My first experience with adopting an intention was in my yoga class.  The instructor would start the class by suggesting that we have an intention for the class such as peace, joy, or breath.  I thought that was a great idea and tried to choose an intention each morning for the day. However, it was difficult to come up with a new intention each day and it didn’t give me much time to really get into the spirit of it.

Then an OA sponsor told me of her practice of choosing an intention for the year! That is a do-able goal and I enjoy looking for a word or phrase that seems to be calling me to explore it. 

I have chosen ‘Lightness in My Heart’  as my 2022 intention. 

How can we choose an intention?  Our program provides many ways.  Our steps and traditions each have a spiritual principle. For example, the spiritual principle of Step 5 is integrity, and the spiritual principle of Tradition 7 is responsibility.

I started this yearly practice in 2015 with the word Recovery as my intention. Then in 2016 I chose Becoming/Change, in 2017 Joy/Rejoicing, and in 2018 Balance/Healing.  For the last few years it has been more of a phrase: Be Peace/Practice Kindness in 2019 and Live, Love, and Learn to Let Go in 2020.  Last year (2021) I chose: Be Still, Wait, and Listen. 

How can we practice an intention?  I try to bring it into all parts of my day and into my actions.  I bring the intention to my mind during meditation and especially when I am using the tool of writing. Whenever I begin a new page in my journals, I write my intention at the top.  On my walks I bring the rhythm of the words into my mind and sometimes even say them out loud.  When I spend time in my yard and amongst my trees, I try to have ‘lightness in my heart’.  I share about my intention in my home meeting.  It is an intention that reminds me to be grateful and share joy. When I am reading the OA literature or other spiritual help books, I look for the words light and lightness.

Having an intention is another gift I’ve received from the Overeaters Anonymous program.  It helps me grow in recovery and realize the spiritual gifts in all areas of my life.  

​Lesley K. - Region One

​As I sit here pondering what my experience, strength and hope looks like today it occurs to me that my recovery has come in increments. If I look at just today or yesterday it might not seem like much to my mind – a mind that miraculously has so much more room to ponder and to reflect than ever before. Because before I walked into OA I only had time to worry, dread and avoid the past, present and future - by binge eating, watching tv, and making commitments I couldn’t keep. I was stuck in that same cycle day in and day out due the shame and guilt of not being able to show up for life the way I thought I saw other people doing it – with ease and joy. How did they do it?

What I’ve learned is that I am a sugar addict - my drug is sugar. I have a physical allergy and a mental obsession that no amount of willpower can remedy. If I could have, I would have – I’ve heard and said that many times over the years. Oh! But what I would have missed out on….

My experience with God has evolved steadily over the years, but often in fits and starts, bits and pieces, sometimes with great joy and other times half-heartedly – wondering if I’m on the right path. I’ve come to learn I’m a seeker; and with that comes the ups and downs of letting go of old thoughts and ideas and trying on new ones. My concept of God has evolved and continues to evolve from an entity outside of me to that still, small voice I’ve come to know is my intuition. My intuition was always something I thought I couldn’t or shouldn’t trust. Hadn’t it always told me food was the answer?

What I’ve learned is that I wasn’t hearing that still, small voice but the part of my brain that only knew how to handle life with sugar and bingeing. It was always so loud! How could hear anything else? I’d never learned how to listen.

When I started working the steps in the Big Book with a sponsor I describe it as learning how to grow up and become an adult – an adult I could rely on. I learned how to show up, tell the truth and not step all over people to get what I needed. I learned how to ask for help and be of service. All I wanted when I showed up was to be thin and have you like me. I had no idea how little I was asking. The gift of growing up has been miraculous.  Little by slowly I’m being guided by God, our steps, traditions and principles and the recovery I see every day in our fellowship.

Recovery has been of the educational variety for me – I consider myself a seeker of spiritual growth. The deeper my connection with my HP – the more easeful and relaxed my recovery becomes every day.  

Erin F. - Region One

I arrived at Overeaters Anonymous (for which I am eternally grateful) 37 years ago in a crisis of compulsive overeating, weight gain, and compulsive bulimic behaviors. After six years, I became cleanly abstinent and have been abstinent, one day at a time, since. 

Along with issues of abusing myself with food, I came into OA with my glass half-empty, feeling victimized, and resentful about everything.  I am grateful for people at the meetings who had to deal with a newcomer full of deficits, and loved me anyway. I now have a 30 year journey behind me of working the OA 12 Step program, and the OA 12 Step program, working for me.

I started hearing a lot about gratitude in the OA rooms. At that time though, my complaint was “What do I have to be grateful for?” and I’d give a long list of how I was victimized in my life.  I didn’t want to hear anyone else’s gratitude either. Instead of being happy for them, I was jealous. Needless to say, I wasn’t a very happy camper when I arrived at OA. 

I am not that way now. I see now how I have a great life, even at times “beyond my wildest dreams.”  It has taken a 37-year journey in OA to get to the life of gratitude I live now. Early on in program, I did need to recognize the abuse I had suffered as a child and seek healing in other 12 Step groups and therapy, reading self-help books.  This process is not for wimps—I’ve found that it’s a gutsy and courageous and intense life choice to change and recover.  I became willing only after trying all easier, softer ways. 

This is a pitch for gratitude. Mine rolls out easily now. I’m noticing more that it seems to be the top assignment in sponsor-sponsee check-ins to make a daily gratitude list.  Whether gratitude comes easily, or after a long journey as in my case, I count gratitude as a promise of working the OA program. 

Carrie A. - Region One​