I thought it would be a good idea to keep up the momentum of the Steps thread and start one on Step 2. I was at a meeting the other night where we looked at just that.
"Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity"
For me, this step holds a lot of significance because for SO long I tried to convince myself that my next drinking episode would turn out differently than the one before, and the one before that i.e in absolute turmoil and chaos, where I would have a personality flipout, cause endless heartache for those I love and probably end up down at the police station. BUT still I would go back out there, secure in the so called knowledge that this time it will be different, this time I won't drink so much or I'll try a different drink or whatever. And guess what?? The same thing happened again with maybe even more dire consequences.
Insanity is often defined as doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. That is how I drank.
It took a lot more pratice to finally convince me that:
1. I was alcoholic and could not manage my own life
2. That no human power could relieve my alcoholism
3. That God could and would if He were sought.
I would love to hear your experiences on Step 2. As so many newcomers read the threads it would be a tremendous asset to them and to those who are further in recovery too.
All the very best, Ruth x
Gidday Ruth
Thanks for your gratitude for recovery because it bumps my recovery up as well.
Step two for me was hard because i kept thinking of the god i was brought up with who allowed all the sh@t to happen and then absolved the sinners on a sunday so they could do it all again...the priest included.
Then at rehab a Maori fella said to me fire your old god and find a new one and i done that and my life has just got better and better.
Also i must add that from the moment someone shared at an AA meeting i was hooked because i had found somewhere i belonged....i was not alone in my insanity because here was a room full of other people who not only knew my pain but where talking about it how cool is that.
Thanks Ruth, the day is so much better when i have gratitude to give away:)
light and love Zac
Thanks for your gratitude for recovery because it bumps my recovery up as well.
Step two for me was hard because i kept thinking of the god i was brought up with who allowed all the sh@t to happen and then absolved the sinners on a sunday so they could do it all again...the priest included.
Then at rehab a Maori fella said to me fire your old god and find a new one and i done that and my life has just got better and better.
Also i must add that from the moment someone shared at an AA meeting i was hooked because i had found somewhere i belonged....i was not alone in my insanity because here was a room full of other people who not only knew my pain but where talking about it how cool is that.
Thanks Ruth, the day is so much better when i have gratitude to give away:)
light and love Zac
Ruth,
Thanks for starting this thread and thank you Zac for your post as well.
I was so out of touch with reality when I got sober (for the entire first year) that I actually just slammed into reality right around my first sober birthday cake. My past insanity was continuing to drink and drug and trying different approaches to drinking and drugging and still ending up with the same end result. I would get my nails done or get a haircut and think, ah now I can drink like everyone else! LOL! Chapter 3 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes this to a tee.......God, my Higher Power, has restored me to sanity today....I lost it last year, as a lot of you remember....went insane in sobriety and then got humble and asked God to restore it once again and He did...but I know, for me, just because I'm sober I'm not necessarily always sane, too funny!
Geri
Thanks for starting this thread and thank you Zac for your post as well.
I was so out of touch with reality when I got sober (for the entire first year) that I actually just slammed into reality right around my first sober birthday cake. My past insanity was continuing to drink and drug and trying different approaches to drinking and drugging and still ending up with the same end result. I would get my nails done or get a haircut and think, ah now I can drink like everyone else! LOL! Chapter 3 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes this to a tee.......God, my Higher Power, has restored me to sanity today....I lost it last year, as a lot of you remember....went insane in sobriety and then got humble and asked God to restore it once again and He did...but I know, for me, just because I'm sober I'm not necessarily always sane, too funny!
Geri
Hi Ruth
just saying hi and to let you know how grateful I am to have this site. knowing there is people who really understand is a help to me.it takes some of the burden away because I dont feel so alone. I might have you all drove crazy in the next coming days but I am now in my 3rd day of been sober. Just now i took a jar and i put 3 beans in the jar for my 3 days of not drinking and every day i dont drink i'm gonna add another bean. and i am going to concentrate on that jar getting full . might sound silly but i have to see something for my effort. maybe by the time the jar is half full these dam cravings will be gone.
just saying hi and to let you know how grateful I am to have this site. knowing there is people who really understand is a help to me.it takes some of the burden away because I dont feel so alone. I might have you all drove crazy in the next coming days but I am now in my 3rd day of been sober. Just now i took a jar and i put 3 beans in the jar for my 3 days of not drinking and every day i dont drink i'm gonna add another bean. and i am going to concentrate on that jar getting full . might sound silly but i have to see something for my effort. maybe by the time the jar is half full these dam cravings will be gone.
For me, the second step is all about Hope. When I came into the rooms and ARG (simultaneously) I was beaten, hopelss and heartless. I was told that all these people were doing stuff and staying sober--not drinking. AMAZING, because I'd lost the ability to choose to drink a long time ago. I HAD to drink--and it wasn't working anymore. Somewhere along the way, the partying became drinking, and the fun became loathing, and the buzz became debilitation physical sickness.
But there was Hope. I'd admitted I was powerless over alcohol--and alot of other stuff. HONESTY is the first step and it's the one step that has to be done perfectly. I don't care what others say, because for me, I was beaten. I had proven beyond all doubt that I couldn't choose not to drink for any length of time. Or any of the other stuff that went along with it.
But there was Hope. I saw a bunch of caring people around the room looking to me for their sobriety with their loving and non-judgemental wisdom and they said, "Keep coming back." And I didn't drink for that 24 hour period so I came back. And there was Hope that if I could just do the same thing for another day, that maybe I could stay sober. So I did.
And there was Hope. Over time I began to realize that hopelessness is a killing thing, and I wasn't ready for it. I had developed hope that, if I could just do what these folks were doing and stay sober like they were, then maybe I could work this thing.
and there is Hope. And Step 2 is all about the hope that My Higher Power can, if I let Him/Her/It, guide me through the otherwise hopelessness that was drinking and guide me through my recovery to a serenity and inner peace that only those who have done it will understand. And those who haven't can Hope that they can do it too.
Yup. Step 2 is about Hope.
But there was Hope. I'd admitted I was powerless over alcohol--and alot of other stuff. HONESTY is the first step and it's the one step that has to be done perfectly. I don't care what others say, because for me, I was beaten. I had proven beyond all doubt that I couldn't choose not to drink for any length of time. Or any of the other stuff that went along with it.
But there was Hope. I saw a bunch of caring people around the room looking to me for their sobriety with their loving and non-judgemental wisdom and they said, "Keep coming back." And I didn't drink for that 24 hour period so I came back. And there was Hope that if I could just do the same thing for another day, that maybe I could stay sober. So I did.
And there was Hope. Over time I began to realize that hopelessness is a killing thing, and I wasn't ready for it. I had developed hope that, if I could just do what these folks were doing and stay sober like they were, then maybe I could work this thing.
and there is Hope. And Step 2 is all about the hope that My Higher Power can, if I let Him/Her/It, guide me through the otherwise hopelessness that was drinking and guide me through my recovery to a serenity and inner peace that only those who have done it will understand. And those who haven't can Hope that they can do it too.
Yup. Step 2 is about Hope.
Bump.
I was reading the BIG BOOK this morning in preparation for leading a meeting at mid-day, and I decided to read, "The Chapter to the Agnostic." It's an entirely different read than before I began The Program. Predjudice prior to inspection, as I've learned to say.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
There's nothing in there on tything, on missionary work, on baptisms, on rolling rocks, on crosses, Christ, or Easter. THIS was another eye-opener for me. Then someone said, "This is a program of spirituality, not religion." Yet another said, "Religion is for those who don't want to go to Hell. Spirituality os for those of us who've been there."
Step 2, for me, didn't just POP into my head, but I realized that I didn't have to 'get it' all at once, so long as I kept working The Program.
I was reading the BIG BOOK this morning in preparation for leading a meeting at mid-day, and I decided to read, "The Chapter to the Agnostic." It's an entirely different read than before I began The Program. Predjudice prior to inspection, as I've learned to say.
| QUOTE |
| Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinancy, sensitiveness and unreasoning predjudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even the casual reference to spiritual things makes us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thing had to be abandoned....Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded as we had tried to be on other questions. |
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
There's nothing in there on tything, on missionary work, on baptisms, on rolling rocks, on crosses, Christ, or Easter. THIS was another eye-opener for me. Then someone said, "This is a program of spirituality, not religion." Yet another said, "Religion is for those who don't want to go to Hell. Spirituality os for those of us who've been there."
Step 2, for me, didn't just POP into my head, but I realized that I didn't have to 'get it' all at once, so long as I kept working The Program.
p 12 Bill's Story
Despite the living example of my friend there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be. I have since talked with scores of men who felt the same way.
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"
That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!
Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.
Despite the living example of my friend there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be. I have since talked with scores of men who felt the same way.
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"
That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!
Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.
| QUOTE |
| It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. |
I love Step 2....Came to believe, not have to believe, not should believe, no demands just the willingness to believe. And I've heard often shared at meetings, if you don't have willingness, you can pray to be willing to be willing and I've done that before and my HP, God never fails as I become willing....
Willing has been in my thoughts the last few weeks, more so in the last few days....It truly is a freedom word, willing.
I am grateful I became willing. I am grateful I was willing to ask for help, grateful I was willing to listen with an open mind and go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous when a friend suggested it, and I am very grateful I was willing to "try" the steps with a sponsor....
If I didn't become willing, I'd probably be dead today....
And it's life awesome living in sanity?? Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Hi I am doing step 2 now . I always believed in a HP but I I never really handed everything over. I am WILLING to do so now, just have to learn HOW. Bit by bit I know I will ..just have to make some changes in my attitude and retrain my thought patterns.That is where I need you guys and all the advice you can offer.God bless and be safe all.
bump for Zipper
Thank you, SKG...All the bumping I can get, I'll take. :)
