Alcoholics Anonymous Blog Video August 17 2014
If we keep on changing our attitudes and behaviour to the good of living, as a consequence the probability is that life will get good, and our old attitudes and behaviour are likely to change. I keep going back to step six and step seven and what it means to me. Step six very often rears up in old attitudes and behaviour, bingeing on the wreckage of the past where everything became a negative and we had a right to be angry. And step seven, simply courage to change, faith in being open honest and willing to learn, and gaining confidence that out of adversity in recovery, there is much good to be found if only we can stop the addiction to our defects of character?
If we didn't have Fellowship, if we didn't have twelve steps, if we didn't have meetings, how on earth could we possibly learn the emotional and spiritual path of life? Emotional, our feelings in the moment of now, spiritual by experiencing reality as it is, sometimes overwhelming because we are still learning how to cope with life. Coping with our feelings in the moment of now, rather than going to extremes where frustration and anger can make anyone rage against the world. As if it was the world's fault? Always it is the actions of humans in the moment of now which shapes the nature of our emotional and spiritual journey. Spiritual learning in the moment of now, is good bad and ugly depending on the current conditions today.
Stopping self-harm is good and that is what the twelve steps helps us do. Stopping the harm to other people is another matter, because we can still judge the world very harshly, can still gossip, can do irreparable harm emotionally to other people, just because we are angry and resentful at the world, or and this is something many of us do, we still want to shape the world, we want the world to love us and see how good we have become, and pride ego and fear can masquerade under the guise of friendship. Learning to love oneself, is also reflected in how we treat other people. Some people are good, some people bad and some ugly or a mixture of these things given the current conditions today.
There is a difference between telling the truth and how we see situations, which does require common sense and judgement, and the other side of this which is about control manipulation and abuse. Telling the truth as you see it or I see it is the first part of getting to understand our own picture of the world. The other side of this is hearing the truth from other people, with whom we are involved. And sometimes we will have to agree to disagree, because that is the most acceptable thing to do. Just because we think we are right and may believe that we have found the answer, it does not mean that our answer to life's problems is going to work for another person. Other people, indeed I hope everyone finds their own personal outlook about how to live life, and experience every element of the emotional and spiritual journey. Defiance and stubbornness, just because that's your opinion, will tend to send you back to isolation, or the start of a cult which is very unhelpful to the rest of the world.
Having been to meetings recently, Fellowship prevails because we are able to share our opinions and our beliefs, usually without hindrance, and even if we don't like the outlook some people have, they are part of the teaching and learning we get one day at a time. Very often we might find ourselves sitting in our defects of character in a meeting, feeling explosive and hateful, and we forget to ask ourselves why do we feel this way? Often the answer is that somebody is treading on our toes in some way out in the world and even in a meeting! Step Nazis are hazardous and so is the Islamic state. When people tell me what to do I usually tell them to fuck off and mind their own business in Fellowship and with love. They are perfectly allowed to have their opinion and so am I. A bridge to modern living? Always when we are utilising the twelve steps for self-improvement and not for controlling the rest of the world, especially "Sponsee’s" who need their freedom of expression just like we do.
I'm still prone to people pleasing, and I need say no to something, because it is wrong for me. I will do this, I thought I could compromise, but truthfully just don't want to do something which will not improve me on my journey of living.
Quite strange really when we go to meetings we haven't been to for a while, we meet friends from quite a few years back. The good news, they are still alive and sober. And most have changed their outlooks and attitudes by living the emotional and spiritual journey with the twelve steps and twelve traditions supporting them in their activities, "in the real world of now." And the spiritual experience seems to be of the educational variety, learning by doing, life being the teacher and we are the students. And then there are those who are few and far between that cling to theory and what is written, rather than putting it into practice. Life needs to be lived in order to understand it and develop the philosophy which works for you as an individual. All the great books of history show just how much humans need to change even on a daily basis to improve the collective philosophy of life. When seduced and stuck in old beliefs, that the earth is flat, that the sun revolves around the world and the moon is made of cheese, these beliefs help no one. Mythology which inspires freedom, it can be quite helpful some of the time. As long as it doesn't get in the way of article 1 and human rights, and the freedom enshrined in constitutions, then human endeavour can go where it may and hopefully to the good of all and not just you or me.
Step Eight Reading 12 And 12
Alcoholics Anonymous Videos, AA is for Alcoholics, AA 12 Steps, Addiction And Recovery, DonInLondon, Don Oddy,
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