Rather than focus on the uncertainty we are all facing, I have tried to find the small blessings in these days of Covid quarantine. One major, unexpected blessing is the extended fellowship I have found by attending
the many Zoom meetings that are only available due to the quarantine.
 
One of these meetings offers members time to read affirmations and I wanted to pass these along to all of you.
 
When I first came into program, my sponsor had me look at myself in the mirror and say affirmations out loud to my reflection. This practice has helped me tremendously with self-acceptance. I hope this daily practice will help you too.
 
Alice W. - Region 1
 
AFFIRMATIONS*
 
BODY

• I can leave my body up to my higher power.
• I love _________ (name a part of your body.)
• My body is exactly the way it should be today.
• I refrain from abusing my body.
• My body has its own strength and grace.
• My body is beautiful and I will love and nurture it.
• My smile accentuates the beauty of my face.
• I enjoy feeling myself in my body.
• I accept and love my feminine aspects.
• My weight does not matter for today.
• I will not starve just for today.
• My higher power would not expect me to get less than I deserve in food, exercise, and other forms of body care.

 
SELF

• I am learning to refrain from self-criticism.
• I can depend on my higher power to help me with self-esteem.
• I accept and embrace myself.
• I have been blessed with many talents.
• I choose to look at the beauty life has to offer.
• I am full of joy and happiness.
• I am worthy and deserving of care and attention.
• I am a caring person and loved by many.
• I embrace change effortlessly.
• I can use the steps to rid myself of guilt and self-abuse.
• I accept my emotions and allow them creative expression.
• I am free to be a creative joyful being.
• My life force flows in balance with all things.
• I claim the deepest wisdom of my being.
• My higher power would not expect me to get less than I deserve in self-love and self-care.

 
SEX & RELATED ISSUES

• I bless and celebrate the feminine way of being.
• I give only when my cup overflows.
• I release sexual guilt and celebrate my sexuality.
• I do not fake my sexual responses.
• I own my sexuality.
• I own my body.
• I have healthy sexual boundaries.
• I can depend on my higher power to help with my sexual boundaries.

 
*These affirmations are from a Women's Self, Sexuality, & Body Issues OA meeting. Feel free to change any wording to suit your situation.

At a workshop we held with Snake River Intergroup last year, each participant placed a question about sponsorship in our "Ask-it Basket." Then each person chose a question at random from the basket, read it aloud and shared their own experience, strength and hope on the question.  Here are some of their great shares on sponsorship:

Q. How many sponsees is too many?

• It varies depending on your life circumstances.
• You want to have enough time to give them the attention they deserve.

Q. How much in-person vs over the phone/email/text works best? 

• Virtual sponsorship works if you work it.
• A mix is great if you are located in the same geographic area.
• I meet face to face once a week with my sponsor for a "walk and talk."
• I call my sponsor every morning at a set time for 15 minutes.
• My sponsor and I do a combo of texts and calls.

Q. What makes a sponsor a "tough" sponsor?

• Talking truth is important and it may be the first time someone has heard unvarnished truth.
• Setting clear guidelines and sticking to them is important.
• Asking hard questions.
• Asking "What are you willing to do TODAY for your recovery?"

Q. What do I do with someone who can't get abstinent?

• Ask the same question as above "What are you willing to do today for your recovery?"
• Nothing changes if nothing changes...
• Suggest:  Pray for willingness...ask for help...text me before that first compulsive bite...
• Use the Before You Take that First Compulsive Bite pamphlet as a writing exercise.
• Use the 12 Step Workbook of Overeaters Anonymous Step One questions.
• You can't want their recovery more than they do...

Q. What if I can't reach my sponsor?

• Develop your own OA support crew.
• Have the phone  number of members of your meetings.
• Call a newcomer.
• Listen to a podcast.
• Attend a phone meeting.
• Write a letter to your sponsor.

Here are more good questions about sponsorship:

• Should a sponsee always call me or can I call them?
• What is a binge? What is a slip versus a break in abstinence?
• When am I ready to sponsor? 
• How much time does sponsoring take?
• How can I find a sponsor?
• Why should I have a sponsor?  Why should I be a sponsor?

Feel free to share your answers to these questions in the comments.  Together we get better!  

Pat and Nadine - Region 1

Sometimes, when I've read the Promises around step nine (Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 83-84) I've gotten hung up where it reads, "No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others."

I started having an internal dialogue about "how far down the scale" not really being applicable to overeaters, because clearly, we care much more about how far up the scale we had gone. I used to want to read it in my meetings as up-the-scale, until a few weeks ago.

Then, when someone else was reading the Promises, HP helped me set aside what I thought I knew for an open mind and a new experience. That day, I heard it with a completely different perspective; no matter how far down, Yes! Down!, we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.

Maybe now more than ever, our experiences as we go down the scale are the most relevant for our fellows to hear. These are the stories that bring hope.

Nowadays, I can now see how it applies either way, and I have the tiniest smile when I hear the Promises. My heart and mind feel more open, and I am comforted in continually finding new meaning in old words. I share my experiences in the hope others will benefit. If there is the slightest chance they can avoid my mistakes, I'm happy to bare my soul, or describe how I climbed out of the hell in my head by following a few simple steps, turning my control issues over to HP, and going to meetings.

In Service to the Good of OA,

Avi R. - Region 1

As a compulsive overeater in recovery, I am reminded time and time again that I am without defense against that first bite. I am beyond human aid.

But, I can say, “I had that first bite if a binge food yesterday and it didn’t bother me, I didn’t even have the second bite.” Well, that’s the unpredictability of the allergy. You never know which way it’s going to go. It could be that tomorrow I say, “I had that bite yesterday and I was OK, let me have another bite today.” And then I’m off and running not to come up for air for hours, days, and for many of us, even longer.

I’m also thinking of the ways I try to protect myself from my addiction with my own brand of will-power that truly has no effect when it comes to conquering the obsession, I just like to believe it does. I am right there with what it says in chapter 3 of the Big Book. “Here are the things we have tried to control our drinking…

“Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning…” I could so add my particular brand of food into this list. My controlling it with my own willpower doesn’t work!

I have to be “inwardly reorganized”. My defense must come from a Higher Power. OA is a spiritual program. I’m so grateful it’s not a diet and calories club. I so want to be part of this fellowship, but what I really want is to be part of the solution. The solution is spiritual. So I will keep praying, asking my Higher Power, God, to show me the next right move and to help me not to forget who I am and who’s in control.
​
Nadine D.
OA Region 1

I volunteered to write an article for Lifeline on OA's Responsibility Pledge, but when I started thinking about my “stories” about this topic, I realized I don’t have any GREAT stories about saving anyone.  So then I told myself I was foolish for volunteering.  I generally mull things over in my mind before I do any writing, so I let a couple of days pass and began to remember all the little things I have done over the years to let other people know that OA is around.  None of it is very exciting but all of them are things which anyone could do. 

I usually tell my healthcare people about OA--my doctor, my chiropractor, and my gynecologist. I have made sure that meetings are listed in the local paper if the paper will take such listings.  I have put up posters in grocery stores.  I have started meetings and helped keep meetings going. 

One of the most “fun” things I did was being listed as a contact person for a meeting and therefore I took many newcomers phone calls.  Sometimes these people show up at a meeting and sometimes they don’t but those phone calls never fail to help me put life and program into perspective.  The words of understanding and love seem to flow out of my month. 

I used to travel to Albuquerque four times a year for OA Board meetings and I started telling people that I am on the Board of a national non-profit.  Then if people ask about it, I tell them that it is Overeaters Anonymous. I am always willing to tell people that I have lost 50 lbs and kept it off for 10+ years. 

I helped with a public information night several years ago.  The number of people who came to the event was disappointing.  But one thing I try to remember is that even if people do not actually come to an event many people at last heard that there is something called Overeaters Anonymous.  I have heard many speakers say that they heard about OA and waited months or years before they actually came and stayed. 

Thus it is important for me to remember that I can’t measure “success” in these efforts by how many show up at meetings in the next 2 weeks.  I love the story about Bill W’s first few months of attempting to help others get sober.  He complained to someone that no one had gotten sober and that person pointed out that one important person was sober – Bill was.  Therefore I continue to do outreach work for one main reason – to help me maintain my abstinence.  Nothing works as well to get me out of myself and my own pity party as working with others.  This is my responsibility to make sure that the hand and heart of OA are available to those who share my compulsion.  I am glad to be able to recommend that others take this responsibility seriously. 
​
Margie G. – R1 Trustee  (article written in 2015)

​"We will no longer simply do what we feel like doing or what we think we can get away with. Instead, we will earnestly seek to learn God’s will for us, then we will act accordingly.”       Voices of Recovery, April 28th
 

Today I decided that I would write on whatever I read in Voices of Recovery, with the thought that it’s probably just what I need today.  
 
The writer talks about establishing an ongoing contract with her Higher Power after taking step 3.  She no longer does whatever she wants to do or eats whatever she wants to eat after entering into that contract. Before OA, I broke many contracts around food and relationships.  
 
Spending a lot of time around the house with social distancing has also meant more time around the food, yet my contract with my higher power remains the same:  I eat moderately at prescribed times and with substances that nourish my body.  Each morning, I ask my HP to direct my thinking, because without making that daily commitment, I will spend the day doing only what I feel like doing.  Because I know my HP wants the best for me, I am willing to keep that contract.

Cindy C.
Region 1

I am sitting here wondering why guilt wants to follow me around like a lost puppy!

This guilt, this shame, over things I should have done better, or didn’t do, or something I said, or didn’t say. 

How in the world did it sneak into my brain again?... Just when I was feeling pretty good about myself and my recovery.

I know my Higher Power, God, isn’t asking for perfection.  But why can’t I just give myself a “B” and move on some days?  Why are some of the most disparaging thoughts about who I am, seem to be on instant replay in my mind?

Well, that’s when I am reminded to go back to what I know works in my recovery.  Back to the basics. It’s a great reminder that I need to lean into my Higher Power and focus on what is true.  That is why I absolutely love the reading on January 19 in “For Today”:

“I have never seen a person grow or change in a constructive direction when motivated by guilt, shame and/or hate.”    –  William Goldberg

So for today:  I let no one, including myself, try to shame me into changing something about myself I wish were different.  I pray to be relieved of guilt and self-hate, and to accept and like myself exactly as I am.  That is where I can begin to change.”

Now that is a prayer I’m going to attach to that lost puppy dog of guilt to overshadow whatever else it wants to bark at me.  Thank you God for the truth that sets me free!

Nadine
Region 1 Board