Spiritual Fitness

[Humblepie]

After my last relapse I asked a guy to be my sponsor before I even stopped drinking. He was familiar with my inability to stay sober. I had been in and out of AA and sobriety many times. One of the first things he told me was that the one thing that everyone he had ever seen go out and drink again was a failure to maintain spiritual fitness. I was happy to hear the emphasis he placed on spirituality but I really had no idea the impact this would have on me at the time. Later I heard a guy say "meetings aren't what keep me sober". This was new to me, if it wasn't AA meetings then what was it? He mentioned steps 10, 11, 12 and I thought that was nice but how did that keep him sober? I didn't realize he was saying the same thing my sponsor had told me. I still didn't understand what my sponsor had told me. He didn't say the one thing people who relapse have in common is: not going to meetings, not reading the BB, no sponsor, not working the steps etc.

I have now come to understand that these are tools to achieve spiritual fitness. The tools themselves don't keep me sober they are what I use to be in the solution.

Around 2 months into my sobriety something happened. For the first time in years the obsession of alcohol had been removed. I tried to explain to people what had happened. I didn't think anyone understood or believed me until I read page 84, 85 in the BB.

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

A promise in the big book and for the last 8 months a reality in my life. Spiritual Fitness is living in the solution. I no longer concern myself with an obsession over taking or not taking the first drink. My life in recovery is no longer about alcohol at all.

Steps 10, 11 and 12 are a good guide to being in God's will and achieving the solution of Spiritual Fitness as God helps others through us.

[annalittlebit]

Very Good---Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Craig A.]

You have hit the nail right omn the head!Thank you very much for the message. My sponsor asked me a couple of questions, do you want to get sober or do you want to stay sober? He told me its easy to get sober ( run out of money, burn your friends/family, hide, etc... ), it is also easy to get material things too ( money, girlfriend/boyfriend, jobs, homes,family, etc... ), and you don't need A.A. or 12 step programs either, but most likely you will lose it again. He told me I had to have a Higher Power and that Power can not under any circumstance be me, he told me in the beginning anything could be my Higher Power (A.A. , sponsors Higher Power, etc... ), but when you get to step 3 then you will have a God as we understand it. I also heard in a meeting which I like God keeps me sober A.A. helps me to live life. I also like the quote from the Big Book on page 85 first paragraph where it begins " It is easy to let up ..." Thank you for the topic and letting me share! God Bless and take care!!!

[caryay2001]

Life keeps on coming. Things don't always go my way. Steps 10, 11,& 12 provide me with the "ease and comfort" I had sought out in alcohol and drugs. This is a much better way to live. My life is much richer today due to my God and this program.

[paulm]

As we work the steps and the problem of alcohol and drugs become removed from us, as they do in time, if we are fit spriritually. We have to maintain it, or we run the risk of using again. first is the breakdown of spiritual fitness, then comes the idea that we might be able to drink or drug socially. then comes the opportunity to use socially, a battle to use or not, the choice get to a meeting or pick up....

[sioux]

I very much enjoyed reading the sincerity of your efforts to find what is going to work for you. My life is no longer about alcohol at all either (at least not for today). My life is about increasing my capacity for self-honesty, and my willingness to change my behaviors. Some say 1, 2, 3 (which I do every morning) and 10, 11, 12 (which I try to do everynight), but to me the most important of those are 6, 7...the ability to, with my Creator's help, change those things about ME that need achanging, and the ability to ask my Creator for help, ONE MORE TIME, when I fall short of those insights and goals.

Peace!

[DavidNOLA]

"Keep making deposits into your spiritual bank account and more will be revealed."

My sponsor says this all the time. Not sure where he got it from but it works.