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Tag Archives: alcoholic

Dark Holidays? This One’s For You

2020by Heidi

Ready for a different kind of holiday? This worked for me.

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Addiction and Relationships

Pause When Agitated?

2020by Heidi

As we go through the day we pause when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. Pause. Oh, no. Remember I’m a sprinter? Pauses break my […]

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Step 11 Application

Functional Alcoholic Signs

2020by Heidi

It’s so tricky to diagnose that I had friends telling me I couldn’t be alcoholic, even though I knew I was.

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Addiction and Relationships, Relating to Addicts, Step 1 Tips

What Do They Mean…Do The Next Right Thing?

2020by Heidi

Some people just naturally know what their NRT is. Do you?

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Step 1, Step 1 Application, Step 1 Tips

Step 3: Part 6 The Director

2020by Heidi

It’s not my role to direct others. It’s my role to love them, support them by listening, and pray for them to find God’s direction

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12 Steps, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Part 5 Lessons From The 70s on Willingness

2020by Heidi

My life lesson plan was handed to me with my bed tray at the age of 23!

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12 Steps, Step 3, Step 3 Application, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Part 4 Flat-Out Decision

2020by Heidi

The way out was to get a clue! I thought I was supposed to be in charge of my own life, so I was.

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12 Steps, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Part 1 Connected

2020by Heidi

My life wasn’t happy, but I felt like I was in control. For some reason, that made sense to me.

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12 Steps, Step 3

Step 3: Self-willed and Controlling? Who…Me?

2020by Heidi

I don’t understand the intricate workings of denial, but I’m at the same time, well-acquainted with it.

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Spirituality, Step 3, Step 3 Application, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Examine Inconsistencies

2020by Heidi

Here’s the confession: When I’m doing well, it’s not really me doing it. It’s the power within.

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Spirituality, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Remodel Me

2020by Heidi

My most traumatic experience with remodeling isn’t filed in a picture database anywhere …

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AA, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: What’s Your Keystone?

2020by Heidi

Looking closely at this arch in Glendalough, Ireland, you can see there is no mortar…

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12 Steps, Step 3 Application, Step 3 Tips

5 Tips for Choosing a Recovery Sponsor

2020by Heidi

A guide, a mentor, a friend, a BB Nazi… so many choices!

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AA, ACOA, Al-Anon, Codependents Anonymous, Step 2, Step 2 Tips

Grandmas and Sponsors

2020by Heidi

People who are spiritual are helping others and leading interesting lives. They radiate a life-verve that is attractive.

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AA, ACOA, Al-Anon, Codependents Anonymous, Step 2 Tips

Help Me VS Gratitude

2020by Heidi

What is implied by the ‘help me’?

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AA, Step 11 Tips

12 Step Programs Aren’t Therapy

2020by Heidi

Guess what’s inside this AA meeting!

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AA, Step 12 Tips

Cupcakes and Sweet Security

2020by Heidi

A month into Al-Anon I find that I am losing my job.

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AA, Al-Anon, Codependents Anonymous, Step 1 Application

Not in My Wheelhouse

2020by Heidi

After cleaning out my wheelhouse I find I’m a little lonely…

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AA, Al-Anon, Step 1 Tips

Step 2: Digging From the Quarry of the Past

2020by Heidi

When I’m digging into the quarry of the past, I’m entering the insanity of mining my history…

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AA, Step 2 Application, Step 2 Tips

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

2020by Heidi

My life would make a better movie than it does a life.

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AA, Step 1 Application

Step11: Where Are You From?

2020by Heidi

Possibly behind the presenting question is the thought: “You’re not one of us, are you?” I’m not sure why we react to ‘foreigners’ this way, but it’s human nature to try to align the ‘us’ from the ‘them’. We separate out the locals from the others like sorting through the box of puzzle pieces for the border.

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12 Steps, Step 11, Step 11 Application

STOP…GO…STOP!

2020by Heidi

So what do we do if we can’t trust our thinking?

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12 Steps, Step 1 Application

Step 4: Column 5 Peeling Back False Beliefs

2020by Heidi

I spent a lot of time with my grandparents absorbing survival skills: some good, some bad.

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12 Steps, Step 4, Step 4 Tips

Step 4: Column 4 Tattletale

2020by Heidi

So, what’s wrong with being a Tattletale?

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12 Steps, Step 4, Step 4 Tips

Step 4: Column 3 Buddy Burner Gut Ignites

2020by Heidi

I’m a Fighter from a long line of Fighters. I don’t know what happens to you when you’re angry…

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12 Steps, Step 4, Step 4 Tips

Step 4: Are You A Friend Among Friends?

2020by Heidi

I was not. I’m still learning. At one time I thought I had the perfect life but it was built upon the proverbial shifting sand of illusions about myself. The […]

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12 Steps, Step 4, Step 4 Application

Step 4: Column 2 The Cause Knot

2020by Heidi

Now that we have the first column naming people, institutions and principles we can move on to the second column.  (Refer to the Not Scary Resentments Worksheet of Step 4 in […]

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12 Steps, Step 4, Step 4 Tips

Step 4: Dirty Urchins, Raggedy People and Drunks

2020by Heidi

Everything was dirty, broken, piled up and rusty. I kept gagging…

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12 Steps, Step 4 Application

Step 2: AA Drifter Returns to the Bunkhouse of Childhood Faith

2020by Heidi

I have the clearest memory of childhood discussions and a collection of bunkhouse adventures with God. This skinless friend was more real …

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Spirituality, Step 11 Application

Step 3: The Key To Making Decisions

2020by Heidi

Step 3 is not the action of turning our will and lives over, it’s deciding to do so. Let’s get specific. Which decision making elements do you usually use?

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12 Steps, Step 3 Tips

Step 3: Questions and Directions

2020by Heidi

There is something in me that rebels against familiar authoritarianism. Do I really want someone else to tell me what to think again? I hope not.

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12 Steps, Step 3 Tips

How Did I Set My Password For AA Serenity?

2020by Heidi

During early sobriety it seemed that all the characters around the table except me had a secret password that allowed them to log into a new life of peace and serenity. I’d never seen anything like these hooligans.

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AA Meetings, Step 11 Application

Step 3: I Can Skip This if I’m a Christian, Right?

2020by Heidi

The question I should have asked when I dropped into AA was, Is there a difference between step 3 and salvation for a Christian?

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12 Steps, Step 3 Application

Step 11: Do You Meditate In Color?

2020by Heidi

This is my prayer corner. The colored pencils are from Iowa. I bought them at an art supply store when I started coloring during prayer. Bear with me. I can explain…maybe.

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Spirituality, Step 11 Tips

Is Your God Silent? Are you?

2020by Heidi

Before I got sober at the age of 55, I was trapped by an ice storm at an abbey near Dubuque, in NE Iowa. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. […]

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Spirituality, Step 3 Tips

Step 4: Fearless Moral Inventory Shortcut

2020by Heidi

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That’s Step 4, perhaps the scariest few words Bill W strung together in this 12 Step program. It seems to me […]

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12 Steps, Step 4 Tips

No Disk

2020by Heidi

My addiction started harmlessly.

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Sober Living, Step 1 Application

Step 3: Gargantua Tarantula

2020by Heidi

It’s 12 Steps, not 2. The Old Timers I love and respect are those who have serenity gained from taking all 12 and continuing to live in the principles.

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12 Steps, Step 3 Tips

Peace on Earth to (Sober) Men

2020by Heidi

Peace started for me during Step One when I admitted I was not all-powerful; that alcohol had me by the throat!

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12 Steps, Step 1 Application

Victim Veins Revisited

2020by Heidi

You call it love. For years, all I wrote was bad, tragic and tearful poetry. Then life got better because I got sober and I gave up poetry. Suddenly, this […]

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12 Steps, Step 12 Application

After Stepping Fourth!

2020by Heidi

The truth will set you free, to the extent that you recognize it and cooperate with it.

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12 Steps, Step 5 Tips

Forgiveness and Murder

2020by Heidi

Mary Johnson befriended the man who murdered her only son and then invited him to come live next door

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12 Steps, Step 10 Application

Find a Retirement Home For Your Critic

2020by Heidi

What was the last critical statement that bothered you?

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12 Steps, Step 10 Tips

Listen With Your Eyes

2020by Heidi

Discerning reality is no easy task for addicts. Here’s a hint: Listen with your eyes. It works. When a person or activity is pulling me back into romancing of the […]

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Addiction and Relationships, Relating to Addicts

Lucky Unlucky Addicts

2020by Heidi

The following comment from Resentment Rats is too wonderful to leave in the archives of comments: So much lays beneath what we can easily see in ourselves. And how many […]

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Addiction and Relationships, Spirituality

Peachy Contentment

2020by Heidi

AA Old Timer helped me see that I need to add some ‘fluff’ to my life

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Sober Living, Step 3 Application

Prison Of Self

2020by Heidi

The above picture is from a recent trip to Scotland. The gate makes me think of how my old thinking has kept me imprisoned. I took this picture during a […]

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12 Steps, Step 4 Application

Fear Epiphany: Pieces of My Peace

2020by Heidi

I had an epiphany yesterday. I’ve recently bought a new fifth wheel and requisite dually. Along with that comes more room to live and more financial pressure. (Did you catch […]

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Spirituality, Step 12 Application

My Lower Power

2020by Heidi

I don’t feel like writing today so I’m going to. I’m going to write. I didn’t feel like walking this morning either, so I did. I walked. I’ve been doing […]

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Spirituality, Step 10 Application

Forgiveness: One Weird Old Tip

2020by Heidi

If rejection were a mask it would be cruel, soulless and rigid: dead eyes and a mouth locked into a sneer.

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Spirituality, Step 9 Tips

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