Step 6 and 7

[sunlight]

WOW flying fiddler, you really are flying!

Thank you for sharing your beautiful journey through the steps. It made me cry tears of joy to know you have experienced the life-altering power of them. There is hardly a way to speak about it, but you did a pretty good job!

Keep on trudging - there's more awesomeness to come!

The reality we live in sobriety, using the steps and the principles, beats anything drinking ever had to offer. But I need to DO it to experience it.

Move over reality TV!
We are the grateful recipients of a "complete makeover".
We are the "biggest losers" because we've lost the mental obsession and physical compulsion to drink.
And we've married a millionaire because we've committed our will and lives over to the care of One Who has ALL riches!

I'm so happy for you and for all us sober alcoholics that I think I'll go outside and skip down the street, smiling all the way.

[Jebtion12345]

I attend an intense 6/7 solution based step meeting weekly for four months and have learned so much. I have had limited opportunity to apply some of the concepts but some i have and I find 6/7 really gets me out and away from the pain that would historically cause me to drink or act out.

I don't have a "thick skin" so i get my feathers ruffled easily. (Surprise?) I have prayed to God to remove these defects as earnestly as i prayed my most basic prayer of God help me (desperation). I see that if alcoholism is centered in the mind and the liquor was but a symptom, the cause and conditions back me into a corner where the only answer was to drink.

Anyway, to even be able to label the defects of character is amazing. Self pity and envy are huge for me right now and rear their heads.

I used to make everything a pity party and drink drink drink.

6/7 has helped me move in a positive, solution based direction I think instead of lingering in pain (an addiction in itself for me).

I asked my sponsor if 6/7 was like "making lemonade out of lemons" ; she got a kick out of that indeed.

Enjoying the process,
Joseph.

[Dallas]

I'm grateful that my defects of character haven't killed me -- yet.

One of the big one's that caused me the most problems for the longest time was: my demands on myself to do perfect. I used to really beat myself up w/ that one. Another one was: All or Nothing thinking. Rigid. Every thing was either true or false. Black or white. Right or wrong. Perfect or no good at all. I guess you can tell that I didn't like myself very much.

Heck, I could go on and on and on and on with talking about them. The more I write the more that come to mind. So, I'll end this now. It's tough to have a good and happy day -- when I'm thinking about me. Especially, when thinking about all the progress that I still need to make.

At least, today -- I can be comfortable with me. And, just be who I am and what I am -- with no need to try and impress anyone that I'm an image that I can't live up to.

It's been a long night. And, I need some sleep.

[Toast]

Like a lot of us the full force of Step 6 never hit me until I’d done a thorough step 5. Only after I’d shared my deepest darkest secrets and my dirtiest deeds with another human being could i see what a selfish, self-centred, conceited, arrogant, delusional person i had been. A true child of chaos right enough but thankfully no today.

[Toast]

As Bill Sees It, p. 36
Thought to Ponder . . . Learning is the very essence of humility; the two walk hand in hand.


AA-related ‘Alconym’ . . . C H A N G E = Choosing Humility Allows New Gifts and Energy