would.

That said when the sessions were over and we were about the head back to the rehab, often but not always the person who cheated would own up to it. I would then thank them for their honesty, at which point I would bring the whole group back together so that we could all share in that moment.

I would then ask them in relation to your addiction "when was the last time you were honest?" Some would respond with blimey its been so long now years maybe and others would say I do not remember. Once they had owned it, I would say to them again in front of the whole group. Thank you for your honesty and if you get nothing else from this session then take away with you the fact that for the first time in however long it has been you have been honest with us and more importantly with your self today. What a great start to getting into active recovery.