My fellow AA's

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

Please share with me how you put up with all the crap that happens in the world and how you prevent it from intruding on your serenity. I know the Big Book talks about not taking the problems of the world on our shoulders but I don't know how NOT to do that.
It almost seems that we are not to care about that stuff anymore? Any ideas?
Thanks.

[IndyOp]

1. One day at a time, I do what I can, when I can, for the good of all.

Step 1 is a very good place to start -- I am powerless over the beliefs and actions of others. I can make plans and take actions today for what I hope will be a better future, but I am powerless over the near-term and long-term results of my actions.

Today one of the readings in "Daily Reflections" or "As Bill Sees It" reminded me that my job is to practice unconditional love -- that's it, that's where true potential for a better world begins.

AA wisdom helps me to remain sane so that I can help others.

Focus on the solutions -- what I can do -- and not the problems. If I am dwelling so much on the problems, their enormity, and my feelings of being unable to make any contribution to making the world a better place to be then I may have other serenity-threatening issues that I need to meditate on and get help with.

That's my experience, strength, and hope on the topic you posted and I'll admit that since the election, I've gone on strike re: political action because I've been working the program through some very challenging personal circumstances. I'll rejoin you some day in community and political activism.

:hug:

[NMDemDist2]

2. be come 'the observer' and watch it all (even yourself) with detachment

and wry amusement if you can swing it.

then ask yourself "How much will this matter in a year, a decade or a century?" and respond accordingly.

:hug:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

3. Thanks to you both

for those points of view. I hadn't really thought about it in that fashion........ :O)

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. I swear a lot, reading the headlines. And ask my wife not to keep reading

me the bad stuff, which I deliberately skate over. Unless it's politics, which I feel I must keep up with in a general sort of way, since I'm fairly well insulated from the miseries so many other people have to suffer, from these lords of misrule.

We haven't got money, but we're secure. If we drop food on our thread-bare carpet, an increasingly common practice, you'd hardly notice. It just enriches the pattern, which Tintern Cord ordinarily doesn't have.

[Kajsa]

5. The Serenity Prayer helps me.

Especially the part " and the wisdom to know the difference."

:)

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. The crap in the world brings up all of our character defects, fears, and shortcomings.

Which we may then give to God. Serenity follows (although it's been a freaking rough journey!!)

I was taught that we can do Steps Six and Seven at any time: "God, my character defect is....please take it. God, my fear is....please take it. AUMN." I find that this works exactly like doing a 10th Step (the resentment is lifted after being run through the specific process).

BTW, "AUMN" is closer to the original meaning than "amem". AUM being the Word/Breath of God in Indian tradition, "making it so".

[Justpat]

7. I realize that I am not God.

I do what I can in my little corner of the universe to make it better.
But I don't take on the problems of humanity at large.


There is a certain arrogance in believing that we hold the answers of mankind when we have made such a mess of our own lives.
Cleaning up my own life has led me to be more effective in the small steps I do take to heal my place in the universe.


After several years of sobriety I came to the conclusion that the highest form of spirituality is simple kindness.

Works for me.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

8. Thanks all for your help.

Juspat I'm not saying I think I can fix the worlds problems, I just want them to stop :)
But I hear you about the kindness thing. In fact, there is a woman that lives in my apartment building who has some type of mental illness. At first she was hard to take because she was so damned friendly!
Anyhow, one day in exchanging neighbor to neighbor pleasantries (Hi, how are you? etc), she said out of the clear blue- "Thank you for being kind"
It floored me and show me that I am still very much an alcoholic in my thinking...........

[Justpat]

9. I hear you.

And welcome to our group. Nice to have you here.

[get the red out]

10. I have a hell of a time with it

I am not doing well with it this morning, actually. I have an ongoing rage against religious/institutionalized misogyny, and I mean RAGE. I tend to make other liberals really angry with me for being "intolerant", but I simply cannot tolerate it without saying something! But I do still have to reside in the world with it.

The best I have found for this problem is to keep doing what I did this morning, meditate and visualize letting go of it, or in this case putting it in a box where I will store it away like Christmas decorations in July. I also pray to not obsess on things I absolutely cannot control. I can't control most of this world around me, so I pray and meditate to be able to focus on what is in front of me. I have also looked for positive things I could actually do before and it has helped, like writing my elected officials about something even if I doubt it will do any good. At least I have then done what I can do. I have also donated small amounts of money to various causes as "something I could do"; and have felt relief from that. Immediate relief came after a small donation to a charity that works on a world problem that completely pissed me off last winter. It was amazing, the minute I hit the submit button for the donation I felt a weight lift off me.

I have a terrible time with some subjects, and then I feel bad about myself for being spiritually unfit, which immediately translates into feeling bad about myself (a really bad character defect for me). I keep trying to realize that my energy is being wasted on things I cannot control, I am just flailing around when maybe I could be doing something positive, even if it just being nice to the next person I see or giving someone else a shoulder to cry on.

Thank you for the topic, responding to it is helping me. :hi:

[demosincebirth]

11. Be concerned, not obsessed. Don't watch too much cable news... that helped me.

[david13]

12. Acceptance and love is the key. Accept the things you cannot change.

It doesn't mean you like them, or approve of them, nor imitate them, just that you realize you can't change those things.
dc