Emotions Anonymous

[MajestyJo]

THE TWELVE STEPS OF EMOTIONS ANONYMOUS


1. We admitted we were powerless over our emotions-that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision o turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely rfeady to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


The Twelve Promises of Emotions Anonymous


1. We realize a new freedom and happiness.
2. We do not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it.
3. We comprehend the word Serenity, and we know peace of mind.
4. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we see how our experience can benefit others.
5. The feelings of uselessness and self-pity lessen.
6. We have less concern about self and gain interest in others.
7. Self-seeking slips away.
8. Our whole atitude and outlook upon life changes.
9. Our relationships with other people improve.
10. We intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
11. We acquire feeling of security within ourselves.
12. We realize that God is doing for us what we could not do ourselves.

These may seem like extravagant promises, but we think not. They are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

[MajestyJo]

Just for Today
The Choice is Mine


1. Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not tackling all of my problems at once. I can do something at this moment that would discourage me if I had to continue it for a lifetime.

2. Just for today I will try to be happy, realizing my happiness does not depend on what others do or say or what happens aorund me. Happiness is a result of being at peace with myself.

3. Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is and not force everything to adjust to my own desires. I will accept my family, my friends, my business, my circumstances as they come.

4. Just for today I will take care of my physical health; I will exercise my mind; I will read something spiritual.

5. Just for today I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. If anyone knows of it, it will not count. I will do at least one thing I don't want to do, and I will perform some small act of love for my neighbor.

6. Just for today I will try to go out of my way to be kind to someone I meet. I will be considerate, talk low, and look as good as I can. I will not engage in uneccessary critricism or finding fault, nor try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.

7. Just for today I will have a program. I amynot follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will sve myself from two pests - hurry and indecision.

8. Just for today I will stop saying, "If I had time." I will never find time for anything. If I want time, I must take it.

9. Just for today I will have a quiet time of meditation wherein I shall think of my Higher Power, of myself, and of my neighbor. I shall relax and seek truth.

10. Just for today I shall be unafraid. Particularly, I shall be unafraid to be happy, to enjoy what is good, what is beautiful, and what is lovely in life.

11. Just for today I will not compare myself with others. I will accept myself and live to the best of my ability.

12. Just for today I choose to believe that I can live this one day.


Slogans we use

Let go and let God
You are not alone
One day at a time
Live and let live
First things first
Look for the good
By the grace of God
Know yourself - be honest
This too shall pass
I need people
Keep it simple
I have a choice



Quote:Emotions Anonymous (EA) was formed by a group of individuals who found a new way of life by working the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, as adapted for people with emotinal problems.

We invite you to discover, as we have, that our EA fellowship of weekly meetings is warm and friendly, and that it is also important for achieveing and maintaing emotional health.

The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions are our guides for our meetings and for lving one day at a time because ours is a twenty-four hour program.

Emotions Anonymous is a non-profit organization, supported by the voluntary contributions of its members.

We thank Alcoholics Anonymous for their permission to use the program, and we thank the God of our understanding for guidance.

[MajestyJo]

Helpful Concepts


1. We come to EA to learn how to live a new way of life through the twelve-step program of Emotions Anonymous which consists of Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, concepts, the Serenity Prayer, slogans, Just for Today, EA literature, weekly meetings, telephone and personal contacts, and living the program one day at a time. We do not come for another person - we come to help ourselves and to share our experiences, strength, and hope with others.

2. We are experts only on our own stories, how we try to live the program, how the program works for us, and what EA has done for us. No one speaks for Emotions Anonymous as a whole.

3. We respect anonymity - no questions are asked. We aim for an atmosphere of love and acceptance. We do not care who you are or what you have done. You are welcome.

4. We do not judge; we do not criticize; we do not argue. We do not give advice regarding personal or family affairs.

5. EA is not a sounding board for continually reviewing our miseries, but a way to learn to detach ourselves from them. Part of our serenity comes from being able to live at peace with unsolved problems.

6. We never discuss religion, politics, national or international issues, or other belief systems or policies. EA has no opinion on outside issues.

7. Emotions Anonymous is a spiritual program, not a religious program. We do not advocate any particular belief system.

8. The steps suggest a belief in a Power greater than ourselves. This can be human love, a force for good, the group, nature, the universe. God, or any entity a member chooses as a personal Higher Power.

9. We utilize the program-we do not analyze it. Understanding comes with experience. Each day we apply some part of the program to our personal lives.

10. We have not found it helpful to place labels on any degree of illness or health. We may have different symptoms, but the underlying emotions are the same or similar. We discover we are not unique in our difficulties and illnesses.

11. Each person is entitled to his or her own opinions and may express them at a meeting within the guidelines of EA. We are all equal-no one is more important than another.

12. Part of the beauty and wonder of the EA program is that at meetings we can say anything and know it stays there. Anything we hear at a meeting, on the telephone, or from another member is confidential and is not to be repeated to anyone-EA members, mates, families, relatives or friends.


The Twelve Traditions


1. Our common welfare should come first, personal recovery depends on EA unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for EA membership is a desire to become well emotionally.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or EA as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the person who still suffers from emotional problems.
6. An EA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the EA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every EA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Emotions Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. EA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Emotions Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the EA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

[MajestyJo]

So many emotions, and when we first get sober and clean, we have a lot that we don't know what to do with them. We don't know how to deal with them because we have covered them up and buried them. Recovery is about learning a safe way to deal with them and learning to identify with them.


CRABBY OLD MAN

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Tampa , Florida , it was believed that he had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through his meagre possessions, they found this poem.

Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Missouri ..

The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the
Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses?....What do you see?
What are you thinking......when you're looking at me?

A crabby old man, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit......with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food.......and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice..'I do wish you'd try!'

Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing..............A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not.. ........lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding.......The long day to fill?

Is that what you're thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes nurse
You're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am........As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding,.....as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten.with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters.........who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen.....with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now.........a lover he'll meet.

A groom soon at Twenty......my heart gives a leap.
Remembering the vows......that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now........I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide, And a secure happy home.

A man of Thirty.....My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other.......With ties that should last.
Forty, my young sons.....have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me.....to see I don't mourn.

At Fifty, once more,.....Babies play 'round my knee ,
Again, we know children....My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me..........My wife is now dead.
I look at the future............I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing.....young of their own.
And I think of the years....And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man.........and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age.....look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles.........grace and vigor depart.
There is now a stone........where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass......A young guy still dwells,
And now and again.........my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys..............I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living.............life over again.

I think of the years.....all too few......gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact........that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people.........open and see.
Not a crabby old man. Look closer....see........ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might
brush aside without looking at

the young soul within...we will all, one day, be there, too! (Much
sooner than we expect to be there.)

PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM

The best and most beautiful things of this world can't be seen or
touched. They must be felt by the heart.

GROWING OLD IS NOT FOR SISSIES! ! !

I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.

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[MajestyJo]

Overwhelm the Darkness

When there is a negative situation that you cannot change, focus your thoughts and energy elsewhere. When there is a pain that will not go away, overwhelm it with an even greater amount of joy.
It serves no useful purpose to get mired in despair over things you cannot control. It makes much more sense to do the very best, to achieve the very most, with those things you do control.

You can choose where to focus your energy and attention. Focus on those areas where you can have a powerful positive impact.

Yes, it can be easy to get caught up in the negativity of the moment. Yet it also can be surprisingly easy to shift your focus toward the positive, productive things you can do.

You are never obligated to be miserable. If you really want to contribute to life, set your sights on the value you're able to create.

Don't despair over the darkness that is beyond your control. Instead, shine your own light so brightly that the darkness is overwhelmed.

-- Ralph Marston

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[MajestyJo]

It's not always calories, fat or any other diet factor that causes people to become overweight. For many people, the trigger to overeating is stress, and the answer is mastering relaxation techniques. One recent study found that people who had no strategy to deal with stress gave in to eating temptations every time; those who responded with positive thoughts and action -- taking a walk, listening to music -- avoided emotion-based eating 85% of the time.

http://health.yahoo.com/nutrition_fitness/miavita/tod=20021120

This sound good in theory. My problem has been Arthritic Gout and swollen feet. The kidney specialist gave me some fluid pills and they make my feet very sore and it is difficult to walk any distance to do any good for losing weight.

We tend to forget or recognize that we substitute food to stuff those feelings that we buried with drugs and alcohol in the past. It was important for me to recognize that work and food are a drug. Work for me today is my computer and my sites. I have had to learn to detach from it and watch TV. I got to a place were I never watched TV for about six year. As my son asked me the other day, "Mom when was the last time you watched the news?" :(

Love Always,

Bea Jo

From my site Soundness of Mind. This may seem like it should be in OA, but for me, the whole problem was the emotions, whether it was food or something else, I reached for people, places and things to fill the void and take away the hurt.

I had no knowledge of the fact that the answers were within and not outside of myself. I just spoke to my first AA sponsor. I was blessed when God put her in my life, because she had been to OA and EA.

It still amazes me how the message is the same, it is basic and yet inter-changeable between fellowships.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15033089/sn/1429551456/name/n_a

[MajestyJo]

Emotions can be stumbling blocks, and yet they can be motivators as well. I don't want to feel this way any more. I don't want to continue to act out this way, what can I do to change it.

As the sayings go, I am granted freedom of choice. I can face everything and recovery or I can flee everythng and run (relapse), which I did for years. It was how I survived. I ran away, I was not willing to feel, and I was not willing to face reality and my own personal truth.

The most important thing for me was that I was no longer alone. I didn't have to face things alone. the people in the rooms carried a message to me. I can get through this, move to the other side, and find a new way of living.

Just because I have a thought or an idea, doesn't mean I have to act on it.

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[MajestyJo]

A temper will get us into trouble and pride will keep us there.

I can't save my face and my butt at the same time.

- Pocket Sponsor

How many times, I was going to get back, 'fix' you, I'll get even with you for that one, and hang on to a resentment, and allow my pride to not give in, not willing to surrender, and the next thing I know, everything is blown out of proportion and no one wants to give in.

How many times I got angry, it is all his (her) fault, they are the ones with the problem and the disease, forgetting it is a family disease, and what my A has, I do too. It isn't always about them, it is about me and my own defects of character. I am not lily white and without faults of my own. As I shared with a friend last night, it is often the pot calling the kettle black. We don't realize that what we see in others, is a reflection from something within ourselves.

Not only not being able to save face or preventing ourselves from falling on our butt, often it is taking one foot out to put the other one in. We can't take the words back, we can't cover them up, and we compound interest by adding to the problem by opening our mouths again.

I use to tell my ex-husband, you took your foot out of your mouth and put the other one in. My tongue was a big weapon. I realized in recovery, that I would tear strips off someone, tear them apart and didn't bother putting them back together when I was done.

I had to clean up my mouth, my actions, as well as my body, mind, and spirit.

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[MajestyJo]

Feel your emotions

"The key is to not resist or rebel against emotions or to try to get around them by devising all sorts of tricks; but to accept them directly, as they are."

-- Takahisa Kora

Emotions are energy in motion. They bring us information if we are willing to experience them. Unfortunately, many of us are afraid of the energy of emotions and so we automatically resist them. And when we refuse to experience our emotions, we block them up. They become trapped and that entrapment drains our energy and brings continuing discomfort.

Don't let emotions push you into action or reaction. Just STOP and PAY ATTENTION. Allow them to be and to speak to you. Once they are acknowledged, their energy is released.

"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

-- Deepak Chopra

"We have to become more conscious of our feeling-world. By learning to identify the ‘emotional baggage’ and manage our feeling-world reactions, we can view life based on current information instead of being held captive by our past."

-- Doc Childre

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."

-- Audre Lorde

In recovery, I found that a lot of feelings in today were often compounded interest from things that happened a long time ago in my childhood. Often they were the result of false evidence appear real, often based on a false sense of pride and responsibility and not mine to take on, and the feelings were more acute as a result of many years of stuffing.

Buried resentments, abandonment issues, rejection and hurt feelings can lead to a lot of pain and insecurity.

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[MajestyJo]

The Language of Letting Go

Feelings

It's okay to have and feel our feelings - all of them.

Years into recovery, we may still be battling with ourselves about this issue. Of all the prohibitions we've lived with, this one is potentially the most damaging and the most long-lived.

Many of us needed to shut down the emotional part of ourselves to survive certain situations. We shut down the part of us that feels anger, sadness, fear, joy, and love. We may have turned off our sexual or sensual feelings too. Many of us lived in systems with people who refused to tolerate our emotions. We were shamed or reprimanded for expressing feelings, usually by people who were taught to repress their own.

But times have changed. It is okay now for us to acknowledge and accept our emotions. We don't need to allow our emotions to control us; neither do we need to allow our emotions to control us; neither do we need to rigidly repress our feelings. Our emotional center is a valuable part of us. It's connected to our physical well being, our thinking, and our spirituality.

Our feelings are also connected to that great gift, instinct. They enable us to give and receive love.

We are neither weak nor deficient for indulging in our feelings. It means we're becoming healthy and whole.

Today, I will allow myself to recognize and accept whatever feelings pass through me. Without shame, I will tune in to the emotional part of myself.
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For many years, I took on false guilt and shame. Those words and sayings were killers. "Look what you made me do!" "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't do..." Recovery allows me to know what is mine and what isn't and accept my own feelings and how to learn to deal with them. It is surprising how much is projected onto us, often not knowingly, because the other person is sick too.