Take control!

I work in a job where I'm required to manage people, places and things. . .to be in control . . . to produce results.  Obviously I'm powerless over these things, yet it's simply not considered proper corporate etiquette to announce my powerlessness to my superiors.  I doubt they'd get the humor.  In addition, control issues lie at the very heart of my disease.  It's easy under these circumstances for me to slip back into my old ways of thinking
and behaving.  I realize, of course, that I can't afford that luxury.  The
price is simply too dear.  So where can I turn to for help?  Where can I go
to get myself grounded?

As with everything else about the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, the answer is exceedingly simple.  It's called, "Keep Coming Back".  And that's exactly what I've been doing of late.  I usually attend two to three meetings a week.  This week I've attended a meeting practically every day.  And damn if it isn't working!  Somehow, when I'm with you, I tend to disappear.  When I hear your experience, strength and hope, it fills me with strength and hope.  When I reach out to you, you remind me that the ONLY power I can exert is the power to take the next designated step.  And with that I'm able to regain a measure of serenity

Our Program is full of gifts.  One of those gifts is an entirely new perspective on life.  But if I don't do what I need to do on a daily basis, if I don't avail myself of the tools the program has given me, if I don't reach out and ask for help when I need it, then that perspective can be very fleeting.  And so can my sobriety.

(Soberly submitted by Bruce D. from California)

Gratitude brings Humility
Humility brings Acceptance
Acceptance brings Tolerance
Tolerance brings Serenity
Serenity brings a Happy Attitude
Happy Attitude brings a desire to help others
Desire to help others brings Gratitude

I have the above saying taped on my desk at work, but they aren’t my original thoughts. (I need borrowed thoughts to deal with my original thoughts.) I need a lot of reminders, and that saying always takes me back
to a basic essential in my recovery … gratitude.

In early sobriety, I certainly didn’t understand the value of TAKING THE TIME to make a gratitude list…I didn’t understand the value in most of the things suggested to me. I was still looking for that “instant” kind of relief I found in alcohol…but since alcohol had long since stopped working for me…I did the gratitude list and other things suggested. It was do them or drink pretty much back then. Today, I have a little better handle on the instant relief thing…so I’m a little bit more willing to do what is suggested. I guess that’s what I like about the above saying…it reminds me to yield to the process.

Gratitude isn’t an essential part of my recovery because I’m an insensitive,
ungrateful schmuck in life…gratitude is an essential part of my recovery because I need to remember that life is GOOD. When I first got here (and on an occasional day now and then since), I can feel pretty low about myself … despite all outward appearance that I’m OK (raise your hand if you can IDENTIFY WITH THAT!) … sometimes it feels like all my issues are out there like exposed nerves…raw and unprotected. Remembering to be grateful, for me, keeps me focused on GOOD things…being grateful, for me, is acknowledging the evidence in my life that everything is going to be OK…because nothing felt OK when I got here. And if I’m not careful, the ISM can quickly take me back to feeling like nothing is OK.

There isn’t too much that happens in my world today that I worry about drinking over…but as we all know, drinking is but a symptom…so I ask God to keep me from getting too tangled up in my disease…sober. I ask God to keep me sober…but I also ask God to keep me sane. (It’s that darn sanity part that trips me up!)

Today I’m soooo grateful to be sober. And if I rely on the grace of God to
keep me sober for a few more days, I’ll celebrate 8 years of sobriety on June 28. Eight years ago my life was pretty mucked up right about now.  (Geez….whole lotta UCK in this med.) Eight years ago this month (ok starting last month), I had relapsed after almost two years of sobriety. By the grace of God I got sober again on June 28, 1993, and haven’t found it necessary to take a drink since.

I’m grateful that no matter what life has on my plate today, I’m pretty sure
it’ll be OK if I just keep putting one sober, grateful foot in front of the other for as long as it takes. And for that knowledge, I am eternally grateful.

(Soberly submitted by Debbie L. of Northern California)

I was at a VA hospital today and as I roamed the corridors of the sprawling complex I knew that I was walking among war heroes.  Guys who had lost limbs --- and some their minds --- in battles far away.

I was at an AA meeting later in the day and again I knew that I was among war heroes there too.  Some drunks lose limbs --- and most their minds --- in
battles with alcohol right here at home.

A different kind of war against an equally formidable enemy.  Heroes are produced despite the differences of the wars because of their similarities.

Countries declare war against each other.  Alcoholism declared war against me.

And the only weapon I’ve ever been given to defend myself against alcoholism is the God I grew to understand after I got to AA.  And the principles of recovery that taught me how to understand him.

(Soberly submitted by Memo M. of San Gabriel, CA)