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.
I am amazed at how this program works. And just wanted to take a minute to share my thoughts on "It works if you work it" I need to just say that each and every time I have allowed the program, the people in the program, the literature, the steps, the slogans... in they have worked. But most importantly today I realize that none of that would be possible without a sponsor, someone to guide me, to support me unconditionally. Without the support of my sponsor I would still be running around in my own head, it might be the program running around in there, but it would still just be running around. Sure, I would have the tools at the ready, the books by the bed, the slogans posted around the house and all that, but without the listening ear of my sponsor, her ESH, I wouldn't even know which ones to use or even to look for anymore than if I went into a hardware store or a law library and did not ask for assistance. So what do I do, I vent and then she tells me to breath and then very gently will help me to sift through it all, break it down into the pebbles it should be and not the mountain I am making it and then send me in the direction to use the program....WOW! amazing but I have to be willing to reach out for it.
Hello, confused, I thank you for your post about sponsorship. I have also found sponsorship to be the heart of the program. Having a good sponsor who really listens and who is also working the program is life-changing. "It works if you work it." Blessings, mebjk
I could not agree more about the importance of a sponsor. I must sometimes sound like a recording for how often I suggest to newcomers (as well as others) to attend f2f meetings, get a sponsor and work the steps with her.
I do this so often simply because I know from my own experience that it works. Working the steps with a sponsor was such a turning point in my recovery, and when I believe I truley began to recover from the effects of addiction in my life.
Up until that point I had read the steps and agreed with them. I familiarized myself with all the literature and slogans. So.....why wasn't I recovering? Why didn't I have the peace about me that others in the program had? Why was my life still so unmanageable? For a short time there I thought perhaps the program really didn't work, or that it wouldn't work for me for whatever reason. All this type of thinking did at the time was add to my pity party that I was on. My victim thinking mentality.
Then I had one of those lightbulb moments when something you've heard over and over finally makes sense to you. It works IF you work it. *work* being the key word. I knew all the program lingo....steps, slogans etc, but I wasn't doing any real *work*. When I hit my own personal rock bottom and simply could not take my daily life another day I decided to do whatever it took to stop feeling the way I felt. I decided to do exactly what others who recovered had done. I wanted to mirror their actions to a t so that I could get to the place they were. That's when I started following each and every suggestion in this program starting with getting a sponsor.
It made a major difference in my life and it can in yours as well IF you really apply yourself and work this program.
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Kathy S --
~*I trust my Higher Power that I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my life today.*~
