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.
Today's reading in Courage to Change is about the seventh step. The author shares that their list of shortcomings originally read like a list of feelings. Over time, the author realized that feelings aren't shortcomings, they are just feelings. The shortcoming was the author's inability to recognize the feelings, accept them, and let them go. Feeling arise, and we cannot control that, but what we do with them is within our control. The author found self-acceptance when they allowed themselves to feel their feelings, share them with others, recognize that they are feelings, not facts, and let them go.
Today's Reminder: When I take the seventh step, I pray that whatever interferes with my Higher Power's will for me may be removed. I don't have to have all the answers. I need only be willing.
Today's Quote: "We don't necessarily get the results we wanted, but somehow we always seemed to get what we needed." ...in all our affairs
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I can really relate to today's author. I got stuck in feelings of grief over the loss of my first partner. Some days it seemed that grief was all I had left of that relationship, and I was afraid to let that go, because letting go of the grief meant letting go of the relationship as well. Of course, I carried this tendency to hold on to negative emotions into my relationship with my AW. Today I realize that being in touch with my emotions is a good thing. I can recognize how I am feeling, let myself feel that way, share with friends or write about how I am feeling. All these things help me to accept my emotions and look at what might be causing them. Then, I can let the emotions go and focus on deciding if there is anything I want to change in my life. This weekend, I was feeling overwhelmed and upset. I realized that I was feeling this way because the house was in chaos with fur-tumble weeds and dirty cat pans. I let myself feel overwhelmed and upset, but instead of staying there with those emotions, I decided to clean the cat pans and sweep the floor. By the time I had clean cat pans, I was no longer feeling upset and my feelings of being overwhelmed weren't as strong anymore.
Another rainy day here, but the weather folks promise that it will be dry the rest of the week. I hope you make today a great day!
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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
Good Morning Skorpi The Seventh Step assures me that HP will remove my defeccts when I can get humble enough to ask and be willing to let them go I can readily identify with the holding on to grief over the losses that I had experienced. Once I became entirely ready to live again, I simply asked HP to help and I was rewarded.
Love the alanon idea: faxe them, trace them and erase them
Thanks for your service.
Thank you for your service Skorpi! I'm grateful for the reminder that there is a way to step out of my cycling in the same chaos, trying to force an outcome over which I am powerless.... but, I can create a different change by making a choice to take the next positive step for me.
Good morning all - thank you Skorpi for your service and the daily. Thanks to all for your shares and ESH. I too love the reminder that my feelings aren't facts, and I can feel them and then rely on my HP to lead me through 'life' and to the other side.
It seems I am better equipped to handle 'life' when I am keeping things simple and trusting my HP. I've been sad lately and have been sharing and writing about it and it seems to be lifting. Skorpi - we're to have rain here all day long, with the potential for flooding. Golf has been cancelled and rain is in/out of the forecast for the next several days. We shall see what happens in reality compared to what's in the forecast - we need the rain and I welcome the break...
Make it a great day all - happy Hump Day!
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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
Thank you Skorpi for the daily, and for your honest share. I appreciate everyone who shared their ESH above as well!
I am yet to get to Step 7, but I certainly do understand giving my feelings the same "weight" as facts. Al-Anon has helped me to figure out which is which and I am getting better at this.
Stay safe, all you easterners!
Blessings from hot, dry, Cali - feel free to blow some of that rain our way, mmmkay? LOL!
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"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
Thanks Skorpi. I like what Betty said. Face. Trace. Erase. I needed to see that my feelings arent my issue. My hanging onto them is the issue. So. I need go back and trace so I can let go:erase some feelings that have been in me tooo long
I love these dailies thanks to all who share them. For me its like a Mini step 4. Been facing me a lot lately
