Great advice for all--both alcoholics and non alike!

And this relates to your recovery, exactly how?

when I was still drinking, I was constantly pointing the finger at others as the reason I kept drinking. I had no idea then, when I sobered up that it was my right hand that delivered the booze to me.

I had to do thorough work to get to the truth of this paragraph. I was responsible for tipping the glass. No one held a gun to my head. With that being the case, I was the manufacturer of my own misery. Wow, it was like getting hit with a 2X4. I had no one left to blame for my misery. I think it's called accountability.

The 12 Steps and Traditions have an outline that I lived by then and today. I was never a religious person but as I did the work, I knew "something" was effecting change in me and it damn sure wasn't me. Pretty cool.

?????

I remember the first time I read this, it had a powerful effect and still does. It challenged my whole way of thinking and I came to realise that whatever came my way, whatever my "lot" seemed to be, I still had choices in my behaviour and thinking. This was part of what set me free from the drinking problem.

I could sit and wallow, be negative and full of scorn, self pity or blame or I could gather strength through faith and take positive action. What used to overwhelm me now rarely does which demonstrates to me personally the power of positivity, facing fear and learning from my experience. I also watch closely what others do and don't do and see what I can learn from that with an attitude of humility. It is my reliance on God, a Power greater than myself that gives me the strength and courage that I ordinarily do not have.

Sosa 86 has always spoken of the strength of humility which almost seems like a paradox until the truth of that is sought.

I found myself relating strongly to grateful2be's response too.

Well, I see a whole lot here, for me. First I see all the time I wasted thinking about getting to a point of inebriation, daydreams to schemes when I had no money, the wasted time during, when perhaps I could have been at work, doing something with my family-or friends improving the condition of my surroundings, and after, sick time,hangovers-losing days in bed and next days sweating it out, not being able to think straight, Trying to make up with loved ones for either actions or misappropriation of their time, plans, money.
I could not face responsibility. If there were consequences, I would try to blame others for my actions or inaction. Blowing off responsibilities make more responsibilities. If I fail to pay a bill, I also incur a late fee, to pay a late fee, I have to skip paying something else and that just gets the domino's falling. Making them erect again consumes more time, further robbing family from attention, clamoring to fit current responsibilities with those I am attempting to remedy sets tolerance for disruption at peak, then just to feel sane I repeat the same process which started this snowball. Hey, those who trust themselves to trust that we will "get better" are injured too. They now question their own judgement, question their reasons for loving freely.
I mean their is more, but heck we know that. We all have some deep secrets, acts we've committed while under the influence, some have secrets about actions they have perpetrated just to get more.
The deliberate manufacture of misery falls on the shoulders of those who know they are shirking responsibility, those who know they are committing a wrong, an illegality, anything that brings to conscious their conscience, from talking about your friend behind his/her back to as far as one is willing to go. the secondary misery is the hurt we inflict on others and the third is the most damaging of all, as it allows the disease all the vitamins and nutrients needed to help it grow stronger than us and keep the momentum in this monotonous cycle some of us refer to as alcoholism.

Context is key, selective perception is a dead end...p.132/133..."Cheerfulness and Laughter make for Usefulness" :)

For me the intent of this is very simple ... I like to live as joyful a life as I can...the best message I can pass is the smile on my face, if someone is curious they will come and ask how it got there. If not...none of my business :)

In recovery, It was described to me as "Sharing for Effect". ..not honestly relating my own experience, but saying always what I thought others ought to hear...if they were to get "my brand" of how they should be. Or laying it on thick to scare them in my direction..."the deliberate manufacture of misery"...how selfish I was (they were), how awful my drinking was (their drinking could be). Sneaky sneaky and I really was mortified when it was pointed out to me this was what I was doing...nooooooo!! :)

That has been my own experience of that quote, in the context of my own recovery :)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IbqiCxEIeEo

P