Our Book in Inventory suggests that we have begun to outgrow fear, begun to digest, many Big chunks of truth about ourselves.With action more faith, with faith more Trust...kind like that for me..False Evidence Appearing Real,starts slipping away..
Thank God,
Billy

Great post- Two

Public speaking. Ego didn't want to make a fool of myself. Wound up doing it for a living for years

The big one was I faced my fear of life by stopping drinking to hide from it. Nothing has been or I imagine ever will be, more liberating than that.

It is our fears that prevent us from enjoying life to the fullest. Facing our fears gives us freedom. I don't know if we can ever overcome them all, but I know I can overcome the ones I face today. Fear is like the bully in the school yard. He keeps chasing us, and preventing us from having, and enjoying our freedom. If we keep running from him, we will never overcome our fear. Although were not sure what will happen if we were to stand up to him, we are sure that unless we do stand up we will always be afraid. Once we do stand up, we learn that it wasn't as bad as our minds made it up to be, and if we keep standing up to that fear, eventually it loses it's power over us, and we can experiance another triump over a fear.. I used to be terified of speaking in front of groups of people. This robed me of a lot of things. Insteadf of facing my fear, I took the easy way out by just totally avoiding it altogether. Later on this would cause me to have anger towards myself. I felt like a coward for letting my fears prevent me from doing, or saying what I wanted. I finally got fed up with it. i knew that nothing was going to happen from me just sitting there, and doing nothing. Slowly I started to force myself to say something. Often what I wanted to say wouldn't come out right, and I would stop. I watched people, and how they did it, and kept trying. Slowly I gained more courage, and confidence. I finally did overcome this fear. I was in a Christian treatment center, and devoloped a God of my understanding that I got confident would keep me safe, and be with me through everything. I finally got to the point that I waqs able to speak in front of whole congregations of people. Today I can talk in front of anyone without fear. I can say what I need to, and express myself so much better, and my life is better for it. That fear no longer controles me. Wish everyone all the best. James

Wow. Great post! I am so sad right now I think my heart might just have another wound that will never quite ever go away no matter how long I am sober, no matter how hard I work on my issues just no matter what....... The larger and deeper my capacity to love grows, so does my ability to grieve and hurt etc. This one sure does hurt big.!! The more I seem to grow and heal The more I seem to open myself up for more to be revealed to heal and grow from in this recovery deal. Right now I don't feel so grateful about it. I sure don't like this part of the deal. I'm not trying to say I regret, as I don't but I haven't seemed to figure out how to do this part gracefully yet. I honestly look forward to learning, the growth as a human being, as a woman growing toward who God intended all along. But in 23 years of this minus a few months 13 yrs ago....... I still don't want to go thru this part of the process!! :-) I still don't do the grief nor the heart ache, nor the anything that hurts very well. I wish so many times as it is kicking my butt and ripping my heart apart that I could just be ignorant once again, to just be able to not have to feel this heartache so damned intensely............ I wish I could find a healthy safe way to be numb. Ha Once again i thought I knew, thought I could create something that I thought was God given... A gift from God that I was suppose to believe in, & trust in... supposed to nurture it and and treasure it and I am having to watch in horror as it is dying right in front of me. I don't want my HP to allow this to happen, I want some more influence. I want it to work out the way I want it to work out. I don't want to let go and let God,cause I fear He is taking it away from me and I don't want Him to. Even tho letting go may be thE BEST THING I don't want to. Tired now just want to sleep,,,, Yep

F ace
E verything
A nd
Recover

Can't.......

F @*k
E verything
A nd
R un

Anymore even tho wish I could at times, nope I cannot do it anymore.

I just don't like this owee part at all. Guess I never will, nor should I. It would be weird if I enjoyed pain and heartache!!
Sorry for the ramble

In LLTS
"StubbornT"

All great posts but OT Olive, we had a couple of large dogs when I was a teenager, one a beautiful Border Collie Kelpie Cross called Bruno, cleverest and cheekiest dog I ever met. Probably never see another dog like him in my lifetime.

Well a cousin visted with a small Jack Russell and the tiny dog chased Bruno right through the whole house - all of we family nearly peed our pants, then we really peed our pants when Bruno got to my roon at the back of the house and jumped on my bed, thus cornered by the Jack Russell who was too small to even jump on the bed. Yes, wet pants and sore stomaches from laughing all round.

EXCELLANT Howtolive,

My fears were so silly, APPLYING for a job! That would have me in TATTERS. Hell, i'd be scared to death. AND i had plenty of letters of recommendations from employers and i was an EXCELLANT worker. But, scared of my own shadow! Crazy!

That was just 1 and if ya wanna laugh, i have plendy where that came from! Ha

I'm with Rick. Public speaking no. 1 for me. That's why it was urgent that I put my hand up at meetings. And after doing that for the last 4 months, it has gotten so much easier. I might not share at every meeting, but I always share when I've got something to say. That's really huge for me.

Quite honestly, by keeping things in the moment, I can't believe how unafraid in general I am. Everything I did was based on fear. I avoided people and situations like the plague if I thought I would have the least bit anxiety.

And I love the actronyms that Billy and Ralop brought up... so true.

xoxo
~Chris

Anna - wonderful post!!!

I used to be afraid of many things including small daily tasks.

i will be honest, i get a little anxious when I have to incur freeway driving or large crowds or step into a place of unfamiliarity but it's not a real "fear" I no longer fear anything, because I have faith - i know without my faith i feared everything.

Peace!

I getta kick outta the lil' ankle biter dogs that man up to the pit bulls,, etc.
My main man Bear was at a job site flaring his muscle one time
~~~ along came this kitten ready for a kill. We still talk about this kitten attacking my 120 lb. wimpy dog.
Maybe my boy is a doggy alcoholic riddled by fear,, lol.

bump

timmy OT again. I have a tiny cat named, yes Teddybear the Cat. She is ten years old but only 2.9kg (half the size of most cats). But she too beats up dogs. This man came onto my property last year and said, "You cat just beat up my dog!" Well I needed to apologise but I had to keep my laughter inside - it's really funny. My Vet says Teddy is like the BECAUSE she's so small and she's designed by evolution to have finely honed survival skills.

Well, doesn't that all relate to alcoholism too? We all have natural instincts as humans, but in our case (see the first page of Step 4 in the 12 Steps and Twelve Traditions) we have all the natural instincts of other humans, but they are totally over-blown in us, including fear - we have a over-sized fight or flight response and thus we have a greater need for things that will quell that fear - including yes, alcohol. But we can replace the coping mechanism and fear-fuelled life of booze with AA's (in my case) steps and traditions, the Fellowship and a HIgher Power of our own understanding. Cool. And it works by goodness, it simply works.

I love the replies.

My own big story of overcoming fear...

I was always terrified of speaking in front of groups of people. 5 years ago, I decided that I wanted to test my own limits and push some boundaries, so I applied for a job to teach technology classes to adult professionals. To make matters worse I knew nothing of the subject matter, in fact I had no technology or speaking experience. The company hired me on the premise that I would have to learn the first class in 6 weeks. If I failed, I failed.

I did NOT fail, but I did suffer miserably trying to compete with other experienced instructors. I couldn't keep food down, lost a ton of weight, nearly drove myself to the hospital on several occasions because I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My motto was "I won't die from this." I would tell myself in the morning that if it got so bad that I just couldn't handle it anymore, I could drive away at lunchtime, quit, and never look back. I succeeded despite my fears and was even ranked in the N. American continent in under 1 year. The whole experience rather sucked until I got past that first year, but I am a bigger and better person for it and I am glad I persevered. I don't think ANYTHING will scare me or test me the way that experience did. I now believe I can do anything I set my mind to.

I also have a little trouble sharing in AA meetings. It's more about allowing myself to be vulnerable than about speaking in a group anymore. I just kept trying and then set myself up by starting my shares in every meeting I attended with "I promised myself I would share whether or not I thought I had anything good to say." Now the other members hold me accountable to this. I'm afraid moreso now what they would think if I went back on my word. Problem solved.

Things just get better and better. Overcoming fear, imo, creates the magic that paves the way for miracles. It is God's gift to us - sort of a billboard that might say, "If you are afraid, then this is your opportunity, so go after it and the prize will be yours."

Thanks all. Stories of COURAGE give me the goose bumps. ;-)