HOW LOW DO YOU GO?
Sunday, 10 January 2010 16:08 | Written by Keith Bray | 
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HOW LOW DO YOU GO?
Back in high school a dance called the "Limbo" became a fade, and I believe the theme song was called "THE LIMBO ROCK". If memory serves me right, one of the questions asked was how low can you go.
There are many "historians" around that can give very detailes info about the start of what we now know as the "12 Step" movement. The original was AA, and the principles of AA have been carried through to dozens of other self-help groups and to be honest, the take on the principles have made millions for many writers and speakers through things like "The & Steps To" or the "7 Habits of". You got the picture.
Know and understand the 12 steps and you will have grasped the basic principles needed to live a life with good mental hygiene, a life that with work, will allow you to accomplish just about anything.
I am quoting today the first of the 12 steps, and a quote from the 12/12. Don't be alarmed if your not an alcoholic or addict, there is a message contained for all!
When AA was founded, the first people who were attracted were people who had lost nearly everything and many were seen as "incurable", they had tried nearly everything available to them and many had been "institutionalised" multiple times. Theit lives were at rock bottom and they felt hopeless. AA and its steps worked for a very large percentage of these people who were the early founders.
In reading the quote below, replace the references to alcohol with anything you like that is holding you back from the life you want.
As you will see in the quote, as AA grew and flourished, there was a quantum change in attitude. People were attracted that had not lost everything.....yet and as the quote staes, were spared a ton of grief.
There will be many that read this that just cannot relate. You that have a good inkling of what this is about, and feel a little twinge, may want to get in touch ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
In living your life, "How Low Do You Go?" before you admit that you have living issues you are powerles over, and that life inside of you is unmanageable (maybe even outside of you)?
You do not have to continue to live in your own dark hole, and you do not have to sink any lower than your current state of mind and personal well being. There is help available for those tht have the courage to ask and act.
Once again, read this quote, and if alcohol is not applicable, see if you have a word that for you is. It maybe a word as simple as people, places or things.
"Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol , that our lives had become unmanageable."
"Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs , AA began to recognize their alcoholism. They were spared that last ten or fifteen years of literal hell the rest of us had gone through. Since Step One requires an admission that our lives have become unmanageable, how could people such as these take this Step?
"It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression."
1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 23 *~
As I sit here on a beautiful cold and sunny morning looking over a white field, the music from the Limbo Rock plays in my head. Keith took a long time to become nimble and quick as it relate to living (don't know how Jack of candlestick fame in the song made out),had to knock down the pole when it was not real low, and say this is as low as I go; I surrender, I accept I'm beat, and will get the help I need to climb back up! Let's do the Limbo Rock!
Back in high school a dance called the "Limbo" became a fade, and I believe the theme song was called "THE LIMBO ROCK". If memory serves me right, one of the questions asked was how low can you go.
There are many "historians" around that can give very detailes info about the start of what we now know as the "12 Step" movement. The original was AA, and the principles of AA have been carried through to dozens of other self-help groups and to be honest, the take on the principles have made millions for many writers and speakers through things like "The & Steps To" or the "7 Habits of". You got the picture.
Know and understand the 12 steps and you will have grasped the basic principles needed to live a life with good mental hygiene, a life that with work, will allow you to accomplish just about anything.
I am quoting today the first of the 12 steps, and a quote from the 12/12. Don't be alarmed if your not an alcoholic or addict, there is a message contained for all!
When AA was founded, the first people who were attracted were people who had lost nearly everything and many were seen as "incurable", they had tried nearly everything available to them and many had been "institutionalised" multiple times. Theit lives were at rock bottom and they felt hopeless. AA and its steps worked for a very large percentage of these people who were the early founders.
In reading the quote below, replace the references to alcohol with anything you like that is holding you back from the life you want.
As you will see in the quote, as AA grew and flourished, there was a quantum change in attitude. People were attracted that had not lost everything.....yet and as the quote staes, were spared a ton of grief.
There will be many that read this that just cannot relate. You that have a good inkling of what this is about, and feel a little twinge, may want to get in touch ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
In living your life, "How Low Do You Go?" before you admit that you have living issues you are powerles over, and that life inside of you is unmanageable (maybe even outside of you)?
You do not have to continue to live in your own dark hole, and you do not have to sink any lower than your current state of mind and personal well being. There is help available for those tht have the courage to ask and act.
Once again, read this quote, and if alcohol is not applicable, see if you have a word that for you is. It maybe a word as simple as people, places or things.
"Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol , that our lives had become unmanageable."
"Alcoholics who still had their health, their families, their jobs , AA began to recognize their alcoholism. They were spared that last ten or fifteen years of literal hell the rest of us had gone through. Since Step One requires an admission that our lives have become unmanageable, how could people such as these take this Step?
"It was obviously necessary to raise the bottom the rest of us had hit to the point where it would hit them. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression."
1952, AAWS, Inc.; Printed 2005; Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pg. 23 *~
As I sit here on a beautiful cold and sunny morning looking over a white field, the music from the Limbo Rock plays in my head. Keith took a long time to become nimble and quick as it relate to living (don't know how Jack of candlestick fame in the song made out),had to knock down the pole when it was not real low, and say this is as low as I go; I surrender, I accept I'm beat, and will get the help I need to climb back up! Let's do the Limbo Rock!