Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
There are five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Humans also have awareness of balance, pressure, temperature, pain, and motion all of which may involve the coordinated use of multiple sensory organs.
I'll just keep it to five though.
When I was drinking my alcoholism took away my ability to be in contact with these senses. So in recovery along with a lot of new things in my life one was reconnecting to those senses.
And what I would do was in the mornings. I would make a hot coffee and sit out on my veranda and just for a moment I would hold my coffee cup between my hands and feel the warmth of the cup.
I would then smell my coffee and then taste it. I would then look at the different couloirs of the morning then I would listen to the sounds around me any breeze or birds, traffic some mornings I could hear a locomotive thumping along the railway lines.
Just sitting here now if I listen I can hear different kinds of birds. Try it
Its amazing for me to think about how I must have walked around all those years in an alcoholic haze.
Has anyone else experienced this I would like to know?
God Bless
Lionel
I'll just keep it to five though.
When I was drinking my alcoholism took away my ability to be in contact with these senses. So in recovery along with a lot of new things in my life one was reconnecting to those senses.
And what I would do was in the mornings. I would make a hot coffee and sit out on my veranda and just for a moment I would hold my coffee cup between my hands and feel the warmth of the cup.
I would then smell my coffee and then taste it. I would then look at the different couloirs of the morning then I would listen to the sounds around me any breeze or birds, traffic some mornings I could hear a locomotive thumping along the railway lines.
Just sitting here now if I listen I can hear different kinds of birds. Try it
Its amazing for me to think about how I must have walked around all those years in an alcoholic haze.
Has anyone else experienced this I would like to know?
God Bless
Lionel
Good reminder,
Dennis
No veranda here. Apartment dweller. Can I have yours??? lol
~Chris
I remember the first time I did something similar as you suggest. It was not that long ago, towards the end of last summer soon after my friend Reedm passed away.
I was at my sisters house & couldn't sleep from crying all night over Reed's passing.
I took my cup of coffee out back in the early morning hours and sat in a swing overlooking the lake with horses on the other side and birds flying all around.
It's the first time I noticed the wonder of nature and I believe was my first "conversation" with God. It was the most peaceful moment I've experienced and I truly believe that it was a little "nudge" from Reed to "stop and smell the roses". :)
I now notice butterflies and birds and various critters like I never did before. Were they there all this time and I was too drunk or hungover & irritable to notice? I believe so.
Awake-definitely & possibly aware for the 1st time. It's a beautiful thing! :)
i have ignored it for so many years. a kind word can embrace all the fond senses of our past.
my favorite memories are always rekindled by the sweet aroma of honey suckle.
Dennis your right.Sharpened perceptions?
HC My world was so black and grey .I must have had invisible blinkers on and tunnel vision because the only animals I saw was the imaginary ones..Like dogs jumping through trees and tress covered in lizards and ants crawling all over my body and little shadows that looked like mice running around the rooms. .
Today is just so different like you said where did all these birds and animals come from. And sobriety has defiantly coloured in my world it's not all black and grey these days.
Honey suckle. has lots of memories for me and it goes way back.
Thanks again.
God Bless..
Lionel
Watching the faces of people as they walk by when i sit at a cafe sipping coffee. The bustling City streets, and the slow motion of what happens in between all the action.
Watching spiders weave their webs after a rain at night. I'll sit and turn my lights off, and the outside light on, and just watch them for ages. We've a lot of native bushes, and have lot's of spiders...
My daughter and I race upstairs and open the window and lie across the bed to watch a thunder and lightening show. Ooh Ahh...
I love the beach. Feel the warm sand and sea, smell the ocean air, hear the rush of the waves, taste the salt on my lips, and watch the endless sets breaking with the glistening sun on the surface. But also sometimes getting a good look inside a dumper...
Just to name a few. At the moment I can hear the Rugby team training up the oval, smell the lavender in the oil burner, feel the night chill creeping in, taste my arvo cuppa tea, see the dog sleeping on MY CLEAN CLOTHES! lol
Ah Lionel I get the Cockatoos waking me here though a little earlier than I'd like on weekends. I could go on and on in this thread. Life is good sober :}
nice post :)
Just last night I was putting my 2 year old to bed and he smiled looking right in my eyes. Melt my heart. Also immediately made me realize that for the last year I was generally drunk when looking at his nighttime smiles. SO SO Thankful to be sober.