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.
Good morning all....Happy Friday to you where ever you maybe!
Today's reading continues on with trusting a power greater than ourselves. The reading begins by discussing how our most negative thoughts in the face of all we deal with appear as truth. These negative thoughts plead the worst case scenario in a convincing way until it seems silly or impossible to consider a positive outcome. The program helps us realize that the loudest voice in our mind is not necessarily the truest.
No matter how insistent a feeling may be, it's a feeling - not a fact. We do not get to know today what will happen tomorrow. Projecting outcomes, positive or negative, can lead to disappointment. It helps to remember that either is possible - so why lean one way or another?
We truly are powerless over the results of our actions. We can do our best to make wise choices today but tomorrow is beyond our knowing. The program teaches us to trust that a Higher Power can use whatever comes next to further our growth and continue to teach us.
The reminder suggests that just for today, we will place the future in the hands of our Higher Power, whatever that may be. We trust that by turning it over, it can be used for my good.
The quote of the day, "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it." ---- by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I must admit that my attitude, outlook and thoughts were extremely doom and gloom when I arrived at Al-Anon. I did view my life, family, kids, etc. as my failure and as beyond broken. My negative attitudes and thoughts permeated my days and nights, and no matter how much effort I applied, I could not break my own cycle alone.
I believe my bottom in Al-Anon was when I truly accepted I needed help - I did not know how to function in the chaos/drama any longer. I'd been in survival mode for so long, that when others suggested I could find peace & joy no matter what others were doing, I was troubled. I did not believe on many levels that their outcome would/could become my outcome.
Yet, I did as suggested and worked this program to the best of my ability. Nothing around me changed much, but I did. As I began to change, I felt a bit of peace and things were calmer around me. I consider myself smart and had tried all kinds of things before Al-Anon, yet nothing 'stuck'. I truly believe that my HP led me here and to the program, as he wanted me to see/know/do things a different way. I am grateful for the tools that help me change my own distorted views and thoughts. I am grateful for the gift of prayer and meditation, and mostly I'm grateful for those who came before me who show me the way - instruments of my HP - lined up just for me.
Make it a great day all!
__________________
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
Thanks for sharing your reflections on today's reading. "Feelings are not facts, simply feelings" is a great principle. I once thought that ignoring my feeling would work Alanon taught me to look at them own them share about them and then they ill lift and I could deal with life in a constructive manner. I agree that Program works. Thanks for your service
Thank you for your service Iamhere. I am someone who has very insistent negative thoughts and feelings. They feel very real in the moment and I can easily get carried away. That saying that Betty says above that "feelings are not facts, simply feelings" has saved me many times from myself. I used to try to shut my feelings off and ignore them because they scared me. Now I think I am finding some balance of being able to recognize them without giving them complete power over me.
I can get a bad thought in my head and it's hard to get it out. Thanks to the program I don't have to let it dominate my day, week, or month. I can let it pass and let it go if I want to.
Such a great, great page, second day in a row!! Thank you much, IAH, and all, for contributing meaning and experience. This ties so well with yesterday's "Nothing is either good or bad. It's thinking that makes it so."
The mind is a powerful illusionist, able to weave a spell upon my thoughts and perceptions. I thought of this also in terms of flying a plane. Certain flying conditions are so visually and spatially disorienting that special training and practice are required that qualify pilots to navigate them using their instruments rather alone. This training allows them to disregard the misleading sensory cues and rely fully on the accurate readings of their calibrated instruments for guidance.
I see the tools of AlAnon as the calibrated instruments. For far too long, I tried to navigate the challenges of life and then the disease using just my senses and crude tools. Just as can happen when flying by visual cues in dangerous conditions, I ended up taking actions that did the opposite of what was healthy for me and those around me.
Attending meetings, reading and meditating daily is the training that allows me to rely on the proven, accurate cues that will take me to a place of safety and peace. When I rely on my 'instrument training' (Confession: I'm a nerd who spent too much time tonight in Wiki - Sensory illusions in aviation), it becomes easier to block out the disorienting voice in my mind that steers me off course.
Thank you for your service
__________________
Paul
"...when we try to control others, we lose the ability to manage our own lives." - Paths to Recovery
Great share Paul and all (I rhymed.....) Each ESH helps me always to know that I am not alone in what it was like, what happened (in recovery) and what it's like now. I love that we work our journeys at our own pace but often find similar paths and goals to serenity.
For me, it was not an overnight change - it took a while to unwork the tangle of webs in my mind that had me take a bad moment and turn it into a bad day or a bad week. Freedom from bondage of self comes to mind when I consider the last 2 readings - I am lucky they were on my days!
Thanks for sharing folks!
__________________
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
