For Today: June 19th

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

James Baldwin

There is a reason for each one of the twelve steps. I cannot pick & choose the ones I want to take & skip the rest. The thought of doing steps four, five & nine have made many a brave soul quake, & I am no different.  But my longing to change my life is stronger than my fear.  Like other oppressed people, I must gather the courage to face the forces that oppress me—childhood pain, old ways of thinking & responding learned long ago.

Taking these steps is an ongoing process, revealing new truths each time around.  It is an interesting search, and a rewarding way to live.

For Today:  All the promises of recovery can be mine if I want them. This program shows me what to do.

Until & unless I admit to having a problem, how can I fix it or change it?  While I will never be ‘cured’ of my disease of compulsive overeating, I CAN find abstinence & stop acting like one!

Steps 4 is a particularly daunting one for sure.  The thought of listing my character defects & discussing why they came about is not something anyone would look forward to.  But there is an important purpose in taking step 4….to RID myself of the guilt & self-hatred associated with my behavior!

And besides, God already KNOWS what my character defects are……what I’m doing in Step 4 is admitting them to MYSELF.  This is taking an important step in self-awareness & truth, which is at the core of recovery.

As a compulsive overeater, it is my BEHAVIORS that brought me TO using excess food to cope.  I now have a program to guide me toward changing those behaviors so I can live an addiction free lifestyle.

Fear does play a part in my life, but the pain of the overeating outweighs the fear & leads me to accept what MUST be done in order to find recovery.

When I embrace the Truth, it WILL set me free, one day at a time.