| The Most Important Thing Our Sponsors Told Us
Mariasha; The most healing thing my sponsor has ever said to me is there aren't any rules, except that you can't use and be in my house. Whenever I've called her with any kind of self-reproach for not doing what I should be doing, or could be doing, or not meeting any expectation with her, whether they be mine or hers, she has always comforted me and said, "I don't have any expectations of you; I'm here to support you; you call me as often as you need to, or you feel you want to. But, I don't need anything more from you than for you to utilize me at whatever pace you feel comfortable." I think that's been the most important thing for me and what I pass on, that being sponsored should not be pressure. She has never put any kind of pressure or burden on me.
J.P.; The power of prayer: through it all, all things are attainable. To do it from the heart. The answer to the disease is the program. The answer to the program is the steps. The answer to the steps is God.
Ed; To keep it simple. When I finished with my step work, I asked him what to do next. He said, "Now you live your life." That's it. No search for the Holy Grail, no pie in the sky intellectual theory, just simple showing up for life. He's not one for intellectual musing. He goes more for the heart. And I noticed he's right. When someone is sharing from his head, it may be fun for a while, but then it gets meaningless. When someone shares from his heart, he has my complete attention. Somehow you can tell. I don't know how, but you can. So I try to stay out of my head. He says a sponsor is someone who helps you to sort out your head, because he has some distance from you. You are too close to what's going on in your head. I had a really complicated, intellectual way of working the steps with my sponsees. When I showed it to him, after he finished laughing, he suggested I simplify it. I did.
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