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Old 06-03-2017, 04:45 AM
  # 23 (permalink)  
FreeOwl
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Originally Posted by SoberRunner View Post
Hi All,

Thank you guys SO much for the excellent responses. Everyone is 100% correct... I need to first admit that I'm an alcoholic; remove drinking as a option; work on my impulse control; and not try to wing out...which, I've learned, is what I do a lot in life, unfortunately.

Also, I loved the running analogies and osmosis/diffusion analogies... The latter definitely resonated with me because I'm a biology teacher and was just reading about osmosis/passive diffusion vs active diffusion a few days ago. Active diffusion takes energy/work because it's going against the grain so to speak (aka going against "what's natural" for that particular substance.) Sobriety is like Active Diffusion... It'll take energy/work for me to get to the other side (e.g. Longterm sobriety)

Ref running isn't a sober plan: I thought we were supposed to choose activities to help us not think about drinking? Granted, that's not working for me but neither did AA; I didn't feel comfortable there. That said, I'll re-read the Sober Plan sites Dee sent me a looonngg time ago and figure out where I went wrong (minus the stuff listed in the first paragraph).
Running is a fantastic PART of a sober plan.... but can't be your only plan.

AA didn't feel 'comfortable'? Huh. Go figure. That's because you didn't want to get sober.

Sorry man - just calling it like I sees it..... because I didn't feel COMFORTABLE at AA either. Until I truly wanted sobriety and approached AA (and all the other tools) with an open mind and a desire to take ANY tool that I could into my toolkit.

Getting sober isn't comfortable.

But I've never been as comfortable in my life as I am now in sobriety.

Running an ultra isn't comfortable.

But the glory and reward and euphoria and comfort of being an ultra-runner is pretty awesome......

See?

Try saying to yourself in the mirror "I choose sobriety.... I choose LIFE.... I choose to be a SOBER RUNNER... a SOBER HUMAN.... TO LIVE AN ABUNDANT GRATEFUL LIFE".

say it over and over again until you believe in it.

create a vision of a sober life until you can see it and feel it and taste it and it feels like what you really WANT.

When you catch yourself thinking things like "But I LIKE drinking, that's why I keep doing it" - call yourself out. "Bull****. I do NOT LIKE DRINKING. I like LIVING. And that's what I choose for my life".

Remind yourself how short this ultra-of-life really is. Remind yourself that every day is one day closer to the last. Remind yourself you can choose to waste your life on alcohol, or relish it for all it's worth in sobriety.

Remind yourself that standing at the end, looking back on it, you want to see yourself having lived your fullness, your bigness, your love and your truth - not having anesthetized yourself and passed out and been hungover and kept yourself in a haze of distraction.

QUIT THE CRAP.

C'mon.

seriously..... put up or shut up.

CHOOSE.

RIGHT NOW.
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