October 26 (99)

”Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Sir Winston Churchill

SAA has given me faith and hope that there is a better way ahead. It also gives me encouragement that all my failures can amount to something positive and have a healthy influence in my life. The sharing of other’s struggles, and their overcoming of seemingly incredible odds, helps me see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Failure has always been a challenging topic, and often a trigger for my addict. It’s taken a lot of reprogramming to start seeing the positive side of failure. I know much better that I need not be afraid to fail. It means I am open to changing, taking risks, stepping out of the routine. The importance is to keep trying, to find the way things have worked well and to look at how to improve the weak spots. Life is about trying to do the right thing, making the tough choices, risking making mistakes and having faith in something greater than you, a master design. It’s about not losing myself along the journey, but a about finding myself.

Affirmation I must be willing to risk failure in order to make those choices that will lead me on the path to a better life.

June 3

”There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” John Andrew Holmes

I joined SAA because I needed help. I was grateful to have found a place of support, compassion and understanding. I feel lucky to have found people who have shared their experience, strength and hope, who have encouraged me and who have also told me straight out how they see me and what I have done or not done. These are just some of the gifts I have received from the program so far. Now that I am somewhat more experienced I am encountering a different aspect in the fellowship. It happens more frequently that someone seeks me out for support, or that I am that extra listening ear after a meeting, or that I find myself in the position to tell things as I see them. I always try to be humble and gentle in these moments, remembering all too well what it felt like being in the other member’s place. It is part of my responsibility to actively help others when I am capable of doing so. I still learn as much, if not more, from listening to others as I do in sharing my own experience. It feels good to do service and give back to the program in this fundamental way.

Affirmation I will remember how I felt when I asked for support when others need to lean on me. Being humble and gentle are important attitudes to retain.