[bluidkiti]

February 1

Quote of the Week

"You have to feel to heal."

I learned to hide from my feelings at a young age. Raised in an abusive, alcoholic home, I checked out early in front of the TV set. In my teenage years, I discovered alcohol and used that to keep uncomfortable feelings away. Over the years, I used other things—relationships, food, shopping, and so on—to avoid feeling. Unable to escape them, and without the tools to deal with them, my feelings became overwhelming and threatened to engulf and destroy me.

When I entered recovery and stopped drinking, my feelings descended on me, and I sometimes thought I was losing my mind. I can still hear my sponsor tell me, “Feelings aren’t facts—they are just feelings.” While that may have been true, it was also true that my feelings were still there, and they were really uncomfortable. The solution to dealing with them, I learned, was to ask my Higher Power to help me sit with my feelings, and to listen to what they were trying to tell me. It wasn’t easy at first.

Through inventory, though, and sharing with others, and listening to my Higher Power, I have learned to respect rather than run from my feelings. Today, my feelings are like little guides that lead me into the depths of who I really am, and I am no longer afraid to go there because I know that at my core I am a child of God. Today, I know that the key to healing in a profound and sacred way is to honor my feelings and truly hear what they are trying to teach me.