Good morning everyone:

Todays reading is about learning to respond to feelings and emotions rather than react to them. The writer describes how life felt unmanageable when decisions were being made in reaction to uncomfortable emotions. Through program work, talking with sponsor, physical exercise, prayer and meditation, the writer learned to deal with feelings like confusion, anger and fear before making any life decisions.  The writer used our question how important is it? before taking action. The writer learned to act rather than react. There is such an important reminder in the sentence that begins the third paragraph and is one that has been helpful to me: getting better doesnt always mean feeling better. 

This page got me thinking about how sometimes our instinct is to attempt to move away from any uncomfortable feelings, rather than deal with them.  In my case, I might try to internally wrangle with the uncomfortable but not truly deal with the feelings, and eventually react in a way that is all emotion and not very thoughtful.  In the last paragraph, there is a sentence about the futility of trying to manipulate situations in order to avoid human emotions.  We cant do that, but finding ways to acknowledge our feelings and work with them will propel us forward.  The quotation from Courage to Change (p.249) reminds us: The true nature of my problem was my stubborn refusal to acknowledge feelings, to accept them, and to let them go.

I hope everyone enjoys a peaceful Sunday:)

Mary