CatsPajamas

I had some time in the car this weekend, driving 250 miles each way to visit my mom. I was able to listen to 5 or 6 recovery CD's on the trip and they were AWESOME. I came home feeling almost as good as I do after a recovery weekend.

For those of you who don't know, Al Anon groups have conferences and celebrations at the local, regional and national levels. And at most, if not all, of these events they have speakers. There are companies that go around and tape the speakers and then they sell the CDs or tapes at the events.

The series I was listening to was called "Healing thru Laughter". One of the CDs was of a recovery friend of mine - Ellen C from Dallas. She is a member of my "home" group in Dallas... the place I went when I realized my life was unmanageable and I needed HELP. (formerly known as 'the place I went for someone to tell me how to fix HIM because HE was the one with the problem, not me.' LOL)

These CDs are awesome. These women are awesome. Their stories are always in the same format - like most speakers - how it was, how I found recovery, how it is today.

The thing I heard over and over and OVER again was simple:

get a program
get a sponsor
work the steps
get a life
get OUT of the way

It works. It really does. And you can laugh along the way. Imagine if you could be in a room, listening to the wise ones here as they told their story... Ann, 51Anna, Done-With-It, Desert Eyes etc. Can you imagine how funny and poignant and sad and wonderful it would be??

Do any of you listen to tapes or speakers? Do you go to conferences? What are you doing today to work your own program of recovery?

Hugs

Cats

BBD

I wish there were conferences around here. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough. Maybe I can get some tapes?? What do you think?? It might help me. I'm a real people person and ftf is so good for me. I bet I'll never stop counciling......Thanks for clueing me in a bit Cats...I'll get busy on that! Smiles, Bonnie

laurie6781

Also know that at the AA Conventions there is usually a bunch of Alanon activities also, including luncheons with speakers, meetings, etc.

I used to love going to AA Round-ups and Conventions because then I could attend both AA functions, meetings, etc and Alanon. It was like having a huge Buffet of tools all in one place!

BBD call your local AA Central Office and ask them what Conventions and Round-ups are coming up in your area or within a short driving distance (because of the cost of gas).

And when you arrive they have two registrations tables set up, one for AA and one for Alanon.

Hope that might help a bit.

Cats, for years I have used the tapes while driving, both AA and Alanon. They are great!!!! A lot of mine are still cassettes, lol but I am slowly uploading them to my computer and then burning them to CD.

Also, it's been mentioned here at SR in the past there are some great sites on line that have AA, NA and Alanon to download speakers that you can then burn to CD.

XA-Speakers - The lights are on!

AA Speaker Tapes

Hope this also helps.

Love and hugs,

CatsPajamas

That made me chuckle. I recently had to replace the stereo in my car and I bought one with a CASSETTE Player for that very reason. The salesperson at the store kept saying are you SURE you want a cassette player???? Yes, I can get an adapter to plug in and then I can listen to CD;s too, but I don't want to miss out on all the wisdom I have access to on cassettes!

Chino

Staying busy and minding my own business

imallright

Cats, please add yourself to the list of "wise ones"... your posts are so helpful and I am grateful that you are here with us!

Jody Hepler

I love listening to speaker cds - Alanon and AA. It just keeps putting recovery stuff in my mind, and I need that. I use them on car trips - and when I can't sleep at night - and when I am very upset and obssessing about something.

I also have gone to lots of conferences over the years. And always enjoy the speakers and the fellowship with other recovering folks.

In the past, I have belonged to a Tape/CD of the month Club - they have them for AA and Alanon. Tapers that go to conferences to tape speakers pick one each month and send it out. Good way to get new ones.

I'd encourage anyone to try listening to speakers as part of their recovery program.

Love in recovery,
Jody Hepler

Hangin' In

Funny you mention this Cats. I, JUST THIS A.M., was listening to a speaker tape because I was feeling, well, a little out of sorts. Have some of those tough "how do I handle this using my recovery" decisions before me, so I popped my Ipod into the speaker thing and promptly found Bo T. from Alabama.

My sponsor has given me tapes/cds, and I've bought some at conferences. And if you are an Ebay person, all you have to do is search "Al Anon" and you can find speaker cd's on there. There are so many ways to get speaker CD's even if you don't attend the conference. I share mine with folks in my meetings.

So if any of you out there don't have the resources to buy cd's/tapes, just ask some folks at your meeting. I bet there is someone with some good speaker cds at home just waiting to be listened to.

Now Cats, you're making me want the humor ones. Think I'll search for them on Ebay. If I can't laugh, why live!

Hugs,
Hangn' In

lizw

I admit it too, I still have some of the old tapes. And I brought a cd walkman so I could listen to speaker CD's in the car.

I also have to add that the site XA speakers rocks.

A few groups in my area go through phases from time to time of selling CD's. Usually someone (wanting to do some service) buys a pile of blank CD's copies the speakers on to them then sells them at meetings for the price of a CD - $2.00 or so. It's a great way to do service.

There's also a few groups in my area who have a CD library where I can borrow and take back, when I remeber....

And what am I doing today for my recovery? Taking it easy.