Show Me Your [Blank]
A woman in the rooms shared that she was an angry young lass…so much so that when, in college, her roommate confronted her by saying “You’d rather be right than happy!” she mocked her friend for being ridiculously obvious. It was only much later, in recovery, that she realized how foolish the statement was.
This got me thinking. When i was drinking, i would have rather been drunk than happy. That realization put me on my ass. How insane is that!? i’d truly believed i was drinking to make myself happy when the exact opposite was true!
Now let’s go a step further. We take the sentence and replace the word “right” with a blank.
I’d rather be ________________ than happy.
Whatever words work in that blank (sad, angry, eating, alone…) represent the biggest threats to your sobriety.
For those in AA:
This magic formula can also be used to help you target specific areas in Step 1 where your life has become “unmanageable”.
Posted on July 3, 2012, in AA Step Work, Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholism, Lessons in Recovery, Recovery, Toolbox and tagged AA, AA fellowship, AA Step 1, AA Steps, alcohol, Alcohol Insanity, Alcohol Recovery, alcoholic, Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism, Insanity, mental-health, Recovery, sobriety, Step 1, Toolbox, What i learned in AA. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Excellent post! Exactly what I needed to ‘hear’ right now.
Glad i could help!
Keep coming back,
Al K Hall
I think Woody Allen summed up what it means to be happy:
“The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.”
and whenever you’re miserable, be thankful:
“I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable.”
My favorite of his will always be,
Keep coming back, brother,
Al K Hall
So many things I could put in that blank space
.
You’re officially one step closer to happiness!
Thanks for stopping by, brother,
Al K Hall
Such a simple exercise to help identify what’s eating away at me…thanks!
Thank you for stopping by! i love your blog and am adding it to my blog roll. Keep up the good work and…
Keep coming back,
AL K Hall