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Northern California Intergroup |
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The Tools of Recovery ABSTINENCE is following the food plan prescribed by your physician. Or, abstinence is following the Basic Food Plan one day at a time. It's working the Twelve Steps as a program of recovery, and refraining from "stinking thinking". Physical abstinence is a daily reprieve from the disease of compulsive overeating. It enables emotional abstinence, which is a positive change in attitude due directly to the program. SPONSORSHIP A sponsor is a person committed to abstinence and has taken the first three steps of the program. A sponsor has at least 30 days of continuous Basic Food Plan abstinence. A sponsor is the newcomer's guide during their first thirty days and a continuing helping hand in their recovery program. TELEPHONE The telephone is a daily link to our sponsors; a way to reach out for help and to extend that same help to others. We make four telephone calls each day: the first to our sponsor, and, using the OUTREACH DIRECTORY, three calls to other members of the program. LITERATURE/WRITING Reading and writing is how we learn about the program and ourselves. Because we identify so closely with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), we've adopted and study their "Big Book" and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Writing about our frustrations and mixed emotions, then burning or destroying the writing, acts as a safety valve, releasing us from negative thoughts; "stinking thinking". ANONYMITY is placing principles before personalities. Our sharing with other members is confidential. Anonymity offers us freedom to express ourselves, and protection from gossip. Each member agrees not to reveal another’s participation in the HOW program. Remember: "What you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here." MEETINGS are where we learn we're not alone. We encourage every member, and especially newcomers, to attend at least three meetings each week. The strength, hope and encouragement we derive from our meetings is invaluable. "Keep coming back! It works when you work it!" SERVICE is slimming. Service is another opportunity to share with others what we receive in program. We know that as we give, so shall we receive. Service is abstinence, working the Tools of Recovery, helping at meetings, setting up chairs, bringing the soda, greeting newcomers, it's anything and everything that makes the program work. For more information about the HOW/OA program email: wbccrc@pacbell.net
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I put my hand in yours and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness; no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for a power and strength greater than ours and, as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams. |
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