Recovery Beyond Meetings
Working the steps is the difference in my recovery today. What keeps me clean is far more beyond myself and my own choices. I used to think that to stay clean all I had to do was go sit in the meeting and come home and that was it. It is far more beyond that. I’ve been in the rooms quite a few times and I’ve learned that my way is not the way to keep me clean.
Working The Steps
The first suggestion that I took this time around coming into the rooms is to work the steps. I never thought that working the steps would help me at all. I mean why would I want to dig up Old Wounds? But as I have started working the steps and I’m currently on step 6 I have begun to learn a lot about myself. Yes there’s a lot more work to do on myself but I got to dig deep in the fourth step and uncover issues that were affecting me that I thought I had gotten rid of. Currently I am on step 6 and facing my Character defects which seems to make them all come out at once.
Meeting Makers Make It
Another thing I heard is meeting makers make it. Anything that I put before my recovery I will lose. I learned that when I’m too tired or don’t want to go to a meeting that’s when my ass has to get to a meeting. I may not always hear something in a meeting but I may just be helping another addict by being at that meeting.
Service In Sponsorship
I just celebrated a year clean and my sponsor told me that it’s time for me to start sponsoring. She suggested this since I have worked my fourth step and have a year clean now. And within the same week a girl that just moved into my house, who I’ve known for a very long time, asked me to sponsor her. I told her to give me a gratitude list every day for a week, and then I would sponsor her. The type of happiness I got when she asked me is unexplainable. I believe this will definitely help me in my recovery and help me stay clean.
Giving Back
Giving back what was given to me. Without recovery today I’d be that hopeless helpless girl out there searching for more ways and means to get more. Today I found the light at the end of the tunnel. I love my life and myself today. My name is Lauren, and I am a grateful recovering addict.