"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."   

Okay, so this was how I did my fifth step.  I did mine eyeball to eyeball with a friend that had quit smoking also. I knew I could be honest and open with her about anything, as I had already shared other incidents with her from my other addiction. She could be trusted.  I knew this.  

When I took this step, it was not anything real formal and it was from the 3rd approach, -Things I felt Good about and Things I felt Bad about.  I never told her I was doing that step with her. I had already taken Step Five before in another program and this person that I shared with was a part of the group too.  I absolutely suggest, if you have never done this step before to find someone who knows the program and let them know what you are doing.  If you can not do it this way for whatever reason, doing it online is another option and I know people who have done it that way, but I wonder how much they are being cheated by it. I would hate to have you miss out on that.  If you must, you must but when the first opportunity pops up to do it face to face - do it again.

Once I was finish, I later took a look at it and reviewed it again to make sure I had not missed anything and I thank my creator for my recovery.  If you miss anything, you will need to go back and share it with someone. That was all that I did.

Your Friend in Recovery,
Carol R.

  FOOD FOR THOUGHTS

Protecting Your Flow
How Fear Blocks Creativity

To understand how fear blocks creativity, take a moment to imagine yourself telling a story. First, imagine telling the story to someone you love and who loves you. You probably feel warmth and energy as you fill in the details of your tale to your friend's delight. Now, imagine telling the same story to someone who, for whatever reason, makes you uncomfortable. The wonderful twists and turns, the fine points and colorful images that unfolded in your mind for your friend probably won't present themselves. Instead of warmth, energy, and creativity, you will probably feel opposite sensations and a desire to close down. When we feel unsafe, whether we fear being judged, disliked, or misunderstood, our creative flow stops. Alternately, when we feel safe, our creativity unfolds like a beautiful flower, without conscious effort.

Knowing this, we can maximize our creative potential by creating the conditions that inspire our creativity. In order to really be in the flow, we need to feel safe and unrestricted. However, achieving this is not as simple as avoiding people who make us feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we can be alone in a room and still feel totally blocked. When this happens, we know we have come up against elements in our own psyches that are making us feel fearful. Perhaps we are afraid that in expressing ourselves we will discover something we don't want to know, or unleash emotions or ideas that we don't want to be responsible for. Or maybe we're afraid we'll fail to produce something worthy.

When you're up against fear, internal or external, ritual can be a powerful-and creative-antidote. Before you sit down to be creative, try casting a circle of protection around yourself. Visualize yourself inside a ring of light, protective fire, or angels. Imagine that this protective energy emanates unconditional love for you and wants to hear, see, and feel everything you have to express. Take a moment to bathe in the warmth of this feeling and then fearlessly surrender yourself to the power that flows through you.

www.dailyom.com

HOMEWORK

1. Read in our book on chapter on Step 5

2. Read > Step 5  From the Big Book Bunch

3. Answers these Step Five Question

Describe any person who has helped you to see yourself more clearly and objectively in your process of recovery and of life.

What is so shameful in your life that you would not want to tell anyone? Who would you hurt if you told this?

What qualities would you like to have in a person who is listening to your 4^th step?  How do those people in your list measure up to these criteria?

How would you like to share your fourth step outline? Online? In person?

4.  Think of someone you can trust and be open with in sharing your Fifth Step with that is abstinent of nicotine use, such as: Someone from a 12 Step program, Friend or Family member, Clergy person or spiritual leader, counselor or group leader, NicA member or Smoking Cession member or leader.

Smokers often mention stress as one of the reasons for going back to smoking. Stress is a part of everyone's lives, smokers and non-smokers alike. The difference is that smokers have come to use nicotine to help cope with stress and unpleasant emotions. When quitting, you have to learn new ways of handling stress. Nicotine replacement can help to some extent, but for long-term success other strategies are needed.

As mentioned above, physical activity is a good stress-reducer. It can also help with the short-term sense of depression that some smokers have when they quit. There are also stress-management classes and self-help books. Check your community newspaper, library, or bookstore.

Spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation have been used with much success to deal with other addictions and are a key part of 12-step recovery programs. These same principles can be applied to quitting smoking and can help with stress reduction.

Modified and taken from Guide to Quitting Smoking.