Tuesday 9/29/09 - "FLOAT ME AWAY NATURALLY"

"FLOAT ME AWAY NATURALLY"

Even though I'm sober and stable many years in Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon, there are still times I just want to float away for a while and escape the stresses of life. I look for ways to do this naturally.

I have always been an escape artist of the mind, but not like the guys who chain themselves inside a tank of water and then escape the chains just in the nick of time to prevent drowning. Rather, I was an escape reality gal. I sought primarily to escape my many (some of them nameless) fears.

There are several acronyms for the word FEAR. One is "Face Everything and Recover" and another is "Forget Everything and Run." The first is the acronym of recovery and the second is the one I pursued as the sister of an alcoholic, later the wife of an alcoholic and then an alcoholic myself.

The way I forgot everything and ran was often by choosing an obsession to focus on that would obliterate the realities of life from my mind. It would make life go away by "taking me away". These escapes were usually harmful and unhealthy. I used many forms of escaping my problems, but my final, ultimate escape was the use of alcohol and that led me into the depths of alcoholism from which I could not escape on my own. Eventually, God freed me from the obsession to drink.

My freedom from alcohol allowed me to begin to face reality and start my recovery. I have been on this journey to health for many years. HOWEVER, there are still times when I grow weary of life. I sometimes feel that same old urge come over me to "escape", that desire to "get me out of here". I am very cautious when this happens. When I become aware of that feeling, I put all I have learned in Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon into practice and resist that old unhealthy urge to "escape". I try to release the mostly self-imposed pressures I'm feeling by choosing ways of floating away naturally.

What do I mean? I mean that I try to allow my mind and spirit to lighten up. I take actions that will allow release of fear, stress, worry, anxiety, and that sense of restlessness, irritability, and discontent.

These are some of the healthy, natural ways I have found to float:
(They are healthy if not taken to an extreme that causes neglect of basic things needing to be done.)

I find a book that I can identify with and I allow it's characters, plot, and setting to carry me away. Sometimes a movie will do the same thing. I can float away on the sounds of music.

Sitting or walking at the beach or in any other very peaceful spot and allowing the sweet breezes of God's world to lift me up, can float me away.

As many children do, I can lie on the ground and watch the billowy, pillowy clouds moving across the sky and imagine myself floating with them and on them.

If I am in just the right mental and spiritual state, I can write a poem, a blog, or journal and that action will "take me away".

There are times when creative cooking carries me out of myself.

Prayer and meditation can set me adrift long enough to become calm and at ease within myself.

There are many, many ways to drift, to float. I actively seek ways to treat myself kindly, take care of myself, and be gentle with myself that will ease that discomfort.

Happy natural floating fellow bloggers.

Prayer Girl