Emotional Sobriety. Группа авторов

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Название Emotional Sobriety
Автор произведения Группа авторов
Жанр Здоровье
Серия
Издательство Здоровье
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781938413001



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Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety January 1958

      Section One

       A New Perspective

       Growth June 1976

       In All Our Affairs July 1956

       Win Or Lose August 2001

       Spiritual Agony February 2001

       The Mouth That Roared August 2001

       A Remarkable Sensation March 1997

       Wait for the Pitch March 2001

      Section Two

       The Acid Test

       It Was a Dark and Stormy Night October 1998

       The Value of Life June 2005

       Spiritual Coffee-making August 2001

       Winners and Whiners October 1994

       Faith in Full Flower November 2003

       The Scariest Thing June 2006

      Section Three

       Freedom From Self

       Lonely at the Top May 1991

       Anonymity: A Day at a Time in the Real World July 1995

       We Get What We Get October 2001

       The Root of Our Troubles December 1979

       Ready, Willing, and Almost Able April 2000

       Thoughts on Step Seven August 1955

       It Works at Work June 2000

       Simple Program July 1980

      Section Four

       A Program of Action

       A Benchmark in Sobriety September 1991

       Dropout September 1977

       Think Small March 1979

       What Will I Get Out of It? December 2003

       Made Direct Amends June 1990

       The Work at Hand March 1988

       Take My Advice – I'm Not Using It May 1997

      Section Five

       Outgoing Love

       Put Aside Anger July 1965

       Some Long-time Views March 1984

       An Equal-Opportunity Deplorer March 1983

       As Unique As Ham and Eggs June 2000

       Miracle In a Burger Joint March 2002

       The Ability to Love May 1962

       Miracles to Go August 1997

      Section Six

       The Joy of Living

       The Rhythm of Life October 1998

       Hanging in There Together March 1984

       Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings March 1995

       Practical Joy February 1997

       Savoring Our Sobriety August 1982

       Savoring Sobriety August 1997

       The Man I've Always Wanted to Be October 1990

       A Twig In the Yard July 2001

       About AA and AA Grapevine

      In 1958, the Grapevine published an article by AA co-founder Bill W. about the ongoing challenges of recovery that he faced long after he stopped drinking. Called “The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety,” the article describes Bill’s insight that his struggle with depression was due to overweening dependencies on other people and outside circumstances. Bill explains how he had found peace of mind by letting go of his expectations and practicing what he calls “outgoing love” — a love less concerned with what one gets and more with what one gives. It was, as he put it, the St. Francis Prayer in action.

      For some, the next frontier in recovery from alcoholism may be letting go of faulty, unrealistic dependencies; for others, it may mean illuminating persistent character defects or the “Now what?” malaise that can afflict the long-timer. The stories in this book show that when we have the willingness to find solutions rather than stay stuck in problems, we can let go of fear, selfishness, and resentment, put aside selfish demands, practice outgoing love, and become more connected to our Higher Power and our friends, family, and fellows.

      This book does not represent a final definition of emotional sobriety. Growing up in sobriety means different things to each of us, and one’s own idea of it may change over time. But one thing seems true: the rewards for reaching for emotional sobriety are serenity, emotional balance, and an increased joy in living.

      — The Editors

       Emotional Sobriety

      January 1958

      I THINK THAT MANY oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA — the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God.

      Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance — urges quite appropriate to age seventeen — prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven.

      Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse! Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round.

      How to translate a right mental conviction into a right emotional result, and so into easy, happy and good living — well, that's not only the neurotic's problem, it's the problem of life itself for all of us who have got to the point of real willingness to hew to right principles in all our affairs.

      Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. That's the place so many of us AA oldsters have come to. And it's a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious — from which so many of