Showing posts with label Work the steps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work the steps. Show all posts

Monday, April 24, 2017

Starting A New Job And Sobriety't

Well it is Monday 4/24/2017 and I am on my new position with a large company where I have travel most of Texas. It should be a good deal as I like to travel and work. However , this is the first day and I don't know exatly how this is all going to work. I have a vehicle being brought in from Lubbock this morning and we are stocking it with product to take out for me to display and then I drive to the next retail facility and do the same thing again. Im out 4 nights of the week so Hotels will get old, but I have my trusty computer and my guitars ready to travel. I plan on going to AA meeting in other towns as well. I will not be lonely that is for sure. I can stay busy. If it was not for being sober I don't think this job would last as I have to get up at 4 AM and I finish at 4 PM so it will be long days. I am looking forward to working as it has been a while and to get a paycheck would be nice also. Well just entering this in my blog , for future reference. Have a good day. Chris

Monday, September 19, 2016

Sobriety and Mindfulness?

I have been going to Barnes and Nobles almost every day to read and I came across the Best Sellers on the table and they were coloring books? Confused and out of date I must be , but they are also on the top list of wanted books on the New York Times. So of course, I went and bought a Adult coloring book and crayon pencils for about 40.00USD. Why? well I don't know why except I thought , you know this might be a way of keeping my anxiety down. When I was a child my parents bought me crayons and coloring books and I was not very good at doing this as I was a action type kid that liked to play Baseball and sports. However being an adult now, and coloring these books is a different meaning. My mother use to buy these books for the kids to keep them quite and calm, so I suppose that is the Mindfulness that belongs to these books for adults.
All these new words in the new world, lol, but I have to say this, coloring these books are no small feet, and they do help pass time, instead of watching TV. I also get a sigh of relief in coloring a black and white confused diagram in this book. Hey, they look pretty with color, and it is a great time to not think about anything for a short period of time.

So , I thought it was stupid at first, but in thinking about these coloring books, it is great for shaky hands and for focusing on what you are doing. So , I can't rule out the posiblility that they may be a good form of therapy for some of us. Let's put it this way , the first copy of one coloring book sold over 1 million copies when it came out for adults , so were either really stresed or bored to death. I can't really put my thumb on it. I get a little bit of everything, anxious,stressed, mad, and even calm now thanks to the my coloring book.Sobriety is many things to a alcoholic who was out of it for nearly 30 years, so this coloring book is kind of a cool idea for meditation and watching the page come alive. Give it a chot. God Bless. Chris Hyer

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Saturday and Staying Sober

Saturday in the years of my drinking were days to re0couperate from Friday night highs and drinking. I would not wake up until noon or later and then go get food as I was hungry in which woke me up. It would be close to three or four in the afternoon before my head kicked in and I was truly awake. I am not sure how your Saturday was but for me it was quite and sleepy most of the day. Of course, I was preparing for Saturday night and what I was going to drink or smoke. If I was out of weed, I started to make phone calls to get some for the rest of the week. It was like a totally different lifestyle than it is now.
Eight years later in my present tense, I wake up about six AM and try to sleep in till 7 AM and then I let my puppy out the backdoor and let her do her stuff and fix breakfast and drink juice. That is my usual Saturday now. After breakfast, I look at my work phone to see if I have calls for the day I need to take care of , and then get ready to work them or if I don't I get ready for AA as I have a meeting at 10 AM I like to go to in Midland, Texas. I sometimes go grocery shopping in the morning but that habit has changed, and sometimes I just go and buy a few things cause I really just but what I can eat for a few days , but I buy a lot of sparling water. I like Swepps Sparkling water it is my beer for the day , and I like the fizz and taste of this drink. I have progressed to Gatorade also , for some odd reason, I like the taste.

So you now see the change of when I was using alcohol and drugs and to the now when I do not use these things. I really did not know the difference until I started writing this down on this blog. Maybe it is good to have a blog and write how your past was and what you are like now. It sure makes a difference in how far one has come to be sober and living with God. Yes, there is that God word again, he and I are best of friends on a daily basis. I have to have a higher power with me at all times. Call me co-dependent..lol However, it seems to work for me to have gone through these changes and end up not hung over and up and early like I am now. What a miracle once I read over what I just wrote. If you want what I have just take a few steps from AA and work them and then you become a better more productive human being, and you might help change someones life . I write this for me to loook back on and it is interesting to note that I have about 900 people that read this blog a month. So people are interested in how I live I guess. I hope it helps someone. Have a good Saturday, and God Bless. Christopher Hyer.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Social Sobriety and Giving Back

One part of AA is the giving back what you have been given from the program of AA. This can be done a several of ways. Do service work ,which means chairing meetings and cleaning up the building after a large gathering of people. So instead of just getting up and leaving to go to your car, you might ask the chair person if there is something you can do to give back what was kindly given to you for your sobriety. Yes, they will look at you in a strange way, but be surprised that you even offered, as most of us after a meeting will just throw our cups away and then casually walk out of the building . Then the person that has the key to the door has to do the cleanup of the room so the next group that comes in will have a orderly room to conduct meetings.

I know , you probably are not the type of person that would do such a  thing, but recently I did this and made a few new friends that I have more in common with. In AA we talk about the steps and staying sober. After AA we talk like regular people and if you need a job or seek a sponsor this is a perfect time in which to ask other members about such things.

Service wrok can entitle many aspects of what you can do to give back , but also giving of money to help operate the expenses is another way of tithing. I feeel like when I give money I am saying thank you for the group counseling and paying a small fee for helping me stay sober just makes since. No one will ask you to put money in the basket that is passed around just before a meeting is about to close. This is the 7th Tradition in which we accept no outside operating expenses and are in no debt to anyone but ourselves. So you see your home AA group is self supporting in how it is run, and if you don't like how it is run you can attend meetings once a month and make suggestions and if they are voted on and agreed then they will make adjustments to how the money is spent on a monthly or yearly basis.

AA programs have been know to use this money to sponsor people to go to quarterly mega-meetings in other towns, if you need the money. They also have used the money to send people to Treatment centers, so we graciously give back what is given to us.This is unlike any meeting you will ever come to, where things are given to you to help you with keeping your life intact. This is what happens when you do service work is you give back and in return , something always good comes back to you. It is the way a church is run in a way, but I don't know what churches do with their money. Give back today to someone less fortunate than you and live life sober today!!

Friday, January 22, 2016

Sobriety, The Reason to Get Sober Today in 2016

There are a multitude of reasons that starting a new year , in that starting a new life can be obtained today. Sobriety is the key focus of what you have set out to achieve and ready to start with a fresh attitude towards the world and yourself. Make a determined effort to go to a AA meeting today and meet one person, even if it is to say ,"Hello". This will start your journey into a new world where all things are possible . A new beginning to a hopeless end with drinking.

Go to just one AA meeting today, and they have these meetings all over your city if you live in a large metropolitan area. You just might make a difference in someone else life. You might see a co-worker or an attorney that you have known, but do not feeel ashamed, as they are there for the same reason you are there, to stay sober for just today and find materials to help you stay sober. Find a sponsor in this meeting, they will usually point people out that can sponsor a recovering alcoholic. Yes, that would be you, but you have to take the first step into this building to start your day off on the right foot.

The possibilities are endless what you can accomplish by going to this first AA meeting. Here are a few that may happen to you. You go and then come home and tell your spouse or child that you went to AA and they just might put a smile on their face. Once you have left you now how an idea that there are many people from homeless persons to doctors that are attending these meetings, alcohol has no discrimination on whom the disease chooses. This may shock you at the knowledge or stories that you hear , casue they may sound like yourself talking while in this meeting. I am sure you will find something familiar with going to this AA meeting.

If you leave and think you still are not an alcoholic , then go and keep drinking and in the back of your mind you will always know there is a place for you at alcoholics anonymous if you so need this in your life. You may not be alcoholic, I beg of you to please ask in a meeting what a alcoholic is? They will give you an answer that might fit you or may not. We are not a glum lot of people, we are happy and sometimes sad. We are a group of survivors from this disease. You may try another group to see if they are more on your level, almost all groups are the same but some are smaller and others larger. Take the leap of faith and at least find out if you really have a problem or if it is someone else just saying you have a problem. Get it out of your voice and head to do something today!! Thank You



Sunday, August 11, 2013

Chris Raymer and AA Speakers

There are a lot of circuit AA speakers who fly all around the world, helping those that need guidance with the disease of alcoholism. Chris Raymer of Hunt, Texas is one of these guys. He is sometimes called the "One eyed bandit" joyfully so. He is on a mission, and his mission includes all those affected with alcohol in one way or another. When I was in treatment at La Hacienda this man spoke to us everyday. I was in such a daze that I only was able to conceive some of his message. He is very out there and out spoken , he gets his point across. He has the idea that we are not doing enough as a whole in helping the newcomer beat his addiction. He will tell you that AA in some cities will not even crack open a Big Book in their meetings, and he is right. The AA and the group as a whole should use this material , because it works. He has been to so many places and witness too many deaths in his lifetime of sobriety.

Chris R. story is not the typical one. His indeed is different as we all are. He did not recover from this disease this last time at a alcohol and drug treatment facility. He went to an AA meeting in Lewisville, Texas on his last draw with drugs and drinking. He really wanted what these people in AA had, and made the effort. He was taken in by some old timers at the AA club and put to work on the steps immediately. Those who wanted Chris to stay sober knew just what to do to give him a chance in sobriety, because all had failed in what Chris tried. He was willing to do what it took, reluctantly at first, yet building a foundation that he lives by today.

Focusing on the 12th step and helping other alcoholics maintain their sobriety is a passion for this man. It should be the passion of all of us. However, we have fallin short and expect the newcomer to take for his own. This is not how AA was intended and Chris will speak about this. There are some in AA whom disagree with Chris on several issues, and this is true with anyone that has knowledge of his sorroundings. Chris is hyper and full of passion for the recovered AA person and those coming new into the program. Here is a sound clip of one of his recent speaches he has given. You can find these by searching out his name in google.com. Christopher

Monday, July 15, 2013

All Men Of Faith Have Courage

In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous , it goes into the fact that we seek spiritual guidance is by no means we lack courage. In fact , this principle of spirituality just means ,"all men of faith have courage". Ok, so I might have read this wrong, but you know what I am talking about if you have worked the steps. A spiritual beginning takes place when we complete step 4 and read aloud to our sponsor step 5 and work step 6. This is done in succession and honestly done. You cannot lie to yourself and another human being the resentments you have. It makes no sense to even try. If you want what millions of recovered alcoholics have , this and all steps are done in honest, and thought out time.

Chris Raymer Speaks!!
Work these steps fast and thoroughly so that your road to recovery can lead to step 12 , where you help the newcomer who is clueless as to what AA is all about. We need to help the newcomer come to realize step 1 and get him well off his way onto the other steps as soon as possible for him or her to stay sober for more than one more day. This is possible says ,"Chris Raymer. "Work these steps quickly, there is nowhere in the Big Book of alcoholics anonymous that says we seek 4 months of doing step 4 , this is wrong. it only takes a few days if only hours of rigorous honesty".

I stayed dry for three years of my 4 plus years of sobriety and I am a rarity, most do not last this long without some type of support. I went to AA just in time, and if I had started going like I am now, I would not of had the baffling years of insecurity I have had during those three years. I stayed sober or dry , but no program in place. I had a spiritual connection to God already, but there are many who do not understand this concept. Once the steps are in working order for the newcomer, he can go on about living and working , and staying sober. We have to work on the recovering new comer, he came to these meetings because he either had to ( Court Order) or he is seeking answers. Do not waist your time on those that do not want to work this program, let them go out and try some controlled drinking, and he hopefully will return. He may die, so it is important to try to work with the individual as fast as possible.

Once started this new person will come to know that the obsession to drink will go away after the simple step of quitting that one drink. All miracles start with step one, then one miracle after another will continue to be obtained. It works, it really does, if action is taken. God must be found and a spiritual relief has to be received in order to continue. Pray and pray more. Get on your knees and ask for help, and help will be given. Ask for the next day to be better than the last and it will be . I am working proof of this. Read through my blog and see all the miracles that have happen to just myself. I am just one of millions who have worked and fought this program. Hardhead as I was this deal actually works and keeps you from slipping if practiced. God Bless and have a Great Monday..07/15/2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

How Long Should You Take To Work The 12 Steps

The twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are meant to help you stay sober. The faster you work these twelve steps the chances of having a relapse dwindles.Yes, work these within a month if possible , then start working with other alcoholics to help them get sober, this is a plan of action. A plan that needs no hesitation. You will find those of us t
The Park In Midland, Texas by Christopher Hyer
hat say you should work step 4 for a few months, that's crap. You can work this step in a few days if not in a couple of days. AA has been known in the past for making newcomers go through hell in these simple steps. No more, as Chris Raymer suggest , take these steps and work them with a sponsor as quickly as possible. You will need to do this in order to not have a relapse of alcoholism.

I'm guilty of not doing this, as of today I am going into warp speed and working through my fourth step and onward, I will meet with my sponsor as soon as possible and go  over my 4th and 5th step. I have heard this over and over again and I need to take action. I have put off doing the steps in order to go to meetings.I am right now not working full time so I should have the time to work these steps in a few weeks if not this week. I beg you please to work through these and finish these steps so you also can stay dry and sober. We have to or we die. There is no two ways about it , we are only one drink away from going back to where we began. God Bless and Let's get started now!!

Sobriety and Covid and Living Normal

I have had this blog for ober 8 years and made nothing off of this blog. I write to talk about daily things and living without alcohol and I...