PROMISE #7 WE WILL LOSE INTEREST IN SELFISH THINGS AND GAIN INTEREST IN OUR FELLOWS. SELF-SEEKING WILL SLIP AWAY.

“As we start our program of recovery we notice that there are persons in the group who are less well off as we are.

Newcomers can also remind us of ourselves when we stepped into the group for the first time.,
They struggle to keep back tears and hurt as they speak, possibly for the first time, trusting that they are with people who have been where they are. This is what provides comfort. They hear how recovery is possible.
“…We need to air our hurts, our shame, and let others hear our story.” (Depressed Anonymous. Page 122).
It is almost a truism to say about those of us who want this program are now focused – not on self, but on the will of God for their lives.

I personally believe that once I have made the First Step, and admitted my powerlessness, I set in motion a force – the loving force of the creator in my personal life. In time I am filled with energy and find that this power can change me – restore my life with purpose and meaning. It can prepare me to meet those to whom they are willing to risk leaving behind the prison of their depression. BY my own interest in getting in touch with the Higher Power and getting its direction to “do the next right thing” I find that my own life is gradually becoming more filled with purpose and energy.

There is a saying that to gain energy you must give energy away. I have found this to be true for my own life.What appears to delete our energy is when our thoughts implode and collide with each other as they are kept focused on the problem. Actually, a person who is depressed is much like a community which is divided and at war with itself.

If you nurture yourself, you will find that just as in the natural world, the growth will be good and the growth will be gradual. There are no quick fixes in life – only slow solutions for the most part.
We all have a competence, an identity, an autonomy and an interrelatedness to everything alive around us. We are truly a part of every living community on the planet and in the entire universe. We are all one – and the more we see ourselves as part of the universe then nothing can prevent us from feeling that we have every right to be here. We belong.

I know that as I prepare my daily life with prayer and meditation that my self-seeking will disappear. I will more often choose to become involved in this universe and be part of creating a wonderful garden of diversity and plurality where everyone feels a part.We again realize that by my willingness to live in the will of God that I can live in the peace of my own consciousness of being one with all. What I mean by this is that God acts in and through us the more we “let go and let God.”

The more you and I wait on God’s still small voice in our times of quiet, that much more will God begin to move into its plan and prepare for you and guide you to execute its will; where you live. God has a plan for each of us – and the power of its will can free us from ourselves, our worse fears and into the solution of freedom.

Joel Goldsmith who is a spiritual writer contends that the more we “gain this consciousness of God’s presence you have the whole secret of success in every walk of life.

He also said that there ” is an invisible bond between all of us. We are not on this earth to get from one another, but to share those spiritual treasures which are of God. Our interest in each other is, in truth, purely spiritual. Our purpose in life is the unfolding of the spirit within.” Page 146.

As Bill W., states in the AA Big Book, “we let God demonstrate through us, what God can do. We ask God to remove our fear and direct our attention to what God would have us be. At once we commence to outgrow fear.”

We believe that as we can become aware that God dwells in each of us and demonstrates its power in us the more we remain open to God’s personal presence.
We humans are so grounded in the material and spatial world that it is veritably impossible to be conscious of a Higher Power in and around us. We are so mired in the muck. We can begin to believe that we can tap into this consciousness and let it unfold its plan, its purpose and plot for our life.
It will not plan something small and insignificant but will, by small steps, lead us, cause us to unfold in our lives what it has for us to accomplish while we are here on this earth. And I believe the spiritual nature and the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous is what God uses to get us aware and conscious of its love and presence.
RESOURCE
(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pges16-18.
(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 122.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE PROMISES OF DEPRESSED ANONYMOUS. #3/13
* The complete Promises of Depressed Anonymous can be found on page 109 of the Depressed Anonymous Manual. (see Resources).

“When we suppress a negative emotion and refuse to deal with it, consciously or unconsciously, it becomes one of those blocks that form the walls of our personal depression. These unexpressed emotions can fester and boil over so that our energy level is dissipated, scattered. We find ourselves and our will enervated and weakened. We discover that with the internal war raging inside of us we can hardly find the energy to work and/or roll ourselves out of bed a morning. The pain of depression freezes all efforts of mobility.

We discover that our ability to make ourselves do something is now beyond our personal strength and power. We have become helpless. We also discover that we are powerless. Our will power has no control over the depression.

How do we know this particular Promise will come true for me? The only thing that we can rely on is our own experiences. Our experiences tell us that the more we live in the solution of the Promises of Depressed Anonymous the more serenity and peace is ours for the moment.

We have discovered that it is when we begin to live in the solution that our solution focused program begins when we start to reflect consciously on what is happening now at this very moment. I have noticed that it is when I became conscious about what I am feeling – the direct result of my thinking –it is at that moment that I make the conscious decision to bring myself back to the present.”

RESOURCES

Copyright(c) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pages 7-8. 3/13.
Copyright(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.

The following excerpts are from “The Promises of Depressed Anonymous”
# 3. We do not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

Many of us have lived with guilt, shame and regret from our past. Until we got down to business – that is, taken a fearless moral inventory – did we desire that the god of our understanding help us see what we needed to do to forgive ourselves and get on with our lives.

As the Promises state in so simple a manner, this does not mean that “oh well, we made some mistakes, so let’s just forget about everything that happened in the past – after all it’s in the past.”

We can spend a lot of time wallowing in the self-pity that occupies any addiction. We also might regret all the tine we wasted staring at the blank wall, alone and trying to figure out in the circling of our thoughts the whys of our immobility, passivity and pain.

It is in Steps Four and Five where our past regrets are played out and dealt with. Once we have made a list of all our resentments and fears and spoke of them to a trusted friend you can begin to feel a new sense of freedom. It’s as a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders.”

The second half of Promise # 3 will be provided tomorrow.

The following is a continuing excerpt from The Promises #2 of 13.

“A pill might make you feel differently 0but it will never take away the circumstances that brought you down in the first place.
The Promises here tell us that we will find a new freedom of happiness -but first work has to be done.
To be happy doesn’t mean that we are to be entirely free from problems and disquieting moments. Since we are all human we experience the pain of discouragement, remorse, anger and other assorted emotions.
Happiness is an elusive feeling -and for each of us happiness can mean something very different when I say to myself “life doesn’t get any better than this,” then I know that life is indeed good and that all is well with my soul.
What can keep us in the prison of depression is the construction that we place on events and situations that occur in the world.
To be free means to act with a degree of spontaneity. This after all is the opposite of depression.
Events of themselves are not the cause of our depression – similar events are in the lives of many folks but there are some folks that don’t experience depression because of them. So, it must be the way we think about these events and the meaning we place on these situations. Our lives and the way we look at life is composed of past and present events.

Our past life is the way we predict the future. “Since bad things happened to me in the past-bad things are bound to happen to me in the future.” How true this is.
Our prison is composed of blocks of times and situations which at one time were fluid – like a flowing river. But since these events affect our sense of self we caused the river to stop flowing and instead our painful thoughts and feelings – are the blocks that make up the walls of our personal prison. We need to restore the fluidity of our lives. Once when our self has been restored – namely our spontaneity, we will experience freedom and happiness. By having that spiritual experience and by being an active member of Depressed Anonymous is what can restore us to sanity. Happiness comes from finding loving support, and acceptance. ”

RESOURCE

(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pages 4-7.

The following is an excerpt from The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. Page 4.

“Once the Steps begin to play an active role in our lives we begin to feel a shift in how we look at ourselves, our relationships and others. There is that small sprout of hope moving through our minds and spirit. We feel that our involvement in our fellowship group of Depressed Anonymous is a definite plus in how we look at life and our recovery. There is a certain tranquility that was never part of our lives before. Our sadness, pushed us down to the ground day after day. The more we dwell upon how bad we felt, the worse we felt, isolating us that much more.

The new happiness actually happens. We become living hope that in Depressed Anonymous a promise made is a promise delivered. There is no doubt in our minds that there is a Higher Power guiding us through each day of our lives. And to have this power, greater than ourselves, as stated in Step Two telling us that we “came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” No longer do we have to beat ourselves up because we aren’t perfect as others in our lives tried to make us believe. Many of our lives were made miserable by all the expectations that others had for us growing up.

As it says in our Depressed Anonymous manual that we won’t change until we have some assurance that when we do change we will be completely happy. They want to have someone promise them that if they decide to change they will have no more problems and will be happy.

Dorothy Rowe tells us that ” this request is based on two assumptions, namely; 1) They who haven’t got my problems has no problems at all (therefore when my present problems disappear I shall have no problems); 2) Happiness is total certainty (therefore unless I know exactly what is going to happen I cannot be happy).”

To be happy we must seek out and live as God wills. We make a decision.

More on The Promises #2 tomorrow.

Resources

(c) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous,(2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.
(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition(2011). Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY Page 110.
(c) Dorothy Rowe.(1991) Fount Paperbacks Foreword. Great Britain. In Forward to Second Edition of Depressed? Here is a way out! which was published in 1991 by Fount Paperbacks, a division of Harper Collins Publishing Group, Ltd., located in London, England.