Ann

You are reading from the book The Language of Letting Go

Step Two

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
—Step Two of Al-Anon

We come to believe in a better life through the powerful gift of other people - hearing them, seeing them, and watching the gift of recovery at work in their lives.

There is a Power greater than us. There is real hope now that things can and will be different and better for our life and us.

We are not in a "do it ourselves" program. We do not have to exert willpower to change. We do not have to force our recovery to happen. We do not have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps just so we believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves - one who will get the job done in our life. This Power will do for us what your greatest and most diligent efforts could not accomplish.

Our Higher Power will restore us to a sane and beneficial life. All we do is believe.

Look. Watch. See the people around you. See the healing they have found. Then discover your own faith, your own belief, your own healing.

Today, regardless of my circumstances, I will believe to the best of my ability that a Power greater than myself can and will restore me to a peaceful, sane way of living. Then I will relax and let Him do that.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.

Ann

I knew I needed help when I could clearly see that my life and my actions and my thoughts were "insane". Sane people didn't live like I did, and I knew I was wayyyy over whatever line separated the sane and insane of this world.

I felt hopeless, I felt like I had lost my mind, and I knew I had lost my will to live but didn't have the courage to stop.

At my very first meeting, I sat sobbing and could not speak one word. But I looked around and listened, and I saw people whose lives were worse than mine, who had done crazier things than I had...and who had an inner peace called spirituality that I wanted more than I had ever wanted anything in my life.

So I did what they said to do, I trusted the program and the process, and I prayed my heart out, trusting that what they promised in Step 2 would happen to me.

By the grace of God and through the kindness of my program, I slowly could find a better way to live, a light of happiness and hope, and just over the horizon the sanity I had so desperately sought.

Hugs