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10-03-2007, 09:21 AM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Acting not reacting  Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: My happy place
Posts: 1,790
| Start Living
I thought I would share some of the things that have changed in my life since I started living and stopped worrying. When I first found this site I heard a lot of people saying I should do things for myself and I didn’t understand what that meant. The easiest way to explain it is to say I started wanting better things for my life and after too many years of accepting the unacceptable, I started really living. I went out with friends I had neglected because I was babysitting a grown man. I made new friends who I wouldnt have had the confidence to talk to when I was living with an alcoholic. I bought new home décor to reflect my taste. I took a cooking class because I love to cook. I started working out. I stopped crying and started trusting my inner voice and higher power. I started reading a lot. Not just recovery books, but anything to expand my mind and learn about new things, politics, gardening, travel, fashion, etc. Things I wanted to learn more about. I took a class on website design to increase my professional value. I started taking my dog to dog parks instead of sitting around the house. I started singing out loud in the car…with the windows down..unafraid of who was looking and listening. I began walking with my head up instead of looking at the ground to avoid any attention from others. I smiled a lot. I let other drivers merge and stopped road raging. I stopped spending too much money as a way of self-medicating my need for attention. I stopped worrying about how un-photogenic I was and started taking pictures of everyone and everything and I smiled in them. I didn’t accept dates with anyone who even remotely exhibited excessive drinking patterns or did not have stable employment in a capacity I could be proud of. I stopped feeling pressured into things by friends or co-workers. I began seeing things and people for what they are, not what they could be. I began to realize that somewhere I had become the person I always wanted to be. I had shed that person that was sad, miserable, discouraged, and beatdown. I woke up one day and realized I was happy. I was no longer feeling manipulated and felt I was in charge of my own life and doing a pretty damn good job too. Sometimes, the changes are hard to make and the progress is hard to see. Its baby steps, little changes, and small victories. To those of you who are where I was, keep hope. Start living your life today and one day you will look back at smile at the pain because you will know it changed you and made you what you have become. 
__________________ The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. -- Marya Mannes (1904-1990) American Journalist  |
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| The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to elizabeth1979 For This Useful Post: |
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10-03-2007, 09:30 AM
| #3 (permalink) | |
| ¢σммυηιту gяєєтєя  Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Spreading my wings
Posts: 7,147
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Awesome post (One to print!) Thank you for sharing this Elizabeth! Quote:
Wonderful things happen in recovery! Thanks again Elizabeth! Totaly awesome thread! 
__________________  Dance as though no one is watching youLove as though you have never been hurt before Live as though heaven is on earth.  | |
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10-03-2007, 09:38 AM
| #4 (permalink) | ||
| Member  Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,360
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Excellent! Based on this one post alone, I already nominate this thread for 'sticky of the year'!!! Quote:
Quote:
Wonderful share! You will certainly inspire many!
__________________ What I have shared in this or any post are my opinions, based on my perception and experiences. | ||
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10-03-2007, 10:33 AM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Omak WA
Posts: 1,048
|  New Person!
Elizabeth, What a powerful message! I am an alcoholic in recovery and found the same thing true for myself after years of struggling with clinical depression and alcoholism. I was inside this body, but couldn't come out. I let everyone walk over me and didn't care since I felt so worthless. One counselor asked me if I "ever stood in my livingroom and told my family to go to Hell?" I was too timid to do that.  I have come a long way and made a list on another post of my goals and accomplishments. Life got good for me when I sobered up and got help for my depression. I had to do role play in the Emotional Care Unit and learned to be assertive, which was a big step for me. :Wshade You should be very proud of yourself. Not a lot of woman accomplish what you have! They stay in the rescuerer or enabler role for the addicted person in their life, not seeking help for themselves or putting their life back together without the addicted person.  kelsh
__________________  God Grant Me the Serenity to Accept the Things I Cannot Change..the Courage to Change the Things I Can Change..and the Wisdom to Know the Diifference.  Sobriety Date: July 10, 1988  |
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10-03-2007, 11:57 AM
| #8 (permalink) |
| get it, give it, grow in it  Join Date: May 2007 Location: Calif coast
Posts: 3,165
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Good reminder to live life to the fullest and seek our joy. We can't blame much on the A in our life...we can only take control of our life. "If the ship is sinking, get out and swim to shore" I love the changes you have made, I feel better just reading about them.
__________________ If tears could build a stairway I'd walk up to Heaven and bring my son home. |
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10-03-2007, 12:36 PM
| #10 (permalink) |
| Forum Leader  Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Scottsdale, AZ, one big happy dysfunctional family!
Posts: 11,835
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Amazing Elizabeth, and very inspirational! Thank you!
__________________ "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty, and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming---*WOW-What a ride*!" |
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10-03-2007, 01:16 PM
| #12 (permalink) |
| Forum Leader  |
You have given me something to keep shooting for, Elizabeth!! We can all get there. All it takes is baby steps in the right directions. Pick something today and start working on it. Or make up your own "thing you want to be/do" and work toward it. Life's all about laying one brick on top of another. What a wonderful post.
__________________ "Tell me, what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?" --Mary Oliver "Action is the antidote to despair." --Joan Baez "False hopes bind us to unlivable situations, and blind us to real possibilities." --Derrick Jensen |
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10-03-2007, 01:23 PM
| #13 (permalink) |
| Live, Laugh, Love  Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Between Fenway and the Beach!
Posts: 1,302
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Thank you for this, especially today! What great accomplishments you've achieved! This truly is a keeper Thanks!
__________________ Heather "Happiness often sneaks through a door we didn't know we left open" |
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10-03-2007, 11:24 PM
| #17 (permalink) |
| Member  Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Texas
Posts: 782
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__________________ Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. ~Dr. Alexis Carrel There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~Anaïs Nin |
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10-11-2007, 07:30 AM
| #19 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: New York
Posts: 20
|  Great post! Incredibly inspirational. Being new to this whole situation I will be printing this one out and putting it up on my board to have it in my face everyday. If things do not work out the way I hope I will have this as my motivation to move on. |
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10-11-2007, 08:09 AM
| #20 (permalink) | |
| Acting not reacting Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: My happy place
Posts: 1,790
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Something I want to add is I was only free to Quote:
My focusing on others was a handy little distraction from my own life. Hugs to everyone who is here, bc we all start somewhere.
__________________ The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. -- Marya Mannes (1904-1990) American Journalist | |
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10-11-2007, 09:27 PM
| #22 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Dixie
Posts: 613
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Did I read on another post that you are only in your 20's? I am very impressed. You are an inspiration to each of us.
__________________ Life may not be the party we hoped for... but since we're here, we might as well dance. |
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10-11-2007, 09:58 PM
| #23 (permalink) | |
Starting over Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Starting over all over again
Posts: 3,111
| Quote:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...c-reading.html (Classic Reading) Mike
__________________ Sunsets are not endings. If I have enough faith, they are beginnings. | |
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10-12-2007, 09:12 AM
| #24 (permalink) |
| Acting not reacting Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: My happy place
Posts: 1,790
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Holy smokes..I got stickied...that makes me smile Yes hopetobehappy, Im 28 with lots lots lots more to learn!
__________________ The sign of intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason. -- Marya Mannes (1904-1990) American Journalist |
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