Sober N Clean

The English-speaking group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Torrevieja celebrated its 20th birthday on September 6.

A number of visitors, primarily from the UK and Ireland, together with other English-speaking AA members from the rest of Spain, joined local members to celebrate this special anniversary.

The group in Torrevieja started in 1988, initially with meetings at an urbanisation on the outskirts of the town, La Siesta. The founding member, then in her early months of sobriety, often sat alone waiting for others to come along, which they eventually did, usually visitors from the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

She still lives on the Costa Blanca, although not in Torrevieja, and remains in AA to this day. Her continuing sobriety is just one example of how the programme of AA works for those with a genuine desire to stop drinking and who are willing to work its universal 12-step programme of recovery.

Continuing the traditions of the fellowship founded in the USA in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous in Torrevieja and on the Costa Blanca has expanded dramatically over the last six years. In the last 20 years, many already sober alcoholics have moved permanently to the area, bringing with them their AA experience of living life without the need to drink, one day at a time, and sharing this with newcomers – that is how AA works. They have been joined by a growing number who have found freedom from their obsession with alcohol for the first time by attending AA meetings and working the famous 12-step programme. Members’ stories, periodically published in The Euro Weekly News, reveal the varying depths to which alcoholics sink before surrendering and seeking help. There is no need for an alcoholic to end their drinking ‘career’ alone, destitute or institutionalised, but it can happen, unless they recognise earlier that they have become, or are clearly becoming, a slave to drink.

In this year alone, local newspapers have reported the deaths of two expats evidently as a result of prolonged alcohol abuse – further evidence of the need for a strong AA presence within the English-speaking community in the area.

Many members first come to AA as a result of persistent pressure from their partners, family or friends. Perhaps this is not the best motive for going to an AA meeting, but, by identifying with all or part of the stories they hear from members, they continue to attend for their own well-being and, by doing so, improve the quality of their home life. By 2001, global membership of AA was, conservatively, estimated at two million people attending meetings organised by 100,800 groups in 150 countries. It is a fully self-supporting organisation, actively declining donations or assistance from outside its own membership.
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source: Euro Weekly News

When it comes to addiction, two schools of thought dominate: 1) Addiction is all in the mind of the addict, and 2) Addiction is an identifiable and very real disease.


What if both are true?

Enter: The Secret Disease of Addiction: A Dis-ease Which Tells Us it Isn’t o­ne, by Jane Allen, a recovering addict and co-founder of Affinity Lodge, a rehabilitation center producing success rates far above most facilities. Allen offers a provocative and controversial explanation of addiction based o­n it starting and ending in the brain, and why addiction is an acquired disease.

Unlike virtually any ‘theory’ put forth o­n the topic of alcohol and drug addiction, Allen posits that the disease of addiction is created and acquired by over-use of mood-altering substances.

The Secret Disease of Addiction, inspired and influenced by Allen’s mentor and co-founder of Affinity Lodge, John Gillen, explains in clear, simple language the psycho-biology of addiction by blending scientific knowledge with personal experiences.

The underpinnings of Allen’s philosophy o­n addiction have led to amazingly successful outcomes at Affinity Lodge, with a recovery rate far exceeding most programs.

“Addiction is an acquired disease, and this is difficult for most people to understand,” says Allen. “But when a person does come to understand it, stable recovery becomes much more possible.”

Although Allen’s program for stable and enduring recovery shares some similarities with Alcoholics Anonymous in terms of a heavy focus o­n God and spirituality, its premise – true understanding of the disease and self-empowerment rather than ‘outside’ dependency – differs substantially. Allen’s book outlines a process which starts with an admission that addicts are powerless in fighting the disease o­n their own, but its focus is o­n educating the addict to fully understand the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of recovery, supported by science.

“Addiction has a ‘starting point,’” notes Allen. “It is not solely a genetic predisposition to addiction; there are emotional, psychological and physical reasons why Happy Hours often equate to sad years, and why we turn to mood-altering substances to self-medicate.”

The Secret Disease of Addiction covers topics including:

Why addiction is a ‘disease which tells us it is not a disease’
Why addiction is in fact a disease caused by over-use of alcohol or drugs
The ‘party effect’ which often happens in adolescence, and why the ‘buzz’ of substances causes some to become addicted, while others do not.
The biological ‘need for relief’
The ‘geometric’ progression of addiction – from tolerance to dependency
Why addiction is a disease of stress, created by lifestyles and environment

“My book is a non-AA book which openly discusses and acknowledges the importance of God and spirituality,” adds Allen. “88% of people in AA don’t really ‘get it,’ and o­nly 5% of those who do stay o­n the program. Understanding the multi-faceted underpinnings of addiction dramatically improves success statistics; I know because I’ve lived it and see it in our program.”
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About the author
Jane Allen was raised in a middle class family and moved out at the age of 19. After a serious back injury led to a 10+ year addiction to painkillers, Allen went to several recovery and counseling programs with no long term success. After meeting John Gillen, Allen was able to control her addiction. She is currently an addiction specialist at Affinity Lodge located outside of London.
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source: Tristate Observer, http://www.tristateobserver.com

Ten years ago, a small group of people frustrated by the rising cost of treating addiction decided to try to turn back the clock.

Managed care was eroding the Minnesota Model, the residential treatment programs that made the state the place to go to get sober. Hundreds of treatment centers around the country were closing as insurers tried to cut costs. The survivors, such as the famed Hazelden Foundation, were under pressure to show clinical results. They added medical staff, pushing prices beyond the reach of many.

The little group tried a different path.

They eschewed the clinical psychiatry and pharmaceuticals embraced by the rest of the industry, going back to the roots of the treatment movement: a full month's residence, surrender to a higher power and support from a community of former addicts.

"We went in a direction nobody was going -- simpler, more affordable," said John Curtiss, a longtime Hazelden executive who left to start the new venture.

They called it "The Retreat."

Now housed in a former nuns' retreat in Wayzata's Big Woods, it offers a one-month residential program for about $4,000, about one-seventh of what Hazelden charges. Its outcomes are comparable to that of other major centers, with 50 percent of those who come through abstaining from alcohol and drugs for 12 months afterward, Curtiss said.

Ten years after its inception, The Retreat hasn't exactly reversed the course of American addiction treatment, which continues to get more expensive. But it has thrived and spawned similar centers in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Auckland, New Zealand; and Hong Kong.

"The Retreat is a model for the nation of affordable treatment that works," said U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic and longtime national advocate for better access to treatment. He is a regular volunteer at the Retreat.

Making access affordable

On a recent morning, two dozen women gather in a sun-filled room to study the "Big Book," the bible of Alcoholics Anonymous. Young and old, they bend over the volumes, pages heavily underlined.

Ralph C., a bearded, bow-tied volunteer, is talking about spiritual surrender.

"Is it possible that there is a power that has more horsepower out there?" asks Ralph C., who uses just his first name in line with AA's philosophy. "Am I beginning to suspect it's not another man who's going to fix this? Or a counselor or a drink?"

Quit trying to play God, he tells them.

They are among the few who have managed to get affordable help on the road to recovery. Many others never do. In 2006, 23.6 million people age 12 or older needed treatment for addiction, but only 2.5 million, or 10 percent, got it, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Cost is often a barrier -- with most programs charging $30,000 or more for a month-long stay. Not all insurance covers treatment, and not all centers accept insurance.

The Retreat draws half of its patients from Minnesota, the rest from as far away as India and Australia. The average age is 38 and most have college educations.

The program isn't for everyone. With no clinical staff, the typical client is medically stable and highly motivated. Eighty percent have been through previous treatments.

"We wanted to create a dignified, safe place to go, away from the burning house of addiction," Curtiss said.

If they're suicidal or otherwise need medical help, the Retreat refers them to Hazelden. Other centers in turn refer patients here.

"They have a niche," said Ron Hunsicker, president of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. But the fact that the program hasn't been copied by many suggests its clientele may be limited, Hunsicker said. More addicts are showing up for treatment these days needing medical care.

But William Moyers, executive director of Hazelden's Center for Public Advocacy, differs. "I believe the Retreat is the future of recovery," he said. "It's crucial to replicate it." There is a need for cheaper alternatives for those who relapse, he said.

It was the Retreat, Moyers said, that inspired Hazelden to start its Lodge program in 2002, a nonclinical retreat on its Center City campus.

Letting go of insurance

Curtiss was a patient at Hazelden in the 1970s and returned as a counselor. He worked his way up to vice president of Hazelden's national operations, overseeing multibillion-dollar expansions into New York and Chicago.

In the early 1990s, health insurers, anxious to cut costs, were scrutinizing chemical dependency programs. As insurers insisted on medical diagnoses, addiction centers duly produced them.

"You want to see pathology? We'll show you lots of pathology," said Curtiss, describing the mood of the day. As centers hired more medical staff, costs went up further.

Others were uneasy.

"We were going down the wrong path, trying very hard to make alcoholism into a mental illness," said Dr. George Mann, former director of treatment at St. Mary's Hospital in Minneapolis, now part of Fairview Health Services.

Mann, Curtiss and others began meeting to discuss solutions. In 1998, with a grant from the Johnson Institute, they opened a facility with 20 beds in the old Pillsbury mansion in Minnetrista. Curtiss staffed and furnished it for the grand sum of $177,000.

The Retreat didn't register as a treatment center. Instead, it is regulated by the state Department of Health as "board and lodging." It has grown into an 80-bed campus in Wayzata and runs 54 sober living beds in St. Paul for program graduates.

Over the decade, about 3,500 clients have come through the monthlong program, a third of those with financial help provided by donations. The center doesn't have contracts with insurers.

Stoked by volunteers

In any month, 250 volunteers lead chapel services at The Retreat, drive patients or teach the "Big Book." They not only help keep costs down, they form a vital safety net of recovering addicts.

Alcoholism is "not a disease where people bake casseroles and come over," said Dee L., a volunteer wearing a business suit and pearls. A client three years ago, Dee now returns often to tell her story. She does it as much for herself as for them: "This is how I stay sober."

Even board members continue to work for free. The top executive, Curtiss, is paid $140,000 a year.

An early volunteer at The Retreat was Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods."

Zimmern left New York City and checked into Hazelden in 1992, in his words: "a homeless, alcohol- and drug-addled wreck." He credits Hazelden for saving his life. Luckily for Zimmern, his former business partner had continued to pay his health premiums, so insurance covered his treatment.

After he left, Zimmern became concerned that too many people couldn't afford the same. So he volunteers at the Retreat.

"We all know recovery works at its simplest," he said, "when one alcoholic talks to another."
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source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com

Broadcast premiere will be at 10 tonight on local PBS channels. Filmmakers interview experts on religion and 12-step program

The place of religious faith in Alcoholics Anonymous gets extensive consideration in the documentary God As We Understand Him: A Film About Faith and the 12 Step Movement.

Airing at 10 tonight on WNEO/WEAO (Channels 45/49), the hourlong production comes from the Akron-based husband-and-wife team of Joshua Gippin and Shane Wynn, who began work on it two years ago. There have been some public screenings; tonight's telecast is its broadcast premiere.

In news materials for the show, Gippin says he set out to understand how non-Christians could use A.A.'s 12 steps when A.A. has roots in Christianity. The film, in fact, looks not only at non-Christians but also at nonbelievers, atheist and agnostic. And in doing so, it has to confront the controversial We Agnostics chapter in A.A.'s Big Book. While the chapter does not call for belief in a specific god or higher power, it still argues for some basic belief — that the Big Book's message is ''spiritual as well as moral.''

To see how people have dealt with that issue, God As We Understand Him interviews not only theologians but also members of A.A. of different beliefs. The A.A. members are shown from the neck down, preserving their anonymity; onscreen graphics identify their religious foundation (even if it's a phrase like ''born-again heathen'') and how long they have been sober. Gippin says he interviewed 33 A.A. members between January and November 2007.

Local experts in the documentary include Victoria Sanelli of Ignatia Hall, Colleen Ryszka of Edwin Shaw Rehab, Pastor George Murphy of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Akron, Mohamed Ismail of the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, Rabbi Susan B. Stone of Temple Beth Shalom in Hudson, the Rev. Nancy O. Arnold of Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, and Hindu priest and Kent State professor emeritus Surinder Bhardwaj.

While the program throws off a lot of sparks about the issues of faith and A.A., in the end it rests on a statement from A.A. co-founder Bill W.: ''Honesty gets us sober. Tolerance keeps us sober.''

''For all their apparent differences, [A.A. members] are united by a common problem,'' the documentary says shortly before presenting a range of people reciting the Serenity Prayer, in more than one language. ''And this is the story of us all, the story of over 6.6 billion humans who live together on Planet Earth. If only the world were more like an A.A. meeting.''

God As We Understand Him is also available on DVD, with about 50 minutes of extra material and a discussion guide. You can buy it through http://godasweunderstandhim.org.
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source: ohio.com

Please visit our friends at Sobriety T.V

On seven week nights, groups of 30 or more local residents gather to discuss their common problem — their inability to cope with a deadly allergy. Alcoholism.

And make no bones about it, this far too often turns into a fatal illness because an illness is just what it is.

These victims must face three pertinent ideas of Alcoholics Anonymous.

• “We were alcoholic and could not manage our lives.”

• “Probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism” and

• “That God could and would if He were sought.”

New members must face their addiction and realize they were born with this weakness. The sincere desire to stop drinking must precede that first step toward total sobriety. A spokesman for one of the seven Wilmington branches cited “AA Unity” as members provide mutual support.

The plate is passed for contributions which purchase the mandatory coffee, cookies and pay the rent of the building where they meet. The coordinator-spokesman said, “I was a hopeless case — a total drunk.Then my wife and I decided that after trying everything else, AA was the last resort. I came here from out of town one night a week in an attempt to get dried out. That was in 2005 and for most of that time I have been dry. The idea of taking a drink now is a thing of the past. It has made a complete change in my life.”

“Now I can hold my head high,” he enthused. “Everyone is welcome at these hour-long meetings as AA tries to find a power greater than ourselves.”

The Wilmington branch was opened in 1959 and today AA has proven its effectiveness throughout the United States, Canada and in many foreign countries. There are no racial. religious, racial or economic requirements. Famous actors, television personalities, athletes and political leaders as well as convicts and social derelicts have attended the meetings. A prayer always opens each AA meeting. The door is always open to the AA member who falls along the way to sobriety.

Does AA work?

“You bet it does,” came the snappy reply from the coordinator. For those who attend the meetings regularly, 75 percent kick the habit for good. But if the alcoholic doesn’t want to kick it, AA is not for him.

When asked why AA does not assess dues on its members, the coordinator replied, “We’ve already paid the price.”

An old proverb is found on the first page of the AA’s monthly publication, “The Grapevine” expresses the ideal to which all AAs subscribe. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

It exists in the form of group therapy. Members talk out their problems probing the causes of their addiction. It attempts to straighten the tangled, miserable lives of the “lush” or the “out of control drinker” who realizes where he or she is headed and through introspection or advice from a minister, pastor or friend attend the first meeting.

The AA policy goes on to state, “We cannot give AA membership to nonalcoholic addicts. But like anyone else they should be able to attend open AA meetings, provided, of course. that the group themselves are willing.”

Many members have been hospitalized numerous times for “defecting” and taking that one drink that is transformed into nine or 10 or 100. Others have awakened in the drunk tank of the city jail. Walking inevitably, hand in hand, with this situation is a plummeting reputation followed in rapid order by the departure of friends and family members and a pink slip from the boss.

There is no way this can be rationalized. Now the drinking starts with a vengeance.

“This is what AA tries to avoid,” the local AA spokesman concluded.

source: Wilmington News Journal

Intensive 12-step therapy regimen combines with the daily tasks of farm life into an unusual recovery program...

A month after spending his nights on San Francisco's streets, penniless and addicted to speed, James Jennison tenderly petted a calf that he'd helped deliver about an hour earlier.

The calf wobbled as it nuzzled Jennison, who was grinning from his morning's work at this drug rehabilitation dairy farm in the rolling hills near Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

"It was, I'd have to say, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," said Jennison, 29, a former AOL computer technician.

Jennison, like some 22 million Americans, has struggled to lead a life while addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Now, after several years on the streets, he is one of 40 men living at St. Anthony's Farm, an unusual program that offers some of California's poorest addicts a way to get clean.

Birthing calves is one of the many chores the men do as part of an intensive 12-step therapy program that weaves the daily tasks of farm life into recovery.

Although homeless people account for just a fraction of the country's addicts, they are the least able to afford treatment and the ones often in need of the most medical help.

So unlike many treatment centers, the 315-acre dairy farm run by the San Francisco-based St. Anthony's Foundation has provided its services for free since 1954. In fact, only residents who have no income qualify for the program.

None of the men have medical insurance, most don't have a home, and nearly all of their families have severed ties with them.

"Generally, when people have gotten to the point where they are homeless, they have lost the support of their families, the support of their job," said Robert Lindsey, president and CEO of the New York-based National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, the country's oldest national advocacy health organization that deals exclusively with alcoholism and drug dependence.

The dairy farm makes about $162,000 a year by selling more than 1,800 gallons of organic milk a day to help fund its treatment program, which costs about $600,000 a year, said Francis Aviani, a spokeswoman with St. Anthony Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides 11 clothing, housing, employment and rehabilitation programs for the San Francisco area's homeless people. The rest of the farm's budget comes from donations and private grants.

The 315-acre dairy farm also plans to sell organic butter.

It has an organic vegetable garden and powers some of its buildings with a methane digester, which turns cow manure into electricity.

Besides attending counseling and group meetings, the men at the farm follow a structured schedule, a common feature of most treatment programs. But unlike recreation or games found in other settings, the schedule here involves early rising required for running a dairy farm.

Sam McBride, 42, wakes at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast before heading out to the maintenance shed at 8 a.m. His job one recent January day was to paint the dorm rooms where the men bunk while they are here for six months.

It's a far cry from the touring musician's life that McBride led as the lead singer of hard rock bands Fang and the Resistoleros - most of it addicted to heroin, which has clearly aged him.

The dairy farm is the first treatment center McBride has stayed at for more than eight days. He's been there nearly three months.

"I knew if I kept going on that path, I would end up back in prison or dead," said McBride, who in the 1990s served six years in prison for manslaughter. "This is a safe environment. You're in a forced environment living with other people where you can work through things."

The men here are electricians, musicians, software engineers and landscapers. Several have college degrees and once drew six-figure salaries.

In most cases, they are learning how to function again - with the help of some gentle cows.

"They all have this common quandary of finding a way through their addiction and living a healthy life," said Gale Priestley, the farm's director. "A cow is not going to care if you're a drug addict or an alcoholic."

Ryan Medlin, who owned his own software company in Charlotte, N.C., is learning to sit up straight after sleeping for nearly a year in his Suzuki hatchback on San Francisco's streets. When he arrived two months ago, he walked hunched over and struggled with the outside work.

Although the 33-year-old found jobs last year in San Francisco, he would spend his six-figure paycheck to get high. To his co-workers, he appeared to be a quiet person, but he didn't want questions about his lonely life on the streets after work, he said.

"I was in San Francisco for 10 months. I had no friends. It was easy to be under the radar," he said. "I don't feel that alone anymore."

When Medlin lost his last job, he said, he realized he needed help.

At the milking pit, 24-year-old Charles Onraet spends several hours a day hooking up pumps to the 250 cows that come through for milking twice a day.

It's mundane but peaceful work that Onraet hopes will earn him an internship in the farm's creamery once he has completed the rehabilitation program. If he's accepted at the creamery, he would live at a house on the property and after six months would leave the farm with $2,400 in his pocket.

Other program participants like Medlin plan to get help in San Francisco, where the foundation will set them up in transitional housing and help them get jobs after they leave the farm.

McBride says he is focusing first on becoming a better person at the farm so that when he leaves, he can be a father to the two children he says he dumped on his ex-wife because of his addiction.

"As an addict, I became very self-centered and selfish in everything I did," McBride said. "So it's important for me to work on humility and giving back and looking how I affect other people. I think that's something you can get here by shoveling cow manure."

source: Associated Press

By Take The First Step
Dr. Michael Levy

Dr. Levy: I was both appalled and shocked at your column regarding "Is abstinence the only answer for alcoholics?" I am a recovering alcoholic and have recently completed a five-month stay at a sober house for both alcoholics and drug abusers..I have.lived with both drug and alcohol abusers who have repeatedly relapsed because they felt they could maintain control over their addictions. The mere suggestion that they may some day drink socially or occasionally is insane.

Insanity as defined by AA is continuously repeating the same.behavior and expecting a different outcome. As any educated alcoholic knows from attending AA meetings or therapy, the addictive brain, when re-introduced to its drug of choice, will behave in exactly the same way time and time again.

I had abstained from alcohol for more than two years and thought I had it beat. Then one hot, summer afternoon when I was at a friend's house for a cookout, I had two beers. This was not an excessive amount and I was not in the least bit intoxicated. However, those two beers reactivated that euphoria in me and I spiraled downward in the next few weeks, frequently blacking out and nearly destroying my life and those I love. Had it not been for the teachings of AA as well as the sober environment that I was fortunate to have lived in,.I would still be trying to take that one social drink and denying the fact that abstinence is the only answer for alcoholics.

I'm sorry to say that your article will not be interpreted by many addicts in the manner in which I'm certain you meant it, but rather, because of your credentials and knowledge of addiction, as permission to try it again and to continue this insane lifestyle of personal destruction.

A: Thank you for writing and expressing your opinion. As I stated in that column, this is a very controversial subject..Your experience with alcohol is similar to many others: one drink leads to uncontrolled drinking along with the destruction of life. In addition, as you articulated quite well, the main reason a relapse occurs for many people is because they are unable to accept that they cannot have one drink. As you did, they erroneously believe that one or two drinks will be fine. But instead, they lead to a major relapse.

However, I still contend that some people with past alcohol dependence can learn to drink in moderate ways that do not cause them problems. This is something everyone who struggles with alcohol needs to figure out for themselves. I know this adds a gray area and ambiguity to the treatment of alcohol problems, but nonetheless, this outcome has been well documented.

As you wrote, some people who have been abstinent may interpret what I said as permission to try to drink again, which is not what I intended. I hope this does not occur..In fact, I am very glad for the opportunity to restate what I originally wrote: if abstinence is working, I would not do anything different. This is very important to remember.......

nnn

source: http://www.newburyportnews.com

I am an avid reader. I always have been. There is nothing more delightful to me than spending hours in a book store. It is not unusual for me to buy as many books as my budget will allow and I chose books that I think will bring me to a better understanding of myself. Okay! It sounds like that same old self-help stuff we used to buy to try to get well because we would not admit we were addicted to anything, right? Not really. The self-help material I read today supports my recovery and I now find joy in reading spiritually-based books without feeling any hypocrisy.

There is a special book I would like to share with all of you. This is not a book review but what I call a book appreciation. A “review” in someway indicates that someone is critiquing a publication by both positive and negative comments. Trust me. There is absolutely nothing negative about this book. “The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace” by Jack Kornfield is like a friend. It has helped me through my most difficult times; the times when I felt alone and afraid; the times when I had to focus on prayer and meditation because I needed to rid myself of the pain.

Mr. Kornfield is a Buddhist monk but please do not believe that he is writing as a religious leader. I am not a Buddhist but if you are in a 12 Step Recovery program and work the steps, you will find that many of the principles of recovery reflect Buddhist beliefs; i.e. the title of this book. Actually, the principles that are written about in this book are based on a spiritual way of life for all people. There are no words written about recovery, addiction, or relapse but the book reminded me of the Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous because it offers an opportunity to find that peace and serenity that sometimes seems to elude us.

This book is a “treasury of insights from many spiritual traditions, together with modern stories and time-honored meditations”. Each quotation or story has a message that will touch your heart, mind and soul and in some way, you will find a relevance to you, your life and your recovery.

Step Eleven suggests that prayer and meditation will help us improve our conscious contact with God. If you are trying to find a good subject for meditation and even need direction to meditate, you will not be disappointed. Every page could be a prayer but there are specific meditations on forgiveness, letting go, grief, and reconciliation. These are the meditations that I practice over and over again because they have worked for me and instill tranquility and calmness that I do not feel most times.

There are also meditations on lovingkindness, compassion, gratitude and joy. The book ends with a meditation focusing on peace followed by additional meditations that support this quality of peace. Even if you find meditation difficult, I think you will be quite eager to follow these to heal, to find peace, or to move into a more spiritual self.

“The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace” has become one of my favorite and most valued books. I keep it close at hand. There are times when I just want to sit quietly and read or meditate and there are those times when I so desperately need the hope it offers. It is a “new way to meet life’s greatest challenges with acceptance, joy and hope”.

I want to leave you with the very first quotation of the book: “You hold in your hand an invitation: To remember the transforming power of forgiveness and lovingkindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.” I not only invite you but urge you to read the beautiful messages this book delivers. There is no doubt that you will understand why I could not review but could only appreciate this book.

Namaste’. May you walk your journey in peace and harmony.

(“The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace” by Jack Kornfield, is published by Bantam Books)

source: http://www.bellaonline.com/

When recovering alcoholic Michael Z began sending quotes he had heard in the 12 Step meetings he had attended to a small group of friends he never expected that his weekly email would turn into a global phenomenon and a book.

Over a series of years, quietly and anonymously on his own journey of recovery, author Michael Z collected and wrote down the sayings and quotes he heard in the various 12 Step meetings he attended. A little over a year ago, he began sending these quotes via email to a small group of friends. He soon began receiving requests to be added to his Monday morning email list which within just a few months exploded into the thousands worldwide. Astonished by the response to his simple email Michael Z created http://www.TheWisdomoftheRooms.com As his readership expanded over the following year, Michael Z put his weekly 12 Step quotes and reflections into a new book entitled, "The Wisdom of the Rooms: A Year of Weekly Reflections."

The book was an immediate hit and readers are already raving that this book is changing lives. "What a fantastic collection," Barb Metcalfe, Public Relations director of The Orchard Recovery Center (in British Columbia) says. "The Wisdom of the Rooms takes the myriad quotes heard throughout the recovery community, puts them all in one place, and persuades the reader to deepen her meaning and commitment to the process."

Through quotes like, "Instead of telling God how big your fears are, start telling your fears how big your God is," Michael Z challenges the reader to reflect on daily struggles and to act on this wisdom in their own lives. Readers are encouraged to reflect on one of 52 quotes each week by answering a series six questions that are related to each quote.

The Wisdom of the Rooms helps those both in and out of recovery. One weekly reader writes, "As the mother of a struggling teen addict, our family tales are the same as many. Reading this inspiration each week has helped me gain a certain perspective of the trials and tribulations my son faces and an understanding of his struggles that he is unable to explain. Each week, you fill my glass with hope."

Michael Z lives in Los Angeles, CA, where he works as a psychotherapist intern and Life Skills coach. He has worked the 12 Steps in a variety of programs and lectures and leads workshops and retreats on the journey of recovery. Each week thousands of subscribers across the globe receive his Monday morning email and visit http://www.TheWisdomoftheRooms.com

The Wisdom of the Rooms, by Michael Z (Palm Tree Press 2007) ISBN 0979441692

source: prweb.com