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Post Info TOPIC: selling your contentment cheaply


~*Service Worker*~

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selling your contentment cheaply


Todays odat is a good one. It talks about how we can actually relish our own suffering, kind of enjoy it and we can blow up everything into huge proportions. We love been self pitiers and actively search out our martyrdom. Then we get serenity and contentment and we become freer. We need yo be good to ourselves, let go of problems and shrug off hurts.

I love this reading, it says, 'very little happens in my daily encounters that is worth my worry, resentment or feeling sorry for mysel. If i am always ready to take offense and be hurt, i am selling my contentment very cheaply. I must remember to be good to myself.'

 

For me, it means we have choices, we can choose misery as easily as we can choose happiness. I kidded myself for too long i had no choice but to suffer and be miserable. It is a lie.x



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~*Service Worker*~

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Thanks El-Cee for the lovely share!

This reminds me so much of how things affected me before program. I didn't sell my contentment cheap - I gave it away on a daily basis and became comfortable/used to discontent.

Finding peace and remaining peaceful during turmoil almost felt 'wrong' at first as it was an unnatural response for me.

I agree that we have choices and certainly try to choose happiness. I can remember that before program, I woke up and quickly anticipated the worst. I then seemed to be 'stuck' in the mode of self-pity and made myself and those around me miserable, not with malice - just the way I was.

I'm so grateful that Al-Anon gave me tools to have it be different. The different begins with me and how I choose to see, act and react. When I am program-centered, I often feel as if I can move mountains. When I am not, I trip off sidewalk cracks. It's amazing to me how working on me appears to change everything around me!

(((hugs))) to ya and thanks for the daily!!



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Practice the PAUSE...Pause before judging.  Pause before assuming.  Pause before accusing.  Pause whenever you are about to react harshly and you will avoid doing and saying things you will later regret.  ~~~~  Lori Deschene

 

 



~*Service Worker*~

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Thanks LC I do love this reading and the power of serenity. I must admit, prior to program, I was on automatic, reacting all over the place and the adrenaline high from my anger and resentment made me feel powerful and alive.

Serenity sounded boring until I felt it. It was so unique and powerful that I was startled, but also grateful that it had grown in me so very subtly. I resolved immediately to protect this serenity because it was more valuable than the adrenaline high.

Program tools work. Thanks for the reminder

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Betty

THE HIGHEST FORM OF WISDOM IS KINDNESS

Talmud


~*Service Worker*~

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I didn't understand the importance of having serenity until I met the man who drove me to Al-Anon - I was alone and lonely; I was free and my life was peaceful but I didn't value peace because I let myself be consumed by the lonelies. Enter madman and chaos and turmoil and Al-Anon, exit madman and chaos and turmoil, enter peace. I had to go through the turmoil to get to the place I am today.

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I am strong in the broken places. ~ Unknown All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another! ~ Anatole France


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Thanks el-cee for sharing about this topic and for your insights. It took awhile for me to get out the habit of believing there was a crisis when one didn't exist. I'd become so accustomed to being on high alert for catastrophe that I couldn't relax.  How others acted toward me and responded to me determined whether it was a good or bad day for me. I often turned away from the unconditional love of my higher power and determined my worth through the acceptance of other people.  Of course this put me in a place of self pity. I gave myself away through people pleasing and when people weren't please I felt I'd failed, was less than, didn't belong and was unacceptable.  I felt disappointed, confused and like damaged goods. Of course this was this was skewed thinking. My thought were not coming from a place of self love. Meanwhile, my hp was there and willing to help me through everything and anything if I gave up the illusion of control over outcomes and sought my hp.

The program taught me that before speaking or taking an action I should examine my motive. Am I ready to speak these words or take this action and let go of expectations about other person's response? Can I accept that the response might not be what I hoped and respect the others right to respond how they choose not how I would've liked? Will I let that response be the guide for how the rest of my day is going to be - serene or self-imposed emotional chaos?

"Just for today I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my "luck" as it come, and fit myself to it." 

I like this statement from our Alanon bookmark. It reminds me to trust my hp and go with the flow. When I let go I'm open to interactions with others without expectation and to receive from others the gifts and lessons hp has for me that day.

Thank you for share about today's reading in odaat and for your dedicated service to this board (((el-cee)))  TT

 

 



-- Edited by tiredtonite on Sunday 28th of June 2015 09:33:55 AM



-- Edited by tiredtonite on Sunday 28th of June 2015 09:45:04 AM

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Surround yourself with people and elements that support your destiny, not just your history.



~*Service Worker*~

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Wow what an interesting concept-Selling our contentment cheaply! I'm in the process of trying to forgive 4 people, most importantly, my A. My anger and resentment certainly have decreased with my two years of alanon, but sometimes I am surprised to feel the anger still being there. I am trying to be "entirely ready" and I now recognize my negative feelings as a shortcoming, not a right of way or sense of entitlement. The idea of "giving up my contentment" can be added to my toolbox and a goal to strive for. Thanks, Lyne

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Lyne



~*Service Worker*~

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Tt, i feel as if you have written exactly what ive needed to hear today, thank you.x

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