10 Sober Savers for the Holiday Season 2004

Written by Connie Carpenter


Holidays are loaded with triggers. Memories, family situations, and extra demands for your time are all difficult to manage.While atrepparttar same time, living in recovery, especially when your newly sober , has its own assortment of challenges.. Keeprepparttar 129462 following 10 Sobriety Savers close by asrepparttar 129463 holidays draw near.Hopefully they will be helpful as tools to assist you in keeping things on track and also when you become .... overwhelmed ..shall we say??

1.) Start Now ! Don't save your shopping, decorating, cooking, wrapping, and cleaning forrepparttar 129464 last minute. That is too much pressure for anyone. This isrepparttar 129465 year to be organized, so you'll have time to enjoyrepparttar 129466 season in sobriety. If you can't get something done, just let it go with no regrets.

2.) Attend your meetings TIS th1.) Start preparing NOW. e season! Don't let social invitations distract you from recovery.You'll find a meeting invaluable when you happen to come up against a trigger or some craving. If you start feeling down, or really don't feel like going to a meeting--THIS,is when you really do need to go. That hour of your time may save your life.

3.) Don't take on new commitments. It just isn't a good idea .Let someone take care of you this year.If asked to do something you may find too stressful simply say, "I'm sorry. I'm doing some developmental work and I'm just too busy to giverepparttar 129467 attention it deserves.." Making Christmas dinner for 50 people or example, will not help you relax and stay focused on your recovery.

4) Before planningrepparttar 129468 family reunions To be sure you can count on understanding from your family,express your need to celebrate Christmas quietly at home this year. Perhaps you could visit with family and friends before or afterrepparttar 129469 holiday party to share a dessert and catch up onrepparttar 129470 family news together.

5) Honorrepparttar 129471 day Family reunions may stir up resentment. Be aware that emotions are more sensitive during holidays. We all have high expectations that can't be met . Family reunions stir up old feelings like jealousy, resentment .Don't let them creep thru--even when you see cousin Pete who still owes you $500.handing out 20$ dollar bills.You've waited this long, what's 1 more day ? Enjoy your family, enjoy feeling gratitude for your life, andrepparttar 129472 sobriety to enjoy it.

Become Enlightened

Written by Dawn Fields


Become Enlightened

The other day I had a meeting onrepparttar web with a few friends. We are planning our class reunion and since no two people were ever available atrepparttar 129460 same time, we decided to set up a CHAT group and meet overrepparttar 129461 web.

It was a lot of fun and exciting. This got me curious about CHAT rooms so I later signed into a Christian chat room to see whatrepparttar 129462 hoopla was all about regarding these chat rooms. Although I have been onrepparttar 129463 web for almost ten years, I’ve never ventured into a chat room. Need less to say, there weren’t very much Christianity going on in that chat room.

One person, with a rather strange handle, which I cannot remember right now, questioned whether or not there actually was a God. He stated that with so much evil going on inrepparttar 129464 world, it led him to question God’s existence.

Later, after signing off, I thought about what “strange handle” said aboutrepparttar 129465 evil inrepparttar 129466 world. Of course, God has nothing to do withrepparttar 129467 evil but it got me to thinking about all ofrepparttar 129468 people who are so "Unenlightened".

Even people who are Christian are oftentimes "unenlightened" by a true understanding of how God works in their life.

Because I teach how to discover God’s purpose for your life, I want to talk about how unenlightened we are when it comes torepparttar 129469 type of work we choose orrepparttar 129470 profession we decide to go into.

We allowrepparttar 129471 economy to dictate what type of job we accept as opposed to what type of career God has chosen for us.

We continue on a job that is not fulfilling because we likerepparttar 129472 people we work with or we are just so happy that we have a job because we always hear how “there are no jobs out there.”

So, we continue to stay unhappy or unfulfilled because we are unenlightened about how God works in our life.

Let me try and break down my understanding of how God works in our lives:

At birth, you are born with a soul, which has a seed already set to grow inside of us. This seed is your life’s purpose.

As a child, we are close to God. Whether or not someone in our lives teaches us about Him or not, we have an understanding and a closeness with God.

As we grow older, if we seek out a relationship with God, He will grow closer to us.

If you consult with God before making any decisions in your life, you will never be led astray.

What often happens is we decide to take control of our lives instead of allowing God to control our lives and we oftentimes mess up because we are human and that’s what human’s do.

Because we take control and make our own decisions, we are led astray and find ourselves in jobs or in careers that just don’t settle right with our souls.

Our souls were given a mission at birth and we have not followed our mission and allowed our souls to grow.

The closer we draw to God,repparttar 129473 more unsettled we will feel on our jobs or in our careers that are not aligned with our soul.

When it gets torepparttar 129474 point where we simply cannot take it any longer, when going torepparttar 129475 office literally makes us sick torepparttar 129476 stomach, or when simply getting out of bed inrepparttar 129477 morning becomes a task; we start looking for answers.

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