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Post Info TOPIC: Courage to Change November 22


~*Service Worker*~

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Courage to Change November 22


Good morning, MIP! 

Today's reading in Courage to Change is about Al Anon as a spiritual recovery program. (Other readings discuss that spiritual and religious or dogmatic are different things, and that each member is encouraged to find a spiritual connection to the higher power of their own understanding.) The author shares the importance of the word "recovery", in that it suggests that we once had something that we have since lost or set aside due to the effect of living with alcoholism. The author explains that, for them, living with active drinkers was a game of survival, a daily grind of fear and hard work. This caused them to lose track of their spirit. Nothing the author did seemed to work or help, and they point to trying to do it all alone as the source. 

Through work in the Al-Anon program, the author was able to develop a trusting relationship with their Higher Power and has thus recovered a connection to their own spirituality and a sense of purpose in life. 

Today's Quote is from Francis de Sales: "Half an hour's meditation is essential except when you are very busy. Then a full hour is needed." 

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A connection with my Higher Power is one of the things that I have been able to rebuild through my work in the Al-Anon program. I am still recovering from the impact of living with an alcoholic spouse, and I am seeing more and more improvement the more work I do in the program. I remember a time when I was content, and able to find joy in the smallest of things - a budding tree in the spring, the first snow of the year, any and all subsequent snows (I love snow!). I have lost that joyous wonder, and I can really identify with the lost spirit the author writes about. After years of living with an active alcoholic and now with a person in recovery, spiritual exhaustion is a good description for what I feel. But thanks to the fellowship I have found here and in face-to-face Al-Anon meetings, I have the strength and encouragement I need to continue to progress on my own journey of recovery.  

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I plan to paint a bit today. I have the day off work, and the hole in the roof and subsequent leak (which the landlord assures me will be addressed on Friday) has provided me with a room empty of all my furniture and belongings. A great time to bring out the paint and cover the depressing brown with something a bit lighter and more cheerful! No rain or snow in the forecast, so no more water should be dripping in this week!  



__________________

Skorpi

If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. - Lao Tzu



~*Service Worker*~

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Good Morning Skorpi I am so pleased that alanon is a Spiritual Program and promotes no dogma regarding a Higher Power. In this manner each member can define what that Power is and how to honor this spirituality.

I resented Religion when i entered program only because I had many misguided conceptions of life, God, and prayer.. Learning to keep an open mind helped me to define my own Spirituality and a Higher Power. How grateful I am to have discovered this powerful source of comfort and wisdom.

Good luck painting my dear. Sounds like a huge job.

__________________
Betty

THE HIGHEST FORM OF WISDOM IS KINDNESS

Talmud


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Good morning Skorpi - thanks for your service, the daily and your ESH. I love painting - there's something very therapeutic about it for me! Good luck with your efforts today!

I recall looking up at the 12 Steps for the first time, and almost shutting off/down. I had been raised with a FOO in an organized religion, and it just did not work for me the way I thought it should! I'm grateful I was desperate enough to stick around and practice this program to the best of my ability. I no longer fear seeing the words God, prayer, meditation, etc. Instead, I embrace it with a concept of a HP that is way different than before.

I did not realize how affected I was by this disease until I began to do the work. I did not realize that I had given all my power away to those I worried about and I certainly did not know how to recover/return to self. I too had tried many things and until I embraced recovery in Al-Anon, I could not get 'there'.

Today, I can live simply enough one day at a time. The disease is still present all around me, but my HP has restored my sanity to the point I can detach, step away and/or just let it go. Grateful for MIP, Al-Anon, a loving HP and the gift of surrender, which allowed me to be open enough to embrace this program and the tools.

Make it a lovely day! (((Hugs)))

__________________

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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Thank you, Skorpi for your service! I hope you enjoy your painting, and that the new color brings joy whenever you enter that room!

I was stuck for weeks on this concept. I was raised Catholic, but distanced myself from that religion when I was in high school. I then kind of became a "student" of religions... took some classes to that effect into college years, and really enjoyed learning about different religions. What I found was that in some way, they were based on that one divine power... whether it was outside or inside you. That is what I had connected to in my adult years... no real organized religion per se, but that belief of a Power Greater than Myself.

It served me well when I first came to Al-Anon when I found out my husband was a "functioning" meth addict.

However, I was stuck on Step 3 this time around b/c I just found it impossible that MY HP would allow me to get into this mess again... this time with an alcoholic spouse.
Why or why would my HP let this happen! Again!
I held onto my anger about this for weeks. It caused me to be stuck in my feelings at that moment and not move forward.

It wasn't until I took someone's advice about "by-passing for now," Step 3 and beginning Step 4 that I realized that it was MY PRIDE that failed me... not my HP! Not this program!! I had stopped working this... I thought he was "cured..." I was "cured." Oh how wrong I was!! I had to BE OPEN AND HUMBLE and DROP MY PRIDE! Only then was I able to "see" that my HP was still there! In fact, she never left me... it was I who stopped "working the program," so I lost my way when my husband began drinking.

Each day that I recite the tools (slogans), I am more and more connected to my HP. I still work at Living One Day at a Time. Sometimes it can be quite hard for me... but at night I ask for HP's guidance, and I seem to wake up the next morning with a plan!

__________________

"The wolf that thrives, is the one you feed." - Cherokee legend

"Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields... Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness."  Mary Oliver

 

 

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