Getting Past the Fear of Sobriety

Today, we will begin a new journey through my book Openiing the Gates of the Heart: A Journey of Healing. We will be going through the process I went through to reach peace in sobriety.

It takes some guts... getting past the fear of sobriety. If you're like I was, I knew at a deep level that I had a drinking problem, that what others were saying to me about needing to quit was true. But I was terrified of life without my best friend.

Fear... False Evidence Appearing Real. F-word Everything And Run. Both were me, and especially the latter. My drinking was an escape, a numbing out of all the pain I had experienced in my life... the rejections, the belittlement, being told I was worthless, and on and on...

Of course, I didn't know at the time that I was numbing out. I had to be sober for quite some time before I realized that. The thing about getting sober and living without alcohol and drugs in my life is that it is a beautiful and peaceful way to live, once the healing occurs. Yes, I still experience fear, but it is something I can recognize and deal with.

The advantage to being sober is, I can feel the fear, and move forward anyway. I can choose to see that the fear is false evidence appearing real, gain the courage and take action. Fear is a natural reaction to many situations, and once we establish that the fear is not telling us we are in danger, we can move forward.

So, what are your fears of getting sober? Living the rest of your life without alcohol and drugs? Remember, it's just one day at a time. You only have to live without alcohol one day at a time. After some time, the days just accumulate, you have completed healing work, and life looks pretty grand.

To get past the fear, think of it as a life style change of great beauty. Going from many situations in your life that are unmanageable to a life of peace, without all the headaches, without the hang overs, without the arguments, is something to experience.


Be willing to move past the fear, for it surely is nice on the other side. Join me, if you care to. You will be pleased. You will enjoy getting past the fear of sobriety.


Carolyn CJ Jones

- Inspirational Speaker: "Awaken Your Heart and Find Peace"
- Author and Photographer: "Opening the Gates of the Heart: A Journey of Healing"

Hope

This morning we continue on in my book and reach hope. We have now experienced ways for getting past hopelessness.
Ray of Hope
"A ray of light across the bars of my being lights my way, instills hope in my
heart." This is the verse that accompanies the photo above.
Hopelessness is defined as having no expectation of an event occurring, being despondent.
Despondent implies being in very low spirits due to a loss of hope and a sense of futility about continuing our efforts.
Hope, on the other hand, is defined as a feeling that what is wanted will happen, a desire accompanied by expectation. It is hope which we want to cultivate in order to dispel hopelessness.
We have come a long way in our journey and have learned several tools and ways to act and behave that will be useful in combatting hopelessness. We have learned to surrender the pretense that everything is fine with us and we have discussed awakening to awareness of what is going on around and within us.
We have learned to trust in a power greater than ourselves, and to have courage and humility. Ways to treat ourselves with such things as gentleness, kindness, and compassion have been discussed.
We have become honest about ourselves and heave learned to practice willingness,
to commit to the journey, to move forward. Finally, we have learned the tremendous tool of how to conduct a self-appraisal. Through that appraisal, we have come to forgiveness of both others and ourselves. Do you see how far we've come?
Now, after going through what we have, we have learned to accept ourselves.
All of these things in combination provide for us a ray of hope that life can and will get better for us. Hopefully, it already has begun to do so.
We focus on that ray of hope as we work on getting past hopelessness, allowing hope to grow.
We take a deep breath, reveling in this new-found hope, and we allow it to blossom.
Today, take a moment to reflect on how far you've come, and begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the way past hopelessness to sobriety and inner peace.
Carolyn CJJones
www.Facebook.com/carolyncjjones
Twitter: @carolyncjjones