pushing the boundaries.
 

so tonight i made quite a breakthrough. today is day 3 for me and i'm starting to get pretty excited about it again. i know what sobriety can give me/has given me. i was sober for 4.5 years, i went to meetings for only 3 of those years.

one thing i never did in all that time is branch out. i had my little network of friends that i cleaned up with in a recovery house, but over time that group dwindled as people relapsed or moved away. i still have a few close friends from back then. but when i went to meetings i hardly ever talked to anyone i didn't know, i never got new phone numbers, i never networked. it is one of my fears, always has been.

well i have been gone to 3 meetings so far and the first two i did the same thing, stayed and listened but didn't talk to anyone before or after......and in this town i'm even worse off than before because i know no one. it felt good to be in the rooms again, but also felt somewhat unfulfilling. tonight i was about to do the same thing, i walked to my jeep and was about to drive off.......instead i forced myself to go up and talk to someone. i talked to several people for 20 minutes afterwards and got 4 phone numbers. it felt great. so this is my new plan, strike up a conversation with at least one new person at every meeting.......time to step outside my safe zone.

that's great jv - I'm a big believer in building support networks :)

D