yes. i accept this program, i accept my sponsor, i accept bad days and good days, i am in acceptance because it is a better way of life. it brings joy to me when i let go and let God. Acceptance for me is going to be the success of this program, and that is a lifetime.
ty my aa family and my intermediate family for giving me a chance to live life on lifes terms.
My experience is I have to accept that nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in god's world by mistake. If I can believe that, then I can accept anything, good bad or indifferent and that guarantess me atleast one more day without a drink.
Hugs,
Doll
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* We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. *
My 2nd greatest hurdle in this program, was admitting that I was an alcoholic. My greatest hurdle was accepting it, much as any other person suddenly diagnosed with any chronic illness.
As in, "Why do I have to have this, God? It's NOT FAIR!"
I learned something from my nephew, who is slowly succumbing to ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). "You just play the cards you were dealt."
Life is neither fair nor unfair, it's just life ("He causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust."). What you make of it is up to you.
Yes, for me acceptance is hard-accepting I am an alcoholic, accepting I need help, even accepting I have to take part in rehab and AA meetings! I have too much pride, too much self-reliance-accepting and letting God and other people help after I admit I need it is hard! But in other ways, I do feel freer than ever, and less worried. I was getting too isolated from others, so needing them now has been a change that was desperately overdue. I have a feeling the best part of my life has started, and the big turning point came the day I first accepted that I could be an alcoholic.
The day I did a couple self-assessments and discovered I probably was an alcoholic was the most shocking day ever for me! My EAP counselor sort of laughed at my reaction, because I seemed so horrified and disgusted! (Though even then I knew alcoholics are NOT bad people, or stupid people, or losers...I simply could not see ME as one, I knew too much about the disease, how could I be dumb enough to let this happen? After all, I could tell if other people were alcoholics, how could I beone? I should be smarter than that!)
Thank God I see progress in my attitude now! I am actually excited about some things I intend to do regarding rehab and AA! I do feel acknowledging myself as an alcoholic and truly accepting that has changed me for the better, and I think I will finally achieve something in my life. I do not know exactly what, but I feel I will have a purpose. Perhaps this disease will actually become another blessing I've gotten, not a curse.
I am so grateful I can accept this now! It is a key thing to recovery, and I am glad to say I have started to recover! Why be ashamed of this? It's the best thing I've done in my life!
