April 17 2012 | AA 12 Steps In Action | Step 4 "Inventory" | Alcoholics Anonymous Today's AA daily reflection: "love and fear as opposites…" Sometimes I try to unravel what the daily reflections mean and I still remain confused today. And that's okay for me, I'm still learning. I do know the feelings inside me are real, at the same time they may not be based on my actual situation today…
When anyone has been worn down by alcohol, people, places and things and situations which undermined our ability to cope, our grip on reality is easily lost. And once we are adrift, every feeling experienced is real to us. Imagination and the fantasy that we create about our situation can paralyse, spin us into extreme feelings and high and low moods. Feelings are always real, they just may have no foundation to reality. Recovery is a journey back to reality each and every day…
Grief and loss of people, places and things… Grief is a natural process and part of grief is anger and denial in the first instance, "I can't believe it!" And depending just how horrible the grief and loss is, anger and denial can help us cope under extreme conditions. And as many people know, more of the process involves every emotion, from denial of the truth to anger and frustration, depression and acceptance… We can rock forward and backward in turmoil. Grief and loss is a part of life for everyone today…
My experience in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, I had to deal with the loss of my best friend and my best enemy, a substance namely alcohol. Self harm and self abuse and self prejudice! All part of grief and loss… As I started to understand real life and how to cope again, some of my most profound experiences have been understanding the past through my step four and becoming aware of how to be a human being again… And always just for today…
DonInLondon 2005-2011
“Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.” When I ask myself, am I looking for truth, love and wisdom in my outlook today, fear does not come knocking on my door. I need always check I am living to my principles of truth, love and wisdom and also ask for help. When I seek support and challenge, more truth, love and wisdom from others comes "thy way"
In sobriety we let go control and introduce choices based on reality.. our feelings and thoughts, all of them are who we are, from extremes to balance, to understand these feelings and thoughts, improves our choices. The defect is prolonged negative or positive extremes of thoughts and feelings, being stuck one way? Letting go and letting good balance be restored in living just for today...
Love and fear.. To love, be loved and have something useful to do. We I realise what I need, which is simply enough, fellowship, so I may connect with my world, wants and extremes do not drive me or make me stuck in fear of loss or fear of exclusion. When fear comes knocking at the door, I can accept it, and deal with it in the moment as it is today. Courage, faith and confidence develops, with help, as I live life today...
AA Daily Reflection: LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES... All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49
“Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.” I don’t know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself. I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn’t know that one of the definitions of “courage” is “the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear.” Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear. During the times I didn’t have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.
-/-
As Bill Sees It ~ 215 Constructive Workouts... There are those in A.A. whom we call "destructive" critics. They power-drive, they are "politickers," they make accusation to gain their ends -- all for the good of A.A., of course! But we have learned that these folks need not be really destructive.
We ought to listen carefully to what they say. Sometimes they are telling the whole truth; at other times, a little truth. If we are within their range, the whole truth, the half truth, or no truth at all can prove equally unpleasant to us. If they have got the whole truth, or even little truth, then we had better thank them and get on with our respective inventories, admitting we were wrong. If they are talking nonsense, we can ignore it, or else try to persuade them. Failing this, we can be sorry they are too sick to listen, and we can try to forget the whole business. There are few better means of self-survey and of developing patience than the workouts these usually well-meaning but erratic members so often afford us. TWELVE CONCEPTS, P. 43
As Bill Sees It ~ 319 Two Authorities Many people wonder how A.A. can function under a seeming anarchy. Other societies have to have law and force and sanction and punishment, administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authorities which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign. There is God, our Father, who very simply says, "I am waiting for you to do my will." The other authority is named John Barleycorn, and he says, "You had better do God's will or I will kill you."
The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them willingly because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their power lies in the fact that these life-giving communications spring out of living experience and are rooted in love. 1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 105
-/-
Step 4 "Fearless Inventory" Reading Video Link:
"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves"
-/-
When anyone has been worn down by alcohol, people, places and things and situations which undermined our ability to cope, our grip on reality is easily lost. And once we are adrift, every feeling experienced is real to us. Imagination and the fantasy that we create about our situation can paralyse, spin us into extreme feelings and high and low moods. Feelings are always real, they just may have no foundation to reality. Recovery is a journey back to reality each and every day…
Grief and loss of people, places and things… Grief is a natural process and part of grief is anger and denial in the first instance, "I can't believe it!" And depending just how horrible the grief and loss is, anger and denial can help us cope under extreme conditions. And as many people know, more of the process involves every emotion, from denial of the truth to anger and frustration, depression and acceptance… We can rock forward and backward in turmoil. Grief and loss is a part of life for everyone today…
My experience in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, I had to deal with the loss of my best friend and my best enemy, a substance namely alcohol. Self harm and self abuse and self prejudice! All part of grief and loss… As I started to understand real life and how to cope again, some of my most profound experiences have been understanding the past through my step four and becoming aware of how to be a human being again… And always just for today…
DonInLondon 2005-2011
“Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.” When I ask myself, am I looking for truth, love and wisdom in my outlook today, fear does not come knocking on my door. I need always check I am living to my principles of truth, love and wisdom and also ask for help. When I seek support and challenge, more truth, love and wisdom from others comes "thy way"
In sobriety we let go control and introduce choices based on reality.. our feelings and thoughts, all of them are who we are, from extremes to balance, to understand these feelings and thoughts, improves our choices. The defect is prolonged negative or positive extremes of thoughts and feelings, being stuck one way? Letting go and letting good balance be restored in living just for today...
Love and fear.. To love, be loved and have something useful to do. We I realise what I need, which is simply enough, fellowship, so I may connect with my world, wants and extremes do not drive me or make me stuck in fear of loss or fear of exclusion. When fear comes knocking at the door, I can accept it, and deal with it in the moment as it is today. Courage, faith and confidence develops, with help, as I live life today...
AA Daily Reflection: LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES... All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 49
“Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there.” I don’t know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself. I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn’t know that one of the definitions of “courage” is “the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear.” Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear. During the times I didn’t have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.
-/-
As Bill Sees It ~ 215 Constructive Workouts... There are those in A.A. whom we call "destructive" critics. They power-drive, they are "politickers," they make accusation to gain their ends -- all for the good of A.A., of course! But we have learned that these folks need not be really destructive.
We ought to listen carefully to what they say. Sometimes they are telling the whole truth; at other times, a little truth. If we are within their range, the whole truth, the half truth, or no truth at all can prove equally unpleasant to us. If they have got the whole truth, or even little truth, then we had better thank them and get on with our respective inventories, admitting we were wrong. If they are talking nonsense, we can ignore it, or else try to persuade them. Failing this, we can be sorry they are too sick to listen, and we can try to forget the whole business. There are few better means of self-survey and of developing patience than the workouts these usually well-meaning but erratic members so often afford us. TWELVE CONCEPTS, P. 43
As Bill Sees It ~ 319 Two Authorities Many people wonder how A.A. can function under a seeming anarchy. Other societies have to have law and force and sanction and punishment, administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authorities which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign. There is God, our Father, who very simply says, "I am waiting for you to do my will." The other authority is named John Barleycorn, and he says, "You had better do God's will or I will kill you."
The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them willingly because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their power lies in the fact that these life-giving communications spring out of living experience and are rooted in love. 1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 105
-/-
Step 4 "Fearless Inventory" Reading Video Link:
"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves"
-/-
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