Recovery Reflections: May 10, 2017
Hello everyone! My name is Bianka. I would like to give you another warm welcome to Detox to Rehab’s Recovery Reflections. Please join us and listen to the experience, strength and hope shared by Madison, Brandon, and Megan.
We will pre-record readings from Alcoholics Anonymous: Daily Reflections. We express how this reading has helped our recovery or how it has impacted us. We thank you and hope we can inspire your recovery journey!
Alcoholics Anonymous
May 10, 2017: Free at Last
Another great dividend we may expect from confiding our defects to another human being is humility – a word often misunderstood. . .. it amounts to a clear recognition of what and who we really are, followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be.
– Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 58
I knew deep inside that if I were ever to be joyous, happy and free, I had to share my past life with some other individual. The joy and relief I experienced after doing so were beyond description. Almost immediately after taking the Fifth Step, I felt free from the bondage of self and the bondage of alcohol. That freedom remains after 36 years, a day at a time. I found that God could do for me what I couldn’t do for myself.
Working the 12-Steps
“If I didn’t do this thoroughly and honestly, I was probably going to drink again,” Brandon said.
Working the 12-steps is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. It has saved the lives of many other addicts and alcoholics and it can save yours too. In the beginning of my recovery journey, I knew if I was not honest while working my steps, I was going to be shooting up Heroin in no time. I was told that if I was going to lie my way through my 12-step work, I should just start drinking and using right then. This is because the steps only work if you can be completely honest with yourself about your past and who you are as a person.
This is especially true when working through the fourth step.
Step Four: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
When working the fourth step you may be filled with fear and feel as if leaving all this stuff in the past may seem like a better idea then bringing it up again. However, some of the stuff brought up in the fourth step could be the reason we continued to drink and use drugs. So, it is good to get it out on paper and share it with someone else during your fifth step because then you can learn to get over it and move on living the life you deserve- without drugs and alcohol.
“The benefits of working through this stuff is unexpected and kind of amazing,” Megan said.
At the time, working through the steps can seem like scary business, but the reward you get by working through them honestly is amazing. You get to live a life you never thought was possible. In my experience, working the steps gave me life. Before working the steps, I was a miserable being and the only way I knew how to cope with life was to use drugs and alcohol, which made me more miserable than I was in the first place. Now, I am living life without the use of drugs and the results are astonishing. I feel normal now and I am completely okay with whatever life throws at me.
The 12-Steps and God
“To be okay, with myself, with my life, everything else is just a bonus,” Megan said.
Being okay with what life throws at me is what I needed in the first place. I now realize everything happens for a reason and I cannot control the way life is going to go. I am living in Gods will today and life seems to be working out better than I could have ever imagined.
“God is doing for me what I can’t do for myself,” Brandon said.
Having a God in my life is something I never thought was going to happen. But when I came to the 12-step program they insisted I found a Power Greater than myself, and so I did. That Power Greater than myself is my God and God is constantly working in my life and blessing me with the willingness to live a happy life without drugs and alcohol.
If you or a loved one feel like it is time to recover from the wreckage of your past, check out our website and give us a call. We understand what it is like to be trapped by addiction and want to help in any way we can: (866) 578-7471
