Gratitude for Gifts Received

What are You Grateful For?

As the New Year approaches I find myself thinking of how different my life is after 22 years of sobriety. Today I am grateful, not just for the countless gifts I have received but also for the life lessons that brought me to Alcoholics Anonymous. At one of the first AA meetings I attended in 1986 the 12 Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous were read. Being sober only a few days and still feeling very sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, those Promises sounded unbelievable. I asked several people at that meeting where I could find the 12 Promises in print and received the same response from every person! The 12 Promises are in the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous. Read the book! They also suggested I "keep coming back."

Since then I have read the Big Book several times over and continue to work the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. True to the word "promise", the 12 Promises have all come true in my life. Although many of the life lessons that brought me to this point in life were painful or at best unpleasant, they also brought me to a place of gratitude and they serve as good reminders of what I could go back to if I chose to pick up a drink or some other mood altering substance.

When I came to Alcoholics Anonymous I regretted my past, lived in constant fear, and was full of self pity. I was selfish and self seeking and was forever trying to fill what my first AA sponsor taught me was a God-shaped hole with a square peg. Today that hole has been filled with my higher power, who I choose to call God, the loving people in my life both in and outside of AA, and the fullness of a sober life. I truly have a new freedom, a new happiness, and serenity. Through working the 12 Steps I have cleaned up the wreckage of my past and have become the daughter, sister, aunt and friend that I had always hoped to be. In my 19th year of sobriety I even got married for the first time!

When I got sober gratitude was just a word, not a feeling. I recently sat down to write a list of 5 things I was grateful for and realized that I couldn't stop at just 5. I have so much in my life that I am grateful for, and as I focus on what I am grateful for the list continues to grow.

What gifts are you grateful for in your recovery?

Leslie W.
A Grateful Member of Alcoholics Anonymous

Recovery from Addiction Is A Process

I Learned How Easy It Can Be to Relapse

A young lady was having a wonderful last day at Cottonwood de Tucson's Rocks & Ropes Program. She was attempting climbs rated with difficulty levels of 6.5 and 7. She had completed 5 climbs and was very sure of herself. She told me she wanted to try a Level 8 climb. We found one and she started climbing with me belaying. As she climbed higher she said "the handholds are too small and too slippery."

She continued climb and with some effort she got two thirds of the way up the wall where she got stuck. After several attempts to complete the climb she finally asked to be lowered. From being happy, self confident and self assured, in just 10 minutes she had become fearful, angry, sullen, withdrawn and depressed.

After a few minutes we discussed what had happened on the wall. She said, "I am very judgmental of myself. When I came to Cottonwood and when I couldn’t do something I would give up on everything. At the end of that climb I went right back there. I learned how easy it is to relapse."

We then discussed that recovery is a process and not a terminal event, and the importance of having a plan to handle setbacks, be they family, school, social or recreational in nature.

Richard "Butch" Patterson, MS, CTRS
Recreational Therapist
Cottonwood de Tucson
4110 W. Sweetwater Drive
Tucson, AZ 85745
(800) 877-4520
www.cottonwoodrecovery.com

Experiencing Our Wholeness: Mind-Body-Spirit

The Cottonwood Tucson Experiential Wellness Program serves patients by offering tools for self-care, enhancing their ability to move through life successfully. Patients learn to rely on their strengths; get their needs met; and use their natural abilities and preferences to facilitate their transformation. We are committed to patients experiencing self-respect, relaxation, energy, compassion and joy. Patients gain trust and confidence in their relationship to their inner guidance as mirrored through their relationships and communication with the staff. Patients learn how to distinguish between fear-based thinking and the Wisdom that guides them toward right action. Patients practice the tools learned through group participation by interacting with other patients in the Cottonwood community and staff. Our patients' main objective here at Cottonwood is to experience that changing their behaviors, communication and thinking in ways that support themselves and those around them, can bring love, happiness and success.

The Cottonwood Experiential Wellness Program is spiritually based. The foundation of what Cottonwood Tucson provides is the integration of body, mind and soul with utmost respect for each individual's strengths, needs, abilities and preferences. Health, happiness and peace are experienced as each person is able to be authentic and connected to Life, for the good of all.

Rami Katz is a Specialty Counselor at Cottonwood Tucson where she specializes in Mind, Body & Soul Integration, Yoga and Meditation Therapy, Energy Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Gestalt Therapy.