Will Power, Will and Higher Power
Defining WILL for Recovery
Will power, will and higher power are terms discussed in 12-Step programs of recovery. I for one did not understand the differences between the various attitudes and actions I adopted. Then I came across something similar to the following and I was able to tell the difference between them – at least in theory.
I took such a list to my sponsor and have been discussing these ever since.
Counter will
Opposition to ‘other’ will (other being spiritual guidance, another person, parent, boss or what one ‘must’ do)
Child will (As when a child defies its parental guidance)
Rebellion
Po...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 23, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery Wisdom Higher Power will power Source Type: blogs
Resilience
is the ability to respond to life with a sense of control and to tolerate surprises or unexpected life events.
Resilience goes beyond the capacity just to deal with life’s problems, it is the ability to embrace and fully enjoy life with all its ups and downs. We only really know how resilient we are when life throws us a curve ball – like coping with a mood disorder.
The good news is our capacity for resilience grows from managing stressful events – recovery.
Resilient people share common qualities:
They seek ways to become independent.
Take charge and make changes when life makes them unhappy.
Learn from t...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 22, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Emotions Humility Meditation Recovery fully enjoy life tolerate surprises or unexpected Source Type: blogs
Action Act as If
A meditation – Becoming willing to act
The miracles in our 12 Step program don’t simply rub off at meetings. The key to getting clean and sober – and staying clean and sober – is a willingness to act.
Once we feel scared enough or strong enough to do something – once the willingness appears – miracles can happen. Action is the magic word. We must not wait for something to “rub off.” Rather, we must act as soon as possible. An important phrase in the program describes this – “acting as if.”
Am I learning to “act as if”?
Higher Power, help me become willing to act so ...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 21, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Higher Power Meditation Recovery Recovery Books act as if clean and sober Source Type: blogs
A Newcomer Asks
This leaflet is intended for people approaching Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) for the first time. In it we have tried to answer the questions most frequently in the minds of newcomers—the questions which were in our minds when we first approached the Fellowship.
Am I an alcoholic?If you repeatedly drink more than you intend or want to, if you get into trouble, or if you have memory lapses when you drink, you may be an alcoholic. Only you can decide. No one in A.A. will tell you whether you are or not.
What can I do if I am worried about my drinking?Seek help. Alcoholics Anonymous can help.
What is Alcoholics Anonymous?W...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 20, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Alcohol Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism newcomer Source Type: blogs
Review of the book ’Alcoholics Anonymous’ 1939
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: The story of how more than one hundred men have recovered from alcoholism. 400 pp. New York Works Publishing Co., 1939, $3.50.
The psychological aspect of alcoholism taxes the entire skill and intuition of the therapist, and the authors of this book claim that in the long run the ex-alcoholic patient who is properly trained in psychological method is an extremely effective person to bring about the cure of the neurotic alcoholic individual.
The first part of the book discusses methods, with particular stress on twelve steps in the recovery program. This program includes the general principles of psy...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 10, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism Recovery Recovery Books Big Book review recovered from alcoholism Source Type: blogs
The Disease Alcoholism.
Alcoholics Anonymous expanded the concept of alcoholism as a disease.
Although the idea of “illness” helped many early and later members of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) to understand their alcoholism, Alcoholics Anonymous neither originated nor promulgated the disease concept of alcoholism.
The main contribution of A.A. in this area was the broadening of the existing concept to one of ” threefold” malady [Spiritual, mental and physical], with an emphasis on “the spiritual.”
Examining the political and medical historical contexts of the time as well as A.A. literature shed light on the ...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 9, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism Disease concept of alcoholism malady Spiritual mental and physical Source Type: blogs
Get Active
Getting active in Recovery in AA
This is an extract from the book ‘Living Sober’ by Alcoholics Anonymous.
It is very hard just to sit still trying not to do a certain thing, or not even to think about it. It’s much easier to get active and do something else-other than the act we’re trying to avoid.
So it is with drinking. Simply trying to avoid a drink (or not think of one), all by itself, doesn’t seem to be enough. The more we think about the drink we’re trying to keep away from, the more it occupies our mind, of course. And that’s no good. It’s better to get busy with something, almost anything, that wi...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 8, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism Recovery Recovery Books Getting active in Recovery living sober Source Type: blogs
We are our Thoughts
Wisdom; As we think, so we become.
We can enrich our interior monologue. We can seek the company of people who inspire us with a loving approach to life. We can absorb the written thoughts of writers who encourage our positive emotions. We can decide to be cheerful and optimistic, just for today.
Whom would you rather be around – someone who chronically complains and talks about what a mess everything is, or someone who finds joy and delight in watching the antics of two squirrels in a tree? You are your constant companion. Your own company can be a pleasure or a drag, depending on the thoughts and feelings you per...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 7, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Education Faith Humility Meditation Recovery Recovery Books Wisdom As we think Source Type: blogs
Quality of Sponsorship
Evaluating the Quality of Sponsorship and other Peer Guidance Relationships
Most recovery mutual aid groups have a system through which older members in successful recovery help orient new members to their particular recovery program.
AA has formalized this process through the practice of sponsorship. Having a sponsor is an important indicator of intensity of mutual aid participation, with greater intensities of involvement being linked to improved long-term recovery outcomes.
Sponsoring others appears to be a particularly potent ingredient with some long-term post-treatment follow-up studies noting over 90% remission r...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 6, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Addictions Alcoholics Anonymous Help an Alcoholic Sponsorship Peer Guidance recovery mutual aid Source Type: blogs
Addiction the Disease
The Alcoholics Anonymous program can be very daunting to a new comer. This list of points may be helpful. Discuss them with a longer sober member for clarity.
From the Big Book ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ (page numbers from 2nd, ed). It would probably be more instructive if you have the Big Book for reference in front of you while reading these points. I have found it a good list to review my program from time to time.
From it [alcoholism] stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. p. 64
An illness of this sort – and we have come to be...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 3, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Addictions Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholism Recovery big book spiritual disease Source Type: blogs
Families can Detach With Love
Detachment
Alcoholism and addictions are family diseases. Living with the effects of someone else’s drinking or drugging is too devastating for most people to bear without help.
In Al-Anon and Naranon we learn individuals are not responsible for another person’s disease or recovery from it.
We let go of our obsession with another’s behavior and begin to lead happier and more manageable lives, lives with dignity and rights; lives guided by a Power greater than ourselves. In Al-Anon we learn:
Not to suffer because of the actions or reactions of other people;
Not to allow ourselves to be used or abused by others in the...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - September 2, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Addictions Al-anon Alcoholism Codependency Family Healthy Naranon Relationships Sobriety Spirituality detachment dignity family disease obsession rights Source Type: blogs
Stress and Health in Recovery
Keep an eye on stress levels
What are the long-term effects of stress?
The stress response of the body is meant to protect and support us. When faced with a threat, whether it be to our physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a process known as the “fight or flight” response. The sympathetic nervous system pumps out adrenaline, preparing us for emergency action. Our heart rate and blood flow to the large muscles increase, the blood vessels under the skin constrict to prevent blood loss in case of injury, the pupils dilate so we can see better, and our blood sugar r...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - August 30, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Addictions Alcoholism Codependency Disease effects of stress fight or flight psychological stress and health Source Type: blogs
Tim’s Story, Dual Recovery
Dual Recovery Anonymous has offered me what I had lost or been unable to find in my sobriety. It offers me believable hope and steps to apply to both my chemical dependency and my psychiatric illnesses. It also offers me a way to heal the emotional and psychic damage that I experienced as a result of my dual disorders. This is just as true for me today as it was when DRA first began to develop.
In 1973 I made a decision to seek professional help for my chemical dependency. I had started drinking and using drugs when I was 13. By the time I was 18, I was using every day. I drank, swallowed, snorted and shot as many drugs as...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - August 24, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Addictions Alcoholism Drugs Dual Recovery Emotions Sobriety Spirituality Treatment chemical dependency psychiatric illness treatment program Source Type: blogs
Mindfulness
, put simply, is awareness and attention to the present.
One increasingly popular tool for recovery from addictions, alcoholism and co-dependency is mindfulness, which can be used to combat cravings and prevent relapse. It is a type of meditation and involves using the senses to focus on the here-and-now, without thinking about the past or the future and without making any kind of judgments or evaluations. There are many benefits to using mindfulness in recovery:
It can reduce anxiety and induce a sense of calmness
It can lower heart rate and blood pressure
It can increase immune system functioning and help to fight ...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - August 23, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: Addictions Alcoholism Codependency Meditation Recovery Relapse Wisdom combat cravings mindfulness prevent relapse Source Type: blogs
Live Online Global 12 Step Video Meetings
InTheRooms (ITR) has spent the past year planning, developing, and testing a brand new technology for carrying the message of recovery online worldwide.
It’s a Free Online Social Network for the Global Recovery Community.
ITR currently has 203,000+ members in 136 countries and has the largest AA group (93,000+ members), NA group (78,000+ members), Alanon group (8,000+) and Naranon group (2,000+) in the world.
The first-ever LIVE Global 12 Step Video Meetings include 26 regularly scheduled weekly meetings – 12 AA, 12 NA, 1 Alanon and 1 Naranon, with more to come.
There is no software to download and anyone...
Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com - August 20, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sparrow Tags: 12 Step Fellowships Adult Children of Alcoholics Al-anon Alcoholics Anonymous Cocaine Anonymous Emotions Anonymous Gamblers Anonymous Narcotics Anonymous 12 Step Video Meetings Recovery Community recovery online Source Type: blogs
