Talking to a friend in the program, who had called with a problem, I was reminded of something my sponsor had said to me a long time ago. He said to step back and take a deep breath. To pause and wait for the answer. The answer will come.
Of course it might not be what I want, but the process of stepping back and taking a deep breath does do something. It allowed me to sidestep the emotion, which was dominating my thinking. It then allowed me to reach that point, where I could do something one man wrote about in the book Spiritual Awakenings.
The man said he would reach that point of stepping back and taking a deep breath and find himself saying “Oh”. What did that mean? It was then that he saw the answer he couldn’t see before. “Oh, that’s it!”
It was always difficult for me to see the answer to some problem I had, because my feelings and emotions had blinded me. I would find myself flailing this way and that, like I was in a wrestling match I couldn’t win. But stepping back and taking a deep breath led me to saying “Oh!”.
Of course all of this was based on letting go and letting God do for me what I couldn’t do for myself. Letting go of trying to control things, which were outside of my control. Accepting that there is so much over which I’m truly powerless. The fourth chapter in the BB. Lack of power was my dilemma and I needed a power greater than myself to empower me.
Just a reminder that this program works, if I will work it. The 2nd Step. The beginning of the solution. Avoiding that temptation to that next drink. The restoration to sanity