others sharin their stories with me is how i came to believe i was an alcoholic. it wasnt what they drank, it wasnt how they did it, or necessarily the things that happened when they did. what caught my attention was how they explained to me how they felt within when they drank. surely some...

Growing Pains Page 8-9 Sooner or later we experience a particular kind of opportunity or catastrophe we haven't heard about in meetings. Sometimes even an event like a breakup, the loss of a job, or changes in our family triggers a flow of feelings, and it doesn't stop. Grief, hardship, or betrayal can make us...

Connection to Others Pages 37-38 Some days it seems really easy to identify with others, to feel welcomed and welcoming in a meeting. At other times, all we hear are things that set us apart from the group. When we start noticing the differences more than appreciating our similarities, it's usually a red flag indicating...

i personally love this translation of tradition 4. a majority of my friends today are in recovery and we hang out and do things that may not include an organized meetin, but when we are together, we live and speak of our recovery. we are free to do as we wish, whether we are out...

with humility i get to understand that i am NOT the only person on earth that matters. when i practice the spiritual principle of humility it means to me that i can live with self-esteem that is stable; that i am secure in who and what i am. that i dont feel the need to...

By submitting to God, we're released from the power of liquor. It has no more hold on us. We're also released from the things that were holding us down: pride, selfishness, and fear. And we're free to grow a new life, which is so much better than the old life that there's no comparison. This...

the program of recovery i live, i hope, speaks for itself. i hope that the work ive put into self is a show to others that there has been a change within me that has a positive effect on others. though i may speak of my intentions for my recovery, i hope that it is...

if i was to take the program of recovery and use it to only create happiness for myself, then i feel i would be neglectin what this thing we do is tryin to create. if i was to take the program of recovery i practice and use it to only find my faults, so i...

i reckon i couldnt say that this thing we do doesnt work. today, i have had the personal experience that it does work. in the later days of my drinkin, when i may have scoffed at the things i heard from others, tellin me i needed to stop drinkin, that recovery does work, that my...

i can remember the loneliness i felt durin the last days of doin my dirt. i can remember thinkin and wonderin how anybody could love me. low self-esteem leads directly to self-pity. i think of those times today and am of the understandin that when i couldnt see anything good about myself, how could anybody...