I first want to thank everyone for the sober birthday wishes! I just celebrated 11 years this past Tuesday, and I couldn’t be more grateful for my sobriety. I have been under a lot of stress lately at work and in life with a lot of changes happening, and I couldn’t imagine going through it all without being sober.
There is an excerpt from Chapter 15 in the Big Book: “We learn how to level out the emotional swings that got us into trouble both when we were up and when we were down. We are taught to differentiate between our wants (which are never satisfied) and our needs (which are always provided for). We cast off the burdens of the past and the anxieties of the future, as we begin to live in the present, one day at a time. We are granted “the serenity to accept the things we cannot change” – and thus lose our quickness to anger and our sensitivity to criticism.”
I specifically love the part about casting off burdens of the past and the anxieties of the future because to live anywhere but the present is detrimental to my sobriety. With all the chaos and change I am going through in my life right now, it is easy to sit and think about the past and worry about the future. I have found myself lately just repeating the serenity prayer over and over, and I find so much peace in it. Otherwise, my anxieties could really take over, and in the past, my solution to dealing with those anxieties was to drink them away! Of course that was never really a solution. If I stay in the present, I focus only on what is in front of me and find peace in knowing wherever life takes me, it’s not my problem today. Thankfully this program keeps me so grounded that I have been able to get through all of this chaos lately without even once thinking about a drink. That is a true miracle!
I’d love to hear about your experiences with living in the present and finding your peace while weathering life’s storms. Speaking of storms, where I am, we are going to get a big snowstorm tomorrow! I hope anyone else in this storm’s path stays safe and warm!