FEAR is an acronym.
I’ve heard a lot of versions of what it stands for:
- Foolish Efforts to Appear Recovered
- Fighting Ego against Reality
- Frantic Effort to Appear Real
- Feelings Every Alcoholic Rejects
- Fuck Everything And Run
- Few Ever Arrive Rejoicing
- False Evidence Appearing Real
If you go to enough meetings, you’ll hear a lot things! But, for me, fear is what holds me back. Fear of what others will think. Fear of being found out. Fear of the consequences for saying something out loud. Why can’t I just be honest? Maybe it’s because I was hiding so much, for so long, that this fear just sort of soaked in and stained my character.
I’ve Got to Open Up!
I’ve got to share what I’m going through. I need to tell my family members that I’m working on my self. Part of that work is figuring out what that self is? Who am I? I am changing. I’m not who I was when I was drinking. One of the reasons that I write this blog is to sort those questions out and figure out who I am. I need to figure out who I want to become!
I need to replace this fear. I wrote about fear a couple of days ago, and I’m just ruminating on where my fears are coming from. First of all, I need to redefine my acronym.
It’s time to Face Everything And Rise because Fear Expressed Allows Relief. I’ve spent so long Forgetting Everything is All Right that I need to remember For Everything a Reason! So, now that I’m Feeling Excited and Ready I think I’ll start the day Facing Everything and Rejoicing.
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Excellent post here on fear.
Because I have embraced “ Face Everything And Rise” I can honestly say I no longer have any shred of fear.
Furthermore, I do not hold back or hesitate to share that I have no buttons or triggers. I live to avoid disturbances in the first place. This disposition is new and refreshing.
May I suggest just taking a look, meditating on and fully embracing the admonition on ACCEPTANCE found on page 417 of the Fourth Edition.
Stay Strong!
Yeah! Found it:
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life —unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.
I remember my first recognition of my powerlessness. And my need to find a higher power. My first sponsor told me that I needed to work on the steps in order to develop build and maintain that relationship.
22 years 8 months and 23 days into this I’m still working the steps.
at one point or should I say at many points along the way I came to realize that if I wasn’t working the steps, the steps were working me. My Higher Power is incredibly gentle and nurturing and is always with me.