OKaysez

 

 Made a Decision

     Another Year to Beware the               Janfeb Blues

The lights, tinsel, baubles and other holiday decorations of our last holiday season were packed away a month ago. Admired gifts are now are in use. Thank you letters long sent. 

Perhaps a few feast day leftovers are still tucked away in the freezer, but good, bad, or indifferent the holidays are well behind us. 

For many that's a huge relief. We recovering drunks often view the holiday season as just one big month-long crazed High - with much of it being a bad trip!  

Our Holidays are filled with excitement, worry, family feuds, parties to carefully steer through, lots of meetings to keep our heads screwed on, gifts to buy, money concerns, dinners to plan, and waaaaaay too much to do in our already too busy lives.

But it's important for all of us to remember - just as leftovers follow the feast day turkey, goose or ham - any time a recovering alcoholic hits a high zone there will be a low zone following along right behind it.

And this year, with escalating political tensions and bigger climate worries added to the mix, the Janfeb Blues may find us feeling even lower than usual. Depression stands ready to settle in for a long miserable visit.

So what's to be done? 

"The key to survival" (as I read just today) "is not in maintaining a stiff upper lip, as we have been told, but to express our vulnerability. We're not complaining or whining when we do so. We're just bonding ourselves to the rest of the human race."

AA meetings are a great place for a bit of whining and a lot of bonding. So stuff these remaining winter months chock full of them as a way of being good to yourself. (I did my share of whining at one just last week. It helped me tremendously). 

We're not alone in these blue feelings at this time of year, but unlike so many people, we in AA have a solution. The good news is right there on page 42 in our Big Book where it says: Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems. So if you haven't yet acquired the habit of daily prayer and meditation, perhaps now might be a good time to start.

It might also be a good idea to set aside that stick you use to beat yourself up with. The ability to realize our past mistakes happens as recovery opens us up to our feelings. But to dwell on them stops us from moving forward. Past mistakes kept current in our heads can crush us.

 I recently read we need to put those mistakes under our feet and use them as a platform to view our new and better horizon. Great suggestion! 

Learning to love ourselves enough to stay sober is the true beginning of our ongoing AA adventure. 

Happily it's still early enough in the new year for making resolutions. Making a renewed commitment to our recovery is one that can never go amiss. 

Without continued recovery from our addiction(s) we stand to lose everything we value - family, jobs, self-respect - so making a plan to do more in, and for, AA - is a sensible resolution to make. 

Our literature tells us over and over again that service to others is the key for getting ourselves out of the doldrums ... in January, February, or any other month. 

If service sounds more like work than fun, try adopting a mind change from - "this is what I have to do," and instead go for - "this is what I Get to do." 

Our entire lives are better because of the gifts AA has given us - and continues to give us - but those gifts actually come with an obligation to extend the hand of AA to others in need. 

 We can take it upon ourselves to carry our fair share of the load, not grudgingly, but joyfully.  

Our lives get better and better when we contribute to the welfare of others and, in so doing, strive to become better people ourselves. 

(Continuing to work the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Steps is a big assist here.)  

 Don't ever give up - give back. 

(Your heart and your brain will be better for it.)

As for additional New Year's Resolutions, 

instead of the annual "lose ten pounds" or "run five miles every day," how about resolving to give:

Forgiveness to an enemy; tolerance for an opponent; our whole heart to a trusted friend; good service to a customer; kindness to all; a good example for children; love and respect for ourselves.

    This year we really can smile more, laugh more, care more, read more, and do more. 

I started by turning off the barrage of bad news provided by the 24-hour news cycle and am resisting the urge to fight back on any of the social media platforms. 

       I'd rather whistle a happy tune and head to a meeting. 

      Once there, as I listen to everyone share their experience, strength and hope, I am certain to hear just what I need to lift and keep me safely out of the Janfeb blues.