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Post by majestyjo on Nov 15, 2017 4:35:34 GMT -5
My sponsor called it a holiday. Shut off the phone, don't answer the door, and eat what you like to eat, do a meditation, and do what you like to do, be it a craft, hobbie, or watching your favorite shows on TV.
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Post by caressa222 on Nov 24, 2017 21:55:32 GMT -5
Love the thought, "Rest is repair." We often need to take a time out to check on where we are at in our program. Often our program needs tweaking and adjusting in order to grow and change. I can't rest on my laurels. This is a one day at a time program. What I did yesterday, won't keep me sober in today. It gives me hope for a better tomorrow, if I continue to do the do things, in order to recover. Even if something is new and changed in recovery, it doesn't mean it is right for me in today. Life happens, and we change as we travel this recovery road.
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Post by caressa222 on Feb 12, 2018 22:51:27 GMT -5
Relapse Warning Signs (in order of the descent into relapse)
1. Apprehension about well being. 2. Denial 3. Adamant commitment to staying clean. 4. Compulsive attempts to impose staying clean on others. 5. Defensiveness 6. Compulsive behavior 7. Impulsive behavior 8. Tendencies toward loneliness 9. Tunnel vision 10. Minor depression 11. Loss of constructive planning 12. Plans begin to fail 13. Idle daydreaming and wishful thinking. 14. Feeling that nothing can be solved. 15. Immature wish to be happy. 16. Periods of confusion 17. Irritation with friends 18. Easily angered 19. Irregular eating habits 20. Listlessness 21. Irregular sleeping habits 22. Progressive loss of daily structure 23. Periods of deep depression 24. Irregular attendance at meetings 25. Development of an "I don't care" attitude. 26. Open rejection of help 27. Dissatisfaction with life 28. Feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness 29. Self-pity 30. Thoughts of social using 31. Conscious lying 32. Complete loss of self-confidence 33. Unreasonable resentments 34. Discontinuing all treatment 35. Overwhelming loneliness, frustration, anger and tension 36. Start of "controlled" using 37. Loss of control
Relapse Prevention Planning
1. Stabilization - stabilize your sobriety 2. Assessment - Do you believe relapse can occur? Are you ready for relapse planning? 3. Education about the relapse process - review 37 warning signs 4. Warning sign identification - list 10 personal warning signs 5. Review recovery program - if not in the process of recovery, you are in the process of relapse. Are you doing what is necessary? 6. Inventory training - focus on daily personal inventory. 7. Interruption of relapse warning signs - Develop, plan and work it. 8. Involvement of support group - set up your support system and use it. 9. Follow-up and reinforcement - Practice, practice, practice
This was originally posted in '05 and I snagged it for my site. Couldn't find it to bring it forward, so copying it again.
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Post by caressa222 on Mar 27, 2018 17:24:53 GMT -5
As I like to say, if I pray for someone for two weeks, they may not get better, but I will.
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Post by caressa222 on Jul 8, 2018 23:13:10 GMT -5
Rough patches can be troublesome, but the worst day sober far exceeds the best day when I was drunk or when I was living with a drunk.
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Post by caressa222 on Aug 12, 2018 22:36:51 GMT -5
more language of letting go Pray for those you resent
My favorite story about praying for those I resent is one I told in Playing It By Heart, Here it is again.
Years ago, when I spotted the Stillwater Gazette, the oldest family-owned daily newspaper in existence, I knew I wanted to work there. I could feel it-- in my bones and in my heart. When I went in to the offices to apply for the job, however, the owner didn't have the same feeling I did. He had an opening for a reporter, but he wanted to hire someone else. Abigail, he said, was the right one for this jib.
I prayed for Abigail every day. I asked God to take care of her, guide her, and bless her richly and abundantly. I prayed for her because that's what I had been taught to do-- pray for those you resent. Sometimes I prayed for her three or four times each day. I prayed for her this much because I resented her that much.
God, I hated Abigail.
For the next months, almost half a year, I tromped down to the Gazette once a week, begging to be hired. Finally, I got a job there. But it wasn't the one I wanted. Abigail, bless her heart, had mine.
She got the best story assignments. She worked so quickly and with such journalistic ease.
So I kept praying, "God bless Abigail," because that's all I knew to do.
Over the months, as I got my lesser assignments from the editor--lesser than Abigail's, that is-- I began to watch her work. She wrote quickly and efficiently. Got right to the point. She was a good interviewer,too. I started pushing myself to write better, and more quickly. If Abigail can do it, so can I, I told myself. My enemy began to inspire me. Over the weeks and months that transpired, I spent more and more time around Abigail. I listened to her talk. I listened to her stories. Slowly, my enemy became my friend.
One day, Abigail and I were having coffee. I looked at her, looked straight in her eyes. And suddenly I realized, I didn't hate Abigail anymore. She was doing her job. I was doing mine.
Soon, I got an offer from a publisher to write a book. I was glad I didn't have Abigail's job, I wouldn't have had time to write that book. Then one day in June 1987, that book hit the New York Times best-seller list.
Years later, I wrote the story about Abigail in Playing It By Heart. The book got published. I returned to Minnesota to do a book signing. I was in the bookstore's bathroom, washing my hands, when a woman approached me.
"Hi Melody," she said. I looked at her, confused. "It's Abigail," she said. Abigail wasn't her real name; it was a name I had given her in the story. But with those words, I realized she had read the story. She knew she was Abigail, and she knew how I once felt.
We joked about it for a few moments. I asked her how her life was. She said she had quit writing and had become a wife and mother. I said I was still writing, and my years as a wife and mother were for the most part over.
Resentments are such silly little things. Envy is silly,too. But those silly little things can eat away at our hearts. Sometimes, people are put in our lives to teach us about what we're capable of. Sometimes, the people we perceive as enemies are really our friends. Is there someone in your life you're spending energy feeling envious of or resentful toward? Could that person be there to teach you something about yourself that you don't know or to inspire you along your path? You'll not know the answer to that question until you get the envy and resentment out of your heart.
God, thank you for the people I resent and envy. Bless them richly. Open doors for them, shower them with abundance. Help me know that my success doesn't depend on their failure, it's equivalent to how much I ask you to bless them.
by Melody Beattie
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Post by majestyjo on Aug 23, 2019 8:28:10 GMT -5
Resentments really danger. I drank to someone else's life so many times. Don't tell me, watch me.
I had to pray for many. Most of all, I had to pray for myself.
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