Al-anon meeting topic suggestions needed....
 

I have signed up to lead a meeting and pick a topic to discuss. In the past several months the topics have been.......

Happiness.........what is it and how to find it.

Self love...........what is it and how to find it and keep it.

Peace..............what is it and how to find it.

Serenity……what is it and how to keep it.

For the last several months the topics all seem to have the same theme, “SELF” and as important as that is I am looking for suggestions that haven’t been the norm these last few months. It’s a large group and a mix of long time members, members with a few years to a couple of new combers.

Any suggestions????????

Detachment is always one I enjoy. I get a lot out of others perspectives on it.

What about the "Just for Today" poem.




Just for today I will be happy. This assumes what Abraham Lincoln said is true: 'Most folks are about as happy as they make their mind up to be.' Happiness comes from within; it is not a matter of externals.


Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is; not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.


Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.


Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought, and concentration.


Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do someone a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two chores I don't want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.


Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, speak diplomatically, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything, and not try to regulate or improve anyone.


Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.


Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests: hurrying and indecision.


Just for today I will have a quiet half hour by myself and relax. In this half hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.


Just for today I will be unafraid. Particularly, I will be unafraid to be happy; to enjoy what is beautiful; to love; and to believe that those I love, love me.

--- Copyright © Sybil Partridge

I attended a meeting not too long ago on "Unacceptable Behavior"

we used the "Courage to Change" book -

lots of shares were about the unacceptable behavior that we dump on ourselves!
it was an awesome meeting -

I'm sure whatever topic you choose will directed by your HP and it will be wonderful!!!

HUGS,
Rita

I did one last week on the slogans.

You can also peruse the indices of our daily readers for ideas.

I always bring along a book for topics when I chair a meeting, usually The Language Of Letting Go by Melody Beattie, but if you need "approved" material I'm sure Courage To Change would be a logical choice.

When I have to do something like this, I usually like to pick a favorite passage from the literature. (It's usually a good idea to make some extra copies of whatever the passage is.)

I've also found that it often gets things going well to sometimes take a "devils advocate" approach, like with the ODAT passage for yesterday about "forgetting" the past. My homegroup always reads form a daily reader at the beginning of the meeting, and yesterday someone read that. Then there was a bit of sharing during which people started to get quite self-denigrating along the lines of "Oh, yes, it's so unfair and mean to hold the A's past behavior against him...and how can I be such a b*tch."

Well, I'm sorry, but that's one of those ODAT readings that just goes a little too far in promoting a naive martry role, so finally I said: "For me there's a big difference between forgiving and forgetting. And it's healthy for me to forgive, but it's stupid of me to forget. Let's say I put my hand on a hot stove and get burned.....well, yes, it's stupid of me to go around resenting the stove for burning me and refusing to use it ever again...but it's even stupider of me to foget that the stove burns, thereby stettting myself up to get burned over and over again."

So, yeah, that got things going pretty well!

freya

Try flipping to the index in the back of "Courage to Change" or "One Day at a Time". Browsing through there is a good technique for coming up with ideas. Al-Anon slogans are also good topics for meetings.

Humility
Detachment

Just wanted to thank you all again for the terrific ideas. I don’t know why I wrestled with picking a topic. I guess there are so many it was hard making a choice of just one.

What I ended up with was “progress, not perfection”.

It was a great meeting because so many shared, even people who have not spoken a word in months!

Thanks again, I now have many good ideas for future meetings and feel comfortable signing up to lead more.