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.
Todays reading is a look at what it means to give up the illusion of control. The writer describes that the process started with understanding that there were many people who had been put on pedestals, taking the place of a higher power in his/her life. The writer began to see that in order to have integrity it had to be expressed from self first. The writer began to focus on the slogan let it begin with me. When there was an expectation of another person in the writers life, the writer would exhibit the behavior he/she was hoping for from that other person (Showing love to mother that the writer wanted to feel). When there was a place for forgiveness, the writer was challenged to forgive. The writer began to feel strength and power in his/her life because of giving up the illusion of control.
This reading made me think of when I feel disappointed by an outcome or situation or behavior in someone else, I can often trace that to an unreasonable expectation on my part. If I turn it around and really focus on my part in any given scenario, its more peaceful for everyone involved. When I am using energy to try and control or influence things that I cant, Im taking energy away from what I can have influence over: my self!
The quotation from One Day at a Time in Al-Anon (p.86) gives us: But we do have a power; derived from God and that is the power to change our own lives.
