We hear a lot about letting go. What does that mean? Is it just saying it and then sitting back and doing nothing? Or what? And why is it so important in the scheme of things…like staying sober?
This was what was going on in a meeting today. A friend of mine brought it up and the responses wandered all over the place. So, when I got home, I sat down to think about what was said and what it meant to me. For one thing it meant that in order to let go I must be hanging on to something. What, for instance? How about a resentment? A worry or anxiety? Fear of an anticipation I’m projecting? Things which can put my sobriety on the back burner and block out my primary purpose.
It is one thing to pray for help with this and quite another to pray and still find myself hanging on to whatever it is from which I need to get separation.
This is where action on my part is necessary. I know this from long experience of going through the problems I have been faced with in the past.
Most of the time, even though I might not have had any power to do anything to change what was going on, I have always found that it had something to do with my attitude. Worry, fear, resentments, all of these and more, have always affected my vision of things and brought up feelings and emotions, which were potentially harmful to my sobriety. In other words, even though I wasn’t drinking, I was not emotionally sober. Without knowing it, I could be suffering from an emotional hangover and enter into the state of a dry drunk. I’ve been there and seen others go through the same process.
Attitudes are everything, they’re more important than facts. A change in attitude can literally change the facts. I have found that I can actually change my attitude from a bad one to a good one in very short order. I have learned that the discipline of surrender and acceptance works. It’s what this program has taught me, even though it’s easy to forget this. That’s why meetings and talking to others is so important to my sobriety. Just looking in a mirror and smiling at myself can start the change. Then asking for help in applying the 7th Step to my life.
Anyway, I was thinking about this this afternoon.