Tools & Concepts Back on Track I experienced miraculous recovery working the Steps of OA. I’d never in my life been more spiritually fit, more emotionally sound, more physically recovered, yet I felt as if I’d just touched the tip of the iceberg of everything the OA Fellowship could fulfill in my life. It was “steady as she goes,” and the pounds came off slowly but … Read More
Literature Tools & Concepts Love Action At last night’s meeting, my group read the April 17 entry in For Today (p. 108). Writing on the topic of “love in action” convinced me to be more questioning and honest about working the Twelve Steps. My main takeaway was the idea that love is expressed in actions. Words of love, in and of themselves, are insufficient. I have … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Acknowledging the Backstory Back in the twentieth century, it still felt okay to ridicule fat people. They seemed so cartoonish. Who could resist poking fun at them behind their backs? Today, I know that gossip is despicable. The obese are the last objects of scorn and prejudice, aren’t they? What did we ignorant people know of their inner lives? In a memoir I … Read More
Sponsoring Tools & Concepts On Being Asked to Be Your Sponsor Now, everything is cool. We’re at that stage when trust, respect feel sure. We sense a link in struggle, pain, and hope. As we engage, things fall into place; we think in sync. But someday, I’m going to let you down, and then you’ll feel betrayed. I’ll be too late. I’ll fib. Put myself first. You’ll see a frown. Will … Read More
Steps Amending Fear and Shame Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. For so long, I’ve felt like I lived on an island inside a stone fortress. I lived this way because I believed that people wouldn’t like me and would eventually try to harm me. I hid my feelings, actions, and … Read More
Steps Priceless Peace Before I was halfway through my Ninth Step, I experienced, as the Big Book promises, a new freedom I’d never dreamed was possible: “Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th. ed., p. 84). I was free from the fear of financial insecurity. The feeling was new and odd. Much of my life had been … Read More
Meetings Tools & Concepts Talking Points At our meetings, before the meeting is opened up for sharing, someone always reads the statement on cross talk from the Suggested Meeting Format, so that members are aware of guidelines for sharing. Recently the leader of our meeting slipped: instead of asking for a volunteer to read the statement about cross talk, she asked, “Who would like to read … Read More
Steps Stepping to Freedom Entering the rooms of OA nearly three decades ago, I anticipated that I’d be given a diet based on restriction and deprivation. I never dreamed I’d be given a life-enriching recovery program and the freedoms in each of OA’s Twelve Steps: Step One. Admission of my powerlessness means freedom from my mental obsession with food, allowing expanded space in my … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Recovery Celebration In recovery, I have freedom from: pretending to be a normal eater and wishing people would just go away so I could eat using all celebrations as an excuse to binge eating secretly as I baked, prepared, and served food—and continuing to eat long afterward squeezing into only a few select pieces of clothing (usually with elasticized waistbands) making commitments … Read More
Steps Light Wash Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. I have a habit of checking how clean a drinking glass really is by holding it up to the light. A glass that looks so clean when out of the bright light can actually be very dirty, covered in fingerprints and all sorts of marks—it’s not fit to drink from. It makes me think of … Read More