Recovery Meditations: June 3rd

EXPERIENCE, STRENGTH AND HOPE

“Experience is not what happens to you.
It is what you do with what happens to you.”
Aldous Huxley

Every day is filled with experiences. I can choose to let them pass me by, or I can allow myself to learn lessons from them. It is easy to let the day pass by quickly and virtually unlived. If I refuse to stay in the present moment and choose rather to be filled with resentment, stuck in the past, filled with fear, or stuck in the future, life truly does pass me by. My experience truly has no value. But if I choose to learn lessons, stay in the present moment, and remain connected to my Higher Power, my day becomes experience, strength and hope.

Since coming to the program I have learned that I can share my experience, strength and hope in so many ways. A call to or from an OA friend gives me an opportunity to give and receive experience, strength and hope. I hear experience, strength and hope shared daily as I attend meetings. People share not only what has happened to them, but the great lessons that they have allowed their Higher Power to teach them. This is such an honor to be part of, an honor that I would not want to miss. I give and receive my experience, strength and hope on the loops where I share -- and receive shares -- on a daily basis. I am blessed to be a part of strong loops with great recovery and sharing. My sponsors frequently share their experience, strength and hope with me. I am privileged to have two sponsors with quality recovery who are members of The Recovery Group. I am so grateful for their input in my life and recovery. They have been such an important part of my life lessons. Every source of experience, strength and hope in my life gives me more encouragement to learn new lessons with every experience I have every day.

One day at a time...
I will find every opportunity to share my experience, strength and hope.

~ Carolyn H.

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Experience, strength & hope is what we share as OAs.  I am connected to another online group where we blog, discuss, and sometimes argue vehemently.  When non-OAs hear the OA way, they don't always recognize the message of Experience Strength & Hope.   What they hear, instead, is Do This, Do That, Don't Do This, Don't Do That, which translates to You Are A Loser.

That is the LAST message we try to convey to one another as OAs. 

As OAs, we've learned the hard way about which foods we can tolerate & which foods we cannot tolerate.  When we insist on eating trigger foods, we again get on a path of destruction, waking up the sleeping disease & kicking the addiction BACK into full swing.

When an OA talks about putting abstinence FIRST, we say that from experience.  From falling down and not being able to get back up.  From the experience of years & years of chronic yo yo dieting, losing some weight, and gaining it right back again. And again.

When an OA talks about her experience, it is to share Hope; hope that an answer DOES exist; that there IS a way out of the chaos known as compulsive overeating.

When I hear someone else's story, I listen with empathy, because I've been where they're at, and it's a bad place.  A place of despair & hopeLESSness.  When I hear a litany of constant excuses why abstinent is 'not possible' for this or that reason, I share MY tips for getting through ANY situation without compromising my abstinence.

SLIP= Sobriety Lost It's Priority

We are not perfect as OAs, nor do we claim to be.  We're working on shutting DOWN our ego's and allowing humility to take precedence.  When I think "I've got this,"  I know it's time to get on my knees and ask God for help and guidance.  "I" haven't 'got' anything.  Only through God and my fellow COEs can I hope to maintain what I have found through the program.

For today, I will live FOR today, with no thoughts of yesterday, and no projections about tomorrow.  For today, I will share my experience, strength & hope with others, attempting to covey the message that recovery IS possible.  All a person needs to have is the desire to stop eating compulsively.