Tuesday 8/18/09 - "NEW FREEDOM & HAPPINESS"

"NEW FREEDOM & HAPPINESS"

"WE ARE GOING TO KNOW A NEW FREEDOM
AND A NEW HAPPINESS."
(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83)

I have found that new freedom and new happiness that is promised in the 9th step. I don't know exactly when any of the promises began coming true for me, but I know that they did.

My freedom and happiness have been growing, changing, and transforming me for many years. The more I am free in my mind, body, and spirit - the happier I am. The more I practice being satisfied and happy, the freer I am.

Sounds to me like I think they are directly proportional to each other. I have never thought about this till just this moment, but freedom and happiness seem linked in the same promise for a reason. As one is manifested in a life, the other is as well.

Some freedom came my way very early in sobriety when I realized I had been freed from the bondage to alcohol. When I finally crashed to the bottom, surrendered, and asked God to help me - which He did - including the lifting of my obsession to drink, I found I was no longer a slave to alcohol. That is real freedom. Was I happy? Maybe at that time happy would have been too foreign an emotion for me to feel, but I certainly felt tremendous relief and a sense of hope. I had not felt either of those emotions for a long time.

As the years have passed, my experience of freedom and happiness has grown exponentially. I found the freedom to live life on life's terms, the freedom to take actions and make choices that are in the best interest of my sobriety. I have grown to love myself and have so much of that love that there is plenty to give away, to use to help others. I am free from guilt and shame, my constant companion for so much of my life prior to finding Alcoholics Anonymous. What joy that brings.

My desire for freedom and happiness has grown as well. Today I believe I am of value, I am worth all the good things that come my way. I believe that God does want me to be "happy, joyous, and free". I am free to become the person God intended me to be. I am free to do God's will. The more I do God's will, the happier I am.

Today, right now, I plan to go out into this day with the knowledge of my God-given freedom and happiness and spread it around as much as possible.

Here, blogger friends, have some freedom and happiness,
Prayer Girl

Wednesday 8/12/09 - "POWER TO SET MYSELF FREE"

"POWER TO SET MYSELF FREE"

"Freedom from despair and frustration can come only from changing, in myself, the attitudes that are maintaining the conditions that cause me grief.

I have the power to set myself free by conquering the personal shortcomings that chain me to my problems. And not the least of these is the short-sightedness that has made me refuse to accept responsibility for the way I am."
(From "One Day At A Time In Al-Anon", August 11, p. 224)

How amazing it is to discover that it is not the other person - how they act, what they say, or what they think about me that sets me free. The power to do this lies within myself. What a marvelous discovery. I learned that I am responsible. I am responsible for my life - how I react to things, my attitudes, and my behaviors.

These are some of the ways I am free today:

I am free to feel. I no longer censor or deny my feelings. Today I can cry, laugh, be angry, acknowledge any feelings I may have. I no longer judge them. They are what they are.

I am free to choose who I wish to have relationships with and those I prefer to keep at a distance. I can set boundaries. I can protect myself from people who are not healthy to be around. I can surround myself with people who are on the same path to recovery that I am on.

I am free to say "no". I am free to say "no" without having to explain myself. I am free to decide what is best for me and if something is not in my best interest, I can decline. I can say "no" just because.

I am free to hold on to negative feelings and thoughts OR let them go.

I am free to choose the God of my understanding.

I am free to disclose things about myself as I choose and free to keep private what I feel should be kept private. I am free to share these private things with my sponsor and that is what I do. It is secrets that have the power to make me sick. I am free to share them and stay healthy.

I am free to reach out to help others. I am free to be gracious and not take it as a personal affront should they reject my offer.

I am free to allow others to be who they are. I am free to allow others their life experiences.

I am free to love God, hold whatever beliefs I may have, and pray as I am led to pray.

I am free to blog. I am free to write whatever I choose to share.

Happy to be free and praying you are free too,
Prayer Girl

Tuesday, 4/7/09 - TRUDGING "THE ROAD OF HAPPY DESTINY"

(My road leads into the light!)

TRUDGING "THE ROAD
OF HAPPY DESTINY"

A few days I am focused on the 'trudging' part of this phrase, but, more often than not, I am magnifying the "happy destiny" portion.

Trudging can get the upper hand if I am worrying about an outcome - projecting - not living in the NOW. At those times things seem difficult, complicated, overwhelming, and solutions appear out-of-my-grasp.

I have learned how to turn this around by shifting my perspective to a positive attitude - an attitude of gratitude. I do this by using the tools I have learned first in Alcoholics Anonymous and later in Al-Anon. Some of the tools I use are prayer, acceptance, trust, faith, belief, the 12 steps, the 12 traditions, the slogans, the telephone, my sponsor, and meetings.

Today I am living my "happy destiny". I know that as long as I continue to live my AA and Al-Anon programs and freely give away what I have been so freely given, this "road of happy destiny" will take me into forever.

As I have moved down this joyful road, these are just some of the things I have found:

• Freedom from the bondage to alcohol

• Freedom from slavery to people, places, or things

• Freedom from constant fear, worry, and anxiety

• Acceptance in general, acceptance of myself
  

• Serenity, peace of mind, emotional balance

• An intuitive sense of how to deal with people, places, and things that used to terrify me, leaving me feeling powerless, alone, less than, and totally inadequate and filled with fear

• Belief in the power of prayer to actually change my insides and my outer conditions

• Self-love and true love for others
  

• Hope has replaced that hopeless state of mind where despair and dread dwelt always....light has dispelled that darkness

• I am free to be me..........
  

Prayer Girl!

(Photo credit: Dirt Road by DancinPants)