Greeetings All - Update
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Posts: 88
Greeetings All - Update
I mentioned in a previous post that I was speaking at a meeting tonight and was feeling a little anxious about it. I don't share too often and it was really eating at me.
Well, I got to the meeting early and prayed for awhile. It went better than I could have ever hoped really. Although I think I was a little long winded for some people, I just started sharing my experience, strength and hope on the First Step, and it sort of turned into a drunkalogue. That wasn't my initial intention, but it was perfectly alright with most of them. I think I blew some people away and made some new friends in the process...hopefully this experience will help me to open up at meetings more often. As I have the tendency to sit and listen most of the time. Apparently my story was helpful for several people so...the primary purpose was achieved. Yay!!!
Anyway, I want to thank all those people who gave me encouragement on here earlier...you all are great!
Well, I got to the meeting early and prayed for awhile. It went better than I could have ever hoped really. Although I think I was a little long winded for some people, I just started sharing my experience, strength and hope on the First Step, and it sort of turned into a drunkalogue. That wasn't my initial intention, but it was perfectly alright with most of them. I think I blew some people away and made some new friends in the process...hopefully this experience will help me to open up at meetings more often. As I have the tendency to sit and listen most of the time. Apparently my story was helpful for several people so...the primary purpose was achieved. Yay!!!
Anyway, I want to thank all those people who gave me encouragement on here earlier...you all are great!
Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 31,179
It sounds like it went really well. I know that when I went to meetings, some people didn't like the "drunkalogs", but there were some of them I needed to hear when I heard them. I would look at some people and think "they were never as bad as I am" and come to find out they were worse.
I'm glad it went well, and I appreciate you coming back to let us know.
Hugs and prayers!
Amy
I'm glad it went well, and I appreciate you coming back to let us know.
Hugs and prayers!
Amy
bona fido dog-lover
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: SF Bay area, CA
Posts: 99,775
Thank you for sharing! I was wondering how your speaking went. I'm scared to death to speak 'in public' but the one thing I was told to do, and it helps, is to imagine the audience in their underwear! Really!! It helps to make them less frightening, at least it helps me. (of course you can't start laughing...)
We are all here for you, to share with you and let you share with us. Lots of friends here. Isn't friendship a wonderful gift? I'd be lost without my friends.
Glad to hear it went well. I've always found speaker meetings to be a great help to me cause it showed me that my fears and hopes are shared by many others. I'm not alone and not that different from others. We share the same feelings and are more alike than different.
Keep coming back. :ghug3
We are all here for you, to share with you and let you share with us. Lots of friends here. Isn't friendship a wonderful gift? I'd be lost without my friends.
Glad to hear it went well. I've always found speaker meetings to be a great help to me cause it showed me that my fears and hopes are shared by many others. I'm not alone and not that different from others. We share the same feelings and are more alike than different.
Keep coming back. :ghug3
mle-sober
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Golden, CO
Posts: 1,243
Artur,
Thanks for giving us an update. Interesting. And good job! I love the speaker meeting I go to once a week. It's always different and interesting. I only have 3 months and you need 2 years to sign up to speak. So, I've got to get some work done before I do it. But the more people I hear tell their story the stronger my sobriety is. We really are all alike in so many ways. And then each so different.
Anyway, thanks.
- MLE
Thanks for giving us an update. Interesting. And good job! I love the speaker meeting I go to once a week. It's always different and interesting. I only have 3 months and you need 2 years to sign up to speak. So, I've got to get some work done before I do it. But the more people I hear tell their story the stronger my sobriety is. We really are all alike in so many ways. And then each so different.
Anyway, thanks.
- MLE
It Gets Better just strap up for the Ride and have Faith
Helping Others, Helps Me
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: North Dakota
Posts: 481
Glad to hear it went well, I responded to your earlier thread and then found this one... I love to speak in front of groups of people, I guess it is something that comes natural to me other than getting buzzed up. Have a good day! It is overcast and wet here in MN
Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 521
Thats so cool Art!
I betcha speaking scares the sh!t out of most people.
"No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benifit others."
Thats one of those promises they talk about in AA.
I betcha speaking scares the sh!t out of most people.
"No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benifit others."
Thats one of those promises they talk about in AA.
Follow Directions!
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fredericksburg, Va.
Posts: 9,730
Glad to hear things went well Artur, in regards to a long drunkalog...... well if I was to give a talk on strictly step one, there would be a whole lot of drunkalog mixed in with how I got there.
Step one is that first step we take after alcohol has taken our butts, stuck them in a meat grinder and ground our butts into a very fine pate`, put it on a platter and then hand it back to us to see if it is ground fine enough for us to admit we are powerless yet!!!
It took me 30 years of drinking to even get me to think I may have an issue with drinking, then I kept sending my butt back for finer grinding for 10 more years before alcohol had ground my butt down to a very fine pate`!!! Alcohol owned me lock stock and barrel before I was able to finally admit I was powerless over it and the kicker is I had issues with admitting my life being unmanageable until I had been sober several months!!!!
Step one is that first step we take after alcohol has taken our butts, stuck them in a meat grinder and ground our butts into a very fine pate`, put it on a platter and then hand it back to us to see if it is ground fine enough for us to admit we are powerless yet!!!
It took me 30 years of drinking to even get me to think I may have an issue with drinking, then I kept sending my butt back for finer grinding for 10 more years before alcohol had ground my butt down to a very fine pate`!!! Alcohol owned me lock stock and barrel before I was able to finally admit I was powerless over it and the kicker is I had issues with admitting my life being unmanageable until I had been sober several months!!!!
Attitude of Gratitude
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Posts: 2,305
Congrats on letting go of one of your fears.
I was at a meeting I had never been to before a few weeks ago and when How it Works and the Twelve Traditions were read, the person reading went up to the speakers podium and read. When it came to the Promises, the gentleman who had them began to read from his seat. The Chairperson politely interupted him and asked him to read at the podium. I didn't really understand why his was so important. The gentleman passed the sheet with the Promises on and another person went up and read them.
After the meeting, the Chairperson, whom I've been in many a meeting with, came and explained why the group conscious decided on this. He said that nearly everyone walks into the rooms with a fear of speaking to others.(As in the Promises, " . . . fear of people and economic insecurities will leave us . . ") And this is a good way to begin to face that fear and let go of it. That made sense.
Up to that point, I had never really thought of how many people in Recovery have this fear. That's one of the many, many beauties of going to Meetings, realizing that I am not so unique after all. So many others share my thoughts, fear, hopes, wishes, dreams . . .
Finally, doesn't it feel great to be cleaning out that dumpster of sh*t we have carried with us all these years?
God Bless,
Judy
I was at a meeting I had never been to before a few weeks ago and when How it Works and the Twelve Traditions were read, the person reading went up to the speakers podium and read. When it came to the Promises, the gentleman who had them began to read from his seat. The Chairperson politely interupted him and asked him to read at the podium. I didn't really understand why his was so important. The gentleman passed the sheet with the Promises on and another person went up and read them.
After the meeting, the Chairperson, whom I've been in many a meeting with, came and explained why the group conscious decided on this. He said that nearly everyone walks into the rooms with a fear of speaking to others.(As in the Promises, " . . . fear of people and economic insecurities will leave us . . ") And this is a good way to begin to face that fear and let go of it. That made sense.
Up to that point, I had never really thought of how many people in Recovery have this fear. That's one of the many, many beauties of going to Meetings, realizing that I am not so unique after all. So many others share my thoughts, fear, hopes, wishes, dreams . . .
Finally, doesn't it feel great to be cleaning out that dumpster of sh*t we have carried with us all these years?
God Bless,
Judy
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