For Today: June 21st

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Voltaire

I want to be with others as I am with myself.  There are no pretenses or defenses or self-defeating attitudes. I am learning not to hurt myself, so I play no games. I don’t try to impress myself or act as if I’m important.  I know better.  I am closest to being myself when I am with myself.  Nowhere do I follow a script or play a part or pretend to be something I’m not.

Overeaters Anonymous encourages me to be myself when I am with other members. As I share at meetings, it gets easier to put aside the silly cloak of pride that doesn’t fool anyone and keeps my feelings locked up inside.

For Today: Being myself is like abstinence: it feels good.

For as long as I can remember, I was trained to ‘put on a face’ for others.  It’s perfectly fine to talk about a person behind his back, but NOT to his face! To his face you are to be all sweetness & light, and go to any extent to make others believe that you are the Perfect Person. 

Oh brother! Old training dies hard, that’s for sure. 

It seems like many compulsive overeaters were coached to be phonies. How is a child to differentiate between right & wrong when it comes to what their parents TELL them to do? As adults, while we DO have the power to change, it can be quite difficult TO change because of old habits & past training!

OA shows us how TO change, one day at a time, one step at a time. I no longer feel the need to be anyone but myself for others. If they don’t like me, I can tolerate that. What I cannot tolerate is putting on an act to impress someone, at my OWN expense!

Nothing will drive me back to compulsive overeating than pretense & playing games. I no longer have to hide behind the façade of being somebody I’m NOT, as an effort to be liked & accepted.

God made me in His image, and I am proud to carry that honest & forthright image with me wherever I go.