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.
Hi y'all... my memory and concentration is improving day by day.
I work another programme, and see a therapist once a month.
The therapy focusses around breathing function and stored trauma in the body. It seems to be working.
Not without help from me though- pushing outwards from the centre...
...some of the anger has fallen away. Some of the fear.
One thing i get angry about is education. People who claim that education is the way out of poverty.
Okay, so yes- it is a part of the solution... but I think there are other aspects.
We had a school counsellor at school- but he was basically a careers advisor. There was no oversight or penetration into our personal lives. This was 1968 too!
I slipped through the net and fell through the cracks. Ouch!
I loved the stories about AA and Alanon and how they started. Given the opportunity I visited the home of the !2 Step movement- Stepping Stones.
I wept at the Wilson kitchen table.
I had taken on Lois and Bill as my mum and dad. Being there was a complete rite of passage- where i realised that millions of other people owed the same favour to Lois and Bill.
This was not a come-down for me- but a coming out... a revelation.
So i find an affinity to AA, NA and other 12 Step groups.
But I am an Alanon and ACA member myself.
I went to AA meetings in Florida with my sister in law. I spoke at one or two- got sick of sitting on my hands. Attended a few AA meetings when I got back here to NZ. it was a good test for me. I gave up drinking hard liquour when i was 17. Though i went through the '70's I managed to stay away from hard drugs.
I had two uncles who became alcoholics when they retired. I am not complacent and rarely if ever drink alcohol.
looking at ways of mitigating the toxic family system.
I felt maybe that the Oxford Group was a bit naive, in some ways, about clearing the air. Public confession.
There are ways of letting go of old stuff. Anxiety. Fear. Anger.
Bill W. worked closely with health and treatment professionals.
All we need is to be willing to learn. "Lord make me teachable" is a saying i hear sometimes.
Thanks for your share about Bill and Lois Wilson, Dave. Although I'm a member of Al-Anon I read the AA book from time to time too, it gives me insight to the alcoholics in my life and the disease that they're up against. Lois Remembers is another good book about how Al-Anon got started. I like what you said about recovery and how it is an "inside job" and requires work from us and not just standing in the gap.
"Not without help from me though- pushing outwards from the centre"
I know I have to get out and do the 'dirty work' of going to meetings, reading the literature and talking to my sponsor. "Pushing outwards from the centre" for me means going to see a counselor too and doing the 'next right thing' when it comes to looking for a job and supporting myself since i recently moved in with my daughter. I can't live here with her forever and I'm getting more and more anxious as time goes by and I haven't found a job. I need to step up my job hunting and possibly take something that I think is 'beneath me'. I never thought in a million years that I was one of those people that were like that, but if this is a Step 10 then I can say that if I'm honest about myself. I need to put myself 'out there' more often and get honest to get better.
Anger at the world in general is probably what is holding me back at this point in my life. I need to take a serious look at my choices and actions that have taken me this far. When my mother was alive and I was caring for her with Alzheimer's I was angry at the world for not coming to my rescue. Now I understand that I had to come to my own rescue in that situation. I could not expect other's to save me, any more than i could expect someone to save me in my alcoholic marriage, that too was an inside job. I had to practice these principles in all my affairs.
-- Edited by Overcome on Wednesday 16th of December 2020 01:21:48 PM
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I can Overcome all things through my HP who strengthens me.
Oh my, my, Debb, and Overcome. Even now I have a wow moment when people talk with me. I truly do. It's awesome!
We have a new lawn mower- but the blade needed sharpening. Not a thing I am good at at all. I learned haw to prune a fruit tree and how to herd sheep. Riding horses too...
But I had bought a file to do the job. Took the blade off to sharpen it. Managed to get it back on without cross-threading the darned thing. I used to get so discouraged and cross with myself! Angry and confused.
Hi y'all... my memory and concentration is improving day by day.
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