Self-seeking will slip away.
What a blessing and what a promise! I was thinking about this today. I remember how it was at the beginning. Talk about it being all about me. Now it’s almost all about me, as one of my friends always says.
Applying the steps to my life, changed my focus. For years, especially during my drinking, my vision was on my navel. I was all bent over mentally in a fetal position, trying to protect myself from all those imaginary enemies I had. But, that kind of thinking followed me through the doors of this program and stuck to me during my earlier years. Well, maybe a few years beyond that. Oh, what the hell, it comes back in waves from time to time, when my faith weakens and I succumb to my emotional immaturity.
However, for the most part this promise has grown exponentially through the years. Less and less am I focused on myself and more sensitive and aware of others and their needs. What a revolution. What a change in thinking. What freedom that is. I can remember one of the first times I became aware of this. It was like a heavy weight being lifted from me and I could breathe more freely for the first time in years. I could stop taking myself so seriously and laugh at myself. And all I have to do to maintain this is to put this program into action everyday. It not only adds to the joy of my sobriety, but I believe it’s an essential part.
Looking outward and standing mentally upright, I see others more clearly and am enabled to focus on what I need to do to stay sober each day. Over the years my ears became unplugged and I could hear more clearly the message the members around me were trying to put into my head. That’s because I could now look at the people speaking those words.
I was not only thinking about that promise today, but I am also grateful to God and the program, which opened the doors to allow me to experience it.