or are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
How far down the Jellnik chart do you really want to go? Or are you already at your bottom where your only options are death, insanity, incarceration, or recovery? Or, sadly, a combination of several of the above.
The AA program has answers for those of you who really want them. More real answers than “Just don’t pick up!” The core of the AA program of recovery is found in the 12 Steps. This is a very simple program for very complicated folks.
Let’s look at starting your recovery. The first three steps simply walk you through the beginning of the program. How rough do really like it? Have you had enough misery and despair in your life? Let’s see what can be done to start out right now into a new way of living, not merely existing.
Step 1 states “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.” If you can not guarantee your actions after taking that first drink, I would say that you are powerless over alcohol. Wouldn’t you?
The second half of this step applies to many of us, too. Powerless over the unmanageable downhill spiral that our lives had become.
Step 2 states “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Anyone should be able to believe that there is some sort of Higher Power that created the Universe and all that is in it.
A Power that helps us breathe without even thinking about it. Heart pumping without our assistance. Leaves change colors in various seasons. Planets orbiting around various suns without colliding. Births. Deaths.
This Higher Power is called many names. Many names but for only one entity. God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and as many others as you wish to utilize.
Any Power that can do all of this is entirely capable of restoring you and me to sanity. After all, It did create us and our mental states in the first place.
Step 3 states “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” Step 1 told me that I couldn’t. Step 2 told me that He could. So, because of Step 3, I think I’ll let Him.
Anything that is as omnipresent and all-powerful as the Higher Power and that created EVERYTHING is my choice to turn my will and my life over to. Especially so when I was trying to claw my way out of the rancid cellar that my life had been thrown into by active alcoholism.
This can be the beginning of living a new way of life that is much more than just idle hope or wishes. A beginning of actually living and enjoying it. Being able to make decisions that once baffled you.
And all without being under the influence of a mind-altering substance. Is this just a dream? No way! It is something that has taken millions of alcoholics from active destructive alcoholism to being happy, joyous, and free.
So, the question is what do you choose? Do you choose to continue being glum and miserable or do you choose to be happy, joyous, and free? News Flash: If you did not drink or drug today, you actually have choices!
If you choose to be glum and miserable, bless you and just keep on doing whatever you are doing.
If you choose to be happy, joyous, and free, then COD, Come On Down. Join us by starting with the first 3 Steps and the help of others who have been there, done that, and have the same t-shirt.
Attend AA meetings with an open mind and ask for help from some there that you can see are now happy, joyous, and free themselves. I Gotta proposition for you.
It is really simple. Just go to 90 meetings in 90 days with an open mind. If your life doesn’t improve drastically, we will gladly refund your misery. I chose recovery and have never wished to go back.
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