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.
Barbara, Journaling is helpful. Anything that gets "this stuff" - the disease - outside of us is healing for us. And it seems that most of us need quite a few tools to use to help our recovery. Journaling is very good for putting down personal trials. In fact, a lot of what goes on these posts is probably more suitable for a journal, which could then be shared with a trusted sponsor. What we need from each other is solid program. How our HP helped us today. What tools are working for us. The real personal stuff needs to be shared face to face with someone, or in a phone call. The Steps of the Program provide us with plenty of tools. But it works, IF you work it. And what is a tool for one person might not be a tool for someone else. Blessings, Barbara. mebjk
For me the "We" is when someone relates and is willing to share. It is knowing wow we are not crazy like the A says we are.
We come here and we see each other as people who love someone with a very cunning disease.
I learned loving my A is very ok. He is sick. People here understand what makes me love him.
Others ask if he is so terrible, what makes me love them? I say of course you do, he is sick, not doing this on purpose. If he had a brain tumor making him do this you would still love him. or her.
So many people isolate with an A. We can get so beat down and depressed we don't want to go anywhere.
I love to journal too. For me, I put stickers on my journal and sometimes write letters to people in it.
I have the Paths to Recovery Book which for me has been a way of journaling. It is a book to work the steps with and at the end of the chapters you answer alot of questions and do alot of soul searching. I have used this message board over the years to post/journal too. Keep up the good work Barbara :) your friend in recovery, cdb xoxoxoxo
When you look at the steps, they are written in the past tense, meaning others have gone before us. They are also written in the plural, "our" & "we."
To me, this means, I am not alone, and that others have made it through the steps and are on the other side. Why in the world would i choose not to recieve their help right? I know at first in alanon, i was way to afraid of letting someone "in" letting somone see the real me, all my faults, all my wrongs. I had to learn to turn away from my fears, and turn to help. I had to learn to trust again, as alcoholism had distroyed mine completly.
This truely is a "we" program, others have gone before me, they help me. Others will come after me, i help them. Together "we" make up alanon.
One - not to do the steps alone, especially once you get to Step 4. In the beginning due to my fear of having someone know the "real" me, I did not have a sponsor. Once I asked and received, sharing the steps with someone I trusted and respected was so much better, a joint venture if you will.
The other is journaling. Another experience I had ~ I had been having a horrible week. I was praying, meditating, reading my literature, journalling all my toils. I went to my meeting and broke down because I still felt really bad. My sponsors say "*&%$ journalling when you feel like that, what you need is a meeting with people who love and understand you." Meetings dilute our distorted thinking more often than journalling does. I laughed so hard for the first time all week.
That's what "we Program" means to me.
So glad you are here and keep coming,
Maria
__________________
If I am not for me, who will be? If I am only for myself, then who am I? If not now, when?
writing a journal helps me to see where I was and how I am now. Some times my sponsor is busy and I write down all the feelings I have and share it with her.I also use journaling helps me to see things differantly. Once it is on paper and I can read it I know what I need to work on. I go to f2f meetings and talk to my sponsor all the time. These are all tools of the program that I can use.
