Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future.
Basic Text, p. 96
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When we begin coming to meetings, we hear other addicts talking about the gifts they have received as a result of this program, things we never thought of as gifts before. One such gift is the renewed ability to feel the emotions we had deadened for so long with drugs. Its not difficult to think of love, joy, and happiness as gifts, even if its been a long time since weve felt them. But what about bad feelings like anger, sadness, fear, and loneliness? Such emotions cant be seen as gifts, we tell ourselves. After all, how can we be thankful for things we want to run from?!
We can become grateful for these emotions in our lives if we place them in their proper perspective. We need to remember that weve come to believe in a loving Higher Power, and weve asked that Power to care for usand our Higher Power doesnt make mistakes. The feelings were given, good or bad, are given to us for a reason. With this in mind, we come to realize that there are no bad feelings, only lessons to be learned. Our faith and our Higher Powers care give us the courage we need to face whatever feelings may come up on a daily basis.
As we heard early in recovery, Your Higher Power wont give you more than you can handle in just one day. And the ability to feel our emotions is one of the greatest gifts of recovery.
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Just for today: I will try to welcome my feelings, firm in the belief that I have the courage to face whatever emotions may come up in my life.
Active addiction sought to maintain a single feeling, or one might say numbed dummy-ed down lack of feeling, constant state of euphoria. Getting Clean opened the floodgates to long since forgotten emotions and feelings. Initially it was a scary wild roller coaster ride! Over time the saying "this too shall pass" came to make sense, came to become natural acceptance of the Journey. Having fully Surrendered I came to believe my HP wouldn't give me more than I could handle good or bad. Yes handling "good" can be just as dangerous or difficult in our Disease as bad. Life today is much more akin to soft rolling waves of growth instead of a constant fearful tumultuous string of events and feelings.
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Work the Steps or Die MF. (My Friend :) Clean One Day At a Time by The Grace of God through The Power of NA
