The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
Courage to Change today speaks about honoring our feelings. The reading points out that living with the disease of alcoholism many of us develop negative coping tools and that one of these tools is to ignore/ stuff our feelings and by so doing we become out of touch with our own souls.
The meditation continues to point out that we often accuse others of abandoning us in time of need, but that we are not good friends to ourselves at the same time. We do not go inward to the small child inside and comfort ourselves with reassurances and prayer and constructive thoughts
An important sentence states recovery does not mean that I have to become a different person. It means I need to start liking and being myself. The lessons I am learning in Al-Anon are ones I already know. I just need to be reminded.
A very reassuring thought closes the meditation; "there is an innocence within me that already knows how to trust my HP, to cherish life while upholding it lightly, to live fully and simply in the present moment. I will allow that part of myself to come forward and nourish me as I continue on my journey"
Love this reading and have found it to be so true My true self knows the answer and really likes me .
It is my job to pick up the simple tools of alanon and use them so as to shed the negative coping tools I developed along the way .
Hi again everyone, the more I thought about this reading. it finally dawned on me that prior to Al-Anon I had no tools to help me manage my feelings.
In my erroneous beliefs, I believed that I was responsible for taking care of other people's feelings and that they were responsible to take care mine. I worked very hard and trying to make others happy, fix their anger and sadness, and then believed they should do the same for me.
Entering Al-Anon, I discovered that I was responsible for my own feelings and had abandoned that responsibility to myself. I had surrendered a powerful part of myself to others, without even knowing it.
By using Al-Anon tools I learned to keep the focus on myself, live one day at a time, trusting HP and nurturing my needs by practicing HALT. I also learned to let go of fixing others and accepted that I was powerless over them. What a difference these attitude changes made!!
Thanks hotrod, i can relate to everything you said here. I did this too, abandoned myself and put the responsibility of my life and my happiness in other people and in onther people who themselves never had it in them to make me happy and run my life the way i wanted them too. I see this as my immaturity, somewhere i never quite gave up the child role, i just looked for another parent and all the while it was within me to take care of me, to make me haply, it wasmy responsibility to look after myself. Its such a simple awareness, sometimes i think, how on earth did i not see this in all these years? But like the reading says i did know i just didnt believe my own inner voice, i wouldnt listen to what life was telling me.
Thank you. Im such a greatful member of alanon, it has woke me up.x
Thanks Betty for the reminder that I need to be a good friend to myself, and that my feelings are my responsibility to take care of, not others. Appreciate your share on the reading.
