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 is a way of looking at things which is simple and a way which is complicated. Simplicity has to do with clarity, with precision, with merging thought and action. Simplicity works with the intelligence of the heart. It is not the same as being simplistic or stupid. It is not the result of living in a box. Real simplicity is capable of taking the complexities into account and cutting right through them, to the core.
Why are we afraid and what are we afraid of? Why do human beings get angry with themselves or each other?
To be able to look at these questions in a simple manner requires strength. It needs a genuine desire to end violence, not just outside but inside yourself. If we cannot see clearly isn't it because we are still hoping for a good bargain? Because we think we can use clever arguments to make life change its mind and allow us to keep what we cant have. We want things to be different but want to remain the same. We want others to change but not to have to make an effort, ourselves. So rather than drop everything that is unnecessary in our lives and find a moment to be still to observe the truth, we rush around in a frenzy or pore through tomes of history and political tracts and all kinds of philosophical treatises written by men or women far removed from the happenings in their own minds and hearts. And hope it will explain away the chaos or fill us with the light of intelligence.
When you are hungry you cant fill your stomach by eating a book. When your mind is in a state of confusion you cant sort it out with ideas and concepts from someone elses head.
Maybe that moment of awakening arrives when we say to ourselves, Ive had enough. Enough of the confusion, enough of mindless suffering, enough of going round in circles in our heads.
In that moment we drop our defenses, put down our armaments and free ourselves to look and listen. In the miraculous silence which follows, we see more clearly into the nature of our problems which automatically acquaints us with the solution. The difficult thing about learning to be simple again, is having to give up so much of what we have learned, and all that we have become.
Uma
Why are we afraid and what are we afraid of? Why do human beings get angry with themselves or each other?
To be able to look at these questions in a simple manner requires strength. It needs a genuine desire to end violence, not just outside but inside yourself. If we cannot see clearly isn't it because we are still hoping for a good bargain? Because we think we can use clever arguments to make life change its mind and allow us to keep what we cant have. We want things to be different but want to remain the same. We want others to change but not to have to make an effort, ourselves. So rather than drop everything that is unnecessary in our lives and find a moment to be still to observe the truth, we rush around in a frenzy or pore through tomes of history and political tracts and all kinds of philosophical treatises written by men or women far removed from the happenings in their own minds and hearts. And hope it will explain away the chaos or fill us with the light of intelligence.
When you are hungry you cant fill your stomach by eating a book. When your mind is in a state of confusion you cant sort it out with ideas and concepts from someone elses head.
Maybe that moment of awakening arrives when we say to ourselves, Ive had enough. Enough of the confusion, enough of mindless suffering, enough of going round in circles in our heads.
In that moment we drop our defenses, put down our armaments and free ourselves to look and listen. In the miraculous silence which follows, we see more clearly into the nature of our problems which automatically acquaints us with the solution. The difficult thing about learning to be simple again, is having to give up so much of what we have learned, and all that we have become.
Uma
What a wonderful topic! Alcoholics love complexity, drama, and chaos. We get used to life always being in turmoil, and we love it. It's a rush for us.
Getting sober taught me, among other things, that simplicity brings peace and contentment. Learning how to cut through the nonsense and emotion surrounding an issue and getting to the core of it has taught me how to be a more constructive person, a better parent, a more worthy friend, and a stable recovering alcoholic.
Simplicity. Truth. Peace. Life is good.
The reason for this is that I am no longer running my life. I need those still, quiet moments alone in prayer and listening for what God would have me do. If my ego or any character defects get in the way, and they always try to get back in there, it blocks me off from "the sunlight of the spirit."
By cutting my self (ego, pride, fear etc) out of the picture as much as I am able I can be sure of the best possible outcome.
I have to consider what God would have me do or be. Hurt no-one, give rather than take, be kind, speak truthfully and put others first are difficult ideals to live up to. But today I have the tools to grow better at following these through when and where I can.
I can think this all I like and agree, the test is putting it into pracitse.
My programme teaches me that "faith without works is dead" and "the spiritual life is not a theory, we have to live it."
Billy
Sticky, even after many years of sobriety, I still have times when I struggle keeping it simple. Life brings complications, and I have found that it bucks the norm when I refuse to join the hysteria that I see so many people living with. Ever notice how individuals in a group can get into a 'Im busier than you are" competition? Some folk would rather stick pins into their eyes than have to make themselves be quiet long enough to hear their inner voice. I don't envy them, and I do not want ever to live like that again.
You're right when you say we are works in progress, and I think those of us who know that and who live with the tools to make our progress a priority are so blessed.