A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

[ScoobyDoo]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

nancy;110744 wrote: And the philosophy discourages intoxication, because intoxication takes you away from the present moment and from pain, which we all experience. the philosophy tells you to welcome the demons into your consciousness, because the repression becomes a bigger problem than the feeling itself. Intoxication also leads to harming of others. I think it is possible to acknowledge demons and notjudge ourselves TOO harshly because we have them, while also recognizing that we are accountable for our behavior when we are drunk.
...
anyone know what i am hiinting at??

Yes! I share your understanding.

Speaking for myself here, I am also anti dogmatic and atheist... and I *get it*. As Irish touched on above, the majority of the philosophy is something I have always felt, but have never been able to synthesise until now.

[nancy]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

to rocky's post

I think the concept of dealing evil is a bit different from what we have learned in the west and what we read about in eastern religions.

From what I read of Buddhism, we have these things in our nature that are harmful, we confront them and we strive to do better but we also become at peace that these are things that we all have in common. But the realizations can come from within ourselves, you don't need a priest or anything. there is a historic buddha but nothing divine. to me he is more of a philosopher.

i am not crazy about the sin idea and definitely not into divniity, but here goes a translation.

the closest thing in catholocism is the confession practice, where we are all viewed as sinners and we go to a priest to confess. and just by the virtue of confessing we get a sense of peace, but the power resides in the priest, and we all know of their failings. i fell out of religion years ago and just thought i was a humanist or atheist until i discovered some other philosophies. so think with buddhism you get that sense of peace not from another, but from self-realization and confrontation. in the end, the important thing is to help people and not harm them and that is what buddhism is all about.

you are right though that addiction is more complex, and as i said in my earlier post, the philosophy is not aimed specifically at addiction but much more broadly so you are right that we need to be careful.

religous talk can be controversial i know. that is why i prefer to see buddhism as more of a philosophy and the readings of done seem to confirm they have no problem with that.

[ScoobyDoo]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

Yes!

Gee you really summed up my own thoughts so well here Nancy. Loving it!

Doo

[nancy]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

why do you call yourself doo doo?

[ScoobyDoo]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

My name is Bernadette, Dettie for short, and my partner calls me Dettie-Doo. (And he is Micky-Moo) lol

Also, I think of it as I DooDoo quite the demon drink.

[nancy]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

ah ok, thanks for the explanation doo doo, it seemed a funny name for someone with so much to say

cheers!

[ScoobyDoo]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

:H What are you trying to tell me? To stop posting so much thought?

[nancy]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

a rose is a rose by any other name?

no i guess i was wondering about why someone with that kind of name and picture was posting such meaninful posts.

discrimination? hope not.


i was wondering if drinking made you feel like DOO-DOO.

now that i see it is a petname the issue becomes more complicated.

[ScoobyDoo]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

I think I'm a fun and animated person and not usually so serious about most things. This is all new to me so I'm excited to be able to share the experience with others, and I like to share what I'm also discovering. That's just me

It's not supposed to be complicated. Scooby was a fav cartoon of mine as a kid and when I signed up, it was one of the avitars on the last page or 2. I suppose I just got a kick out of it. The Dettie 'Doo' and Scooby Doo was coincidental.

Have a fab weekend!
Doo

[Guitarista]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

Thought some folk might find this older thread interesting reading....Cheer's AA.

[A Work in Progress]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

Thanks G! I had never seen this thread before! I was a Zen student for 3 years, and I teach meditation. I find Buddhist psychology and meditation practice to be of central importance in my own recovery... There is a program called Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, adapted by Alan Marlatt (the "urge surfing" guy) from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It most involves the practice of mindfulness meditation.

These methods are quickly entering the mainstream of psychological interventions and treatments. Research is rapidly emerging that demonstrate how helpful these approaches... and ways of thinking about our problems... can be.

[lilnev]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I've been going to AA meetings lately, and thinking a lot about the first step:

"1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable."

That word powerless has been bothering me. I'm an alcoholic, yes. My drinking has seriously impacted my life, pushing out lots of good things and causing lots of problems, yes. But powerless?

I feel like I'm in a struggle with my desire to drink, and I need more power, not less. And I've been looking to gain power (or weaken my opponent) by adding tools, whether it's an SSRI to stabilize my mood, supps to make sure my body is properly supplied, AA meetings to reinforce that I'm not alone in this, structured plans for the evening hours, etc. And the reason I haven't been succeeding is because I haven't adopted enough of the right tools (in particular, I need to get a sponsor to add a strong element of accountability -- fear of shame as a motivational tool).

But maybe there's a connection between the ideas in this thread and the first step. "We admitted that we were powerless over [the craving for] alcohol...."

peace,
lilnev

[A Work in Progress]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

LN, I think you have it just right... I certainly recognize I have no power over the fact that I will sometimes have urges to drink; also, I become unable to consistently behave rationally when I pour alcohol down my throat (thus... can't control the quantity I drink! or what I might do when I drink!)...

BUT/and I certainly have the power to change my life and make decisions such that I will never again let myself drink something that hurts me!

[peacenik]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

thanks for bringing this thread to the top...so much learning to do!

[brightlite]

A New Way To Look At My Drinking...

Maybe it's a coincidence I found this thread as I begin my journey into meditation. I think not! I like exercise and especially yoga. I've always done it for the stretching and physical aspects. I've been reading alot about it and Yoga is really a mind/body/soul experience. I've recently started meditating for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. I don't know if I am doing it correctly, however I noticed immediately a change in my mood, energy level and focus. I must be doing something right. Any tips on how to correctly meditate would be helpful. AWIP you may be able to give me some pointers.